Virtual Insanity
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Posts posted by Virtual Insanity
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That Airdrie third is about as good as you can do when stuck with Joma and Holemasters.
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20 minutes ago, Gaz said:
Also, I refuse to believe that man-for-man you'd have Hungary ahead of us on squad talent, so why were we being outplayed by them for large parts of the game?
Very much this. If it's not the quality of the individual players it's the quality of the setup, organisation and coaching.
On Moyes I think people underestimate his record, the guy has managed in the Best League in the World™ for 20 odd years with very consistent results, notably often with fairly average personnel. His consistency is phenomenal. His football is only dour in the sense that it's more direct than most modern coaches, not in the sense that it has zero attacking intent whatsoever.
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11 minutes ago, rainbowrising said:
If England lose and Denmark win, pushing England in to 3rd spot, how does that loose cannon impact things?
Not good news for us as they would rank above us (barring a miraculous goal difference swing).
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31 minutes ago, JS_FFC said:
or draw and Spain, Italy, Portugal and Turkey beat Albania, Croatia, Georgia and Czechoslovakia respectively.
Is the continued use of Czechoslovakia despite it being pointed out multiple times some sort of bizarre political stance?
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5 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:
Depends which 4 3rd place teams get through.
If we go through in 3rd we'll definitely play either winner of Group B, Group E or Group F. B is likely to be Spain, the other two still up for grabs but E will likely be Romania, Slovakia or Belgium and F will likely be Portugal.
EDIT - If we go through in 3rd, and 3rd place in Group B doesn't (which at this point is reasonably likely), we would play the Group F winner so likely Ronaldo and co.
Based on data from Football Meets Data on Twitter, if we get through our chances are currently approx 83% Group F in Frankfurt, 12% Group E in Munich and 5% Group B in Cologne.
One thing I can't quite work out is eg in the ABCD situation, 1C has to play 3D and 1B has to play 3A by process of elimination, but how do they then assign 3B and 3C?
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18 minutes ago, H Wragg said:
So, anything other than a Slovenia win against England and it's job done in that group? (Assuming Scotland on 4 points).
Slovenia win is also OK if Denmark and Serbia draw.
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I do enjoy
20 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:An England win v Denmark, and a draw in Serbia v Denmark means Tartan Army lookign for a 5 goal England win this afternoon?
I think we probably have to give up on C as a <2 point group and focus on it as a <4 point group which now looks fairly likely (minimum 66% I think, upwards of 90% if England don't lose provided they don't intentionally throw the Slovenia game).
I do enjoy spending far too much of my time thinking about all these possibilities before we inevitably f**k it up anyway.
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7 hours ago, JS_FFC said:
For today’s results we are hoping for:
Serbia to avoid defeat against Slovenia at 2pm
A draw is actually preferable, but we don’t want Slovenia to win as that would get them to 4 points with a decent chance that both England and Denmark join them.
England to avoid defeat against Denmark at 5pm
We are indifferent between a draw and an England win. Both of those would get England to 4+ and leave Denmark needing to beat Serbia to join them.
Spain to beat Italy at 8pm
This would mean 4 points is enough unless Albania beat Spain. The next best result would be an Italy win, because that would mean 4 is enough unless Croatia beat Italy. The unfortunate result in this one is a draw because then 4 may not be enough if either Albania or Croatia win their final match.
Agree with the numbers on England but we probably prefer a draw now from the point of view of giving England something to play for going into the last game. Don't like the scenario of an England defeat potentially knocking us out...
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Copied from the other thread: I have had a look at probabilities of 2 points being enough, based on current standings and bookies odds for the results it would need, the current chances today are around 10-11% but if results all go our way (obviously unlikely) that could be as high as 47% by Sunday.
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4 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:
There's much sense in this. But it also comes with risks.
Ralston (and Robertson for that matter) are not protected defensively by a wider centre back and will need to be more switched on in stopping opponents getting past them. Hanley (whose stamina / sharpness is a concern) or McKenna (who isn't as quick) are going to have to cover more ground and be stretched thinner too.
But I like the attacking side of it.
I think we have to show ambition here, the defensive risks are outweighed a bit in Ralston's case by the fact that he could sit deeper (and it's his natural position).
Incidentally, I have had a look at probabilities of 2 points being enough, based on current standings and bookies odds for the results it would need, the current chances today are around 10-11% but if results all go our way (obviously unlikely) that could be as high as 47% by Sunday.
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Got to be a 451 for me, not only does it get our best players on the pitch but it probably fits our subs best too.
Gunn
Ralston Hendry Hanley(McKenna) Robertson
Gilmour McGregor
McGinn McTominay Christie
Adams
Not convinced Clarke will do it though. Gives us options with Armstrong (if fit), Forrest, Morgan able to slot into the advanced roles if we're pushing for a goal.
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30 minutes ago, craigkillie said:
I've had a quick browse of all major international tournaments with this 24 team format and 3 points for a win including previous Euros, Women's World Cup, AFCON and Asia Cup, and there has never been a team knocked out on 4 points. It's not impossible, of course.
