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1 hour ago, Tartan blood said:

Steve Clarke interview:

"Where are we going to be as a country? Are we going to be a pot four team or are we going to be a pot two team. Decisions you make now can influence that. Hopefully we can have some bearing on that now. Listen, my job is to get results for the A team. But you still have to lay the groundwork for future generations."

Highly encouraging! Yet another myth put to bed that Clarke isn't connected to the youth teams. Clarke just keeps proving every cynic wrong, time after time. 

Not sure what your reading into that. 

Are you suggesting he is actively involved or that he is aware that it is a shambles? 

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On 9/29/2021 at 8:40 AM, Tartan blood said:

Steve Clarke interview:

"Where are we going to be as a country? Are we going to be a pot four team or are we going to be a pot two team. Decisions you make now can influence that. Hopefully we can have some bearing on that now. Listen, my job is to get results for the A team. But you still have to lay the groundwork for future generations."

Highly encouraging! Yet another myth put to bed that Clarke isn't connected to the youth teams. Clarke just keeps proving every cynic wrong, time after time. 

Didn’t prove many people wrong at the Euros though did he.

Except those who thought he would do a capable job. 

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3 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Proved plenty wrong who never saw us getting past Serbia.

Absolutely. Some fans were expecting us to blow the Czechs away in the first game, get something at Wembley and take something from Croatia. All teams that are ranked higher than us (significantly in the case of Croatia and England). 

Things didn’t go out away against the Czechs but we weren't actually that bad in that game. We played some good stuff and just didn’t take our chances. We played very well against England and obviously could have done better against Croatia but some people need a reality check I think. 

There are clear signs of progress and if we can win our next 3 games we have a decent shot of getting to the World Cup.

Bring on the Israelis. 

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11 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

Absolutely. Some fans were expecting us to blow the Czechs away in the first game, get something at Wembley and take something from Croatia. All teams that are ranked higher than us (significantly in the case of Croatia and England). 

Things didn’t go out away against the Czechs but we weren't actually that bad in that game. We played some good stuff and just didn’t take our chances. We played very well against England and obviously could have done better against Croatia but some people need a reality check I think. 

There are clear signs of progress and if we can win our next 3 games we have a decent shot of getting to the World Cup.

Bring on the Israelis. 

Can you stop the "they are ranked higher than us therefore we shouldn't beat them line".

We are better than that.

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1 hour ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Can you stop the "they are ranked higher than us therefore we shouldn't beat them line".

We are better than that.

Nah mate I’ll post what I like. 

I actually didn’t state that anyway. I don’t think we shouldn’t beat teams that are better than us but it’s not an easy thing to do and people shouldn’t shit the bed when we don’t do it. 

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On 10/3/2021 at 6:07 PM, Caledonian Craig said:

Proved plenty wrong who never saw us getting past Serbia.

I certainly didn't expect us to win that game (and I sometimes wonder if we still would if there had been fans allowed in the ground).

10 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

Nah mate I’ll post what I like. 

I actually didn’t state that anyway. I don’t think we shouldn’t beat teams that are better than us but it’s not an easy thing to do and people shouldn’t shit the bed when we don’t do it. 

Some people have short memories. Not that long ago we were being slapped around by Belgium and an unremarkable Russia team. 

At the Euros we were in a group with the runners up and semi-finalists from the last World Cup. We hadn't qualified for a tournament in over two decades. We didn't get out of the group but we still created chances and not one of our opponents will have felt they had an easy game. Of course we should aspire to better but we're getting there.

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16 hours ago, ProudScot said:

He did. Then undid most of that good work at the Euros 

Did he? Was it his fault? A brain fade moment from Marshall cost us terribly (player fault) but he himself played a huge part getting us there. We lost games against teams ranked way above us and aside from the 1986 World Cup is the toughest draw we've ever had at a major tournament. And lest we forget the result V England a team ranked 4th in the world and eventual finalists on their own patch. Surely, amongst one of our best results against such highly ranked opponents at a major tournament.

For me it was a reminder that we still must improve and with that and a kinder draw we can look for progress beyond the group stage.

Edited by Caledonian Craig
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23 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Did he? Was it his fault? A brain fade moment from Marshall cost us terribly (player fault) but he himself played a huge part getting us there. We lost games against teams ranked way above us and aside from the 1986 World Cup is the toughest draw we've ever had at a major tournament. And lest we forget the result V England a team ranked 4th in the world and eventual finalists on their own patch. Surely, amongst one of our best results against such highly ranked opponents at a major tournament.

For me it was a reminder that we still must improve and with that and a kinder draw we can look for progress beyond the group stage.

Czech game - I think we would've got at least a point but for Marshall's idiocy.  Until then we had the best of the chances, but afterwards it was a case of hoping to sneak back in while trying not to let the game run away from us.

Wembley was a near flawless performance that only needed a goal to make it perfect.

The Croatia game is the one that has most folk gnashing their teeth.  We did little in the first half yet managed to claw our way back level at half-time.  Throughout the first 45 minutes we watched Modric run the show, nobody near him.  It's utterly incredible that the tactics weren't changed at half-time to address that, either to man-mark him or cut off the supply.  Aye he's a great player, but FFS the guy had the freedom of Hampden.  A few years before, a younger Modric spent the game in Broonie's back pocket.  Why things weren't changed around was Steve Clarke's fault.  I honestly expected us to get out of that group.  A dreadful performance after the heights of the previous game.

