Clarke committed to Scotland

[Jim Beem]

31 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

To be fair to Chripper(s) he is scarily comical when he’s in phase one of a new persona(s)

Not sure its comical. He's clearly very ill. 

[thplinth]

17 hours ago, Jim Beem said:

😂😂😂 This is incredible stuff. 

It really is. The endless production of new ID's is one thing. They are up and running within minutes of the old one getting banned. It is these 'support' characters that are the saddest thing I think I have ever seen on here.

The way he crawls up his own arse as well. 'Oh you're wonderful.' 'Nooo you're wonderful.' Hooooly fuck. 

What in the name of fuck drives someone to invest so much time in being such a twat. It sort of defeats the purpose of being a twat almost. Same goes for trolling billy. If you have to spend all day doing it you are just a sad cunt, not even a troll. 

I wondered if the Euro's might save the board... nope. 

[gkm_vancouver]

He's had a shot across the bows

 

[Jim Beem]

9 hours ago, thplinth said:

It really is. The endless production of new ID's is one thing. They are up and running within minutes of the old one getting banned. It is these 'support' characters that are the saddest thing I think I have ever seen on here.

The way he crawls up his own arse as well. 'Oh you're wonderful.' 'Nooo you're wonderful.' Hooooly fuck. 

What in the name of fuck drives someone to invest so much time in being such a twat. It sort of defeats the purpose of being a twat almost. Same goes for trolling billy. If you have to spend all day doing it you are just a sad cunt, not even a troll. 

I wondered if the Euro's might save the board... nope. 

He also invented an "English Guy' to support his ramblings. 😂😂 Full blown discussions with himself. 🤦🏻

[Rolling hIlls]

So are we in favour or not of Clarke? I am. But everyone to their own opinions. But if you say no then to a problem u need to have a solution.  So far I haven't seen any. Keep him and trust him imo. We have some really good players but lack a little quality in some departments. Give him time to.work on that.

[Third Lanark]

6 minutes ago, Rolling hIlls said:

So are we in favour or not of Clarke? I am. But everyone to their own opinions. But if you say no then to a problem u need to have a solution.  So far I haven't seen any. Keep him and trust him imo. We have some really good players but lack a little quality in some departments. Give him time to.work on that.

Put it this way; once you change coach there is a risk of going back to square one. Over the years we have suffered from lack of consistency in Scotland selections; players get called up after showing up well in a couple of games because we have been obsessed with picking players 'in form.' The result is that we get inconsistent results and miss the chance to build a club team spirit. Clarke has managed to create that club feel and camaraderie, even though results have not yet reflected it. Sack him and we return to the situation where countless players get one or two caps. He's currently got - bar maybe or two - the best players available and he needs to focus on tactics and keeping the squad together. We desperately need to get a core group of players with 40-50 caps - the way other countries do. I've waited all my life for Scotland to do that, and that right there is the main reason for our inconsistency and under-achievement.

[Rolling hIlls]

24 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

Put it this way; once you change coach there is a risk of going back to square one. Over the years we have suffered from lack of consistency in Scotland selections; players get called up after showing up well in a couple of games because we have been obsessed with picking players 'in form.' The result is that we get inconsistent results and miss the chance to build a club team spirit. Clarke has managed to create that club feel and camaraderie, even though results have not yet reflected it. Sack him and we return to the situation where countless players get one or two caps. He's currently got - bar maybe or two - the best players available and he needs to focus on tactics and keeping the squad together. We desperately need to get a core group of players with 40-50 caps - the way other countries do. I've waited all my life for Scotland to do that, and that right there is the main reason for our inconsistency and under-achievement.

Agree with that totally. It is right for us to question his decisions as supporters from all over the world do. But he is paid to pick the team and formation. We need to keep a hold of   clarke in my opinion. His experience is too good to let go. Didn't do well at euros but tomorrow is another day.

[darkbluegas]

It’s a tough job managing the national team when you’re fighting the psyche created by the ‘red top’ press across all mediums.
 

For instance this last tournament has to be viewed as part of a process, building towards the next qualification program. If that falls short with decent performances and the right attitude we move on to winning our Nations League Group. 
 

All this in conjunction with building a successful Youth team that feeds into the first team.

