Next Scotland manager.

[SpoonTon]

On Michael O'Neill. The average age of the N.I. team at the weekend was 28.5. He's working with a team at their peak just now, and I'd expect him to probably want to work with them until at least this campaign is through. But after that he might look at it and think the only way is down. 

On that point as well, though. It probably indicates that O'Neill would, rightly, focus on those players at the top of their game instead of throwing in young players for the sake of it. 

[Guest DAVIDB69]

Would have no issue with john Collins the poor fitness of the team would be sorted out and they would not get the easy life mollycoddling they get under strachan.

Pretty sure there would be an end to guaranteed games as well

[Dons_1988]

Would have no issue with john Collins the poor fitness of the team would be sorted out and they would not get the easy life mollycoddling they get under strachan.

Pretty sure there would be an end to guaranteed games as well

Would it though?

You can't implement a fitness/diet/training regime when you only seen the players a week at a time

[Diamonds are Forever]

37 minutes ago, DAVIDB69 said:

Would have no issue with john Collins the poor fitness of the team would be sorted out and they would not get the easy life mollycoddling they get under strachan.

Pretty sure there would be an end to guaranteed games as well

 

How on earth would he sort fitness out in less than a week? Not sure why you see fitness as an issue anyway.

[sergie's no1 fan]

I'm not sold on O'Neil personally. What he has achieved at NI has been incredible and better than any other previous Scotland manager has managed but there are a couple of catches. 3 qualifying from the group and the standard of qualifying groups.

If you swapped our group for there group they wouldn't have qualified. Simple as. They hardly mustered a shot on target against Germany or Poland at the Euros, we scored 7 against both in our group and Poland couldn't beat us over 2 games. Poland also destroyed Romania 3-0 away from home who were in Northern Ireland's group but this is getting into if my auntie had bollocks territory and it's been done to death.

Will Scotland fans accept 5-3-2? Will we accept defensive displays? Only if we are winning but that is easier said than done. He isn't guaranteed to win games. I think we expect Scotland to have a go at teams home and away. If he comes with a defensive mentality and we don't win games the fans will quickly lose patience.

Personally I don't care as long as we are competitive and are challenging for qualification and I think he is an upgrade on Strachan because he has done well with lesser players but should we go for O'Neil because he is better than Strachan? That's what happened when he took over from Levein and whilst we improved at the beginning of Strachan's term, in the long run it hasn't paid off.

By the sounds of it the SFA won't dare sack Strachan so we'll just need to wait if he chucks it. Ridiculous situation but this is the SFA we are talking about.

 

[Guest DAVIDB69]

 

How on earth would he sort fitness out in less than a week? Not sure why you see fitness as an issue anyway.

The team is hopelessly unfit they were puffing out their backsides in the latter part of Friday .

Even though Collins would only have a week at time , their fitness would improve. We have Scotland fitness levels last few years which are way lower than club fitness levels

[pandarilla]

The team is hopelessly unfit they were puffing out their backsides in the latter part of Friday .

Even though Collins would only have a week at time , their fitness would improve. We have Scotland fitness levels last few years which are way lower than club fitness levels

One week doesn't help at all chief. If anything, you'll tire players out for the match. Fitness is a medium to long term issue.

[Diamonds are Forever]

21 minutes ago, DAVIDB69 said:

 

 

The team is hopelessly unfit they were puffing out their backsides in the latter part of Friday .

Even though Collins would only have a week at time , their fitness would improve. We have Scotland fitness levels last few years which are way lower than club fitness levels

 

 

 

How would fitness improve? As has been mentioned, all you would achieve is knackering the players for the actual match.

I'd suggest the reason for this puffing is that Anya, Hanley, Morrison, Griffiths and Snodgrass either don't play regularly or have just come back from injury. The pace of the game against a team like that is also a huge step up from the week to week pace of the game for Brown, Forrest, Berra and Wallace.

[Guest DAVIDB69]

 

How would fitness improve? As has been mentioned, all you would achieve is knackering the players for the actual match.

I'd suggest the reason for this puffing is that Anya, Hanley, Morrison, Griffiths and Snodgrass either don't play regularly or have just come back from injury. The pace of the game against a team like that is also a huge step up from the week to week pace of the game for Brown, Forrest, Berra and Wallace.

Well we should not be playing players that are not club regulars , you are describing accepted Scotland fitness as well, where players use the national side as a run out to improve fitness in an attempt to get some club time.

Whoever the replacement is the above needs to end, the above hugely contributes to our poor fitness

[Diamonds are Forever]

1 minute ago, DAVIDB69 said:

 

Well we should not be playing players that are not club regulars , you are describing accepted Scotland fitness as well, where players use the national side as a run out to improve fitness in an attempt to get some club time.

