If Scotland were...

[DA Baracus]

24 minutes ago, Polomoney said:

Anyone saying Scotland is a better team than Morocco is wearing tartan tinted glasses. Our players can only dream of having a first touch as good as the Moroccan players.

Aye, it's mental how far behind our technical ability seems to be

[Peppino Impastato]

8 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Aye, it's mental how far behind our technical ability seems to be

I think our players are better than you think.  Also there's a lot more to the game.  Saudi are excellent technically but utter shite overall.  We'd cruise past them.

[Co.Down Hibee]

Don't think Scotland would be the worst team, possibly worst of the Europeans but Saudi are fairly honking and Australia haven't got much so probably below them.

[craigkillie]

We're unbeaten in six competitive matches, most of which were against decent mid-ranking European teams (1 v England, 2 v Slovenia, 1 v Slovakia), but the posts on here would give the impression that we'd finished bottom of our qualifying group and had gone years without winning a game.  There are definitely several teams at this tournament who we could beat, but of course every single one of them could beat us too.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:

We're unbeaten in six competitive matches, most of which were against decent mid-ranking European teams (1 v England, 2 v Slovenia, 1 v Slovakia), but the posts on here would give the impression that we'd finished bottom of our qualifying group and had gone years without winning a game.  There are definitely several teams at this tournament who we could beat, but of course every single one of them could beat us too.

NAH MATE I RECKON SCOTLAND WOULD LOSE EVERY SINGLE GAME 6-0 BECAUSE WE HAVE LITERALLY THE WORST GROUP OF FOOTBALLERS EVER ASSMBLED AT PROFESSIONAL LEVEL 

- the Tartan Army Ramblings forum da collective 

[Scary Bear]

Yet we have about 70 players who would stroll into their squad.  You're talking about a cup competition. Would Scotland have fared better against Nigeria today than Iceland did quite probably yes.
You'd have to be a complete moron to think a team of fisherman and posties are better than Scotland.  There's a reason someone pays the Scottish players a lot of money to play football and not the Icelandic ones.

Fisherman and posties?

What possibly helps their squad is that they play in quite a few different leagues.

Look at their squad and their first XI v Argentina. They have the usual English Championship guys that we have and one outstanding player in Sigurdsson. Unfortunately for us our Liverpool player is a left back. They also have players in various other European leagues.

Halldórsson - Randers FC
Saevarsson - Hammarby
Árnason - Aberdeen
Sigurdsson - FC Rostov
Magnússon - Bristol City (now CSKA Moscow)
Berg Gudmundsson - Burnley
Gunnarsson - Cardiff City
Hallfredsson - Udinese
Bjarnason - Aston Villa
G Sigurdsson - Everton
Finnbogason - FC Ausburg


Iceland squad:

Goalkeepers: Hannes Thor Halldorsson (Randers FC), Runar Alex Runarsson (FC Nordsjælland), Frederik Schram (FC Roskilde).

Defenders: Kari Arnason (Aberdeen), Ari Freyr Skulason (K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen), Birkir Mar Saevarsson (Hammarby), Sverrir Ingi Ingason (FC Rostov), Hordur Magnusson (Bristol City), Holmar Orn Eyjolfsson (Maccabi Haifa), Ragnar Sigurdsson (FC Rostov).

Midfielders: Johann Berg Gudmundsson (Burnley), Birkir Bjarnason (Aston Villa), Arnor Ingvi Traustason (Malmo FF), Emil Hallfredsson (Udinese), Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton), Olafur Ingi Skulason (Kardemir Karabukspor), Rurik Gislason (FC Nurnberg), Samuel Fridjonsson (Valerenga), Aron Gunnarsson (Cardiff City).

Forwards: Alfred Finnbogason (FC Augsburg), Bjorn Bergmann Sigurdarson (FC Rostov), Jon Dadi Bodvarsson (Reading), Albert Gudmundsson (PSV Eindhoven).

[Scary Bear]

There's another two we're better than, Iran and Morocco.  That's eight, 25% of the teams there.

