Where do we go from here?

[tjm007]

We will stick with dinosaur Clarke until we finish 3rd in the WC qualifying group.

Then enter McInnes..

[Rolling hIlls]

2 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Agreed.

However, those on here don't know jack about football management at any level of note let alone international level and you have zoomers on here telling our national team coach who has worked alongside Jose Mourinho how to do the job. Un- fucking - believable.

It is a classic trait of posters here. For ages they've been crying out to play two strikers up front and ditch the one plus one attacking midfielder. He did that and everyone was happy going into the match with that and then we lose and suddenly people are out wanting the old formation. FFS

Last night we weren't good enough against the World Cup runners-up. A side with bags of experience of major tournament football, a world class midfielder and world class striker - something we'd kill for. But WTF our supporters put our defeat down to our manager, our formation, various players instead of accepting, at present, our team is not in the same league as World Cup runners-up. 

As for where do we go from here? We integrate the likes of Billy Gilmour and Nathan Patterson into the side and looked to get the best out of the strikers we have available to us and hopefully a new young striker breaks through. We'll be stronger for this experience and give the players the taste of what it is like playing at a major tournament and now the belief is there that they can and have done it before it will make it much less difficult to achieve again.

Agreed Craig.  How did your blog go?  Sorry, I was on the Glenlivet and forgot all about it.  Send me a link mate and I will watch it.  We are progressing under Clarke and I don't think he will let us down.  We are a small nation but should be doing better.  I think we will.

[Rolling hIlls]

29 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

The main problem is not having someone to put the ball in the back of the fucking net. We don't have anyone capable of putting away half chances 

I agree to a certain extent.  Sometimes the rub of the green doesn't go your way.  It didn't for us.  We had a lot of shots but couldn't convert them.  On another day we might have.  Just need to keep trying.

[Caledonian Craig]

3 minutes ago, Rolling hIlls said:

Agreed Craig.  How did your blog go?  Sorry, I was on the Glenlivet and forgot all about it.  Send me a link mate and I will watch it.  We are progressing under Clarke and I don't think he will let us down.  We are a small nation but should be doing better.  I think we will.

One later on today at 4pm reviewing the match. 

Yes we can't go changing managers every two years. We need stability. And why would we sack a manager who has got us to our first major tournament in 23 years? I really do question posters sanity at times but will say that posting right after bitter disappointment magnifies and enhances the levels of pish posted by people.

[Malcolm]

We have a number of problems that are not easy to fix.  We concede too many goals and are vulnerable to crosses, but we don’t have a number of top centre half’s to pick from hence we are playing a midfielder and a left back in the back three.  The second problem is the lack of an international level goal scorer.  Nobody knocking on the door for that position that I can see so that will not change any time soon.

[Haggis_trap]

How do we improve Scottish football ?
The answer hasn't changed since the 1990s...
In simple terms: Better coaching and more facilities to get more kids playing the game.

Iceland (same population as Aberdeen) is a good case study.
Built indoor pitches and trained lots of coaches.
Their golden generation didn't happen by chance.

[Rolling hIlls]

When Scotland scored last night my new burd and Jenny shit themselves.  How do I get on to your blog again Craig?

[Caledonian Craig]

1 minute ago, Rolling hIlls said:

When Scotland scored last night my new burd and Jenny shit themselves.  How do I get on to your blog again Craig?

Link is on the YouTube blog thread.

[KirkieRobRoy]

I'm agnostic on Clarke as a manager. I see no real 'improvement'. Seems a decent bloke, though, and there's no sense in jettisoning him (if he chooses to stay) for the simple reason that no one better would take the job. We're not a plum job.

 

I did wonder if Martinez's Scottish missus might sway him to take the job once he's bored with Belgium but a quick check shows he's only 47 so has plenty more worlds to conquer. Maybe when he's 70...

[Jim Beem]

8 hours ago, ParisInAKilt said:

Arguing about management or players is irrelevant until we produce technically gifted players.

We have them already. As a nation though, we are mentally and psychologically retarded. 

[Rolling hIlls]

Just now, Haggis_trap said:

How do we improve Scottish football ?
The answer hasn't changed since the 1990s...
In simple terms: Better coaching and more facilities to get more kids playing the game.

Iceland (same population as Aberdeen) is a good case study.
Built indoor pitches and trained lots of coaches.
Their golden generation didn't happen by chance.

Better coaching at a young level.  Largs was there to coach older players which was too late and only gave them coaching badges.  Even I admit that I don't have any badges and might not be the best coach in the world.  But I am passionate about running the Under 18 team.  In my experience it is the dads of their sons or daughters who tend to get involved in the coaching of juvenile teams here.  They never played themselves at any level.  But they try their best but maybe there should be better motivation for ex-players to get involved at that level.

[biffer]

The glaring problem is scoring goals. We had 42 shots on goal in three games and only scored once. Not many teams have had, or will have, that many in the pool games (currently only Italy, Denmark, Netherlands and Switzerland have more). So we’re doing a lot of things right. Many of us sat through years when we were lucky to get one or two chances in a game. 
 