The world didn’t end when we failed to beat a decent Croatian side

[er yir macaroon]

27 minutes ago, Rolling hIlls said:

Agree with that totally. It is right for us to question his decisions as supporters from all over the world do. But he is paid to pick the team and formation. We need to keep a hold of   clarke in my opinion. His experience is too good to let go. Didn't do well at euros but tomorrow is another day.

I think he should stay but it would be good if he acknowledged he made selection and tactical mistakes at the Euros and previous WC qualifiers. More importantly, he needs to learn from these. A stubborn show of defiance is not what’s needed here. 

Most teams at the Euros - bigger and more successful nations than us - played teenagers and early 20 somethings without any fuss. They also played with a sense of purpose and self belief. We did that in one game where defeat was unthinkable. Not good enough. 

[Tartan blood]

3 minutes ago, darkbluegas said:

It’s a tough job managing the national team when you’re fighting the psyche created by the ‘red top’ press across all mediums.
 

For instance this last tournament has to be viewed as part of a process, building towards the next qualification program. If that falls short with decent performances and the right attitude we move on to winning our Nations League Group. 
 

All this in conjunction with building a successful Youth team that feeds into the first team.

The world didn’t end when we failed to beat a decent Croatian side

If Clarke learns from his mistakes, then I'm all for keeping him for the foreseeable future. The Euros could have been better, but they could have been far worse as well.

He has shown that he is willing to change things up and pick new players when appropriate. (Most recently Gilmour) There is no reason to think he'll suddenly become stubborn. In fact, I'm sure he admitted he needs to learn from some of his mistakes.

His biggest mistake, in my opinion, was to use 2 strikers instead of 1 and 1 of our many attacking midfielders. 

[bigfingers]

3 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

If Clarke learns from his mistakes, then I'm all for keeping him for the foreseeable future. The Euros could have been better, but they could have been far worse as well.

He has shown that he is willing to change things up and pick new players when appropriate. (Most recently Gilmour) There is no reason to think he'll suddenly become stubborn. In fact, I'm sure he admitted he needs to learn from some of his mistakes.

His biggest mistake, in my opinion, was to use 2 strikers instead of 1 and 1 of our many attacking midfielders. 

Absolutely. I don’t think dykes and Adams will work against any side. It’s like playing with 10 men. 
 

We looked best in an attacking sense when we had Fraser playing off Dykes (our last meaningful win) and he could also have played Fraser playing off Adams. 

[Tartan blood]

1 minute ago, bigfingers said:

Absolutely. I don’t think dykes and Adams will work against any side. It’s like playing with 10 men. 
 

We looked best in an attacking sense when we had Fraser playing off Dykes (our last meaningful win) and he could also have played Fraser playing off Adams. 

Exactly! Dykes and Adams linked up well together, and do contribute to the team. But if neither are scoring, then it is like being a man down. I don't care how well they can pass the ball to each other if it doesn't result in a goal.

I'm actually amazed and how easily Fraser was discarded, not just by Clarke, but also by the fans. I at least didn't notice many clamouring for him to be in the team. He scores, creates, and generally is one of the best players on the park when he gets 90mins. I would honestly put an on form Fraser as one of our top 5 players.

[thesaint]

53 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

If Clarke learns from his mistakes, then I'm all for keeping him for the foreseeable future. The Euros could have been better, but they could have been far worse as well.

He has shown that he is willing to change things up and pick new players when appropriate. (Most recently Gilmour) There is no reason to think he'll suddenly become stubborn. In fact, I'm sure he admitted he needs to learn from some of his mistakes.

His biggest mistake, in my opinion, was to use 2 strikers instead of 1 and 1 of our many attacking midfielders. 

As another poster said.He has got to learn from his tactical mistakes,and not continue to try and prove all his decisions were correct,and he will be proved right in ther end.That's a dark road to go down.Here's hoping.Don't know if the euros could have been very much worse than it was,one goal and one point from three games,including two at home .It was underwhelming to say the least.

[Tartan blood]

1 hour ago, thesaint said:

As another poster said.He has got to learn from his tactical mistakes,and not continue to try and prove all his decisions were correct,and he will be proved right in ther end.That's a dark road to go down.Here's hoping.Don't know if the euros could have been very much worse than it was,one goal and one point from three games,including two at home .It was underwhelming to say the least.

