Clarke committed to Scotland

[Orraloon]

18 hours ago, ProudScot said:

His record is absolutely pish. 

He’s got better players than any manager since Craig Brown in the mid 90’s and we get outplayed and/or horsed by teams like Israel very regularly.

He needs to get the youth, who are the best options in their position anyway, into the side ASAP & if he does so then atleast we will go into the next round of games with a little bit more hope and positivity than just now.

It was great to qualify, we qualified because the nations league presented us with a very simple route, not because we have a good manager who took us there. 

And it was McLeish who did the hard bit. 

[Mickey The Brave]

1 hour ago, kumnio said:

Alex McLeish was always right, so why sack him? Gordon Strachan was always right, so why let him go?

This logic is beyond belief, what a nonsense approach to things. 

That’s not what I said.

[thesaint]

3 hours ago, kumnio said:

I simply don’t trust that Clarke will have learned. He is far to stubborn to change. I hope I’m wrong, but I believe that the games in September will be yet another low point, 

Correct.Stubborn is the ideal description of Clarke.For example.Everybody knew that Billy Gilmour should have played against the czechs,but Clarke new better{aye right}.

[thesaint]

16 hours ago, ProudScot said:

Bang on about Croatia 

Absolutely.Not changing certain players and tactics after that embarrassing first half was an absolute discgrace by Clarke.He put out the same players with the same tactics,and it was even f..king worse in the second half.What was he thinking?

[Texas Pete]

11 hours ago, ceudmilefailte said:

 

Exactly what many of us have been saying about this qualification for he Euros

It did us a favour really. We have the 23 year monkey off our back and we can now aim to improve and qualify in the normal way or at least reach the playoffs for the World Cup which would be an improvement.

[Bobby Russell's Lovechild]

17 hours ago, Malcolm said:

If we can’t get in to the top 2 in a group with Austria and Denmark we don’t deserve to be at the World Cup.

I would say, the group we're in couldn't be better if we picked the teams ourselves. Yeah, Denmark and Austria are tough, but they're arguable amongst the weakest pot 1 & 2 teams

[kumnio]

5 hours ago, Mickey The Brave said:

However, Steve Clarke is right and I’m wrong, it’s really as simple as that.

This is the most nonsense that I’ve ever read on here, and I’m including stuff from numerous trolls.

Steve Clarke is right, that’s cultish stuff.

Was Steve Clarke right in his tactical approach to the Croatia game? I have no way of backing this up, but I will bet every single thing that I own, that 10 minutes into that game, that 99% of fans, journalists, pundits, neutrals, the officiating team, medics, stewards and anyone else watching the game thought we were sitting off them, and had to change, that we were inviting them onto us, wondering why one of the finest players of his generation, a 35 year old guy whose legs aren’t what they used to be, walking about dictating play easily. Was Steve Clarke right, and hundreds of thousands of people wrong? Why didn’t Steve Clarke’s plan work?

If the manager always knows better, why do so many of them fail?

[gkm_vancouver]

17 minutes ago, kumnio said:

This is the most nonsense that I’ve ever read on here, and I’m including stuff from numerous trolls.

Steve Clarke is right, that’s cultish stuff.

Was Steve Clarke right in his tactical approach to the Croatia game? I have no way of backing this up, but I will bet every single thing that I own, that 10 minutes into that game, that 99% of fans, journalists, pundits, neutrals, the officiating team, medics, stewards and anyone else watching the game thought we were sitting off them, and had to change, that we were inviting them onto us, wondering why one of the finest players of his generation, a 35 year old guy whose legs aren’t what they used to be, walking about dictating play easily. Was Steve Clarke right, and hundreds of thousands of people wrong? Why didn’t Steve Clarke’s plan work?

If the manager always knows better, why do so many of them fail?

Muppet is on the wind-up,  must be Mental Health Awareness Week again... 🙄

[Orraloon]

Do folk on this thread not realise who this troll is?