According to this phenomenal piece of work it happened twice in 75 occurrences in this tournament format. Says only 2 teams progressed with 2 points out of 24 but I believe it's actually 3 as Uruguay also did it in 1986 (with a minus 5 goal difference).
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Just now, JS_FFC said:
There’s a chance that 2 groups have both 3rd and 4th place with just a single point each. That’s the scenario where we get through with 2 points. Not likely and we certainly shouldn’t be relying on it, but just saying it’s there. Groups B and D are the two I have in mind.
Group F also not out the equation.
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It's not impossible that 2 points does it...
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Just now, Central Belt Caley said:
I reckon Clarke has a decision to make now about going 4 or 5 at the back vs Hungary. One of the previous times Robbo was out we started with a 4-2-3-1 vs ROI at Hampden and Tierney went off for Taylor. McKenna and Hendry were the centre backs that night.
With Morgan and Forrest in the squad he has players with the capability to play out on the wings.
There's no justification for going 3-5-2 v Hungary, but we probably will.
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Just now, ScottishZizou said:
You can’t be serious with that take? He ran himself into the ground and got us up the pitch multiple times. It was a thankless task with the formation we play and he did as well as I think was possible in the circumstances, I thought he was excellent. Shankland could never give us a performance like that let’s be real here.
He didn't kick the ball in the goal though, boooo.
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Hanley in for Porteous is a default. Gilmour has to play, McTominay is not a deep lying midfielder. If he plays, he plays one of the two advanced roles. McGregor was off it tonight but will do better alongside Gilmour. Ralston needs to be dropped. Up front is a toss up for me, always been an Adams fan and harsh to judge him on tonight, but he was incredibly ineffective.
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3 hours ago, Junior_Arab said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c800747dw1po
Tom English’s article on the hardships faced & resilience shown by the various members of the Scotland squad.
To be fair there are some genuinely gruesome injuries that have been overcome (Christie, McGinn) and some long, difficult routes to the top following early setbacks (Clark, Robertson, Shankland), but some of the others hardly have my heart bleeding.
Ralston doesn’t play every week for Celtic!
Hendry has had to play in Australia, Belgium & Italy before moving to the Middle East to rake in cash!
Cooper, McKenna, Armstrong and (to a slightly lesser degree) Jack haven’t decided with which club to sign their next multi million pound contracts!
Gilmour has had to drop down to a mid-table EPL club!
McTominay plays for Man Utd, who haven’t been brilliant for the last couple of years! (but are still in the top 10 biggest clubs in the world)
Tierney’s face doesn’t quite seem to fit at Arsenal!
I am an extremely lucky, privileged man, with a great life and a lot for which to be thankful.
But f**k me, sign me up for some of that “hardship” any day of the week…
Came here to post this article. A vaguely interesting take if it had focused on McGinn and Christie turned into a rambling incoherent mess. Truly breathtakingly bad.
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On 13/06/2024 at 12:52, Claudia Gentile said:
^^^ Tony Blair
Underrated post.
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1 hour ago, Skyline Drifter said:
Well I'm only out for the Hungary game as it was the only one I could get a ticket for and we're back home the next day. I have a big meeting at work on the Wednesday also. If we progress, and I can get a ticket, then I would likely fly back out for the last 16. Partly depends on costs and convenience of available flights and hotels though.
Not going back without a ticket though and far from convinced I'd get one (or my son who is lagging one point behind me, and I wouldn't go unless we both go). I'm also not sure how the SSC would plan to sell tickets for any last sixteen game as we'd potentially only have a day or so's notice if we're waiting on a best 3rd place slot. It may be too late to be sure of getting a ticket and still actually get there. Have they said anything yet about potential future round sales?
Worst case scenario we find out night of 26th that we're playing night of 30th. Not much of a window but should be enough with hourly slots to sell tickets, travel arrangements will be more challenging though. Have optimistically booked cancellable accommodation in most cities, I'll be in Europe anyway so *should* be feasible by train.
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59 minutes ago, Double t said:
Tell us what we can expect??
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Don't watch much club rugby but think the ref has been excellent, communicates really well. Red could have gone either way but don't mind him giving the guy the benefit of the doubt.
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7 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:
Which brings me to the defence. In starting Hanley both games Clarke's made it clear he wants to play him. Has he done enough to earn it? Probably just about but he's certainly not where he was pre achilles injury yet. Surprised to read a fair bit of criticism here though. He's lost a yard of pace compared to 4 years ago and he's not sharp on the turn but he didnt do too much wrong. For me no coincidence we fell apart at the back when he went off. McKenna's not good enough in the centre of a three. Hendry can do it but Hanley's better at it, even now.
We fell apart when Gilmour went off, him and McGregor had that game totally under control in second gear. None of our options for the middle of the back 3 are great but Hanley looks like a guy that has hardly kicked a ball of late. The number of times he didn't know where the ball and/or his man was was very concerning, including for their first goal. I'd take Porteous and Hendry next week but suspect Clarke wants Hanley to deal with Fullkrug if he plays.
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The Partick Thistle thread
in Scottish Championship General Chatter
Posted
You'd imagine Ipswich would rather he was getting a heavier workload at Killie or County rather than swinging on the bar as we stroll to the title.