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Starting XI vs Cyprus


csinclair

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Here are my thoughts. The good and the bad.

Obviously, it was key that we got the win to get us off to a winning start under Clark and get some momentum. Our clear stand-out players were Robertson and Fraser who linked up very well down the left. We showed great spirit to fight back from that equaliser which must have come as a shock to the system. Pleased for Ollie Burke and perhaps this taste of an international goal and the reaction will drive him on to strive for more as he is still work in progress mentally.

As for the bad well I felt we were not pressing hard enough. That was a match in which we missed the likes of Scott Brown who harried and harassed for us. It nearly cost us a goal as we backed off and allowed them to stroll through midfield and ended up with them through on goal but thankfully it ended with a tame shot. McGinn was disappointing but am sure he will have far better nights for us. We need to pack the penalty area more when we attack. Fraser and Forrest got into real good crossing positions but perhaps only had one target in the box and decided against it and passed back killing the momentum of the attack.

A win is a win though and Clark will need time to mould the team and introduce his own players to the squad. Onwards and upwards.

Edited by Caledonian Craig
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1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Well also remember Cyprus only lost 1-0 to Belgium and hammered San Marino 5-0. A pair of results we'd not be unhappy with. They are a hard to break down well-organised side. 

Exactly. Cyprus are no minnows and played pretty well and put up a fight.

No doubt the people that thought we should walk over them will be expecting a bit of fight from us on Tuesday night.

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50 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

I think the gentleman is trying to say a 'nightmare' (shortened to 'mare') moment. Nearly as bad as the Aussies saying this 'ahvo' for this afternoon.

Oh dear. He’s had a bit of a ‘mare with his post then. 

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To me the group has been over since 10th minute of first game.

All yesterday was good for was avoiding an embarrasment of a home result similar to Lithuania in the last campaign.

What it does show is Cyprus away will be very tricky.

Steve Clarke will be under no illusions now how tough getting the team in peak form for March 2020 is going to be now.

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12 minutes ago, Tartan Chris said:

To me the group has been over since 10th minute of first game.

All yesterday was good for was avoiding an embarrasment of a home result similar to Lithuania in the last campaign.

What it does show is Cyprus away will be very tricky.

Steve Clarke will be under no illusions now how tough getting the team in peak form for March 2020 is going to be now.

Belgium only just beat Cyprus 1-0 with a goal four minutes from time. The days of international sides being roll-overs are long since gone. Most can be competitive now. 

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2 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

A win is a win though and Clark will need time to mould the team

Just as you'll need time to spell his name right 😛

A case of disaster averted last night.  As mentioned we sat off them too much I thought, as if we were geting practice in for facing Belgium.  Brophy had a poor debut but then his runs weren't receiving much support from the players behind.  Some very tired looking men out there by the end, hopefully there's still plenty in the tank for Brussels.

Oh and we only managed a 2-1 home win against Cyprus when we actually qualified for the World Cup.  Maybe an omen?....

 

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3 minutes ago, Tartan Chris said:

That was in Nicosia, they are very tricky to play away from home so will be a Kazhak/Georgia banana skin match.

On their travels they are poor. Lost to Norway and Bulgaria in nations league. Lost to Estonia in September 2017.

And they lost to us.

And backing up my point the other night the Faroe Islands scored against the might of Spain. 

End of the day winning is the main and most important thing. Clark has been in the job less than a month and had seven training sessions with a squad of players mostly all he has never worked with. You may well be right that our hopes of qualifying direct is over but there is that play-off so it is all about stringing together confidence boosting wins and gelling as a team under Clark. If we do that then we can still qualify via a play-off so to write us off straight away is a bit premature and negative for negative's sake.

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1 hour ago, Tartan Chris said:

To me the group has been over since 10th minute of first game.

All yesterday was good for was avoiding an embarrasment of a home result similar to Lithuania in the last campaign.

What it does show is Cyprus away will be very tricky.

Steve Clarke will be under no illusions now how tough getting the team in peak form for March 2020 is going to be now.

 Cyprus away will easier. We can let them play in front of us without getting anxious about restless fans and then pick them off 0-3. No reason why we can’t take 4 or 6 points off Russia. They’d love to have some of our players. 

Edited by er yir macaroon
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12 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:

 Cyprus away will easier. We can let them play in front of us without getting anxious about restless fans and then pick them off 0-3. No reason why we can’t take 4 or 6 points off Russia. They’d love to have some of our players. 

I think we will beat Belgium on Tuesday.

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5 hours ago, aaid said:

He's made over 200 first team appearances and has 14 caps. He's not inexperienced. 

Knew someone would mis-understand my comment.

14 caps is inexperienced at international level compared to far lesser players such as Corry Evans with NI who has 52 caps, you could argue the strength of NI is a lot of players with a lot of caps and experiences of dealing with tough situations.

We have a lot of players like McGinn with talent floating about on 10-15 caps who lack the international experience that playing club football rarely gives you. 

Im not saying he’s inexperienced the way Olly Burke is, but we need to give people like McGinn a lot of caps and not chop and change and constantly have an inexperienced squad.