[Mickey The Brave]

1 hour ago, kumnio said:

This is the most nonsense that I’ve ever read on here, and I’m including stuff from numerous trolls.

Steve Clarke is right, that’s cultish stuff.

Was Steve Clarke right in his tactical approach to the Croatia game? I have no way of backing this up, but I will bet every single thing that I own, that 10 minutes into that game, that 99% of fans, journalists, pundits, neutrals, the officiating team, medics, stewards and anyone else watching the game thought we were sitting off them, and had to change, that we were inviting them onto us, wondering why one of the finest players of his generation, a 35 year old guy whose legs aren’t what they used to be, walking about dictating play easily. Was Steve Clarke right, and hundreds of thousands of people wrong? Why didn’t Steve Clarke’s plan work?

If the manager always knows better, why do so many of them fail?

I don’t think I’ve explained that very well.

What I meant was, real football is not a computer game. Whatever game plan and strategy that Steve Clarke comes up with, is better than anything ‘armchair fans’ like you or I could come up with. I might think that if I was manager, I’d play four in defence and one up front, rather than three and two respectively, but obviously Steve Clarke has considered that option, and come to a decision as to what works, based on far more experience and information, about both his own team and the opposition, than what I have available to me. For me to sit here and claim that he is doing something wrong with the tactics and that I know a better way he could be setting the team out, would be pretty arrogant and naive.

There are football supporters who genuinely believe that if they went into the dressing room, erased the 5-3-2 from the tactics board, and drew up their own idea of our best formation, that the players would go out and perform better, and get better results than they do just now. Like I keep saying. It’s not a computer game. It’s not that simple. 

If Steve Clarke is our manager, and he believes that 5-3-2 is the way we should play every match or any particular match, then so be it. That’s his decision to make. We have to trust that he has his reasons for that, and that he knows what he’s doing. Football fans nowadays have a list of cliches that they like to use to batter a manager over the head with, when they haven’t delivered what the fans want, performance-wise, or results-wise. ‘They’re too stubborn.’ ‘They’re too slow to make changes.’ ‘There’s no Plan B.’ Again, I don’t play FIFA or Football Manager, but I’d imagine that in games like that it probably is as easy as changing a formation, or dragging a player further forward, or making a substitution, or clicking ‘attacking mindset,’ but sadly in the real world, I’d imagine that it’s a lot more difficult to alter the course of a game than that.

[gkm_vancouver]

36 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Do folk on this thread not realise who this troll is?

Aye.....this probably sums it up

 

Mickey Mouse

• Member
•  
• 9 posts

 

[Texas Pete]

12 minutes ago, Bobby Russell's Lovechild said:

I would say, the group we're in couldn't be better if we picked the teams ourselves. Yeah, Denmark and Austria are tough, but they're arguable amongst the weakest pot 1 & 2 teams

Although they’re not a Spain or Italy, Denmark are a class above us at the moment I’m afraid but Austria are not. 

Unfortunately we have already failed to beat Austria at home so we’ll probably need to beat them away if we are to stand a chance of second. Whether we can do that with Clarke’s tactics I’m not sure. 

[ger intae them]

2 hours ago, kumnio said:

This is the most nonsense that I’ve ever read on here, and I’m including stuff from numerous trolls.

Steve Clarke is right, that’s cultish stuff.

Was Steve Clarke right in his tactical approach to the Croatia game? I have no way of backing this up, but I will bet every single thing that I own, that 10 minutes into that game, that 99% of fans, journalists, pundits, neutrals, the officiating team, medics, stewards and anyone else watching the game thought we were sitting off them, and had to change, that we were inviting them onto us, wondering why one of the finest players of his generation, a 35 year old guy whose legs aren’t what they used to be, walking about dictating play easily. Was Steve Clarke right, and hundreds of thousands of people wrong? Why didn’t Steve Clarke’s plan work?

