Kenny McLean explained that Scotland are heading to Croatia “desperate” to prove that they deserve to be among Europe’s elite in Nations League Group A.
After working their way up following their Group B success in 2022, the Scots were pitted alongside Croatia, Portugal and Poland. They lost narrowly to both the Poles and Portuguese last month, leaving them with only one win in 14 matches since defeating Cyprus in September 2023.
They face another formidable double-header away to Croatia on Saturday and at home to Portugal on Tuesday, but McLean is adamant they can handle the demands of competing with Europe’s top nations.
“We’ll keep working as hard as we can to get results,” said the Norwich midfielder. “We’re obviously against really good opposition and that’s where we want to be.
Getting to work between the posts 🧤#CROSCO | #SCOPOR
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) October 10, 2024
“We put ourselves against the best, but the next step is to start getting these results. We’re desperate for them. Obviously, we can’t ignore the quality that we are playing against, but we’ve done well to get there, so we don’t just want to stop there.
“We want to push ourselves again to compete at this level. It’s not enough just doing well the previous year to get into this spot. We want to start getting results against these nations because that’s the next step for us.”
McLean insisted there will be no inferiority complex among the Scotland squad in Zagreb.
“We are against good opposition, but we’ve got good players, we’ve got a good squad, we’ve got a good team,” he stressed. “We need to believe in ourselves and believe in what we’re doing.
“We’ll go to Croatia with the belief that we can get results. If not, we’d be as well staying at home, to be honest.”
Scotland are missing more than a dozen regular squad members through injury, paving the way for several inexperienced internationals to be called up.
“I think we’re seeing it a lot because of the amount of games that people are playing nowadays, there seems to be more injuries, but we can’t affect that,” said McLean.
“For the lads that are here, it’s an opportunity and I’m sure they’ll desperately want to show what they can do. That’s what this week will be all about, people working hard and trying to catch the eye.”
McLean, 32, is one of the more experienced players in Clarke’s squad and he has no intention of stepping aside any time soon.
“I’ve always worked as hard as I can at club level to be part of that, and that’s all every player can do,” he said. “I’m 32 now, it’s obviously the manager’s decision who he brings in and what he wants for the team, but I’ll keep doing as much as I can and I’ll always be as available as I can for the manager and the decision is his.
“I don’t want to just be hanging around because I’ve been here in the past, I want to continue to do what I can for Norwich and hopefully that keeps me in the manager’s plans for as long as possible.”
