Scotland v Moldova

[Caledonian Craig]

5 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Most chances in football come from mistakes from the opposing team.  We were far from passive tonight, infact we were up for it and chased and harried them constantly. Our main problem is converting the many chances we made into goals. 

"out with set pieces we didn’t really open them up otherwise." 

What game were you watching, there were plenty of chances we created in open play. Watch the extended highlights again. 

The Israel result is massive as before tonight we were assuming austria would beat them or at least draw. Israel beating austria has opened things up brilliantly, its basically gifted us a better chance of getting 2nd. 

If you said at the start of group that we could get the play off spot with only having to beat israel at home and not having to even get a win against Austria I would of bitten the hand off. Most teams won't get 2nd place with only having to beat their main rivals once. 

We could potentially qualify with a game to spare if we can avoid defeat in Vienna and beat Israel at home which we had to anyway to stand a chance of getting 2nd.

 

I agree with you on how the group stands certainly. However, last night showed up the flaws that will eventually cost us qualification. We lack the quality, composure and nous in the final third of the pitch. We are just not a free-flowing goalscoring machine which you need to be at this level. Also we have lurking defensive flaws that have haunted us for a long time too in where wefail to close down attacking sides even as they bear down on our penalty area. Against top quality and even half-decent sides that costs us many goals and when we have such a paltry goalscoring record ourselves we will ultimately lose more than we win.

[mccaughey85]

7 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I agree with you on how the group stands certainly. However, last night showed up the flaws that will eventually cost us qualification. We lack the quality, composure and nous in the final third of the pitch. We are just not a free-flowing goalscoring machine which you need to be at this level. Also we have lurking defensive flaws that have haunted us for a long time too in where wefail to close down attacking sides even as they bear down on our penalty area. Against top quality and even half-decent sides that costs us many goals and when we have such a paltry goalscoring record ourselves we will ultimately lose more than we win.

Yeh tbf I agree with those points, as I said we need a goalscorer or 2, doesn't have to an amazing goalscorer who plays for barca or Man City but a guy who is half decent at a good level. A mitrovic or pukki level guy would help us be more convincing against teams like Moldova and even slightly better teams. 

Either way I don't understand the huge negativity from alot of fans. We are very much still in with a shout of 2nd place. 

[Caledonian Craig]

5 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Yeh tbf I agree with those points, as I said we need a goalscorer or 2, doesn't have to an amazing goalscorer who plays for barca or Man City but a guy who is half decent at a good level. A mitrovic or pukki level guy would help us be more convincing against teams like Moldova and even slightly better teams. 

Either way I don't understand the huge negativity from alot of fans. We are very much still in with a shout of 2nd place. 

Agreed.

I think fans are realising we will fall short again though. We do not have a quality striker anywhere on the horizon sadly and too many of our players (even ones the fans fawn over) lack the skill of putting away golden chances. That will cost us eventually.

Our best hope is to try to somehow luck out in the remaining games. Keep it tight and scramble a goal from somewhere and get the points needed to get us second but then comes play-offs against potentially teams like spain. No lucking out against teams of that ilk.

[Return of Yermaw]

8 hours ago, romanticscot said:

So much negativity on the board today, I am choosing to be positive. We played decent and did what we needed to. We missed a few chances on another day we might have taken, plus we didn't give them much chances, had plenty of the ball. Keep the wins coming and the confidence grows. 

Gilmour on what his 3rd cap doesn't play like a young lad with so little experience and Patterson is a great asset. 

what day?

[xsombeontour]

Does anyone know what the phone lights all going on around 80mins was about? Who orchestrated that?

[noctonjock]

Certainly cant blame Clarke for last night . Tierney had a free header and should have scored as should Robbo with his chance . Our supposed 2 best players.  

  Cant even say the chances are falling to the wrong people as everyone is missing them . Gilmour missed a glorious chance as did Christie and Hanley heads fir goal like hes trying to clear the ball . 

We are creating loads of chances and just need to start converting them 

 

[Haggis_trap]

We played well last night.  Decent performance and could / should have won 3-0.

Thoughts..

- Need to take our chances. Won't get so many opportunities against better sides

- Patterson looks a bit raw defensively. Great going forward though.

- McGinn is a huge player for us. Looked a little lost going forward once he left park.

- The 3-5-2 can work when we play out from back and push up park.  Tierney had more shots on target than any other player.  

- Gilmour is a Rolls Royce. Incredible range of passing and set plays. Brings other players into game and gets best out of them simply by being available for easy ball. Potentially the Scottish Iniesta!

- Austria losing to Israel is a great results and blows group wide open

 

 

[Tartan blood]

16 minutes ago, noctonjock said:

Certainly cant blame Clarke for last night . Tierney had a free header and should have scored as should Robbo with his chance . Our supposed 2 best players.  

