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Clake's first sqaud


jamboman

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14 hours ago, Barney Rubble said:

The staring line up tomorrow night will give us more of a clue. Kompany, Alderwerield and Vertonghen are all excellent players. However, France got past them last year by sticking Giroud up top which pinned Kompany back. And they needed to get lucky with a dead ball and defend like trojans to make it happen.

Our strengths right now are Fraser, Forrest, Armstrong , McGregor coming onto balls where they can put defenders on the back foot by running at them.

And what do you need to do that? A physical presence up front to hold defenders off and lay a ball off for the aforementioned group coming forward.

Brophy and Ressell have their qualities, but they are not that kind of player.

Hence Burke.

 

Having seen Burke a couple of times now I dont see what you see in him. 

I don't see him being able to hold the ball up and bring others into the game. 

Hopefully I'm wrong and we give Belgium the shock of all time but I just can't see it. 

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3 hours ago, csinclair said:

If he was after a ‘physical presence’ he’d probably go with McNulty against Belgium. Don’t rate the lad tbf but he’d be more suited for that role than Burke who’s no good with his back to goal

What about his pace and playing on the break

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5 hours ago, RenfrewBlue said:

Having seen Burke a couple of times now I dont see what you see in him. 

I don't see him being able to hold the ball up and bring others into the game. 

Hopefully I'm wrong and we give Belgium the shock of all time but I just can't see it. 

A strange case. I’ve seen him score goals that nobody in the full squad could dream of, yet he can still look poor in games. 

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3 hours ago, Bino's said:

What about his pace and playing on the break

He couldn't cut it for Celtic playing that role against Rangers. He's just not good enough, no matter the transfer fees paid for him in the past 

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Just now, Bobby Russell's Lovechild said:

Can understand why McTominay isn't starting. We shouldn't need a holding midfielder, at home to Cyprus. Save him for Belgium

At this stage it's all about getting the partnerships going so everyone can peak next March so would've still played him. McClean did have a good end of season at Norwich and is a goal threat.

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34 minutes ago, RenfrewBlue said:

He couldn't cut it for Celtic playing that role against Rangers. He's just not good enough, no matter the transfer fees paid for him in the past 

Were Celtic playing on the break against Celtic

The only time we'll have the ball against Belgium is when we're on the break

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I got the feeling that Clarke was treating the game as “it’s only Cyprus” to a degree, as it’s starting line up did look more like a McLeish team, but he did seem to make the right changes, which makes me think he was saving McTormanay and Burke with a view to playing them in Belgium (he did seem to leave his subs until rather late in the game I felt).

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11 minutes ago, wanderer said:

I got the feeling that Clarke was treating the game as “it’s only Cyprus” to a degree, as it’s starting line up did look more like a McLeish team, but he did seem to make the right changes, which makes me think he was saving McTormanay and Burke with a view to playing them in Belgium (he did seem to leave his subs until rather late in the game I felt).

I really don’t think Scotland are in the position at the current time to treat any game as an “It’s only...”. And I definitely don’t think an experienced manager, in his first game in charge, would have been taking the “It’s only” approach, or at least I hope that’s not the case.

 

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Just now, Dalgety Bay TA said:

I really don’t think Scotland are in the position at the current time to treat any game as an “It’s only...”. And I definitely don’t think an experienced manager, in his first game in charge, would have been taking the “It’s only” approach, or at least I hope that’s not the case.

 

Agree, but felt to me he was giving a lot of McLeish team the benefit of doubt before putting his own stamp on the team (when we saw his team before making our way to the ground, it certainly was not what we expected, with a few “that’s a eck team he is putting out!”).

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That was genuinely one of the worst home games I have seen in a long time.  Imagine McLeish had been in charge of that and the reaction?  I much preferred our home performances versus Albania and Israel than that.  We really missed Fletcher to hold the ball up, Christie to break forward and Armstrong to carry the team up the pitch.

No threat through the middle.  Poor crossing, so many lazy lobs or dinks with  not enough men in the box. 

This low block against inferior teams will not impress the home support.  Our 2 best players were our full backs.  

We got lucky.  

Positives.  Obviously a lot of positivity to Clarke appointment.  O'Donnel far better than Palmer at RB.  Robertsons goal was even better on tv than live.  We snatched victory from the jaws of ehm draw.  We won!  

Other thoughts are the June internationals should be scrapped as some players finished 2 or 3 weeks ago.  Forrest and Fraser looked leggy.  Also went to North Stand for 1st time in years so the roaster level was x10 with slabbering jakies out on their stag do days out instead of caring about the actual game.  I was right at the back of the stand with constant chatter of steamers on their mobiles talking to mates in the pub. 

Was tough for kids too.  All these "real fans standing" was blocking their views which is a real shame and SFA need to sort that out.

 

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4 minutes ago, Alan said:

That was genuinely one of the worst home games I have seen in a long time.  Imagine McLeish had been in charge of that and the reaction?  I much preferred our home performances versus Albania and Israel than that.  We really missed Fletcher to hold the ball up, Christie to break forward and Armstrong to carry the team up the pitch.

No threat through the middle.  Poor crossing, so many lazy lobs or dinks with  not enough men in the box. 

This low block against inferior teams will not impress the home support.  Our 2 best players were our full backs.  

We got lucky.  

Positives.  Obviously a lot of positivity to Clarke appointment.  O'Donnel far better than Palmer at RB.  Robertsons goal was even better on tv than live.  We snatched victory from the jaws of ehm draw.  We won!  

