Steve Clarke - in/out/general discussion

[ogoftheskye]

2 hours ago, Chripper said:

Things are going to get real bad for England, real fast.

That's a hot take if ever there was one. England were favourites because of the players they have at their disposal. Southgate being in charge had nothing to do with that tag. Wrong guy at the right time.

[Chripper]

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/lawrence-shankland-comes-out-swinging-33275204

---

Sections of the Tartan Army have turned on the manager after a miserable campaign in Germany but Shankland says the squad is firmly behind Clarke

Lawrence Shankland has backed Steve Clarke to lead Scotland out of their Euros gloom and get back on track for next year’s World Cup qualifiers.

The Hearts goal machine - who only managed three late substitute appearances in Germany - admits the pain of falling short of their knockout stages target is still raw. But as he broke the squad’s silence on the German flop almost a month after the campaign came to an end, Shankland insists Clarke won’t allow it to linger and affect the upcoming Nations League fixtures.

The latest FIFA rankings released yesterday showed Scotland had slipped nine spots to 48th in the world on the back of the Euros flop and sections of the Tartan Army have turned on the manager. But Shankland insists the players still believe in Clarke with the Nations League opener against Poland just seven weeks away.

He said: “Of course. He has got us to the two major tournaments and it wasn’t so long ago that we hadn’t been to one in I don't know how many years. So, there is the credit you get from that in the bank. We will look at what went wrong at the Euros but we still have a lot to look forward to. There is still a lot to go and achieve as a group and that's what we want to do.

“We were all disappointed but in football you learn to move on pretty fast. We have another challenge coming up, in the Nations League, and we want to do well. Then, going forward, we have the World Cup qualifiers so there is always something else on the horizon to aim for.

“It would be silly not to address it, chat about where we think we went wrong so we can learn from our mistakes, but there is a lot ahead of us that we can go and achieve.”

Shankland only managed 23 minutes of action plus injury time across three games with Che Adams preferred in attack. Asked if Clarke had explained his lack of game time, Shankland said: “Nah, he has more on his mind than worrying about speaking to me about the decisions he had to make.

“It’s a squad game and when you are asked to go away and represent your country it’s always a proud moment, no matter how much time you get on the pitch. Everyone has frustrations and everyone wants to play more minutes and start games but as a collective, we have always grouped together and been good team-mates and everybody has played their part."

 

[MarkoP]

“and everybody has played their part” - aye in a massive wasted opportunity 

Typical let’s close ranks response.

Still at least we know now there will be no apologies, no contrition, just ‘eat your cereal’

[Gordon EF]

Has nobody explained to Laurence, through dozens of gifs, that, actually, nothing went wrong at the Euros, there were no mistakes to learn from, and nothing could have gone differently?

[Old Bing]

1 hour ago, Chripper said:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/lawrence-shankland-comes-out-swinging-33275204

---

Sections of the Tartan Army have turned on the manager after a miserable campaign in Germany but Shankland says the squad is firmly behind Clarke

Lawrence Shankland has backed Steve Clarke to lead Scotland out of their Euros gloom and get back on track for next year’s World Cup qualifiers.

The Hearts goal machine - who only managed three late substitute appearances in Germany - admits the pain of falling short of their knockout stages target is still raw. But as he broke the squad’s silence on the German flop almost a month after the campaign came to an end, Shankland insists Clarke won’t allow it to linger and affect the upcoming Nations League fixtures.

The latest FIFA rankings released yesterday showed Scotland had slipped nine spots to 48th in the world on the back of the Euros flop and sections of the Tartan Army have turned on the manager. But Shankland insists the players still believe in Clarke with the Nations League opener against Poland just seven weeks away.

He said: “Of course. He has got us to the two major tournaments and it wasn’t so long ago that we hadn’t been to one in I don't know how many years. So, there is the credit you get from that in the bank. We will look at what went wrong at the Euros but we still have a lot to look forward to. There is still a lot to go and achieve as a group and that's what we want to do.

“We were all disappointed but in football you learn to move on pretty fast. We have another challenge coming up, in the Nations League, and we want to do well. Then, going forward, we have the World Cup qualifiers so there is always something else on the horizon to aim for.

“It would be silly not to address it, chat about where we think we went wrong so we can learn from our mistakes, but there is a lot ahead of us that we can go and achieve.”

