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Scotland XI to play Cyprus


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Just now, Jim Beem said:

Tedious banter normally reserved for Torys that are ripping the arse out the oil industry or posh cunts decamped in the US  but still Uber Scottish 😂😂

Just joshing min 👍

So was I min 😂😂😂

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3 hours ago, ErsatzThistle said:

Because miserable, negative, killjoys just love to moan about Scotland no matter what and say "I told you so...".

Why they don't just have a cheery up wank instead I don't know.

This is obviously pish as I’m the most miserable, moany faced bastard oot there. ☹️

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1 hour ago, Jim Beem said:

Tedious banter normally reserved for Torys that are ripping the arse out the oil industry or posh cunts decamped in the US  but still Uber Scottish 😂😂

Just joshing min 👍

Certainly cannae be me because if you knew me you’d ken posh is as far away as you can get wae me. 😂

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3 hours ago, Farcity said:

My unwanted two bobs worth. 

We finished third, which is where we should've finished. We aren't good enough to even threaten the better sides at a bouncing Hampden. Those days are long gone. 

We are at the stage where we should be expecting to win our home games against those around us and hope to pick up draws away to the same teams. 

We have been left behind, we can no longer out-muscle opponents, even Cyprus looked bigger and more athletic and, as usual, our technique is light years behind pretty much everyone. When you add into the mix the lack of fight, passion and desire we have then it's a pretty toxic mix. 

Even our support is pretty shit now. I've stopped going largely, though I went home and away for the best part of two decades. The travelling support barely even raised a song going. Something is badly wrong. 

We haven’t finished third yet. 

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15 hours ago, ProudScot said:

Mental to think Aberdeen turned down big bids for him. Unsure if he’s even worth £1M to be honest. 

I don’t know of many Aberdeen fans who don’t think he has regressed. A recent interview pissed of a few fans too. He was talking about showing how good he was at international level for potential January suitors. There was real potential there and big things were expected of him but he hasn’t moved on. After the recent interview, Personally I would be happy for him to fuck off now. From a Scotland point of view it’s worrying he’s the best we have

15 hours ago, Marky said:

If you ever wanted evidence of how we have fallen as a football nation and how far fans’ expectations have fallen, then it’s the fact that some folk seem reasonably happy with that first half. Good grief.

Apologies, I thought winning 1nil at half time away from home was a good thing, especially for a team with a reputation for making a cunt of away fixtures. 

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3 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

 

Apologies, I thought winning 1nil at half time away from home was a good thing, especially for a team with a reputation for making a cunt of away fixtures. 

Ach come on mate, it’s not as simple as that is it. Winning at half time might be better than than losing or drawing but let’s keep it in context. We were extremely lucky to be winning against a team that for their entire history have been in the whipping boy category or at the very best the next layer up of European guff. All I’ve said in any of my posts on this thread is that if we have fallen to a level where we now need to be chuffed about luckily scraping 2-1 victories against Cyprus, then I find that a rather depressing thought.

I am absolutely not one of these people who think we have a divine right to beat anyone (despite growing up in the “glory days”). I said as much in the Nations league about Israel and Albania, but we beat them comfortably (with the obvious exception of Israel away) and we did so playing some very nice football. 

In my opinion (and it is only my opinion), we have not put in one single acceptable performance under Clarke. You could perhaps argue San Marino at home, but it’s hard to get too excited by that.

Hopefully the Kazakhstan game will throw up something better. 

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50 minutes ago, Marky said:

Ach come on mate, it’s not as simple as that is it. Winning at half time might be better than than losing or drawing but let’s keep it in context. We were extremely lucky to be winning against a team that for their entire history have been in the whipping boy category or at the very best the next layer up of European guff. All I’ve said in any of my posts on this thread is that if we have fallen to a level where we now need to be chuffed about luckily scraping 2-1 victories against Cyprus, then I find that a rather depressing thought.

I am absolutely not one of these people who think we have a divine right to beat anyone (despite growing up in the “glory days”). I said as much in the Nations league about Israel and Albania, but we beat them comfortably (with the obvious exception of Israel away) and we did so playing some very nice football. 

