Clarke won’t have taken long for his feet to touch the ground after the happy delirium of World Cup qualification – that’s presuming they ever left the ground in the first place.
Though the campaign was a roaring success, he won’t be blind to the things that weren’t quite right.
In a parallel universe, had Denmark been able to score one more goal against Belarus in the penultimate round of games – they had 34 attempts – Scotland would have been in the play-offs this week rather than in a pre-World Cup friendly.
The Denmark game at Hampden was a beautiful crescendo, but was it an outlier? In their last three games in qualification, Scotland conceded six goals, a far cry from the opening-day clean sheet in Copenhagen.
The 2-1 win at home to Belarus in their third last game drew a withering response from the dressing room.
Andy Robertson said it didn’t feel like a win that night. McKenna said the players let themselves down. Che Adams felt that the fans were right to boo at the end.
John McGinn said that, at half-time, Clarke was the angriest he’d ever seen him. “Really, really disappointed in my team,” the head coach said. McGinn later called the performance “jobby”.
Belarus had 22 shots to the hosts’ 12 at Hampden.
In Scotland’s next game, they were 3-0 down in Greece and fortunate not to be four or five down. Craig Gordon made seven saves. The Greeks had 18 attempts before the Scots rallied and scored twice.
Even in the Denmark game, for all its magnificence, they were dominated for large parts. The Danes had 19 attempts to Scotland’s 10; 33 attacks to 18; nine corners to two, 40 touches in Scotland’s box compared to the 14 Clarke’s side had in theirs.
They also had two goals to Scotland’s four and a place in the play-offs to Scotland’s clear path to the World Cup. For most people, those are the only facts that matter.
At elite level, though, Clarke and his coaches will be poring over everything, good and bad.
It’s not raining on the parade to say that Scotland had Lady Luck on their side in key moments along the way and that they need to improve on pretty much everything they’re doing, particularly in defence.
