Georgia Match Thread.

[Auchinyell Sox Change]

Don't know if this is because of the site 'reboot' but noticed of late the match threads don't really have much activity anymore. Robertson is a great asset, as is Anya. Hutton is playing how he used to but his crossing is dire.

as much due to the political reboot than anything else ; more a frozen screen for a few minutes really ; mouse wheel jammed etc

[Scotty CTA]

Don't know if this is because of the site 'reboot' but noticed of late the match threads don't really have much activity anymore. Robertson is a great asset, as is Anya. Hutton is playing how he used to but his crossing is dire.

Go to the 'Home Games' section.

[Return of Yermaw]

Always hard to judge a game from being in the crowd & not watching it on TV, but...

Thought their right back seemed fast enough to cope with Anya and Robertson often wanted to hit the same areas as Anya, meaning Anya's threat was negated and it looked a bit messy at times.

Maloney is a waste of a shirt out wide & his delivery was poor. I've said if before, but play him in 'the hole' or not at all. Naismith's passing ability from 'the hole' wasn't good enough to set up some goals. And Morrison & Brown didn't arrive at the edge of the box to pick up loose rebounds/poor clearances.

Georgia were well organised and deep enough to limit our threat out wide where defenders often doubled up. We needed a creative player with great vision in 'the hole' to break them down. That should've been Maloney, Gauld, Bryson, Bannan, Dorrans or Morrison.

That for me was the main issue today. Naismith is great, but when there's more space and especially away from home, not when we are trying to break down a deep lying, weaker team set up to defend.

Agree with pretty much all of this. We were about three rows up in the Copeland and pretty much at grass level and as you say, difficult to judge a lot of things but I thought we should have pushed Naismith up front to join Fletcher and then played Maloney behind them backd up by three midfielders (would have taken Anya off after 60 mins or so - he is suited to playing against teams who are not there solely to defend). I also thought Morrison was poor.

[Squirrelhumper]

I'm really impressed with fletcher, aye he hasnt scored but his touch and passing are second to none. We should score more but i'd only be worried if we weren't making chances.

I thought Fletcher was poor.

[Bannannan]

Scoring is Fletcher's problem.Laying off balls he should be putting in the net.

[ParisInAKilt]

Anywhere online with highlights?

[Auld_Reekie]

Ill be honest, I thought it was a pretty flat performance. Don't get me wrong, I think we were in almost total control but I think it fell short of what we want or need from an attacking and creative point of view. Both goalkeepers had very little to do and Georgia really should have scored in second half. It's great that we controlled possession but the forward ball just wasn't there.

Broony was easily our best and more energetic player. Other than that, Im not really sure any player stuck out for me against a woeful Georgia side. Robertson I thought looked decent enough and put in some excellent balls, but made some errors that reflect his lack of experience at this level (which is fine). Hutton, Anya, Maloney, Naismith all played reasonably well without really exposing the opposition. Hanley and Martin looked solid for most of the last campaign IMO but I was entirely convinced about them yesterday.

Biggest disappointments for me were Morrison and Fletcher, both of whom I'd have hooked about the 65 minute mark. Morrison was completely anonymous IMO and left Brown to do most of the work while Fletcher flatters to deceive. Work rate poor and is too lethargic for me. Don't think he and Naismith and actually got impression they don't particularly like playing together either.

I'd have taken Fletcher and Morrison off, stuck Naismith up top to stretch their back four more and added Darren Fletcher and McArthur to midfield. I suspect Naismith was being protected for Tuesday night though and that yesterday was about doing enough to get through with a win. Risky game plan though that almost failed. Need to be far better in future games.

Final note: lets not go back to Ibrox.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Auld_Reekie

[Bzzzz]

I thought Fletcher was poor.

Ditto, he should have been hooked early on in second half. Only poor performance IMO. Broonie was immense and v impressed with Robertson.

Decent performance and happy with 3pts, just a shame it was only 1, slight grumble that WGS didn't change things around the 70min mark as Fletcher looked like he was never going to score and the life had dropped out the game for us.

[the_fadiator]

I don't get how folk thought Fletcher was poor. He wasn't great, but he was at the heart of some of the better play. Naismith was the problem as he's not suited to playing in that role when a poor team sits deep against us. Needed someone more creative. Also thought Maloney offers little out wide. We surely needed to move him into the middle and sub Naismith (or Fletcher) for Dorrans. Robertson was decent and seems a great prospect, but he also wasted a few opportunities with a poor final cross so need to put that in perspective. McArthur coming on for Naismith (?) was very strange when the game was crying out for a more creative player to break them down. Other than the centre halves who strolled it, I'm not sure any of the others hugely impressed, even Broonie who just did what you'd expect. Maybe being a bit harsh.

[1320lichtie]

Great that we are being so critical of a win and a performance where we utterly dominated, shows how far the boys and WGS have come

[JECK]

aye steven fletcher was still quality for me.great touches and links the play throughout which is surely important. linked very well with anya especially again i noticed, like in germany. thought hutton was immense after we scored, gash before though. Andy Robertson, great delivery on him. Scotty Brown...the guy is just a midfield monster, awesome.

