Italia ‘90 “bouncebackability” cited for how Scotland can rebound from “devastating” play-off loss

Alex McLeish maintains Steve Clarke can rely on the inner-strength of the current squad as he is confronted by the task of lifting Scotland for their Nations League opener at home to Armenia on Wednesday.

Scotland's Maurice Malpas (6, left), Mo Johnston and Gordon Durie celebrate Stuart McCall's goal that brought the country a 2-1 win over Sweden in Italia '90 and marked a reversal of fortunes that Alex McLeish believes the current squad are capable of against Armenia following their play-off elimination last week. (Photo SNS Group).

McLeish cites his experience of helping the nation scaled the heights after they had plumbed the depths in Italia ‘90 as evidence of how quickly a side of bloody-minded Scotsmen can recover from a gut-wrenching punch as winding as the loss to Ukraine. A 3-1 reverse that ended hopes of bringing to a close a 22-year exile from the World Cup finals. “I look back to Italy in 1990,” he said. “We lost the first game to Costa Rica but we showed the resilience, the bouncebackability, that’s needed now. Our nation has always seemed to have that. And that’s why I think these boys are capable of doing exactly that. We got hammered after losing to Costa Rica and the chat was there was going to be nine dropped for the Sweden game – and my name was in there too…So when I ended up getting picked I thought, ‘right I’m going to play a stormer’. It’s that Scotsman inside you that makes you want to do that. and we came back and performed against Sweden, to win 2-1. And these lads have got those capabilities.

“The play-off defeat is a devastating disappointment. But the guys are playing at such a high level with their clubs that they know what the word resilience means. It’s a real setback. But at the same time those guys have been through a lot in terms of improvement their mentality, quality and technical levels because of the type of football they’re playing in the Premier League, for instance. When you’re playing at that level your own individual levels go sky-high. It’s that big club mentality. I don’t think Steve has anything to prove. But he’ll have that determination to do it again. after reaching the last Euros. That’s important for us and the players will be rallying around the manager as much as he’s rallying around them. That’s the level that they’re at. Andy Robertson has been through a lot of disappointments as well and always bounces back to tremendous levels again. I believe that we’ve got a squad full of guys like that.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.