Richard Gordon: Steve Clarke must learn to be more flexible after Scotland’s biggest Finals missed chance

Scotland’s Euro 2024 campaign ended the same way every other Finals appearance has during my lifetime – in failure.

Despite the anticipation, the enthusiasm, the at times blind loyalty of what was a remarkable travelling support, the players did what most of their predecessors have done: they flopped when the pressure was on.

I wrote last week I feared the tournament had come nine months too late for this group, and so it proved.

Scotland squad are better than they showed

The squad chosen by the manager should have done so much better.

It is packed with players at a good age, experienced men who perform to a very decent standard week-in, week-out, and who, for much of the qualification period, stepped up to the mark for the nation.

Sadly, none were able to match that during the Finals.

The signs were there, particularly from the end of the group phase last November, but even before then the form and results had shaded.

We headed to Germany on the back of a run of one win in nine – the solitary victory a 2-0 success against Gibraltar – but the hope was the team could regroup, that they would turn up when they really needed to.

It was to be a forlorn dream.

Key players like Scott McTominay, Callum McGregor and especially John McGinn made little or no impact, but they were hardly alone. Not a single Scot exited those Finals having done themselves justice or in any way enhanced their reputation.

Clarke’s back-to-back Euros berths have earned him more time

Questions are inevitably being asked about Steve Clarke’s future.

His contract runs until after the 2026 World Cup Finals, but while there will be dismay within the Scottish FA hierarchy over how this competition ended, I would fully anticipate him remaining in post.

Given his record of successive Euro qualifications, he probably deserves that.

The manager will need to be more flexible in his approach going forward, though.

Euro 2024 exposed just how vulnerable his team is if the top players are not delivering, how toothless we are if the likes of McGinn and McTominay are off form.

With them posted missing in Germany, Scotland looked a poor side.

Scotland the worst team at the Euros – with embarrassing stats

I said last week we had been the worst team of the 24 in the first round of fixtures, and despite a slight improvement – albeit not in any technical sense – against Switzerland, we regressed against Hungary.

By the time all the tournament stats have been compiled, Scotland will officially be rated the weakest of the entrants, and some of the facts and figures were quite simply embarrassing.

We managed only 16 attempts on goal in the three matches, just three on target; Germany’s respective totals were 57 and 19!

We scored twice, an OG and a deflected effort which would otherwise have been comfortably saved, our passing accuracy was ranked 21st of the 24 teams in action, and our goals against (seven) was the highest across all six groups.

Yes, Steve Clarke was without some potentially key players through injury, and yes, we might have had a penalty late on against Hungary, but with the group he had at his disposal, the manager, and the players, should have put in a better showing.

Baffling personnel calls contribute to biggest Finals missed opportunity

Hindsight offers 50-50 clarity, and I have no doubt Steve will have good reason for a number of the decisions he took, but they still leave me puzzled.

Among them, the selection of Ryan Porteous for the opener, the persistence with Anthony Ralston at right wing-back, the lateness of proactive substitutions, leaving the on-form James Forrest on the bench throughout when the team was calling out for width, and giving the country’s top domestic goalscorer Lawrence Shankland a total of 23 minutes on the pitch.

Scotland have appeared in 10 major Finals since I fell in love with the game as a youngster, and every one of those has thrown up regrets and mistakes, but given the impressive qualifying campaign, the draw they were then handed, and the fact that only eight teams dropped out, this one feels like the biggest miss of all.

It will take the nation some time to forgive and forget.