Steve Clarke has pinpointed Billy Gilmour and Nathan Patterson as the World Cup wildcards who can push Scotland to the brink of the play-offs against Israel on Saturday night.
The Scots take on the Israelis for the seventh time in three years in the sellout Hampden showdown, with second place in Group F guaranteed if they win tonight and follow it up with away victories over the Faroes and Moldova in the two internationals that follow.
But Clarke’s players have struggled against Israel and he’s hoping the emergence of Rangers’ right wing-back Patterson and Chelsea midfielder Gilmour – neither of whom have played the visitors – can be the secret weapons that Willi Ruttensteiner’s men will be unable to handle.
Asked if that was a possibility, Clarke said: “They can be. Listen, they will have watched us.
“They will have watched Nathan play for us and watched Billy for us. I’m sure they do their homework as diligently as we do ours.
“But it’s nice because I feel we keep evolving.
“You talk about bringing in the younger ones and that just helps to keep the squad evolving.
“The core of the squad is picking up more and more caps. The younger ones are picking up more and more caps.
“And we are just growing as a team and if we want to keep growing then a good, positive result against Israel will help us to grow even more after the fine performance and result away in Vienna last month.
“There are not too many surprises they will spring on us, although they have one or two.
“We have a fair idea of the players that will come in to replace the guys in doubt.”
Clarke is thrilled to have a full squad from which to choose, having seen his preparations hammered by injury and Covid at the last international get-together.
The Scotland boss added: “The last camp was probably the most disrupted camp we had with call-offs and not being able to call people up.
“It has been a pleasure this time. We have had a clear week to lead into the game so it’s nice to give the lads a nice recovery at the start of the week followed by three good days training on the pitch.
“There has been lots of information for them and hopefully they take it on board and we get the result we need.”
