Scotland Ukraine. Will it go head?….

[Tartan blood]

2 hours ago, thesaint said:

Better than none...you are f..king jocking of course.Just what we need a pointless shite friendly.They can f..k off with that.

This seems like an overreaction. Of course I am gutted that we aren't playing the playoffs, but how is zero football better than no football? If we have no games at all, we'd be going into the games in June having not spent any time together since November - around 7 months. 

Some of you are kidding yourselves on if you think a training camp would be better than actual games. That isn't happening. Not without a litany of dropouts. If our guys can't add to their caps or stats, they will have even less reason to turn up.

[thesaint]

2 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

This seems like an overreaction. Of course I am gutted that we aren't playing the playoffs, but how is zero football better than no football? If we have no games at all, we'd be going into the games in June having not spent any time together since November - around 7 months. 

Some of you are kidding yourselves on if you think a training camp would be better than actual games. That isn't happening. Not without a litany of dropouts. If our guys can't add to their caps or stats, they will have even less reason to turn up.

Friendlies are ZERO FOOTBALL.Torture to watch and in my experience very little ever to be gained by them.

[AlfieMoon]

28 minutes ago, thesaint said:

You have just gave the reason why friendlies are an abomination.A friendly/training exercise with no major bearing on our progression.A perfect description of why they are f..ing horrible Soul destroying Who want's to make the effort to go and watch that sort of shit.

Well I’m sure it’s an opportunity for the management to learn at least something or try some new players which they don’t normally have the option of doing now with every game competitive. 
 

They’re also not forcing anyone to go you know?!!

 

[Grim Jim]

38 minutes ago, AlfieMoon said:

They’re also not forcing anyone to go you know?!!

 

Exactly.   This is what it is, and at least there will be no "losers" game for us.   That will be a lot worse than a friendly for one of Wales/Austria.

[thesaint]

43 minutes ago, AlfieMoon said:

Well I’m sure it’s an opportunity for the management to learn at least something or try some new players which they don’t normally have the option of doing now with every game competitive. 
 

They’re also not forcing anyone to go you know?!!

 

Certainly aren't. Im sure it will be marvelous for all concerned. Enjoy. 

[aaid]

I was at football tonight with a couple of friends of mine who follow Wales home and away.  They were saying that the way it’s being described there is that Scotland will get to know how it feels to be England as outwith Scotland fans, the whole world - Putin excepted - will want Scotland to lose, and then if Ukraine win, then Wales will also get to know what it feels like to be England. 

[Squirrelhumper]

1 hour ago, mccaughey85 said:

Very dissapointing to be playimg friendlies that lots of players wont turn up for. I can almost say with certainty ryan fraser wont make these games.

Good.

[RDFH64]

4 hours ago, Big Ramy 1314 said:

Cheers for that. I just went on it and had a wee look. The Welsh are saying that the Scots are going nuts on Pie and Bovril Forum over the June 7 fixture date. Also mentioned they would rather play Scotland than Ukraine in the final... 

Arrogant pricks, hope Austria hump them 👍

[dezmondo]

Totally scunnered with the whole situation.

I rebooked a cancelled trip to Sweden from last year for the weekend of the 4th June (sacrificing the Armenia match, I'm doing the Stockholm marathon), reckon it's cost me £1300 and is no longer cancellable, so if the rearranged Ukraine match falls then I'll be pretty annoyed. Not to mention the lost money from flights i booked to Wales and Austria and also the potential of losing my flights etc to Dublin if it impacts the Ireland match. 

Yes, the problems are insignificant to what the Ukrainians are going through but it's still pretty fucking annoying 😡

[Diamond Scot]

3 hours ago, thesaint said:

100 % correct.We have a confident group of players who seem comfortable with each other.Only Scotland could have a group of players who are playing well together and getting results,and for some bizarre reason try and change it.We must stick with the team as is and have confidence in their ability to get us to the world cup.As stated in post above,now is not the time to experiment.Plus of course,having sat through literally hundreds of them over the years,friendlies are f..ing torture and should be a thing of the past.No place for them .

When is the time to experiment then? To have continued success you always have to have one eye on the future. 

The games will allow us to bring in Hickey and get him introduced to the squad, phasing out guys like Taylor and possibly ODonnell. Also allows us to try out somebody like the Sunderland forward, not neccesarily in the gake but allowing Clarke to see him train with the squad to assess him.

The issue with friendlys previously was that we made wholesale changes and thus they became meaningless. This time round we have the opportunity to make some minor tweaks and learn what might work better for the future.

Staying still is moving backwards afterall. Id much rather somebody like Hickey got 2 friendlys and 1 squad under his belt than make his debut in a world cup semi final play off should we need him.

[Michael]

5 hours ago, Diamond Scot said:

When is the time to experiment then? To have continued success you always have to have one eye on the future. 

The games will allow us to bring in Hickey and get him introduced to the squad, phasing out guys like Taylor and possibly ODonnell. Also allows us to try out somebody like the Sunderland forward, not neccesarily in the gake but allowing Clarke to see him train with the squad to assess him.