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4 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Belgium only just beat Cyprus 1-0 with a goal four minutes from time. The days of international sides being roll-overs are long since gone. Most can be competitive now. 

In the game in Nicosia in March Belgium beat Cyprus 2-0.

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24 minutes ago, Kirk said:

We were dung and so was the atmosphere

Given the smallish crowd the atmosphere actually sounded quite good on TV. Suppose that could be down to strategic microphone positioning. That or the fact I'd had about 6 pints and the volume was at 90😁

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It's time for people to stop kidding themselves. I keep reading "McGinn got rave reviews in the championship play offs, etc", "We have several EPL players","McGregor is a classy midfielder", "we're well stocked in midfield", "four at the back is what we do best", etc. But it's time to face the realization that were one level above the likes of San Marino and the Faroe islands. 

People can talk about organisational all they want, it only gets you so far, and if you're dealing with players who have less technical ability than their Kazakhstan and Cypriot equivalent (Not believe me? Watch the two matches) then the ceiling will be low.

For 90 minutes against Kazakhstan they were technically better than us and for the majority of the match last night Cyprus were better.

And back to 3/5 at the back, teams like Cyprus and Kazakhstan can swallow their pride and admit that they're not good at centre back, so to combat this they pack the middle of defence, by for some reason we are unable to follow suit.

It's time to take our heads out of the clouds and face the facts that our players (apart from Robertson, McTominay, Fraser and Tierney) are technically mediocre: we have no keepers playing at a top standard; same with center backs; our midfielders (apart from McTominay) are playing for either Championship clubs or EPL clubs who win nothing) and we have no striker at a top level.

We're a level above San Marino and the Faroe Islands. That's where we are.

You reap what you sow. The SFA, Scottish domestic clubs, etc, have neglected youth development and the grassroots for as long as they've existed. It's no surprise why we are where we are, the only thing that surprises me is that it's taken so long to hit this level.

We have never been so bad, it won't be cured, as the SFA and the clubs are fine with the status quo.

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18 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

It's time for people to stop kidding themselves. I keep reading "McGinn got rave reviews in the championship play offs, etc", "We have several EPL players","McGregor is a classy midfielder", "we're well stocked in midfield", "four at the back is what we do best", etc. But it's time to face the realization that were one level above the likes of San Marino and the Faroe islands. 

People can talk about organisational all they want, it only gets you so far, and if you're dealing with players who have less technical ability than their Kazakhstan and Cypriot equivalent (Not believe me? Watch the two matches) then the ceiling will be low.

For 90 minutes against Kazakhstan they were technically better than us and for the majority of the match last night Cyprus were better.

And back to 3/5 at the back, teams like Cyprus and Kazakhstan can swallow their pride and admit that they're not good at centre back, so to combat this they pack the middle of defence, by for some reason we are unable to follow suit.

It's time to take our heads out of the clouds and face the facts that our players (apart from Robertson, McTominay, Fraser and Tierney) are technically mediocre: we have no keepers playing at a top standard; same with center backs; our midfielders (apart from McTominay) are playing for either Championship clubs or EPL clubs who win nothing) and we have no striker at a top level.

We're a level above San Marino and the Faroe Islands. That's where we are.

You reap what you sow. The SFA, Scottish domestic clubs, etc, have neglected youth development and the grassroots for as long as they've existed. It's no surprise why we are where we are, the only thing that surprises me is that it's taken so long to hit this level.

We have never been so bad, it won't be cured, as the SFA and the clubs are fine with the status quo.

Chripper?

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Very poor performance IMO. McGinn and Brophy in particular were shocking. 

A team full of players scared to take responsibility to make something happen. All too happy to take an easy square or backwards pass. Made it easy for Cyprus to defend against. 

Big improvement required. 

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2 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

That's definitely chripper

Yes.

I am thinking the way forward on here is everyone just have the ability to post 'anon'. What is the point in maintaining an 'identity' when everyone around you can morph, have multiple id's... a Tamb identity in those circumstance is a burden, a weight. Allow anonymous comments, take away the troll advantage.

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3 minutes ago, thplinth said:

Yes.

I am thinking the way forward on here is everyone just have the ability to post 'anon'. What is the point in maintaining an 'identity' when everyone around you can morph, have multiple id's... a Tamb identity in those circumstance is a burden, a weight. Allow anonymous comments, take away the troll advantage.

He must be one sad prick to want to log in after being banned, not only does he do that, he repeats the same shit he kept repeating before being banned. 

 

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8 minutes ago, thplinth said:

Yes.

I am thinking the way forward on here is everyone just have the ability to post 'anon'. What is the point in maintaining an 'identity' when everyone around you can morph, have multiple id's... a Tamb identity in those circumstance is a burden, a weight. Allow anonymous comments, take away the troll advantage.

Anon would make no difference if the content is the same for a thousand posts in a row.  

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If everyone's TAMB ID just came up as 'anon' on here for a month it would be the best thing to happen. The trolls would not have a clue who to follow... nor the fandans the same... just about every wanker would be lost for different reasons.

Instead you'd just have posts... which would have to be judged on their naked merits................ ha ha.

Then maybe a month later reveal the IDs for a week before doing it all again... and again.

Sorry bit off topic. 

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