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HandofRhod

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Posts posted by HandofRhod

  1. 3 minutes ago, Clyde1998 said:

    I'm surprised some people expected Norway to beat Serbia - I think Serbia are a slightly better side than Norway, especially outwith Haaland. Also that's taking into account they've only beaten Northern Ireland, Malta (twice) and the Faroe Islands (twice) in the past year, albeit with as many draws: Sweden (twice), Romania (twice) and Spain. Although, Norway's only lost their first home match in fifteen in their previous home game against Austria.

    The Serbs on the other hand appear to have more players at a higher level, don't seem to be as dependant on a single player and have similar form to Norway; Norway have been better than Serbia at home since the start of 2018 (73% of points (inc. equivalent points for friendlies) compared to 54% for Serbia).

    Our away record does worry me going to Serbia; we've won five of eleven (losing the rest, with three being by three or more goals) going back to the start of 2018. Our defence seems a lot more solid than in did in recent matches and we're now unbeaten in six. Outwith three games against Israel and Kazakhstan, we've not had a surprising results in that time either (over 23 matches), and two of them were struggling to break Israel down.

    I wonder if we'll naturally be better against Serbia as they'll come and attack us, giving us the opportunity to counter attack - something Israel didn't allow us to do. If we can nick a goal, we've got a good chance next month.

    The upcoming Nations League games should really be used to get our tactics sorted for the Serbia game; notwithstanding the fact we'll probably have six players return to the squad.

    Good Points.

    I think Set Pieces could be key in the Serbia game and for the first time in a long time we had a pretty tall team playing last night.

    Great deliveries by Robbo and we were unlucky on a couple occaassions.

    A wee bit more work on them in the next 2 games and could be a real weapon agasint serbia

  2. 4 minutes ago, Super_Scotlandfan said:

    Good post. Agree with you on McGinn, was trying a little too hard as he was really our only creative player. If Christie was on the pitch we wouldn’t have to rely on him as much. He could have been looking to get on the end of things rather having to make it happen himself. 
     

    Obvious changes for the Serbia game are to play Christie, to replace SOD and finding a position for Fraser within the system. 
     

    Anyone realise how well the right footed Elhamed did at left wing back? Starting to think that Tierney’s best position in this system is RWB rather than left centre back. 
     

    Tierney is a far more talented player than Elhamed as I’m sure Celtic fans will agree. Would have been interesting to play him there in one of these next games!

    Very Much agree with you on this!

    For serbia  assuming Clark is gonna stick with 352 then the back 3 should stays the same after last ngiht perfomarnce, robbo LWB -  KT RWB

    Then depends how open you want to go in midfield  -  jack and Mcgregor did a good job defensively last night as holding midfieldsr but but maybe didnt retain possession enough or create to much  if u want to keep that defensive security against a better team they probably both have to play.   Dykes will most liley still play id say.

    That leaves 2 attacking places between, a whole host of players  - top of the list is porbably  - mcginn, christie, fraser, shankland, mcburnie 

    This is not to mention armstrong,forrest, patterson,grithiths

    You could maybe be a bit more attacking in midfield if you replace jack or mcgregor with McTom or Mcgin. + had Christie or Fraser ahead

    Id be worried about having fraser and christe both pklaynig behind 1 strikers cos the 352 looked alot better with 2 strikers as opposed to 1 and 2 kind of wide attacking mids

  3. 10 minutes ago, bigfingers said:

    There was a time when we had next to no centre backs so its quite nice to be playing a 3 and be more solid in there. 

    Your right! It is nice that we have options in a previous problem position.

    Center Forward aswell we used to struggle but we now have options, Dykes,Mcburnie, Patterson,Shankland, and Griffiths to come back.

    Naismith said after the game that he thinks the squad is alot more competative as a whole now, which i agree with. There is now decent competition in most positions.

     

    Right back is the one position i think we are still struggling in, for all that I like SOD and think he tries hard and is a okay backup i dont think hes at the level required, neither is Palmer. 

    I think KT is our best option out there, Hes a genuine wolrd clas full back,  okay hes left footted but plenty right footers play at left back. KT has the footballing brain and the ability to do a good job there and would do a better job on the pitch there than on the bench if its between him and Robo at left back 

  4. 21 minutes ago, Rolling hIlls said:

    We will agree to disagree.  Football is entertainment to me as I love it.  Yes, we all want to win as it is a sport as well.  I watched Rangers go through in Europe last week and the goals were highly entertaining and a joy to watch.  It was better than watching Scooby Doo!  It seems to me you watch football with the broose down.  I like to watch it with them up.  Dont be miserable when you watch a game.  Be happy.  That's all folks 🐕

    Im not sure you understood my point. I didnt say football wasn't entertaining, I said that as a Sport its not required to be. 

    Of course football is entertaining but comes from it being competative.   

    If scooby doo is your alterantive choice of entertainment, it does explain alot! 

    I love football and I very much enjoyed that game last night and was very Happy. We won and are through to the final of the play offs! Buzzing! 

