A much-changed Scotland suffered another friendly defeat with the 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast offering manager Steve Clarke few solutions to their creativity problems as he prepares for the nation’s first World Cup since 1998.
This was the Scots’ eighth reverse in the last 11 non-competitive matches and after conceding an early goal they struggled to really test opponents who did not concede a goal or lose a game in qualifying for this summer’s tournament.
The team were criticised for their flat performance in Saturday’s defeat to Japan but pre-match midfielder John McGinn stressed they could not afford to take the game to better opponents as they would be picked off.
Which is exactly what happened in the 12th minute when, from a…