Steve Clarke’s treatment of James Forrest bizarre to say the least | OneFootball

Steve Clarke is in the firing line and rightly so due to his strange decision making that played a big part in our elimination from the euros.

Clarke has done a fine job in getting Scotland to two major tournaments, while also gaining promotion to the top table in the nations league, but it’s pretty obvious to see that we’ve become a bit stale and Clarke has taken us as far as he can.

James Forrest celebrates scoring Celtic’s third goal of the game during the Premiership match at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic on Wednesday 15, 2024. Photo Jane Barlow

His tactics are dull and negative and while it may work occasionally, it’s holding us back from improving as a football team. Clarke worked wonders at Kilmarnock and that played a big part in him getting the job as manager of the national side, but he’s often accused of treating Scotland in the same way he did Kilmarnock, and it’s not hard to see why.

Managing Scotland and managing Kilmarnock are two totally different things. Scotland have a much more quality pool of talent than Kilmarnock, something that Clarke seems to often overlook.

James Forrest of Scotland celebrates at the final whistle after scoring a hattrick against Israel at Hampden on November 20, 2018 . (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Players like Kieran Tierney, Andy Robertson, Callum McGregor, Billy Gilmour, and John McGinn are all top quality players who like to play football, yet he stifles their talents with his bland style of football. Not to mention we had a guy who scored over 30 goals in Lawrence Shankland in the squad yet he was giving limited game time despite us being lacklustre in front of goal.

Aside from his tactics, and his strange decision making, one of his more bizarre decisions was deciding not to play James Forrest at the euros.

James has been a man in form these past few months and his ability and experience would have benefited us greatly in the games we played.

I’m not saying things would have been different had James got minutes on the field, but it would have at least given us a chance. Yet we were chasing wins against Switzerland and Hungary, and Clarke brings on the likes of Kenny McLean and Lewis Morgan.

James is not only a man in form, he’s a proven winner at the highest level. For him not to get any minutes in Germany is quite bizarre.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy