Comrie Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 5 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said: Having missed the game last night and watched. the highlights this morning I have to say that Grant Hanley at the end there has made the most inexplicably idiotic decision I've ever seen in football. Watching it live you could just tell he was itching to barge the Polish lad. Can get away with this in the English second tier, but not a chance in top level football. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rjc-1988 Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 It is really hard to comprehend how two defenders playing at this level can concede penalties as cheaply as they did in this match. The scale of the errors was huge because the concession of a penalty inevitably leads to the concession of that rare commodity - a goal. Surely at International football defenders must see a "red flag" when an opposing player bursts into your box running away from goal at an impossible angle desperate to find a "diddy defender" who is daft enough to stick out a leg and try to win a ball when some clever shielding is all that is necessary? It is true to say that both Ralston and Hanley played well BUT these errors are huge in the context of the match and when two are committed in the same game it makes victory almost impossible. Sadly it cancels out all that they did well and really makes you wonder if they can ever be relied upon again? Porteous, who didn't start last night is undoubtedly a bigger liability than either of them - he has a long history of giving away crazy penalties and while he got away with many of these incidents pre-VAR, the days of these incidents being missed are all but over. It is truly frightening that with all the match analysts, video assessment of game situations, drone footage, a dugout packed full of coaching experts, that we still have defenders diving into crazy penalty box challenges when little danger exists. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jives Miguel Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 6 hours ago, GordonS said: It really should be obvious to everyone that Scotland have an incredibly unbalanced pool of players available to them, and unlike a lot of smaller footballing nations they're not randomly spread, our weakest options are in the most important areas of the pitch. It's been like this for a long time. We can have all the possession in the world but if you can't finish chances and if your defenders screw up, you can never succeed. Since the start of 2022 we've scored 43 goals in 28 games. Adams has 2 (one against Gibraltar), Dykes 3, Shankland 2; that's only 7 goals scored by forwards. Our defenders have got 5. McTominay has scored more than all our forwards combined. We have a horribly unbalanced squad and it makes little difference how good our first-choice midfielders and full-backs are if we are weak in defence and attack. He didn't say we have an unbalanced squad, he said this is the worst squad of players we've had in years, or words to that effect which is utter nonsense 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennie makevin Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 6 hours ago, Lurkst said: The spine of the team. Very few great sides have one of those components missing. Absolutely zero great sides have none of them. History is depressing. No good striker since Denis Law, no good centre back since George Young and no good goal keeper at all. Such is the Scottish way, sadly 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoBNob Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 6 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said: And in isolation he's not wrong. I mean he might be the only man in Scotland who starts Kenny McLean, but still .... As a performance I thought it was probably our best in a long time. Certainly since Cyprus away and against a half decent side our best since we beat Spain. Arguably for an hour or so of the Dutch friendly we were good too but we lost it 4-0! We were the better side. We had pace and passing. We created a few decent chances, though some if the crossing 1st half in particular was horribly overhit. We looked better with Dykes in than we ever did with Adams. We defended well in a four. McTominay and McGinn looked the players they did at the start of the last qualifiers. Sadly none of that matters when you give away three such criminally bad goals as we did. I'd never have started McLean but he played pretty well overall. But he sells Gilmour horribly short on the 1st goal. Boy hits it really well to be fair. Having seen the highlights, criticism of Gunn is a bit harsh. It dips and bounces just in front of him and its in off the post. I'd just finished saying to my son that Ralston might have been our best player 1st half when he loses the plot, gets caught wrong side, and then clumsily gave away a penalty trying to make up for it. He went on to assist our 2nd but try as he will he's always liable to do things like that. Until Patterson's back we just have to make do though. If the 2nd was bad the 3rd is absolutely criminal. First from the otherwise outstanding McGinn who dwells on a ball deep in his own half in 96 minutes. Then from Hanley who also otherwise played well but goes with his wrong foot into a needless challenge on a guy whose scoring angle was close to non existent. Finally from Gunn who guesses right but somehow dives over the penalty. Horrible. Not really deserved, yet fully deserved all at the same time. Edited to add, decent cameo from Doak and to a lesser extent Gauld and Morgan. Shankland though would have been as well sat next to me in the stand. Miles off it. There were people on here this morning saying he should start! Is it perhaps your fondness for Dykes that has led to you criticising Adams and Shankland the most SD? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 6 hours ago, Junior_Arab said: It’s all the rage. Arsenal and Man City do it with their world class ball playing defenders & goalkeepers so obviously we need to do it with our rather more limited resources. I think the idea is that instead of the GK rolling it short & wide to a CB who then only has the one side to play down, if the CB rolls it centrally to the GK from a wider position then he should be able to play out either side of the pitch. Like I say, that’s fine when it’s Ruben Dias playing it Ederson to dink one wide to Kyle Walker. But when it’s Grant Hanley passing it to Angus Gunn to find Tony Ralston… It got long balled after the pointless passing to dykes anyway But then they were all so deep rather than up the pitch Pointless 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 6 hours ago, GordonS said: Were you at the game or were you watching on the telly? Because that's not how our goal kicks worked at all. We had 6 back - two alongside the keeper, two wide and two in front of the penalty box. Poland matched up with 6. Scotland's remaining 4 stood along the halfway line. After at most a couple of passes one of our back 7, usually Gunn, would launch it for McTominay, McGinn or Dykes to battle in a 50-50. We won about a third of these and it instantly gave us 4v4s high-ish up the pitch. We absolutely did not remotely try to play out from the back, our tactic every time was to hit long unless there was some obviously better option, such as Robertson getting space on the left. The tactic faltered after the substitutions because Shankland, Gauld, Morgan and Doak are nowhere near as physically capable as the starting front 4. I usually don't bother engaging in the