One other difference from the past for me is that this is a fairly young side. There aren’t many who will be gone in the next four year period. That’s not usually the case for us. There’s a core of good players playing at a decent level in Robertson, Tierney, McGinn, MacTominay, Gilmour, that will all likely still be going for the next four years, so I’m hopeful. 
 

We have a shot at World Cup qualification, but I hope folk remember that we scraped into the best 24 teams in Europe through a back door, so not getting into the best 13 to qualify for the World Cup isn’t a total disaster.

[dezmondo]

25 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Agreed.

However, those on here don't know jack about football management at any level of note let alone international level and you have zoomers on here telling our national team coach who has worked alongside Jose Mourinho how to do the job. Un- fucking - believable.

It is a classic trait of posters here. For ages they've been crying out to play two strikers up front and ditch the one plus one attacking midfielder. He did that and everyone was happy going into the match with that and then we lose and suddenly people are out wanting the old formation. FFS

Last night we weren't good enough against the World Cup runners-up. A side with bags of experience of major tournament football, a world class midfielder and world class striker - something we'd kill for. But WTF our supporters put our defeat down to our manager, our formation, various players instead of accepting, at present, our team is not in the same league as World Cup runners-up. 

As for where do we go from here? We integrate the likes of Billy Gilmour and Nathan Patterson into the side and looked to get the best out of the strikers we have available to us and hopefully a new young striker breaks through. We'll be stronger for this experience and give the players the taste of what it is like playing at a major tournament and now the belief is there that they can and have done it before it will make it much less difficult to achieve again.

It's a football forum. We're allowed an opinion on everything football related including the management. You do know that a manager of Scotland is managing at that level and not a higher level for a reason, and therefore probably gets some things wrong.....which we are allowed to discuss 😂😂

We had 2 matches at home and lost by 2 in each. That's a poor performance for me. Croatia are a good side but as I said, a poorer Scotland side beat a better Croatia side home and away in the not too distant past, so they were beatable last night. They looked average for 135 minutes of the tournament before they played us, and part of the reason for that is they were made to look average, England and Czechia got their tactics correct. 

As someone who apparently knows jack, I thought it was blindingly obvious early on we were getting pummelled down the right side and overrun in midfield. You're not telling me Patterson on and an extra midfielder on wouldn't have made a difference? I tell you what, it wouldn't have made us worse and at least would have given us fresh legs when half the team looked heavy legged. But hey, i shouldn't be questioning Clark the messiah. 😂

As a fan I'll support the team but I'll also demand more.

 

[mentalist]

We've never had a striker that's scored consistently since Kenny Miller. Dykes looks like he could be joining the likes of Rhodes, Fletcher and Griffiths as someone who looked like the answer until they weren't. Although the defence looks better, qualifying for tournaments by scoring as little as we do is a big ask to say the least. 

[er yir macaroon]

I was hopeful that all this time together as a group would bring benefits for the WC qualifiers. It’s hard to see that we’ve made any progress. We’ve got a flat line of centre halves that don’t engage the opposition leaving the midfielders with too much work to do. We either go four at the back or one up front or we’ll continue to ship soft goals. 

Gilmour and Patterson will go some way to improving us but there are some fundamentals not sorted out. Croatia were poor at the back and couldn’t deal with a high tempo, but we were left knackered by having to plug too many gaps. 

[Bino's]

Think tank?

[hampden_loon2878]

i am very optimistic in the future, our squad is the best it has been in a long time, the spirit seems great within the squad as well, this group of players have a few tournaments left in them, given there will be some youngsters coming in and older lads retiring, we need goals, that where my worry is,, onwards and upwards lads, remember this team had the least amount of caps coming into this tournament, they will only get better

[Jim Beem]

Hindsight of course, but there is no doubt we shat it in the opening game, far to timid. I'll not be convinced we dont have the players required that could and should have got us out that group. The general acceptance we have is utterly pathetic. 

[KirkieRobRoy]

1 hour ago, Rolling hIlls said:

However, those on here don't know jack about football management at any level of note let alone international level and you have zoomers on here telling our national team coach who has worked alongside Jose Mourinho how to do the job.

Goodness gracious have you ever been to a game, of any kind? Moaning is what supporters do. There's a big fat cliche which is nonetheless true - 'fitba is aa aboot opinions'. Some of those opinions, perhaps most of them, will be mince, but people are nonetheless entitled to hold them and to express them. Especially on a football talkboard. If we all agreed that Stevie Clarke was da man and we played well and there are hopeful signs for the future, that we're 'promising' and 'showing improvement' it would be a very dull and eerily North Korean board.

[Haggis_trap]

4 minutes ago, hampden_loon2878 said:

i am very optimistic in the future, our squad is the best it has been in a long time, the spirit seems great within the squad as well, this group of players have a few tournaments left in them, given there will be some youngsters coming in and older lads retiring, we need goals, that where my worry is,, onwards and upwards lads, remember this team had the least amount of caps coming into this tournament, they will only get better

Agree - Clarke is moving us in direction.  Young players coming through. A defined system and shape which worked perfectly against England. This last month together with squad will make huge difference come the autumn. 

