Israel Vs Scotland 28th March

[Dons_1988]

16 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

24 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

I see the final game is a home match against the top seeds.
We have definitely never, ever seen this movie before.

There were a few campaigns in a row where every final game was against the top seed.

Aye that was sort of my point.

[Neil86]

11 hours ago, HalfCutNinja said:

Fuckin load of shite.

Showed them far too much respect in the first half, sitting off them making them look a good side.

When we play a team better than us the 5 at the back is fine. When we are better than them 4 at the back be aggressive.

For 20 minutes we were and they looked terrible. Shaky and shite. We equalise then drop off again settle for a draw.

And how fucking stupid does it look now not calling up Gauld or Gilmour. Desperate for a goal in a must-win game and we bring Kenny fucking MacLean on at attacking midfield. Aye guid een.

Last ten minutes against Austria and last 25 tonight absolutely shitebagged it when we should have been throwing the kitchen sink at them.

 

TBF,  Gilmour wouldn't have been who I was calling on if we were crying out for a goal, Turnbull however.....

can you imagine the difference someone with good delivery, some composure and a willingness to get shots away from the edge of the box would have made.

[Monkey Tennis]

9 hours ago, BFTD said:

Wasn't watching the thread tonight, but I think I can guess what the general consensus will have been.

I was more hoping than expecting that we'd manage to beat Israel away, but that's yet another game where we've looked roughly on par with them. It's possible that we could somehow have pulled out a winner, but it was no more likely than them doing so. I had a bit of optimism after the recovery against Austria, but this result means we're done already, barring some very unlikely results. Considering this group is as favourable as we're likely to get without clawing our way up through the pots, that's depressing.

Why on Earth have we been so keen to sit off sides when it hasn't worked for us, and pressing them has been so much more effective? Is the worry that we'll tire, so we'll just save that for the second half when we're chasing the game?  

Remember on Friday morning you were saying: "Yes, but you have to bear in mind that I still take some pleasure from football, and retain some shred of optimism."

I'm proud of how you've matured in such a short space of time.

[Savage Henry]

35 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

Robertson is out of position. Whenever he gets the ball as a wing back he's stationary, usually on the half way line, and has a right mid and right back in front of him to beat. So he is reduced to swinging in crosses from 30 yards out. As a left back he receives it arriving forward with momentum, the right back is occupied by our left mid and that frees him up to get forward. It's a small but crucial difference.

We saw this really clearly in the first 25 minutes of the 2nd half when he got forward more in that time than he did in any of the previous games, not only get forward but recieved the ball on the run deep into the final 3rd. His end product was poor but that's a different issue, we were at least getting him into those areas. Robertson and Tierney are arguably 2 of our best attacking threats and the 352 negates both of them.

I don't know the solution so it's not really a criticism of Clarke, but we are not getting the best of Robertson due to his position. I've always said I'd go back 4 with Tierney at right back. He is clearly a much better right back than O'Donnell. I guess the issue then is we would only have 2 centre backs, all of which are pretty hopeless so there may be unseen issues with that too. It"s perhaps worth trying it against the Faroes though to get a sense of whether it could work.

Either play Tierney at left back or on the bench.  Right now, he’s in better form than Robertson for club and country.  

Right back is a different position entirely, and as long as you don’t want him to attack at all, he’s fine defensively.  If this guy Patterson at Rangers is any good whatsoever, I’d be getting him in the squad pronto.  O’Donnell simply isn’t up to scratch, handsome charmer that he is.

[Insaintee]

Last two times we played in Israel we lost last two times we played them at home we drew, not sure where all the negativity is coming from, better sides than us will go o Israel and drop points. 

[Stellaboz]

Last two times we played in Israel we lost last two times we played them at home we drew, not sure where all the negativity is coming from, better sides than us will go o Israel and drop points. 

Who? Denmark? Nope.

Austria, again? Remains to be seen.

[Highlandmagar]

4 minutes ago, Insaintee said:

Last two times we played in Israel we lost last two times we played them at home we drew, not sure where all the negativity is coming from, better sides than us will go o Israel and drop points. 

Well, they did thrash Guatemala. 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

8 minutes ago, Insaintee said:

Last two times we played in Israel we lost last two times we played them at home we drew, not sure where all the negativity is coming from, better sides than us will go o Israel and drop points. 

Hmmmm. Well, Denmark didn't.  I'd also be surprised if Austria dropped points against them. 

I suspect strongly that Israel's true level was exposed in the first 30 minutes of the second half, when they looked like headless chickens as we put them under pressure all over the park. 

They have a few very good individual players, but collectively they're quite weak....any decent team last night would have won that game comfortably against them. 

