- 7 hours ago
Scotland have made it to their first World Cup since 1998 after one of the most dramatic nights in the country's sporting history. Adam Clery tries to make sense of their 4-2 win over Denmark to show why this team deserved the win more than the performance might suggest.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel and, um, f***ing hell.
00:07Scotland 4, Denmark 2, and do you know what, some games do just sort of defy tactical analysis
00:13because the occasion and the emotion are just so big and they end up getting decided on literal moments of
00:19brilliance,
00:20but we are still going to explain what it was you just saw because, to be honest,
00:25I've waited 26 years to see Scotland qualify for a World Cup and I want to talk about it.
00:33So, just to reiterate the theme of the video for you, f***ing hell.
00:41Okay, right, to get this out of the way at the very start of the video, this was your Scotland
00:4511 and they were not good.
00:48This was good and this was good and this was arguably better than 80% of all the sex I've
00:54ever had,
00:54but the performance overall made it really, really difficult for them to do anything.
00:59If we have a look at the very basic stats and the momentum graph from our official data partners,
01:05FopMob, that's an actual real-life, long-term, cool, uh, thing we're doing, I'm very pleased about it.
01:10So, go download the app, uh, because it rules.
01:13You can see that Scotland only had 30% of the ball against a team who had a man less
01:19for over 35 minutes.
01:22And, even worse, the momentum shows us that they started, well, okay, it ended quite back and forth,
01:28but between that, they offered absolutely zip, partially, I suspect, uh, by design.
01:35But, and here is ultimately what this video is about, right?
01:39Steve Clarke wins this game and sends Scotland to the World Cup
01:44with one single substitution that was designed to do one thing,
01:49but inadvertently did another.
01:52And it is genuinely quite mad how that happened.
01:55So, to start by explaining a little bit of the game plan, right?
01:59Scotland's problem against Greece, in so much as I could see it shoulder-to-shoulder, uh, in the volley,
02:05was that they could not get Scott McTominay and Ryan Christie properly involved in the game.
02:10And, yes, I know people are usually massively underwhelmed about Christie for Scotland,
02:15but if you look at him for Bournemouth, he basically reinvented himself
02:19as one of the best opposition half ball winners in the entire Premier League.
02:24Like, there were points last season where he was top of the entire division
02:28for combined, like, tackles in the opposition half, interceptions, and ball recovery.
02:33So, he has got a very important role to play.
02:36And did he play that role in this game?
02:41No, actually, not really.
02:43He was all over the place and very ineffective,
02:45but in those opening few minutes, you did see it.
02:50Before Denmark could settle down into the match,
02:52he hounds them high up the pitch twice in the same move,
02:56and that is exactly where the cross comes from
02:58for Scott McTominay's best goal I've ever seen in my life.
03:02And, of course, we mentioned getting McTominay more involved.
03:05That is precisely how you do that with him.
03:09You find him in better areas high up the pitch,
03:11or you just give him really good service that he can do something with.
03:15And that was the third minute of the game,
03:18and yet it was pretty much the last time Christie would be effective off the ball,
03:23and the last time they would give McTominay decent service in a decent area.
03:29From here for Scotland, the game just disintegrated into an inevitable pattern
03:34until, suddenly, it didn't.
03:38Now, Steve Clarke, I think, actually sent them out there with a really solid game plan,
03:42and that involved being able to start in this 4-2-4,
03:46like, quite aggressive press in the middle of the pitch.
03:48Like, they're a little bit wonky with it here, but you can see the loose idea.
03:51Ferguson takes the man, McGinn cuts off the pass into the other one,
03:55and in the indecision, Scotland can win the ball back and break.
03:59And from there, if they got played through,
04:01they were able to drop into a really solid 4-5-1 if Denmark pushed the back a bit,
04:06which you can see here.
04:08But Lewis Ferguson had the instruction to chase any runners from midfield
04:13just straight into the back line and make it a 5-4-1.
04:17But you can see it in that clip we just used there,
04:20like, Froholtz?
04:21And I've got no idea if I'm pronouncing that right.
04:24Sorry, I've never read any talkie,
04:26and he wants to go and support Rasmus Hoyland,
04:28and Ferguson is not passing him off onto the centre-backs.
04:33He's just going with him.
04:34The cross never looks quite on,
04:36probably because Scotland have got a back five now,
04:38and Denmark just wind up shooting from the edge of the box,
04:42which they did an awful lot, especially in that first half.
04:46Now, this ability, right, to go from this starting shape,
04:49which will stop Denmark getting a man advantage in their own third,
04:53but then be able to move back into this,
04:57which will stop Denmark being able to get a man advantage in the middle third,
05:01before finally dropping back into this,
05:04which will stop Denmark getting a man advantage in your third,
05:08you know, when they push all five of these players up,
05:10is really smart.