    I enjoyed it much more than beating Gibralta 6-0 or Malta 5-1 although those games had more attacking from us and more creativity and more goals. They were alot less competative and the wins didnt take us much closer to achieving anything great.

  5. 7 minutes ago, bigfingers said:

    I cant see Clarke changing from a 3 at the back for the final now I'm afraid. 

    I think your right, especially in games agaisnt decent teams where we are going to be under pressure. 

    He likes to be solid defensively and then try to find a goal from somewhere and i think after last night that he has got hem looking soild with 3 at the back i dont see it changing.

  6. I absolutely agree it would be great to play with urgency, width and pace, but I’m not sure we have the players to play that way, I don’t think we have any genuinely rapid players at all.

    I think only McTom, Robbo and KT have realy high quality athleticism.  Mcginn is a terrier and the rest of the midfield get by through sensible positional play on the most part.

    I would like to see more width. But we only have Forrest and Fraser as decent wingers.  1 was injured last night and 1 had only played a couple of hours since march. Playing both of them also takes away from our ability to be urgent, as neither are the most athletic. They do tho both bring creativity which we have lacked recently. I would have liked to have seen Chris Burke in this squad, i think he could be an option to bring a bit of width.

    With everyone fit I think my preffered team would be 

    Marshall

    KT - Gallagher - Cooper - Robbo

    McTom - Jack 

    Christie - Mcginn - Fraser

    Dykes

     

  7. 2 hours ago, Rolling hIlls said:

    And hence is our problem.  Football is a sport and supposed to be entertainment.  Setting up a team that is 'hard to beat' is the mentality that has got us where we are.  You obviously agree with that as did every other manager since Roxburgh.  When I first saw Scotland it was Get in to them.  Might not have won every game but gave it a go.  I coach my boys and never ever would say that we cant win so we need to sit back and hope we get a breakaway. Pish attitude.

    Football is a sport , but nowhere does it say it’s meant to be entertainment. Films, Music, theatre and books - this is where you should look if its solely entertainment you are after. Sport is meant to be competitive. Entertainment from sport is a by-product of the competitiveness. The joy of sport comes from winning at something which was competitive. If you can’t compete it’s not going to be entertaining, it doesn’t matter how much silky creative football is on show in a game if you get beat 6 – nil, your not going to enjoy it. When you have a squad of limited ability, like Scotland do now, then being organised and hard to beat allows you to be competitive. It gives us a chance to win games and get to a championship which is the main goal in this and the thing that will actually bring joy to the nation. Although I guess not to the miserable f**ks on here who seem to love us getting beat as they think it proves them right.

  8. 6 games unbeaten, 5 wins in the last 6, clean sheet tonight. 

    Hes took us to the final of the play offs, 1 game away from getting to a championship for this 1st time in 22 years. 

    Its Not good enough tho SC has to go. We are better than this. And we have a god given right to win every game we turn up to. These SPL / championship players are world class they deserve a manger with World class pedegree. I seriously think we should be trying to get Pep or Klopp, clear step up from there Diddy farmer club jobs.

    🙄

  9. Considerably better performance than last months 2 games, but still lacking a littel bit. Think were unlucky not to have a goal. McTom should have scored and mcgin had a good chance early on should have done better with his shot.

    Think we are lacking width from our wingbacks.

    2 up top look decent and I think we'll get a goal from them tonight 

  10. Positives from tonight / Friday 

    Obviously - 5 games undefeated (4 wins)  and Top of Group B having ticked off probably the hardest fixture 

     

    Team performance


    GK     -    Marshall looked good in both games

    DEF 

    • I though McKenna was good in both games
    • Tierney excellent on Friday
    • I through Robertson was better today. 
    • We defended set pieces pretty well
    • We tried out a new formation with limited success.
      • I think with McTom’s physique, athleticism and passing ability both Clark and Man Utd would love if he could play CB at times, so we have had a fairly free shot at testing him out there for 2 full games, with very little is riding on the games. I’m not sure it worked or that he will play there again anytime soon but at very least he now has some experience in there if he does play there.

    Midfield    

    • Jack played well on Friday 
    • McGinn looked good in both games

    Attack

    • Lyndon Dykes has been excellent.
    • Really good 1st goal tonight , good build up and finish 
    • His hold up play was pretty good aswell

     

    • Christie took both his pens well and played pretty well in both games.
    • Patterson also looked decent in both boxes when he came on tonight 

            
        

    • We created more tonight that some people seem to remember
    • 3 solid goal scoring chance
      •  Christie shot from robbo cut back just before the pen
      • Patterson shot 
      • Christie / McGregor breakaway 
    • We were on top after they scored right up until we scored and again the start of the 2nd half until we scored.


    Areas to improve
    We started slowly tonight and  we let them come on to us after we scored.

    Midfield is meant to be our areas of strength but ti think they were a bit over run at times tonight with is a bit of a worry, oi though jack played well on Friday and id expect him to return.

    I’m not sure the formation entirely worked and id expect use to revert to 4 at the back in the play off.
    Forrest struggled as a wing back covering the distances, he is much better in short bursts of speed around the box.