It’s amazing we’re not there, given we’re better than 25% of the teams at the World Cup. If only we could finish top of a UEFA qualifying group like the posties and fishermen. We’ll get a lucky draw one day.

Morocco's final 23-man squad. Seems they can interest the likes of Madrid and Juventus. Again, they have a good mix of leagues amongst their squad.

Goalkeepers: Mounir El Kajoui (Numancia), Yassine Bounou (Girona), Ahmad Reda Tagnaouti (Ittihad Tanger).

Defenders: Mehdi Benatia (Juventus), Romain Saiss (Wolves), Manuel Da Costa (Basaksehir), Nabil Dirar (Fenerbahce), Achraf Hakimi (Real Madrid), Hamza Mendyl (Lille).

Midfielders: M'barek Boussoufa (Al Jazira), Karim El Ahmadi (Feyenoord), Youssef Ait Bennasser (Caen), Sofyan Amrabat (Feyenoord), Younes Belhanda (Galatasaray), Faycal Fajr (Getafe), Amine Harit (Schalke 04).

Forwards: Khalid Boutaib (Malatyaspor), Aziz Bouhaddouz (Saint Pauli), Ayoub El Kaabi (Renaissance Berkane), Nordin Amrabat (Leganes), Mehdi Carcela (Standard de Liege), Hakim Ziyech (Ajax), Youssef En Nesyri (Malaga).

[Savage Henry]

I said elsewhere, that if Scotland had a competent manager, they could emulate Iceland.

Scotland is clearly a better side than Saudi Arabia, and I’d fancy us against Tunisia at this point. That’s about it though.

[Monkey Tennis]

17 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

 

Fisherman and posties?

What possibly helps their squad is that they play in quite a few different leagues.

Look at their squad and their first XI v Argentina. They have the usual English Championship guys that we have and one outstanding player in Sigurdsson. Unfortunately for us our Liverpool player is a left back. They also have players in various other European leagues.

Halldórsson - Randers FC
Saevarsson - Hammarby
Árnason - Aberdeen
Sigurdsson - FC Rostov
Magnússon - Bristol City (now CSKA Moscow)
Berg Gudmundsson - Burnley
Gunnarsson - Cardiff City
Hallfredsson - Udinese
Bjarnason - Aston Villa
G Sigurdsson - Everton
Finnbogason - FC Ausburg


Iceland squad:

Goalkeepers: Hannes Thor Halldorsson (Randers FC), Runar Alex Runarsson (FC Nordsjælland), Frederik Schram (FC Roskilde).

Defenders: Kari Arnason (Aberdeen), Ari Freyr Skulason (K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen), Birkir Mar Saevarsson (Hammarby), Sverrir Ingi Ingason (FC Rostov), Hordur Magnusson (Bristol City), Holmar Orn Eyjolfsson (Maccabi Haifa), Ragnar Sigurdsson (FC Rostov).

Midfielders: Johann Berg Gudmundsson (Burnley), Birkir Bjarnason (Aston Villa), Arnor Ingvi Traustason (Malmo FF), Emil Hallfredsson (Udinese), Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton), Olafur Ingi Skulason (Kardemir Karabukspor), Rurik Gislason (FC Nurnberg), Samuel Fridjonsson (Valerenga), Aron Gunnarsson (Cardiff City).

Forwards: Alfred Finnbogason (FC Augsburg), Bjorn Bergmann Sigurdarson (FC Rostov), Jon Dadi Bodvarsson (Reading), Albert Gudmundsson (PSV Eindhoven).

 

How on earth do these guys find the time to apprehend fish, while delivering letters?

[Scary Bear]

How on earth do these guys find the time to apprehend fish, while delivering letters?

They can obviously multi-task.

I propose we find the Icelandic Rinus Michels and start a Think Tank.

[Scary Bear]

We're unbeaten in six competitive matches, most of which were against decent mid-ranking European teams (1 v England, 2 v Slovenia, 1 v Slovakia), but the posts on here would give the impression that we'd finished bottom of our qualifying group and had gone years without winning a game.  There are definitely several teams at this tournament who we could beat, but of course every single one of them could beat us too.

