The Scotsman Football Show - Scotland squad - video Dailymotion

The Scotsman

Alan Pattullo and Mark Atkinson discuss the Scotland squad.

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00:00Hello and welcome to this version of the Scotland Football Show. My name is Mark

00:06Atkinson, Sports Editor, and I'm joined by our Chief Football Correspondent, Alan Petullo,

00:10who has been at Hampden this lunchtime listening to Steve Clarke after he revealed his squad

00:16for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Belarus. Alan, it wasn't a particularly

00:24outlandish squad announcement, shall we say, but there was probably one surprise inclusion

00:29and that came in the shape of 42-year-old Paul Huyper Craig Gordon, who has not kicked the

00:34bottle for Hearts or saved a shot indeed for Hearts this season due to injuries, but he's

00:39back in the squad. Did that catch you off guard a little bit?

00:44Yeah, I guess it did, Mark. I mean, I wrote a piece yesterday about what I thought could

00:50happen or might happen or what people were possibly calling to happen, which were covered areas

00:58like, as you mentioned, Lawrence Shankland, Holly Burke, two strikers showing a bit of form

01:05just now. But yeah, I have to say I didn't, perhaps didn't look close enough at the goalkeeper

01:12situation. I guess we kind of presumed, obviously, Angus Gunn would be there, Liam Kelly, I guess.

01:20Xander Clark, I mean, that is an issue. He's just been deposed, obviously, as Hearts number

01:25one. And so, yeah, and in comes Craig Gordon to replace Xander Clark. So, yeah, interesting,

01:33Hearts featured in a lot of the post-squad announcement analysis, given Shankland wasn't included

01:43while Craig Gordon came in to replace another Hearts goalkeeper in Xander Clark. So, yeah,

01:50Hearts are the talk of the town, wherever we go just now.

01:54They are, yeah. We talk about Gordon being a surprise. Did it surprise you that Shankland

02:01didn't force his way in? Of course, we have four strikers in the squad. They are Kieran Bowie,

02:06George Hurst, Shea Adams and Lyndon Dykes. Would you have put Shankland in there or do you look

02:14at those four strikers and go, they're all ahead of him?

02:18I just, I mean, you know, it's difficult, difficult. I mean, what more can Lawrence Shankland

02:24do than go out and score a match-winning double against Rangers and score another goal at the

02:29weekend against Falkirk, which makes him the highest goal scorer in the SPFL era across

02:37all four divisions. I mean, there's not much more he can do to put himself back in the frame

02:42for a Scotland recall. But at the same time, knowing Steve Clark, as I do, and, you know,

02:48as most Scotland fans know him to be, a very kind of a loyal manager, I'm sure he would have

02:54looked at his four strikers who went away to two difficult games last doubleheader,

03:00one in Denmark, one against Belarus in Hungary, and managed to get four points from six, part

03:06of a team that managed to get four points from six. So I don't suppose Steve Clark was looking

03:11at it as if there was any great need to change things up. I guess one argument would be to

03:17perhaps just include Lawrence Shankland as another striker, you know, name him as a fifth striker.

03:21I mean, he has lost, is a smaller squad he's picked this time. He's a couple of defenders

03:27of what have dropped out, and Max Johnson being one of them, and Dominic Hyam as well,

03:33the Blackburn Rovers defender. So, yeah, possibly you could have thought, just to give Lawrence

03:38Shankland some kind of a reward for what he's doing, would be quite nice to see him selected,

03:43I think. But at the same token, you know, knowing Steve Clark the way we do, I'm not too surprised.

03:50He's just stuck with his four strikers. Certainly, it would have been difficult to argue that

03:55Lawrence Shankland deserves to replace one of the four strikers that were in the squad

04:01last week. Kieran Bowie, I think he scored once, I think, since the last doubleheader

04:06for Hibs against Dundee United, and George Hurst, I think, scored the weekend for Hibs,

04:11which town. So both have, you know, both have kept their goal touch. And then, obviously,

04:17London Dykes has scored for Birmingham, and Shea Adams, who we must, I guess, is the leading

04:27contender to start in the number nine jersey against Greece. He's, well, he's still coming

04:34on as a sub, mostly, mostly for Torino. So, yeah, I'm not too surprised that Clark stuck

04:42with his quartet of strikers. But, yeah, interesting to see what I had to say about Shankland. He

04:50did say he knows what he can do. So, you know, he's always looking, he's always looking at

04:54him and Oli Burke. The same applies to him as well. I think Clark wants to see perhaps more

04:58sustained evidence of good form from Oli Burke. Obviously, that hat-trick did catch the eye,

05:05and Steve Clark did say that his phone was, yeah, was alive with messages from people telling

05:12him, have you seen Oli Burke scoring this hat-trick, you know? So, yeah, I think he knew what was

05:18coming as soon as that happened. He knew what was coming, a nine-day clamor for Oli Burke to

05:23be included in the next squad.