  Cant even say the chances are falling to the wrong people as everyone is missing them . Gilmour missed a glorious chance as did Christie and Hanley heads fir goal like hes trying to clear the ball . 

We are creating loads of chances and just need to start converting them 

 

The problem is that our best chances are falling to people who their main objective isn't to score goals. Sure, we expect them to chip in once in a while, but it's the strikers that aren't showing up to games.

There was a lot wrong with last night and Denmark, but the biggest problem overall problem is not having an instinctual talisman you can rely on to convert chances. I'll bet there aren't any teams in the top 50 that have had such a dearth of goalscorers in their history as us.

[Toepoke]

22 minutes ago, xsombeontour said:

Does anyone know what the phone lights all going on around 80mins was about? Who orchestrated that?

Noticed that (and ended up participating), it was after 78 minutes. Surely not a tribute to Argentina 1978? 

 

Not a stat I'm a huge fan of but does anyone know what our xG was last night? Must've been 3 or 4.

[ParisInAKilt]

1 hour ago, mccaughey85 said:

Most chances in football come from mistakes from the opposing team.  We were far from passive tonight, infact we were up for it and chased and harried them constantly. Our main problem is converting the many chances we made into goals. 

"out with set pieces we didn’t really open them up otherwise." 

What game were you watching, there were plenty of chances we created in open play. Watch the extended highlights again. 

The Israel result is massive as before tonight we were assuming austria would beat them or at least draw. Israel beating austria has opened things up brilliantly, its basically gifted us a better chance of getting 2nd. 

If you said at the start of group that we could get the play off spot with only having to beat israel at home and not having to even get a win against Austria I would of bitten the hand off. Most teams won't get 2nd place with only having to beat their main rivals once. 

We could potentially qualify with a game to spare if we can avoid defeat in Vienna and beat Israel at home which we had to anyway to stand a chance of getting 2nd.

 

I wished I shared your optimism because realistically we could be back to 4th after 6 games. A lot of football to play still with twists and turns but I wouldn’t bet on us finishing 2nd on what I’ve seen so far. 

Ive watched the game and the highlights and I’m still not overly impressed, we should have scored more and they didn’t trouble us but need to remember who we’re playing. 

[Michael]

34 minutes ago, Haggis_trap said:

We played well last night.  Decent performance and could / should have won 3-0.

Thoughts..

- Need to take our chances. Won't get so many opportunities against better sides

- Patterson looks a bit raw defensively. Great going forward though.

- McGinn is a huge player for us. Looked a little lost going forward once he left park.

- The 3-5-2 can work when we play out from back and push up park.  Tierney had more shots on target than any other player.  

- Gilmour is a Rolls Royce. Incredible range of passing and set plays. Brings other players into game and gets best out of them simply by being available for easy ball. Potentially the Scottish Iniesta!

- Austria losing to Israel is a great results and blows group wide open

 

 

Agree with this. I think O'Donnell is better defensively and will start against Austria. 

My worry for Austria game is that we will sit back too much. Austria will be fired up as they need to win. Hopefully we don't have a slow start again.  On the other hand if we score first there will be huge pressure on Austria. Lose against us and they are effectively out of reckoning for 2nd spot.

[Caledonian Craig]

32 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

The problem is that our best chances are falling to people who their main objective isn't to score goals. Sure, we expect them to chip in once in a while, but it's the strikers that aren't showing up to games.

There was a lot wrong with last night and Denmark, but the biggest problem overall problem is not having an instinctual talisman you can rely on to convert chances. I'll bet there aren't any teams in the top 50 that have had such a dearth of goalscorers in their history as us.

Chances fell too to players who fans use as a reason to overly promote us as a team - Robertson, Tierney and Gimour. These are all players our fans would claim to be our best players and some even promote them as world class yet cannot get a ball on target from no more than ten yards out. That is NOT world class.

As for our strikers they are the best we have available but they are simply below the standard needed at this level. They do not have the top quality of positioning in the box and clinical finishing.

[Caledonian Craig]

2 minutes ago, Michael said:

 

My worry for Austria game is that we will sit back too much. Austria will be fired up as they need to win. Hopefully we don't have a slow start again.  On the other hand if we score first there will be huge pressure on Austria. Lose against us and they are effectively out of reckoning for 2nd spot.

I don't think we match up well against them at present. They have a suspect defence for sure but our attack is pretty toothless so can we take advantage at least once or twice? Austria are better in attack than us and if our usual flaw of failing to close down players around our own box resurfaces then we will be punished.

[KirkieRobRoy]

All this 'we created loads of chances and another day they'd have gone in' delusional stuff came out after the Czech match. We've played four games since. And scored twice. Are the unthinking optimists really expecting a goal rush soon after only going 1-0 against one of the weakest teams in the tournament?

