Scotland Vs Northern Ireland

[2426255]

Just now, BukyOHare said:

At grassroots level, our players are coached to be tidy on the ball, to play sideways and generally be safe on the ball. We produce decent midfielders and not a lot else.

That's not true. We produce good attack minded full-backs

[PSJ.84]

10 minutes ago, kennie makevin said:

It may make this team statistically more successful but it would not make them player for player a better team. No one would seriously make that claim, certainly compared to the 1928 team. Shankland, Dykes, Adams or Hughie Gallacher ? McTominey or Alex James ? Ryan Christie or Alan Morton ? Aye, right !!!

What a bizarre thing to say. Did you watch the 1928 team to be able to compare them? 

[Skyline Drifter]

6 minutes ago, forameus said:

I'd have Murray as top too. Growing up in the shadow of one of the countries biggest tragedies as a child, then getting undeserved hate from the sort of gammons that can't take a joke and imagine everyone loves England.  Never quite taken to heart until he lost at Wimbledon in 2012 and broke down post-match.  Then goes on to win the Olympics on "home" soil, break his major duck, then come back a year later to absolutely pump Djokovic in the next Wimbledon final.  I think it would be hard to argue that any Scot in any sport has had the combination of story and success that he's had.

I'd have had him at right-back over Patterson last night. Fucked hip and all.

Oh aye, I forgot to factor in the double Olympic Champion point too, although there's a debate as to how seriously some of his rivals take that to be fair.

[2426255]

Just now, PSJ.84 said:

What a bizarre thing to say. Did you watch the 1928 team to be able to compare them? 

You can tell he did.

[Ludo*1]

12 minutes ago, kennie makevin said:

It may make this team statistically more successful but it would not make them player for player a better team. No one would seriously make that claim, certainly compared to the 1928 team. Shankland, Dykes, Adams or Hughie Gallacher ? McTominey or Alex James ? Ryan Christie or Alan Morton ? Aye, right !!!

Other than Tierney and Robertson, there's not many in the current side that individually are the best we've had in their respective positions - ones that can certainly be debated over but only a couple such as McGinn. 

Individually - I think we had better players in much, much worse eras. If we look at Vogts as the lowest we've ever been (I wouldn't necessarily say that was the case - I thought we sunk lower in the Burley & Levein eras) the likes of David Weir, Paul Lambert and Barry Ferguson would probably (again, people can debate) individually get into our current 11, but this is by far, not even close to the best team and squad we've had in a long, long time. The fact that we're needing to talk about 1928 is testament to that.

[2426255]

2 minutes ago, Dunfermline Don said:

I was only there last night because I have bought the five match package and after that game am seriously considering whether to just go for the individual matches in future and avoid any friendlies (especially ones that see the Govan songbook brought out).  
It seemed the flattest atmosphere pre match that I have seen in a while and I feel that the SFA missed a trick in not reducing prices for this game to get a full house. The fans have spent plenty recently on tickets, travel & accommodation for the summer and it would have been a great gesture to give the supporters reduced admission. The best seats in the stadium (South Upper) were not even available for sale and that section was empty last night.

For me things have never been right since we were played off the park against England last year and we only really stumbled over the line in qualifying after such a flying start to the campaign.  In truth it all came down to Norway taking off Haaland and those mad two minutes in Oslo otherwise we might be joining the Welsh in the Costas this summer.

 I’m still going over to Germany in the summer, but any optimism that existed at the time of the draw is slowly dying.  Originally I was hoping we would get out of the groups for a first time ever, now I am just hoping that we don’t embarrass ourselves. 
 

 

Not a bad place to be going into the tournament. Better to go in not expecting too much imo. Probably better for the team to go in as underdogs too. 

[BukyOHare]

Just now, 2426255 said:

I don't understand what you are wanting us to do.

Getting a shot on target in the first half after having over 80% possession would be a huge start.

Perhaps not being so open everytime the opposition finally ventured out of their own half would've helped as well? They should've scored a second not long after their first.

And generally not being beaten at international level by an understrength Northern Ireland team containing a player from Stevenage would go a long way too.

It's not too much to ask surely?

 

 

 

[stressball]

2 minutes ago, PSJ.84 said:

What a bizarre thing to say. Did you watch the 1928 team to be able to compare them? 

He does this a lot.

[2426255]

Just now, BukyOHare said:

Getting a shot on target in the first half after having over 80% possession would be a huge start.

Perhaps not being so open everytime the opposition finally ventured out of their own half would've helped as well? They should've scored a second not long after their first.