Shankland only managed 23 minutes of action plus injury time across three games with Che Adams preferred in attack. Asked if Clarke had explained his lack of game time, Shankland said: “Nah, he has more on his mind than worrying about speaking to me about the decisions he had to make.

“It’s a squad game and when you are asked to go away and represent your country it’s always a proud moment, no matter how much time you get on the pitch. Everyone has frustrations and everyone wants to play more minutes and start games but as a collective, we have always grouped together and been good team-mates and everybody has played their part."

 

Absolutely meaningless, a player who will want to be part of the squad under this or any manager isn't going to come out and say "yeah the manager made a complete arse of it" are they.

[Chripper]

2 hours ago, Ranana Ban said:

Absolutely meaningless, a player who will want to be part of the squad under this or any manager isn't going to come out and say "yeah the manager made a complete arse of it" are they.

Which would be a valid point if Shankland was a regular, as opposed to being a perennial late substitute.

Shankland might get more minutes under a new manager.

Plus, he didn't have to say anything.

Fact is, Scotland went two decades without qualifying for a tournament.

If some screwball Scotland fans want to go back to that, good luck with your padded cells.

I get the distinct impression that there are a lot of people here who don't want Scotland to qualify. Why else would they want rid of Steve Clarke.

Either that or they really are screwballs.

Answers on a postcard...

Personally, I'm delighted seeing Scotland qualifying. It sure as hell won't last.

Cut to the next few weeks and our best club teams will get knocked out of Europe by Cypriot teams and Azerbaijan teams.

I wonder why Steve Clarke has such a tough gig...

Edited July 19 by Chripper

[Jives Miguel]

Very funny that the one person that could have a legitimate greivance with Steve Clarke is able to display more grace and rationality than all of the reactionary bozos in this thread combined.

[Gordon EF]

I'm not even particularly anti-Clarke. But when you look around at the absolute fruit loops who're spending the most time defending him, it makes me think the Clarke out camp is probably the most sensible one to be in.

[BFTD]

6 hours ago, Scary Bear said:

48th at the moment. Qatar at 34 is a surprise.

Back-to-back Asian Cup winners, to the rest of the AFC's eternal shame.

[Pocketman]

4 hours ago, Gordon EF said:

I'm not even particularly anti-Clarke. But when you look around at the absolute fruit loops who're spending the most time defending him, it makes me think the Clarke out camp is probably the most sensible one to be in.

Trump-like. Fight Fight Fight !

[Old Bing]

6 hours ago, Chripper said:

Which would be a valid point if Shankland was a regular, as opposed to being a perennial late substitute.

Shankland might get more minutes under a new manager.

 

5 hours ago, Jives Miguel said:

Very funny that the one person that could have a legitimate greivance with Steve Clarke is able to display more grace and rationality than all of the reactionary bozos in this thread combined.

Uh hu dumplings, I'm not sure a new manager would feel a great level of trust with a guy slagging the outgoing manager publicly.

Which will be why it never happens, and everyone says "positive things".

Can't believe I'm explaining this!

[Scary Bear]

2 hours ago, BFTD said:

Back-to-back Asian Cup winners, to the rest of the AFC's eternal shame.

Scotland should do an Australia and apply to enter the Asian Cup.

[2426255]

Spoiler

12 hours ago, ogoftheskye said:

Since the 3-0 v Cyprus last September:

P 12
W 1
D 4
L 7
GF 13
GA 28

One win (Gibraltar), one clean sheet (Gibraltar). Never mind where anyone thinks we ought to be at, that's terminal decline form territory, and there's only so long you can be an apologist for it.

You're cropping the results to put them in the worst light. The fair place to start from is at the beginning of the campaign in March.

Spoiler

10 hours ago, ogoftheskye said:

Negative football that eventually got found out. Yes indeed.

The football is negative because we lost. I accept that's how fans normally view things, but it's not accurate. The game against Hungary didn't go how we wanted it to, but it wasn't a defensive performance or a defensive approach. 

Spoiler

12 hours ago, ogoftheskye said:

Yeah, Canada who just reached the Copa America semi-finals and yet, to give it the apologist Scot assessment, simply don't have the players for that level (and no Numbers, I don't want your tedious, contrarian assessment on that one).

Scotland don't have the players to guarantee or justify supporter expectation that the minimum for success is to qualify from the group stage at a major tournament. It's the same with Canada, Georgia, Slovenia, Slovakia or Czech Republic, Ukraine and Poland for that matter. Setting that as a minimum expectation is setting yourself up for disappointment.

