Steve Clarke has been speaking to the media before Scotland host Japan in a World Cup warm-up friendly on Saturday.
Here are the key lines from the Scotland boss:
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Clarke says because a number of his players are coming back from injury or carrying niggles at this stage of the season, some of his selections “might raise an eyebrow a little bit”.
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He is eager for players to be fresh for the World Cup: “My job is to make sure the players come out of these [games] fit, well and ready for the end of the season at the clubs and obviously to be ready for the summer.”
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He adds: “Both matches [Scotland face Ivory Coast on Tuesday] will be important in terms of preparation for the World Cup games. For us it’s looking at one or two things that are different, looking at one or two different personnel across the squad, trying to use as many players as we can and yet get as positive results that we can.”
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Scotland are back together for the first time since securing qualification with victory over Denmark in November, and Clarke says: “We reflected a little bit on what we had achieved in the qualifying campaign, because obviously we’d gone months without a game. So that was nice to catch up, reflect on what we did, the resilience that we had to get to qualification.”
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Seeing Republic of Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland lose in the play-offs underlines what Scotland have achieved: “I think it’s the perils of being in the play-off system. We watched all the games on split screens. I think it also shows the measure of how well our team did in qualifying direct for the tournament. To finish top of our group and in front of a good Denmark and Greece side is something we should be proud of, I thought it was good.”
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Having handed Findlay Curtis a first call-up, Clarke says the 19-year-old winger isn’t one for the future – he’s for now. Curtis brings “something a little bit different” and offers pace in the absence of Ben Gannon-Doak.
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Clarke outlines how he’s fostered a “club” spirit in the national squad: “The thing for me was to get a continuity of selection as much as possible while I was still trying to drip-feed younger players into the mix at the right time. And a familiarity of players, so that when you do meet up, the players immediately switch off and realise this is how we do it when we come to the Scotland camp. And I think that, allied to the fantastic balance of the players that I’ve got, have helped us to earn three qualifications over the last seven years.”
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