How did we do?

[invergowrie arab]

For me it's about par.

Czech game was disappointing. England was as good as we can play and tonight was fine but didn't take chances.

We don't have a quality striker and that's my worry going forward. A decent keeper and striker and we are a decent side.

[John Lambies Doos]

For me it's about par.
Czech game was disappointing. England was as good as we can play and tonight was fine but didn't take chances.
We don't have a quality striker and that's my worry going forward. A decent keeper and striker and we are a decent side.

Keeper, Marshall was great tonight.
Good top class centre half and striker

[Gaz]

1 minute ago, John Lambies Doos said:

Keeper, Marshall was great tonight.
Good top class centre half and striker

Marshall is 36 and Gordon is 38. We don't have an up-and-coming 'keeper anywhere near their quality. That's my main worry over the next few years.

[BFTD]

I was quite impressed by how we played overall. I don't think there can be much argument that they gave it their best shot. But we still don't score goals, which has been our problem for at least a quarter of a century, and probably a lot longer if we're being honest. There's only so far we'll ever go with that handicap. We've had quality players in most other positions over the same time period, so I'd be interested to know why we find it so difficult to produce a genuinely top-class goalscorer.

We're just not quite as good as most of the teams at this tournament, unfortunately, but it's not from lack of trying by the players.

[ewan14]

Not that good

1 )  As someone else said it is 50 / 50            now between S O'D and Nathan

      (  although the latter will have to get           first team football )

2 )     Still not convinced by McTominay            in the back three

3 )     We are still unable to mark , or                  even close , opposition players                  down

          Ryan Jack absent ?

4 )      We need Billy Gilmour fit and                     playing first team football

5 )      We need more international                       class forwards

 

[Brian Graham’s Lovely Hair]

Going into the game my main concern was where we would get a goal from. Why does every other country seem to have a world class striker? I’ve been watching Scotland since the 80s and we’ve never had one. 

[Nightmare]

England game was a 8/10, Czech and Croatia games probably both about 4 or 5/10 versus expectations.

I didn’t expect to qualify, but I do think our two performances at home were pretty shite. We’ll probably never host this tournament (barring another continental joint effort like this year), so those games felt like a missed opportunity.

I do think there’s potential in this squad going forward. A midfield three of Gilmour, Turnbull and McGinn seems very promising, and we’ll also have Robertson, Tierney, McTominay and Adams to supplement that. This seems like a fairly strong spine of a team to begin with, and I’d be disappointed if we weren’t in contention for the next few major tournaments.

[accies1874]

Terrible so we should rip it all up and start again imo.

Or, alternatively... played ok, well and below par with an internationally inexperienced side who have progressed or evolved under their manager in every single international break.

Ended a hoodoo and have a young and good enough squad to think that this is the beginning of something.

[sergie's no1 fan]

I said in the how will we do thread I expected us to compete but ultimately be let down by the lack of quality at both ends of the pitch.

Someone mentioned we had over 40 shots in the 3 games and obviously we only scored 1. Not good enough.

All the goals we scored were avoidable although there were 3 genuine world class finishes in amongst them.

Really disappointed with the 2 home games. I think Clarke got it wrong starting Armstrong in both, not slating the player himself but it just didn't work.

It's another case of what if but we were beating fair and square by 2 better teams.

[BFTD]

6 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

England game was a 8/10, Czech and Croatia games probably both about 4 or 5/10 versus expectations.

I didn’t expect to qualify, but I do think our two performances at home were pretty shite. We’ll probably never host this tournament (barring another continental joint effort like this year), so those games felt like a missed opportunity.

I do think there’s potential in this squad going forward. A midfield three of Gilmour, Turnbull and McGinn seems very promising, and we’ll also have Robertson, Tierney, McTominay and Adams to supplement that. This seems like a fairly strong spine of a team to begin with, and I’d be disappointed if we weren’t in contention for the next few major tournaments.

You mean, "qualification for", surely?  

I doubt we're going to the next World Cup, but failing to qualify for the Euros would be disappointing now, considering how many do.

[Caley Shaun]

1 hour ago, Gaz said:

Marshall is 36 and Gordon is 38. We don't have an up-and-coming 'keeper anywhere near their quality. That's my main worry over the next few years.

Unless Angus Gunn grows increasingly frustrated at being snubbed by England which is unlikely. 

Jon McLaughlin needs game time. 

Is McCrorie international quality, I don't watch much under 21 matches? He is good at Livi though, pretty sure he keeps them in games with vital saves. 

[PedroMoutinho]

Realistically we were never going to qualify without beating the Czech Republic. We didn’t take our chances in that game but equally leaving out 2 of our best players in Gilmour and Adams was stupid.

We did well to get a point at Wembley and getting something against Croatia was always a hard ask when you look at their squad.

Being honest we’ve only got about 6 or 7 players atm who can compete well at this level (Robertson, Tierney, Mctominay, Gilmour, McGinn, Adams and possibly Fraser). That is then complemented by average journeymen and youngsters who do have potential (Patterson, Turnbull, maybe Nisbet).

It’s hardly shocking that we haven’t gone through when Croatia can bring players like Kramaric off the bench when we’re looking at bringing on  guys like James Forrest and Ryan Christie.

[The Master]

We did as well as to be expected for a team that qualified the way we did. Maybe slightly worse, although you could argue that on paper we should have drawn with the Czechs and lost to England so it evens out. 

In all the hype, it’s easy to forget that we “only” qualified by being the best of the teams at our level (broadly, the “third ranked” nations) that hadn’t already qualified. That’s what the Nations League is. 