    I think u would still get the width from robbo or Tierney as a full back in a 4. My preference would be to play KT at right back, plenty right footed player play left back.

    Clark is always going to be a pragmatic manager, so not expecting expansive football,  I think we look more solid than we did before he took over but there is still work to do and really need to be pushing for those clean sheets.  

     

     

    Overall I think we should be pretty positive 4 points from 2 games against what is our level.
    Ok that was a c team today, but they were still decent and we have struggled against worst teams. We were on a hiding to nothing but we won and go the job done, something we have failed at in the past.

    A 3rd goal on he break tonight would have killed the game and put a much more positive spin on the game,

    Looking forward to the playoffs and think we have a very strong chance of winning.

     

  11. The negativity on here is utterly ridiculous. From reading this feed you would think that Scotland got pumped tonight and hadn't won in years. 

    If you want to know the problem with Scotland this is it here in a nutshell. 

    No wonder some of the players struggle to bring a positive performance or replicate club form.

    Mentality is such an important factor in international football, you just have to look at some of the "rubbish “teams that have massively overachieved to see that.

    The negative reaction on here is massively over the top and is just wild! 

    One muppet even said he didn’t want to qualify for the Euros in case we get beat there. Pathetic!

    What a pathetic mentality to have. If that is how you think then maybe following competitive sports isn't for you. Maybe try plane spotting....

     

    This negativity will be picked up, echoed, and exaggerated in the press and feed back to the players.

    Any positivity, confidence or feel good factor will be attacked and destroyed.

    These guys are not superstars with personal media teams to shield them from these comments.

    Some of them will be on here themselves and if not their friends and family certainly will be. Remember Scotland is a small country.

     

    Of course, there are areas we can improve and things we can do differently 

    We started slowly in this game and took our foot off the gas after we scored both goals, letting them back into the game.

     

    But there were some real positives to come out of this, 

    ·       5 games undefeated (4 wins) 

    ·       Top of Group B in the nations League having played the highest ranked team away.

    (If we win group B and are promoted to Group A, then okay we might struggle in group A but because most of group A will qualify to the Euros through normal Qualification, even finishing bottom of group A might be enough to guarantee us qualification to Euro 2024 (I need to check this is correct))

    ·       Dykes looks like he can do a job in the no 9 position, an area we have been struggling with.

    ·       Christie has been solid at taking penalties

    ·       Marshall has looked solid in goals

    ·       Clarke has tried out a new formation and now will know where it does and doesn’t work.

    ·       We showed good character to come back from a goal down to win.  At the start of Clarkes reign losing the 1st goal killed us.

    ·       We were the better team after they scored the 1st up until dykes goal and the again we were on top at the start of the second half until our penalty.

    ·       We did create chances,

    Christie shot blocked just before the pen, Patterson through near the end and Christie breaking away unfortunate not to either get a shot away or square to McGregor

     

    Going into the Israel qualifier game there should only be immense positivity and a real feeling that we will beat them.

  12. Team i can see against Belgium

    Think mclean and Mcgregor done well

     

                            Marshall

    O'Donnell McKenna Mulgrew Robertson

           Mctominay Mclean McGregor 

                            Mcginn 

                   Burke           Fraser

     
  13. 17 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:

    It was a daft throw from Marshall which left him with few options. 

    Agreed, it was a stuid throw. I really like mcginn, think he uses his body really well and adds bite and strenght to our team and is calm on the ball. Id def have him in the team, it is just a little bit of a worry that he does seem to have a that 1 bad mistake per game in him. I think he done something silly in the 1st half aswell but cant really remember. Must have got away with it. 

    Although they both played well i can see forret or fraser being dropped for an extra midfield prob mcTom agasint Belgium... Also would imagine Burke will start. 

  14. I thought we done pretty decent. Good structure. Controled the game. Cyprus are a team id expect us to beat but are no walk overs and thats exactly how it went.

    Still a few things to work on. Defending set pieces. And bit more decisive in the final third.  We created chances. Fraser and SOD probably should both have scored. It made a difference when we had the hieght and speed of Burke when he came on. 

    Confidence is key, and wins build confidence. Negative idiots who just want to put the team down no matter what dont help. I think some of them want aston villa and Kilmarnock players to play like Barcelona or Man City. 

    Solid structure and good organisation is so important in international football. Thats where teams like iceland and northern Ireland have playd above them selves and if thats the way we are going im happy with it. 

    Great goal from Robbo and a good 3 points to build on 

  15. 5 minutes ago, Auld_Reekie said:

    Took us a while to get going but OK I guess. Would say tactics biggest problem - sitting too deep and tactically too conservative. Put themselves under pressure now for second half. 

    Look like got a much better shape than previously. More compact and players seem like they know there role. 

     

    Guess the reason not to press them high is to draw them out to hit them with pace which is where our attack has a strength. We are so short in aattack. We have put so many crosses in but go no where near them.

     

    We look decent and i can still see us winning this 1 or 2 nil. Robertson has looked alot better for us than in previous games aswell.

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