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Israel v Scotland Match thread


ceudmilefailte

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Just now, fringo said:

I know but I think the team/squad have improved. Should have won those games but we didn't.

I'm still more positive then I've been in several years. I think we've deserved to win the last 2 games but didn't.

That's football as they say.

But we got through to Euros whether or not  we deserved to so let's enjoy that too.

The highs and lows of following Scotland in the last 7 days (and so many decades)!

The last 2 games were frustrating but they were frustrating because we created plenty chances, generally played well except the final product. At least we played with fluency and good possession, and made watching a football match enjoyable again. It's not so long ago, watching Scotland was a bit masochistic, almost every game seemed like on the back foot, a grim must-win or last chance saloon.

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Disappointed and frustrated that we have blown two very good chances to win the group but overall, if you had offered me the Euros and a comfortable 2nd in the Nations League group back in August, I'd have bitten your hand off.

The harsh lessons of the last two games are essentially poor final balls, poor finishing and overall just making incorrect decisions in the final third.

However, once again the performance was far, far better than the previous two against the same opponent so that is a positive going into March.

Presently, the only change I can see is Ryan Fraser coming in for either Ryan Christie or John McGinn as you get a bit more consistent end output from Fraser.

However you can see what Steve Clarke is bedding in and he took us to a tournament. So the moon howlers on Twitter just need to wise up a bit.

Roll on 7th December for the World Cup draw.

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3 minutes ago, ThistleWhistle said:

Griffiths has played on and off for 8 years and it 20+ caps can't see a forward who can hold it up or link it up. 

McBurnie was arguably the best of our forwards tonight although the bar was low.

Yeh Griffiths is probably not the answer Tbf. He looks like he needs alot more time before he gets back to his best so it's probably better we try other strikers ahead of him. I just hope that isn't mcburnie because unlike Griffiths he has never looked good in a Scotland shirt. 

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19 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Nothing to do with faces. Griffiths has barely kicked a ball for us in recent years. Mcburnie has and he's fluffed everything so badly that he gets rightly slagged. 

Do you know how many caps Griffiths had before breaking his duck against England? About the same as McBurnie!

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Anyway all if you had told me a month ago we'd be Euros-bound I'd have found that hard to believe but here we are. Much sooner we won the play-off than topped the Nations League. Sure we have to be greedy to succeed but lets remember how massive qualification is for us. A whole generation has never seen Scotland play in a major tournament. It is almost half a lifetime ago for me and we have suffered so much heartache and three near misses so lets remember where we are right now.....on our way to the Euros.

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2 minutes ago, BucksburnDandy said:

Disappointed and frustrated that we have blown two very good chances to win the group but overall, if you had offered me the Euros and a comfortable 2nd in the Nations League group back in August, I'd have bitten your hand off.

The harsh lessons of the last two games are essentially poor final balls, poor finishing and overall just making incorrect decisions in the final third.

However, once again the performance was far, far better than the previous two against the same opponent so that is a positive going into March.

Presently, the only change I can see is Ryan Fraser coming in for either Ryan Christie or John McGinn as you get a bit more consistent end output from Fraser.

However you can see what Steve Clarke is bedding in and he took us to a tournament. So the moon howlers on Twitter just need to wise up a bit.

Roll on 7th December for the World Cup draw.

Fraser has to come back in but  Christie and McGinn are equally key and and all 3 should be in every first team. If you had to drop someone it would not be either of those ever.

Maybe McGregor first and he's someone who I rate also but not ahead of Christie or McGinn.

Next in line I'd have Armstrong ahead of guys like Forrest etc.

As usual we have quite a few very good midfielders but not enough strength in defence (although that's improving) and strikers.

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Within the space of 2 years, we went from: playing atrocious and getting skelped by inferior teams; to reducing deficits; to playing poorly but scraping results; to getting results and also playing well.

Unfortunately, we've taken a detour on the road to success, where the performances are there, and arguably getting better every game, but losing.

Improvement is not exponential. The squad is objectively better than anything we've had the past decade, and seemingly getting stronger by the month. We also have the added advantage that all our players will be climbing over each other to get in the team.

So, it's a shame the momentum has stalled, but the trajectory is still very much in our favour. 

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3 minutes ago, fringo said:

Fraser has to come back in but  Christie and McGinn are equally key and and all 3 should be in every first team. If you had to drop someone it would not be either of those ever.

Maybe McGregor first and he's someone who I rate also but not ahead of Christie or McGinn.

Next in line I'd have Armstrong ahead of guys like Forrest etc.

As usual we have quite a few very good midfielders but not enough strength in defence (although that's improving) and strikers.