[ceudmilefailte]

14 minutes ago, KirkieRobRoy said:

All this 'we created loads of chances and another day they'd have gone in' delusional stuff came out after the Czech match. We've played four games since. And scored twice. Are the unthinking optimists really expecting a goal rush soon after only going 1-0 against one of the weakest teams in the tournament?

Every one is taking two more wins against the minnows for granted. At the current rate of scoring it really is far from given. 

[Guest Scot1]

28 minutes ago, Michael said:

Agree with this. I think O'Donnell is better defensively and will start against Austria. 

My worry for Austria game is that we will sit back too much. Austria will be fired up as they need to win. Hopefully we don't have a slow start again.  On the other hand if we score first there will be huge pressure on Austria. Lose against us and they are effectively out of reckoning for 2nd spot.

I’d start Patterson instead of O’Donnell. We look so much better balanced with an attacking threat down both wings. Playing O’Donnell basically invites the opposition on top of us.

[Orraloon]

1 minute ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Every one is taking two more wins against the minnows for granted. At the current rate of scoring it really is far from given. 

Exactly, we still have to go away to Faroes and away to Moldova. Do folk think those 6 points are already in the bag? Not on last night performance they aren't.

[Guest Scot1]

3 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Exactly, we still have to go away to Faroes and away to Moldova. Do folk think those 6 points are already in the bag? Not on last night performance they aren't.

Let’s see what happens in Vienna first, if we don’t get some kind of result against the Austrians then 2nd place looks unlikely. Let’s see if the players can raise their game.

[Tartan blood]

34 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Chances fell too to players who fans use as a reason to overly promote us as a team - Robertson, Tierney and Gimour. These are all players our fans would claim to be our best players and some even promote them as world class yet cannot get a ball on target from no more than ten yards out. That is NOT world class.

As for our strikers they are the best we have available but they are simply below the standard needed at this level. They do not have the top quality of positioning in the box and clinical finishing.

If you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree...

Robertson and Tierney are world class, and Gilmour is showing signs he is as well. But they aren't world class goalscorers. That's unfair to knock them down based on not scoring.

Whereas, it is Dykes, Nisbet and Adams job to score. They are the ones that we need to be really concerned about. We know none of them are world class, but at the moment they are barely competent in their preferred positions.

[Caledonian Craig]

1 minute ago, Tartan blood said:

If you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree...

Robertson and Tierney are world class, and Gilmour is showing signs he is as well. But they aren't world class goalscorers. That's unfair to knock them down based on not scoring.

Whereas, it is Dykes, Nisbet and Adams job to score. They are the ones that we need to be really concerned about. We know none of them are world class, but at the moment they are barely competent in their preferred positions.

Our strikers, as everyone will readily agree, are not up to the task of carrying us through qualifying with a number of goals scored. That being the case we are heavily relying on goals from others such as those mentioned who fluffed chances and they weren't exactly tough ones. Robertson, Gilmour, Christie and Tierney all from no more than ten yards out and only one forced the goalkeeper into a save. Sorry that is just not good enough.

[exile]

As I see it we made some good moves and created some good chances, obviously didn't take them, but you just have to hope it will all click sooner rather than later (otherwise may as well just turn off and abandon this campaign until getting the manager and new generation of players of choice.) 

In a sense I am more concerned about the defensive frailty. If we could be reasonably confident we could be hard to beat at the back, and wouldn't gift unnecessary goals, we could be more confident of getting say a nil nil draw or nicking a winner against the odds with the attack we have. 

[mccaughey85]

I thought Patterson was excellent, couple of loose passes but he looks an excellent threat going forward and is clearly a great athlete. Hes gotta be our main right back for the future. 

[Third Lanark]

11 hours ago, Malcolm said:

I’m thinking manager rather than centre mid

I know. May I remind you that a famous Scottish manager had a fatal heart attack actually while watching Scotland?

[Guest Scot1]

1 minute ago, exile said:

As I see it we made some good moves and created some good chances, obviously didn't take them, but you just have to hope it will all click sooner rather than later (otherwise may as well just turn off and abandon this campaign until getting the manager and new generation of players of choice.) 

In a sense I am more concerned about the defensive frailty. If we could be reasonably confident we could be hard to beat at the back, and wouldn't gift unnecessary goals, we could be more confident of getting say a nil nil draw or nicking a winner against the odds with the attack we have. 

We’ve conceded 5 goals in 5 games in this group, the best defensive record apart from Denmark. Last nights backline would be my 1st choice lineup. I think it’s in midfield that we are lacking defensively, perhaps when McTominay is fit and playing again that will help alleviate the problem. 

[Guest Scot1]

3 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

I thought Patterson was excellent, couple of loose passes but he looks an excellent threat going forward and is clearly a great athlete. Hes gotta be our main right back for the future. 

My thoughts too, and with Ralston playing well for Celtic, I think O’Donnell will struggle to get into the squad soon.