Worst tournament performance since 1954 ?

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

Despite the hype, despite the apparent depth of players we have, despite our apparent wealth of riches in midfield, we once again meekly departed a tournament having looked like a bunch a naive, pathetic amateurs who didn't deserve to be there. 

I've been watching Scotland since 1974, and I can't think of a worse tournament. Looking back, it would seem that only 1954 was a worse tournament result (and performance) wise. 

Any other bids ? 1986 maybe ?

 

 

[C4mmy31]

4 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

Despite the hype, despite the apparent depth of players we have, despite our apparent wealth of riches in midfield, we once again meekly departed a tournament having looked like a bunch a naive, pathetic amateurs who didn't deserve to be there. 

I've been watching Scotland since 1974, and I can't think of a worse tournament. Looking back, it would seem that only 1954 was a worse tournament result (and performance) wise. 

Any other bids ? 1986 maybe ?

 

 

You must have slept throu Argentina then....

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

1 minute ago, C4mmy31 said:

You must have slept throu Argentina then....

Maybe. We did score 5 goals and get a win and a draw there though..... 

 

[invergowrie arab]

f**k up. We are back in a tournament so its the best in 23 years and a better performance than themn so its the best performance since 1996. 

[Billy Jean King]

What did you expect. 2nd lowest ranking team in through the back door and drawn against the 4th ranked team away and the beaten finalists in the last WC ???

[BFTD]

15 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

Despite the hype, despite the apparent depth of players we have, despite our apparent wealth of riches in midfield, we once again meekly departed a tournament having looked like a bunch a naive, pathetic amateurs who didn't deserve to be there. 

I've been watching Scotland since 1974, and I can't think of a worse tournament. Looking back, it would seem that only 1954 was a worse tournament result (and performance) wise. 

Any other bids ? 1986 maybe ?

Without meaning to insult them, it's still surely the least talented group of players we've ever taken to a tournament. They're just better than most of the other squads we've had in the past twenty years. And, in all honesty, we didn't deserve to qualify - we finished third in our group, by some distance, and got through the new best-losers tournament by beating Albania, Israel, and Serbia. And two of those took penalties.

So, we've done about as well as anyone could realistically expect. Personally, I was impressed they made it through the Nations League at all, and thought the performances at the tournament were some of the best in recent years. But we're still only mediocre, and until somehow we can call on more genuinely top-quality players, progression at a major tournament will require miracles.

They did their best. Give them a break.

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

I'm not necessarily criticising the players. I'm not analysing who we were up against. 

I'm saying that taken as an entirety, these 270 minutes of football were probably the worst Scotland have produced at a tournament since 1954. 

None of the replies have convinced me that I'm incorrect in that statement. 

[kilMARKnock]

I'm not necessarily criticising the players. I'm not analysing who we were up against. 
I'm saying that taken as an entirety, these 270 minutes of football were probably the worst Scotland have produced at a tournament since 1954. 
None of the replies have convinced me that I'm incorrect in that statement. 

Sadly you are correct but what a weekend in London......[emoji482]

[BFTD]

2 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

I'm not necessarily criticising the players. I'm not analysing who we were up against. 

I'm saying that taken as an entirety, these 270 minutes of football were probably the worst Scotland have produced at a tournament since 1954. 

None of the replies have convinced me that I'm incorrect in that statement. 

Obviously it would be up there. Our players are substantially poorer than at any prior tournament.

So I'm not sure what the point is in saying that our performances are worse than when we had Dalglish, Souness, and any number of better players from yesteryear in the side. Did you genuinely think someone was going to say, no, we performed better in that goalless draw with England than at any time Billy Bremner was in the team?

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

2 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Obviously it would be up there. Our players are substantially poorer than at any prior tournament.

So I'm not sure what the point is in saying that our performances are worse than when we had Dalglish, Souness, and any number of better players from yesteryear in the side. Did you genuinely think someone was going to say, no, we performed better in that goalless draw with England than at any time Billy Bremner was in the team?

I don't think this is a better side than 1978 for example. But we had 2 home games, and it's the responsibility of the management and the players to overachieve....Northern Ireland 4 years ago is a classic example.....rather than bow out meekly like amateurs. 

Scotland seem uniquely incapable of overachieving. 

We are though, very good at finding excuses as why we can't do it. 

[ewan14]

1 hour ago, Bob Mahelp said:

Despite the hype, despite the apparent depth of players we have, despite our apparent wealth of riches in midfield, we once again meekly departed a tournament having looked like a bunch a naive, pathetic amateurs who didn't deserve to be there. 

I've been watching Scotland since 1974, and I can't think of a worse tournament. Looking back, it would seem that only 1954 was a worse tournament result (and performance) wise. 

Any other bids ? 1986 maybe ?

 

 

1978 obviously

[ewan14]

59 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

Maybe. We did score 5 goals and get a win and a draw there though..... 

