infamous
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Posts posted by infamous
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This thread haha
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Saw enough positives from that, not enough to claim we will get through the play offs but the last two games were better than I expected. March is still 4 months away, hopefully a few players are in good form come then. This is going to be very tough but it will be tough to take if we make the final and we blow it.. but It would be well deserved given how rocky the campaign has been.
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This is the biggest concern.. all the players mentioned are shocking in my eyes. This Scotland gig is tough!
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20 hours ago, Squirrelhumper said:
Anyway, I think we look more balanced without Robertson in the team as everything seems to need to go through him when he's playing and that's not how he plays for Liverpool.
He'll obviously start in the play offs and rightfully so but there is no need for him to drift inside as much as he usually does for us and concentrate on getting up and down the wings.
Palmer will start and I think we'll play KT at CH.
Agree, I actually feel Robertson can't perform around some of our absolute duds. It somewhat exposes him to be a weaker football than he is. He is not the type of player to make others better around him either.
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4 hours ago, dohadeer said:
Ok, I think I understand now.....
IF we had taken full points against the bottom two seeds, on top of any other points we actually accumulated in other matches, we would have at least reached the playoffs.
Researching this now makes for several unbelievable statistics!
Firstly, in the 11 qualifying campaigns since 1998, when we last qualified, we have only taken a maximum 12 points against the bottom two seeds in our group on one occasion. Now, international football is tricky, and I certainly wouldn't expect us to always beat the bottom two seeds, especially away. Some of the bottom two seeds we have faced in that time have been teams who turned out to be very good. However, I'd expect us to take the maximum 12 points more than once in 11 campaigns! That is a horrific performance.
The only manager who achieved the feat was Craig Brown, in the qualifying campaign for World Cup 2002. The campaign was still unsuccessful though, and we didn't even reach the playoffs. Vogts, Smith, McLeish during both his tenures, Burley, Levein and Strachan all suffered not only slip-ups against at least one of the bottom two seeds in the group, but amazingly they've all suffered defeats against at least one of the bottom two seeds!
Next amazing stat is that, these results against the bottom two seeds made a difference to whether we failed to qualify/made the playoffs/qualified automatically on SEVEN occasions out of the 9 relevant qualifying groups where we slipped up against the bottom teams.
Amazingly, if we had won all games against the bottom two seeds, and we added those results to our actual results in the other group games, instead of only having two playoffs to show for those 9 qualifying campaigns in question, we'd have 6 playoffs and 2 automatic qualifications!
Unbelievable, and I'm not sure why this hasn't been more widely spoken about!
Good read, thanks. I actually posted a thread here a few months back about our record against Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, Pot 4 etc sides. Can't remember the name of the thread but it also digs into what you said more extensively.
No business making tournaments if you can't be consistent though. Need to get the job done regularly, that's what I feel some people don't realise about some of these nations that we think we can get past because they are not a "big" nation. Their are plenty of teams that make tournaments, go on occasional runs at a major tournament. It creates/breeds mental toughness and winning. -
3 hours ago, mrniaboc said:
Apologies mate, I think I'm maybe not making my point clearly.
I'm not trying to say we have an absolutely amazing home record. Otherwise we would probably be qualifying all the time. What I'm saying is that our home record against teams of the standard that we will be playing in the upcoming playoffs makes a case against sheer pessimism. I don't think we will qualify, but I think it's a lot less doom and gloom than many are making out. We will not get this good a chance again any time soon.
Finally, I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to say Russia are not a top team. They very recently got to the quarter finals of a world cup, only going out on penalties to the eventual runners up. Also, Wales were on the start of a path that led them into the top 10 of the FIFA world rankings and the semi finals of the Euros when they beat us.
Just trying to spread a little glimmer of optimism.
I feel losing to Serbia, Poland, Russia is not a real shame, maybe I just am too pessimistic about our side but the reality is Serbia normally is strong on paper, Poland have been solid the past 5 years. Russia is always at the big tournaments, they may not be a top 10 side in the world but they have a good history of beating strong sides and making tournaments. I guess it's a lot to do with the fact these sides have players regularly in the UCL Group Stage/Knockout rounds or going far in Europa League. More high pressure high stake matches meaning they are less likely to crumble under pressure.
