Chuckling Steve Clarke joked he wouldn't get himself into trouble as he responded to a Scotland vs Switzerland poser.
The national team manager was in high spirits during the pre-match press conference ahead of the Euro 2024 showdown on Wednesday.
Clarke is hopeful his side will find form in their second outing after a nightmare opening encounter against hosts Germany.
Despite the heavy 5-1 loss, Clarke was in a positive mood and even had time for a joke with Swiss press when he was quizzed on the importance of Granit Xhaka and whether he could be compared to Toni Kroos.
One journalist asked: "Can you compare Toni Kroos with Granit Xhaka, or is Toni Kroos one or more levels above him?
Smirking, Clarke joked: "Are you trying to get me into trouble?
"No, listen, two very similar players - similar in how they control the game for their team.
"We understood that Toni Kroos was a key player for Germany and we didn't handle him very well.
"So, we know Granit Xhaka is a key player for Switzerland, and hopefully we handle him a little bit better."
On the second match and what Scotland must do to recover from the opening defeat, Clarke added: “For us, it is to regroup and go again. It’s that simple. It is about doing better, exactly that.
“The players want to go back and play better and I think that is pretty standard when you play so poorly and let yourself down.
“As I said when I spoke to a lot of you on Sunday, it is about doing better, working better into the game.
“We thought we were well prepared for Germany, obviously we weren’t. So this time I think it is better not to say too much and hopefully with our actions on the pitch we will show that we prepared well and a positive result would be lovely.”
