Scotland are seeking four wins in a row for the first time since 2007

After long hiatus, Steve Clarke is hopeful his side can take up where they left off last November

Lyndon Dykes could make his Scotland debut. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

Four successive victories in international football is something to cherish no matter the standard of opposition. It still stands as an achievement if the fourth win, an outcome Scotland will be aiming to secure on Friday evening against Israel at an almost-deserted Hampden Park, arrives nine and a half months after the previous success.

Now, where were we again? Oh yes, Scotland 3 Kazakhstan 1. This eventually comprehensive result in November 2019, after the Scots trailed at the interval, followed a 2-1 win in Cyprus four days earlier. A 6-0 thrashing of San Marino at a rain-lashed Hampden a month previously had felt like a benediction for Clarke following four straight defeats. Now he stands on the brink of something no Scotland head coach has managed since Alex McLeish oversaw six consecutive victories in 2007 during his first spell in charge.

There will be no asterisk in the record books should Clarke’s side continue this latest run of victories and make it four in a row.

Kieran Tierney looks set to feature for Scotland for the first time under Steve Clarke. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

Successive victories are successive victories, whether the latest win comes nine months or nine days after the last one, and whether it’s secured in front of a packed stadium or a largely empty one, as will be the case against Israel.

Clarke admits it will be a surreal experience, perhaps for him most of all. His players have all played numerous times behind closed doors in recent months. He has been sitting at home in England itching for the chance to “shake the dust off his boots” and get back on the grass. Poor previous results combined with decidedly unglamorous opposition meant the last two home Scotland games were played at a Hampden that was less than half-full. But this evening, where a few journalists, officials and security staff will spread themselves out across the south stand, will be something else entirely.

“The players will certainly have their heads around it better than I will,” said Clarke. “Obviously I haven’t experienced it yet. I am a 100 per cent believer that football is a spectator sport. It is sad in these times that we cannot get people in the ground but obviously you have to be guided by safety. Hopefully by the time we get around to the games next month we are allowed to have at least some supporters in the stadium. But in terms of these games behind closed doors the players will have much more experience than me and will be a little bit more attuned to the conditions.”

It will take him back to his early days of coaching. “It will be like going back many, many years to when I took the youth team on a Saturday morning when you could shout and the players could hear you and respond,” he said.

Scotland manager Steve Clarke is bidding for four wins in a row. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

He challenged his side to ensure they leave Hampden this evening with the same smiles worn following the Kazakhstan game – although they will need to be hidden behind masks on this occasion.

“Everyone left Hampden after the camp in November against Kazakhstan with a big smile on their face and they’ve all come back in a really good place,” said Clarke.

“It’s been a really positive week for us. There have been three good training sessions and they’ve made it very difficult for me in terms of team selection.”

The manager was giving few hints about the make-up of his side after such a long hiatus. It is guaranteed he will have to change a winning team.

He named an unchanged side for the last outing against Kazakhstan following victory in Cyprus. Ten of the eleven players who started that pair of fixtures are in the current squad. Steven Naismith, who skippered the team to both wins in the absence of Andy Robertson, has been omitted this time around on account of Hearts being out of action until the Championship season starts next month.

Clarke has been able to include both Robertson and Kieran Tierney in his squad for the first time since succeeding McLeish last year. He seems unburdened by the problem everyone has been trying to solve for him: how to shoe-horn two left-backs into the same team. Clarke reported that he has been trying out different systems this week, hinting that Scotland might adopt a socially distanced formation of just three at the back rather than four, with Tierney having been deployed at left centre-back by Arsenal towards the end of last season. He played there as recently as last weekend in the Community Shield victory over Liverpool on penalties.

Asked if it is possible to change to a three-at-the-back system after just three days working with the players, Clarke, pictured, said: “It will depend how receptive the players are. Obviously they have to have a positive mentality, they have to be prepared to be really receptive. It also helps if they have had some recent experience of playing different formations, different systems.

“When you come away on international week you have to be very receptive and you have to be quick learners,” Clarke added.

“It is three days’ worth of training sessions with a lot of emphasis on formation.

“That is backed up by a lot of video meetings. I would say in this camp I have probably done more video meetings than normal just to try to bed down some new principles and also reinforce the previous principles that we had.”

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