I will be shocked if we qualify! -
On 11/20/2019 at 8:00 AM, Blantyre_Braveheart said:
I'm not surprised the Russia team was poor for years barely won a game in the lead up to the world cup, then they magically became world beaters who could run faster and longer than everyone else, nothing suspicious about that at all.
Really? They may have not won much but look who they played before the World Cup. Spain 3-3, Belgium 3-3, Argentina 0-1, France 1-3, Brazil 0-3, 1-1 Turkey, 0-1 Austria. They barely miss tournaments... majority of the team play in the 6th best league in Europe + CSKA which is a core of the team made the Quarters of the Europa League that season. I actually tipped them to make ROund of 16 easily before the tournament. Not world beaters but to act like they caused some massive shock thumping Saudi and Egypt and taking Spain and Croatia to Pens was no real surprise for me. Especially at home.
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Good i wrote that
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I did say i feel we will fail to beat Kazakhstan. But going into it today i had optimism... lol. Sigh.
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11 hours ago, Scotsdeutsch said:
I agree with you however the specific problem russia have avoiding a ban here is that legally it’s a slam-dunk case. They have been caught red-handed doctoring athletes blood test records.
I cannot see any way out of this for them,even with a CAS appeal. Doctoring test results is as serious as it gets. If the CAS lets them off with this on appeal-it sets a very dangerous precedent and everyone might as well start doping.
Yep agree but tbh everyone is doping. Russians have always been tested 3 to 4 times more than any athlete. I think when the entire doping scandal started the Russians were caught doping as much as the Australians per test. Think that was partly why CAS has thrown out a lot of the allegations
Think worst case scenario russia wont be banned in football. They could cop it like they did at Rio though.
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No chance Russia will be kicked out. None of their players ever test positive in UEFA FIFA competitions.
The CAF who has final say re-instated 5-6 Gold Medals that Russia was originally found to cheat in. Feel the same will happen here. -
Norway, Serbia, Romania all better than us at this point. Serbia simply on paper, form wise they been poor but who knows come March.
We will pass Bulgaria or Israel.
Feel we will lose the final. -
5 minutes ago, Bonny79 said:
That finalised for world cup draw?
Not sure when the draw happens but we are unlikely to drop out of Pot 3 if it happens this year
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On 11/17/2019 at 5:42 AM, mcnish said:
At least tonight's result in Moscow gives lie to the assumption that Russia are somehow a top class team. They are not, mostly very limited talent but still far too good for us.
Some context though, Russia were missing their 2 best players. Also, having caught some of the match, the Russians were not sitting back and defending relying on counters. Something they did against Spain at the World Cup last year. Looked like they went up against Belgium trying to win. Not often you see Belgium get 42% Possession, 1 Corner (vs Russia's 7) and have the same amount of shots as their opponent. I think the score would have been closer if Russia were playing more conservative football. They will meet each other (Most likely in the group stages at Euro 2020) and I think it will be close (result wise).
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As of 17/11/19 Scotland is the 29th Ranked team in Europe.
Squeeze into Pot 3. -
14 hours ago, Tartan Chris said:
Serbs are a really funny team sometimes. It's a mentality problem with them I think. They drew 0-0 away to Portugal but then lost them 4-2 at home. Also lost 5-0 in Ukraine.
That said you look at Mitrovic and Tadic upfront and also creativity in midfield and there's no way whatever back 4 is put out in any potential match up is keeping a clean sheet v that.
Trouble is Norway are looking pretty good aswell in last six months. Got Lagerback who knows how to get teams to tournaments and they have Odegaard and Haaland in brilliant form. Would still prefer to play them v Serbia but looking like another glorious failure to me.
And of course need to get past the first play off although I'd fancy a win v Bulgaria or Israel at home.
Yep Serbs notorious under performers. They have arguably had strongest squads in Eastern Europe, and far stronger than any Scotland side in the past 20 years. In reality they ended up under performing time and time again and have achieved no where near their Eastern European rivals.
