Delusional Pish

[ceudmilefailte]

2 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Yes but given he is a midfielder and professional footballer surely to hell its not asking too much for him to test the keeper from eight yards out instead of firing wide?

Of course and I'm sure the composure required will come in time. Strikers should allready have it though. 

[gkm_vancouver]

On 9/4/2021 at 2:16 PM, Caledonian Craig said:

I get that people are pissed off with how things are going and that they do not rate or blame the manager. Fair enough.

A time will come when Clarke will more than likely quit or get the sack and in will come the next lamb to the slaughter. We have been here before with Vogts, McLeish (2nd spell), Levein, Burley and Strachan all being slated as not being up to the job. Do people not stop to think that the trouble runs deeper than that as in we are just not good enough players-wise. Over all those eras we have had scatterings of players who could hold their own at international level playing for big clubs but we've been a total irrelevance in that time. I refuse to believe that all of those managers listed were all to blame. For me the problem is clear - we simply aren't good enough as a unit to cut the mustard at international level.

In past years we were weak in areas we are stronger now and weaker now in areas before that we were stronger. We've never really been the complete package in all of the time. Sack Clarke and the new manager has the same set of players to pick from and no doubt we'll be back where we are now in a year or two from now blaming the manager and shielding the players.

Of course they do Craig. But if you think we're not good enough then that kind of takes away a bit of the enjoyment of supporting them does it not? I agree we are not good enough to make tourneys like we used to do in the 70s, 80s 90s but think we should have been good enough to make a bit more than one every 23 years. Remember that this group was potentially the best we could have expected and could have had a lot harder teams. We've seen it all before where we don't make the best of our early games and home games and end up having to rely on other results - which never works out for us.

Clarke's first year was great in stabilising the team, Tierney/Robbo, stopping the gubbings, a long unbeaten run and qualification. My issue is we haven't really built on that with performances consistently especially with an improved squad with the new youngsters and a better (if not perfect) forward line from his earlier squads. Some of his team selections, tactics and substitutions (or lack of them) have been puzzling. However if he can pull a win over Austria out the bag and maybe the team gels then it may still come good. Just difficult to see evidence of that happening, especially  if you can't win the home game.

[kumnio]

On 9/5/2021 at 12:25 AM, Hercules Rockefeller said:

I'd imagine he's been hovering over his keyboard all evening waiting to pounce on this thread. In all likelihood never actually attended a game due to severe obesity issues.

😂😂 what a stupid fucking clown

[Caledonian Craig]

9 hours ago, gkm_vancouver said:

Of course they do Craig. But if you think we're not good enough then that kind of takes away a bit of the enjoyment of supporting them does it not? I agree we are not good enough to make tourneys like we used to do in the 70s, 80s 90s but think we should have been good enough to make a bit more than one every 23 years. Remember that this group was potentially the best we could have expected and could have had a lot harder teams. We've seen it all before where we don't make the best of our early games and home games and end up having to rely on other results - which never works out for us.

Clarke's first year was great in stabilising the team, Tierney/Robbo, stopping the gubbings, a long unbeaten run and qualification. My issue is we haven't really built on that with performances consistently especially with an improved squad with the new youngsters and a better (if not perfect) forward line from his earlier squads. Some of his team selections, tactics and substitutions (or lack of them) have been puzzling. However if he can pull a win over Austria out the bag and maybe the team gels then it may still come good. Just difficult to see evidence of that happening, especially  if you can't win the home game.

My point was that we reached our ceiling in qualifying (via the back door) for Euro 2020. We did not qualify for that tournament through the traditional route which says it all. Our team has too many shortcomings. One being the clear fact we just do not have an international quality striker and as a result struggle chronically to score goals. Another shortcoming being out inability to close down attacking players until it is far too late which has cost us countless goals. Those shortcomings, by the way, have been in place since way before Clarke came into power.

[BraveheartGordon]

On 9/5/2021 at 9:46 AM, Caledonian Craig said:

Those 'quality' players have never been proven quality in front of goal. Robertson, Tierney and Gilmour have impressed in teams stacked with true quality team mates and their strengths are link-up and set-up play and not about finishing. Look at their goals ratio for their clubs and it shows that.

And we have had coaches in the past who were strikers but it never rubbed off on the players. You either have the nose for goals or you don't in my opinion. The last striker we had with a decent nose for goal was Kenny Miller and he is a level above what we have at present.

Honestly I think we have plenty of quality in the team to score goals.

I think since the euros we’ve not really “clicked” as an attacking unit and it’s been more about our decision making and confidence than our ability.

If you watch the 3-4 matches before lock down I would argue it’s the most we’ve clicked as an attacking side the goals were flowing against Kazakhstan, Cyprus and San Marino.

