Inevitable Scotland Defeat – Clarke Must Go
In the inevitable hangover from the latest Scotland World Cup debacle, fans are divided over the role of Steve Clarke, the players and the management of Scottish football. Ultimately, this divide comes down to, do you think it is good enough for us to merely qualify for major international tournaments? Ultimately, this comes down to, what are your aspirations for Scotland, and not just the international team.
Just on simple facts, two stand out. First that Steve Clarke has taken us to more major tournaments than any other manager. Second, that his record in those tournaments is abysmal:
Both these facts could be down to the players not Steve Clarke, but he is paid very good money and has just been awarded a four-year contract. So let’s look at the players first.
Key defenders made horrific mistakes which threw away the games against Morocco and Brazil. Hanley gifted Morocco their opening goal in seconds, Scott McKenna inexplicably threw away the ball within minutes and Angus Gunn looked all at sea for the cross that floated over him and onto Vinícius Jnrs head. Lawrence Shankland looked completely anonymous, Doak looked like a wee lost boy in the Brazil game, and Scott McTominay failed to live up to the hype. Only really Kieran Tierney and Lewis Ferguson had half decent tournaments.
But individual errors aside, Clarke has had eight years and a four-week training camp to get players motivated and to create systems of play. This debacle is at his door, no-one elses. As Ewan Murray has written: “Scotland will now play the waiting game. The trouble is, as they hang around to discover whether a place in the last 32 can be secured as among the leading eight third-placed teams, it is legitimate to question the point of it all. Scotland’s on-field contribution to this tournament has been pitiful.”
Indeed it has.
Scotland’s fans, about whom we don’t need to say another word, deserve so much better.
The fallout has led to some spectacular meltdowns and home truths. Here’s Tom English and Neil McCann:
“Stick to Egg-chasing, Tom”
Neil McCann explosive argument with Tom English after Scotland loss to Brazil
Well done Willie Miller for refereeing at the end…. pic.twitter.com/5IeXpaOYdm
— Red Highlander (@RedHighlander83) June 25, 2026
Part of this is about expectation, as Roy Keane mentioned a few days ago. But not only are Clarke’s selection, man management and tactics questionable, his media manners are awful. This has long been the case but jas been passed-over as his brusque manner. Actualy, its appaling:
Totally get that he doesn’t want to be interviewed but this is incredibly rude.
He’s not just talking to the reporter… there are millions of Scots watching back home 🤯 pic.twitter.com/ab4Lo2WUFu
— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) June 25, 2026
Let’s get the excuses out of the way.
We missed Billy Gilmour who can hold onto the ball and show for it. We had at least two disastrous refereeing decisions against us in the Morocco game. That’s it.
Steve Clarke has presided over a team that lines up facing inevitable defeat. They lack inspiration and his obsessive commitment to the same players over and over again has led to a sterile camp.
As UEFA coach John Walker has put it: “A mentality swing is required, Clarke was the man to move us forward in 2018 but he isn’t the man to take us forward in 2026.”
To answer the question, it is not good enough for us to merely qualify for major international tournaments.
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Scotland a footballing nation?
No. Not any more. Maybe not for a very long time.
And professional sport isn’t about sport now. It’s about big business and money. The fans and even the wealthy players are pawns in that game.
And national team football is a pretty poor relation to the rest of the pro game.
It’s a shame that so much of many folks’ national identity hangs on that
It’s not so much the results as the performance, especially last night’s…
In the 98 World Cup, we scored two goals in three games, one a penalty, and lost 2 (to Morocco and Brazil), drew 1 game (against Norway).
In 1990, we scored 2 goals in 3 games, won one and lost two (to Brazil and Costa Rica)…
In 1986, we scored one goal in three games (wee Gordon Strachan) and drew one and lost rwo…
Arguably, our group has turned out exactly as was to be expected, exactly in line with world rankings, and exactly in line with past Scotland performances at major tournaments…
What hurts was the shambolic nature of the defending… it was embarrassing…
But let’s be honest, Brazil were always going to beat us. The point we needed was against Morocco…
I understand the reason fronting the article with Clarke’s statistical record at major tournaments, but that isn’t really the problem as I see it.
Clarke’s team has had at least two very lucky qualifications for those tournaments, and therefore could reasonably be expected to struggle.
