Bolivia vs Scotland – LIVE World Cup warm-up – TV, radio, text updates, stats & head-to-head
Scotland will face Bolivia for the first time but Clarke was faced with more questions about group rivals Haiti, following their 4-0 thumping of New Zealand on Tuesday.
He was quick to highlight that some fans “have a terrible habit of looking at these nations and thinking they are not very good or looking at where they are ranked in the world.
“They play in a different section of the world, so maybe in their section they’re really good,” said Clarke. “They were much better than New Zealand.
“I was never under any illusion that it was going to be a tough game. It’s probably nice that some people got to see how they played, because they now know it’s going to be a difficult game for us.”
That is why Clarke – who outlined his priorities for Saturday as “no injuries, performance, result” – was quick to stress that this weekend’s game would be a “straightforward selection“ with the main event looming large.
He added there are no “major” injury concerns, just a few players with “little grumbling things”.
“Some players need minutes,” the head coach said. “I need to see one or two players in positions on the pitch and then we’ve got a week to prepare for the first game.
“There’s no trying to protect players or whatever, injuries, unfortunately, are part and parcel of football. We don’t expect any, but you never know.”
