After Scotland suffered yet another defeat on the international stage, Steve Clarke has been told that there is a player at Celtic who is the only one who can improve their attacking options.
Scotland’s loss to Portugal means Clarke now has a record of just one win in his last 14 games for the national team.
After the poor Euro 2024, Scotland kicked off their Nations League Group A campaign with a 3-2 home defeat to Poland and have now ended the international break after Cristiano Ronaldo’s 88th-minute strike sent Scotland home with a 2-1 defeat.
But despite an improved performance in the Estádio da Luz, Clarke has now been told that if he wants to improve Scotland’s attacking options, there is only one player he needs to call upon.
James Forrest could be ‘massive’ for Scotland
Ross McCormack was speaking about Scotland’s defeat to the Portuguese when he admitted that Forrest is the only player Clarke has at his disposal that can help boost his attacking options.
McCormack told talkSPORT, “I think we’ve only got one of them that’s been in the squad. And the disappointing thing for me in the summer at the Euros was he didn’t play one minute.
“For me, it’s James Forrest at Celtic. I mean Rangers were in the driving seat to win the league last year and it wasn’t until James came back into the team at Celtic that he made a massive difference to that team and Celtic ended up winning the league.
“So he goes into the Euros full of confidence in the summer and I’m thinking, ‘Right, okay, this is a chance to get someone a little bit different, get us up the pitch and when it’s the odd corner, hit on the break and then we can use set pieces.
“But I was really disappointed to see him not involved in the summer. I was looking back at the third game in the Euro, I think when you set up for us to go and have a real go to win the game and get through the group, I’m thinking we were playing 3-5-2, I think it set up for James Forrest at right wingback.”
Clarke must look at Forrest
Clarke has used Forrest a total of eleven times since he became the national boss back in May 2019. Out of those, Scotland have won seven, drew two and lost two.
The last time Scotland won in their last 14 fixtures was in the 2-0 win over Gibraltar in which Forrest played 66 minutes of the game.
Now I am not suggesting that Forrest is the answer to all of Scotland’s problems but the Celtic winger would give Clarke experience, an out ball and an attacking edge that does seem to be have been lacking at Scotland for a quite some time.
Surely the Scotland boss should be looking at Forrest who has made four appearances for Celtic this season and created two assists as the Scottish champions continue their excellent start to the season.
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