On the other hand, Clarke’s team had a very impressive UEFA Nations League campaign in 2024–5 where it could easily have picked up a few more points than it did, yet fell into the relegation zone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_UEFA_Nations_League_A#Group_1
Clarke’s other tactical triumph (I assume) was the 0–0 draw in Denmark that opened the recent qualification campaign.
Coaches cannot guarantee results, but they are rightly held somewhat accountable for performances and what preparations we can assume were made.
The recent problem is the ridiculous focus on unrepeatable actions like the couple of dramatic and technically superb goals in the last victory over Denmark, which do not characterise Clarke’s coaching.
So, yes, football as a spectator sport lives and dies by memorable (some would say memeable, but really there’s a lot more to it than that) performances on the pitch, and the lack of anything worth remembering from Scotland’s last two major appearances in Euro 2024 and World Cup 2026 each should have precipitated a fundamental change in approach.
I would favour an experiment in football anarchism for the national teams, ditch this court-politics hierarchy of off-pitch rulers, and see how that goes for a generation. I don’t really care that much about Scottish success in tournaments, I just want to see them play the best football they can.
Willie Miller got plenty of refereeing experience while he was captain of Aberdeen
Willie Miller was and is an excellent referee!
Until Scottish teams are forced to play a majority of Scotland qualified players, then Scotland simply cannot compete as ANY national manager has few players to pick from.
When I was going to Wembley in the 70’s we played “pick a team”.
Anglos.
Scottish based.
Old Firm.
Scottish without the Old Firm.
Like poppies, these are all gone.
Clarke replaced? Fine, but who would want the gig?
The team we need would be young, athletic with basic ball skills and techniques, passing and shooting skills.
I saw the manager of Motherwell change his team to incorporate much of this in a previously basic team, so it can be done.
Trouble is, we have the SFA and Premier League, morally corrupt and utterly useless.
Drafted to Gibraltar in 1969, I was told when checking into my mess, “get yer boots looked out, yer playin’ tonight”. Why, says I? “Well, yer a Jock int ya”. Most Navy teams had a good number of us then. No longer.
I’m seriously amazed Mike Small is again calling for Clarke to go, even before we are officially out of the tournament….
I’m amazed, because Mike and myself are about the same age, late 50s, and Mike, like me, can surely remember Craig Brown and his tenure as Scotland manager? Andy Roxborough – who I always though was a classy, modern, smart manager – resigned after Italy 1990 I think, and Craig Brown, his assistant took over.
Craig, got us to the Euros of 96, and the World Cup of 98, and I’m pretty sure he started the 2000 campaign, before being hounded out for playing boring and negative football…
After Craig Brown – now deceased but a legend of Scottish football – came the 20 years of wilderness: Berti Vogts, Craig Levein, when we slid down the world rankings so far it was almost triple figures…
Gordon Strachan did, in retrospect, an excellent job in making us a serious football team again and was unlucky not to take us to Russia 2018…
Clarke has built on that and taken us to 3 tournaments in a row after 20 years in the wilderness – an achievement unsurpassed by any other manager…
Brown, Strachan and Clarke would probably agree that, one of the most difficult things about the job, is managing the Great Scottish Football Ego..
That is, because we invented the beautiful game, we have a right ro beat Morocco, ranked 35 places above us in the FIFA rankings, and even Brazil…
Italy didnt make the WC, nor did Romania or Bulgaria…Sweden got hammered 5-1, the Czechs are already at the airport…
We haven’t performed especially well, nor especially badly, at least not until last night’s first half…
And everybody talks about the lack of chances against Morocco…
Hang on a minute. Did Morocco have chances and I missed it?
No, they didnt, it was a very tight, very physical game in which Scotland played overall pretty well. We should have had a penalty.
The Brazil game was a different story. Was it the heat? Was it the pressure? Our two centre backs looked like they were sleep walking.
As for Doak, he was playing against two of the best full backs in the world. That’s what they do. They shut down your wingers…
As for Lewis Ferguson, he ‘s had a superb tournament…
Yeah, I don’t think he’s a very good manager, I think someone could do better.
I think he blew a historic opportunity.
In financial terms Clarke has done a great job and everyone at the SFA are smug – football is a money machine and Clark’s future will be determined by their assessment of the financial fallout of his football failure. Scotland play like mugs, ponderous and glaikit.