Other thoughts are the June internationals should be scrapped as some players finished 2 or 3 weeks ago.  Forrest and Fraser looked leggy.  Also went to North Stand for 1st time in years so the roaster level was x10 with slabbering jakies out on their stag do days out instead of caring about the actual game.  I was right at the back of the stand with constant chatter of steamers on their mobiles talking to mates in the pub. 

Was tough for kids too.  All these "real fans standing" was blocking their views which is a real shame and SFA need to sort that out.

 

Regarding the low block. Clarke said the players took him too literally and asked them to play further forward in the second half. I do think playing Kilmarnock’s style at Hampden will test the patience of some of the support. 

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7 minutes ago, Alan said:

That was genuinely one of the worst home games I have seen in a long time.  Imagine McLeish had been in charge of that and the reaction?  I much preferred our home performances versus Albania and Israel than that.  We really missed Fletcher to hold the ball up, Christie to break forward and Armstrong to carry the team up the pitch.

No threat through the middle.  Poor crossing, so many lazy lobs or dinks with  not enough men in the box. 

This low block against inferior teams will not impress the home support.  Our 2 best players were our full backs.  

We got lucky.  

Positives.  Obviously a lot of positivity to Clarke appointment.  O'Donnel far better than Palmer at RB.  Robertsons goal was even better on tv than live.  We snatched victory from the jaws of ehm draw.  We won!  

Other thoughts are the June internationals should be scrapped as some players finished 2 or 3 weeks ago.  Forrest and Fraser looked leggy.  Also went to North Stand for 1st time in years so the roaster level was x10 with slabbering jakies out on their stag do days out instead of caring about the actual game.  I was right at the back of the stand with constant chatter of steamers on their mobiles talking to mates in the pub. 

Was tough for kids too.  All these "real fans standing" was blocking their views which is a real shame and SFA need to sort that out.

 

Never, ever go into the North Stand with kids. I thought everyone knew that. 

It's the fuckwits that stand in other areas of the stadium that do my nut in. 

I only watched on TV but it was far from our worst home game. I think you need some perspective on what can be achieved in the first squad under Clarke. 

He's got the lack of confidence to over come and then has to work on his style of play. 

Cheer up, we won. 

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3 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:

Regarding the low block. Clarke said the players took him too literally and asked them to play further forward in the second half. I do think playing Kilmarnock’s style at Hampden will test the patience of some of the support. 

If we win regularly then they'll need to suck it up. We are not very good, so to expect a flowing passing style is sheer idiocy. 

Maybe some of the fans should try watching the game sober and then they might appreciate what is actually happening. 

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11 minutes ago, Alan said:

That was genuinely one of the worst home games I have seen in a long time.  Imagine McLeish had been in charge of that and the reaction?  I much preferred our home performances versus Albania and Israel than that.  We really missed Fletcher to hold the ball up, Christie to break forward and Armstrong to carry the team up the pitch.

No threat through the middle.  Poor crossing, so many lazy lobs or dinks with  not enough men in the box. 

This low block against inferior teams will not impress the home support.  Our 2 best players were our full backs.  

We got lucky.  

Positives.  Obviously a lot of positivity to Clarke appointment.  O'Donnel far better than Palmer at RB.  Robertsons goal was even better on tv than live.  We snatched victory from the jaws of ehm draw.  We won!  

Other thoughts are the June internationals should be scrapped as some players finished 2 or 3 weeks ago.  Forrest and Fraser looked leggy.  Also went to North Stand for 1st time in years so the roaster level was x10 with slabbering jakies out on their stag do days out instead of caring about the actual game.  I was right at the back of the stand with constant chatter of steamers on their mobiles talking to mates in the pub. 

Was tough for kids too.  All these "real fans standing" was blocking their views which is a real shame and SFA need to sort that out.

 

I pretty much agree with all of that. The only difference between last night's performance and the ones under McLeish was a different guy standing on the touchline. We got lucky. Big style. 

Most of our players are pretty shit. Changing the manager isn't going to change that. 

 

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Clarke has only been in the job less than two weeks, and the last 5 or so days is probably been first first/only interaction on a one-to-one basis with 90% of the squad.

Yesterday was never going to some special to behold (agree with above statement that it was worse than a lot of games under McLiesh) but did well to come back from the late equaliser, and there was certainly a few positives there in a pretty lacklustre performance.

Listening to Clarke on the radio, sounds like he is giving the players time to get to know him and not forcing to much upon them until he gets to know them better (was asked if he would be sitting the team down to watch the woman’s match today and basically said him and his coaching staff will certainly be watching it, but he would not force the players to watch). 

Think once he has the summer to look over things gets a few players back in September, he will start to put his own stamp on the team.

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8 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

I pretty much agree with all of that. The only difference between last night's performance and the ones under McLeish was a different guy standing on the touchline. We got lucky. Big style. 

Most of our players are pretty shit. Changing the manager isn't going to change that. 

 

I agree pretty much with your first comment, your second is a bit harsh IMHO.

We've two or three very good players, any number of good players and a few that probably aren't good enough to play international football but they're the best we have in their positions.

A manager that has the tactical nous and ability to set up and organise that group should see us being more successful than we've been in recent years.  

Our baseline, IMO, should be that we should be looking to be competitive and looking at second place in any qualification group and that's a level we haven't reached for years.

Whether Clarke is the man to do that, time will tell, but it won't happen overnight. 

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