Whoever the replacement is the above needs to end, the above hugely contributes to our poor fitness

 

 

If we didn't play guys who weren't regulars then James McFadden would barely have kicked a ball for Scotland, who was an Everton sub the majority of the time. You have been happy with that?

[pandarilla]

 

If we didn't play guys who weren't regulars then James McFadden would barely have kicked a ball for Scotland, who was an Everton sub the majority of the time. You have been happy with that?

That's the beauty with all these arguments. There's counters for every single one.

Change managers sometimes works. Sticking with managers sometimes works.

Playing like a club side (loyalty and close knit) sometimes works. Picking players on form sometimes works.

Youth sometimes works. Experience sometimes works.

We need someone with a solid, balanced judgment. And whoever we go for needs a bit of time, a lot of support, and a shit load of luck.

[Guest DAVIDB69]

 

If we didn't play guys who weren't regulars then James McFadden would barely have kicked a ball for Scotland, who was an Everton sub the majority of the time. You have been happy with that?

He was at Everton , we now play players who can't get game for championship sides

[Diamonds are Forever]

15 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

 

That's the beauty with all these arguments. There's counters for every single one.

Change managers sometimes works. Sticking with managers sometimes works.

Playing like a club side (loyalty and close knit) sometimes works. Picking players on form sometimes works.

Youth sometimes works. Experience sometimes works.

We need someone with a solid, balanced judgment. And whoever we go for needs a bit of time, a lot of support, and a shit load of luck.

 

 

People fit whatever argument they want to suit themselves. Before the Malta game the cry was that Griffiths had to start because he was the form player and Martin wasn't. He barely starts a game from August onwards and then against England fans still demand he starts, suddenly playing regularly and scoring goals isn't important anymore. Martin incidentally was the 'form' striker before the England game, again, the form argument didn't apply this time.

Like you say, there is no overall rule that should apply as there are so many varying factors, particularly with Scotland. It's easy when you are England/Spain/Germany when all your players are playing regularly at the same level for similar standard clubs. We have players playing across 5 different leagues, some on form, some not, some regulars, some not. If we only played regular, on form starters playing at a good level we'd have 2 players (if that!).

[Diamonds are Forever]

10 minutes ago, DAVIDB69 said:

 

He was at Everton , we now play players who can't get game for championship sides

 

 

Doesn't matter, your argument was that we shouldn't be playing guys who aren't regulars because they aren't fit enough. Sititng on the bench for Everton will have the same impact on your fitness as sitting on the bench for Cowdenbeath.

[OFFS DUNDEE!!]

They're 2-0 down yet they still attack after 74 minutes. What do the Spanish think they'll achieve?

[pandarilla]

They're 2-0 down yet they still attack after 74 minutes. What do the Spanish think they'll achieve?

f**k off it's completely different. Far, far more capable and actually they're trying to salvage the situation from what was expected to be a win.

[sergie's no1 fan]

18 minutes ago, OFFS DUNDEE!! said:

They're 2-0 down yet they still attack after 74 minutes. What do the Spanish think they'll achieve?

A draw 

[Gordopolis]

Really admired how the Spanish were still running to take throwins in the 87th min (before their first goal). Also liking their current setup more than the false 9 (which could be a bit of a boreathon)

[eez-eh]

1 hour ago, pandarilla said:

f**k off it's completely different. Far, far more capable and actually they're trying to salvage the situation from what was expected to be a win.

 

Do you always lose your shit and tell folk to f**k off when they counter arguments you've made? Some teacher you must be.

This post makes absolutely no sense. The "far more capable" argument just typifies your "we're shite and there's no point trying to better ourselves argument". Whether they were expected to win or not is neither here nor there, not being expected to win doesn't mean you make no effort to try get something from a game.

[pandarilla]

Do you always lose your shit and tell folk to f**k off when they counter arguments you've made? Some teacher you must be.

This post makes absolutely no sense. The "far more capable" argument just typifies your "we're shite and there's no point trying to better ourselves argument". Whether they were expected to win or not is neither here nor there, not being expected to win doesn't mean you make no effort to try get something from a game.

It's a stupid comparison to make and sometimes stupidity exasperates me. Maybe I use up all my patience in school.

England kept the ball from 3 up against Scotland on Friday. Last night England barely touched it when they were 2 up.

There's plenty to criticise the manager and team about for Friday. Not getting back into the game when 3 down at Wembley is really not one. Even at our strongest, Scotland teams would struggle to get the game back. And as we can all agree, this team isn't a patch on our teams of the past.