Scotland hindsight XI: The team Steve Clarke should have started against Ukraine

Sifting through the ashes of Scotland’s sixth straight failed World Cup campaign, one obvious source emerges for the immolation against Ukraine.

It might seem a case of smart-alecs-are-us, all hail the Monday morning quarter-backs, meet the Captain Hindsights to dare cite Steve Clarke’s starting XI as the cause of the nation’s calamities that condemned them to a 3-1 play-off semi-final defeat at Hampden last night. These labels are fully entitled to be bandied around at such wisdom after the event. Not least because precious few were expressing the disbelief that all-too-soon took root over how unsuitable certain elements of the personnel and team structure were to meet challenge posed by an opponent on a mission. An opponent fuelled by an emotion-filled furnace in their quest to bring a flicker of joy to their war-riven land. Yet, none of that alters the fact that Clarke’s selection calls failed to pay off.

The alarming manner with which Ukraine sliced through the middle of Scotland like the proverbial knife through butter from the earliest stages - the silky Oleksandr Zinchenko seemed to have the freedom of Mount Florida - told that Scotland’s shape in the centre of the pitch was leaving them overrun. The skittishness of Aaron Hickey in the right wing-back role where he was handed a first international start, not helped by Scott McTominay’s inability to offer support on the right of the back three, told that this defensive link-up left the home side lacking cohesion in that area. And as much as strikers Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes have dovetailed well as a two in certain previous games, the struggles of the QPR man to make an impact told it wasn’t a night to combine the duo and have John McGinn operating in an