While many Jamaican fans remain fixated on how the Reggae Boyz should play, head coach Steve McClaren is more focused on who can execute the job. The Englishman, known for his tactical nous, admits that though he came in with a specific vision for Jamaica’s midfield and overall style of play, reality has forced him to adapt—and quickly.

McClaren's side continues their journey toward the 2026 FIFA World Cup with qualifying action away to the British Virgin Islands on Saturday, before hosting Guatemala in a top-of-the-table clash on Tuesday, where fans will hope the tactician's evolving vision takes stronger shape and his midfield puzzle finds the right pieces.

"I came into this job with a certain vision, wanting to play a certain way, and then you get in, and all of a sudden you realise that won't be effective, or I don’t think that will work, so you have to adapt. What we did in the first three camps and games was evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, and we saw a bit of the quality we needed to play through that midfield in that (Gold Cup playoff) game against St. Vincent," McClaren said during a recent interview on the SportsMax Zone.

"At times the quality of the surface makes it very difficult to play the way we want to play, and maybe we are also pressing too high, and so opponents play the long game and we get stretched, so we thought we needed to adapt to what we have, and that was the start of the process in our minds. To win a football game, you have to play a certain way, and if we have to play long, then we will play long at times. If we feel that we can progress, then we will progress, so we are just finding the balance," he added.

At the heart of McClaren's vision lies a midfield engine room that he is intent on shaping. He has already named five midfielders in his 24-member squad for the upcoming qualifying fixtures and sees that area as both a historical weakness and future foundation for success.

“I have a thing in mind where the midfield is concerned. We call it the controller—a number six, an eight, a runner, and a 10 who is creative; that’s the balance we need. We saw a little bit in St Vincent. We had the controller in Isaac [Hayden], we had the runner, Bobby Reid, and we had Demarai Gray as the 10. I think we had that in the Unity Cup with Isaac; this time the runner was Jon Russell and the creator was Kasey Palmer, so we got the balance," McClaren shared.

"From the very beginning, that (midfield) has been a problem area. To progress, you have to go through the midfield and play with the ball, and we’ve struggled there. It is not being too dogmatic that this is what we are doing because that doesn’t win you football matches; players win you football matches. So we have to adapt and play to the strengths of the players, and I think in the Unity Cup we played to the exact strengths of everybody in that squad," he noted.

The bigger vision—playing fluid, possession-based football through the midfield—is still on the horizon. But McClaren is realistic. As such, in that Unity Cup outing, in which the Boyz split two games against Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria, McClaren opted to go wide and quick, as he exploited the pace of Renaldo Cephas, Kaheim Dixon, and fullback Dexter Lembikisa.

"We negated that problem a little bit and went around opponents instead of through the opponents midfield, and we did that with width, which you saw from Cephas and Kaheim Dixon, who are very quick, and our full-backs with Dexter on one side. But the key was the speed that we had on the front line," the Englishman said.

The inclusion of Ravel Morrison represents an attempt to solve the creativity issue, while young talents like Dwayne Atkinson, despite injury challenges, are being closely monitored.

"Dwayne Atkinson is a player who I have watched for many months now, and I always want to pick him, but he always seems to be injured. But he joined us for the Unity Cup, and he looked good in training, even if only just for a couple of days, and he had some minutes. So I’m excited to see how he progresses and integrates into the squad," McClaren ended.