Pedro Martinez Losa: Scotland need to behave like a major tournament team

Scotland manager Pedro Martinez Losa apologised for his side’s 6-0 defeat to England and said that there need to be improvements in set-up and investment to help development on the pitch.

Martinez Losa saw his side’s Nations League campaign end with a thrashing at the hands of their rivals, adding to the misery after relegation to League B had already been confirmed.

The manager accepted responsibility for the defeat but said that Scotland has to start “behaving like a major tournament team” and implied that the nation was lagging behind other teams behind the scenes.

“We have to apologise to the fans, this was not what they expected,” Martinez Losa said after the final whistle.

“We lost concentration in the first half after we conceded the first goal, we were out of the game at half-time.

“I will never be embarrassed about the team, about the players, but it was not the performance we were expecting for our fans.”

The performance and result at the end of a disappointing campaign has turned attention to Martinez Losa and the players, but the manager feels that wider questions about resource have to be considered, as well as a comparison to other teams of a similar standing.

“I’m focused on my job and focused on what we do with the players and preparing for every game,” he said when asked about his future. “That’s what can bring this team to the next level.

“I think, pressure or not, what we have to be is realistic. To qualify for a major tournament we have to have the set-up and the investment.

“We have to have all the resources to do that, not only focus on the manager and the players. The set-up at other national teams is very different to the setup that we have.

“It’s not an excuse but also I don’t think we have to be focused on the players and the manager, we have to be focused on the global situation and see how national teams like Switzerland, Portugal and Belgium and many others on our level of the ranking, we have to see what it is that they are doing well.

“We have to start behaving as a major tournament team in all the aspects.”