 

World Cups are generally played away from home.

 

If we got to a World Cup with this squad , there’s every chance we’d revert to playing like we did at the start of that last qualifying campaign. Defeats to anyone decent (England, Slovakia) and then a fighting draw at the end to salvage some pride (Slovenia).

 

To be fair to Scotland, we ended that last campaign well. If we had taken that kind of form into this World Cup, then there’s no question we could have done well. Hopefully we can start the next campaign for the Euros in the same manner.

[pandarilla]

We're unbeaten in six competitive matches, most of which were against decent mid-ranking European teams (1 v England, 2 v Slovenia, 1 v Slovakia), but the posts on here would give the impression that we'd finished bottom of our qualifying group and had gone years without winning a game.  There are definitely several teams at this tournament who we could beat, but of course every single one of them could beat us too.

Not years without winning a game, but years without qualifying. 20.

And tbf we've not really been close either. 2007 probably the last time we actually looked like qualifying with a game or two left.

These days we're not even reaching the playoff.



I agree with you, that there are a 'few' teams we could 'maybe' beat. But the absolute naivety from some punters on here about how good we are compared to world cup teams is genuinely terrifying.

[sparky88]

I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest that a team that fails to get through european qualifying might be better than one that has had got through Asian or African qualifying. 

Take Croatia for example. Scotland beat them 5 years ago when they were ranked 4th in the world. I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest that they could still get a result against them if they were organised properly (more Iceland, less argentina). And if you think Scotland could beat Croatia, there's a whole load of teams worse than them in the World Cup. 

[Scary Bear]

For me it’s perplexing more than terrifying. Facebook comments have inured me to my countrymen’s comments.

[vikingTON]

15 minutes ago, sparky88 said:

I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest that a team that fails to get through european qualifying might be better than one that has had got through Asian or African qualifying. 

Take Croatia for example. Scotland beat them 5 years ago when they were ranked 4th in the world. I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest that they could still get a result against them if they were organised properly (more Iceland, less argentina). And if you think Scotland could beat Croatia, there's a whole load of teams worse than them in the World Cup. 

Except that you can't measure the strength of a team by one-off matches - unless you have the logic of a primary school child of course. The real measurement of Scotland's ability is the fact that they have failed to qualify for a single major tournament in twenty years* - despite the European Championships being expanded to let absolute pub teams qualify two years ago. 

Scotland's level is fighting it out with other diddies like Albania and Israel and no amount of whataboutery is going to change that fact. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* and consistently stunk the place out when they did qualify

[Peppino Impastato]

2 hours ago, Scary Bear said:

 

Fisherman and posties?

What possibly helps their squad is that they play in quite a few different leagues.

Look at their squad and their first XI v Argentina. They have the usual English Championship guys that we have and one outstanding player in Sigurdsson. Unfortunately for us our Liverpool player is a left back. They also have players in various other European leagues.

Halldórsson - Randers FC
Saevarsson - Hammarby
Árnason - Aberdeen
Sigurdsson - FC Rostov
Magnússon - Bristol City (now CSKA Moscow)
Berg Gudmundsson - Burnley
Gunnarsson - Cardiff City
Hallfredsson - Udinese
Bjarnason - Aston Villa
G Sigurdsson - Everton
Finnbogason - FC Ausburg


Iceland squad:

Goalkeepers: Hannes Thor Halldorsson (Randers FC), Runar Alex Runarsson (FC Nordsjælland), Frederik Schram (FC Roskilde).

Defenders: Kari Arnason (Aberdeen), Ari Freyr Skulason (K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen), Birkir Mar Saevarsson (Hammarby), Sverrir Ingi Ingason (FC Rostov), Hordur Magnusson (Bristol City), Holmar Orn Eyjolfsson (Maccabi Haifa), Ragnar Sigurdsson (FC Rostov).