 

a draw with Iran !

[Gordopolis]

The biggest failing in this tournament was, for me, the powder puff prongs of our attack. How many times did we force a good save from the opposition keeper? I can only think of O'Donnell Vs England. I'm sure there were others, but considering we had some 40 or more chances, that's terrible. McGinn, McTominay, Adams, Robbo, Dykes and others all sending headers tamely over or shooting weakly into the keeper's arms or wide.
Despite the inexperience and failings elsewhere in the team, if we could upgrade to convert even a tenth of those chances, we'd still be in the tourney.

[ewan14]

44 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

What did you expect. 2nd lowest ranking team in through the back door and drawn against the 4th ranked team away and the beaten finalists in the last WC ???

I thought we might be able to win our first game , and do a wee bit better tonight

[ewan14]

3 minutes ago, Gordopolis said:

The biggest failing in this tournament was, for me, the powder puff prongs of our attack. How many times did we force a good save from the opposition keeper? I can only think of O'Donnell Vs England. I'm sure there were others, but considering we had some 40 or more chances, that's terrible. McGinn, McTominay, Adams, Dykes all sending headers tamely over or shooting weakly into the keeper's arms or wide.
Despite the inexperience and failings elsewhere in the team, if we could upgrade to convert even a tenth of those chances, we'd still be in the tourney.

 

MacGregor had a chance in the second half similar to his goal in the first half but put it over the bar !

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, Bob Mahelp said:

I don't think this is a better side than 1978 for example. But we had 2 home games, and it's the responsibility of the management and the players to overachieve....Northern Ireland 4 years ago is a classic example.....rather than bow out meekly like amateurs. 

Scotland seem uniquely incapable of overachieving. 

We are though, very good at finding excuses as why we can't do it. 

We overachieved by being here in the first place.

But you're clearly in meltdown at the moment, and you're not alone, judging by what's going on elsewhere. Your question's been answered though - this was obviously, and was always going to be, a contender for Scotland's worst performance at a major tournament because our players are worse than any other Scotland squad at a major tournament, and would easily be one of the worst squads at this tournament in general. If you want to know why they just can't bally well go and win regardless, well, I don't really know what to tell you. But if you ever find out, pass the secret on to the dozens or other poor and mediocre teams who regularly fail along with us.

[GordonS]

27 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

I don't think this is a better side than 1978 for example. But we had 2 home games, and it's the responsibility of the management and the players to overachieve....Northern Ireland 4 years ago is a classic example.....rather than bow out meekly like amateurs. 

Scotland seem uniquely incapable of overachieving. 

We are though, very good at finding excuses as why we can't do it. 

You need to score goals to win football games. Northern Ireland had a goalscorer. We don't.

You can have the 700 best left-backs in the world but if you can't put the ball in the net you can't win.

And there's really not much more to it than that.

[GordonS]

9 minutes ago, BFTD said:

We overachieved by being here in the first place.

But you're clearly in meltdown at the moment, and you're not alone, judging by what's going on elsewhere. Y

Thanks for the heads up, I wasn't sure whether to start reading the threads so I'll give them a bodyswerve.

The management was very good, the tactics got the best out of our lumpy resources, we created loads of chances in all three games but the bottom line is all three of our opponents were better than us, two of them considerably so, and if better teams than you get their own game right then they'll beat you.

Criticism of a youth football system that has led to Kevin Nisbet being the best current striker produced in Scotland is plenty fair enough. Anyone having a go at the squad or the management can get right in the coldest, darkest patch of sea they can find.

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, GordonS said:

Thanks for the heads up, I wasn't sure whether to start reading the threads so I'll give them a bodyswerve.

The management was very good, the tactics got the best out of our lumpy resources, we created loads of chances in all three games but the bottom line is all three of our opponents were better than us, two of them considerably so, and if better teams than you get their own game right then they'll beat you.

Criticism of a youth football system that has led to Kevin Nisbet being the best current striker produced in Scotland is plenty fair enough. Anyone having a go at the squad or the management can get right in the coldest, darkest patch of sea they can find.

I'm going to assume that everybody's stocious. Some folk are acting like the Italian fans welcoming their side back from the '66 World Cup. Clarke got everything wrong, according to some, and we limped out in an amateur fashion. Kinda feels like the Mandela Effect has kicked in, and I've slipped into a timeline where we were genuinely awful.

The sensible thing to be annoyed about is the longstanding situation with us producing few top-class players. But, considering the authorities' answer to that is to stockpile everybody at a few clubs and use the lower leagues as a training exercise, that's obviously not something that's going to improve in our lifetimes.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

1998 was worse. 

• The standard brave-but-ultimately futile performance against Brazil
• An absolute fucking bore draw against Norway
• An abject 3-0 scudding off Morocco.