Clarke aims to build on Scotland ‘reset’

On paper, Scotland’s late defeats by Poland and Portugal may not have seemed like much of a reset from the summer’s disappointing Euros campaign.

However, a change of shape to a 4-2-3-1 and a more positive approach has provided renewed hope from some sections of the Tartan Army.

And Steve Clarke remains optimistic his squad can build on the revised approach in next month’s Nations League double-header against Croatia and Portugal.

“As you always do after the end of a journey, which was the championships in the summer, you have to go away, you have to analyse everything,” Scotland boss Clarke said. “I have to analyse myself, my staff and players.

“And then you have to decide what the reset is. And then you have to explain that to the players.”

With Callum McGregor retiring and several squad members injured or without clubs, Clarke called up six uncapped players and handed debuts to Ben Doak and Ryan Gauld.

“We look to improve, build on what we do. I’m very honest with my players and they’re very honest with me,” Clarke added.

“I think when you have that relationship with your players then you can do what we’ve done in the short space of time.

“But then we want to do it again when we get together in the next camp. We have a little bit longer, so we might manage to get three training sessions before we go to the pitch. So it gives us more time.

“Myself and the coaches can go away and analyse this game and the Poland game and hopefully we can give the lads a few more pointers for the two games next month. They don’t get any easier, Portugal at Hampden and Croatia away.”