If the manager always knows better, why do so many of them fail?

Cum-io….. the new incarnation of chripper. Game plan, as always, to relentlessly spout the same troll pish.

[kumnio]

4 hours ago, gkm_vancouver said:

Muppet is on the wind-up,  must be Mental Health Awareness Week again... 🙄

 

3 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Do folk on this thread not realise who this troll is?

I think it was obvious the first 150000 word post, a slightly better style to start with, but descended quickly, another for the ignore list. 

[thesaint]

4 hours ago, kumnio said:

This is the most nonsense that I’ve ever read on here, and I’m including stuff from numerous trolls.

Steve Clarke is right, that’s cultish stuff.

Was Steve Clarke right in his tactical approach to the Croatia game? I have no way of backing this up, but I will bet every single thing that I own, that 10 minutes into that game, that 99% of fans, journalists, pundits, neutrals, the officiating team, medics, stewards and anyone else watching the game thought we were sitting off them, and had to change, that we were inviting them onto us, wondering why one of the finest players of his generation, a 35 year old guy whose legs aren’t what they used to be, walking about dictating play easily. Was Steve Clarke right, and hundreds of thousands of people wrong? Why didn’t Steve Clarke’s plan work?

If the manager always knows better, why do so many of them fail?

Yup.How steve clarke could watch that performance,and think no changes were required is basically beyond belief.As i said in another thread,what on earth was he thinking?He just let the game run away from us,and didn't change anything until we were chasing two goals.Absolutely bewildering.

[scotlad]

Ah, so we've reached the 'sack the manager' stage.  It's taken a bit longer than usual, which is progress of sorts, I suppose.  And all because he couldn't get us out of a group that included the World Cup finalists and World Cup semi-finalists!  Seriously guys, what were you expecting?? 

Okay, we were at home for two games but one of them was against Croatia, who are a pot one team.  It's very much the exception in recent years that we get a result against the pot one side; the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Belgium have all come to Hampden and given us a lesson.  Aye, we scraped a draw with England a couple of years ago and we managed to beat Croatia in 2013, but they've shown since then that they can deliver when they're under pressure.

And if Clarke goes, who do you think is going to replace him?  Do you think Derek McInnes will do any better? How about John Hughes?  Scot Gemmill maybe?  Because those are the kind of people we'd end up with, not this hypothetical "foreign coach" that some folk witter on about; the unspecified magic man from beyond the sea who'll weave his magic like Gandalf in a tracksuit and turn Lyndon Dykes into a Golden Boot contender.  The SFA won't offer the kind of salary to attract a "top" manager, whoever that might be, so Clarke is the only game in town for the time being.

[Mickey The Brave]

2 minutes ago, scotlad said:

Ah, so we've reached the 'sack the manager' stage.  It's taken a bit longer than usual, which is progress of sorts, I suppose.  And all because he couldn't get us out of a group that included the World Cup finalists and World Cup semi-finalists!  Seriously guys, what were you expecting?? 

Okay, we were at home for two games but one of them was against Croatia, who are a pot one team.  It's very much the exception in recent years that we get a result against the pot one side; the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Belgium have all come to Hampden and given us a lesson.  Aye, we scraped a draw with England a couple of years ago and we managed to beat Croatia in 2013, but they've shown since then that they can deliver when they're under pressure.

And if Clarke goes, who do you think is going to replace him?  Do you think Derek McInnes will do any better? How about John Hughes?  Scot Gemmill maybe?  Because those are the kind of people we'd end up with, not this hypothetical "foreign coach" that some folk witter on about; the unspecified magic man from beyond the sea who'll weave his magic like Gandalf in a tracksuit and turn Lyndon Dykes into a Golden Boot contender.  The SFA won't offer the kind of salary to attract a "top" manager, whoever that might be, so Clarke is the only game in town for the time being.

I agree with this.
 

