Euro 2016 Qualifying - The Post Mortem - Page 2 - TA specific - Tartan Army Message Board Jump to content

Euro 2016 Qualifying - The Post Mortem


McDange

Recommended Posts

Even a win in Tbilisi might not have been enough, drawing in Ireland and at home to Poland als cost us.

We up every time because the team and management think it's ok to draw away from home or draw with our nearest rivals. You have to go out to win if you really want to qualify

Anyway, strachan says this was a special campaign. special isn't the word I'd use to describe another failure.

I actually think we as fans are part of the problem, we blindly follow the team regardless of each outcome without so much as an angry word said after the game. The sfa know this and will continue to be happy treading water till we make our voices heard or vote with our feet and don't turn up.

Spot on

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Simple summary, we cannae defend.

Needs sorted for next time.

Agreed.

Like I said on another thread we were better in attack than Ireland but worse in defence and that ultimately cost us. We scored more goals than them against Germany but leaked more (and so lost both games unlike Ireland). Likewise against Poland we scored four but ultimately that wasn't enough to get us a win against them due to leaking goals. Even against Georgia away and Gibraltar at home our defence was breached and in Tblisi that really cost us dear. Tighten up at the back and more points are certain to come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Georgia is the obvious one, even a point would have got us somewhere but after 75mins it looked like the players decided the game a was a write off as we were not getting 3pts. However, for me we lost it in the games where we had the upper hand... Poland and Germany away where big chances but it appeared that we didn't believe we could get anything against Germany and a point at best against Poland.

I felt our best performance of the campaign was the first 65mins against Poland but after 2-1 we decided to sit on it where I felt we had the chance to go and kill the game off - in the end we were very lucky to get away with a point! When it was 1-1 against Germany we sat back and did exactly the same thing - it was a free hit and Germany struggled to get out of second gear... It was a huge chance for us but we slipped into the old Levein, Burley and Craig Brown tactic of 'lets try and sneak a draw'.

Hindsight is a great thing but I hope Strachan stays on and we learn from this experience. When we have the upper hand in away games then we need the killer instinct to take three points as opposed to settling for one - Slovenia, Lithuania and Slovakia will be those type of games! The most frustrated I have been at a game was watching us settle for a 0-0 away to Lithuania when it was clear they were there for the taking!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Goals against

ROI 7

Ger 9

Pol 10

Sco 12

Goals Against At Home:

ROI 2

Pol 4

Ger 4

Sco 6

Points at home :

Ger 13

Pol 13

ROI 11

Sco 10

Hampden is a hotel not a fortress - needs sorted.

Edited by tjm007
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed, as I've said on another post, for me three moments have cost us. Germany away (we could have got a point, stupid goal to lose), Georgia away (as before) and Poland at home (last kick of the game, painful!) If those had gone our way, we would be sitting here having qualified automatically on 19 points. Small margins and all that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We absolutely have to take 12 points off the two minnows. We hardly ever do it, and it always ends up being crucial.

Malta and Lithuania are both poor. If you take 12 points from those, 10 points from the other 6 games almost certainly gets you a play off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there are a vast array of parameters that need looked at regarding our qualification failures.

As noted above, our home record is not good enough. We have not qualified from a group since Hampden has been refurbished. Looking at this group, only 4 points came from the Hampden games (three of those against Gibraltar), whilst the other 6 came from Ibrox and Parkhead (incidentally stadiums we utilised during our last succesful qualification).

Whilst I do not think it is a simple as playing our home games away from Hampden will sort all ills, but with our team not being up to standard we need to look at everything to maximise future chances.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We absolutely have to take 12 points off the two minnows. We hardly ever do it, and it always ends up being crucial.

Malta and Lithuania are both poor. If you take 12 points from those, 10 points from the other 6 games almost certainly gets you a play off.

Absolutely. But, we are Scotland and a draw in Vilnius will be seen as "A good point" < exactly where we are going wrong.

We will also play 1 upfront and the game will be slow paced and probably end up 0-0 with Scott Brown and A.N. Other very uncreative midfielder in Central Midfield.

Yawn...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Goalscoring isn't the issue for us it is the conceding of goals. Ireland are in the pkay-offs having scored fewer goals than us and of lesser quality but their defence is more solid.

Need more evidence? We scored four goals against Poland and three against Germany but still never won a game because we leak too many goals.

That is the area Strachan must address for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you'd asked me before the matches started if i'd be happy if we only lost 1 game outside of playing the Germans then I'd have said sure. If I'd asked all of you if you'd have been happy with 3 draws and a win from the 4 games against Ireland and Poland I imagine 98% of you would have said yes. So overall I think we did ok, certainly better than previous campaigns. Yes, we failed in the end and there are things we can improve on, but there's no way we could do anything about the Irish taking 4 points off Germany. Knock out those 4 points and we finish above them.

Yes, our defense is a bit rubbish, but is that a surprise to anyone? We don't have the personnel in that area of the pitch to be able to make massive improvements. 3 of the back 4 pick themselves. Left back is really the only one with options. We've played 2 defensive mids to shield them all campaign, and we've tried to pressure teams when they have the ball. There's not a massive amount more we can do, we lack a real vocal organiser in there and the depth of players to make selection a headache instead of an automatic choice regardless of form.

We are what we are, and we were better this campaign than last. Results-wise and football-wise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have been on the decline since beating Ireland at Celtic Park. We looked very unconvincing ahead of the return game in Dublin.

we have been on the decline since Colin Hendry, Gary Mcallister, John Collins and Andy Goram retired

incredibly sad but true

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ireland have conceded less as they have protected their midfield with proper DMs and played a more cagey game.

Defenders man for man is not the biggest problem it is the tactics used.

Not playing proper DMs every game and allowing the full backs to bomb forward is asking for defence to be exposed. Too many goals were lost from space between defence and and midfield. Scott Brown has no intelligence to defend that area at all.

Still cannot believe Strachan though a CM of Morrison and Brown would work in Georgia.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...