'Will to attack lifts Scotland from Euros gloom'
A jubilant Steve Clarke skipped into the media room in Warsaw on Monday night, high fived the press pack he loves so much and then opened his heart about what victory over Poland meant to him on a personal level.
A tear trickled down the cheek of the Scotland manager. He apologised for being so emotional. That late winner from Andy Robertson had broken down the walls of his stoicism. "We’re back," he sobbed. "And you can write that."
Actually, no. That's not what happened at all.
Clarke behaved in exactly the same way he does in defeat. Same unreadable expression (with an occasional flickering smile), same measured tone. Never too high, never too low, never a headline in his words if he can help it.
The manager might be heroically deadpan but that doesn't matter so much when his team is so rent with drama, so insistent on taking their fans on wild flights from joy to concern to despair and anger, to hope and then back to joy again.
The pitchforks that were out for Clarke in the wake of the Euros can now be decommissioned. Put out the bonfires. Cancel the wake. There's an evolution going on here, not a footballing execution.
After a performance against Hungary at the Euros that was bankrupt of any redeeming features, Scotland have just put in six good performances in a row in the Nations League, none of them involving Kieran Tierney, Aaron Hickey, Nathan Patterson and Lewis Ferguson.
We've seen Cristiano Ronaldo flounce his way out of Hampden. We've seen the previously emotionless Luka Modric losing the plot. We've seen Josko Gvardiol, one of the best defenders in Europe, tormented by a teenager and we have seen the beginnings of a Scottish revival.
Gordon, Souttar & Ralston exemplify resilience
In a group that left them sickened by late goals against Poland at Hampden and against Portugal in Lisbon, there was a certain poetry about John McGinn’s 86th-minute winner against Croatia and Andy Robertson’s 92nd-minute winner against Poland.
Resilience has been the watchword of Clarke and his players. They get knocked down, but they get up again. Craig Gordon was supposed to have played his last game for Scotland in June, but he's first choice again.
Clarke picked five centre-backs for the Euros and John Souttar wasn't one of them. Souttar has been terrific in this campaign, rounding it off with a sensational goalline block and a majestic cross for Robertson's goal.
Anthony Ralston has been regularly pilloried since being pitched into an unfamiliar wing-back role against the dovetailing Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala in Munich, but Celtic’s reserve right-back has been strong in the face of so much flak. In turning the Scotland ship around, no player has had to dig deeper than Ralston.
Clarke is not the type of character to dwell on the lessons learned at the Euros for fear of inviting a public inquisition that he has no desire to be part of. But he has tweaked his thinking in these past six games, particularly against Poland.
There was no comparison between the attacking Scotland in the final game of their Nations League group campaign and the cautious Scotland in the last match of their dismal Euros experience.
In Germany, zero shots on target against Hungary (zero against Germany and only three against Switzerland). In Poland, seven shots on target, two goals, plus two off the woodwork. Moldova in June 2022 was the last time Clarke's team had as many attempts on target.
Exciting emergence of Doak
Scotland are now chasing away the desperate fatalism that gripped the nation after that loss to Hungary and during the epic run of one win in 16 games, but there's a lot left to be done. The League A relegation play-off in March for starters. For seconds, a World Cup qualifying campaign that will require luck in the draw to navigate.
How will things be looking come March? Scotland have a goalscoring legend in McGinn and a steady contributor in Scott McTominay, but they still only finished with seven goals from six Nations League games.
The lack of a striker is still the great bugbear. Che Adams, Lyndon Dykes, Lawrence Shankland and Tommy Conway all had a crack at it. They all work hard, they're all capable of playing their part in creating chances for the midfielders, but none of them scored in the Nations League.
That's a problem without a solution right now. There's nobody coming through. Clarke always says that it doesn't really matter where the goals come from as long as they come. And he's right.
For Scotland to progress to the next level, though, you suspect that they're going to need more creativity and more ruthlessness up front.
The emergence of Ben Doak, therefore, has been a thrilling step in the right direction. The contributions from Ryan Gauld from the bench have also been noteworthy. Scotland have a long way to go on the offensive side but the Poland game showed that there's a will to attack now which wasn't really there in the dispiriting summer in Germany.
Being so competitive in six League A games against stellar opposition can only help Scotland mature. Things will get really interesting when some of the injured stars return to the fold. They might get more interesting again if the young thruster Lennon Miller keeps progressing so rapidly.
A team that began with worrying losses on the road to Germany before disappearing down a dead end at the tournament proper has reversed out of the darkness and appears to be heading for the light again.
The Nations League relegation tussle and the World Cup qualifiers will be the ultimate proof of that, but at least Clarke can take comfort from the fact that even his most excitable critics have fallen relatively silent for now. That's if he ever cared about the noise in the first place, which is doubtful.
