Steve Clarke sack incoming amid broken promise, Wright blast and ‘only Scotland’ nonsense | OneFootball

During a pre-game monologue which could only have resonated more if Ian Wright, with a full head of shoulder-length hair and blue and white face paint, was sat bestride a horse and talking about bolts of lightning coming from John McGinn’s majestic arse, it was said that “somebody in Scotland is letting down this country on a massive scale”.

As it was, against Brazil there was little cryptic about the identity of those responsible.

Scott McKenna, who celebrated being favoured over Grant Hanley by matching the dropped centre-defender’s penchant for gifting the opposition an early goal from which Scotland never really looked like recovering.

Jack Hendry, similarly caught in possession for a Vinicius Junior goal but rescued by a VAR call of unearned softness.

Andy Robertson, a half-time mercy substitution after being tormented by the younger, quicker, sharper Rayan.

McGinn and Scott McTominay, trophy-winning leaders for their clubs, but nowhere to be seen for their countries.

On Scotland’s biggest night no-one showed up. But the majority of this falls on the head coach, and the executives responsible for signing not only this World Cup but the next one over to him with a pre-tournament four-year contract extension.

“We made it difficult for ourselves, that’s it,” said a furious Steve Clarke. “We gave them the goals, we gave them the game they wanted. Disappointing,” he added, before walking out on an interview when the rest of the Tartan Army might have wanted some sort of explanation.

For a third successive tournament under him, Scotland have looked far less than the sum of their parts, deployed tactics as uninspiring and defensive as possible and failed to learn years’ worth of lessons.

At the last two European Championships and the 2026 World Cup, Scotland have played nine games, won one, lost six, scored four goals and conceded 16. Their joint-top scorer across those three tournaments under Clarke is Antonio Rudiger. It is a risible, regrettable record.

They might still make the knock-outs, but as Craig Burley, their penultimate scorer of a World Cup goal said in the aftermath of a predictable surrender against Brazil said, sending them through as one of the best third-placed teams would be “rewarding complete mediocrity”.

It is a generous assessment. The damage was done before this game, with that underwhelming win over Haiti and an approach against Morocco which collapsed in on itself within a matter of minutes. Those results placed an absurd amount of pressure on 90 minutes Scotland were not equipped for.

Duncan Ferguson noted before the game that Clarke had picked an “exciting team” and that “the handbrake is definitely off”, but this was a car crash. Not every team can flit seamlessly between a defence-first philosophy to a more attacking, expansive style, and Clarke’s Scotland are certainly not among them.

There were at least some shots on target, but only after the game was dead and Brazil were two goals up after Scotland had rendered their own collective feet a bullet-ridden mess.

Vinicius Junior, Rayan and Matheus Cunha preyed on defenders being asked to play out from the back, while Bruno Guimaraes dominated the midfield.

Steven Naismith hardly echoed that Anthony Barry half-time speech, the Scotland assistant airing platitudes about the “need to regroup”, “be better defensively” and carry “a threat”.

There was a vague improvement in the second half, but Scotland remained largely bereft of identity, quality and confidence.

“For sure I think we’re going home,” Clarke later said after gathering his thoughts, adding that: “Only Scotland can get a winnable first game and then get number five and number six in the world.”

The noise of the world’s smallest violin rings particularly hollow when they made such hard work of beating the team ranked number 88, and when Cape Verde and Ghana, 64th and 65th in the world respectively, have held Spain (3rd) and England (4th).

With that attitude trickling down from the manager, it is little wonder that Scotland haven’t shown up.

“I’ve not really enjoyed the previous two tournaments if I’m being honest,” he said on the eve of this one, swearing that “this time, it’s a different Steve Clarke”.

It was more of the abysmal, forgettable same. The only thing more depressing than yet another group-stage exit is that this version of Scotland might actually somehow sneak through and have to play again this summer.