Not to turn this into a Scotland discussion but the centre backs Clarke turns to are utterly brutal. Hanley, Hendry, Souttar and McKenna and Porteous before them….. are all an absolute hazard. Welsh is a much more accomplished player than any of these guys but as you say, Clarke wants centre half’s to win headers, block challenges and launch it….. technically clever and good footballing defenders are not his thing.
if he does want those no nonsense types of centre half’s the 2 guys at Hearts are better than any of his go to guys above.