05:12It is exactly how you want to set up in a game
05:15when the emphasis is on you to win,
05:18but you're still clear underdogs.
05:20And I think, honestly, if you go back and you watch that first half,
05:23Steve Clarke deserves quite a lot of credit
05:25for how brave Scotland were with these transitions.
05:29Like, it's clear they are trying to be this 4-2-4 in Denmark's face,
05:34first and foremost,
05:35and only going back into the other more solid shapes
05:38when they do physically get pushed back or played through.
05:41Scotland got at Denmark in good areas,
05:44and when they were forced deep,
05:45they were solid and offered a direct threat on the counter-attack
05:50for precisely 17 minutes.
05:54Genuinely, I would have picked any other player in this XI
05:57to get injured and have to go off
05:59before I would have picked Ben Gannon Doak.
06:03He's run hot and cold for Scotland,
06:05but in these opening minutes,
06:06he was their most obvious outball,
06:08and quite handily,
06:09appeared to have Dorgue on toast.
06:12Like, his pace and his directness down this side of the pitch
06:15meant that Denmark could never overcommit on that side,
06:19and every time Scotland got the ball back,
06:21they had a way of getting up the field really, really quickly.
06:24And don't get me wrong,
06:25Kenny McLean would obviously go on to have
06:27maybe the greatest night of his entire life,
06:30but for the, like, 70 or 80 minutes before that happened,
06:35his replacing Gannon Doak meant that Scotland
06:37inevitably sat deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.
06:41Clarke puts him in centre midfield,
06:43he moves Christie out to the right-hand side,
06:45making it even harder for him
06:46to be effective at winning the ball back
06:49in the middle of the pitch,
06:50and suddenly, Scotland had no way out.
06:53Now, this is maybe five minutes after he's gone off.
06:56Scotland nicked the ball back,
06:58have a chance to get at the pitch and counter,
06:59but as Hickey comes out with the ball,
07:02and the obvious pass should be
07:03into your flying right-winger in this space here,
07:07Christie is instead here,
07:09and is entirely unreachable with the ball.
07:12And that isn't me, like, digging him out
07:14or saying he's doing it wrong,
07:15just that when your game has become a lot about
07:17harassing players and playing simple passes
07:19in the middle of the field,
07:20you are unlikely to be stood on the touchline
07:24in these exact moments.
07:26And just Scotland having no pace
07:29on the bench at all meant that Gann and Dope going off
07:32lost them a part of their game plan
07:35they could not afford to lose.
07:37And from this point until the red cards,
07:40and then still about 10 or 15 minutes after it,
07:43they just offered nothing.
07:45But yes, about that red card,
07:48well, first of all, it's not a foul,
07:50but lol, who cares?
07:51And Steve Clarke immediately hooked Dykes,
07:54who'd been doing his best
07:55but being increasingly isolated.
07:57And Christie, who he had made isolated
08:00by sticking him out on the right wing,
08:02for two centre forwards.
08:04What fun.
08:04Shankland and Shea Adams.
08:06It was good, it was bold, it was necessary,
08:08but even with a man advantage,
08:10Scotland could still not get control of this game.
08:14Partially, because that substitution
08:16moved them from this to this.
08:19After the red card, Denmark just settled
08:21into your typical 4-4-1 off the ball,
08:24but used the fullbacks to make sure
08:26they still got the same numbers
08:28in the attacking third.
08:30Meanwhile, by going to a 4-4-2,
08:32what Scotland had actually done
08:34was taking a player out of the centre of the pitch
08:36and put him up front,
08:37which yes, meant they were 2v2 at the top end,
08:40which is very exciting,
08:41but because of the way Denmark
08:44were allowing their fullbacks in field
08:46meant that whenever one came in,
08:48they still had 3v2 in the centre of the pitch.
08:53So Scotland actually have a man advantage here,
08:56but Denmark have a man advantage
08:58in the most important part of the pitch.
09:00And you add to that the fact
09:02that whoever these Danish players were,
09:04they were better on the ball
09:05than McLean and Ferguson,
09:06and Scotland could just get zero control of this game
09:10despite having an extra player.
09:12And this very nearly sent Denmark to the World Cup,
09:16because Scotland's goal is brilliant, right?
09:18Schmeichel's head falls off.
09:19It's a bit of a freak corner, whatever.
09:21But it's allowing these fullbacks
09:23into the centre of the pitch,
09:24asking them to make up the numbers,
09:26is why Patrick Dorgue is free in the box
09:30to put this away.
09:31That's the area of the pitch he's come into.
09:33That was the whole game plan with 10 men,
09:35and it very nearly did the job.