In my opinion (and it is only my opinion), we have not put in one single acceptable performance under Clarke. You could perhaps argue San Marino at home, but it’s hard to get too excited by that.

Hopefully the Kazakhstan game will throw up something better. 

Agree with this entire statement. 

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Guest ElChris04

bar the San Marino game there hasn’t been an acceptable performance, but with the situation he’s currently in I think we need to give him proper time. If we fail to qualify for Euro 2020, would people want him sacked? I personally wouldn’t I would like to see him giving more time because in reality what decent manager would take the Scotland job? Absolutely no one.

The current crop either don’t care enough, aren’t good enough or seem to click as a team hence the underwhelming performances. Clarke is in a terrible predicament, Some of our best players pulling out or now retired. It’s up to Clarke to find a system that works and suits our best players so we can somehow do the impossible and qualify for Euro 2020. If he fails to do that he deserves more time at another campaign and if it’s still terrible then we should be calling for his head. But if we fail to qualify for Euro 2020 anyone wanting him sacked are simply mental. 

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9 minutes ago, ElChris04 said:

bar the San Marino game there hasn’t been an acceptable performance, but with the situation he’s currently in I think we need to give him proper time. If we fail to qualify for Euro 2020, would people want him sacked? I personally wouldn’t I would like to see him giving more time because in reality what decent manager would take the Scotland job? Absolutely no one.

The current crop either don’t care enough, aren’t good enough or seem to click as a team hence the underwhelming performances. Clarke is in a terrible predicament, Some of our best players pulling out or now retired. It’s up to Clarke to find a system that works and suits our best players so we can somehow do the impossible and qualify for Euro 2020. If he fails to do that he deserves more time at another campaign and if it’s still terrible then we should be calling for his head. But if we fail to qualify for Euro 2020 anyone wanting him sacked are simply mental. 

The performance yesterday was acceptable. We won away from home against a half decent (compared to their normal standard) Cyprus who only lost 0-2 to Belgium there. We were also missing 4-5 key players who would’ve started if they were fit. 

I would also say the performance in Brussels was good. We played very well in the first half but we were just outclassed by the best side in the world. 

Clarke shouldn’t be sacked if we don’t qualify for Euro 2020. He has to be given time. O’Neill had a terrible start for Northern Ireland and did fantastically well after that. 

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Guest ElChris04
10 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

The performance yesterday was acceptable. We won away from home against a half decent (compared to their normal standard) Cyprus who only lost 0-2 to Belgium there. We were also missing 4-5 key players who would’ve started if they were fit. 

I would also say the performance in Brussels was good. We played very well in the first half but we were just outclassed by the best side in the world. 

Clarke shouldn’t be sacked if we don’t qualify for Euro 2020. He has to be given time. O’Neill had a terrible start for Northern Ireland and did fantastically well after that. 

It should have and would have been a draw if goal line technology. The performance was absolutely dreadful if it where not for Christie’s moment of magic and like I said on here before he’s a mainstay in the team, I even said he has the potential to be our McFadden style player and he proved that yesterday. But bar that goal we where sitting in deep and where lucky not to concede more if it where not for Cyprus not having the quality to punish with the chances they had. McGregor was also fantastic tracking back and was better defensively than that donkey McKenna, The performance was no way shape or form acceptable I’m afraid. For a change we had luck on our side otherwise it would have been different. 
 

I respect your levels of positivity due to on paper we should be doing better but it’s just not working.

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3 minutes ago, ElChris04 said:

It should have and would have been a draw if goal line technology. The performance was absolutely dreadful if it where not for Christie’s moment of magic and like I said on here before he’s a mainstay in the team, I even said he has the potential to be our McFadden style player and he proved that yesterday. But bar that goal we where sitting in deep and where lucky not to concede more if it where not for Cyprus not having the quality to punish with the chances they had. McGregor was also fantastic tracking back and was better defensively than that donkey McKenna, The performance was no way shape or form acceptable I’m afraid. For a change we had luck on our side otherwise it would have been different. 
 

I respect your levels of positivity due to on paper we should be doing better but it’s just not working.

Football doesn’t work like that mate. If the disallowed goal had stood the game could’ve gone differently. Cyprus may even have won. Or we’d have changed our approach and scored more goals. 