Yes I'd have Fraser in the side but we are then in a similar situation we had with Tierney and Robertson. How do you fit Christie, Fraser and McGinn into the same side? Jack and McGregor are the engine room and sort of do the link-up between defence and midfield onto attacking midfielders. That is not McGinn, Fraser or Christie's type of game so you'd be unbalancing things in my opinion trying to fit all three in the side.

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7 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Yes I'd have Fraser in the side but we are then in a similar situation we had with Tierney and Robertson. How do you fit Christie, Fraser and McGinn into the same side? Jack and McGregor are the engine room and sort of do the link-up between defence and midfield onto attacking midfielders. That is not McGinn, Fraser or Christie's type of game so you'd be unbalancing things in my opinion trying to fit all three in the side.

Don’t forget billy Gilmour 

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14 minutes ago, fringo said:

Fraser has to come back in but  Christie and McGinn are equally key and and all 3 should be in every first team. If you had to drop someone it would not be either of those ever.

Maybe McGregor first and he's someone who I rate also but not ahead of Christie or McGinn.

Next in line I'd have Armstrong ahead of guys like Forrest etc.

As usual we have quite a few very good midfielders but not enough strength in defence (although that's improving) and strikers.

You can’t play all three in the same team though. McGinn is not effective when he drops back. He plays the advanced midfield role, or Armstrong. Christie and Fraser are fighting for the supporting role. Right now Christie in possession as he’s played well.

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1 minute ago, duncan II said:

You can’t play all three in the same team though. McGinn is not effective when he drops back. He plays the advanced midfield role, or Armstrong. Christie and Fraser are fighting for the supporting role. Right now Christie in possession as he’s played well.

McGinn does play deeper for Villa.

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20 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Well feel free if you can list how many Scotland strikers have bagged 18 goals for us with average of a goal just under every four games. By Scotland international standards that is prolific.

Joe Craig's average will never be surpassed - a goal in his 21 minute international career v Sweden in 1977.

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1 minute ago, ceudmilefailte said:

McGinn does play deeper for Villa.

I don’t think that works so well for us. Lack of balance. I like (generally) what McGregor and Jack do. And Gilmore will hopefully bring better quality in there. I think McGinn gets punished more when losing the ball in that position at international level.

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6 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Yes I'd have Fraser in the side but we are then in a similar situation we had with Tierney and Robertson. How do you fit Christie, Fraser and McGinn into the same side? Jack and McGregor are the engine room and sort of do the link-up between defence and midfield onto attacking midfielders. That is not McGinn, Fraser or Christie's type of game so you'd be unbalancing things in my opinion trying to fit all three in the side.

That's the problem and that's why I'm not Scotland manager. 😁

Personally (not being an expert obviously) I'd drop either Jack or McGregor and have McTominay in that holding midfield position. He can spray the passes and has even done it at right back in the last few games.

I do really rate McGregor so that may be harsh and he could happily play in any Scotland team to be honest.

You could throw Armstrong into the mix too in any position in midfield or further forward,

I don't know about how I'd replace McTominay in defence but he shouldn't be there in first place. He's a top class holding midfielder playing for Man Utd for a reason.

That would be a decent team and we'd just need to fix up front finishing.14I may need 12-14 players on the park to suit my formation.☺️

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7 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

McGinn does play deeper for Villa.

He's not as good there though. Let's not forget the goal he was responsible for (cannae mind against who) when he gave the ball away just outside our penalty box.

 

Edit: think it was Russia? Or Belgium

Edited by Dave78
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2 minutes ago, fringo said:

 

I don't know about how I'd replace McTominay in defence but he shouldn't be there in first place. He's a top class holding midfielder playing for Man Utd for a reason.

 

I've wondered the same, but he's so effective at moving the ball from defence to attack. I think he's been key to all the good attacking play we've made over the last 3 matches. I think he has to stay where he is.

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Another brick in the wall.

A match that we dominated. Created good chances. Played some nice football.

We're making progress. No, the results may not always show it, but if we progress in the rate that we have, our wins will overshadow our loses.

A few personal tweaks here and there, like, McTominay being moved into midfield and Gilmour being fast-tracked into the senior squad 

Steve Clarke has laid foundations. He's giving us a clear identity, which is something that Scotland haven't had for many years.

I'm taking the positives out of the previous two matches.

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10 minutes ago, duncan II said:

You can’t play all three in the same team though. McGinn is not effective when he drops back. He plays the advanced midfield role, or Armstrong. Christie and Fraser are fighting for the supporting role. Right now Christie in possession as he’s played well.

Phoar! I can't keep up with replying to all these quotes.

That'll teach me to get hyper active posting on match night.😁

I'm not sure how all the trolls manage to have multiple IDs and post 24 hrs a day .😄

I've just replied to another post and that'll me for an early night. :D

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