09:39But that is not the story of this game, is it?
09:44The story of this game is how Steve Clarke
09:47inadvertently wins the match
09:49with an inadvertently genius substitution.
09:54This Kieran Tierney for Aaron Hickey switch
09:56was supposed to do one thing,
09:58but it somehow, almost accidentally,
10:02does the thing that sends Scotland to the World Cup.
10:06So, to be clear, right,
10:07the thinking behind bringing on Kieran Tierney
10:09was it allowed Scotland to get into this shape.
10:13I genuinely lost count of how many times
10:16after the red card you saw Andy Robertson
10:18making this run up the left-hand side.
10:20So he was basically now the de facto left winger,
10:24which allowed Scott McTominay,
10:25who'd been moved onto the left,
10:27to come infield when he went outside.
10:29You then have the two centre-forwards
10:30and John McGinn on the right.
10:33An actual Pep Guardiola 3-2-5
10:36in Scotland shirt as I live and breathe.
10:39Now, you do see teams,
10:41obviously not Steve Clarke's teams,
10:43but teams nonetheless getting into this system
10:45at the very top end of football
10:47because it lets you throw
10:48all your best attacking players forward
10:50while staying relatively solid at the back.
10:53And when you do it against 10 men, right,
10:56and you push them all the way back
10:58and they're defending really deep
11:00and they have to get into a sort of shape
11:02that covers everything you're trying to do,
11:05it's usually this.
11:06It means that at least
11:07one of these two wide centre-backs
11:10is your free man.
11:12Nobody can cover them.
11:14And so the idea by having Tierney
11:16effectively on the wrong side
11:17meant that he could offer
11:18an in-swinging crossing option
11:21to complement Robertson's outswingers
11:23on the left.
11:24And given that Scotland's two best headers of the ball
11:27are now on the opposite side
11:30to Kieran Tierney,
11:31that in theory could make something happen.
11:35And obviously it did,
11:37just not quite in the way
11:38that Steve Clarke would have planned.
11:4092nd minute, Scotland get a set piece
11:42and you can see Tierney loitering in this space again
11:46in case it comes back out to him
11:48to stick a cross in.
11:49But it does not.
11:52John McGinn has a shot
11:53and it rebounds all the way out here
11:55and it needs recovered
11:56in exactly the position
11:58Tierney should probably have been standing.
12:01But obviously since McGinn and McLean
12:03are now there,
12:04there's no reason for him to track back.
12:06So he just holds his position.
12:08And as that ball comes in,
12:10he knows it isn't getting cleared
12:11all the way out wide.
12:13So the smart thing to do
12:14is make sure if it does come out,
12:16he's able to pick it up
12:18in all this space.
12:20Except it isn't just a loose ball,
12:23is it?
12:23It actually rolls out to him
12:25absolutely perfectly.
12:26And by virtue of him being a left footer
12:30on this wrong side
12:32so we could put in swing and crosses in,
12:34it means he is able to hit it first time
12:37in a way no other player
12:39in a blue shirt conceivably could have.
12:43Right place, right time, right player.
12:46It is so incredibly lucky
12:48but I would argue that Steve Clarke
12:51probably made his own luck
12:54in that situation.
12:56Kieran Tierney out on this side
12:57was a really good decision
12:59and if you make good decisions,
13:01more often than not,
13:03good things will eventually happen.
13:06Oh and then also,
13:07Kenny McLean went and scored the goal
13:08that sent Scotland to a World Cup
13:10from inside his own half,
13:12which is a footballing moment
13:14I will genuinely be thinking about
13:16for the entire rest of my life.
13:19So yes, I know it's a little bit messy
13:21to look at
13:21but this is how Scotland can play
13:24as bad as they did in that game
13:26and still wind up having
13:29maybe the best moments
13:30they've had in 30 or 40 years.
13:35I still kind of believe it me.
13:37And if you have enjoyed any of that
13:39you can subscribe to us here
13:41at ACFC
13:42where we will absolutely
13:43be covering Scotland
13:44at the World Cup now
13:46for good or ill
13:47and you can get me across
13:48all the social medias
13:49at Adam Cleary
13:50C-L-E-R-Y
13:53All I'm going to say is
13:55I'm just going to use that picture again.
13:57I'm so pleased for him
13:58because he never ever thought
14:00he would ever actually
14:01get to see this
14:02but I'm also pleased for me
14:04who decided to watch this in the flat
14:06and make notes on it
14:08rather than going
14:09to the pub again
14:10because if I had
14:11you would not be watching
14:12this video right now.
14:14You would not have seen me
14:15until Thursday or Friday
14:16I suspect.
14:18So
14:19everybody's a winner
14:20especially Scotland.
14:22Goodbye.
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