And generally not being beaten at international level by an understrength Northern Ireland team containing a player from Stevenage would go a long way too.

It's not too much to ask surely?

I meant with respect to our Strikers only chipping in. What do you want to see done differently to fix that? or is it a grass roots thing for you?

[Skyline Drifter]

5 minutes ago, HuttonDressedAsLahm said:

Northern Ireland are limited, but were effectively setup to stifle us.  They - in effect - did exactly what we did to Spain.  Allowed us to have the ball in front of them, and in the wings.  They know we're fairly one-dimensional as we lack pace, and trickery - either out wide, or in the middle.

It seems to always be harder to analyse a game from the stands but we seemed pretty one-paced and gave up trying to have any real passages of play through the middle, excepting a burst from Christie and McTominay in the first half, and perhaps a couple in the second.  

Enough has been said about Patterson, but McGinn seemed hugely off it.  His touch was poor, and by not moving the ball on quickly seemed to get quickly pressured and seemed never to take a pass on the half-turn.  Far too many of the passes our players received were with their back to goal and so limited progress was made with the ball.

Gilmour was the only player who seemed to be playing with any sort of impetus.  In a game like that we need another of his type to take the ball in the last third and keep the progression going.  Instead, we cycled the ball from wing to wing, rarely taking on the full back or creating overloads.

I don't recall Dykes doing anything, and Adams - for the time he was on the pitch - seemed only to take the ball in wide areas.  Armstrong looked like an improvement, but again, if you have a low block and a team setup defensively we have zero pace or trickery in the side.  A game like that needs a player like Fraser who forces the opposition to do something else.

Anyway, I'm not as disillusioned as others.  Switzerland and Hungary won't play us like that any more than us showing how to beat Spain would inform the French or English how to nullify them.  We struggle against a disciplined low block in friendlies - that's neither novel nor surprising, and no semi-decent team is going to do that against us.  

Asides from the awful Gibraltar, we'll play a minimum of 10 games in the rest of 2024 and every single side will be at a minimum of the caliber of Georgia/Norway/Ukraine, and often better, or much better.  They'll create far more chances against us, but equally they'll play in a manner we're better set to exploit (assuming unlike in Amsterdam, we're able to take our chances).

Spot on IMO

[Don Diego De la Vega]

9 hours ago, TheScarf said:

The other take home for me tonight is that North Ireland fans are all fat dickheads.

My big take would be: Bobble hats at football should be banned, everyone standing let’s add an extra 2 inches to see over for the people behind, felt sorry for kids and short arses tonight 

[accies1874]

5 minutes ago, PSJ.84 said:

Some absolutely wild takes in here, and at Hampden last night. It was a really poor performance but it’s the sort we’ve not seen from this group of players all too often. To say we’ve not played well since Spain at Hampden is incredibly unfair. Performances against Georgia at Hampden and Cyprus away were really good - regardless of the level of opposition. Are people really trying to rewrite history with the Norway game? We weren’t great that night but who actually cares, it’s the result that matters. Last night is the first proper black mark against this squad and manager for nearly two years. It’s not time to panic. 
 

 

You see it whenever we have a bad result. "Two penalty shoot-outs" "Denmark didn't care" "Haven't played well in a year". It's like when we lost to Ireland and that crackpot on Twitter went through every game between then and Serbia in an attempt to say that actually we were always shite. 

Last night was absolutely garbagio and I do find the inconsistency from this team extremely frustrating. I was full of deserved praise for their performance on Friday, but I also mentioned that it'd be extremely hard to predict how we'd follow that up as we do have a few too many of last's nights kinds of performances in us - because we aren't an elite team. I think we've seen that we can compete with some of the big boys and we can frustrate most of them, but while we we're unlikely to have another 90 minutes like last night in a competitive match this year, it's certainly not outwith the realms of possibility that we go 1-0 down at the Euros or in the Nations League and need to try and break down a low block for the rest of the game, so I suppose this friendly gave us some practice for that. We were fairly terrible at it, though, which was shown by the fact that all (?) of our chances came from set-pieces which we already know this team are a threat from. 

[Dunfermline Don]

Just now, 2426255 said:

Not a bad place to be going into the tournament. Better to go in not expecting too much imo. Probably better for the team to go in as underdogs too. 

Exactly, I am old enough to remember all the hype before the 78 World Cup.

I expect all the other teams will now see us as the game they expect to win, that could be to our benefit! (Shite, there I go getting all optimistic again. )

[Scary Bear]

37 minutes ago, 2426255 said:

Who did you want to see? A different goalkeeper? or Greg Taylor? 

