Image source, SNSImage caption, Kieran Tierney, John Souttar, Grant Hanley and Scott McKenna are vying for places in defence
ByTom EnglishBBC Scotland's chief sports writer- Published59 minutes ago
Since the glory of November, Steve Clarke has lived in a managerial no-man's land. Time to think but no games to turn his thoughts into action. Watching his players every week but without a chance to coach them.
At last, he's got them to himself again. A camp, matches against Japan at Hampden on Saturday and Ivory Coast in Liverpool on Tuesday, and some decisions to make. One of those areas is at centre-back.
Partly by design and in other part by circumstance, the Scotland head coach changed, or had to change, his defensive pairing for every game during World Cup qualifying.
He started with Grant Hanley and John Souttar in Copenhagen. Then it was Scott McKenna and Souttar against Belarus. Back to Hanley and Souttar against Greece. Then McKenna and Jack Hendry against Belarus at home. And a return to Hanley and Souttar against Greece away.
For the famous night that clinched World Cup qualification against Denmark, it was supposed to be Souttar and McKenna, but that had to be broken up before kick-off when the Rangers defender was forced out of the game with injury. Hanley was parachuted back in.
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Hanley missed six Hibernian games in a row through injury from early February. He was an unused substitute last weekend.
Souttar has been an unused substitute for Rangers in his last two games and only appeared off the bench in the 105th minute of the Scottish Cup quarter-final against Celtic at Ibrox. He wasn't great when he came on.
Elsewhere in his current squad, Clarke has Hendry, who's playing every week in the Saudi Pro League. In different games this season he's gone up against Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Ivan Toney and Alexandre Lacazette.
He has McKenna, who's top of the Croatian League with Dinamo Zagreb.
There's Dom Hyam, who has only played once for Scotland, a 90th-minute appearance against Norway three years ago. He's in seventh in the English Championship with Wrexham.
Craig Halkett, a key player for Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts, was something of a surprise omission in Clarke's squad.
'Clarke won't be blind to things that weren't right'
Clarke won't have taken long for his feet to touch the ground after the happy delirium of World Cup qualification - that's presuming they ever left the ground in the first place.
Though the campaign was a roaring success, he won't be blind to the things that weren't quite right.
In a parallel universe, had Denmark been able to score one more goal against Belarus in the penultimate round of games - they had 34 attempts - Scotland would have been in the play-offs this week rather than in a pre-World Cup friendly.
The Denmark game at Hampden was a beautiful crescendo, but was it an outlier? In their last three games in qualification, Scotland conceded six goals, a far cry from the opening-day clean sheet in Copenhagen.
The 2-1 win at home to Belarus in their third last game drew a withering response from the dressing room.
Andy Robertson said it didn't feel like a win that night. McKenna said the players let themselves down. Che Adams felt that the fans were right to boo at the end.
John McGinn said that, at half-time, Clarke was the angriest he'd ever seen him. "Really, really disappointed in my team," the head coach said. McGinn later called the performance "jobby".
Belarus had 22 shots to the hosts' 12 at Hampden.
In Scotland's next game, they were 3-0 down in Greece and fortunate not to be four or five down. Craig Gordon made seven saves. The Greeks had 18 attempts before the Scots rallied and scored twice.
Even in the Denmark game, for all its magnificence, they were dominated for large parts. The Danes had 19 attempts to Scotland's 10; 33 attacks to 18; nine corners to two, 40 touches in Scotland's box compared to the 14 Clarke's side had in theirs.
They also had two goals to Scotland's four and a place in the play-offs to Scotland's clear path to the World Cup. For most people, those are the only facts that matter.
At elite level, though, Clarke and his coaches will be poring over everything, good and bad.
It's not raining on the parade to say that Scotland had Lady Luck on their side in key moments along the way and that they need to improve on pretty much everything they're doing, particularly in defence.
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Is Souttar & McKenna the best pairing?
In the specific business of the moving chairs at centre-back, Craig Levein would go for a Souttar-McKenna duo, a right-footer and a left-footer. The fact the former is not in the Rangers team right now doesn't bother him.
"No, not at all," the former Scotland boss and centre-back said. "He's not a 19 or 20-year-old. He has a lot of experience and brings a calmness in the back line. The balance is better with those two. They know each other. They've played together.
"John's probably the best footballing centre-back we have. Him and Jack Hendry.
"I don't know much about Hyam, but he's playing every week with Wrexham and given the money they have at that club then he must be doing well.
"Grant Hanley might not be as quick as McKenna, but he rarely makes mistakes. He takes a lot of flak, but it's undeserved.
"Halkett's not made the squad, but I like him. He was carrying a wee bit of timber last year, but he's looking as fit as I've seen him for probably four or five years now."
Willie Miller would go for Souttar and McKenna, too.
"They both have the attributes, the pace and the quality to handle situations perfectly well," the former Scotland centre-back says.
"If you're playing a high line, if you're pushing up and taking it to the opposition, then I would think McKenna and Souttar would be your two.
"But the best out-and-out, grisly defender is Hanley. If you're talking about a penalty-box defender, Hanley is likely to get the nod. It just depends on the game."
Saturday is the beginning of the countdown to America, a difficult game against a side that beat Bolivia, Ghana and Brazil in their last three matches.
Clarke has done wonders to get Scotland to where they are, but from centre-back and above they need to get a whole lot better.
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