The performance wasn’t great but it wasn’t dreadful. Kazakhstan away was dreadful. 

We did what we had to do yesterday. 

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Guest ElChris04
3 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

Football doesn’t work like that mate. If the disallowed goal had stood the game could’ve gone differently. Cyprus may even have won. Or we’d have changed our approach and scored more goals. 

The performance wasn’t great but it wasn’t dreadful. Kazakhstan away was dreadful. 

We did what we had to do yesterday. 

I mean, if we continue to perform like this and somehow scrape our way to Euro 2020 then I’ll swallow my words with pride, but these performances just don’t give me any faith we will, but time will only tell.

But if there’s one thing we can both agree on is Clarke needs more time even if we fail to qualify, Rome wasn’t built in a day as the saying goes and like the O’Neill example it needs to take time. 

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10 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

Football doesn’t work like that mate. If the disallowed goal had stood the game could’ve gone differently. Cyprus may even have won. Or we’d have changed our approach and scored more goals. 

The performance wasn’t great but it wasn’t dreadful. Kazakhstan away was dreadful. 

We did what we had to do yesterday. 

Precisely. Start throwing 'what if's' into matches is daft. Once you start changing one outcome then everything else thereafter gets altered as the whole match pattern has been altered.

We had a defence yesterday with less than 20 caps between them. People can say they expect more but then say we are shite? Sorry that is contradiction big time. We are like a punch drunk boxer been taking knockout blows for too long. Thrashed twice by Russia, three times by Belgium and once by Kazakhstan. Those results impact confidence and team morale and self-belief big time. I question anybody to put on a stellar performance in those conditions AND when you have a number of your best players unavailable. I do not care who you are in the sporting world - big defeats and long losing runs impact you mentally and hampers you from performing to a great standard. Also we have had no stability in the team selections due to injuries and poor form which also impacts on things. Key thing is we won. Think back to us in 1989 when we qualified for tournaments - we only beat Cyprus in the 98th minute with a winner that saw us win 3-2.

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12 minutes ago, ElChris04 said:

I mean, if we continue to perform like this and somehow scrape our way to Euro 2020 then I’ll swallow my words with pride, but these performances just don’t give me any faith we will, but time will only tell.

But if there’s one thing we can both agree on is Clarke needs more time even if we fail to qualify, Rome wasn’t built in a day as the saying goes and like the O’Neill example it needs to take time. 

I certainly agree a step up in performance will be required if we are to qualify. 

The return of Robertson, Fraser, McTominay and maybe Souttar and dare I say it Griffiths should give us an automatic step up. Tierney at RB would also strengthen us. 

A full house at Hampden for at least the first match would also give us an advantage. 

Don’t write us off yet. 

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9 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Precisely. Start throwing 'what if's' into matches is daft. Once you start changing one outcome then everything else thereafter gets altered as the whole match pattern has been altered.

We had a defence yesterday with less than 20 caps between them. People can say they expect more but then say we are shite? Sorry that is contradiction big time. We are like a punch drunk boxer been taking knockout blows for too long. Thrashed twice by Russia, three times by Belgium and once by Kazakhstan. Those results impact confidence and team morale and self-belief big time. I question anybody to put on a stellar performance in those conditions AND when you have a number of your best players unavailable. I do not care who you are in the sporting world - big defeats and long losing runs impact you mentally and hampers you from performing to a great standard. Also we have had no stability in the team selections due to injuries and poor form which also impacts on things. Key thing is we won. Think back to us in 1989 when we qualified for tournaments - we only beat Cyprus in the 98th minute with a winner that saw us win 3-2.

Yeah I don’t understand the people that say we are terrible and are then surprised when we lose. Or in this case win but don’t win convincingly. 

We haven’t beaten Cyprus by more than a single goal for about 40 years so I don’t know why people were expecting one of  our weakest teams in recent years to win comfortably.

In our current state (low confidence and several key players missing) I will take any away win (apart from the true minnows like San Marino where you should be boosting your goal difference). 

I’m not happy that we’re scrapping for third place in the group but third is better than fourth or fifth. If we can finish the group with three wins in a row it should give us a boost and hopefully it will turn into 5 in a row in March. 

