DC92
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Posts posted by DC92
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43 minutes ago, 2426255 said:
Possible outcomes after this round of fixtures. Interesting that only one scenario will see Scotland drop from top spot and that if Armenia and Ireland get victories then the group could be considered to be quite open again. I think it's fantastic that the Armenia - Ukraine game will be done before our game kicks off.
Worth saying that in the bottom-middle and bottom-right scenarios we'd still have to beat Ukraine away as Ireland beating Armenia at home wins them the group otherwise.
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18 minutes ago, DC92 said:
Amazing that this is a potential qualifying group:
Austria
Scotland
Armenia
Luxembourg
Gibraltar
San Marino
An alternative possibility:
Spain
France
Scotland
Turkey
Bulgaria
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32 minutes ago, Donathan said:
This guy now has us at 76% to win the group and 91% chance of pot 2.
Ukraine 23% chance to win the group and 45% pot 2.
There is clearly a decent chance that the runner up of our group will be in pot 2
Amazing that this is a potential qualifying group:
Austria
Scotland
Armenia
Luxembourg
Gibraltar
San Marino
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6 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:
Great footage of Craig Gordon's hat-trick here.
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Despite fundamentally disagreeing with the reasons behind it, I was quietly delighted about the St Mirren game being postponed. It seems to have given us an opportunity to regroup and get players back when things were unravelling.
It's not often you get to treat a major historical moment like a goal just before half-time, but the Queen's death really came at a good time for us.
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10 hours ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:
We’re currently on 13 points from 7 a pace that would put us on 61 slightly ahead of last season
it’s hard to predict a margin because we don’t know who the team in fourth will be, never mind how many points they’ll have.Maybe somebody in the pack will be able to string a longer run of decent form together than any of them managed last season.
Having more money is an advantage, having more games is a disadvantage so you’d expect the two to cancel each other out to some extent in the first half of the season and then for us to pick up pace once the European adventure finally finishes
Comparing against equivalent games last year:
Ross County (h): 2-1 / 2-1; +0 pts +0 GD.
Hibernian (a): 0-0 / 1-1; +0 pts +0 GD.
Dundee United (h): 5-2 / 4-1; +0 pts +0 GD.
Celtic (a): 0-1 / 0-2; +0 pts -1 GD.
St Johnstone (h): 2-0 / 3-2; +0 pts -1 GD.
Livingston (a): 1-0 / 0-1; -3 pts -2 GD.
Motherwell (a): 0-2 / 3-0; +3 pts +5 GD.
Overall: 10-6 / 13-8; +0 pts +1 GD.
Considering the injuries and fixture congestion, we've done well so far. Scoring more goals is the encouraging thing as Halkett and Rowles coming back should improve the defensive side of things. Beni and Kio arguably as well.
To keep matching last season we'd need to take another 13 points by the World Cup. With another 4 European games to play, that's going to be very tough, especially as that 13 points includes a win against Celtic and away at Dundee (who've been replaced by Kilmarnock). I'd say if we make it through that within 3 or 4 points of 3rd then we're doing well.
The good thing is, that like last season, nobody else looks capable of putting a run together so far.
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11 minutes ago, Darren said:
It was 4-0 in Zagreb. Still an utter shellacking, Hearts were dire that night.
That home game was really strange. Zagreb seemed utterly rattled by a 2/3 full Tynecastle and a less shite Hearts team might genuinely have turned that around.
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11 minutes ago, Hoose Rice said:
Looking at that, they look to be considerably better away from home. Concerning for Hearts
I wouldn't be remotely surprised if it's a tricky game.
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6 minutes ago, tarapoa said:
Hearts just beat a side that are probably the standard of mid table League One in Scotland.
The Conference is designed to have I think at least four champions from diddy countries in each season.
If Hearts didn’t take six points from this lot, it would be an utter riddy.I wonder if the reason people complain so much about Scottish results in Europe is because they're catastrophically deluded about the standard of our game?
A team had gone 15 games in a row in Europe without losing by more than a goal, that's drawn away with Fiorentina and Gent and that has players who've been capped for Czech Republic and Serbia. Yeah, probably about the standard as Alloa Athletic to be honest.