05:24The thing is, Alan, as we know, Clark doesn't leave much room for sentiment. That's always

05:30been the way he's managed the Scotland squad. But you've also got to factor in that there's

05:39a continuity in the Scotland squad, isn't there? There are so many players that have shown

05:46Clark loyalty and have been tried and trusted that he's quite happy to go back to the well

05:51and get the same players over and over again because he knows what he's going to get.

05:55And, of course, the performance that Scotland put in against Denmark and against Belarus means

06:01that there's not an awful lot that's broken. We go into these games against Greece and the

06:05Belarusians, both at Hampden, in a good spot. What would be your expectation of Scotland in

06:11these two matches? And what's required as we get into the real guts of the World Cup qualifiers?

06:16Yeah, well, it's funny, isn't it? It's always a case after the event, a manager's quite happy

06:24to tell us what had been the minimum requirement. So Steve Clarke today admitted that four points

06:32from that last doubleheader had been the minimum requirement, really. Something he certainly didn't

06:38say prior to those games. But to be fair today, he did. He did. It's quite interesting. He did admit,

06:46and I guess it's not, you know, it's something we all know. Six points is the target from two home

06:51games against against Greece and Belarus. And so we have to look at that. I think this is the crunch.

06:59This is the crunch. You know, this is the meat in the sandwich, isn't it? This middle middle

07:04doubleheader. You really think this has to be a six points gained from these next two games. And

07:11the one that's, I suppose, the most crunch of the two crunch games is the home, first home game against

07:18Greece, which, and we all know what Greece did to Scotland not so long ago at Hampden. So, yeah,

07:26that's going to be an interesting one. And I think, I think a win against Greece would certainly put

07:31Scotland in a very good place. Yep. It's fast and furious, this World Cup campaign we spoke about

07:38last time. Three months, essentially, to get to the States and beyond next summer. Do you look at this

07:48Greece game finally? You talk about how we're in the meat in the sandwich. Is a draw an acceptable

07:54result against Greece? Or do we have to be winning this game if we're going to finish top?

07:59I mean, it's difficult. Obviously, Greece losing to Denmark, a shock result at home in the last

08:05doubleheader does make it slightly more, you know, complicated perhaps looking at it and trying to

08:10think what, who needs what. I just think you have to, just to make things easier, you have to just,

08:15you know, a home game against one of the rivals for that top spot. I think you'd have to be looking

08:21at a win against Greece. And I'm sure, I'm sure that's the way Steve Clark's looking at it as well.

08:27So interesting to see what is, yeah, what is, what is starting level will be a week on,

08:31a week on Thursday. I'm guessing, you know, interesting to see, you know, the fact it probably

08:37is a, a, a, a must win game. You know, you would think you'd try and put as many of his attacking

08:43players on the pitch as possible. And Ben Ganondoke obviously being one of them after his sort of man

08:49of the match performance in the last game against Belarus, you'd like to think that he'd be given a

08:54starting role, although slightly worryingly is to note that he's only played 17 minutes of

08:59football since, since that game against Belarus. So it's a, it's an eternal problem, isn't it,

09:04with Scotland? It's, it's players who perhaps just aren't getting, you know,

09:08that they require a number of minutes for their club side. It is, but on the flip side,

09:12hopefully they come into the camp fresh and firing. There are fixtures this midweek,

09:18and then club games at the weekend. And then we turn our attention this time next week to,

09:23to the World Cup qualifiers. Alan, thanks for joining me from Hamden. And as you, as you said,

09:29Steve Clark has named his squad. We've got all the reaction to that on the Scotland website,

09:36and also in tomorrow's newspaper. And then next week, we'll be building up to what are two really

09:41important games for the national team. Thank you for watching, and we'll speak again soon. Bye for now.

The Scotsman Football Show - Scotland squad

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