Albania Match Thread (10/09/2018)

[Malcolm]

2 minutes ago, Barney Rubble said:

McGinn was nothing approaching excellent tonight.

In the five minutes before half-time a more clinical team than Albania would have scored twice from his errors.

Taking his errors aside he was excellent, but yes, Belgium would have scored twice from his mistakes.  Actually they had another chance when their man left McGinn wrong footed in the middle of the park.... another team might have scored three.

[PASTA Mick]

55 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

 

Turns out he picked the right men for the job... thatwill be why big eck is the manager and your not then?

I'm not sure that is the reason but the team did well. I'm pleased. 

[Malcolm]

1 minute ago, PASTA Mick said:

I'm not sure that is the reason but the team did well. I'm pleased. 

👍

[Baz]

4 minutes ago, Barney Rubble said:

McGinn was nothing approaching excellent tonight.

In the five minutes before half-time a more clinical team than Albania would have scored twice from his errors.

Totally agree.

Im a bit confused by the praise he’s getting. Gave the ball away countless times and offered little going forward.

Not saying he’s a shit player but on tonight and Saturday’s performance he’s not the £30m player some would like to think he’ll become.

[Bino's]

1 minute ago, Malcolm said:

Taking his errors aside he was excellent, but yes, Belgium would have scored twice from his mistakes.  Actually they had another chance when their man left McGinn wrong footed in the middle of the park.... another team might have scored three.

He's a contradiction

He's excellent then he passes the ball straight to them

Not sure what you do about that

Hope he matures and cuts it out of his game

[SWMM82]

3 minutes ago, Barney Rubble said:

McGinn was nothing approaching excellent tonight.

In the five minutes before half-time a more clinical team than Albania would have scored twice from his errors.

His energy and drive were excellent, broke up many of their attacks and started many of ours. I agree, he did make mistakes that would be punished by a better team, but it didn’t affect his confidence. 

He is still only 23, so if he can iron out the errors he will be a top midfielder for us.

[Malcolm]

Just now, Bino's said:

He's a contradiction

He's excellent then he passes the ball straight to them

Not sure what you do about that

Hope he matures and cuts it out of his game

I think he will.... he plays at the edge of risk.  I’m sure with experience he will cut the errors down.  He won a lot of good challenges.

[mrniaboc]

7 minutes ago, Barney Rubble said:

McGinn was nothing approaching excellent tonight.

In the five minutes before half-time a more clinical team than Albania would have scored twice from his errors.

I think you're doing the lad  bit of a disservice. I haven't seen anyone battle that hard in a Scotland shirt in a while. He was all over them.

[Barney Rubble]

5 minutes ago, magicTs said:

No it doesn't it goes to show that crowds are way way down for the start of this Nations League. Wales v Republic is a far bigger draw for both sets of fans than Scotland v Albania in any case and is considerably down on what they had for the WorlD Cup qualifier last year. As is your way you will find negativity in everything there was little wrong with the Scotland crowd tonight given all the circumstances.

Why was that comment necessary?

[JECK]

My overriding thought after tonight's game is McGinn is a freak and if mctomminay develops into the player we hope that midfield would be fkin dynamite. 

[mccaughey85]

McGinn played well tonight but hopefully he can cut out those basic errors he makes. Apart from that he looks good and has endless energy. 

[scotlad]

I must admit, when I saw the starting line-up my heart sank.  I'd have taken a draw there and then.  But kudos to McLeish, he got his team selection and tactics spot-on.  The tactic of trying to build possession from the back was largely abandoned in favour of a more direct, high tempo game. Mibee not the most aesthetically pleasing way to go things but it suited that was out - and to be fair we  played some decent football at times too.

John McGinn's performance tonight seems to have divided opinion on here but for me I thought he had a good game.  Tenacious, strong as an ox and played a couple of nice forward passes.  If he could improve his shooting and cut out the hospital passes from his game he could mature into a really good player.

Kevin McDonald just looks off the pace at this level though.  It's strange to see a big, powerful player like him playing such aimless, almost timid passes.  Bringing Armstrong on his place, whether by chance or by design, added more energy to the midfield.

Mulgrew and Souttar didn't disgrace themselves  tonight but they still both look like they've got costly errors in them.  The save from McGregor at 1-0 - the once occasion Albania cut us open - was almost as vital as Naismith's goal (s).