[jd123]

Thought the first half was impressive second halt Georgia seemed to come into it a lot more and seemed to have much more space through midfield. Thought brown was immense throughout. Maloney was wasted on the right and Naismith seemed to slow things down to much when we had chances to go at them with pace.

[Mr. Kilt]

Thought it was a good performance, with some excellent passing and movement at times. Defence absolutely solid - Hanley looks better every game. Full backs were terrific. Maloney done well at quickly taking out players to start an attack. Bit lost on the right but still played well.

We definitely let ourselves down in the final third though. Anybody notice that when crosses came into the box, Naismith seemed to still stay behind Fletcher, near the edge of the box? We would have scored a couple more if one had went to the front post and the other at the back post. But oh well, a win's a win.

[er yir macaroon]

These games are always awkward. We were miles better than them and they set out not to lose. I actually fancy we'll score a couple of goals in Poland. We're playing the right way and with a bit more room, the goals will glow. Fletcher is top class and maybe just lacking a bit of sharpness in front of goal, which will come soon enough.. I'm delighted we've got a player of his talent.

[Kirk]

We really should have used our three sub's. Anya could barley walk at about 70 mins after running his are off. Maloney is a waste of space, don't care if he "scored" he's really not worth having there, would have had bannan or dorrana before him any day. Thought Hanley and Brown were outstanding and a great performance from Robertson top. Naisy wasn't at his best.

Good win but could have done with another goal or two. Need to go beat Poland now.

[Parklife]

First half was, for the most part, good. We dominated possession and territory but created few real chances, which is concerning. A situation not helped by Maloney wasting every set piece wee had with shockingly poor deliveries.

The 2nd half was unacceptable IMO. Georgia are a very poor side and and allowed them in to the game. We were slow, laboured and deliberate in our attacks and Georgia found it easy to defend against. We needed to shift the ball quicker and try and pull their defence out of position, but we seemed unwilling to do this for some reason.

I'll be very surprised if Poland don't beat us on Tuesday

[ErsatzThistle]

We really should have used our three sub's. Anya could barley walk at about 70 mins after running his are off. Maloney is a waste of space, don't care if he "scored" he's really not worth having there, would have had bannan or dorrana before him any day. Thought Hanley and Brown were outstanding and a great performance from Robertson top. Naisy wasn't at his best.

Good win but could have done with another goal or two. Need to go beat Poland now.

Aye, think Strachan really should have brought on the fresh legs at around the hour mark. Maloney was knackered by that point and it just wasn't happening for Fletcher up front.

Grant Hanley must surely be starting to win round his critics now. He's improving with every game.

Really miss having Snodgrass for these kind of games

[Bannannan]

First half was, for the most part, good. We dominated possession and territory but created few real chances, which is concerning. A situation not helped by Maloney wasting every set piece wee had with shockingly poor deliveries.

The 2nd half was unacceptable IMO. Georgia are a very poor side and and allowed them in to the game. We were slow, laboured and deliberate in our attacks and Georgia found it easy to defend against. We needed to shift the ball quicker and try and pull their defence out of position, but we seemed unwilling to do this for some reason.

I'll be very surprised if Poland don't beat us on Tuesday

We will have to play better than yesterday that's for sure.Georgia were rubbish,Poland just beat the world champions.

[Bannannan]

As in Germany Hanley will be under enormous pressure in Poland.I wish him all the best.Won every header yesterday,but against a poor poor team.Hope he has a great game.

[faddyisyerdaddy]

I don't know what game some people were at re the Morrison comments. He was on a yellow from fairly early on and he absolutely ran his socks off for ninety minutes with and esp without the ball.

[Bannannan]

Defensively I admit he was a lot better than I expected,but I can't remember a telling pass from him. Maybe I'm hoping for too much.

[Caledonian Craig]

I would agree that Morrison was disappointing. If I remember correctly it was a loose pass from him that set Georgia on the break which they had a rare shot on goal from. His passing was off at times as well. He wasn't shocking but would say he was one of the weaker performers in midfield yesterday for us. Scott Brown was immense, Hutton impressed though his final ball could be improved, Robertson also impressed though tired towards the end, I thought Fletcher's link-up play was great but Naismith was a little disappointing. Our central defenders were untroubled but what they had to do they did well.

[Gala Tartan Army (Borders)]

I thought Morrison played relatively well, every passing move when through him. He was eclipsed by Brown, who was immense.

Georgia were not great, but they were not of the standard of San Marino or Andorra, and when they set up two banks of four in defence, it was always going to be difficult to break them down.

I am hoping the Poles have a few injuries after their exertions against Germany, having watched the end of the first half in the pub on way home, I could not believe they lost that match, they missed four great chances before the break. Disasterous result which means we have to get something from Tuesday now or I think we are even struggling for third place.

[PASTA Mick]

Funny how different people view the match.

IMO, it just never quite worked for Anya, Naismith and Maloney. They all did all they can to get in the game and make it happen but it just wasn't their night.

I thought Fletcher did well. He created all our best chances but they weren't taken. Brown was excellent and Morrison was good. The back 4 were solid enough and Marshall didn't have a save to make.

A second goal would have led to 3 or 4. The longer it went on and the more chances we missed, the more nervous it got but we never really looked like blowing it.

[Bannannan]

But surely Fletcher should going for goals too.I think he had one shot and that was the one he should have passed.