Ben Gannon-Doak<\/a> might need a gentle massage when he turns up at Scotland\u2019s camp next week to prepare for a crucial World Cup double-header against Greece and Belarus.<\/p>\nSuch is life for the national coach who, no matter what collateral damage might come his way, has to keep his own squad on track towards next summer.<\/p>\n
The good thing is, he\u2019s been in this movie plenty of times before. And he\u2019s wise enough to have seen them all coming from a mile off.<\/p>\n
Clarke named a 22-strong group as the clock ticks down to a potentially campaign-defining, international break.<\/p>\n
And the inclusions of Robertson and Gannon Doak were never in any doubt.<\/p>\n
Asked if he can be sure Robertson is ready to step back into the firing line after sitting out so much of the early part of the season his answer was unequivocal. Clarke said: \u201c100 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d a good chat with Andy last week and a good chat with him before the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it has panned out pretty much how we thought it would at the time, that Kerkez would start in the team but Andy would find his way into the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s happened. He\u2019s had minutes. They have a game tonight and I\u2019d be surprised if he doesn\u2019t start in Turkey against Galatasaray. So we always knew Andy would get lots of minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the plus side for us, if he\u2019s getting good minutes for Liverpool but not getting all the minutes, it means he comes into Scotland camps probably a little bit fresher than he has been in recent years, which can only be good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
And very probably, with a point to prove to the manager who seems to think his time on Merseyside is nearing its end.<\/p>\n
Clarke added: \u201cAs a player you\u2019ve always got a point to prove to your club manager, your international manager, to all the pundits or you guys or all the fans \u2013 you\u2019ve always got a point to prove every time you go to the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re captain of your country you\u2019ve probably got a little bit more of a point to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_JS380428605.jpg\")
Ben Gannon-Doak in action for Scotland against Belarus<\/p>\n
The same goes for Gannon Doak, this would-be game-changer of a winger who sealed a \u00a325million move to the south coast while Kerkez was heading in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would rather have seen the 19-year-old get more game time in the Bournemouth starting XI Clarke said: \u201cYeah, you would. But you\u2019ve also got to understand that he\u2019s a young player who\u2019s made a big move.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to a club that have started the season well without Ben in the team. So he\u2019s going to have to be patient. When he gets his minutes on the pitch he\u2019s going to have to show what he can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got just over 15 minutes last weekend. He was involved, almost gave a penalty away at one end, had a chance when the ball fell to him late in the game, he snatched his chance a little bit.<\/p>\n
“He had a couple of Ben Doak dribbles and managed to get a corner off one of them. And that\u2019s what he has to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has to go on the pitch in those 15 minutes and make sure that he catches his manager\u2019s attention. And if he does that, he\u2019ll get more minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Scotland](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_JS380370256.jpg\")
Scotland boss Steve Clarke and skipper Andy Robertson<\/p>\n
And yet Clarke has been around the block often enough to realise there is a risk factor involved where the youngster\u2019s levels of self-belief are concerned.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got good people in the squad so we can keep Ben on the straight and narrow and keep his confidence up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s obviously got Ryan Christie at his club. I\u2019m sure Ryan will be helping him out as much as he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cBen just has to concentrate on making sure when he gets the minutes he catches the manager\u2019s attention for all the right reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clarke\u2019s own attention was caught by a Bundesliga hat-trick from Union Berlin\u2019s Ollie Burke just the other weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut just not enough to make the manager believe the time is right to bring the one-time wonderboy back into Scotland\u2019s fold.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cPeople seem to think that because I tend to pick the same players more often than not that I don\u2019t look at other options.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always looking at other options because you never know when you\u2019re going to get injuries, suspensions and when you\u2019re going to have to call people into your squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, I got a lot of text messages when Ollie got that hat-trick and it was good to see because obviously he\u2019s a big talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in some of my earlier squads.He\u2019s sort of drifted a little bit over the last five years but if he can find a home and settle down and play well week in week out, then that will be good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The national team boss also spoke about youngster Ben Gannon-Doak as he announced his World Cup double-header squadScotland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[33159,25373,748,4884,763,712,13315,70571,16,15,93214,45880],"class_list":{"0":"post-464741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-andy-robertson","9":"tag-ben-doak","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool-fc","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-scotland-football-team","15":"tag-steve-clarke","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-world-cup-2026","19":"tag-world-cup-qualifiers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115296810639098193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Scotland](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_JS379986064-1.jpg\")
Scotland skipper Andy Robertson<\/p>\n