Clarke on Scotland tactics against Greece, Christie, Hirst & Karetsas

BBC News

23-03-2025

Nations League play-off, second leg: Scotland v Greece (agg 1-0)Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow Date: Sunday, 23 March Kick-off: 17:00 GMTCoverage: Watch on BBC Scotland, BBC Two Scotland & iPlayer; listen on BBC Radio Scotland & Sounds; live text coverage & in-play clips on the BBC Sport website & app
Scotland welcome Greece to Glasgow's southside on Sunday knowing a draw or a win will maintain their top-tier status in the Nations League.While the Scots had to ride their luck at times in Thursday's first leg in Piraeus, Scott McTominay's penalty was the only goal on the night and leaves Steve Clarke's side well placed before Sunday's return leg.With two World Cup qualifying matches against Greece to come later this year, it is also an opportunity for Scotland to make a statement of sorts.Head coach Clarke sat down for an exclusive chat with BBC Scotland before the second leg at Hampden - here is what he had to say.
Team news & tactics
Steve, how is everyone after the exertions of Thursday night?"Yeah, all good. Obviously, it's always a big effort for a game away from home. Long travel back, but we had a good recovery session."Didn't do much this morning either, so we'll be ready to go."The likes of Grant Hanley and Anthony Ralfson don't get a lot of game time for their clubs. Specifically, how are they? Do they need a little bit of extra care?"No, Grant's made of strong stuff, the same as Tony. They're fine. They'll recover. Obviously, neither are playing regularly at their club, but if you train well and work well, you should always have 90 minutes on your legs."It's really impressive though for them, isn't it? Because you can train, you can be fit, but in terms of being in a match situation, it's very different, isn't it?"It is, but listen, Tony got a little spell with Celtic where he was in the team quite regularly not too long ago. Grant's an experienced player. It's not as if he's gone into an unknown or something that he's not done before. I was pleased with both of them, but I wasn't surprised."The tie is finely poised - how do you approach it?"We're going to try to win the game. I think we want to play well. We want to play as well as we did in the first half. We want to be on the front foot. We want to try to win the game here at Hampden. That's the mentality and the mindset that I'll try to install in the players and hopefully they take that to the pitch."I'm trying to pick your managerial brains in terms of when you're preparing for a match, as you are for Greece. When you're thinking about approach, does that come first or do you look at the players? Do you look at the shape? How does it all work when you're preparing specifically for a game?"You look at the players at your disposal and then you decide the best way to shape up in the game. Obviously, you look at the opposition and how they play."You identify where they might cause problems and hope to solve them. Then you identify where you can cause them problems and hope that that's what happens on the pitch. You have to look at the whole picture. Obviously, it's the second game against the same team in a very short space of time. They'll know a little bit more about us and we know a little bit more about them."What do you know more about them? What did you learn?"I learned that in the second half, when they were really aggressive in the press, they disrupted our rhythm a little bit. We didn't really get into the game, so we have to be braver on the ball. We have to be stronger on the ball and hopefully we see that in the game."How do you go about enforcing that kind of element on the game to the players?"Normally, you would do it on a training session. You would do it on the pitch, but with the short turnaround, we don't have the time. Everybody's on the 72-hour turnaround, but we don't even get that. Even after a long flight back from Greece, we don't get that. You have to do a little bit more work in the classroom."The back four has been working well for you on Thursday night. From what you've seen in Greece, is that the way to go again?"Yes, we can go either way. We finished the game with a back six. If you look at the game, you can identify how we finished the game. We actually finished with a back six. Listen, there are many different ways. I've got to decide the best way for this game at Hampden, which might be different for the game in Greece."
Christie's best role & Greece wonderkid Karetsas
We're about to talk to Ryan Christie. Obviously, he's a player that's been having a brilliant season for his club, where he's playing in a deeper role. When clubs change players' positions a bit, does that give you food for thought as a manager?"It's always nice to see them play in different positions. Obviously, Ryan started his career as a winger, if you like. He would disagree with that, but he always played off the wide. For me, by and large, with the national team, he's always played off the wide. "We have in certain games played him as one of the number eight to get forward. He's playing that role at Bournemouth. He plays the number eight. Everybody says he plays a bit deeper, but if you actually watch him playing for Bournemouth, he's very involved in the higher press up the pitch. "He gets after the game, he does everything that Ryan's good at. Obviously, if I decide to start with Ryan, he brings a little bit of freshness as well."We spoke about your squad and how you've got new players coming in as well. George Hirst made his Scotland debut. What did you make of his debut and what specifically do you like about him?"I think he just brought in a different dimension. In the second half, especially, we were going particularly long. Their two centre-backs seemed to be winning most of the headers. I thought, if I put George on, he actually did win a couple of headers. He did take the ball into the corner for us a couple of times. "He just brings a slightly different dimension to how Che [Adams] plays as a centre-forward, or how Tommy Conway plays as a centre-forward. Maybe a little bit similar to how Lyndon Dykes does it for us. It just gives us more depth in that position."Greece have also got their young talent, Konstantinos Karetsas. He had a real influence on the game, didn't he? Whether he starts or whether he comes on, how do you go about trying to stop him being so influential?"I think when he came to the pitch the other night, the crowd got excited because a young 17-year-old has chosen not to play for Belgium but to go back and play for Greece, which is great for them. His first action in the game was really good. That got the crowd excited. "From there, he sort of built into the game. He controlled them quite well as the game went on. Kieran goes on and sits in front of him. We sort of nullified that threat a little bit. Hopefully, we can do that as well in the game at Hampden."You spoke about the fans over there. The fans here at Hampden will have a big part to play, will they?"A crowd's a crowd. When you're playing at home, you expect the home crowd to be with you. At Hampden, normally, in my time here, the crowd have always been there. They don't turn up wanting to see you struggle. They turn up wanting to see you win. Hopefully, we can give them something to shout about."Scotland, obviously, have achieved elite status in the Nations League. Is it more difficult to remain in that place, do you think?"Well, Uefa have made it more difficult because normally third position kept you up. "What it does do now is it gets you a play-off game, which is why we're here. To be honest, I'd rather be playing competitive games in March than having four friendlies before we go into the World Cup qualifier. "So I think it's worked out quite well for us."Is there a feeling, given the developments that Scotland have made, that you actually belong in that top group?"Well, if we stay up then we're proving that we belong there. What I would say is, as you develop and you play against top opposition, and I think over the games last autumn, we improved as a team. "Our world ranking dropped. I'm not sure how that one works, but I felt as though we were improving as a team and then you go down the world rankings. So there's a little bit of an anomaly there, but I'd much rather play against the better teams because that will make your players better."