Playoff Semi Final , 18th October 2020

[DA Baracus]

25 minutes ago, ewan14 said:

The Faroe Islands beat Greece in Greece in recent times ffs. Wake up !

That was over 5 years ago. 

One off results are not indicative. 

Calm it right the f**k down with your wake up nonsense as well.

[Stellaboz]

4 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

That was over 5 years ago. 

One off results are not indicative. 

Calm it right the f**k down with your wake up nonsense as well.

Don't engage, another wee edge troll. 

[craigkillie]

4 hours ago, GordonS said:

The players you mentioned are midfielders and left backs. Our best goalscorer plays for QPR following a recent move from Livingston, our best centre halves play for Leeds, Nottingham Forest, Motherwell and Aberdeen and our best right back plays for Kilmarnock. Our other options up front are a guy who couldn't trap a bag of sand and a guy at Dundee Utd.

Ross Millen has had a pretty good season but I think this is a bit far.

[GordonS]

1 hour ago, No_Problemo said:

Not sure what your point is. Tierney plays left centre half in a back three in every single game for Arsenal. The post I quoted was comparing clubs, that’s all I did in return. 

And the post I quoted did the same, but was ignoring positions.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, GordonS said:

The players you mentioned are midfielders and left backs. Our best goalscorer plays for QPR following a recent move from Livingston, our best centre halves play for Leeds, Nottingham Forest, Motherwell and Aberdeen and our best right back plays for Kilmarnock. Our other options up front are a guy who couldn't trap a bag of sand and a guy at Dundee Utd.

We don't have a spine. Look at the Wales team at the last Euros, they had a lot of limited players but they had Williams at centre half, Ramsey and Allen in midfield and Bale to score the goals. Northern Ireland had Jonny Evans, Aaron Hughes and Gareth McAuley at the back, in-form Niall McGinn and Steven Davis in midfield and Kyle Lafferty up front, who may be nothing special but his international scoring rate of 17 in 51 games is better than anything we've had in a while.

The definitive Scotland game of recent years is the 3-0 defeat in Slovakia. We had Fletcher, Snodgrass, Ritchie, Bannon and McArthur in midfield and we controlled the game there. But we never looked like scoring and every time they got at our defence, they did. 

If you can't defend and you can't score goals, not much else matters.

My point in a nutshell is that our players are / should all be capable enough of putting in a performance against an Israel side or a 3rd choice Czech side or a second string Slovakian side and while we got decent results it wasn't what one would call encouraging performances.

I'd also say that our players (irrespective of their positions) are worth ,on the open transfer market, much more than any of the a fore mentioned squads but ultimately they just didn't show it.

As for the guys you mention, with the exception of Bale & possibly Ramsey, I'm really not seeing anyone "inspirational" or that are playing at a higher level than the likes of Liam Cooper or John McGinn, Ryan Fraser, Scott McTominay and of course Andy Robertson with his European Cup winning medal and in fact even our SPL based guys are on a par (if not better) than many of the guys in those other home nations sides.

Put it this way, if we're in awe of Niall McGinn and Kyle Lafferty, then by christ, we REALLY DO have problems !!!

[GordonS]

2 hours ago, WATTOO said:

My point in a nutshell is that our players are / should all be capable enough of putting in a performance against an Israel side or a 3rd choice Czech side or a second string Slovakian side and while we got decent results it wasn't what one would call encouraging performances.

I'd also say that our players (irrespective of their positions) are worth ,on the open transfer market, much more than any of the a fore mentioned squads but ultimately they just didn't show it.

As for the guys you mention, with the exception of Bale & possibly Ramsey, I'm really not seeing anyone "inspirational" or that are playing at a higher level than the likes of Liam Cooper or John McGinn, Ryan Fraser, Scott McTominay and of course Andy Robertson with his European Cup winning medal and in fact even our SPL based guys are on a par (if not better) than many of the guys in those other home nations sides.

Put it this way, if we're in awe of Niall McGinn and Kyle Lafferty, then by christ, we REALLY DO have problems !!!

Kyle Lafferty, at his best, was a better goalscorer than anyone we've had in a long, long time. Better than Steven Fletcher, Kenny Miller or Steven Naismith. He wasn't a great player but he could put the ball in the net consistently. Closest we've had is Kris Boyd, who got 7 goals in 18 caps and I don't think we used his attributes well. 

If we had our best players spread out in central defence, midfield and up front then I'd agree with you. It's the incredible imbalance that's been the real problem. We've struggled in the early days of Steve Clarke - who has a 50% win rate, btw - because he's been forced to try players out of position, like Tierney on the right, Robertson in left midfield and McTominay in defence.

I was really encouraged by the performance against Slovakia because it was mature and controlled. There's a clear gameplan, the players are buying into it and it might be the best possible shape for the squad we have. We've been a soft touch for years - we lost 19 goals in our 10 qualifying matches for Euro 2020, in a relatively ordinary group, 8 of them at home -  and that might be coming to an end. 

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Kyle Lafferty, at his best, was a better goalscorer than anyone we've had in a long, long time. Better than Steven Fletcher, Kenny Miller or Steven Naismith. He wasn't a great player but he could put the ball in the net consistently. Closest we've had is Kris Boyd, who got 7 goals in 18 caps and I don't think we used his attributes well. 

