It has become painfully obvious that Steve Clarke picked Jon McLaughlin and Nathan Patterson for his Scotland squad purely to appease Rangers fans and not through any intention of playing them.
In the two warm up games, the Gers back up keeper didn’t even get a kick of the ball, if the manager had already decided that David Marshall was going to be his number one, McLaughlin should have had at least 45 minutes against Luxembourg.
He might not have played 40 or 50 games this season but he still has more clean sheets than the Derby County keeper who ended the season sitting on the bench – and this wasn’t because Wayne Rooney was resting him for the European Championships out of kindness – he’s also played more games than Wales keeper Danny Ward and he’s done alright.
As for Nathan Patterson, the mental gymnastics that some are going to in support of Stephen O’Donnell are embarrassing, you would think that he is Paulo Maldini the way that he goes on about him.
Claiming that the Gers youngster makes mistakes – as if O’Donnell doesn’t – is just one stick that has been used to beat him, you only need to look at the recent Luxembourg game to see exactly what I mean.
Patterson came on and instantly offered a threat down Scotland’s right-hand side = “ah, but it’s only Luxembourg”.
The same team that the Motherwell right-back had struggled against for an hour!
We knew, despite the talk of being positive and attacking, that Clarke would revert to type. He’s picked a keeper out of loyalty because he saved a penalty a year ago and a right-back known as “teacher’s pet” because he is mates with the manager.
Clarke’s a fraud, if he had the best interests of the country at heart, he’d play the best players that he has available and both Rangers players would be starting, regardless of any excuses to the contrary.