If we'd not created many chances and ended up with the same points/results, it would have been worse. We could have been backs against the wall in all 3 games as well. That would have been worse. I think, on the whole, we played well in large portions of each game and showed we were there to compete.

Our finishing was by far the biggest problem. Clarke can't score the goals for them, but I probably would have had at least 1 more attacking midfielder playing against Croatia. 

One of Strachan's flaws was his stubbornness. I don't think Clarke is that type of manager. I understand why he played Dykes and Adams together, but I hope he realises it just wasn't working well enough.

[Blantyre_Braveheart]

Like others I really hope Clarke learns from his tactical and selection errors. We need to find a way to be more adventurous and not so overly reliant on a long ball to Dykes. Being direct to your striker at times can be fine but it shouldn't be one of the main lines of attack. It was pretty obvious to everyone that Dykes had ran himself into the ground by about 60 minutes into the England game. You could see 10/15 minutes into that Croatia game that Dykes was physically done. But because his aerial presence was needed for Clarke's tactics we kept on a guy who was obviously done.

 

Against Croatia we played basically like a bottom end SPL side against the Old firm sitting deep and punting the ball to our big striker, in the hope we hang on to give it a go with 5 minutes left. Compare that to Finland and Hungary on their last games against big sides. The difference was night and day.

 

If we continue with route one football while getting poor results 2 wins in 10 (1 against the Faroe Islands and then a 1 nil against 10 man Luxembourg), I can see Clarke starting to come under pressure.

Clarke has been given a lot of leeway for getting us to the EURO's, but I think that is at an end now. 

 

A positive result against Austria and a decent win against Moldova will see us with a decent chance of getting second and a playoff place.

[scotlad]

6 hours ago, Tartan blood said:

Exactly! Dykes and Adams linked up well together, and do contribute to the team. But if neither are scoring, then it is like being a man down. I don't care how well they can pass the ball to each other if it doesn't result in a goal.

I'm actually amazed and how easily Fraser was discarded, not just by Clarke, but also by the fans. I at least didn't notice many clamouring for him to be in the team. He scores, creates, and generally is one of the best players on the park when he gets 90mins. I would honestly put an on form Fraser as one of our top 5 players.

To be fair, I'm not sure it was a case of Fraser being discarded as much as him not being fully fit, and Clarke using him sparingly. I think he last played for Newcastle in March due to injuries.

I agree though that on his day he can be a very effective player.

Edited July 6, 2021 by scotlad

[Malcolm]

There was lots of speculation about Clarke the last time a big managerial vacancy appeared in Glasgow.  Six months later, could he be persuaded to take the Rangers job, after the double header?

[ProudScot]

38 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

There was lots of speculation about Clarke the last time a big managerial vacancy appeared in Glasgow.  Six months later, could he be persuaded to take the Rangers job, after the double header?

Rangers fans hate him so it’s doubtful

[King Of Paisley]

14 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

Rangers fans hate him so it’s doubtful

Yep. Quite a few of the Rangers lads in my local absolutely despise him.

In a weird kind of way, I’d like Clarke to be linked with that gig, if only for the sheer comedy value at watching their reaction 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Malcolm]

27 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

Rangers fans hate him so it’s doubtful

Aye, they weren’t too fond of the idea of Maurice Johnston either but it still happened 😊. I get your point but stranger things have happened 

[vanderark14]

I doubt Clarke would want it

[ProudScot]

30 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

I doubt Clarke would want it

It’s probably too big a job for him at club level anyway tbh. 

Hibs/Hearts/Aberdeen/Dundee Utd more his ceiling at club level. 

[vanderark14]

15 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

It’s probably too big a job for him at club level anyway tbh. 

Hibs/Hearts/Aberdeen/Dundee Utd more his ceiling at club level. 

You really do talk a load of shite 🤣

[ProudScot]

11 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

You really do talk a load of shite 🤣

His club management history is only with small clubs. Unlikely he’d be in the frame for an old firm job. 

[breeks_mctavish]

1 hour ago, ProudScot said:

Rangers fans hate him so it’s doubtful

Rangers fans hate him because he called them out on their bigotry