Come September this is a team that could beat Austria and maybe Denmark.
Last nights result hurts, but I remain positive.

[Caledonian Craig]

36 minutes ago, biffer said:

The glaring problem is scoring goals. We had 42 shots on goal in three games and only scored once. Not many teams have had, or will have, that many in the pool games (currently only Italy, Denmark, Netherlands and Switzerland have more). So we’re doing a lot of things right. Many of us sat through years when we were lucky to get one or two chances in a game. 
 

Spot on in your first part. And all of those teams with more shots on goal at this tournament are ranked way above us and we have had more shots on goal than many more drooled over sides. It proves we are good enough working ourselves into positions for shots and that we haven't got that cutting edge in front of goal. I am stunned people can't see that is our chief problem. We have had the most shots on goal in our group, okay it means nothing in that we are out but it shows we have competed well against teams all of which are ranked above us and one being World Cup runners-up and World Cup semi-finalists.

 

[Rolling hIlls]

10 minutes ago, KirkieRobRoy said:

Goodness gracious have you ever been to a game, of any kind? Moaning is what supporters do. There's a big fat cliche which is nonetheless true - 'fitba is aa aboot opinions'. Some of those opinions, perhaps most of them, will be mince, but people are nonetheless entitled to hold them and to express them. Especially on a football talkboard. If we all agreed that Stevie Clarke was da man and we played well and there are hopeful signs for the future, that we're 'promising' and 'showing improvement' it would be a very dull and eerily North Korean board.

Why are you quoting someone else's post as me? I never posted what you have quoted. Second time this has happened in a couple of weeks. Why do folk get off on that? Anyway, you stand on kid and try and quote someone else in future. Are you not embarrassed by that? Anyone can look and see it wasn't me ya loony.

[ThistleWhistle]

10 minutes ago, Jim Beem said:

Hindsight of course, but there is no doubt we shat it in the opening game, far to timid. I'll not be convinced we dont have the players required that could and should have got us out that group. The general acceptance we have is utterly pathetic. 

I don't buy the lack of quality player argument either - we have 10 guys in the EPL at least plus 4-5 in Celtic and Rangers who'll be playing European football supplemented by Championship players.  

Against Switzerland, who're ranked 4th I think, Wales had a keeper who has barely played behind a back four consisting of two Championship players, a centre half with 10 games for a leaky Spurs and Ben Davies whose second choice at Spurs and would arguably be third choice for us.  

In midfield Joe Allen has been pish all season, another centre midfielder from Luton, a Championship winger and a Championship lump up top who is probably not as good as Adams.   However because they've got a quick bloke from Man U who struggles for game time plus Bale and Ramsey in decline it masks their overall deficiencies.  They're not better than us because they have those three but because they get a better tune out of what they have at their disposal which meant they got out of a tough group, with Turkey almost playing at home, relatively comfortably.    

[KirkieRobRoy]

8 minutes ago, Rolling hIlls said:

Why are you quoting someone else's post as me? I never posted what you have quoted.

I copied it from where you had quoted it yourself. I was addressing the person who posted it, not you.

 

I know you're an Old Firm supporter and are used to thinking that it's all about you.

 

But it isn't.

[Mox]

1 hour ago, biffer said:

The glaring problem is scoring goals. We had 42 shots on goal in three games and only scored once. Not many teams have had, or will have, that many in the pool games (currently only Italy, Denmark, Netherlands and Switzerland have more). So we’re doing a lot of things right. Many of us sat through years when we were lucky to get one or two chances in a game. 
 

One other difference from the past for me is that this is a fairly young side. There aren’t many who will be gone in the next four year period. That’s not usually the case for us. There’s a core of good players playing at a decent level in Robertson, Tierney, McGinn, MacTominay, Gilmour, that will all likely still be going for the next four years, so I’m hopeful. 
 

We have a shot at World Cup qualification, but I hope folk remember that we scraped into the best 24 teams in Europe through a back door, so not getting into the best 13 to qualify for the World Cup isn’t a total disaster.

Again, I can't reiterate how much of a red herring this is, looking at it written down, 42 shots across 3 games looks decent, but how many of those are real good quality chances? We created two chances last night for Adams and McGinn, both of which were balls into the box that they had to stretch for. Against England we created one real chance for O'Donnell and the Czech match we created maybe three decent chances all of which came after we were chasing the game.

The suggestion that we are somehow comparable to those nations mentioned is laughable, those teams play passing football and create good chances, we don't do either of those things.

This fallacy that all we are missing is some sort of quality striker is just that, a fallacy. You need to create better chances, even our goal last night didn't result from incisive attacking play, it came from flinging a couple of balls into the box, getting a break and it coming to McGregor, if that is how we are going to attack then we are going to limit ourselves and get picked off by better teams every single time we play them.

These three games have been dour and completely demoralising and if we continue to play like this, then we are not going anywhere fast.