If there was any lingering doubt as to the wisdom and success of the Nations League, these bleak end-of-season Scotland internationals have surely ended it.
Who in their right minds wants to go back to those dark days when every other Scotland match seemed to be a sparsely-attended experiment that invariably ended in defeat?
A traumatic flashback arrived in the shape of a 3-1 loss to Iceland on Friday night, the first of two friendlies scheduled to make up for the absence of a World Cup qualifier during this international break.
Now Scotland’s players and supporters must go to Liechtenstein, take a deep breath and pretend that they wouldn’t rather be sunning themselves on a beach somewhere.
Or, at least, contesting a competitive game – if not a World Cup qualifier (Scotland’s four-team group doesn’t start till September), then perhaps a Nations League tie that offers a better gauge of where they are at.
One thing’s for sure: these meaningless yawnfests bring out the worst in Scotland, who have somehow contrived to win only one of their last 10 friendlies. And that was against Gibraltar.
Northern Ireland and Finland are among the teams Steve Clarke and his players have failed to beat during that sequence. They scarcely need to be reminded that adding Liechtenstein to the list is unthinkable.
After all, here is a side who stand 205th in the FIFA rankings, 161 places below Scotland. The Nations League has enabled them to play more frequently against teams of similar stature, but still they have struggled to win games. In their last 47 internationals, they have produced just one victory – a 1-0 triumph at home to Hong Kong last October.
Liechtenstein haven’t won a competitive match in five years. They have already lost the first three of their World Cup qualifying campaign, against North Macedonia, Kazakhstan and Wales, who knocked three goals past them in Cardiff on Friday. Their next outing in Group J will be against Belgium in September.
The temptation is to assume that nothing can be gained from so skewed a fixture. That Clarke and his bedraggled squad are on a hiding to nothing. That, in the circumstances, they would be better with no game at all than one that has the potential to inflict upon them even deeper humiliation.
But there is, in these dog days of Clarke’s six-year tenure, an opportunity of sorts. While anything other than a victory would make the pressure on him almost unbearable, a convincing win would take the edge off increasingly vehement calls for his dismissal and ensure that Scotland don’t head into the World Cup qualifying campaign with their confidence completely shot.
Most of us have reached the conclusion that Clarke has been in the job long enough. With four wins in 21 games, as well as an end-of-days feel about the team, he isn’t anyone’s idea of the perfect man to lead Scotland into their Group C opener against Denmark this autumn.
But the reality is that he is unlikely to have his contract terminated before then. So we all, players included, might as well put on our big-boy pants and see what can be salvaged from Clarke’s remaining months in the job.
In the first instance, that means puffing out the chest and recognising that there is, against our better judgement, something to be gleaned from a bounce game in Liechtenstein two weeks after the season was supposed to have ended.
Like recording the victory that would improve Scotland’s record, at least on paper (two defeats in seven wouldn’t be so bad).
And blooding one or two newcomers. If Lennon Miller can’t get his first Scotland start in a training exercise against Liechtenstein, when can he?
It means resting the big guns such as Scott McTominay, Andy Robertson and John McGinn, whose seasons at the highest level have taken a mental and physical toll.
And seeing if, for the first time in a year, a striker can score for Scotland. George Hirst got himself into good positions against Iceland and deserves another chance.
More than anything, it means ditching the back five and reverting to the four-man defence that performed well enough in parts of the last Nations League campaign.
In a game like this, there is no need for three centre-halves. Nor should there be any obligation to accommodate both Robertson and Kieran Tierney.
So it makes sense to pick a flat back four, not least because it is the system that will suit winger Ben Doak, Scotland’s brightest prospect, when he returns from injury.
This last, grudging game of a grim international season is no more a big night than the Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz is one of the game’s great amphitheatres. It’s not the World Cup. It’s not even the Nations League. But it’s incumbent upon Clarke and the players he picks to get as much as they possibly can from it.
vuaabdipu
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still trusting Clarke with our national team