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[gkm_vancouver]

Only two weeks till the next set of matches and I'm sure others are just as underwhelmed about the prospect as myself after the Euros. Anyway with only a few games gone in the league programme snd the first game against a Euro semi-finalist is there luikely to be much of a change in performacne? I don't expect to get much out of the 2 away games based on our own performances this year.

Be interesting to see if Clarke really has learnt anything from the Euros and plays a different team/formation. For me, Patterson and Gilmour have to start and we need a 5 man midfield. Get a decent win against Moldova and see if that makes a difference for the Austria game. Israel are playing Denmark and Austria as well so we still have a chance of 3rd place after these games.

Edited August 18, 2021 by gkm_vancouver

[csinclair]

I honestly can't see Clarke changing much from the Euros and I fully expect him to pick SOD over Patterson. I reckon he'll play Gilmour though at least

[ProudScot]

If it’s Stephen O’Donnell, Dykes upfront on his own & hoofball from a bygone era as Souness rightly called it at the Euros, then these should be his last games in charge. 

[Orraloon]

2 hours ago, ProudScot said:

If it’s Stephen O’Donnell, Dykes upfront on his own & hoofball from a bygone era as Souness rightly called it at the Euros, then these should be his last games in charge. 

I agree.

Unless we somehow manage to win them all with that approach. 

[mccaughey85]

On 8/19/2021 at 10:07 AM, ProudScot said:

If it’s Stephen O’Donnell, Dykes upfront on his own & hoofball from a bygone era as Souness rightly called it at the Euros, then these should be his last games in charge. 

We didn't play hoofball at the Euros. We played some decent football and created lots of chances, we were unable to convert these chances due to not having a good goalscorer and our other players missing chances. 

Clarke isn't getting the sack unless we really fuck up this group and finish 4th or 5th.

[ProudScot]

28 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

We didn't play hoofball at the Euros. We played some decent football and created lots of chances, we were unable to convert these chances due to not having a good goalscorer and our other players missing chances. 

Clarke isn't getting the sack unless we really fuck up this group and finish 4th or 5th.

We did play hoofball at the Euros & repeatedly launched the ball upto a target man striker, you must have a short memory. 

[mccaughey85]

2 hours ago, ProudScot said:

We did play hoofball at the Euros & repeatedly launched the ball upto a target man striker, you must have a short memory. 

We had 58 percent of possession against the Czechs and had 19 attempts on goal. Our pass accuracy was much higher than them as well. These are not the stats of a team who played hoofball. We created plenty of chances but what cost us was our bad defending/goalkeeping and inability to convert chances. 

If you go and rewatch the England game you will find that about 3 out of our 4 good chances came from good passing and interplay. The other chance came from a corner. We also kept the ball for long spells during the England game and looked quite decent in possession. 

The Croatia game we were poor but it still wasn't down to hoofball, we were out worked and outplayed by a very good side who needed a big performance which they produced. We did however create some good chances from excellent movement and passing. 

Its just lazy to say we played hoofball. There's plenty of other reasons to criticise Clarke like his player selections or other tactics especially the second half of the Croatia game where we needed to change things but to say we played hoofball is simply not true. 

 

[ProudScot]

2 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

We had 58 percent of possession against the Czechs and had 19 attempts on goal. Our pass accuracy was much higher than them as well. These are not the stats of a team who played hoofball. We created plenty of chances but what cost us was our bad defending/goalkeeping and inability to convert chances. 

If you go and rewatch the England game you will find that about 3 out of our 4 good chances came from good passing and interplay. The other chance came from a corner. We also kept the ball for long spells during the England game and looked quite decent in possession. 

The Croatia game we were poor but it still wasn't down to hoofball, we were out worked and outplayed by a very good side who needed a big performance which they produced. We did however create some good chances from excellent movement and passing. 

Its just lazy to say we played hoofball. There's plenty of other reasons to criticise Clarke like his player selections or other tactics especially the second half of the Croatia game where we needed to change things but to say we played hoofball is simply not true. 

 

It is true to say we played hoofball we all saw the games & the pundits called it bang on, especially Souness

[mccaughey85]

55 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

It is true to say we played hoofball we all saw the games & the pundits called it bang on, especially Souness

Well I guess its a matter of opinion. I don't think we did but obviously you did. Just out of interest what pundits said we played hoofball. 

[ProudScot]

1 hour ago, mccaughey85 said:

Well I guess its a matter of opinion. I don't think we did but obviously you did. Just out of interest what pundits said we played hoofball. 

I find it hard to believe anyone who watched the Euros and particularly the Croatia game would think we did anything but launch the ball repeatedly upto Lyndon Dykes.

Souness said exactly that, and he was bang on. 

 

[gkm_vancouver]

There was a lot wrong with our Euro performances including poor finishing, poor crossing, too many long balls - not using our midfield enough, team selection/substituions, etc. so disappointing after the long wait. A lot of the chances we created were often as a result of going behind against Czechs/Croatia and  as a result were also often poorly executed. So we definitley need to up our game in these next three matches in particular with Clarke's team selection and formation/tactics.

[ST6's-t-army]

I think you are deluded!.... i remember going to watch Scotland under Craig Levine  and you see the boys now! they are a much improved side! we Smashed England in the Euros! all the other games we played really good we just lack a wee bit o potency upfront! This team that Clarke has built are great! we were un beaten in like 10 games or something until recently.  Scotland are going in the right direction under Sir Steve Clarke.... Dont be an arsenal fan and think the grass is Gr**ner on the other side! we are Scotland we aint a team of world beaters but they way he is taking us forward we could get there! where where we before Sir Steve???? Where would we be if he left! 