In footballing terms Scotland were very poor and Clarke is way past his sell by date. I have watched Scotland in the World Cup since 1974 and this is the worst performance, even compared to ’78. In 78 we at least had wee Archie’s goal and the wonderful victory over the Dutch to celebrate- a team at the time who were one of the best in the world and who went to to compete in the final.
This time we have absolutely nothing to remember – indeed we will all be trying hard to forget this nightmare. Clarke learns nothing from previous hammerings – the humiliation of being absolutely tanked by Germany in the Euros and Clarke absolutely impotent on the touchline does not seem to have been the wake-up call it should have been.
Scottish football is in decline and has been for 30 years. There are a number of reasons for this but the one thing we need to do better is coach young players. The standard of coaching at all levels is desperately poor. The coach of my son’s team has never played football and is only coaching qualifications come from an AI generated power-point slideshow. He only coaches the team to ensure his son gets a game.
I watch St Johnstone games fairly regularly and Simo Valakari has transformed the team and the way it plays. He has picked a team and squad that know how football should be played. He knows a good player when he sees one and how to build a way of playing. He is not a product of Scottish coaching syste, Craig Levein was the previous manager and he was hopeless tactically and as motivator. His system of play was plodding and this is a guy who was Scotland manager. He likes to park the bus. He should drive a bus.
Since the first game of the season, Saints were top of the league and won with at least 2 games to spare playing great ‘pass and move’ football. He was not even shortlisted for Manager of the Year – overlook in favour of 2 journeymen. Scottish football remains an old boys network and the Blazers are still in control, bolstered by spiv accountants and fuelled by dirty money.
For those of you saying the problem is the players .. this (from Joahn Walker)
Scotland: “Players aren’t good enough ”
The worst argument to appear in the hangover of this campaign & that we can’t play football, it’s coaching & style, 100%!
Scott McKenna – LCB
– Double winner in Croatia
– Voted in Team of the Year
All this in a country that we constantly use an example of a domestic league creating ball-playing technical footballers recognising him as one of the best…
Jack Hendry – RCB
– Defender of the Year in Belgium 2021
– Won Title with Club Brugge following that season 2022
Has all the attributes to be a very good level ball-playing defender and probably proved himself at this WC, one of the few.
Fullbacks:
– Hickey a £20m Premier League Right-Back
– Nathan Paterson a £10m Premier League Right-Back
– Andy Robertson a Prem, CL & Multiple trophy winning Premier League Left-Back
– Kieran Tierney, yes injuries have hampered him, showed in 2nd Half how good he is.
Midfielders:
– Lewis Ferguson was Serie A Midfielder of the Year 2024 & Won Coppa Italia
– McTominay was Player of the Year & a title-winner in 2025 with Napoli
– Ryan Christie has been exceptional under Iraola as a CDM for a top Bournemouth side but hasn’t played that role under Steve Clarke
– John McGinn just captained Aston Villa to a European Trophy but again under clear instruction of Emery
Attackers:
– Lawrence Shankland scores goals, you just need to create a chance.
– Adams & Stewart similarly, you need to create chances
– Doak is hot & cold but has Elite-Pace & Fearlessness, feed him the ball in the Final Third to feet and allow him to create.
But how many of these players play at elite level? Only Robertson plays regularly for a team that has been competitive in European Champions League and he is past it and one of the reasons Liverpool (allbeit a minor one) are not reaching the levels of Klopp. Some of the smaller teams actually have world class players playing in top teams in top leagues (PSG, Man City). Serie A is currently not an elite league and Italy did not qualify which surely contextualises, Ferguson, McTom and Gilmours success there.
Gilmour would have made a difference I think as he can pick up the ball and use it effectively when in his own half. The others cannot. Hickey was a big miss also because Patterson cannot defend and Ralston should be playing pub football. I am guessing he was carrying an injury?
But I do agree there should have been good enough to get through the group but more importantly to play a more attractive modern brand of football that does not begin with ponderously slow passing at the back. The ball has to be moved quicker and players need to be more active without the ball. Watch how Japan plays – coordinated football – operating in pods to close and open space
I’m pretty sure you’re right about the coaching and how Scottish football is run. Certainly, the fact that Clarke chose Naysmith as his assistant coach doesnt speak well of him. Naymsith has no international coaching credentials at all as far as I can see…
But it’s wider than that. BBC Scotland, for example, had next to nothing on the teams we were playing in the World Cup. I dont think they even mentioned that Ancelotti had been brought on board by Brazil partly to get the best out of Vinicious Jr, who he managed at Real Madrid, after a faltering qualifying campaign. Our football culture is national, not international… other nations are ahead of us in these things too..