Loving the sour grapes this evening.
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2 minutes ago, DC92 said:
Does it f**k.
They're a bit shite but they are almost always a tricky opponent based on their last few seasons in Europe. They've only lost by 2 goals once before in 16 games. They've played Partizan Belgrade, Fiorentina and Gent in that time and got results away from home against the latter two. The guy mentioning the Fiorentina result was responding to someone claiming they're Scottish League One level.
It's a win that gets us half a million euros and keeps things interesting ahead of the Fiorentina game and it was achieved with several important players missing. Ok performance, fucking great result.
Just realised I didn't even mention the boutique hotel.
Suddenly, what a time to support Heart of Midlothian!
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51 minutes ago, Hoose Rice said:
Lets be honest.
Any win away from home in European football is good but that team was utterly gash. They scraped through against part time Linfield.
48 minutes ago, Merkland Red said:Come on now, they were rotten.
Reminded me of a mid 90s Scotland away qualifier in the Eastern block. Wednesday night on the BBC.
You'd absolutely take a 2-0 win before it but feels a bit flat after the fact.
Does it f**k.
They're a bit shite but they are almost always a tricky opponent based on their last few seasons in Europe. They've only lost by 2 goals once before in 16 games. They've played Partizan Belgrade, Fiorentina and Gent in that time and got results away from home against the latter two. The guy mentioning the Fiorentina result was responding to someone claiming they're Scottish League One level.
It's a win that gets us half a million euros and keeps things interesting ahead of the Fiorentina game and it was achieved with several important players missing. Ok performance, fucking great result.
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Fucking yasss!
More to follow.
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3 hours ago, paranoid android said:
Halkett and Forest are fucked for this, and I've no doubt the big German lad is still waiting on his visa.
These games feel a bit like glorified friendlies where we can make a few bob, and opportunities for messy trips away.
Halkett and Forrest have both travelled.
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Thursday is huge. A win secures over £400k in prize money, keeps us alive in the group and maybe puts a spring back in our step going into a tough set of fixtures in October.
A poor result reduces our remaining European games to dead rubbers and piles the pressure on going into said October fixtures.
Unfortunately I'm not excited because the latter seems likelier than the former just now. Apparently they were battered by Linfield in Belfast but I watched highlights of the first leg and it looked like Linfield were similarly lucky to get a result in that game. Any team that can draw in Florence is going to be hard for us to beat.
There also isn't really a part of our team that's functioning properly at the moment. If Halkett misses out again we don't have any out-and-out centre-backs. The fit midfield options other than Devlin haven't been up to much so far and we've looked stale and predictable up front.
I think RFS play a back three so I expect we might match up:
Gordon
Smith Halkett Kingsley
Atkinson Grant Devlin Cochrane
Humphrys Shankland McKay
Haring might play in place of Grant in midfield for some extra height but other than that I think this will be pretty close.
Humphrys looked decent enough when he came on last week and we need someone getting closer to Shankland. Playing 3-4-3 will also hopefully allow McKay more attacking freedom to do some damage and let Kingsley drive forward at times and make us a bit more unpredictable.
If Halkett doesn't make it then f**k knows.
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We were expectedly well beaten by a better team but, based on what I saw, it was a game we could have got something with more players available or with better decision making and organisation. That's what's so disappointing.
The first goal doesn't happen if Haring simply gets rid of it. The second might not have happened if we'd had an actual centre-back on the pitch. After that we capitulated.
Overall it was a messy, disjointed performance. We were up against a better team, but it was a far cry from the Zurich game where we were right on it, winning second balls, making the right decisions in possession (up to the edge of the box) and looked like we had a clear game plan. This was miles off that.
Despite that, we still had chances. Haring's header was a bit unlucky but we also had Halliday forgetting that other players were on the pitch when through on goal and Shankland choosing to shoot from 25 yards instead of playing a teammate in. I can accept missing chances but the decision making is so frequently wrong in the final third.
Looking ahead to Thursday, having Halkett back should improve the defence substantially. My bigger concern is the attacking side of the team, which we haven't improved at all this summer. Winning this game is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds on its own and taking 6 points off them nearly a million. A lack of quality signings in the forward areas could end up costing us heavily.