That’s not to undermine the achievement. Far from it. Those were tricky games in both the league stage and the play-offs and once upon a time it honestly wouldn’t have been a surprise to see us relegated to League D (if we hadn’t started there already based on our ranking…).

But being the best at our level doesn’t mean we’re suddenly good enough to beat teams that came through the normal qualifying path. If we were capable of doing that, we wouldn’t have needed to rely on the Nations League.

This might all sound negative, but I like to think of it more as realistic. 

There’s plenty to be optimistic about for the future and it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to see us at Euro 2024, whether via the normal route or the play-offs (only this time, the latter will be from a higher starting point). 

Edited June 22, 2021 by The Master

[Albann1]

It was interesting to hear ITV4 post Croatia match discussion. Only Souness had the balls to be anywhere near critical. Agree with his points about questionable tactics from the Manager. It’s now taken the 3 games to prove that Dykes just cannot net a ball and Adams lacks surety in the final touch too. Why the hell is Nisbet left to come on for the last 10 mins of each game? Which forward has the best goal scoring record in the past season? What is Clarke doing with his tactical moves to increase our chances of scoring goals by bringing Nisbet on so late in every game? These are all valid questions nobody seems to ask as we get so hung-up on being grateful just to have taken part.

Souness was right about the naiive outdated long ball game and lack of hunger for the ball in our back line when Marshall picks up. The number of times he ends-up launching upfield into a 50/50 possession situation only to have the opposition win it, retain possession and come right back at us is just schoolboy stuff we must improve on to have any hope of progressing in future tournaments. Sorry to be critical, but things will not improve without it.

[Boo Khaki]

CR - Wrong team selection. Clarke claimed he knew his team the day before, so perhaps Tierney's injury threw that plan into disarray, but even still, he picked the wrong starting 11 from the players still available to him. Performance wasn't great, but I honestly think most of that was down to the balance of the side being wrong rather that just outright bad performances. We could have played with two strikers or three in central midfield, and in the end we did neither, meaning even Jack Hendry ended up trying to Beckenbauer it. Players - 6/10 Clarke 3/10

England - Flawless team selection and tactics, which showed England up for the over-rated, over-hyped run of the mill side they are. Only criticism is that yet again our strikers looked like they could play for a month and not score. Might be harsh since we weren't exactly carving out clear cut chance after clear cut chance, but I thought that one or two of them were the sort of chances that any international striker should be tucking away. Adams' after 4 mins when he didn't test the keeper the most glaring. Players 9/10 Clarke 9/10

Croatia - Again, the wrong team selection, but exacerbated by a gameplan that made no sense whatsoever. Pack the last third of your own half, no closing down, no harassment, don't bother trying to play out when you do have the ball, then worst of all for me, there were umpteen occasions when we had the ball on half-way or inside the Croat half under no pressure, and rather than attempt to create something, we cycled it all the way back to Marshall in order to have him thump it 60 yards at Lyndon Dykes. We did it so often that it looked like it was a deliberate part of the tactical approach. Yet again, missing a few sitters (by international standards), the wrong team selection, and some baffling tactics cost us. Players 5/10 Clarke 3/10

Over the entire piece I thought we were disappointing if I'm honest. The poor performances in the first and third matches were overshadowed by a really positive performance in London which kind of masks how bad things were on either side of that. I totally accept that we don't have the technical ability of the Croats, or that we don't have a clinical unit of a striker like Schick, but with the players we do have I still think we could have done a little better overall. It's ok to be beaten by better sides, but when you are limited like we are you can't afford to get your selections and tactics wrong, otherwise you are complicit in your own demise and just make things even easier for the opposition. 

Overall I thought the players were about 6/10, but that owes a lot to tremendous performances at Wembley dragging the scores up. Clarke 5/10, the same story as the players. A C-/D+ 'must do better'.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Boo Khaki

[tree house tam]

The biggest thing holding us back isn't a lack of players, it's the manager.

[Nightmare]

6 hours ago, BFTD said:

You mean, "qualification for", surely?  

I doubt we're going to the next World Cup, but failing to qualify for the Euros would be disappointing now, considering how many do.

Aw f**k, aye. Pretty key word to miss out there, but yes I did mean in contention to qualify.

[PELE]

I agree with a lot of what has been said, but we were really poor again at home. We had almost the whole crowd on our side and should have been all over Croatia like a rash. They should have been wetting themselves every time they had the ball. Instead we sat off them and let them relax and pass the ball about. On the odd occasion we actually pressed them they lost possession easily. Even after McGregor scored he was telling everyone to calm it down when it should have been the exact opposite. We only started to press with about 10 minutes to play. 

Modric is almost 36 years old. We should have dealt with him. Some of our players looked far too nervous. Instead of driving forward we kept passing back just to launch it back at Croatia.

Dykes sadly offers nothing upfront. He doesn't do anything even when he wins the ball. Yet he wasn't subbed.

We may still have lost, but we should have been playing like Denmark did against Russia. Not sitting back and launching the ball. Yet another tournament out at the group stage when almost every other team makes it at some point. It really angers me and I wish some of those players showed that same anger in the way they approached the game. If the circumstances had been reversed and we were the 'bigger' team playing in Croatia with the crowd against us we would have lost. We will never get an easier chance to make it out the group. I'd love to know what Clarke said at half time. A country the size of Croatia can have the success that they have had, but we do nothing time after time after time. I am sick of hearing excuses.

[Crawford Bridge]

Minter.

[BFTD]

47 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

The biggest thing holding us back isn't a lack of players, it's the manager.

That's been the mantra for at least as long as I've been alive.