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King of qualifiers
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Scotland manager Steve Clarke got back to what he knows best over the course of this international break, with a solid start to the national team’s qualification campaign for next year’s World Cup. The Tartan Army were left pleasantly surprised, when a 0-0 draw with Denmark in Copenhagen was then followed by a confident 2-0 win over Belarus on Monday night. Four points from their first two games places the Scots second in Group C, level on points with the Danes ahead of a home tie against Greece later in the year.
"It's a good start, a solid start," Clarke told the BBC. "Four points will never qualify you for anything. It's nice to go home with a smile on your face, but I'm already thinking about next month." As if to point a finger at his numerous critics within the Tartan Army, Clarke praised the defensive and pragmatic style of his team’s performances and singled it out as the reason behind Scotland’s success. "Clean sheets are what we have to build our campaign on," the Scotland head coach added. "If we can keep the ball out the net we've always got enough to score one or two goals."
Indeed, Clarke’s relationship with Scotland fans seems to rise and fall in a cyclical pattern depending on what competition the national team finds itself in. While fans can certainly point to poor performances at international tournaments, with Scotland crashing out of Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 with just three goals scored and not a single win to their name across six games, few could doubt that the 62-year-old tactician has become something of an expert when it comes to guiding the national team through qualifying campaigns. And that’s evident when we take a look at Clarke’s record to date at Hampden.
When we break Clarke’s time with Scotland down into different competitions, we can see that the Scot clearly thrives in qualifying competitions. After this international break, the Scotland manager can boast an impressive record of 2.07 points per game in World Cup qualifying games. That should come as no great surprise to Scotland fans, with Clarke guiding the nation to a play-off spot in his first World Cup qualifying campaign, only to then lose said play-off to Ukraine. But the start to this year’s campaign certainly suggests that the nation may be in a good spot to qualify for their first World Cup since 1998.
That impressive record in qualifying games is almost matched by an equally strong average of 1.94 points per game in qualifying games for European Championships. As previously noted, Clarke guided Scotland to Euro 2020 and Euro 2024, winning dramatic play-offs against Israel and Serbia to qualify for the former to help Scotland get to their first international tournament in 22 years. Clarke’s record in the Nations League has notably dipped in recent years, but that’s largely because of the national team winning promotion to League A last year, where they won just two of their six games against top-tier opponents. As such, his record in these tournaments stands at a slightly lower average of 1.65 points per game.
Although fans may still wish to note the 0.3 points per game Clarke has average in international tournaments, as we can see from the graph above, the current Scotland manager still outperforms most of his predecessors in the job when it comes to winning qualifying games. Not only does Clarke have to contend with more games and perhaps even better opposition with regards to the Nations League, but he’s also got an impressive average of 1.86 points per game that bests all other Scotland managers since Craig Brown stepped down from the national team in 2001.