If we had our best players spread out in central defence, midfield and up front then I'd agree with you. It's the incredible imbalance that's been the real problem. We've struggled in the early days of Steve Clarke - who has a 50% win rate, btw - because he's been forced to try players out of position, like Tierney on the right, Robertson in left midfield and McTominay in defence.

I was really encouraged by the performance against Slovakia because it was mature and controlled. There's a clear gameplan, the players are buying into it and it might be the best possible shape for the squad we have. We've been a soft touch for years - we lost 19 goals in our 10 qualifying matches for Euro 2020, in a relatively ordinary group, 8 of them at home -  and that might be coming to an end. 

Being honest I'm just happy that we're getting results again, I thought Clarke was a good appointment and despite us not exactly looking exciting, we simply can't keep blaming Manager after Manager for our shortcomings.

Maybe with our best players available and a bit of confidence we'll start adding some style and quality to our play and if we can do that then I'm sure we'll all be happy.

[the snudge]

Some amount of utter shite getting posted here. Every performance has seen an improvement more or less. Clarke is building us the same way he did with killie. Hard to beat then add in the rest gradually. He's building a club squad mentality and from what I can see the players all look as if they're enjoying the experience and want to play for the national side. It's a pleasing change. 

[TheScarf]

Yep, it helps when the players actually seem to actively like the manager for a change.

[Gordopolis]

Weird though that there were a few posts at the end of 90 mins Vs Israel with people talking about how the body language of the players looked terrible and as though they were not buying Clarke's rallying speech.
Just shows you how little it takes to turn the tide of opinion.

[The Moonster]

19 hours ago, the snudge said:

Some amount of utter shite getting posted here. Every performance has seen an improvement more or less. Clarke is building us the same way he did with killie. Hard to beat then add in the rest gradually. He's building a club squad mentality and from what I can see the players all look as if they're enjoying the experience and want to play for the national side. It's a pleasing change. 

Agreed. In his post match interview on the pitch, you could see how happy he was with the performance, he doesn't smile very often so when he does it's noticeable. He knows we're not playing teams off the park right now but keeping clean sheets and getting results builds confidence and you can start to grow from there. 

I don't like the 5-3-2 and I'd much prefer we used McTominay in his actual position but with Fraser playing up next to Dykes the other night you saw flashes of how that system should work properly. Right wing back and centre back still a bit of an issue for that system though. 

On Fraser, I don't know if it was deliberate from him but he certainly seemed fully committed to Scotland in his interview and there was a real enthusiasm in the things he was saying. I've had the distinct impression from him that he could take or leave International duty but that seems quite far from the truth after the other night.

[Binos]

5 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

Agreed. In his post match interview on the pitch, you could see how happy he was with the performance, he doesn't smile very often so when he does it's noticeable. He knows we're not playing teams off the park right now but keeping clean sheets and getting results builds confidence and you can start to grow from there. 

I don't like the 5-3-2 and I'd much prefer we used McTominay in his actual position but with Fraser playing up next to Dykes the other night you saw flashes of how that system should work properly. Right wing back and centre back still a bit of an issue for that system though. 

On Fraser, I don't know if it was deliberate from him but he certainly seemed fully committed to Scotland in his interview and there was a real enthusiasm in the things he was saying. I've had the distinct impression from him that he could take or leave International duty but that seems quite far from the truth after the other night.

It's pretty obvious Fraser picks and chooses his games

As have many or just simply canned it

Which would all go away if we could qualify for something again

Edited October 14, 2020 by Binos

[Guest Rscot]

Lovely gesture from Dykes, presenting his shirt to Livi. I believe that he has given another to QoS

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

24 minutes ago, Rscot said:

Lovely gesture from Dykes, presenting his shirt to Livi. I believe that he has given another to QoS

That’s excellent 

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

Aye he seems like a genuinely decent lad.  Think he will be very popular with the tartan army for years to come

[Guest Rscot]

11 minutes ago, Carnoustie Young Guvnor said:

Aye he seems like a genuinely decent lad.  Think he will be very popular with the tartan army for years to come

He’ll be a legend if he helps us qualify for a major tournament

[Ro Sham Bo]

I know there will no doubt be injuries and/or Covid issues to deal with but Clarke is going to have a real selection headache now for this next round of matches. Some of these players have really stepped up to the plate in the last 7 days. 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by Ro Sham Bo

[Gordopolis]

Biggest disaster (obviously) would be a Czech style covid outbreak for our squad. The way the virus trajectory is going it's not unlikely. Same could be said for Serbia of course.

[GordonS]

12 hours ago, Gordopolis said:

Biggest disaster (obviously) would be a Czech style covid outbreak for our squad. The way the virus trajectory is going it's not unlikely. Same could be said for Serbia of course.

Keeping players isolated and protected is honestly more important than set piece routines right now. It could be the difference between qualifying for Euro 2020 and the 2022 play-offs, and ending up with nothing. 

[Binos]

12 hours ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

I know there will no doubt be injuries and/or Covid issues to deal with but Clarke is going to have a real selection headache now for this next round of matches. Some of these players have really stepped up to the plate in the last 7 days. 

 

 

Marshall

Palmer

Mctominay

Gallagher

Considine

Robertson

Fleck

Mcginn

McLean

Dykes

Fraser

 

Selection headache over