Aspiring towards that goal and perhaps achieving it as a percentage of tournaments we participate in is realistic. Expecting it at every tournament is not.

[SouthLanarkshireWhite]

9 hours ago, Ranana Ban said:

Absolutely meaningless, a player who will want to be part of the squad under this or any manager isn't going to come out and say "yeah the manager made a complete arse of it" are they.

This- if he says anything else he won't be improving his chances of starting any time soon. 

[Bad Wolf]

4 hours ago, Scary Bear said:

Scotland should do an Australia and apply to enter the Asian Cup.

Er no. I think Oceania is more our level at the moment. It has an appositely Orwellian ring to it too!

[immcinto]

3 hours ago, 2426255 said:

 

Scotland don't have the players to guarantee or justify supporter expectation that the minimum for success is to qualify from the group stage at a major tournament. It's the same with Canada, Georgia, Slovenia, Slovakia or Czech Republic, Ukraine and Poland for that matter. Setting that as a minimum expectation is setting yourself up for disappointment.

Not getting out the group is acceptable. It is the manner in which we performed that's the problem.  The same way we have been performing against any level of competition, even down to Gibraltar level.

Edited July 19 by immcinto

[2426255]

4 minutes ago, immcinto said:

Not getting out the group is acceptable. It is the manner in which we performed that's the problem.  The same way we have been performing against any level of competition, even down to Gibraltar level.

The words performance and result aren't synonyms. The performance is always tainted by the result in a fans eyes. Even a performance that is good or even just good in parts will always be overshadowed by a negative result and the opposite is also true with a good result. You can play well and lose or you can play poorly and win.

The performance against Hungary was okay, not a brilliant performance, but also not terrible. Because of the overall outcome and negative emotions associated with that game it will be forever seen by fans in a bad light.

[Butters Scotch]

Are Chripper(SlayerX) Numbers and Jives the same poster here? Can't believe the amount of shite I am reading on here.

@Chripper was banging on about how shit England are before the tournament, that they're not one of the 'major' teams yet they still reached the final. Now he's telling us what a great manager Southgate is. On top of that he actually used the words 'Expected' when evaluating Scotland's chances at the Euros, he actually expected us to win. Now he is one of Clarke's biggest defenders and stating how poor our players are. 

Numbers posts as if he is playing football manager and reads too many of these wannabe football analysts on X. Tries to be too clever for his own good, calling all of us imbeciles as 'The Fans' and that we basically know the square root of f**k all when it comes to professional football. GTF

 

@Jives MiguelThe less said about this poster the better, contributes absolutely nothing other than red dots. 

Edited July 19 by Butters Scotch

[Old Bing]

1 hour ago, Butters Scotch said:

Are Chripper(SlayerX) Numbers and Jives the same poster here? Can't believe the amount of shite I am reading on here.

@Chripper was banging on about how shit England are before the tournament, that they're not one of the 'major' teams yet they still reached the final. Now he's telling us what a great manager Southgate is. On top of that he actually used the words 'Expected' when evaluating Scotland's chances at the Euros, he actually expected us to win. Now he is one of Clarke's biggest defenders and stating how poor our players are. 

Numbers posts as if he is playing football manager and reads too many of these wannabe football analysts on X. Tries to be too clever for his own good, calling all of us imbeciles as 'The Fans' and that we basically know the square root of f**k all when it comes to professional football. GTF

 

@Jives MiguelThe less said about this poster the better, contributes absolutely nothing other than red dots. 

Pretty sure slayer and numbers are, it's been mentioned a fee times

[Chripper]

So, people who are sane and want Steve Clarke to remain in the Scotland job are all the same person?

How about flipping the script and accusing all the screwballs who want Clarke to quit as being the same person.

Have you noticed that it's only screwballs who accuse people of having aliases? Because it's a screwball thing to suggest.

Steve Clarke's remit when he got the Scotland gig was to qualify for tournamts.

He's been a success. Unequivocally.

The screwballs who want him gone are sick of watching Scotland at tournaments and miss the decades of being in the international wilderness.

Funny. The screwballs aren't giving us an alternative to Steve Clarke.

Lemme guess, the mythical Stuart Baxter.

 

Edited July 19 by Chripper