I would argue that our shape is better now. We’re defensively more solid, better in position and have more pace in the team but just aren’t clicking in front of goal.

I genuinely believe at some point we’ll click in front of goal, our confidence will change , we’ll start banging them in and it’ll be the final piece in the puzzle.

Hopefully it’s tonight but I genuinely believe we’re not far away from being a really good side.

[BraveheartGordon]

2 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

My point was that we reached our ceiling in qualifying (via the back door) for Euro 2020. We did not qualify for that tournament through the traditional route which says it all. Our team has too many shortcomings. One being the clear fact we just do not have an international quality striker and as a result struggle chronically to score goals. Another shortcoming being out inability to close down attacking players until it is far too late which has cost us countless goals. Those shortcomings, by the way, have been in place since way before Clarke came into power.

Denmark’s striker Poulsen has an international goal record that doesn’t stand up well to Dykes or Adams.

Don’t need an “international striker” if we get enough goals elsewhere in the team.

[Caledonian Craig]

36 minutes ago, BraveheartGordon said:

Denmark’s striker Poulsen has an international goal record that doesn’t stand up well to Dykes or Adams.

Don’t need an “international striker” if we get enough goals elsewhere in the team.

They have more strength in depth than us as back up. In their squad their strikers play in the Bundesliga (2), Serie A (2), La Liga (1) and others playing in France, the Netherlands and Turkey. Thrashes out of sight our options.

[scotlad]

3 hours ago, BraveheartGordon said:

Denmark’s striker Poulsen has an international goal record that doesn’t stand up well to Dykes or Adams.

Don’t need an “international striker” if we get enough goals elsewhere in the team.

We're not even getting them at the moment though - 2 goals in past 5 games.

John McGinn is the top scorer in the squad (I think) and the vast majority of his goals have come against diddy teams.

[ceudmilefailte]

Is it true that Scotland have only lost one of their last 11 WC qualifiers or am I delusional? 

Edited September 7, 2021 by ceudmilefailte

[kumnio]

35 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Is it true that Scotland have only lost one of their last 11 WC qualifiers or am I delusional? 

That’s right. Strachan was 6 unbeaten when he left, and Clarke is 1 defeat in 5. 

[Third Lanark]

On 9/5/2021 at 5:54 PM, Caledonian Craig said:

Yes but given he is a midfielder and professional footballer surely to hell its not asking too much for him to test the keeper from eight yards out instead of firing wide?

He said it himself; he just got too excited. Bet it doesn't happen again if there is a next time.

[gkm_vancouver]

9 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

My point was that we reached our ceiling in qualifying (via the back door) for Euro 2020. We did not qualify for that tournament through the traditional route which says it all. Our team has too many shortcomings. One being the clear fact we just do not have an international quality striker and as a result struggle chronically to score goals. Another shortcoming being out inability to close down attacking players until it is far too late which has cost us countless goals. Those shortcomings, by the way, have been in place since way before Clarke came into power.

Again Craig, if you think that we reached our ceiling in qualifying then we may as well give up. I think this squad can get better results than we've been getting since Serbia if we are trying to make progress. Closing down is a very basic tactic that Clarke can surely get across to his team and I've seen it plenty of times during Smith, McLeish and Strachan eras

[thelonehutch]

What a fantastic result that is! Well done lads. Still work to do but we're definitely alive and kicking. 😁👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Texas Pete]

On 9/3/2021 at 7:34 PM, ceudmilefailte said:

Looking back at it now it wasn't that bad.

Yes, that 3-0 defeat in Kazakhstan was smashing. 

[Texas Pete]

On 9/4/2021 at 11:24 PM, Orraloon said:

Time for him to go. We couldn't do much worse without a manager. Scraped a home win against the 5th worst team in Europe.

We’re favourites for second place now. He’s going nowhere for the time being. 

[Orraloon]

9 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

We’re favourites for second place now. He’s going nowhere for the time being. 

Glad I got it wrong, for once. It happens sometimes. 😉

Still a long way to go though. He needs to win the next three games for me to be convinced. 

[Texas Pete]

3 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Glad I got it wrong, for once. It happens sometimes. 😉

Still a long way to go though. He needs to win the next three games for me to be convinced. 

Yeah I’m not 100% convinced about Clarke either. I don’t like his formation or his tactics and apart from the England game we were found out at the Euros. 

We are not winning ‘easy’ games comfortably and we could easily be in Austria’s position if things had gone slightly differently but the fact is we are in the best position in a qualifying group than we have been for years and have a real chance of the playoffs and possibly even qualification so Clarke has to be allowed to see it through now. I would take 1-0 victories in our next 3 games right now.