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1 minute ago, Texas Pete said:

Yeah I don’t understand the people that say we are terrible and are then surprised when we lose. Or in this case win but don’t win convincingly. 

We haven’t beaten Cyprus by more than a single goal for about 40 years so I don’t know why people were expecting one of  our weakest teams in recent years to win comfortably.

In our current state (low confidence and several key players missing) I will take any away win (apart from the true minnows like San Marino where you should be boosting your goal difference). 

I’m not happy that we’re scrapping for third place in the group but third is better than fourth or fifth. If we can finish the group with three wins in a row it should give us a boost and hopefully it will turn into 5 in a row in March. 

Lets be honest - Belgium and Russia are on a different level to us altogether so it should be no surprise we finished third (or should I say look like finishing third). It just demonstrates where we are at present. Whereas Belgium and Russia are possibly at an all-time high team-wise, results-wise, standings-wise and confidence-wise we are at the other end of the spectrum at all-time low. Hence we have got nowhere near them in this group.

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14 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Lets be honest - Belgium and Russia are on a different level to us altogether so it should be no surprise we finished third (or should I say look like finishing third). It just demonstrates where we are at present. Whereas Belgium and Russia are possibly at an all-time high team-wise, results-wise, standings-wise and confidence-wise we are at the other end of the spectrum at all-time low. Hence we have got nowhere near them in this group.

Agreed. 

I do think we should be a hell of a lot closer to Russia than we are with the players we’ve got but the game in Kazakhstan ruined our chances of getting anywhere near challenging Russia for second. 

Third is where we were expected to finish though and if we do that then it’s something to build on I suppose. 

After the match in Israel last year I think we’d all have settled for a playoff place next March and that’s what we’ve got. 

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1 minute ago, Texas Pete said:

Agreed. 

I do think we should be a hell of a lot closer to Russia than we are with the players we’ve got but the game in Kazakhstan ruined our chances of getting anywhere near challenging Russia for second. 

Third is where we were expected to finish though and if we do that then it’s something to build on I suppose. 

After the match in Israel last year I think we’d all have settled for a playoff place next March and that’s what we’ve got. 

I'd agree with all of that except about should be closer to Russia. All evidence points to Russia being far superior to us going by their strong showing in the last World Cup and in this campaign plus looking at how much higher Russia are in rankings to us plus looking at domestic level where their clubs do better in Europe. All points to them having a much stronger infrastructure.

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36 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I'd agree with all of that except about should be closer to Russia. All evidence points to Russia being far superior to us going by their strong showing in the last World Cup and in this campaign plus looking at how much higher Russia are in rankings to us plus looking at domestic level where their clubs do better in Europe. All points to them having a much stronger infrastructure.

I just meant we should have been able to take something in Kazakhstan and against Russia at Hampden which would have made us a comfortable third and ready to pounce if Russia had weakened and slipped up in a couple of games which they didn’t do.

We are nowhere near being able to beat Russia into second place at the moment which was confirmed when they outclassed us in Moscow. 

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1 hour ago, Texas Pete said:

Yeah I don’t understand the people that say we are terrible and are then surprised when we lose. Or in this case win but don’t win convincingly. 

We haven’t beaten Cyprus by more than a single goal for about 40 years so I don’t know why people were expecting one of  our weakest teams in recent years to win comfortably.

In our current state (low confidence and several key players missing) I will take any away win (apart from the true minnows like San Marino where you should be boosting your goal difference). 

I’m not happy that we’re scrapping for third place in the group but third is better than fourth or fifth. If we can finish the group with three wins in a row it should give us a boost and hopefully it will turn into 5 in a row in March. 

Agree with this. I'd didn't celebrate the goals the way I used to, i wasn't over the moon at yesterday's result but I can appreciate it for what it was, a good win considering our current standard and situation. We needed it badly.

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Thought the performance was OK and that's with us missing our 4 highest profile players. Think that's the formation we should continue with as it allows us to play with 3 centre midfielders and Christie. We need to play to our strengths and at the moment that's in midfield. McTominay can slot in to McGregor or Jack's position when he's fit and Fraser can potentially come in for Forrest.

