When Euro 2024 kicked off back in June, the streets of Germany witnessed a tartan takeover of truly epic proportions.
For the next couple of weeks, hundreds of thousands of Scotland supporters were determined to enjoy the party after finally making the journey to a major finals on foreign soil.
Yet, while the Tartan Army won plenty of friends and admirers on their travels, the same couldn’t be said of the nation’s football team. Bidding to make history by becoming the first Scotland side to reach the knockout stage of a tournament, Steve Clarke’s men went out with a whimper.
CIn the end, they were ranked 24th of all 24 teams in the Euros across various key metrics. Officially the worst team in the tournament, Scotland managed a cumulative XG of just 0.9 across their three games.
It was the glaring lack of ambition and creativity that led to such despondency among supporters, especially in the final match against Hungary.
In a game Scotland knew they had to win, they failed to fire a shot. Literally. It became mildly embarrassing that Clarke’s side couldn’t muster a single effort on target in such a seismic occasion.
Steve Clarke applauds the travelling support in Germany but has a lot of making up to do
Scotland were so poor during the Euros that they ranked worst out of all the teams involved
Clarke accepts his team didn’t create enough chances and he has added creativity to his squad
After taking time to reflect on the tournament as a whole, the Scotland manager would concede that his team weren’t anywhere near positive enough against the Hungarians. It’s that lack of creativity and style of football that remains a major concern among supporters. For Clarke (pictured below with Andy Robertson), he knows it’s an area he must address.
With Nations League matches to come next week against Poland and Portugal, as well as the forthcoming World Cup qualifying campaign, he needs to release the handbrake.
Asked about what the team could have done better in the Euros, he said: ‘We weren’t creative enough. That’s one thing we didn’t do.
‘We didn’t create enough chances in the [Hungary] game.
‘Certainly, in that game, when Hungary sat in and looked to play counter-attack, we probably kept too many men behind the ball, too many players in deep positions, too many passes that weren’t trying to hurt the opposition.
‘So 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.
Scott McTominay watches one effort go close against Hungary but Scotland rarely threatened
‘But we also have to keep a defensive solidity because, as a team, we do not score a lot of goals, we understand that. In the qualifying games, 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.
‘You can talk all day about systems and players and whatever, but you just have to improve. You have to get better. You have to learn a different way to play.’
Asked about Scotland’s failure to live up to expectations after such a positive qualifying campaign, Clarke continued: ‘I take it as a compliment because it means that myself, my staff and the players have done a really good job to raise the expectation. When I took the job, it was over 20 years since we’d been at a tournament. We’ve now been at two out of the last three, so we must have done something right.
‘So you raise that expectation. If the expectation now is you have to qualify for the tournament and you have to come out of the group stage, then that’s what we’ll try and do in the next tournament in 2026.’
Ben Doak has been reinstated to the squad after injury and a lot of hope rests on his shoulders
Now, a couple of months down the line, Clarke must attempt to pick up the pieces and restore some faith that he can still take this team forward.
Determined to see out the remainder of his contract, which runs until 2026, Clarke held a debrief with SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell after the Euros failure.
The subject of his possible resignation as manager, however, was never on the cards. Clarke admits there were things he and the team could have done better. But he is determined to use the Nations League as a fresh start after naming a 24-man squad yesterday for the games against Poland and Portugal.
Asked if there were sleepless nights after returning home from Germany, he continued: ‘Nothing kept me awake. I slept very well, I was tired.
‘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?”
Emre Can fires Germany’s fifth goal on THAT humiliating opening night in Munich
‘We felt we did at the time. You think you’ve prepared properly but you can look back at other things.
‘There’s lots of little things that you think we could have changed and done better. It’s easy to sit here with hindsight and think we did this wrong, 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 (thing)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.
‘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. They could have nicked a win as well.
Grant Hanley heads the ball off the post against Switzerland in what was a rare attacking flurry
‘Then, you get to the last game.
‘We still had a realistic chance to qualify. But I thought Hungary played well.
‘They played their game plan well. They’re a team with a big counter-attack.
‘We had to commit because we had to win the game and then eventually we get picked off. That’s what happened. We couldn’t find the moment to score the goal that we needed.
‘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.’
The headline inclusion in Clarke’s squad for the games against Poland and Portugal is that of Ryan Gauld, the Vancouver Whitecaps captain who has excelled in the MLS in recent years.
Vancouver Whitecaps star Ryan Gauld has been handed a Scotland recall at the age of 28
A decade after his last call-up to the national squad, Gauld could now finally make his Scotland debut.
On his decision to include the 28-year-old playmaker, and where he might fit into the system, Clarke said: ‘He can play both; high up the pitch, he can play a little bit deeper.
‘Let’s see what state he’s in when he gets here from Texas.
‘I think he’s in Texas this weekend, so let’s see what state he’s in.
‘Obviously with a game on a Thursday [against Poland], with the time difference, we’ve got to make sure he’s given the right time to recover and make sure that his body catches up with where he is in the world.
‘I’ve heard a lot about Ryan, and I’ve watched a lot of Ryan on video,
‘It will be nice to see him in person.’
