Taylor1996 Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 1 hour ago, JECK said: Don Hutchison sorting himself out That's actually a great point. If we had a young Don Hutchison it would have been a great addition. Too bad he was a bit of a hellraiser in his formative years. As for Colin Hendry. As a person, I don't know. As a footballer, growing up he was one my heroes. In my opinion, he was the equal of Tony Adams, and that's a massive compliment. Adams is the best England centerback I've seen since Butcher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gkm_vancouver Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 5 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said: Are you trying to suggest getting 10 goals in our last 5 games is impressive? Three of those games were against faroes, Luxembourg and Israel. We only scored 3 goals at euro 96 and wc 98 but we were up against great teams. Why would you not want the team checking this board, we had good players in 98 so it's no shame in being compared to them. I didn't use the word impressive but compared to previous years it is showing a definite improvement. The same stats in the past 3-4 years will probably prove it. The Brown years had some similarities with keeping it tight at the back but went into the tourney a lot later in their careers than the current squad. Look, others have been doing the stats but I bet if you were to check our games and goals F-A you will see that. What Clarke has done is cut out the heavy defeats (Russia, Belgium, Kazakhstan), shore up the defence, reduce the number of defeats, and increase our number of wins, whether by an odd goal or penalties. We are now in a position where we have only lost 2 out of the last 16 (and even that was a bit of a hangover from the qualification game) and this year are unbeaten going into our first major tourney in 23 years with a bit of momentum. We have a potential front 5 in Dykes, Adams, Christie, Fraser, McGinn that have all got recent international goals in them. That is why I think this squad have got the edge and have a great chance of increasing our goals tally compared to 96 & 98 on the way to round 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mccaughey85 Posted June 13, 2021 Author Share Posted June 13, 2021 3 minutes ago, gkm_vancouver said: I didn't use the word impressive but compared to previous years it is showing a definite improvement. The same stats in the past 3-4 years will probably prove it. The Brown years had some similarities with keeping it tight at the back but went into the tourney a lot later in their careers than the current squad. Look, others have been doing the stats but I bet if you were to check our games and goals F-A you will see that. What Clarke has done is cut out the heavy defeats (Russia, Belgium, Kazakhstan), shore up the defence, reduce the number of defeats, and increase our number of wins, whether by an odd goal or penalties. We are now in a position where we have only lost 2 out of the last 16 (and even that was a bit of a hangover from the qualification game) and this year are unbeaten going into our first major tourney in 23 years with a bit of momentum. We have a potential front 5 in Dykes, Adams, Christie, Fraser, McGinn that have all got recent international goals in them. That is why I think this squad have got the edge and have a great chance of increasing our goals tally compared to 96 & 98 on the way to round 2. I am a fan of Clarke and think he's done a decent job so far. I believe we can do well in this tournament and I will be first to sing the praises of this squad if we make it out of the groups or even if we narrowly get put out. The thread was just some fun to compare the 2 squads seeing as the last time we went to tournament was 98. I am fully aware that this squad is relatively young in comparison and can potentially go onto better things than the 98 squad but it was just a look into comparing the 2 squads in the present day without considering potential or anything like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 2 hours ago, mccaughey85 said: We only scored 3 goals at euro 96 and wc 98 but we were up against great teams. Some great teams. But also some teams I would not class as great such as Switzerland, Norway and Morocco (and we scored a total of two goals against that opposition). On paper some of our strikers from 96 and 98 were better than what we have now for sure but I think we have a better average level now as in a stronger team of strikers to pick from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gkm_vancouver Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 7 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said: The thread was just some fun to compare the 2 squads seeing as the last time we went to tournament was 98. Jeez and you've fairly put me through the mill for having a different view . What are you like when you get serious? 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mccaughey85 Posted July 4, 2021 Author Share Posted July 4, 2021 Thought I would bump this thread now that the tournament is over and both squads can be assessed having completed our standard 3 games that we usually get at tournaments lol. I think our 98 squad/team was definitely stronger, the manner in which we qualified for the world cup was impressive having only conceded 3 goals and finishing as the best placed runner up meaning we bypassed the play offs is impressive. A world cup is much more harder to qualify for compared to a 24 team euros. Sadly the morrocco debacle puts a downer on what was an impressive scotland side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristolhibby Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 On 7/4/2021 at 12:53 PM, mccaughey85 said: Thought I would bump this thread now that the tournament is over and both squads can be assessed having completed our standard 3 games that we usually get at tournaments lol. I think our 98 squad/team was definitely stronger, the manner in which we qualified for the world cup was impressive having only conceded 3 goals and finishing as the best placed runner up meaning we bypassed the play offs is impressive. A world cup is much more harder to qualify for compared to a 24 team euros. Sadly the morrocco debacle puts a downer on what was an impressive scotland side. Interestingly the exact same results in the exact same order. Brazil = Czech Republic Norway = England Morocco = Croatia Home with 1 point and one goal scored. We desperately need goal scorers. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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