This past weekend, Scotland beat Belarus 2-1 in matchday 8 of 10 of the World Cup Qualifiers. Despite their victory, head coach Steve Clarke delivered a harsh message in a press conference following the match, describing his pure disappointment in his team:
“I’m really disappointed – really, really disappointed. It’s possibly as disappointed as I’ve been over the whole 72 games. We just didn’t turn up. The performance was way below par. It is head-scratching,” he expressed.
Clarke has been known as a coach to have strong teams – ones that work hard and produce excellent results. With 72 matches as Scotland manager, he has now surpassed the late Craig Brown’s record of 70. Clarke even admitted that he did not expect to “last this long” managing the Scotland team, but despite his normal professional attitude, he displayed anger and frustration with his team both during and after the match.
The game was initially going well after striker Che Adams scored merely 15 minutes in, but Scotland’s performance during the first half was so concerning that at halftime, the team was strongly reprimanded by Clarke. “At half-time, it was the wildest I’ve seen him in 72 games…” stated John McGinn, a long-time midfielder for the team. Clearly, Clarke had reason to be concerned, as later in the second half, Belarus was denied a goal due to a foul on Scott McTominay, giving Scotland a fight to stay in the lead. Later, the Napoli midfielder ended up scoring in the 84th minute, which did not bring fans happiness for long as Belarus’ Gleb Kuchko scored in stoppage time.
Scotland’s poor performance against Belarus, a team currently ranked 100th in the world, angered many fans, who even booed at full-time. Fans had reason to be angry – with Scotland having 12 shots total, and Belarus nearly double that (22).
Scotland can no longer afford to play this poorly, with two matches against Greece and Denmark only in a matter of weeks. Clarke must address the many issues with his team’s performance – and get the team prepared if they want to succeed in the World Cup. Scotland should hope that this embarrassing performance against Belarus is a one-time occurrence and does not become a pattern in their future.
Image credits: “Steve Clarke 2019” by Анна Джалалян is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.