Kenny McLean acknowledges that Scotland’s performance across the board has fallen short as they teeter on the verge of being ousted from the World Cup.
A dispiriting 3-0 loss to Brazil in Miami on Wednesday night has edged the Scots closer to an early departure following another lackluster effort in a major tournament.
Steve Clarke’s squad now finds itself in a precarious position, relying on favorable outcomes from other matches, though their elimination appears imminent.
Grant Hanley’s misstep enabled Morocco to score in Boston, and Scott McKenna, who substituted him, fared no better, allowing Vinicius Junior to give Brazil a 1-0 lead in Miami.
The solitary 1-0 win against Haiti was a rare highlight, as McLean concedes that scoring just once across three matches is insufficient.
Kenny McLean believes Steve Clarke’s side haven’t been good enough all across the pitch
Yet, beyond the defensive lapses and lack of firepower, he also believes he and the rest of the midfielders could have done more.
Insisting it must be a collective responsibility, McLean said: ‘We want to get better all over the pitch. That’s the plan. Of course, we wanted to score more goals.
‘We had a few chances towards the end against Brazil, their keeper made some saves. But we aren’t under any illusions. One goal in three games isn’t great. It’s something we’ll look at.
‘It was a mistake from Scotty for Brazil’s first goal. Unfortunately for defenders and goalkeepers, when they make a mistake, it usually leads to a goal.
‘Scotty is an experienced player. He knows moving forward in the game that he can’t control what happened.
‘I think he did fine after that. It’s not on him. I could have helped him more on the ball and gave him better options.
‘He probably took more time on the ball because there weren’t enough good options ahead of him, so there’s a lot more to it. We all need to be better.’
McLean keeps a close eye on Neymar after the legendary Brazilian entered the fray
By the time the final group games have all been played, there’s a strong chance that Belgium, Cape Verde, DR Congo and Senegal could all have overtaken Scotland.
Algeria and Paraguay are the two teams who could yet fall in the standings, but it’s clear that the odds are firmly stacked against Scotland making it through to the knockout stages.
‘It is difficult to sum it up,’ said McLean. ‘We came here with an expectation of ourselves, which shows how far we’ve come.
‘But if you make some of the mistakes we did at this level, you get punished. It’s a tough one to take.
‘It’s hard to really legislate for errors like that. We know we need to be better. When you’re at this level in this environment, any defensive mistakes will be punished.
‘There are a lot of emotions right now. We gave it everything. Frustration and disappointment would be the two main ones. The goals were avoidable against Brazil.
‘When Brazil take part in the game, you know about it. Individually, they are unbelievable footballers. They’ve also got a lot of experience in there.
‘When the game opens up a little bit in the second half and we’re chasing a goal, you could see their quality.
‘Ultimately, that’s the level we’re up against. It’s a World Cup and Brazil are a top team. That’s the level we want to push ourselves to. But I think there are times when you also need to be realistic about the level of opposition.
‘We’re not always just going to go toe-to-toe with the best in the world. Could we have done more? Yes, probably.
McLean comes under pressure from Brazil substitute Fabinho in the second half
‘To think we can go out and press high against some of the best teams in the world and go toe-to-toe, it’s unrealistic.
‘It’s out of our hands now. Unfortunately for us we can’t control what happens in the other games. We just need to wait and see how it all pans out. It’s out of our control now. It’s a waiting game.
‘We need to just hope other results go our way, which is never a position you want to be in. There’s still an outside chance, so we need to wait and see.
‘We were up against tough opposition in these last two games. But when a lot of it is your own errors, that makes it even tougher. That’s the really disappointing part.
‘The way our fans have been received has been incredible. They are the best fans in the world — bar none.
‘They deserve to go through to the knockout stages. We wanted to try and do it for them.’