Steve Clarke opens up on his plans for Ben Doak as he reveals ‘balancing act’

STEVE CLARKE is agonising over picking Scotland wonderkid Ben Doak again.

Boss Clarke is hugely tempted to unleash the 18-year-old winger against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal after an impressive first start in defeat to Croatia in Zagreb on Saturday evening.

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But, while he knows that a nation is craving more from the ex-Celtic youngster — on loan to Middlesbrough from Liverpool — there’s also a nagging instinct for caution.

Clarke confirmed there’s absolutely nothing to prevent him from going with Doak from the off once more.

But he still fears a too-much-too-soon scenario.

Clarke said: “You’ve always got the balancing act. We know Ben is a talent.

“But we want Ben to be a talent for the next 15 years, not the next 15 months.

“As I always say, don’t put too much pressure on him — he’s just a young man.

“He will make mistakes, he will do some really good things in the game.

“It’s to get the balance right between giving Ben the opportunity to play, because he’s more than capable of taking them, but also making sure we protect him a little bit and we don’t overhype.

“Maybe in the past there have been players who have been a little bit over-hyped — who don’t fulfil their potential.

“The most important thing for Ben is that he fulfils his potential and if we can help him do that, that’s what we’ll try and do.”

Asked if twice-capped Doak — with five appearances for Boro and one goal — was ready to face Roberto Martinez’ on-fire aces, Clarke said:

“He’s physically ready, yeah, for sure. It’s just whether I choose to start him or not, that will be my choice.

“Physically, he’s fine. The boys are recovering, so it’s recovery, recovery.

“The period between the games is very short, so you spend most of these two days just recovering.

“I’ll assess the squad later. We’ll speak to the medics. We’ll speak to the sports science guys who tell you about how much they’ve run and how many sprints they’ve made — and then we’ll make a decision on that.”

Clarke, as expected, lost crocked Celtic star James Forrest as he desperately tries to improve a run of just one win in his last 15 games, including four straight defeats.

Scotland’s home record against Portugal

By Mark Walker

SCOTLAND have played Portugal at home eight times, winning four, drawing two and losing the two others. Here’s a rundown of the games . . . 

1955, Friendly – SCOTLAND 3 Portugal 0
Scotland cruised to an easy win in front of a poor crowd of just 20,856 after goals from Tommy Gemmell of St Mirren, Liverpool’s Billy Liddell and Hibs legend Lawrie Reilly’s first ever international goal won it.

1966, Friendly – SCOTLAND 0 Portugal 1
Portugal, with Eusebio (right) in the side, warmed up for the World Cup Finals in England later that summer with their first win in Scotland thanks to a goal from Benfica’s Jose Torres.

1971, ECQ – SCOTLAND 2 Portugal 1
Eusebio plays again at Hampden, but is on the losing side this time as Derby duo John O’Hare and Archie Gemmill both net their first goals for Scotland. There were first caps for keeper Bob Wilson, future Arsenal boss George Graham and Hibs ace Alex Cropley.

1975, Friendly – SCOTLAND 1 Portugal 0
Boss Willie Ormond hands a first cap to future captain Bruce Rioch as the hosts win after an own goal from Benfica’s Artur Correia. Arthur Duncan of Hibs also comes off the bench to win his first cap.

1980, ECQ – SCOTLAND 4 Portugal 1
Alex McLeish wins the first of 77 caps as the Scots get their biggest-ever win over their rivals with goals from Kenny Dalglish Andy Gray, Steve Archibald — who scored on his debut — and Archie Gemmill.

1980, WCQ – SCOTLAND 0 Portugal 0
Second game in a year at Hampden, but this time the Portuguese got a draw. However, Jock Stein’s Scots would get the last laugh as they qualified for the World Cup in Spain while Portugal didn’t.

1992, WCQ – SCOTLAND 0 Portugal 0
Hampden is being renovated so Ibrox hosts this clash in front of just 22,583 fans. Strikers Ally McCoist and Kevin Gallacher can’t find a way past Porto keeper Vitor Baia and the Scots would miss out on the World Cup for the first time in six campaigns.

2018, Friendly – SCOTLAND 1 Portugal 3
No Cristiano Ronaldo, but no worries for the Portuguese who are three goals up through Helder Costa, Eder and Bruma before Steven Naismith’s injury-time consolation.

Forrest is one of 12 players missing for the under-pressure Clarke, with Connor Barron of Rangers now promoted from the Under-21s.

But the boss saw enough in the unlucky defeat to the Croats to remain full of hope we can shatter Ronaldo & Co.

Clarke said: “We can compete. We showed that in Lisbon. With the backing of the home support here, hopefully we can find another level that gets us the positive result that we all want.

“Sometimes the quality of the opposition determines how often you get to attack, so what we have to do is make sure that we maximise the moments when we have the ball.

“Something that we do speak to the players about is trying to improve our ball possession when we play against the top sides.

“We did that against Croatia and I think you see the result of that was a really strong performance away from home.

“Hopefully, we can improve the ball possession at home against a top team — and we get a similar performance and a much better result.”

Clarke’s strength in depth right now is highly questionable with so many key men absent.

And he conceded: “It’s very difficult to get the balance right between throwing players in to an international game when maybe they haven’t felt that level.

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“It’s a very difficult one for us. We didn’t train much yesterday. It was a recovery day for the boys who played. It was a very light training session.

“We will assess that with my coaches and we’ll see if there are areas of the team that we can freshen without putting any players under too much pressure to come into a match of this magnitude. I have to get the balance right.”

Clarke’s mind was maybe a little scrambled when he made reference to the caps tally of important playmaker Billy Gilmour — 33, not 23 as he stated — to emphasise how younger players can rapidly become stalwarts on the international scene.

But he still accepted the tricky task of getting the balance in a side between experience and the youthful faces who bring a freshness to it all.

Clarke said: “It’s very important that we get that.

“I think when you mentioned the players that you mentioned, Andy Robertson, for example, with 77 caps, I thought he was absolutely outstanding the other night for us.

“A player like a captain, he’s a leader.

“He’s grown into that role. He’s been great for his country over the years.

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“He doesn’t always get the credit he deserves, but we appreciate very much how well Andy does for us.

“And getting the balance between the players that are capped, someone gave me a number for young Billy Gilmour. Billy’s one of the youngsters, but he’s got something like 23 caps already.

“We’re already starting to grow the next generation of players.

“As well as trying to be good now, I’m also trying to leave a little group of players that are ready to go and carry on.

“I’ve mentioned it before, we don’t go 20 years after this group of players stop.

“We don’t want to go 20 years without the success that we all want. We all want to be involved in the major tournaments.”

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