Scotland visit Croatia on October 12 before welcoming Portugal to Hampden Park on October 15 in the Nations League; Steve Clarke's side are winless in their last eight competitive fixtures
Thursday 10 October 2024 10:10, UK
Kenny McLean and his Scotland teammates are "desperate" for a positive result against "top nation" Croatia in the Nations League.
Steve Clarke's side have won just one of their last 14 matches and are still searching for their first points in their group after losing to Portugal and Poland last month.
Injury-hit Scotland will also be without 13 players for the trip to Zagreb, including Aston Villa's John McGinn and Arsenal's Kieran Tierney.
McLean, who has been capped 42 times for his country, hopes to bring an end to the national team's dreadful run of form on Saturday.
"We'll go to Croatia with the belief that we can get a result," said the Norwich City midfielder.
"If not, we'd be as well staying back here.
"It's not a clean sweep, we don't just start again. We don't just brush it under the carpet and say 'let's go again'.
"That's never going to improve us. If we want to improve, we're going to improve by taking what we're doing on the pitch and improving that."
Croatia are ranked 12th in the world rankings, one place higher than Germany who beat Scotland 5-1 in the opening match of Euro 2024.
"We're up against really good opposition and that's where we want to be," added McLean.
"We've worked hard to get there. We want to pit ourselves against the best. The next step is to start getting these results, we're desperate for them.
"Croatia are a strong team, they always have been. So, it's going to be tough, we know that.
"We need to keep learning from the games we've played against these top nations.
"We don't want to just stop there; we want to push ourselves again to compete at this level.
"It's not enough to just do well the previous year to get into this pot. We want to keep improving and start getting results against these nations because that's the next step for us.
"I don't think anybody wants to be suffering at this level. We are against good opposition, but we've got good players, we're a good team."
Scotland will hope the upcoming games against Croatia and Portugal will end the longest winless run in the nation's history.
The team have lost five and drawn three of their last eight competitive fixtures. Including friendlies, that run stands at just one win - against Gibraltar - in 14 matches.
On paper those late defeats to Poland and Portugal would suggest there is little reason to be optimistic. However, when you look at the more positive approach on the pitch, a new 4-2-3-1 formation and fresh faces getting their opportunity to make a mark, there is yet reason to believe for the Tartan Army.
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