John Souttar says Scotland to share blame for ‘poor’ effort against Iceland

John Souttar stressed Scotland would take collective responsibility for their defeat by Iceland after a “poor” all-round display.

Goalkeeper Cieran Slicker endured a nightmare debut in a 3-1 loss after replacing the injured Angus Gunn in the opening stages.

The 22-year-old struggled with his kicking and his handling as he made a poor start and never really recovered.

But there were many others in the Scotland team who failed to reach the standards they are capable of and Souttar preferred to focus on the general display rather than discuss the Ipswich player’s night.

“Look, the result was collective,” said the Rangers defender, who headed home a first-half equaliser.

“I don’t think any of us could say we were great in the game. So it’s on all of us. Everyone’s got to take responsibility

“It was the exact opposite of what we wanted to happen. We wanted to start the game fast, press high, dominate the ball, and I think we were poor.

“I don’t think we dominated the ball enough. I don’t think we kept it for any sort of period. We probably didn’t create enough chances. I thought they kept the ball a lot better than us. They moved us about.

“Games like this at Hampden, we want to dominate, we want to press high and get the crowd on our side and we didn’t do that.”

A number of the near 33,000 crowd launched into boos on both the half-time and full-time whistles.

Souttar said: “Obviously it’s not great, you don’t want to be part of that, but the fans have paid their money, they can boo if they want.

“When we win, they’re behind us so it’s part and parcel of football.”