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Serbia Next


Caledonian Craig

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So next month we play Serbia in a winner takes all match in Serbia. Sure they will be warm to hot favourites but underdog role always seems to suit us better anyway so I am not unhappy with that.

However, lets not go in with a defeatist attitude by bumming up our opponents too much. Clues are there that they are not unbeatable. Their manager (like ours) was under pressure and was being asked if he'd resign if they lost last night. Maybe that is to do with the fact that they have had patchy results over the last two years such as  having drawn at home to Romania, laboured to a 2-1 win over Montenegro, beaten comfortably at home 4-2 by Portugal, laboured to a 3-2 win at home to Luxembourg, drew at home to Turkey 0-0 and drew 2-2 at home to Ukraine. Also there won't be an intimidating atmosphere to have to put up with. Sure they have players playing in top leagues as do we so lets not downplay ourselves. It is a one-off match and anything can happen. 

 

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The way some people go on you’d think Serbia were a top 10 team that we have no chance of beating. I think we have a great chance of beating them if we have all of our best players available and everyone performs somewhere near their best. 

Serbia are a good side but let’s remember that they are ranked 31st in the world which is only 18 places above us. 

If we don’t have a hope in hell of beating a team ranked 31st in the world then we may as well just chuck it now and not bother. 

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Looking at the stats Serbia deserved to beat Norway.

I still haven't worked out what our formation was last night, but it did seem to allow Robertson to get forward yet remain solid at the back.

It was either five at the back or four at the back with a right back and a left wingback. Don't think it was 3-5-2 anyway. In fact I'm going for five at the back with Robertson putting in a hell of a lot of work.

Israel only had one shot on target and it was straight at Marshall so we defended well and if we can do that again in Serbia we have a chance.

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2 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Drew with the likes of England, Poland (twice) and won in Czexh Republic a few years ago. Also beat Slovakia so there have been times.

That was with Strachan's team... The personnel is much changed now, and the current set are yet to do anything above what they would be expected to do in competitive matches against superior opposition. I really hope they can prove me wrong, but they haven't shown it yet.

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4 hours ago, COLT NY said:

That was with Strachan's team... The personnel is much changed now, and the current set are yet to do anything above what they would be expected to do in competitive matches against superior opposition. I really hope they can prove me wrong, but they haven't shown it yet.

Well look at the opposition. The team our fans are painting as world beaters scrambled to a 3-2 win within the last two years) at home to Luxembourg similar to what we did and our fans were apopleptic about it remember? And if they are so far above us on the footballing scale why did they not qualify through the group stages?

Edited by Caledonian Craig
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9 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

So next month we play Serbia in a winner takes all match in Serbia. Sure they will be warm to hot favourites but underdog role always seems to suit us better anyway so I am not unhappy with that.

However, lets not go in with a defeatist attitude by bumming up our opponents too much. Clues are there that they are not unbeatable. Their manager (like ours) was under pressure and was being asked if he'd resign if they lost last night. Maybe that is to do with the fact that they have had patchy results over the last two years such as  having drawn at home to Romania, laboured to a 2-1 win over Montenegro, beaten comfortably at home 4-2 by Portugal, laboured to a 3-2 win at home to Luxembourg, drew at home to Turkey 0-0 and drew 2-2 at home to Ukraine. Also there won't be an intimidating atmosphere to have to put up with. Sure they have players playing in top leagues as do we so lets not downplay ourselves. It is a one-off match and anything can happen. 

 

If we have our full squad to pick from then I give us decent chance of an upset. We were very depleted against Israel with regards our squad and I think we need guys like Tierney, christie etc to be back and a big performance is needed from our so called "star" players. 

Serbia are a strong team and have much better squad depth than us.

We also haven't scored much in our last few games from open play which is worrying. Defensively we looked good against Israel so that is a positive that we can build on. 

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11 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

The way some people go on you’d think Serbia were a top 10 team that we have no chance of beating. I think we have a great chance of beating them if we have all of our best players available and everyone performs somewhere near their best. 

Serbia are a good side but let’s remember that they are ranked 31st in the world which is only 18 places above us. 

If we don’t have a hope in hell of beating a team ranked 31st in the world then we may as well just chuck it now and not bother. 

Israel are ranked in the 90’s and we have struggled against them twice recently, but I agree if we get our best players playing in their best positions we have a good chance of beating Serbia.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🍾

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9 minutes ago, RDFH64 said:

Israel are ranked in the 90’s and we have struggled against them twice recently, but I agree if we get our best players playing in their best positions we have a good chance of beating Serbia.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🍾

Also look at the current Nations League tables. We are top of our group and Serbia are bottom of theirs.

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1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Also look at the current Nations League tables. We are top of our group and Serbia are bottom of theirs.

It's a good point.  

They play Hungary at home and then Turkey away.  Two sides of a similar standard to us.  It will be interesting to see how they get on.

One big factor could be how well each squad avoids covid over the next month.  

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1 minute ago, PASTA Mick said:

It's a good point.  

They play Hungary at home and then Turkey away.  Two sides of a similar standard to us.  It will be interesting to see how they get on.

One big factor could be how well each squad avoids covid over the next month.  

Well I do believe they've already drawn 0-0 at home to Turkey.

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2 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Well I do believe they've already drawn 0-0 at home to Turkey.

Looking at their results over Euro 2020 qualifying and the nations league, they aren't showing anything that should leave us thinking we have no chance.  The same way we won't leave them too worried.

There is a reason we are both in the final of a group C play-off.  

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2 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said:

Looking at their results over Euro 2020 qualifying and the nations league, they aren't showing anything that should leave us thinking we have no chance.  The same way we won't leave them too worried.

There is a reason we are both in the final of a group C play-off.  

Precisely.

However, reading posters on here we are about to play the 1970 Brazil side. 

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Just now, Caledonian Craig said:

Precisely.

However, reading posters on here we are about to play the 1970 Brazil side. 

I think some players look at the clubs they play for and make a judgement and there is no doubt their squad is filled with players from some very good clubs.  We'd love to be picking players from Real Madrid, Inter, Sevilla, Ajax, Porto and a load of the other CL / EL clubs that Serbia are able to do.  

I think the biggest difference is they have much better strength in depth and their forwards are a class above ours.  However, if we anything close to our strongest squad available, we have a good chance.  

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25 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said:

It's a good point.  

They play Hungary at home and then Turkey away.  Two sides of a similar standard to us.  It will be interesting to see how they get on.

One big factor could be how well each squad avoids covid over the next month.  

I would say both of those sides are better than us easily. 

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Serbia have some good players, a bit like ourselves, but until this week they have not gelled (a bit like ourselves) and according to reports this is because Norway played in an expansive way and Serbia’s 3 Ajax MD’s ran the game.

I cant see Clarke playing like Norway and it wont be an entertaining game. We need a full squad and we have a great chance. The worry for us is scoring. We had four reasonable chances against Israel and failed to take any Of them.

Its a bit exciting though.......... not been like this for a while......

Edited by sandyb
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23 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Serbia's goal threat is Mitrovic who plays for Fulham. Can you imagine the moaning on here that he wasn't plating for a bigger/more fashionable EPL club?

I think most on here would be happy to have a mitrovic level striker in our squad. Griffiths is probably the closest we have to mitrovic. 

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13 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

I think most on here would be happy to have a mitrovic level striker in our squad. Griffiths is probably the closest we have to mitrovic. 

Yes but pretty sure they'd take Robertson and Tierney in a shot. 

Coming at this from a different angle but for years now we hear people on here going on about how Wales are no better than us well in the last World Cup qualifying campaign Wales got two draws against Serbia. 

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