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Scotland are now chasing away the desperate fatalism that gripped the nation after that loss to Hungary and during the epic run of one win in 16 games, but there’s a lot left to be done. The League A relegation play-off in March for starters. For seconds, a World Cup qualifying campaign that will require luck in the draw to navigate.
How will things be looking come March? Scotland have a goalscoring legend in McGinn and a steady contributor in Scott McTominay, but they still only finished with seven goals from six Nations League games.
The lack of a striker is still the great bugbear. Che Adams, Lyndon Dykes, Lawrence Shankland and Tommy Conway all had a crack at it. They all work hard, they’re all capable of playing their part in creating chances for the midfielders, but none of them scored in the Nations League.
That’s a problem without a solution right now. There’s nobody coming through. Clarke always says that it doesn’t really matter where the goals come from as long as they come. And he’s right.
For Scotland to progress to the next level, though, you suspect that they’re going to need more creativity and more ruthlessness up front.
The emergence of Ben Doak, therefore, has been a thrilling step in the right direction. The contributions from Ryan Gauld from the bench have also been noteworthy. Scotland have a long way to go on the offensive side but the Poland game showed that there’s a will to attack now which wasn’t really there in the dispiriting summer in Germany.
Being so competitive in six League A games against stellar opposition can only help Scotland mature. Things will get really interesting when some of the injured stars return to the fold. They might get more interesting again if the young thruster Lennon Miller keeps progressing so rapidly.
A team that began with worrying losses on the road to Germany before disappearing down a dead end at the tournament proper has reversed out of the darkness and appears to be heading for the light again.
The Nations League relegation tussle and the World Cup qualifiers will be the ultimate proof of that, but at least Clarke can take comfort from the fact that even his most excitable critics have fallen relatively silent for now. That’s if he ever cared about the noise in the first place, which is doubtful.