A good, old-fashioned, blood and guts Scotland performance tonight though.  If I do have one final criticism though it's that too often we looked like we wanted to walk it in - if we'd been a wee bit more clinical at times we might have won by more, which wouldn't have flattered us.

[stevenmcn]

28 minutes ago, SWMM82 said:

He is still only 23, so if he can iron out the errors he will be a top midfielder for us.

Please don't take this as a personal dig mate, but as a nation we need to cut this "he's still only X" out. Many, many players from various countries perform at the highest level at way younger ages than 23, but here your still classed as a kid till your about 25. Yes, McGinn is 23 or whatever but he's been a pro long enough to know what's what. The other side of that coin however is that he's still inexperienced at international level, but that's nothing to do with age.

[PASTA Mick]

I wasn't happy with the starting XI.

Albania were rank.

We were decent. McGinn was our best player. Naismith was the difference.

I'm pleased. 

[SWMM82]

5 minutes ago, stevenmcn said:

Please don't take this as a personal dig mate, but as a nation we need to cut this "he's still only X" out. Many, many players from various countries perform at the highest level at way younger ages than 23, but here your still classed as a kid till your about 25. Yes, McGinn is 23 or whatever but he's been a pro long enough to know what's what. The other side of that coin however is that he's still inexperienced at international level, but that's nothing to do with age.

Yeah it was more the lack of experience I was referring to, especially if McLeish wants him to play a different type of game than he’s used to at club level. But the assets well outweigh any negatives in his game, and I’ve seen very few players with his kind of energy levels for 90 mins.

[ProudScot]

Dropping Craig Gordon was a very good idea.

Can barely remember McGregor being responsible for a goal for Scotland.

[Toepoke]

12 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

Can barely remember McGregor being responsible for a goal for Scotland.

30 seconds in...

 

[madoneone]

Just home to dundee, first time ive seen SOD well impressed, does anybody know why the Albanian fans were segregated from each other

[Micky]

Excellent performance for me and 2-0 didn’t do us justice. 4 or 5 would have been a better reflection of the game. High tempo , closed them down and won possession in their half over and over again. 

My worry, as always, is that we won’t take that high tempo approach into the away games.  For 20 years a succession of managers have tried to convince us that a draw away from home is a good result , no matter the quality of opposition. We then play half paced, half arsed ‘containing’ games and regularly get our arses handed to us as a result. See Tbilisi twice for the best examples. 

Approach the away games like we did tonight and we’ll walk this group. 

[oneforcolin]

22 minutes ago, madoneone said:

Just home to dundee, first time ive seen SOD well impressed, does anybody know why the Albanian fans were segregated from each other

Caravan Wars. O’Donnell is quality week in week out for us. Great to see him finally get some credit. Believe me this boy is the real deal.

Edited September 11, 2018 by oneforcolin

[PASTA Mick]

17 minutes ago, oneforcolin said:

Caravan Wars. O’Donnell is quality week in week out for us. Great to see him finally get some credit. Believe me this boy is the real deal.

C'mon...He struggled to get a game for Luton in League 2. He's not done much wrong but he is benefiting from our lack of options at right-back. I'm not sure who would be our next choice if you don't count Hutton and Bardsley...maybe Ralston? Graham Alexander? 

[mrniaboc]

57 minutes ago, madoneone said:

Just home to dundee, first time ive seen SOD well impressed, does anybody know why the Albanian fans were segregated from each other

Not sure the reason for this but we should definitely show the Albanian fans some respect. An away support that strong from a nation of under 3 million on a soaking Monday night in Glasgow, now that's something the TA can get behind!

[Texas Pete]

7 hours ago, EddardStark said:

We are deluded if we think we are any better than Albania. We need to start proving we are. Great attitude tonight from the team.

Albania were atrocious last night. What game were you watching?

[vanderark14]

For those going on about mcginns mistakes and saying Albania would have scored if they were more clinical.......

if we were more clinical we would have thrashed them 5 or 6 nil, you’ve  got to look at it both ways. Yes there were mistakes and we are far from the finished article but that was a fine performance after all the doon and gloom of Friday night.

. McGinn broke up so many attack’s last night and played some great defence splitting passes. There’s not a player in that team who didn’t make a mistake at one point except maybe Alan Mcgregor 

[Texas Pete]

10 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Surely that is a joke line up, to leave out Griffith's and Armstrong is mental.

To leave out Griffith’s what?