Steve Clarke Euro post-mortem wouldn’t reveal anything unexpected

SCOTLAND supporters would probably like to hear what Steve Clarke has to say about the Euros now it’s all over.

It may even be quite cathartic for him to open his heart.

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But would it do any real good?

Would we really hear anything we didn’t expect to hear?

Steve could come out tomorrow and talk about how, as a nation, we don’t have elite players who can eliminate people in one-on-one situations.

He could open up on how we have no one with genuine pace.

He could bemoan the ones we have who aren’t at one with the ball, as I call it.

I’m talking about players who are happy to take a pass under any circumstances.

But we already know all that.

So I’m not really sure there’s anything Steve could come up with that would make everybody sit up and listen. Look, I can see why people are saying they think it would help to hear what’s been learned.

But he’s a clever fella and I’m sure he’s taken everything in over the past few weeks.

The fact is Steve works under some tough restrictions as Scotland manager when you look at what’s around in the world of football right now.

I spoke about it when I was in the job myself by highlighting the physicality issues.

And that’s STILL an issue.

What we have are players with huge hearts and that’s something other countries applaud us for.

But do we have athletes who are big physically with pace to really and truly make a difference? I just don’t think we do.

And until that changes, we’ll have a problem.

People talk about Ben Doak being super-quick, and he’s a kid I’ve been watching for many years now.

But what Ben has is sharpness over ten yards. Being fast over 30 or 40 yards is a different thing altogether.

And also, do we really want to heap all the pressure in the world on to a lad who has only started four games for Liverpool — and not a single league game? So what does that mean, then?

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Well, it’s a case of finding a different way of operating and bringing through our young talent by merging it with what we do have at our disposal.

The stats will show our players are taller than they’ve been before, but it’s about improving the technical ability of the next batch.

Trust me on this, I’ve watched enough of our kids. And, believe it or not, the technical ability IS there between the age of six and nine.
It’s what happens after that we need to looked at.

I could prattle on about it for hours — I could probably make a documentary on the subject!

And maybe one day someone who wants to make a difference will ask me about it. We just have to find a way of improving the technical ability in the players when they’re older.

We need to make them better in one-on-one situations and improve their understanding of how to protect the ball under pressure.

I’m also fed up hearing young coaches, who have come though the system, saying teams need to ‘play through the thirds’, like they’re been brainwashed into repeating it.

Sure, that’s one way of playing.

But you can play around teams and you can play over them.
And that, by the way, doesn’t simply mean hoofing it from one end of the park to the other.

Man City are one of the best footballing teams around. Yet they have a goalkeeper who can clip a 60-yard pass if need be. The best teams and players have the ability to pick the most positive pass they can see in that moment. That’s how you play the game.

Because if you play the one style of football all the time — unless you’ve got geniuses in your line-up — then it’s far too easy to cope with.

Defensively, teams like it when the opposition play one way.
It’s when it gets mixed up that defenders get twitchy.

I used to have Willie Miller and Alex McLeish behind me and they were delighted when teams played the one way.

It’s about variety and making sure you’re not predictable.

We saw it at the Euros, teams sitting in and making other teams work for any space they could get.

Scotland were criticised for it but Steve wasn’t the only manager who did it.

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England reached the final and they were also one of the teams singled out for being easy to play against.

Gareth Southgate is someone I like — we worked together at ITV — but he’ll maybe look back at how he played with two out-and-out defensive midfielders.

Spain had Rodri, a wonderful footballer who has the role at City. But he’s had guys like Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne alongside him, who are different types altogether.

Maybe going forward, if Gareth decides to stay in the job, he’ll decide that Declan Rice can do that defensive midfield job on his own.

That’s IF he continues on the job, because I’ve listened to a lot of people talk about how his time is up.

It’s one of the things that makes me laugh, when TV pundits talk about how he should step aside to give someone else a shot.

Yet maybe that’s true of THEM!

I’ve heard so many cliched comments in the past month that Gareth would be within his rights to ask for the BBC or ITV to make some changes, let alone the English FA!

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