The fact that they've only won 2 of their last 15 games or something (one against us) also suggests that they're not that good. 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Bob Mahelp

[jimbaxters]

26 minutes ago, Insaintee said:

Last two times we played in Israel we lost last two times we played them at home we drew, not sure where all the negativity is coming from, better sides than us will go o Israel and drop points. 

They won't though. Denmark did it and so will Austria. In fact, nearly everyone does except us. Yes, it's negative and I don't want it to be so, but it's true..

Edited March 29, 2021 by jimbaxters

[Les Cabbage]

Game would have gone differently if we had more St Johnstone players on the bench imo

[Scary Bear]

When you think about our previous results in Israel, a draw is an improvement. 

[Diamonds are Forever]

45 minutes ago, Insaintee said:

Last two times we played in Israel we lost last two times we played them at home we drew, not sure where all the negativity is coming from, better sides than us will go o Israel and drop points. 

 

As has been pointed out, the only 2 teams that matter are Denmark and Austria. Denmark have already got the win comfortably, and would assume Austria will too. Even if Austria were to draw, we haven't gained anything from that fixture and drew at home with them, so would mean having to beat Austria away to gain an advantage over those 2 sets of fixtures.

The result means that we have no margin for error in the remaining Israel and Moldova games (assuming the Faroes are a given...) and that we will almost certainly need to get 2 draws and a win in the remaining 3 fixtures against Denmark and Austria.

[HalfCutNinja]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Denmark are absolutely miles ahead of us though?

Their squad is unreal and absolutely littered with major players. They possibly miss a couple of decent full backs, but their strongest "spine" has experienced solid CBs, two of the best DMs in Europe, Eriksen and a Barcelona striker.

We have a Motherwell, Nottingham Forest CB pairing and a left back, Ryan Jack/McGinn/McTominay, and then a Southampton striker.

It's not comparable, and I'm finding it really weird how highly people have suddenly decided to rate our squad.

Denmark aren't THAT good. They're good but not shit your pants good.

For example the 'Barcelona striker' is easily the worst striker ever to have played for the club and absolutely stealing a living. Che Adams is a better player.

There's nothing to be frightened of with Denmark, they're not Germany.

[No_Problemo]

51 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

As has been pointed out, the only 2 teams that matter are Denmark and Austria. Denmark have already got the win comfortably, and would assume Austria will too. Even if Austria were to draw, we haven't gained anything from that fixture and drew at home with them, so would mean having to beat Austria away to gain an advantage over those 2 sets of fixtures.

The result means that we have no margin for error in the remaining Israel and Moldova games (assuming the Faroes are a given...) and that we will almost certainly need to get 2 draws and a win in the remaining 3 fixtures against Denmark and Austria.

I agree, but Israel did beat Austria 4-2 at home in 2019.

[Blootoon87]

We would've won that game if the old firm colts were in league two.

[Burnbanksaint]

1 hour ago, HalfCutNinja said:

Denmark aren't THAT good. They're good but not shit your pants good.

For example the 'Barcelona striker' is easily the worst striker ever to have played for the club and absolutely stealing a living. Che Adams is a better player.

There's nothing to be frightened of with Denmark, they're not Germany.

They are a good team and it will be 2 tough games. Not sure what Denmark team you watch and to accuse a player of stealing a living he never asked to get signed by them. Nobody said they are Germany

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

1 hour ago, HalfCutNinja said:

Denmark aren't THAT good. They're good but not shit your pants good.

For example the 'Barcelona striker' is easily the worst striker ever to have played for the club and absolutely stealing a living. Che Adams is a better player.

There's nothing to be frightened of with Denmark, they're not Germany.

Steve Archibald played for Barcelona, so there's that

[DiegoDiego]

For example the 'Barcelona striker' is easily the worst striker ever to have played for the club

Hmm... your hyperbole reminds me of another terrible poster who disappeared around the same time you came on the scene.

[VictorOnopko]

We were poor last night, first half on particular was dreadful, but it's not over yet.

Austria are (a bit) better than us, and we basically need them to trip up against Israel. The problem is, we don't tend to get all that much luck in terms of the other games in our qualifiation groups (e.g. Ireland beating Germany in 2015 - a ludicrous result - when we'd done the job and got 4 points v Ireland and drawn away to Poland - they also beat Georgia away in the 90th minute).   I wouldn't be surprised if Austria take something off Denmark too, while we fail to do so. 

In the big picture, we've got no international standard CBs, RBs or strikers, and GK is getting shaky too, with no one coming through.  If we somehow come second in this group despite these obvious weaknesses, based on having some decent midfielders and KT, then it will have been both lucky and a great achievement.

 

[Thumper]

The Venn diagram of people on this thread who think that we're basically as good as Israel, and yet have a reasonable chance of beating Denmark, has a truly horrendous overlap.