Euro 2024 Expectations

[eez-eh]

8 minutes ago, JS_FFC said:

I think the key point is that 4 points is enough and 2 almost certainly isn’t. If you get 3 points it’s complete luck of the draw both in terms of where you finish in the group and how high up the 3rd place rankings.

 

The aim has to be to beat either Switzerland or Hungary and nick a point off the other one. The opener is a free hit.

That’s plenty.

[BFTD]

45 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

That’s plenty.

Aye. Please God, not this again. It surely doesn't matter, because there's no chance that Steve Clarke or the team will have this attitude, but how many times has our record against a "free hit" bitten us on the arse.

All this tactical "we should look for a draw against the Swiss then try to beat Hungary" stuff is just awful too. We'd be as well with Craig Levein back in charge.

[Butters Scotch]

5 hours ago, BFTD said:

Aye. Please God, not this again. It surely doesn't matter, because there's no chance that Steve Clarke or the team will have this attitude, but how many times has our record against a "free hit" bitten us on the arse.

All this tactical "we should look for a draw against the Swiss then try to beat Hungary" stuff is just awful too. We'd be as well with Craig Levein back in charge.

Totally agree, gotta go for the wins against both Hungary and Switzerland rather than going out with a whimper which would inevitably happen if we try to park the bus

[doulikefish]

Beer,currywurst and some football are my expectations 

[craigkillie]

3 hours ago, Butters Scotch said:

Totally agree, gotta go for the wins against both Hungary and Switzerland rather than going out with a whimper which would inevitably happen if we try to park the bus

We wouldn't have to go for the win against Hungary if we were already both on 3 points and knew a draw would take us both through.

[Butters Scotch]

46 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

We wouldn't have to go for the win against Hungary if we were already both on 3 points and knew a draw would take us both through.

The point I'm making is if we try and sit in to defend deep we will just be inviting pressure on our defence which is one of the worst parts of our team and likely to concede without creating much either. We are better when we press up high to take it to the opposition and I can't see the other teams playing defensively at all against us 

[craigkillie]

We sat in and defended deep against Ukraine away and against Spain away recently and played very well in both. I think we can do it if we need to.

[Butters Scotch]

16 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

We sat in and defended deep against Ukraine away and against Spain away recently and played very well in both. I think we can do it if we need to.

Ukraine away we were jammy as f**k not to concede that game, hearts in mouth type of performance. Spain we were good considering we were playing Spain but they still missed a few sitters. 

Just dont see why we don't have the belief to beat teams like Hungary and Switzerland, good teams but nothing special, we should be going for the win each game considering it could get us best third place or whatever 

[lubo_blaha]

On 02/05/2024 at 11:04, Jives Miguel said:

I think we will lose every game pretty comfortably tbh.

 

The last 6 or 7 games nosedive in form and results, and the injury concerns have completely killed any hope in me. Just hoping we don't embarrass ourselves at this point.

It’s funny how international football is so different to club football in that regard. 

We’ve done the equivalent of a club side having a great season, qualifying for Europe with games to go and struggling during pre-season against better sides. 

Only one of the games on our run without winning has actually meant anything and that was away against a top ten nation.

[eez-eh]

11 hours ago, lubo_blaha said:

It’s funny how international football is so different to club football in that regard. 

We’ve done the equivalent of a club side having a great season, qualifying for Europe with games to go and struggling during pre-season against better sides. 

Only one of the games on our run without winning has actually meant anything and that was away against a top ten nation.

I’d argue that international friendlies are much more “competitive” than a club pre-season friendly.

[craigkillie]

Our record in them is always terrible regardless of whether we are good, bad or anywhere in between. In our last 19 friendlies, we have 2 wins, 4 draws and 13 defeats.

Edited May 5 by craigkillie

[Bing.McCrosby]

15 hours ago, lubo_blaha said:

It’s funny how international football is so different to club football in that regard. 

We’ve done the equivalent of a club side having a great season, qualifying for Europe with games to go and struggling during pre-season against better sides. 

Only one of the games on our run without winning has actually meant anything and that was away against a top ten nation.

 

3 hours ago, craigkillie said:

Our record in them is always terrible regardless of whether we are good, bad or anywhere in between. In our last 19 friendlies, we have 2 wins, 4 draws and 13 defeats.

Im not sure of what the points of these posts are, everyone is aware of the scores in recent matches.

The run of results and form has been poor, and getting worse. Failing to win even the easiest of matches is certainly something to analyse and be concerned about.

Look at Clarkes comments before the N Ireland game, he said they need to win. He understands at least.

[KingRocketman II]

1 hour ago, Bing.McCrosby said:

 

Im not sure of what the points of these posts are, everyone is aware of the scores in recent matches.

The run of results and form has been poor, and getting worse. Failing to win even the easiest of matches is certainly something to analyse and be concerned about.

Look at Clarkes comments before the N Ireland game, he said they need to win. He understands at least.