post-match around here, but this is so completely the opposite of what actually happened I couldn't leave it. Poor you At the game, don't recall routine working once Especially second half where could actually see it Just meant defence so deep when ball inevitably comes back 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scary Bear Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 (edited) 8 hours ago, BFTD said: What's happened to our defence? Over the past year we've gone from solid but unspectacular at the back, to intermittently porous. Tonight was reminiscent of those horrible friendlies where we looked like we were doing well, only to concede under a minimum of pressure. Grant Hanley taking a step back in time by a decade was just the cherry on the cake. At least Morgan and Doak did well when they came on, and hopefully this isn't going to be the last time we see Gauld in the team, but we're never going to outscore teams when we ship goals at this rate. In Hanley’s case he had an injury (or two?) and now he struggles to get regular games and is wheeled out for cup games where Norwich regularly get leathered (or they did the last couple of times I noticed). And he’s 32. Injuries have killed our decent defence. Him, Soutar and Hickey were all in great form until injuries. Oh, and Tierney. I was surprised Hendry didn’t make the squad. Is that due to the Euros hangover, him playing in Saudi, or injury? Edited September 6 by Scary Bear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Kelly Isley III Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 5 hours ago, Forza Alba said: The proportional population difference between Poland and Scotland is pretty close to that between Scotland and Luxembourg (Luxembourg is the closest European nation, globally it would be Bhutan or Guyana). So a bit of context that a close game and narrow defeat isn't exactly the end of the world. Scotland, proportionally, perform far better than Poland do. By that interesting logic a nation like Croatia could lay claim to being the best-performing in international football. Population size is a facile argument. In terms of context, whilst last night WAS a close game and a narrow defeat, it continued a depressing sequence of results, with yet more costly errors which simply can't be ignored. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 1 minute ago, O'Kelly Isley III said: By that interesting logic a nation like Croatia could lay claim to being the best-performing in international football. Population size is a facile argument. In terms of context, whilst last night WAS a close game and a narrow defeat, it continued a depressing sequence of results, with yet more costly errors which simply can't be ignored. The errors being choosing to start Hanley and ralston 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scary Bear Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 (edited) 8 hours ago, Unleash The Nade said: You said it was “ a positive “ we came back from 2 goals down . No it wasn’t as we shouldn’t have been 2 down in the first place . Your comment about Croatia , has f**k all do do with it tbh Again, it was a positive. Would you rather we didn’t manage to score two goals and we just lost 0-3? Or would you just rather we were a better side (like early 2023 Scotland…or maybe Croatia) who don’t go 0-2 down at home and have to come back from that. Sadly, that’s not who Scotland are at the moment. Edited September 6 by Scary Bear 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Kelly Isley III Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 1 minute ago, Binos said: The errors being choosing to start Hanley and ralston I wouldn't disagree at all, but the scale of the crisis facing our national team can be summed up, and without disrespect, by looking under the couch cushions for players like Gauld and Morgan. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insert Amusing Pseudonym Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 1 minute ago, O'Kelly Isley III said: I wouldn't disagree at all, but the scale of the crisis facing our national team can be summed up, and without disrespect, by looking under the couch cushions for players like Gauld and Morgan. That sounds pretty disrespectful tbh 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 2 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said: I wouldn't disagree at all, but the scale of the crisis facing our national team can be summed up, and without disrespect, by looking under the couch cushions for players like Gauld and Morgan. Aye, the apex has been reached of this 'group' Gareth Williams scott dobie robbie stockdale next generation incoming 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangemouth Bairn Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 In the drunken mind of a Tartan Army Foot-soldier. We need to keep Clarke at all costs because we had good results a year ago. Clarke is a really positive manager. Moyes is a really negative manager. Norwich City lost us that game. Hanley shouldn’t play again as he doesn’t play regularly and costs Scotland a lot of goals through his errors. Ralston should for us regularly as despite him not playing regularly and despite him costing Scotland a lot of goals through his errors he tries really hard. Max Johnston isn’t good enough because he only plays in Austria. We didn’t really lose the game cos 2 of their goals were penalties. We weren’t expected to win anyway cos Poland has a bigger population. Who cares about the result - we are in the division above England. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 Likely been posted already but the battling in the north stand was quite a strange watch last night Just two guys I think throwing haymakers 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No_Problemo Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 A less stubborn team selection and we probably win that. Even apart from his horrific mistake, Grant Hanley must be one of the worst footballing centre halves you could ever see - surely with McKenna in there and his physicality you can play Porteous for a bit more balance. As for playing a midfield of central midfielders yet again. McLean off, Christie deeper and play an actual wide or creative player. Our lack of width, other than Robertson, for most of the game was horrible. The south stand upper gives you a great view of the overall game and we were so f**king narrow every time we got the ball in the first half. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 15 minutes ago, Binos said: The errors being choosing to start Hanley and ralston Grant Hanley and Anthony Ralston - like Ryan Porteous - are dangerous f**king idiots who should be in prison and not representing their country. -2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Kelly Isley III Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 9 minutes ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said: That sounds pretty disrespectful tbh So be it then. Did, you, I or anyone other than Steve Clarke have them in our thoughts four months ago ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 Just now, Richey Edwards said: Grant Hanley and Anthony Ralston - like Ryan Porteous - are dangerous f**king idiots who should be in prison and not representing their country. Hanley is good when playing 30 games a season for club and match Sharp Awful when a bit part player Always has been, his Newcastle spell same Should be no news to the manager Ralston is just Ralston 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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