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Let's fucking hope so.
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9 hours ago, DC92 said:
Those Basaksehir handicap odds are looking tempting I have to say.
Basaksehir -2 was 15/2.
In games like this you need most of your key players available (especially in defence), you need to get the tactics right, and you need to make the right decisions at key moments. None of the above.
At least no c**t is watching.
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My expectations for this game were low for various reasons, mainly because you can't expect much against a better team with so many players about. We've done ok in some respects given the circumstances.
But some of our decision making has been completely baffling. Caught on the ball time and time again in attacking and defensive situations. Wake the f**k up.
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1 minute ago, Tony Wonder said:
It's not ideal, but I'd still trust Sibbick over Neilson in that regard. A lack of physicality is really evident with Neilson at this point.
I'm talking about having neither and playing Haring instead, but really f**k knows what he's like at CB given he's almost never played there for us despite it being his position at his previous club.
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5 hours ago, Tony Wonder said:
I'd play Sibbick if Halkett is out. For 2 reasons, one, I think Smith will play and having the experience of him and Kingsley beside him, rather than expecting him to be the leader with Neilson/Atkinson will help him. And two, he's absolutely rapid which allows us a bit cover if we are trying to press them higher up the park.
I think Basaksehir will be starting Okaka, who's big and physical, up front. Aside from his other flaws I'd be worried about Sibbick getting bullied.
There isn't a potential defensive combination that doesn't make me wince tbh.
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8 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:
We're absolutely fucked. Just going to go and enjoy the day.
Can see an absolute pasting here.
Those Basaksehir handicap odds are looking tempting I have to say.
I'm pretty sure the stats tell us that no Halkett usually means we lose. I think that's as much to do with Halkett being good as it is about not having a proper back-up. Kingsley does the dirty stuff well enough but I'd say Halkett and Rowles are the only out-and-out CBs we have with any experience and they're both out. Even just being able to stick in some jobber to heads and kicks everything away would give me far more confidence.
Maybe we shift Haring back there? Not ideal, but it means no Sibbick and he'd probably be off the pace in midfield anyway.
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On 04/09/2022 at 12:54, DC92 said:
So who's looking forward to seeing us get slapped about by some plastic, nouveau riche Turkish club with no fans on a midweek afternoon then?
Praying that Kiomourtzoglou's visa miraculously comes through in time and that he's actually good. I don't fancy our current midfield options other than Devlin against a better side.
Based on who was benched yesterday, I've a feeling we might see Ginnelly up front and Shankland dropping off.
Gordon
Smith Halkett Kingsley Cochrane
Kio/Haring Devlin
Forrest Shankland McKay
Ginnelly
With the disastrous news that Halkett is out and the unsurprising news that Kiomourtzoglou's work permit hasn't come through I'm revising it to this.
Gordon
Smith Neilson/Sibbick Kingsley Cochrane
Forrest Haring Devlin McKay
Ginnelly Shankland
God help us. At least our inevitable gubbing will just be rolled into the wider narrative about "the standard of the game".
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It feels like the kind of signing we've moved away from, but I'll take him given the circumstances. It's very hard to know what you're getting with someone that age but he seemed to do well for Luton last season and he's never had any pace to lose.
Regardless of how he does, the fact we're signing a 35 year old after the European deadline is reflective of the struggles we've had recruiting attacking players.
I'd say we're now pretty well covered at goalkeeper, left side of defence and midfield. Still lacking depth on the right side of the defence and lacking dynamism and depth in the attacking areas. Hopefully another right-sided defender to come in and then we can fully focus on improving the attack in January.
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Can't make Thursday so I'm going to the other two home games and Florence.
Not surprised sales for Thursday are a bit sluggish but I'd have thought Fiorentina would be near enough sold out by now. I guess there's only so much cash you can wring out of one set of fans in such a short period. Shite form and a boring transfer window probably don't help either.
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Ukraine v Scotland (27/9/22)
in Tartan Army Ramblings
Posted
The defence was always going to make me wince but I'm not really getting that midfield 3. Very samey.