Ian Wright said (Image: ITV X)
Ian Wright accused the Scotland manager of “letting the country down” with an uninspiring brand of football despite “amazing” support from fans. The Tartans secured their place in the North American World Cup finals by one game thanks to their three spots in the Round of 32 in Group C.
Steve Clarke’s side beat Haiti 1-0 in their opening game, but it was not a great performance against one of the weakest nations in the tournament. Scotland suffered a 1-0 defeat against Morocco last Friday, barely able to get in the way of Yassin Bounou’s goal throughout the game. And Wright, who was speaking as a pundit during ITV’s coverage of Bosnia and Herzegovina v Qatar, was not entirely unimpressed with his assessment of Scotland’s struggles.
Mark Pugach asked: “Ian, how do you feel about Scotland’s approach at the moment?” The Arsenal legend looked stone-faced and replied, “Well, if you look at Pogues and say, ‘What’s two shots on target?’, you probably think that, right? In the two games, and in the Morocco game, there were none.
“I feel for Scotland, I feel for the fans, I feel for everything. Laura[Woods]asked me the other day about Scotland: What can Scotland do next? And I think it goes deeper than that.”
“If you look at Norway, a country of Scotland’s size, we average 6,000 or 7,000 people a week. Scotland averages 16,000, but Norway has managed to get £25m more in broadcast contracts a year than Scotland.
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“Obviously they have a better commercial outfit than them, but at the same time we look at Scotland and its raw materials. We look at the incredible audience numbers, the talent, the storylines, the grassroots participation.
“Someone in Scotland is letting this country down on a massive scale. To all the tourists around the world, I’m so proud of them…They have to do more. I need a bolder, braver vision for Scottish football.”
Meanwhile, Patrick Vieira said: “I think there is individual talent in this team.[Scott]McTominay,[Billy]Gilmour have done very well in Italy and if you look at these players individually, they have done very well for their clubs. So Mark, the question is why can’t they perform at that level in international competitions, especially in the World Cup?”
Duncan Ferguson then highlighted Scotland’s long struggle to find an attacking edge, before sharply comparing his country’s plight to England’s lethargic goalless draw with Ghana on Tuesday night. The Everton legend said: ‘Scottish fans want to see us progress to the next round.
“That’s it. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you get there. Look at Ghana vs England yesterday. England didn’t have a single shot on target in the first half, so it’s not just a Scottish problem.”
“England didn’t score against Ghana because they were sitting in the low block. There’s nothing wrong with sitting in the low block. There are different aspects to the game of football. So Scotland can sit in the low block, but we need that threat. I’m not questioning it. We definitely need the threat going forward.”
When Vieira suggested to Ferguson that Scotland seemed satisfied with their 1-0 defeat to Morocco, Ferguson refused to agree, retorting: “I don’t know about that, Patrick. To be honest, I think the players gave their all. You mentioned McTominay. He covered every blade of grass.”
The former Arsenal captain stood his ground and hit back: “I believe they have more than what they showed against Morocco. I hope they have more and I believe they have more.”
Scotland will play Brazil in the final Group C game of the tournament on Wednesday night at 11pm, while Morocco will face Haiti at the same time.
