Are Wales better than us?

[Malcolm]

On 6/10/2022 at 2:32 PM, todd said:

Of course we're better than Wales.  We just beat Armenia who beat Macedonia who beat Italy.  Ergo, we're better than Italy, who are certainly better than Wales.  It's not rocket surgery!

would wAles get their arse handed to them by Ireland. It’s like being pumped by Luxembourg. We are nobodies of international football 

[ParisInAKilt]

I think this means Ireland are better than Belgium as well. 

[mccaughey85]

1 hour ago, Malcolm said:

would wAles get their arse handed to them by Ireland. It’s like being pumped by Luxembourg. We are nobodies of international football 

Luxembourg and ireland are not comparable. Ireland have been brutal lately but they are a team who usually done ok over the last 5/6 years and although we shouldnt be losing to them 3 nil its still always a tough game across there that can be easily lost.

[vanderark14]

6 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Luxembourg and ireland are not comparable. Ireland have been brutal lately but they are a team who usually done ok over the last 5/6 years and although we shouldnt be losing to them 3 nil its still always a tough game across there that can be easily lost.

We had chances yesterday, two which mcginn should have buried. We had More of the ball too but ireland were clinical and much more up for the game. 

Any type if win will do for me on Tuesday now. Get these games out of the way and start again in September. 

[mccaughey85]

10 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

We had chances yesterday, two which mcginn should have buried. We had More of the ball too but ireland were clinical and much more up for the game. 

Any type if win will do for me on Tuesday now. Get these games out of the way and start again in September. 

A win on tuesday should take some of the heat of clarke. Then we regroup and move into the september games with the players having had a summer break and then we can try and move on from whats been a shitty last couple of weeks lol.

[Bristolhibby]

Armenia were 5/1 for the win yesterday. Ridiculous odds. Had a taste of that. Bookies have no idea what Scotland are traditionally like in far flung Eastern European places.

 

J

[vanderark14]

19 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

A win on tuesday should take some of the heat of clarke. Then we regroup and move into the september games with the players having had a summer break and then we can try and move on from whats been a shitty last couple of weeks lol.

Only a convincing win will take the heat off for some but not me. Any win will do, its clear these players and the management need to finish the season and regroup

[todd]

8 hours ago, Malcolm said:

would wAles get their arse handed to them by Ireland. It’s like being pumped by Luxembourg. We are nobodies of international football 

Was just a wee joke mate

[ParisInAKilt]

We’re better than x because abcdef play for an EPL team. 

Like an English media article mid 2000’s. 

[Och Aye]

I'm just glad Northern Ireland aren't in our group seeing they desperately need a result.

[Orraloon]

30 minutes ago, Och Aye said:

I'm just glad Northern Ireland aren't in our group seeing they desperately need a result.

We'll get them next time. 😂

[Och Aye]

4 hours ago, ParisInAKilt said:

We’re better than x because abcdef play for an EPL team. 

Like an English media article mid 2000’s. 

2050 ?

[DAVIDB46]

6 hours ago, ParisInAKilt said:

We’re better than x because abcdef play for an EPL team. 

Like an English media article mid 2000’s. 

It’s a good point because we are extremely guilty of what we used to absolutely slate the English media of

[Clyde1998]

6 hours ago, ParisInAKilt said:

We’re better than x because abcdef play for an EPL team. 

Like an English media article mid 2000’s. 

I'd say during that era England performed as expected in most matches - I seem to recall they only lost three competitive matches under Sven-Göran Eriksson (aside from penalties): Brazil (World Cup 2002), France (Euro 2004) and Northern Ireland (World Cup 2006 Qualifying); they got knocked out twice on penalties by a good Portugal side.

Only the Northern Ireland game could be considered a shock result; I don't know what their draws or non-competitive games looked like mind. They possibly didn't perform as well as they could've done in a number of games, despite getting results.

The English media did expect a major tournament win though (or at least a serious challenge for a trophy) - however player-for-player was that England squad better than most of the Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, the Netherlands, Portugal sides from this era? Probably not. England probably achieved as expected given their relative strength compared to their peers and who they got knocked out of competitions by.

Compared to us now, player-for-player we should be better than Wales and Ireland (or sides like Israel), yet we've struggled to get consistent results against that calibre of team. Either our view of our players are too high or we're not getting the best out of the squad of players we've got.

[todd]

9 hours ago, Och Aye said:

2050 ?