Then you look at how other teams enjoy playing football, at ease with the ball. Scott McKenna the other night looked haunted. The normally calm Henry looked fustered…
We were all over the shop and could have been 4 down at half time…
As fior Tierney, he is one of our few genuinely classy players, I would always have him in the team…
As for Mike Small, my question, give me yiour shortlist of potential Scotland managers?
There us not just a crisis in producing quality players, we’ve stopped producing quality managers too. Our whole football culture has been on the slide since about 1990, but few seem to care…
To pin the blame on Clarke is just facile…
Sebastián Beccacece
Davie Moyes
I mean you just have to compare Scotland to other teams of a similar level who have qualified by playing with more tactical nouse.
Listening to the radio before the Brazil game, the pundits seemed to be under the impression Scotland could win by playing quality football or the least get a draw. It felt really deluded. But this hubris seems to be more widespread, so Scotland were never going to play like Ghana did against England, thwarting them very effectively with a park the bus style (yet still with some threat on counter-attacks). The Ghanaians used their physical strength, very organised zonal marking strategy and disciplined energy to achieve this, obviously all driven by the manager. None of that requires particularly amazing technical footballing skills. Ghana are ranked 65 compared to England’s 4, Scotland 41 compared to Brazil’s 5.
Regarding the fans, Ewan Murray in the Guardian says ‘here lies the great paradox of this World Cup. Scottish fans, superb. The Scottish team? Dismal’. There is a paradox, of sorts, and the fans have been great, but I think this way too easy to say. Being a ‘superb’ fan is 1000x easier than being an internationally superb football team, but there is no doubt Scotland could have been a lot better with the squad available and that is down to the manager’s tactics.
Clarke comes across as an unpleasant man. This cannot help.
If Clarke had played a low block against Brazil, there would have been howls of outrage from the fans, and the press too…
As it was, he played the two players so many have been calling for, Doak and Shankland… so, he didnt set us up to grind out a draw… it made no difference…
There was something deeply flawed about the Brazil game. El Pais newspaper called Scotland “insipid and soulless”. This is true…. half the team seemed miles away…
I can’t subscribe to the idea Morocco were there for the taking however. Morocco knocked Spain out of the last World Cup. They’re not just a good team, they’re one of the best…
If Clarke were replaced by Moyes, say, I really doubt much would change…
I bet there were no howls of outrage in Ghana, and had Scotland got the draw playing Ghana’s way, and qualified for the next round as a result, there would have been none either.
I agree about Morocco but no-one has to listen to us, just look at the world rankings – they are currently 6th.
As I said Doak looked like a wee boy and Shankland was hopeless. But if El Pais were right (and they were), the person resonsible for Scotland being “insipid and soulless” is their manager.
Clarke would rather crash out of a tournament using his trusted, failing inner circle than admit he was wrong and play the players who actually deserve to be on the pitch.
I am no great Clarke fan but which players that didn’t play would have made a big difference?
How many international class players have Scotland produced since 1998? I would suggest only McTomminay , McGinn, Robertson and possibly Gordon & Darren Fletcher meet that criteria. Compare that with previous 25 years where the international team was usually nearly full of international class players. This is fundamentally a failure by SFA and SPFL to nurture footballing talent in Scotland.
If we are being honest we would recognise that we carried a degree of good fortune in qualifying for USA – Greece outplayed us twice and looked a better football team than Scotland.
When we got to USA we were a bit fortunate to beat Haiti. We needed to be at our best to compete in other two games but after giving away needless early goals we were completely outplayed by Morocco and Brazil in first half of each match. We rallied in second half but never really looked capable of scoring.
Even though our squad is of limited quality getting into last 32 should not have been beyond our expectations. We failed due to individual failures and a coach who didn’t get the best out of the squad in all 3 matches. While I have been reluctant to criticise Steve Clarke it has been galling watching teams of similar quality to Scotland perform on a more attacking and competitive manner.