When Scotland qualified for the 2020 European Championships, there was very much a sense of enjoying the first major tournament for over 20 years.
Loyalty to underperforming players and defensive tactics saw Steve Clarke learn the harsh reality of football on the biggest stage – there are no easy games and tactics that worked at Kilmarnock, won’t work against the continent’s best.
Clarke’s pragmatism is a major factor in Scotland’s resurrection, however, it is now being seen as a contributing factor to failing to make history with Rangers fans far from impressed.
Scotland slump sees Steve Clarke given Rangers fans’ verdict
The Scotland manager has never been popular amongst the Rangers support.
Every encounter seemed to end with him criticising the support and then there was his infamous “bye, bye Rangers” speech.
As Philippe Clement did from Michael Beale, he inherited a mess of a squad from Alex McLeish.
The former Rangers boss opened the back door to the 2020 Euro’s via the Nations League but, after scraping past Israel and Serbia, Clarke never really kicked on in the following World Cup qualifying campaign.
Nations League promotion to group A was an achievement of sorts, however, the last two years have been bizarre.
Wins against Spain, Norway, Georgia and Cyprus to open the group saw qualification almost in the bag.
Since beating Cyprus to make it five wins from five though, it has almost all been downhill.
No competitive wins since don’t make for pleasant reading and the performances in this summer’s Euro’s haven’t been a surprise.
The statistics don’t lie and Scotland have been the worst team out of the 24 in terms of attacking output.
Rangers fans all saying the same thing about Steve Clarke
No wonder these Rangers fans who follow the national team aren’t happy:
They have a point.
Clarke will point to the penalty incident as the fine margin between success and failure, but not having a shot on target until the 90th minute of a game Scotland needed to win is inexcusable.
As is the total for the tournament for xG, goals scored, total shots taken and shots on target.
Steve Clarke was the right manager for Scotland when he took over and when organisation, consistency and team spirit were needed, now, he is holding the team back.
