Steve Clarke comes out fighting for Scott McTominay ahead of Scotland and Morocco World Cup clash

Steve Clarke has backed Scott McTominay to rediscover his best form against Morocco and insisted Scotland's leading man can still become their World Cup talisman despite an underwhelming display against Haiti.

The Napoli midfielder struggled to impose himself as Scotland laboured to a narrow 1-0 victory in their opening Group C match, with Clarke's side forced to dig deep to secure three valuable points.

Victory over Morocco in Boston on Friday night would leave Scotland on the brink of reaching the knockout stages of a World Cup for the first time in their history, while even a draw could prove enough to keep them firmly on course.

McTominay, 29, arrived at the tournament in sparkling form but looked short of his usual intensity against Haiti after suffering from illness in the build-up to the game.

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Clarke believes the criticism aimed at his star midfielder has been harsh and pointed to Haiti's tactical discipline as a key reason for Scotland's struggles.

"I think the Haiti game was a struggle for a lot of the players, not just Scott," Clarke said.

"I thought Haiti controlled our midfield very well. So you have to give credit to them.

"Sometimes you don't get the chance to bring your attributes to the game because of what the opposition do. I think that might have been the case.

"Scott's in a good place and ready to go again."

Clarke acknowledged McTominay's importance to the national side, but stressed Scotland have several experienced figures capable of stepping up on the biggest stage.

"Scott has been one of our key players," he added.

"I'm lucky, I've got a lot of key players. I've got John McGinn, Grant Hanley, Kenny McLean, people like that. We've built a really good squad over the years.

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"Scott gets a lot of headlines, but he's also one of the first to understand that without the help of his team-mates, it's more difficult for him to be that talisman.

"If he can be that talisman tomorrow, then that'd be great."

Clarke refused to reveal whether he plans to persist with the 4-4-2 system deployed against Haiti, despite spending weeks working on the formation before the tournament.

"It's worked well for us, but every system that we've ever played, we've put a lot of work into them too," he said.

"I've shown over my time as head coach that we can do different systems.

"It's something that we've always wanted to try and expand on.

"More systems, different personnel for different games. That's something that you'll have to wait and see, as always."

Clarke expects Morocco to pose a far sterner examination after the African side impressed in their draw with Brazil.

"It's going to be very difficult and obviously a big challenge for us," he said.

"We expect Morocco probably to have more of the ball than us, more possession.

"What we have to make sure is that when we have the ball, we can be a big threat to Morocco."

Scotland conclude their group-stage campaign against Brazil next week, but Clarke insists his players are focused solely on the immediate challenge.

"The next game for sure, Morocco are going to be the most difficult because that's the next game," he said.

"Both teams are inside the top 10 in the world so we know for us, two big challenges."

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