From my point of view, I think I’d have liked to have seen us try and get more game time for Ferguson, to see if he can push on and become an important international player for us. He’s doing well in Serie A, but can he do it for Scotland? It would be nice to have seen him start a game in the position where Steve Clarke sees him playing. However, we have a lot of midfielders so I recognise it’s difficult to get them all enough game time.

I think the main issue with the Scotland team is - and this may be a bit unkind but it’s how I see it - that we are basically 3 decent full backs - Hickey, Robertson, Tierney - and 3 decent midfielders - McGinn, McTominay, Gilmour.

The full backs have all been out of sorts with injuries and the rest of the team while okay, are just okay.

If most of those 6 players mentioned aren’t playing out their skins, then Scotland don’t play well.

Edited March 27 by Scary Bear

[BB_Bino]

7 minutes ago, Dunfermline Don said:

I feel that the SFA missed a trick in not reducing prices for this game to get a full house. 

My area manager mentioned to me this morning that he went to get tickets last night and was charge £40 for him and (I think he said £15 each for 3 kids) so decided to just watch it on the TV. i suspect he was not alone in  this.

[V.Aye.R]

Not terribly fussed about this window, it's not going to represent the buzz of the euros and I'm confident we'll give a good account if ourselves. 

Hope the northern Ireland fans are looking forward to the summer of nothing. 

I've never met a more rancid set of international fans. Angry, insecure wee men. 

[2426255]

7 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

From my point of view, I think I’d have liked to see us try and get more game time for Ferguson, to see if he can push on and become an important international player for us. He’s doing well in Serie A, but can he do it for Scotland? It would be nice to have seen him start a game in the position where Steve Clarke sees him playing. However, we have a lot of midfielders so I recognise it’s difficult to get them all enough game time.

Don't disagree with your other points, but on Lewis Ferguson. The last 5 games he's had decent game time given the strength of the midfield - I don't think he isn't getting enough minutes, he's getting a chance to force his way into the team and he's doing okay.

Spoiler

Edited March 27 by 2426255

[Skyline Drifter]

4 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Other than Tierney and Robertson, there's not many in the current side that individually are the best we've had in their respective positions - ones that can certainly be debated over but only a couple such as McGinn. 

Individually - I think we had better players in much, much worse eras. If we look at Vogts as the lowest we've ever been (I wouldn't necessarily say that was the case - I thought we sunk lower in the Burley & Levein eras) the likes of David Weir, Paul Lambert and Barry Ferguson would probably (again, people can debate) individually get into our current 11, but this is by far, not even close to the best team and squad we've had in a long, long time. The fact that we're needing to talk about 1928 is testament to that.

An interesting debate and probably not that far wrong. Certainly an argument that Tierney and Robertson are among our best ever left backs. Potentially a case to be made for Hickey on the other side but I'd have at least Allan Hutton in front of him right now. Peak Craig Gordon's up there with our best keepers though Goram was probably better. None of the current centre backs or forwards would be in the mix obviously.

I think this may be the best collective crop of midfielders we've had in a very long time. Individually the likes of Ferguson and Lambert, maybe Hartley, Souness, etc were up there and possibly better but as a group of 4 or 5 it may be our best ever. Around about 92 we had McAllister, McCall, McStay, Collins I think. I guess that's maybe comparable.

[Jaggy McJagface]

7 minutes ago, V.Aye.R said:

Not terribly fussed about this window, it's not going to represent the buzz of the euros and I'm confident we'll give a good account if ourselves. 

Hope the northern Ireland fans are looking forward to the summer of nothing. 

I've never met a more rancid set of international fans. Angry, insecure wee men. 

Most of the “Northern Ireland” fans last night were probably homegrown **** from Scotland

[Lurkst]

23 minutes ago, Dunfermline Don said:

I was only there last night because I have bought the five match package and after that game am seriously considering whether to just go for the individual matches in future and avoid any friendlies (especially ones that see the Govan songbook brought out).  
It seemed the flattest atmosphere pre match that I have seen in a while and I feel that the SFA missed a trick in not reducing prices for this game to get a full house. The fans have spent plenty recently on tickets, travel & accommodation for the summer and it would have been a great gesture to give the supporters reduced admission. The best seats in the stadium (South Upper) were not even available for sale and that section was empty last night.

 

 

 

A few of my mates took out the 5 matcher (as I have previously) but when this fixture was announced I had a feeling it would be an awful experience on and off the pitch, so was happy to save 30 quid and sacrifice the SSC point.