Too many people think there is a magic ‘saviour’ of a manager out there, who will suddenly get every decision right, and win every single tactical battle, play great attacking football, and get us the best result we could wish for in every single match. That perfect manager doesn’t exist.

[kumnio]

At the risk of stating the obvious, when you get to a tournament, you’re pretty much guaranteed to face top nations. Yes, we faced Croatia and England, so? We could easily have had France, Germany and Portugal.

Let’s look at what we actually did, instead of trying to make excuses for the person in charge. If changes didn’t offer a chance of improvement, then George Burley would still be employed would he not?

This whole, it is what it is, let’s be thankful of that is just pathetic. My partner beats me, but I can’t go, I hate my job, but I can’t go, my car doesn’t work, but I keep it, our manager fails, but it could get worse. Jesus Christ, buy a set of balls. 

[Texas Pete]

7 minutes ago, kumnio said:

At the risk of stating the obvious, when you get to a tournament, you’re pretty much guaranteed to face top nations. Yes, we faced Croatia and England, so? We could easily have had France, Germany and Portugal.

Let’s look at what we actually did, instead of trying to make excuses for the person in charge. If changes didn’t offer a chance of improvement, then George Burley would still be employed would he not?

This whole, it is what it is, let’s be thankful of that is just pathetic. My partner beats me, but I can’t go, I hate my job, but I can’t go, my car doesn’t work, but I keep it, our manager fails, but it could get worse. Jesus Christ, buy a set of balls. 

I’m torn to be honest. I don’t believe in chopping and changing managers but I also believe a better manager would have gotten us out of that group. Can we attract a better manager though? 

[jailender]

No matter who the manager is - "you can only pish with the cock you've got"

[Texas Pete]

20 minutes ago, jailender said:

No matter who the manager is - "you can only pish with the cock you've got"

Very true but the pish goes in the direction that the person holding cock wants it to go. 

[Blantyre_Braveheart]

TBH I feel Clarke has played his part. He's got the boys sticking together, stopped on masse pull outs and has built a solid foundation, but I think he has hit a wall. He has hit that point were the team has improved but he can't quite figure out how to take them to the next level.

As much as I hope I'm wrong. In the remainder of the world cup qualifying, I can see a defeat away to Denmark and a lot of boring draws for us to finish 3rd. 

 

I'd give Clarke the September games. If he only takes 3 points against Moldova, then it's time to move on. Either from Clarke or from quite a few older squad fillers. Go the Wales/N.Ireland and give young players squad positions. Start building a young cohesive unit for EURO 24. Ditch one of the goalies, Taylor, Gallagher, Fleck, etc. When injuries hit call up younger players (Porteous, Ferguson) instead of Considine, McLean, etc.

Some of the young players will go nowhere but quite a few could get a massive boost than helps them. It worked with McGinn, Robertson, Tierney. It failed with a few others, Saunders was one I think.

[Bobby Russell's Lovechild]

12 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

Although they’re not a Spain or Italy, Denmark are a class above us at the moment I’m afraid but Austria are not. 

Unfortunately we have already failed to beat Austria at home so we’ll probably need to beat them away if we are to stand a chance of second. Whether we can do that with Clarke’s tactics I’m not sure. 

Yeah, don't get me wrong, Denmark are a good team, but if you were to pick a group yourself that would probably give you the greatest chance of qualifying, this wouldn't be far off it. I still think we'll fuck it up

[KirkieRobRoy]

I certainly wasn't calling for Clarke's head, not least because nobody better would want the job. He's now committed to Scotland (at least until the small likelihood of a freakishly good run of results wins him a decent Championship gig down south) and, like it or not, we're committed to him.

[Bobby Russell's Lovechild]

2 hours ago, Blantyre_Braveheart said:

I'd give Clarke the September games. If he only takes 3 points against Moldova, then it's time to move on. .

I think he might of been offered a new contract by then

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/31/steve-clarke-to-be-offered-new-deal-to-stay-on-as-scotland-manager