The Northern Ireland game is the only game and scoreline of real concern here - to me anyway. Performance against the Dutch was on the whole very good - and that was our penultimate game. Although we are not going into the Euros on the back of the confidence we felt three quarters of the way through the qualifiers, the two upcoming friendlies should give a better indication of where we are. To resort to this at this stage and after that qualifying campaign, is nothing more than tabloid/red top hyperbole. 

 

[Bing.McCrosby]

1 hour ago, KingRocketman II said:

The Northern Ireland game is the only game and scoreline of real concern here - to me anyway. Performance against the Dutch was on the whole very good - and that was our penultimate game. Although we are not going into the Euros on the back of the confidence we felt three quarters of the way through the qualifiers, the two upcoming friendlies should give a better indication of where we are. To resort to this at this stage and after that qualifying campaign, is nothing more than tabloid/red top hyperbole. 

 

To resort to "this"? What recognising were on a poor run of form and results? Clarke himself has acknowledged and recognised it.

And you know what, im glad he has. I've got more respect for him and faith he can turn it around because of this.

Edited May 5 by Bing.McCrosby

[BFTD]

The number of goals we've conceded is concerning too TBH, but Norn Iron was the only genuinely poor performance. Also annoying that we didn't push Spain a bit harder in the final two group games; didn't matter in the end, but we've ended up in a better position in groups before because one of our competitors made a c**t of a game they'd have expected to win.

Fingers crossed our uncatastrophically bald boss can sort out the porous defence, as we were doing OK there for a while.

[Bing.McCrosby]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

The number of goals we've conceded is concerning too TBH, but Norn Iron was the only genuinely poor performance. Also annoying that we didn't push Spain a bit harder in the final two group games; didn't matter in the end, but we've ended up in a better position in groups before because one of our competitors made a c**t of a game they'd have expected to win.

Fingers crossed our uncatastrophically bald boss can sort out the porous defence, as we were doing OK there for a while.

Were a good enough team to be beating Norway at home and a poor Georgia away also. Those results seem to be getting pushed as ok.

I've heard a few times we were missing players against Norway, they were missing their best players by some distance.

I did say at the time that playing all these top teams in friendlies could lead to a drop in form and confidence. And it seems I was right.

I understand that people have low expectations and standards for Scotland. But historical results are meaningless, we judge the team on the here and now. Against the current opposition. Were a good team with good players.

Honestly I think we will get through the group in the euros (unless were missing alot of players).

Im glad the manager doesn't have the same attitude to results as some poster.

 

[KingRocketman II]

1 hour ago, Bing.McCrosby said:

To resort to "this"? What recognising were on a poor run of form and results? Clarke himself has acknowledged and recognised it.

And you know what, im glad he has. I've got more respect for him and faith he can turn it around because of this.

"this" references bold. We are not on a poor run of form. Our form was good as recently as against the Dutch - as I said, that result ended up as poor and overall results have been patchy as the table above shows. Performance and result against NI was poor however but if we play well in our next two friendlies that to me cancels out the NI game. Therefore the next two friendlies are key. 

[Bing.McCrosby]

6 minutes ago, KingRocketman II said:

"this" references bold. We are not on a poor run of form. Our form was good as recently as against the Dutch - as I said, that result ended up as poor and overall results have been patchy as the table above shows. Performance and result against NI was poor however but if we play well in our next two friendlies that to me cancels out the NI game. Therefore the next two friendlies are key. 

We've not won a game in 7 matches mate, and lost 5 of those games. Yes 4 of those games we would be expected to lose, the other 3 we were favourites. 

If thats not what you would consider a poor run of form and results then we just have very different ideas and expectations.

[lubo_blaha]

6 hours ago, Bing.McCrosby said:

 

Im not sure of what the points of these posts are, everyone is aware of the scores in recent matches.

The run of results and form has been poor, and getting worse. Failing to win even the easiest of matches is certainly something to analyse and be concerned about.

Look at Clarkes comments before the N Ireland game, he said they need to win. He understands at least.

I would be concerned if the games meant anything. The only one which did was Spain away in which we played well and were unlucky not to take anything from.

England and France friendlies - beaten by two of the best in the world, with a much changed team in the case of France.

Georgia and Norway - we were missing Gunn, Hickey, Tierney and Robertson. Got draws against good sides.

Netherlands - played very well for 70 minutes but fell to bits towards the end. 

Northern Ireland - rotten performance against a minnow who were a lot more up for the game than we were.

I would be seriously concerned if these results took place at the start of a qualifying campaign or in the nations league. Thankfully our record in these campaigns speaks for itself. We’re at our best playing at high intensity and that’s not easy to replicate in friendlies or dead rubbers.

[Butters Scotch]

People on here saying winning friendlies aren't important and would be alot more concerned if we lost in competitive matches.

It's not the be all end all to win friendlies but It's important to note that we play a lot less through the year than a club team would so the time where our squad do meet up should be an opportunity to breed a winning mentality and keep morale high. 

Its obviously no easy to do this with a nation like Scotland and we need to keep blooding in new players to enhance the squad but in the past few years where performances have been raised, we started producing a lot better results and started qualifying or coming closer to qualifying for major tournaments so it's important to keep high standards IMO