lubo_blaha Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 This sounds like a good laugh, shame we’re not involved. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denltfc Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 The Swiss have replaced Scotland with Ireland in Dublin on Tuesday March 26th. Obviously thinking Ireland are a like for like replacement lol The Belgians rock up on Saturday 23rd as a Slovakia/Romania level game I suppose. Decent games on my season ticket anyway! I wouldn’t be surprised if Germany or Hungary in a June friendly with Austria likely if Wales get through against Ireland. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2426255 Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 9 hours ago, denltfc said: The Swiss have replaced Scotland with Ireland in Dublin on Tuesday March 26th. Obviously thinking Ireland are a like for like replacement lol The Belgians rock up on Saturday 23rd as a Slovakia/Romania level game I suppose. Decent games on my season ticket anyway! I wouldn’t be surprised if Germany or Hungary in a June friendly with Austria likely if Wales get through against Ireland. I've been following Ireland a little since they were in our Nations League group mostly via Virgin Media (Damien Delaney, Brian Kerr etc) and OTB until it moved to a subscription model. There are similarities between Ireland and Scotland tactically. No team will replace another perfectly. Scotland are more pragmatic than Ireland and play to their strengths better in my opinion. I liked the idea of the Stephen Kenny reign, but the reality just didn't match the vision. Football has gone through a bit of a transition since Guardiola's great Barcelona team from playing football "the right way" to a little more pragmatism being required and I think Stephen Kenny's ideas of playing beautiful football just doesn't quite fit at the moment. I was impressed with parts of the Irish game such as playing out from the back which is something the Scotland team needs to work on especially against Pot-1 opponents. The managerial candidates don't seem too impressive from what I've seen. What are your expectations for the future? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Of The Month Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 (edited) Normal away section is 416-417 but apparently the Dutch have blocked off sections 414-417 (and 413 as segregation) now tickets are on sale to home fans so looks like there'll be enough away end tickets for anyone looking to go. Guess our section will be category 4 so 35 euro. Ticket link is anyone wants to go in the home end - https://ticketing.knvb.nl/nl-NL/events/nederland (m) - schotland (m)/2024-3-22_20.45/johan cruijff arena, amsterdam?hallmap&fbclid=IwAR3zbHrpMSArMACEu3VtQwB0yc96FGSwjHsppq4e-D1vCRqowfK0sxYbB1Y Edited December 29, 2023 by Pie Of The Month 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denltfc Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 On 28/12/2023 at 10:40, 2426255 said: I've been following Ireland a little since they were in our Nations League group mostly via Virgin Media (Damien Delaney, Brian Kerr etc) and OTB until it moved to a subscription model. There are similarities between Ireland and Scotland tactically. No team will replace another perfectly. Scotland are more pragmatic than Ireland and play to their strengths better in my opinion. I liked the idea of the Stephen Kenny reign, but the reality just didn't match the vision. Football has gone through a bit of a transition since Guardiola's great Barcelona team from playing football "the right way" to a little more pragmatism being required and I think Stephen Kenny's ideas of playing beautiful football just doesn't quite fit at the moment. I was impressed with parts of the Irish game such as playing out from the back which is something the Scotland team needs to work on especially against Pot-1 opponents. The managerial candidates don't seem too impressive from what I've seen. What are your expectations for the future? As a Longford Town fan who has nothing but respect for SK after all he did for my club, it was a cheap mistake by the FAI. I think Hughton or Carsley are decent options and if nothing else Keane would be box office. No thanks to Lennon or Bruce. as for the future we are lucky we should qualify for Euro 28 as Co hosts with all the available slots. WC try for a play off. Some good young players coming thru but who knows other than Evan Fergusson we don’t have a stand out player. Most international teams have 2/3 decent players these days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2426255 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 (edited) 20 hours ago, denltfc said: as for the future we are lucky we should qualify for Euro 28 as Co hosts with all the available slots. WC try for a play off. Some good young players coming thru but who knows other than Evan Fergusson we don’t have a stand out player. Most international teams have 2/3 decent players these days. I see Ireland as a Pot-3/4 team. Dangerous in a one off match, but lacking consistency - where Scotland were in 2019/20. I interpret that as an indicator your players can't reach the same performance levels game after game and so there's a player quality issue. Breaking the Pot-2 barrier is difficult and takes time. After two years (2021, 2022) Scotland managed to break that barrier. We replaced Ukraine after a head to head against them in the Nations League. 2023 solidified our Pot-2 status and provided a platform to break the Pot-1 barrier. That's currently in progress and is why we've been playing Pot-1 teams in friendlies. Our rise began with the same group of high level players (McTominay, McGinn, Robertson, Tierney, McGregor, Christie etc). Our level of consistency over a period of years offers an idea of what's required for Ireland to get back to where they want to be. We've had good fortune on the way, we caught Austria on a nasty downswing and perhaps Norway before their peak. For Ireland? If everything goes for you, like it has for us then it could be as quick as a couple of years. As an outsider I think 5 years would be realistic as a ballpark timeframe. Spoiler Spoiler Edited December 31, 2023 by 2426255 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyle Lanley Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Clarke saying we will have a home game at the end of May/start of June. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betting competition Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 10 minutes ago, Lyle Lanley said: Clarke saying we will have a home game at the end of May/start of June. Always thought we would have a fixture at home the week after the Scottish Cup Final. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoP Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 11 hours ago, betting competition said: Always thought we would have a fixture at home the week after the Scottish Cup Final. Any guesses who ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vince sinclair Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 12 hours ago, MarkoP said: Any guesses who ? There's been rumours Wales and home and Sweden away 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velo army Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I had a dream last night that we played Wales and got beat 4-1. Our keeper was utter rubbish and it was an entirely second string squad. It was honestly the worst goal I've seen us concede, but CalMac was, as usual, running the game. We'll be fine. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartan Dave Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Any word on when Northern Ireland tickets will go up for sale? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lubo_blaha Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 13 hours ago, Tartan Dave said: Any word on when Northern Ireland tickets will go up for sale? The Nations Legaue draw is in February with games being played after the euros. My guess is that they’ll wait for that and put a five game package on sale with the two home friendlies and three home NL games. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Of The Month Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 The Times is reporting the June friendlies will be Gibraltar in Faro on the 3rd June and Finland at Hampden on the 7th June. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Henry Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 2 hours ago, Pie Of The Month said: The Times is reporting the June friendlies will be Gibraltar in Faro on the 3rd June and Finland at Hampden on the 7th June. A welcome friendly that’ll get our strikers some confidence goals. Pure Championship Manager tactics from Clarke there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSJ.84 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Warm weather training camp with an actual game in it is sensible thinking. Quite fortunate that it’s on my weekend off too so I’ll only need one days annual leave at most. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Of The Month Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Looked into it briefly this morning but couldn't see much in the way of reasonable flights so giving this one a miss. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB_Bino Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Read the friendly article in The Herald that's going about, struggling to see why we would take the Gibraltar game. Clarke always talks about "being tested" or "needing tested". Before the England and France games he said that with Euro qualification and Pot 1 Nation League ties on the horizon, we could be faced with opponents of that standard, however again, Gibraltar don't fall into that category. Is it "an easy tie" to assess players....probably too close to the Euros for that.....is it a way to get some shooting practice in......I don't think Clarke is that type of manager....so all in all it just seems like a strange friendly to me. I can only think that were the only nation that were open to face us at that time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2426255 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) 2 hours ago, BB_Bino said: Read the friendly article in The Herald that's going about, struggling to see why we would take the Gibraltar game. Clarke always talks about "being tested" or "needing tested". Before the England and France games he said that with Euro qualification and Pot 1 Nation League ties on the horizon, we could be faced with opponents of that standard, however again, Gibraltar don't fall into that category. Is it "an easy tie" to assess players....probably too close to the Euros for that.....is it a way to get some shooting practice in......I don't think Clarke is that type of manager....so all in all it just seems like a strange friendly to me. I can only think that were the only nation that were open to face us at that time. It's a fair point. I don't think it's about shooting practice or building positive momentum. I'm of the view he couldn't get the games he would have ideally wanted for whatever reason, so probably choosing the best opponents from limited options. Steve Clarke indicated a reluctance to play friendlies against teams who will be at Euro-2024 which reduces the quality and quantity of potential European opponents. I'm not sure why he has imposed that restriction. Spoiler Quote We want competitive games. There are not too many easy games at international level – France might think there are one or two easier games! But I don’t think you learn enough from a game like that or playing a pot five or pot six team or whatever. I will be looking for pot one, pot two, pot three, pot four teams. It would be better if it was against teams that aren’t going to the Euros. Steve Clarke https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/scotland-next-matches-steve-clarke-reveals-his-euro-2024-warm-up-plans-four-decent-friendlies-4416783 I think the Gibraltar game is convenient given we know the location is well liked by the players and the other 3 games are on the fringes of the criteria set out above. Edited January 23 by 2426255 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordopolis Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) 3 hours ago, BB_Bino said: Read the friendly article in The Herald that's going about, struggling to see why we would take the Gibraltar game. Clarke always talks about "being tested" or "needing tested". Before the England and France games he said that with Euro qualification and Pot 1 Nation League ties on the horizon, we could be faced with opponents of that standard, however again, Gibraltar don't fall into that category. Is it "an easy tie" to assess players....probably too close to the Euros for that.....is it a way to get some shooting practice in......I don't think Clarke is that type of manager....so all in all it just seems like a strange friendly to me. I can only think that were the only nation that were open to face us at that time. Probably partly to get a game in the warm weather conditions, partly to (surely) get a convincing win and chalk a few goals and have our strikers feeling sharp and confident. Clarke did have us play Luxembourg before Euro 2020. I know they're a level or two above Gibraltar (93rd vs 201st in the rankings), but still far from a 'testing' opponent (though we made heavy weather of it and - ironically - IIRC it actually highlighted, maybe even compounded, a lack of sharpness from our forwards). Edited January 23 by Gordopolis 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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