Scotland boss Steve Clarke insists he will not allow his contract situation to cast a cloud over Scotland’s forthcoming World Cup campaign.
Clarke’s side fell to a 1-0 defeat against the Ivory Coast in Liverpool, their second successive reverse in the warm-up friendlies after losing by the same scoreline against Japan at the weekend.
Whilst the performance itself was marginally improved than that witnessed at Hampden, it was still another sobering night for Clarke and his players.
They were once again booed off the pitch at full-time by a section of Scotland supporters inside Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Clarke had stated last year that the World Cup was likely to be his last hurrah as manager, only to then reveal a couple of weeks ago that he could be open to extending his stay.
Scotland turned in an improved performance but still lost 1-0 to the Ivory Coast
Asked last night whether he wants his future resolved one way or another by the time Scotland take on Curacao in their Hampden send-off in late May, he replied: ‘No. I want to concentrate on the World Cup.
‘I’m sure if something happens you guys will know. If it doesn’t happen, I’m not bothered. I want to get to the World Cup.
‘I want to be in the right frame of mind. I want my players to be in the right frame of mind. What happens will happen. Finished. I’m not talking about my contract any more.’
Clarke made sweeping changes – nine in total – to his team last night on the back of the defeat to Japan in Glasgow last weekend.
The Scots fell behind on 12 minutes to a goal from former Arsenal forward Nicolas Pepe, with Clarke admitting his team did not react well enough for the remainder of the first half.
But he insisted they were much-improved in the second half against the Ivorians, who sit five places above Scotland in the FIFA rankings and who are also going to the World Cup in the summer.
Asked what he has learned over these two friendly matches, Clarke replied: ‘That I have a good squad.
‘That we can be competitive against top-level national teams in Japan and Ivory Coast, two really good sides. We showed that we can compete in both games.
‘It’s another defeat and I never like losing. But I don’t think we deserved to lose.
‘I thought we started really well in the game. Bright, clever, trying to get forward and I think our system caused them problems to start with.
‘We lose a really poor goal in the counter-attack and the organisation behind that attack was not right.
‘Good teams will punish you and that’s what happened. Ivory Coast are a good team and they punished us with the counter attack.
‘Our reaction to going 1-0 down wasn’t good. We lost control of the game when we should have kept control of the game because we started well.
‘That’s something we need to get better at, but I thought we were excellent in the second half. We dominated the game, had more of the ball and looked a threat.
Steve Clarke has insisted he won’t talk any more about extending his contract with Scotland
‘We got a number of balls into the box but I thought they defended very well second half and we asked them to defend very well. They did that.’
Asked whether the fans booing could start to affect the players’ confidence on the pitch, Clarke replied: ‘I wouldn’t like to think so.
‘I think the more you speak about it the more you encourage people to be negative so I would rather not talk about it.
‘I thought my team was really positive and that’s what I take out of the game.’
Clarke also confirmed that Scotland’s final warm-up match will be against Bolivia in New Jersey shortly after they arrive in America.
Meanwhile, Scotland skipper Andy Robertson was also positive about the performance, adding: ‘There were big improvements. We changed the system with nine changes.
‘We haven’t played five at the back for a while now but it’s a system that’s really worked for us, we qualified for two Euros with that system.
‘The manager is trying both systems because you need to play more than one way and I thought in the second-half we really got to grips with where we needed to be.
‘We caused them problems, especially in the last 20 minutes. They were 1-0 up but we were the team pushing forward and the team trying to create. We could have had one goal and maybe even two.
‘We want to win these games – of course we do, and we’re trying to win these games – but we’re also trying stuff. You saw that with the amount of changes we made.
‘The goal comes from us playing in a new system and committing too many bodies forward.
‘We got caught and that can’t really happen after such a good start because in the first ten minutes we were excellent.
‘There is a lot for us to learn but there were some really good signs, especially in the second-half.’