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I've been waiting for a comment like, "Why call up non-playing Armstrong when we have an in-form Gauld available?" but thankfully I now think people are starting to see the reason for Clarke sticking with the likes of him and Taylor: it's all to do with squad building and consistency. I don't think we have ever really had that before. We will see if, as I hope, it leads to more consistency of (good) results. BTW neither of those aformentioned are likely to be first picks.

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38 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

I've been waiting for a comment like, "Why call up non-playing Armstrong when we have an in-form Gauld available?" but thankfully I now think people are starting to see the reason for Clarke sticking with the likes of him and Taylor: it's all to do with squad building and consistency. I don't think we have ever really had that before. We will see if, as I hope, it leads to more consistency of (good) results. BTW neither of those aformentioned are likely to be first picks.

Spot on. Evidenced further by the fact Taylor wasn't replaced by another left back. He wasn't just there to make up the numbers on the training pitch, he was there because he is a valuable member of the close knit group, which Clarke wants to maintain.

It might make it harder to break into the squad now, but it means if you do, you definitely deserve it. No more of this "flavour of the month" nonsense that has failed us so many times.

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1 hour ago, Tartan blood said:

Spot on. Evidenced further by the fact Taylor wasn't replaced by another left back. He wasn't just there to make up the numbers on the training pitch, he was there because he is a valuable member of the close knit group, which Clarke wants to maintain.

It might make it harder to break into the squad now, but it means if you do, you definitely deserve it. No more of this "flavour of the month" nonsense that has failed us so many times.

What examples do you have of those picked based on being ‘flavour of the month’? 

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1 hour ago, Tartan blood said:

Spot on. Evidenced further by the fact Taylor wasn't replaced by another left back. He wasn't just there to make up the numbers on the training pitch, he was there because he is a valuable member of the close knit group, which Clarke wants to maintain.

It might make it harder to break into the squad now, but it means if you do, you definitely deserve it. No more of this "flavour of the month" nonsense that has failed us so many times.

I don't really buy into this. We have seen several players that were mainstays in Clarke's squads jettisoned recently. Springing to mind are Andrew Considine, Declan Gallagher, John Fleck, Oli McBurnie and David Marshall and possibly added to that list soon could be Greg Taylor and James Forrest.

 

Edited by Caledonian Craig
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31 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I don't really buy into this. We have seen several players that were mainstays in Clarke's squads jettisoned recently. Springing to mind are Andrew Considine, Declan Gallagher, John Fleck, Oli McBurnie and David Marshall and possibly added to that list soon could be Greg Taylor and James Forrest.

 

Agreed. Only reason there is no other left back in squad is because not required with Robertson and Tierney. I doubt we’ll see Taylor again unless lots of injuries. He isnt very good in my opinion and certainly not international standard. Gauld on the other hand is not ‘flavour of the month’. He has been consistent very good last two seasons in Portugal, especially last season and is now getting rave reviews in MLS. In my view he at least deserves a squad place at least to see how he does. With Armstrong not having played all season and Fraser hardly at all, this would have been a good opportunity 

Edited by GHfaeGTA
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8 minutes ago, GHfaeGTA said:

 Gauld on the other hand is not ‘flavour of the month’. He has been consistent very good last two seasons in Portugal, especially last season and is now getting rave reviews in MLS. In my view he at least deserves a squad place at least to see how he does. With Armstrong not having played all season and Fraser hardly at all, this would have been a good opportunity 

Armstrong has done well wherever he has gone and contributed playing at the highest level in club football. I get that people are clambering for Gauld's inclusion but there are still question marks. Most notably, his spell at Hibs where he stunk the place out - that is a big worry for me. We keep getting told the Portuguese league is higher standard than the SPL so his spell at Hibs should have seen him be very impressive - it didn't. The other question mark I'd have was his choice of move to the MLS. Why did no other European club feel fit to sign him if he is such hot property?

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1 hour ago, GHfaeGTA said:

What examples do you have of those picked based on being ‘flavour of the month’? 

I mean, there are loads of examples from the last 2 decades. I fell down the rabbit hole of looking at players given debuts in the past 20 years and there are dozens that got less than 3 caps and disappeared into obscurity. E.g McGeouch, Cummings, Caddis, May etc etc (no disrespect to any of these guys)

I generally don't think Clarke is guilty of that, and if it seemed that way to begin with, it was possibly partly because he wanted to see player's in person. 

Saying all that, my "flavour of the month" wasn't aimed at Gauld at all. I'm all for him being included. I was thinking more along the lines of Watt, Ralston, Ramsay, Henderson, Souttar etc. I'm not against picking any of them, but these days they have to do more to get into the squad.

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1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Armstrong has done well wherever he has gone and contributed playing at the highest level in club football. I get that people are clambering for Gauld's inclusion but there are still question marks. Most notably, his spell at Hibs where he stunk the place out - that is a big worry for me. We keep getting told the Portuguese league is higher standard than the SPL so his spell at Hibs should have seen him be very impressive - it didn't. The other question mark I'd have was his choice of move to the MLS. Why did no other European club feel fit to sign him if he is such hot property?

Injured mainly at Hibs. Certainly not match fit. Re MLS, money talks 

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