Midfielders: Johann Berg Gudmundsson (Burnley), Birkir Bjarnason (Aston Villa), Arnor Ingvi Traustason (Malmo FF), Emil Hallfredsson (Udinese), Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton), Olafur Ingi Skulason (Kardemir Karabukspor), Rurik Gislason (FC Nurnberg), Samuel Fridjonsson (Valerenga), Aron Gunnarsson (Cardiff City).

Forwards: Alfred Finnbogason (FC Augsburg), Bjorn Bergmann Sigurdarson (FC Rostov), Jon Dadi Bodvarsson (Reading), Albert Gudmundsson (PSV Eindhoven).

 

Exactly it's an absolutely honking squad full of jobbers who wouldn't even get mentioned in relation to possibly getting a Scotland call up at some time in the future for their entire careers if they were Scottish. 

Several of them aren't even full time professional footballers, literally are fisherman and posties, Scotland has more full time clubs than they have full time players.  And most of our squad doesn't even play in Scotland. We're light years better, on a completely different planet.

[Ned Nederlander]

10 hours ago, Marten said:

Saudi Arabia & Panama are not better than Scotland. If Scotland were in the Asian or North American route, qualification would be very well possible.

See this, I have to explain this to Mrs Ned nearly every feckin day during a World Cup. We'd probably still struggle but if our qualification group included the Spar Checkout Girls and the Montenegrin Vet School we'd sometimes qualify as well.

(Mind you for an Italian she's been surprisingly quiet this time round.)

I like that it's 'worldwide' qualification, and the tournament IS better for it, but most of them will be long  gone and forgotten by the time we get to the business end, knock-out rounds, of this competition and that's when World Cups really get going.

[Marten]

5 minutes ago, Ned Nederlander said:

See this, I have to explain this to Mrs Ned nearly every feckin day during a World Cup. We'd probably still struggle but if our qualification group included the Spar Checkout Girls and the Montenegrin Vet School we'd sometimes qualify as well.

(Mind you for an Italian she's been surprisingly quiet this time round.)

I like that it's 'worldwide' qualification, and the tournament IS better for it, but most of them will be long  gone and forgotten by the time we get to the business end, knock-out rounds, of this competition and that's when World Cups really get going.

Exactly. The North American group is generally dominated by Mexico & USA (I see the USA not being there this year as a one-off blip). If Scotland were placed in there, we'd battle with the likes of Panama, Costa Rica & Honduras for the 3rd spot & the PO spot. I'd reckon that more often than not, Scotland would at least claim the PO spot. Asia is a very weak region, generally dominated by South Korea & Australia. Scotland would be fighting for the remaining 2 spots & PO spot with the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uzbekistan & Japan. Again, more often than not I'd expect Scotland to qualify. Africa is also not particularly strong & quite overrated imo, so something similar could be said there.

[Peppino Impastato]

12 minutes ago, Marten said:

Exactly. The North American group is generally dominated by Mexico & USA (I see the USA not being there this year as a one-off blip). If Scotland were placed in there, we'd battle with the likes of Panama, Costa Rica & Honduras for the 3rd spot & the PO spot. I'd reckon that more often than not, Scotland would at least claim the PO spot. Asia is a very weak region, generally dominated by South Korea & Australia. Scotland would be fighting for the remaining 2 spots & PO spot with the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uzbekistan & Japan. Again, more often than not I'd expect Scotland to qualify. Africa is also not particularly strong & quite overrated imo, so something similar could be said there.

Scotland would finish above Australia they're gash.

[pandarilla]

Exactly. The North American group is generally dominated by Mexico & USA (I see the USA not being there this year as a one-off blip). If Scotland were placed in there, we'd battle with the likes of Panama, Costa Rica & Honduras for the 3rd spot & the PO spot. I'd reckon that more often than not, Scotland would at least claim the PO spot. Asia is a very weak region, generally dominated by South Korea & Australia. Scotland would be fighting for the remaining 2 spots & PO spot with the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uzbekistan & Japan. Again, more often than not I'd expect Scotland to qualify. Africa is also not particularly strong & quite overrated imo, so something similar could be said there.

20 years ago Morocco destroyed us.

I think you're writing off Africa far too easily.