Steve Clarke insists Scotland won't even need Euro 2024 playoff as he reveals summit after summer of pain

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Confident Steve Clarke reckons Scotland won’t even need their Euro 2024 playoff as he admitted playing mind games to create a siege mentality to bank the point against Ukraine that saw them promoted to Nations League Group A and a Germany 2024 back up.The national team boss admitted he used a bit of psychology to make more of the virus in the camp and it helped as his super stand-ins battled to a goalless draw in Krakow that saw his side top Group B1 and earn a place among the elite when the tournament resumes in two years.Scotland are also in Pot 2 for the Euro 2024 qualifying draw in Frankfurt next month while they have guaranteed themselves a playoff if they fail to make it through the conventional qualifying route which they did to reach Euro 2020.But Clarke doesn’t think they’ll need it and revealed how a summer summit with coaches and players saw them produce two wins in a draw in this international break after slumping to defeat to Ukraine in the World Cup playoff and a Dublin thumping by Ireland in the Nations League.The 59-year-old was more relaxed than usual as he savoured the result and said: “What happened in the summer was not us.

We wanted to better this week. We pressed a big button to reset and go again and three fantastic performances - all different but all vital.“I sat down with all my staff in the summer and said we had to set a different environment and be more demanding of the players.

We had to push that agenda. I sat with the players and went through what we thought we did well in the summer and what we didn’t do so well.“We gave them a lot of information to change the system and play a slightly different way and they’ve taken it on board and are desperate to do well for their country and we’ve