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Steve Clarke says he has a “fantastic problem” in selection after Scotland wrapped up their World Cup warm-up with an emphatic win over Bolivia.
Clarke started Scotland’s final friendly with two strikers ahead of the tournament against Haiti in Boston the following week and benefited from Laurence Shankland’s early opener and a Chey Adams brace with Scott McTominay coming on either side of the strike. 4-0 win.
There were good performances all over the pitch, however, as Scotland’s players looked to impress ahead of their World Cup opener and Clarke admitted he welcomed the complexity of selection ahead of next week.
“We have fantastic problems,” he said. “Really good in the first half, then I turned to my bench and the changes we were making were good. When you’re making a lot of changes on both sides you lose a bit of the rhythm of the game.
Laurence Shankland celebrates with Che Adams and Scott McTomin for Scotland
“But the guys that went in, their priority wasn’t to concede because we wanted a clean sheet. We had a clean sheet so it’s nice to get it.
“Goals will be important, obviously we’ve been told we don’t score enough goals but it’s back-to-back four. It’s about creating chances, creating chances was good tonight and if you create good chances we’ve got players on the pitch who will score.”
Scotland’s performance was more impressive in Harrison, New Jersey, where the game was held, but Clarke was buoyed by his players’ response and said the group was ready to start the tournament.
Scotland’s players cool off during the water break against Bolivia
“We are as prepared as we can be at this stage,” he said. “Obviously, you don’t always get what you want when it comes to preparation. We went to Florida for heat and humidity and we got humidity but a lot of rain. We probably didn’t get as much heat as we expected but we got that heat in the first half today and I thought we handled it well.
“We have prepared as much as we can so far and we will prepare well this week and make sure we start the tournament well.”
Clarke refused to get too carried away with the excellent performance and result, however, reminding his players that they felt confident heading into Euro 2024 ahead of a disappointing tournament in Germany.
Steve Clarke talks to Ben Gannon-Doke during Scotland’s win over Bolivia
“We’ve obviously won a few games going into the tournament and it’s always important for the players to feel good about themselves,” he said.
“But, to be honest, they thought themselves good about going to Germany so I won’t read too much into it!”
