Steve Clarke provides Lawrence Shankland verdict as he sends striker reminder after Netherlands chance
The Hearts striker lead the line for Scotland as defeat was had in Amsterdam.
Steve Clarke has backed Lawrence Shankland to come again after the Hearts talisman missed a big Scotland chance in a friendly with the Netherlands.
The forward is part of a debate of who should start up front for the nation at Euro 2024 this summer. He got the chance to lead the line in Amsterdam on a night where a lack of clinical touch had a 4-0 friendly defeat inflicted upon the visitors.
Trailing 1-0 just after the hour mark thanks to a first half goal from Tijjani Reijnders, the striker was in on goal with keeper Mark Flekken. An error at the back had put the Hearts striker through but he could only connect with the bar, having watched a looped header go up and over in the first half.
Clarke sent a striking reminder post-match as he reflected on the night in Holland. He said: "He is a striker. People forget that strikers miss a lot of goals as well as score a lot of goals.
"You have to be in the right position and do the right thing. Lawrence will score goals in the future. I thought his all-round play tonight was good, he didn’t let himself down. We had the same amount of shots (13) as the Netherlands. They were clinical, we weren’t clinical enough. That’s something we can work on.
"We have to stop the run of no wins. No wins in six so we have to stop that on Tuesday night. It’s a lot of goals and if you concede that many you are not going to win games. We know we have to tighten up. For 70 minutes it was 1-0.
"The reaction to the second goal was something we need to think about. How we dig in, how we make sure we are really hard to beat in the last 20 minutes. Even if it finishes 2-0 it finishes 2-0. We have to be a little bit more streetwise against the top teams and they (the Netherlands) are a top team, don’t underestimate them.”