The issue with friendlys previously was that we made wholesale changes and thus they became meaningless. This time round we have the opportunity to make some minor tweaks and learn what might work better for the future.

Staying still is moving backwards afterall. Id much rather somebody like Hickey got 2 friendlys and 1 squad under his belt than make his debut in a world cup semi final play off should we need him.

Having the opportunity for Clarke to try something different. Slight changes. Is definitely a positive.  Of course we would all liked to have had the competitive game(s), but need to accept current situation.  Personally I will go to the friendly game. If SFA structure the prices right then I can see it being a sell out.

[ProudScot]

2 free hit friendlies, perfect chance to get Hickey involved & try out the various CM combos we are debating.

Also the correct decision to support Ukraine and give them a chance although unlikely to fulfill the June fixture. 

[Malcolm]

I agree with postponing the fixture but not with the pointless friendlies.

[Potted Heid]

The friendly against the losers of Wales v Austria might have some merit in that we can measure ourselves against a team of relatively the same standard as the one we will play in the final, if the WCQ game against Ukraine goes ahead and we beat them.  The random friendly on the 24th is a bad idea in my opinion, particularly if we play a strong team such as Poland who could give us a morale-deflating drubbing (see how fast it took Lewandowski to score his hat-trick last night).

The most important thing is that the war in Ukraine ends, and that country can get back to normal as soon as possible, which includes being able to fulfil sporting fixtures.  However, I have my doubts that this will be the case come June, unfortunately.  Hope I'm wrong.

[saintsparky]

Although Saturday 4th June would be the best date for the Ukraine game for fan travel and logistics, surely the best option would be Thursday 2nd.

This would give us an extra day to prepare as Wales and Austria have difficulty away games on the Friday night....

[scottincarlisle]

1 minute ago, saintsparky said:

Although Saturday 4th June would be the best date for the Ukraine game for fan travel and logistics, surely the best option would be Thursday 2nd.

This would give us an extra day to prepare as Wales and Austria have difficulty away games on the Friday night....

I'd imagine we will have to all play on the same day to have the same rest period.

[ceudmilefailte]

55 minutes ago, Potted Heid said:

The friendly against the losers of Wales v Austria might have some merit in that we can measure ourselves against a team of relatively the same standard as the one we will play in the final, if the WCQ game against Ukraine goes ahead and we beat them.  The random friendly on the 24th is a bad idea in my opinion, particularly if we play a strong team such as Poland who could give us a morale-deflating drubbing (see how fast it took Lewandowski to score his hat-trick last night).

The most important thing is that the war in Ukraine ends, and that country can get back to normal as soon as possible, which includes being able to fulfil sporting fixtures.  However, I have my doubts that this will be the case come June, unfortunately.  Hope I'm wrong.

Poland are in the play offs for a reason. We can't be afraid to play countries at that level, that is now our level. 

[AlfieMoon]

55 minutes ago, saintsparky said:

Although Saturday 4th June would be the best date for the Ukraine game for fan travel and logistics, surely the best option would be Thursday 2nd.

This would give us an extra day to prepare as Wales and Austria have difficulty away games on the Friday night....

This is an interesting point. 

I had just default assumed it would be Sat 4th.  I wonder if we will align with the Friday night so that there’s less disruption. 

[AlfieMoon]

If Poland are really pushing to have the friendly at home in Chorzow then I reckon it’ll come down to a negotiation and SFA will take the cash, even although Clarke probably wouldn’t 2 away games in a week. 

[ceudmilefailte]

11 hours ago, thesaint said:

Friendlies are ZERO FOOTBALL.Torture to watch and in my experience very little ever to be gained by them.

The game itself is a total waste of time. The get together before hand aspect isnt. Was it Strachan who played fewer friendlies an had meet ups instead? 

[kumnio]

29 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

The game itself is a total waste of time. The get together before hand aspect isnt. Was it Strachan who played fewer friendlies an had meet ups instead? 

And how close did that cunt get us to qualifying?

Every other nation in the world plays friendly games. The good thing about football is, people are free to go to them, or free to do something else, it’s a great system. 

[kumnio]

People moaning about potentially losing money, I’d rather lose a wee bit of money rather than my life, family, house, job, country etc

Theres some right shocking comments on here, unbelievable takes. 

[thesaint]

3 hours ago, Malcolm said:

I agree with postponing the fixture but not with the pointless friendlies.

Correct. Absolute waste of everybody's time. Thought they were a thing of the past. Certainly hoped we had seen the last of them. 

[EddardStark]

Correct decision. Should rule any friendlies out and I think the clubs will appreciate that. 

[ceudmilefailte]

1 hour ago, kumnio said:

And how close did that cunt get us to qualifying?

Every other nation in the world plays friendly games. The good thing about football is, people are free to go to them, or free to do something else, it’s a great system. 

No one would have qualified with the players Strachan had. Neither here nor there that.