🤣🤣

[Caledonian Craig]

15 hours ago, Clyde1998 said:

 

Compared to us now, player-for-player we should be better than Wales and Ireland (or sides like Israel), yet we've struggled to get consistent results against that calibre of team. Either our view of our players are too high or we're not getting the best out of the squad of players we've got.

There are a few reasons why Wales perform better than us. 

They have a far better balance of talent across the team. We have better left backs but what good is that when you need goals to win games. Our defence is less secure too.

They have a real hardened self-belief garnered from reaching major tournaments and progressing to the latter stages. Our self-belief was better than it was but brittle enough to fall apart following a big loss such as Ukraine match.

They benefit a lot from being seeded in pot 2 giving them greater chance of qualification. Whereas we will always end up in a group with two teams stronger than us in the group which is a handicap straight away and highlights our weaknesses.

They have one of their greatest players ever in their ranks who as a goal-scoring machine he is better than anything we have ever produced plus he creates goals for them so he is like two world class players in one. We, meanwhile, have no strikers anywhere near that stature. It is not out of the question that Adams and Dykes will toil to break into double figures for goals for us. Football is all about putting the ball in the back of the net - sadly, we have never had a truly prolific striker since Denis Law. And, depressingly, the future looks very bleak on that front.

As for Ireland and Israel we do do better than them in the end run so best not to read too much into a random result here and there against them.

[Caledonian Craig]

Also our fans obsess over Robertson and Tierney being world class. Yes that is at club level where their graft getting down the wing and putting in crosses for the likes of Mo Salah and Alexandre Lacazette who are strikers of utter class. Strikers who know how to make the right runs into the right areas at the right time. That is hardly Dykes and Adams.

[Malcolm]

None of our players get stuck in.  We are no where near as physical as we were.

[ceudmilefailte]

6 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Also our fans obsess over Robertson and Tierney being world class. Yes that is at club level where their graft getting down the wing and putting in crosses for the likes of Mo Salah and Alexandre Lacazette who are strikers of utter class. Strikers who know how to make the right runs into the right areas at the right time. That is hardly Dykes and Adams.

Your right. Full back is the one position were you have to have players ahead of you that can do something with the ball, it probably helps explain O'Donnell's success for Scotland compared with his form at Motherwell.

[Caledonian Craig]

8 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Your right. Full back is the one position were you have to have players ahead of you that can do something with the ball, it probably helps explain O'Donnell's success for Scotland compared with his form at Motherwell.

The crux is we desperately need to unearth prolific goalscorers. Players who can score with a sniff of a chance and strike rate of a goal every couple or three games. Until then we are not going to progress much further.

[Bobby Russell's Lovechild]

25 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

The crux is we desperately need to unearth prolific goalscorers. Players who can score with a sniff of a chance and strike rate of a goal every couple or three games. Until then we are not going to progress much further.

Why can't we produce a Robbie Keane😥

[Caledonian Craig]

1 minute ago, Bobby Russell's Lovechild said:

Why can't we produce a Robbie Keane😥

Annoyingly, when we have produced a half-decent striker in recent times we had deficiencies elsewhere in the side. Of late we got results with McGinn chipping in with a fair few goals but he has been off-form in these round of matches. Dykes and Adams spell of goals have dried up too and we've relied on four of our last six or seven goals coming from headers from defenders 

[Toepoke]

1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Dykes and Adams spell of goals have dried up too and we've relied on four of our last six or seven goals coming from headers from defenders 

Dykes and Adams aren't even products of Scottish youth development either.

Go back a couple of decades and our league was full of striking talent. Brilliant goalscorers like Owen Coyle and Tommy Coyne had to play for Ireland because they didn't have a hope of getting into the Scotland squad.

 

[Caledonian Craig]

16 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Dykes and Adams aren't even products of Scottish youth development either.

Go back a couple of decades and our league was full of striking talent. Brilliant goalscorers like Owen Coyle and Tommy Coyne had to play for Ireland because they didn't have a hope of getting into the Scotland squad.

 

Striking talent only at League level. You can count on the fingers of one hand the strikers we have produced to scoreore than twenty international goals in our history. That is truly pathetic.

[Toepoke]

13 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Striking talent only at League level. You can count on the fingers of one hand the strikers we have produced to scoreore than twenty international goals in our history. That is truly pathetic.

At least they were getting a chance at league level. Looking at last year's Premiership the only Scottish strikers in the top 20 goalscorers were Bruce Anderson, Tony Watt, Nicky Clark, Callum Hendry and Eamonn Brophy, with most of them well down the list. When the pool is so small the chances of international quality emerging are much reduced. 

A frontman as good as Tommy Coyne would absolutely walk into our squad now btw.