Marshall - He's solid, would be good to have a peak McGregor or Gordon but he's decent enough. 

Palmer - OK defensively but weak at passing and getting forward to swing crosses in. Tierney would be massive improvement here. 

McKenna - Not sure what's up with him. He is just back from injury but has regressed since his breakthrough. Shouldn't be starting for us based on that performance. Being put on his arse but a Cypriot journeyman is embarrassing. I know he's not a favourite on here but Liam Cooper is probably the way forward at LCB, and maybe Findlay.

Gallagher - Was actually better than I thought but will probably be out of his depth against strikers like Haland, King and Mitrovic. If John Souttar or David Bates can get fit and start putting in performances I'd put them in. 

Taylor - Was OK, nice play for the goal but wasn't a fan of much else. Obviously Robertson coming back in will improve us. 

Jack - Thought he played well in the first half, passed it well enough and helped out defensively. I think that McTominay could do this better though. McTominay partnered with McGregor as the two deepest midfielders could share defensive duties and break forward whilst the other sits. 

McGregor - Don't think he fully gets in to his Celtic form for Scotland. Hopefully he starts getting it by March. Is really tidy with the ball and is good at playing little triangles with the wingers.

McGinn - Is now in his Aston Villa role for Scotland. Has to start every game, so good at getting into the box at the right time, uses his strength and presses really well. Doesn't have to try make a million passes and play near his own box. 

Christie - Is so so good. Quality for the first goal and has the best touch in our squad. Has to start every game now too. He isn't as effective as a right winger but we need to play McGinn too. 

Forrest  - Thought he was a bit meh, way to hesitant with the ball. Normally a fan of his but I think I'd prefer Fraser there.

Naismith - He tried his best. I'd much prefer Steven Fletcher...I'd actually play Chris Martin over him too. Assume Fletcher will make himself available in March - he probably goes straight into the first 11. Would be nice to have Griffiths as an option too. 

So encouraging overall, I can see where goals can come from in the squad but really worrying in defence BUT I think it'll be an improved and new starting 4 in March. So maybe not as bad as we think. Hopefully we can put out this team. 

GK - Marshall

RB - Tierney

LB - Robertson

CB - Cooper, possibly Findlay. 

CB - Souttar but wouldn't mind Gallagher or Bates too much.

CM - McTominay

CM - McGregor

CAM - McGinn

RW - Christie

LW - Fraser

ST - Fletcher

 

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17 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

Fair point. 

Depends on your group and seeding of course. Our last Euro group wasn’t easy to finish third. We took 4 points off Ireland and 2 off Poland and still finished 4th. One bad result (and Germany slipping up against everyone but us) fucked us. 

As for the last time we beat the fourth seeds home and away, Iceland in 2003? Could be wrong and probably am but it’s been a long day. 

Yes that was a much stronger group. I'm not saying finishing 3rd is some magnificent achievement but it's par for this Scotland team. To have a realistic chance of second from this group Scotland needed 18 points from 18 from the three teams below. Should manage 15 but that's not good enough when Russia managed 18 points. You need to match them and then do better in the head to head given everyone has as expected lost to Belgium in the group.

Anyway interesting that Scotland could well finish on 15 points and get play offs and Wales will go through automatically on 14 points although they do have two less games in their group.

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1 minute ago, Tartan Chris said:

Yes that was a much stronger group. I'm not saying finishing 3rd is some magnificent achievement but it's par for this Scotland team. To have a realistic chance of second from this group Scotland needed 18 points from 18 from the three teams below. Should manage 15 but that's not good enough when Russia managed 18 points. You need to match them and then do better in the head to head given everyone has as expected lost to Belgium in the group.

Anyway interesting that Scotland could well finish on 15 points and get play offs and Wales will go through automatically on 14 points although they do have two less games in their group.

18 points from the teams below you is all very well but we’d still have finished third as we took nothing from a superior Russian team.  We really need to get into pot 2 to stand a chance in these groups but in order to do that we’ll probably need to qualify for something or do very well in the Nations League. 

14 points in Wales group is equivalent to 20 points in our group so I wouldn’t say it was that interesting. 20 points will get most teams second place in a group of 6. 

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