Steve Clarke believes the collective willingness of his star players to turn up and face Iceland and Liechtenstein in end-of-season friendlies highlights the commitment and harmony within his Scotland squad.
The head coach named a 25-man squad on May 19, and there have been no withdrawals in the intervening period, with everyone available for Friday’s clash with Iceland at Hampden.
That number includes senior players like Andy Robertson, Scott McTominay, John McGinn and Billy Gilmour, who have been operating at the sharp end of European football throughout the campaign.
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“The biggest thing for me is that everybody’s turned up,” said Clarke as he faced the media on Thursday. “I think that’s great. We’ve come to the end of a long, hard season, a lot of them could have had little excuses or little niggles.
“There’s one or two in the camp now that are still getting rid of little niggles from the end of the season, but they’re all here and they all want to play, and that’s great for me.
“Since I came here, this group of players have always said that they are so committed to coming and performing for their country. Every time I pick a squad, they all want to be here.
“One or two of them have called me up in this camp that haven’t been selected, asking me to select them! But if they’re not quite fit, then obviously I can’t do that.”
Andy Robertson insists he would never shirk Scotland duty (Jane Barlow/PA)
Captain Robertson explained how he has made an effort to build a culture in the squad where everyone makes the effort to turn up for national duty regardless of circumstances.
“I said that when I was younger, when I first went to Liverpool and I got the Scotland captaincy and things like that, it was crucial that the lads that were the core group in the squad were consistent in showing up,” said the Liverpool left-back.
“I believe that then shows the new lads coming in, that that’s the way and you always show up for your country if you can. Now, there’s a few knocks and bruises of course, everyone has them by the time we get to this point in the season, but representing the country is one of the biggest honours and it always will be.
“I think we’ve all shown that at a good level in terms of sometimes we’ve came injured, sometimes we’ve came not perfect but we’ve all shown up. I think everyone’s got on board with that.
“Hopefully that carries on for years to come because if we’ve got the strongest squad here, then it gives us the best chance of success.”
Ahead of the World Cup qualifying campaign, Clarke – who has seven uncapped players in his squad – is taking the Iceland match seriously as he aims to improve on a “not very good” record of one win nine friendlies.
“You know me well by now, I don’t really experiment too much,” he said. “I think the process with any team, especially a national team, is there has to be a cycle, there has to be a turnover of players eventually.
“People make a lot of the seven uncapped players in the squad. But you’re bringing these young players in to feel the level of the group, to understand where they need to get to, to be selected regularly for the national team.
“It’s important not to discard the ones that have been relatively successful over certainly my six years in charge and make sure that there’s always a little production line of players coming through that we can rely on in the future.”
