Steve Clarke says his Scotland squad has been 4 years within the making as he refused to rule out taking 4 goalkeepers to Euro 2024.
The top coach has named a provisional 28-player squad which shall be lower to 26 by June 7, two days earlier than Scotland fly out to their coaching base in Germany.
Ben Doak, James Forrest and Ross McCrorie have been chosen forward of their closing warm-up video games towards Gibraltar and Finland, with Craig Gordon, Ryan Jack and Anthony Ralston additionally included.
Clarke spoke to solely to Sky Sports activities’ Luke Shanley at Hampden Park, explaining his key selections and Euro 2024 hopes…
LS: How onerous have the previous couple of months been, figuring out the staff after which realising that you are going to have the ability to decide three further our bodies as effectively?
Clarke: “Complicated. Working from the friendly games in March, we picked up significant injuries in unfortunately one position, where you lose your two first-choice right wing-backs. Going from 23 to 26 gives you more imponderables, gives you more in your head. I said to my wife last week, ‘my head’s like a tumble dryer’. I had so many things going through my head because you’re trying to cover every scenario, to look forward, to predict what’s going to happen in the future and you can’t do that. But hopefully I’ve got enough possibilities in there to cover as many outcomes as I can.”
LS: You have named a squad of 28. Have you ever received any others on standby?
Clarke: “No. The standby squad will be the U21s. There are some players in there who obviously were looked at and we thought about selection, it hasn’t happened for them yet. There’s still time before we name that final squad. There’s still one or two doubts in the 28 that I’ve got. There’s still games to be played so those boys should all turn up and do well for Scott [Gemmill] in the U21 games, because that would be the elongated squad, if you like. So that takes us up to close on 50 players.”
LS: Will you’re taking 4 goalkeepers to the Euros or shall be three?
Zander Clark (proper) stepped in forward of Liam Kelly when No 1 Angus Gunn was injured
Clarke: “In a 26-man squad, as long as I feel I’ve got enough cover for all the other positions, then it’s possible to take four goalkeepers. Logic behind it would say the No 3 goalkeeper or the one who becomes the third goalkeeper can get bombarded in training by doing too much so you can share the workload. I think Julian Nagelsmann [Germany manager] actually touched on that a little bit as well because it can be a hard life being the third goalkeeper and everybody wants to have a shooting session after training and you’re doing that for near on a month. It’s a lot of work for one guy to cover. So there is a case to take four, but there’s also a case to take three because maybe I have to cover more outfield positions and that will be one of the tough decisions.”
LS: How secret’s Craig Gordon’s expertise in whether or not he makes the ultimate squad or not?
Gordon, 41, is within the provisional squad after his double leg break alongside No 1 Gunn (proper)
Clarke: “It could be Ben Doak’s dad! That’s the age gap that we’ve got in the squad. For the goalkeepers, if you go with three goalkeepers at this stage and then you pick up a goalkeeping injury, you have a goalkeeper who hasn’t trained, who hasn’t worked. So they’ll all work together. Craig’s experience in and around the squad will be good, even just with a word in somebody’s ear. He’s been there, he knows the ropes. Over 70 caps for his country and, yes, it’s nice that he’s fit and involved.”
LS: Forties, 50s, 60s. By way of caps, how huge a lift is the huge expertise you may have in your squad?
John McGinn, Callum McGregor, Stuart Armstrong, Craig Gordon & Andy Robertson all have over 50 caps for Scotland
Clarke: “That’s what we’ve been working towards. Probably about four years ago I decided that’s the way I was going to try and build a squad. They’ve got lots more caps; the more they’re capped, they’re more experienced at international level. They have the benefit of tournament experience, albeit Covid tournament experience, but they understand the format with the three games in a very short space of time. Three massive games in a very short space of time. So hopefully all that experience going into this tournament means that we can create a little bit of history for Scottish football this summer.”
LS: What have you ever fabricated from the three groups we will be developing towards?
Ilkay Gundogan’s Germany are Scotland’s first opponents at Euro 2024
Clarke: “They’re all good, but hopefully we can be as good as them. Germany, everybody keeps talking down, but for the life of me, I don’t see it. I see the squad, the players and their last two performances in the friendlies in March, and they look as though they’re going to peak at the right time for their home tournament. So that will be a good one to start with. Switzerland are perennial qualifiers and normally when they get to the group stages of a tournament, they come out of the group, they get to the knockout stages. Hungary, I feel a little bit like ourselves, play a similar system. It’s probably a nation that’s on the way up, also ranked above us in the FIFA world rankings, if that counts for anything at the moment. So we go in there as the fourth-ranked team in the group, but capable of giving a really good account of ourselves.”
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
Kris Boyd on how Scotland will strategy their Euro 2024 opener towards Germany and believes the staff are usually not on the event to simply make up the numbers
LS: Do you assume the Scotland followers’ expectations have gone up and is {that a} praise?
Clarke: “Hopefully the expectations have gone up because otherwise you’re not improving. I feel we’ve improved over the last five years. It would be nice to prove it in the summer.”
Key dates forward for Scotland
Monday June 3: Euro 2024 warm-up, Gibraltar vs Scotland at Estadio Algarve, Portugal; kick-off 5pm
Friday June 7: Euro 2024 warm-up, Scotland vs Finland at Hampden Park, Glasgow; kick-off 7.45pm
Friday June 7: Ultimate 26-player squad submitted to UEFA by 11pm
Saturday June 8: Ultimate 26-player squad introduced
Sunday June 9: Scotland squad fly to base camp within the Bavarian resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Scotland’s Euro 2024 schedule
Scotland have historical past kicking off tournaments, having been drawn to face Brazil within the opener at World Cup 1998, a recreation they narrowly misplaced 2-1 to a second-half Tom Boyd personal aim.
This time across the venue is the Munich Soccer Area [Allianz Arena] the place Steve Clarke’s facet kick-off the opening match of Euro 2024 towards hosts Germany on June 14.
Scotland additionally face video games towards perennial qualifiers Switzerland in Cologne on June 19, with Hungary – who reached the knockouts in 2016 – awaiting in Stuttgart on June 23.