[ger intae them]

To say we played ‘hoof ball’ is wrong. We tried to work the ball properly, but as others have said, the Croats stepped up and showed their class and we chased shadows.

I like souness as he through it back in the faces of the English  when they highlighted their failings rather than the very professional Scottish play….. but he is borderline senile in some of his chat about Liverpool trading ground etc….. you can’t use him to prove we played ‘hoofball’ 😂

[Diamond Scot]

Everybody has their own views but I really struggle to see people have such negative views about the style under Clarke.

I think we have a good mix of trying to press when we lose the ball, passing it around / through the lines but also going long when theres an opportunity.

Obviously there are times when the players make the wrong choices, going long when its not on etc but thata on the players more than the manager imo.

[csinclair]

I think my criticism of Clarke is he never really has a plan B. I feel confident going into matches but as soon as we go behind or we're drawing and not looking like scoring, I don't feel like he'll do something to change the game

[ceudmilefailte]

51 minutes ago, csinclair said:

I think my criticism of Clarke is he never really has a plan B. I feel confident going into matches but as soon as we go behind or we're drawing and not looking like scoring, I don't feel like he'll do something to change the game

He did in Israel and it worked 

[csinclair]

3 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

He did in Israel and it worked 

To a point, but we need to be winning games like that if we want to qualify.

[ceudmilefailte]

1 hour ago, csinclair said:

To a point, but we need to be winning games like that if we want to qualify.

Problem is he probably thought we would have won if we had stuck with plan A. 

If he plays a back 4 against Israel next time I might trust him a bit more. 

[gkm_vancouver]

14 hours ago, ST6's-t-army said:

I think you are deluded!.... i remember going to watch Scotland under Craig Levine  and you see the boys now! they are a much improved side! we Smashed England in the Euros! all the other games we played really good we just lack a wee bit o potency upfront! This team that Clarke has built are great! we were un beaten in like 10 games or something until recently.  Scotland are going in the right direction under Sir Steve Clarke.... Dont be an arsenal fan and think the grass is Gr**ner on the other side! we are Scotland we aint a team of world beaters but they way he is taking us forward we could get there! where where we before Sir Steve???? Where would we be if he left! 

Jeez what are you on? Love that 'we smashed England in the Euros' err smashed them 0-0?  We were virtually falling on top of the ball in the last few minutes to prevent a goal. Busted a gut to get that draw but looked a poor second against Croats and the Czechs. Clarke has not really built on the qualification which he said he knew was needed and the 3 WC qualies proved it with the draws. The next 3 games will decide if he has got any other ideas or whether we are destined for more years of not qualifying. 

[ST6's-t-army]

4 hours ago, gkm_vancouver said:

Jeez what are you on? Love that 'we smashed England in the Euros' err smashed them 0-0?  We were virtually falling on top of the ball in the last few minutes to prevent a goal. Busted a gut to get that draw but looked a poor second against Croats and the Czechs. Clarke has not really built on the qualification which he said he knew was needed and the 3 WC qualies proved it with the draws. The next 3 games will decide if he has got any other ideas or whether we are destined for more years of not qualifying. 

Your clearly an English fan! or maybe a Canadian/English!   Look where we were 10 years ago and look where we are now! grass isn't always gr**ner on the other side my friend! Clarke has took us on leeps and bounds! I remember a freezing cold autums night watching us struggling against the likes of Iceland and Lichenstien now we can hold our own against England??? a top 6 team in the world! remember before Steve came in? remember where we were? we were dug shite..... Anyway go spread yer English loving vile else where. Vancover boy

[ceudmilefailte]

3 minutes ago, ST6's-t-army said:

Your clearly an English fan! or maybe a Canadian/English!   Look where we were 10 years ago and look where we are now! grass isn't always gr**ner on the other side my friend! Clarke has took us on leeps and bounds! I remember a freezing cold autums night watching us struggling against the likes of Iceland and Lichenstien now we can hold our own against England??? a top 6 team in the world! remember before Steve came in? remember where we were? we were dug shite..... Anyway go spread yer English loving vile else where. Vancover boy

I wish people would get this..............10 years ago we had no decent players.

Tell Clarke he can only pick SPL and Championship players and see how he does.

I'm not saying sack him, but he really has done nothing more than what you would expect from the pool of players he has.

In fact has he even done that.

[ST6's-t-army]

6 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

I wish people would get this..............10 years ago we had no decent players.

Tell Clarke he can only pick SPL and Championship players and see how he does.

I'm not saying sack him, but he really has done nothing more than what you would expect from the pool of players he has.

In fact has he even done that.

You are slightly correct, Most of this current crop of players were available to the last manager and we were still in the same boat. 

[ST6's-t-army]

Ok so how do you see the next 3 games going?

 

My prediction is a Draw or a tight win for Denmark, The next two are win and win.... whats yer thoughts?

[DAVIDB46]

The World Cup campaign will likely be over after these set of games to be honest .

next stop another nations league next June I think .

our poor levels of fitness mean we will always struggle with three games in a short time span

Edited August 21, 2021 by DAVIDB46

[ST6's-t-army]

9 minutes ago, DAVIDB46 said:

The World Cup campaign will likely be over after these set of games to be honest .

next stop another nations league next June I think .

our poor levels of fitness mean we will always struggle with three games in a short time span

the other teams are in the same boat though David.... I think the quality of players and leagues they play in is superior to that of our opponents.... whats yer predictions then? you think moldova and austria will beat us?