Scotland “might have to suffer” in a difficult Nations League group but assistant manager John Carver is adamant there will be long-term gains as he looks to qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.

Scotland visit Croatia on Saturday and host Portugal next Tuesday, having lost their opening matches at home to Poland and away to the Portuguese.

Those September defeats leave Steve Clarke’s side without a competitive victory in over a year and on a run of just one win in 14 matches.

“I think you can see what we’re trying to do,” said Carver. “There’s a clear identity, how we are going to play in and out of possession.

“We continue with that and you’d like to think results will come.”

Two calamitous penalties contributed to a 3-2 loss to Poland at Hampden, while Scotland led at the interval before going down 2-1 in Lisbon.

“We can take so much encouragement from our last two performances,” added Carver. “Nobody expected us to perform the way we did in Lisbon. We should have got at least a draw.

“People thought we were in for a drubbing but we were in the game. We didn’t sit back, we had a go at them.”

The gifted kid from the outskirts of Albacete grew up following Michael Laudrup and Pep Guardiola, and was given the chance to hone his raw talent in their shadows when he was exposed to Barcelona’s revered La Masia youth academy at the age of 12, even if he did “cry buckets” on arrival.

He did not know then the influence the latter would have on his career.

Guardiola admired the understated up-and-coming playmaker when captain of the Catalan giants, famously suggesting fellow midfielder Xavi would retire him and “this lad Iniesta is going to retire us all”, before as coach making Iniesta a pivotal part of his all-conquering side.

“Barcelona was like an exam every game and you had to pass that,” says Iniesta. “That’s the base and each time you have to adapt to the environment, mould yourself to the style that is required of you – but always keeping the essence.

“I’ve had different coaches. I started with Louis van Gaal and then there was Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde. All coaches teach you something and you can learn something from all coaches. Maybe there are times I played less, but that experience enriched me too.

“It would be hard to point out a coach who has influenced me the most and that’s the same with the players I have played with and learned from. I have been in Barca and Spanish national teams in very good moments and I have been with the world’s best players and I have learned from all of them.”

Iniesta pauses for a moment to consider his answer and then continues: “It’s not only what you have immediately around you, but an opponent, an opponent’s system or style of play. I’ve always thought this motivation to learn is the motor to keep improving.

“You can learn from everything, not only from your immediate surroundings but from everything surrounding your football.”

He highlights the relentless energy of Marcelo Bielsa’s sides and the challenge of breaking down Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid in El Clasico fixtures.

“I have been lucky to have played a lot of games in my career and you encounter a lot of teams, a lot of proponents,” says Iniesta.

“It is not the same in the different competitions that you play like the Champions League or La Liga or for the national team. English teams or Italian teams are very different. When you played against Marcelo Bielsa’s Chile, that was a particular team.

“Playing against Real Madrid when Mourinho was coaching – or Carlo Ancelotti – are experiences which really enrich you.”

It was Barcelona, though, who inspired coaches around the world to adopt the principles that made them so successful – the tiki-taka, the suffocating press, the focus on technically gifted players at a time when others were scouting for strong, powerful athletes.

“Barca has always been characterised by being a team that wants the ball and wants to keep the ball,” says Iniesta. “In the time of Guardiola, the football itself didn’t change but it was a time where teams were really looking at us and trying to learn.”

Just over a year ago Rob Holding made a £4m deadline day switch from Arsenal to bolster Crystal Palace’s defence.

But a little more than 12 months on, when Palace issued a joint photo, external of the men’s and women’s squads to mark a club anniversary, the 29-year-old was nowhere to be seen.

Why has the two-time FA Cup winner’s career come to a standstill?

Holding, who made 162 appearances for Arsenal over seven years, is currently training with the Eagles’ under-21 team following a disagreement with manager Oliver Glasner.

“Rob is training individually at the moment,” Glasner said on 1 September, when asked about the centre-back.

“We will talk together – he knows the reason. But it is something that stays between Rob and me. Nothing public.”

Sources with knowledge of the dispute have told BBC Sport that there was a disagreement about a post-match running session following Holding’s last involvement in the first team. He was an unused substitute in a 2-0 home defeat by West Ham on 24 August.

Holding has only made one appearance for the club since he joined on a three-year deal, in the EFL Cup last season against Manchester United, and has not featured at all in the Premier League.

The U21s train at the club’s academy, a separate location to the first team’s base, and sources on both sides say that the situation for Holding is unlikely to change.

Sources close to the player say Holding is accepting of that and intends to keep training professionally and being the best he can in the circumstances.

Palace signed three centre-backs this summer, with Maxence Lacroix coming in from Wolfsburg in a deal worth £18m, Chadi Riad joining from Real Betis in a deal worth up to £14m and Trevoh Chalobah arriving on loan from Chelsea.

The Eagles also kept hold of £70m-rated England centre-back Marc Guehi and have Chris Richards, Jefferson Lerma, Joel Ward and Nathaniel Clyne as options in defence. That means that if Holding did patch things up with Glasner, he would still potentially only be the club’s eighth or ninth-choice centre-back.

Holding has deleted all references to Crystal Palace from his Instagram page and has unfollowed the club on the platform. He is still listed as a first-team player on the Palace website.

He played the full 90 minutes for the under-21s in their 3-1 victory over Gillingham in the EFL Trophy two weeks ago.

Holding is reported to have been an excellent role model at the academy, with one source describing his impact around the U21 team as “brilliant”.

But the road to first-team favour seems like a long way back for the former Arsenal player, even with Palace in the relegation zone and winless from their opening seven Premier League games.

Aberdeen left-back Jack MacKenzie, 24, is set to be called up to the Scotland squad. (Press and Journal – subscription), external

Torino striker Che Adams says he has still to hit the heights for Scotland that he has delivered at club level. (Daily Record), external

Dundee United defender Declan Gallagher will never give up on a Scotland recall but reckons team-mate Ross Graham could beat him to it. (Courier – subscription), external

Rangers should have had a penalty against St Johnstone for a shirt pull on Cyriel Dessers, believes former referee Des Roache. (Daily Record), external

Ross County striker Ronan Hale was happy to block out shouts from Kasper Schmeichel about which corner to aim for as he beat the Celtic goalkeeper with a retaken penalty on Sunday. (Daily Record), external

Former Hearts coach Gordon Forrest has joined Chinese club Shenzhen Peng City until the end of the year. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

Another ex-Hearts employee, Joe Savage, has set up a consultancy that will help broker deals between agents, clubs and players, after leaving the sporting director post at Tynecastle. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

A contract extension for in-form Aberdeen full-back Nicky Devlin is a no-brainer, says former Pittodrie favourite Duncan Shearer. (Press & Journal – subscription), external

The “character and drive” of Kieron Bowie will bring the Hibernian forward back stronger after successful surgery to address a hamstring issue, says head coach David Gray. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

Ianis Hagi will miss Rangers’ next three games after his red card against St Johnstone since he is suspended for two Scottish Premiership games, which are followed by a Europa League match he is ineligible for. (Daily Record), external

Ianis Hagi sent an Instagram message to fans thanking them for the warm welcome back after his long absence from the first team at Rangers. (Football Scotland), external