The McTominay factor is making or breaking this squad

Look, I get it. Steve Clarke is loyal to his guys, and Scott McTominay has been the human embodiment of a clutch play for Scotland for years now. But banking your entire tournament survival on a guy who just ghosted against his own shadow in the opener is a recipe for heartbreak.

Reports coming out of the camp suggest Clarke is doubling down, publicly backing his talisman to bounce back against Morocco. It is the classic manager move: defend your best player to the ends of the earth while praying to the football gods that his form flips like a light switch.

We have seen this movie before. Scotland builds a campaign around one or two reliable engines, and the second those gears grind to a halt, the whole machine starts smoking. If McTominay doesn't get his legs moving and stop looking like he’s playing in concrete boots, that Morocco match is going to be a long 90 minutes.

Tactical stagnation or just a bad Tuesday?

Clarke has been married to this three-at-the-back system for what feels like a decade. It holds up when the wing-backs are flying and the midfield is clogging up the central channels, but it leaves massive holes when the pressure ramps up.

Against top-tier teams, this setup looks less like a defensive wall and more like a sieve. You look back at the footage from their recent training sessions, and there is a stiffness to the positioning that screams a lack of plan B. If Plan A is just 'kick it long and hope for a deflection,' you’re going to be booking flights home early.

As per the latest Sky Sports live blog, the mood in the camp is supposedly focused, but the tactical reality on the grass tells a different story. Being 'focused' doesn't help you track an overlap when your center-backs are stranded in no-man's land.

The Morocco problem is staring them in the face

Morocco isn't a team you just 'get past.' They are athletic, they have a midfield that treats the ball like a precious artifact, and they will absolutely feast on the gaps Scotland leaves open in transition.

If Scotland sits back and plays for a draw, they are as good as dead. They need to find a way to connect the lines, stop the aimless long balls, and actually put a foot on the ball. If they decide to engage in a track meet, they will lose because they lack the recovery pace to deal with the counter-attack.

It is exhausting watching a team with this much raw potential repeatedly play like they are afraid of their own shadows. Clarke needs to stop tinkering with personnel and start fixing the spacing. One tactical blunder and this whole tournament falls apart by the 55th minute of the second game.