Steve Clarke keen to end Scotland’s ‘horrible’ run against Croatia

Steve Clarke admits that Scotland’s dismal run of form has left him feeling “horrible” but is determined to get back to winning ways against Croatia on Saturday.

The Scots have only won once in the last 14 matches – a friendly victory over Gibraltar – and lost their opening two Nations League games to Poland and Portugal.

Clarke’s plans for Zagreb have been wrecked, with a raft of players unavailable and Celtic winger James Forrest the latest to miss the trip after picking up a knock in training. He will be assessed before next Tuesday’s home game against Portugal.

Asked at the Stadion Maksimir how he felt about the current situation,  Clarke said: “It’s horrible. Not winning games is horrible.

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“I have to try and look at the big picture. I’m not saying we’re using this campaign to prepare for the next qualifying campaign.

“There is an element of that where we can use these matches to try and prepare ourselves, because the ultimate aim for me as head coach, I have already spoke about it, I would love to go to World Cup finals with my country. That’s the challenge that I’m focused on.

“I’m not driven by stats. We have played a lot of good opponents, the results haven’t been what we wanted in terms of victories.

“We haven’t regressed. I don’t think we’ve gone backwards and we have always worked hard to try to move forward

“If we didn’t think we could compete we would have stayed at home, hopefully we take some points home. We have a good squad.

“The injuries are there for everyone to see.  James is not with us. He felt something in training the other day so we decided to leave him at home to be assessed and his club will decide if we pick him up when we get back.

“I don’t think there’s too much point harping on about the injuries.

“I always try to focus on the players that here, that we could work with to kick start the campaign.

“Performances have to be good. If the performance is good, then we have an opportunity to hopefully pick some points up.”

Asked if qualifying for League A in the Nations League, where they play against the top teams, was a price to pay for success, Clarke said: “It’s a nice price to pay, when you have matches of this calibre when you get to the highest level in the Nations League.

“Obviously, we’ve done something right to be here. We’re now finding a level that’s a little bit more difficult for us. We have to meet that challenge head on.

“I think if we do that we come out of the other side, a better group, a better understanding of what we need to do at this level to get positive results.

“We have so many injuries that we are giving opportunities to other players and if they’re given that opportunity, then it’s down to them to grab that chance with both hands.”

Clarke described as “disappointing” the fact that the game will not be shown on television, with Norwegian broadcaster Viaplay, which holds the rights to all of the Scotland men’s team’s competitive matches until 2028,  putting it on their YouTube channel.

He said: “You’ve got to be disappointed that no-one has picked it up and put it on television..

“For the people back home, it would be nice for them to sit and watch the team and hopefully we can play as well as we did last month in the matches and come out with a good result. It is disappointing.”