Scotland boss Steve Clarke says he has no major regrets from Euro 2024

THERE weren’t any nights lying in bed staring at his bedroom ceiling.

No huge regret over his team’s meek performance at Euro 2024 that kept him awake.

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Steve Clarke finally came out from hiding to talk about where it all went wrong.

But don’t be expecting any hands up, mea culpa act from the Scotland boss.

It’s been 65 days since that 1-0 defeat to Hungary in Stuttgart back in June, with many of the Tartan Army still reeling from the way the manager set their heroes up in Germany.

But asked by SunSport what thoughts he had churning in his mind as he reflected on the tournament, Clarke insisted there were only minor things he’d do differently with NO glaring mistakes he could think of.

He said: “That’s a good question. But nothing kept me awake, I slept very well, I was tired.

“Listen, you go through the whole process from when you start, when you name your squad, the build-up, the preparation and ask,

‘Did we do it right?’.

“We felt we did at the time. You think you’ve prepared properly but you can look back at little things.

“The games we played, were they the right games, with the right opposition?

“Should we have rested more of the players that had had a tough season?

“Should I have gone more towards the starting line-up that we were going to play against Germany in one of the games?

“There’s lots of little things that you think we could have maybe changed and done better.

“But it’s easy to sit here with hindsight and think we did this wrong and we did that wrong.

“There’s lots of little things that we probably wouldn’t do or I wouldn’t do again.

“But NOTHING dramatic, there’s nothing dramatic to say we got it so far wrong.

“The most disappointing for me was the fact that we didn’t turn up in the first half against Germany. That set us off on the wrong foot.

“Then from there it was a fight to get back into the competition, a tough game against a really good Swiss side and I think they proved that later in the tournament as well.

“We played well, we got the point, we could have nicked a win there while they could have nicked a win as well.

“Let’s be honest, it was quite an open game, there were certainly a couple of big chances for Grant Hanley.

“But they could have scored in the last minute and made it even more difficult for us.

“Then you get to the last game, we still had a realistic chance to qualify.

“But I thought Hungary played well, they played their gameplan well. They’re a team with a big counter-attack.

“We knew as soon as the game opened up they would cause us problems.

“We had to commit, because we had to win the game, and then eventually got picked off — and that’s what happened.

“We couldn’t find the moment to score the goal that we needed.”
Scotland fans put that down to Clarke’s negativity in that final game against Hungary.

Like only turning to striker Lawrence Shankland after 76 minutes.

Like not turning to winger James Forrest at all.

Clarke added: “There’s always going to be criticism when you don’t achieve your targets.

“If all the criticism comes to me, that’s fine. I can take it. I think you have to look and see that the build-up to the tournament wasn’t smooth.

“We lost a lot of players injured from in-camp. I think what we’ve shown is that if we’re missing two key players, then we’re not as strong a side as we would be with those players on the team.”

Blaming the Argentinian referee for the defeat is one thing Clarke wishes he didn’t do.

Highlighting his nationality wasn’t a clever move and he seems to have recognised that, adding: “I think what it was was a disappointed, frustrated coach coming out straight after a match with a lot of emotion.”

Clarke does concede that he has to find a way to make Scotland more creative.

That’s why Ryan Gauld has finally been given a call-up at 28, as revealed by SunSport last week, with forward- thinking Max Johnston also drafted into the Nations League squad.

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Clarke added: “That’s something we have to look at.

“We have to look at being more creative, we have to look at trying to create more chances.

“But we also have to keep a defensive solidity because as a team we don’t score a lot of goals, we understand that.

“We were in the qualifying games where we were very clinical with the chances we got.

“In the tournament when we got the chances to score, we were perhaps not quite as clinical.

“We didn’t get the shot away early enough or didn’t show enough composure to make the finish and put the shots on target.”

Whatever Clarke thinks, he now has a job on his hands winning back the faith of the Tartan Army.

He went on: “Everybody’s disappointed.

“I think the players and myself are probably feeling more disappointed than anybody else — because we felt we had a chance to create a better history for the country.

“We didn’t do that. But now you have to bounce back, you have to show our resilience and move on.”

Asked if he was over the disappointment, he added: “Yeah, you have to get over it, you have to move on.

“I think that’s why I’m still in the game after 43 years.

“You have to learn how to move on.”

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