Scotland turned the forty eighth worldwide facet to endure at Ronaldo’s toes, which was hardly a shock.
However over this recreation and the Poland defeat there are nonetheless areas of main concern for Steve Clarke’s facet. 5 targets conceded makes it a complete of 33 in opposition to of their previous 14 video games.
In 5 of their previous six matches they’ve conceded after the eighty fifth minute. It’s now one win in 14 video games and no aggressive win within the final yr.
Towards high opposition, Scotland can’t appear to stem the tide of targets. And late ones, at that.
“I reiterated to my gamers that we’ve got to know what a part of the cycle we’re in, what we’re making an attempt to construct,” head coach Clarke mentioned afterwards.
“We’re making an attempt to re-adjust after the summer time. We will lose these matches to try to construct and guarantee that the tip objective, as at all times, is to qualify for the match.”
That implies Clarke is making an attempt to recalibrate how his workforce performs after a disappointing Euro 2024 marketing campaign throughout which they barely fired a shot.
The swap from a again 5 to a 4-2-3-1 has proven higher glimpses of attacking high quality, and Scotland had a robust spell after conceding the equaliser to Bruno Fernandes.
The introduction of Ryan Gauld, Ben Doak, and Tommy Conway to this camp additionally hints at a distinct method in preparation for subsequent yr’s World Cup qualifiers.
Evolution, not revolution was what Clarke described it as. On the proof to date there may be loads of work to be completed, with restricted time to do it and fine quality opposition to face.