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20 minutes ago, saintydave said:
How is it appalling? Scotland is around the 25th biggest country in Europe by population, surely to be up around 15th, 16th isn't so bad? I know there are a lot of other factors, but appalling it is not. Some folk need to get real in what they expect.
Maybe too harsh there true haha. I am calling it appalling mainly because of the previous season still dragging our ranking down.I remember being top 10 at one point. Half our national team is competing in this league. If the SPFL improves our NT is likely to improve etc.
We have a lot going for us, location, EPL eyes always on our league, Celtic and Rangers are well known major clubs but we are behind Cyprus who has a population of 1 million, Denmark who has the same population as us and achieved far more in football than us. Croatia were regularly sitting above us with a smaller population and their NT is far ahead of us. That's mainly my point but yeah probably a little too harsh.
Over the past 10 years the amount of times I have seen our clubs knocked out by the 3rd/4th best sides from the likes of Luxembourg, Armenia, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and so on is crazy. Guess that is why I find it appalling,
This season alone we are the 5th best performing league in Europe (This will drop as the season progress' but great to see)
2020-5th
2019 - 10th
2018 - 23rd
2017 - 19th
2016 - 27th
2015 - 21st
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3 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:
Spot on.
It's no coincidence that since our players haven't really won any major honours we've stopped qualifying for tournaments.
Look at 96 and 98, we had plenty of players winning tons of major trophies. But now? One.
This calendar year I can only see Robertson in the mix to win major trophies. Maybe Tierney and McTominay, if Manchester United and Arsenal get their act together. However, it would still pale into insignificance to the eight our players collected in the 97/98 season.
Yeah, I will add I have always found sides that have players regularly competing in the UCL (Further you go the better) or going far in Europa League (At least Round of 16) seem to have good consistency at NT levels.
1. Belgium (Majority of squad play in the top 3 leagues in Europe, pre 2012 that wasn't the case)
2018 - 3rd
2016 - 7th
2014 - 6th
2012 - DNQ
2010 - DNQ
2008 - DNQ
2006 - DNQ
2004 - DNQ
2002 - 14th
2. Russia (Majority of squad play in 6th best league in Europe always have strong domestic presence in clubs competing in Europe )
2018 - 8th
2016 - 23rd
2014 - 23rd
2012 - 9th
2010 - DNQ
2008 - 3rd
2006 - DNQ
2004 - 10th
2002 - 22nd
3. Scotland (Half the squad play in the 20th best league in Europe / one third play in the best league and one third second tier of England)
2018 - DNQ
2016 - DNQ
2014 - DNQ
2012 - DNQ
2010 - DNQ
2008 - DNQ
2006 - DNQ
2004 - DNQ
2002 - DNQ -
NT Performances
1) Trophies (Especially in recentlyish..last 15 years)
2) How deep teams have gone in tournaments
3) How regularly teams qualify
*What league they compete in and how it is ranked on UEFA Coefficients, if the players are regularly competing in the UCL or going far in Europa League*
Judging by that.. Scotland is exactly where we should be in qualification
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Good to see, still appalling how low we are ranked but glad to have a good season in Europe for once.
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I don't rate it personally. That is not top 2 Euro qualifying material in my eyes.
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On 10/30/2019 at 12:23 AM, Bino's said:
The Russian league is rotten
Sixth in Europe for a reason.
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On 10/24/2019 at 7:01 AM, Bino's said:
The Russian squad play entirely within Russia, other than golovkin and cheryshev
and? The Russian league is ranked 6th in Europe by UEFA and has sat there for a long time.
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Scotland only side to be taking these games seriously. Cyprus and Kazakhstan 0 to play for. We are preparing for the play offs.
Cyprus 1-2 Scotland
Scotland 0-0 Kazakhstan
Scotland vs Israel - Match Thread [08/10/2020]
in TA specific
Posted
Serbia match will be a repeat of our match in Moscow.
Excited and blindly optimistic as the Serbs are prone to choking in big matches but they are a far superior team to ours.