V France thread

[Clyde1998]

Christie has come on for McLean.

2 minutes ago, Yr Alban said:

We’re getting a doing tonight. We’ve been chasing shadows most of the game. Possession stats only OK because we are going nowhere. France can press us until we make a mistake, which is what happened for goal 4.

France are showboating in a frustrating way, but they have played well enough to justify it. They’ve looked very scary every time they go forward.

Can't be too critical tonight, given we're playing against a full strength France side with what's effectively our second strongest side.

We're noticeably weaker in defence tonight - with Robertson, Tierney, Hickey and Porteous all missing, nor Gunn in goal. Not having McGinn or McGregor playing doesn't help either.

[Clyde1998]

Thuram hits the bar now.

3 minutes ago, Ak91 said:

Was greizzmann offside for that last goal? Kelly literally has to run round him lying on the goal line when the shot is hit. 

Seemed to be interfering with play as much as Hendry did for our disallowed goal in Spain, tbf.

[DesiScotsman]

That was a great wee passage of play there. Unlucky not to have scored.

Edited October 17, 2023 by DesiScotsman

[bigfingers]

Jacob Brown looking decent up front. 

[Clyde1998]

Just now, DesiScotsman said:

That was a great wee passage of play there. 

Aye - two good goalscoring opportunities. Didn't realise Armstrong was on the pitch (on for Gilmour?), but took his effort well. Brown had a decent header, but might've been better if he left it for the on coming Armstrong.

[mccaughey85]

Jacob brown playing well imo.

[DesiScotsman]

1 minute ago, bigfingers said:

Jacob Brown looking decent up front. 

I’ve been one of his biggest critics but credit where it’s due, he’s done well since coming on.

[DesiScotsman]

SJM on now

[Squirrelhumper]

We've played some excellent stuff tonight.

[Clyde1998]

Just now, DesiScotsman said:

SJM on now

On for Patterson seems a bit odd, but clearly a change in formation for the last five minutes or so.

[Shaundy]

Don’t be impartial. Adopt the guy S Thompson for the bbc who loves nothing better than saying Scotland is shite and should accept it .fukin Britnat cunto.

 😇

It’s all preparations from now till next summer. There’s so obviously plenty scared , intimidated, contioned to a Scotland inferiority ( cringe and all that) .

looking so forward to next summer. Regardless of our group.

we’ve drawn both World Cup finalists for European qualifying group ffs. In the rugby we just had the world #1 and world champions in a qualifying group. 
want to play with the best . You cringe if you want to

[Orraloon]

7 minutes ago, Bobby Russell's Lovechild said:

Brown is putting himself round pretty well, tbf

He has shown enough tonight to justify his place in the squad. I think he's looked better than Adams tonight. Better ball control. We need to find somebody up front who the ball is going to stick to. Too many times the ball just seems to bounce off Adams and Dykes. I'd give Brown a start against Georgia to see how he gets on.

[Dillinger]

47 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

He's hardly kicked anybody. They really are turning football into a non contact sport. I've seen more tackles in a game of dominoes.

Reckon he had about 12 fouls given against him with no yellows!

[Dillinger]

4 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

We've played some excellent stuff tonight.

Yep we've used the ball pretty nicely. Couple of better decisions (Patterson at end of first half springs to mind) we could maybe had another goal. 

No shame in shipping a few goals to that team. A few lessons learned along the way hopefully. 

[DesiScotsman]

FT France 4-1

The result was pretty much expected. We are up against the favourites for next years tournament and the best team in the continent. You can tell just how good the French are and the insane strength in depth of their squad which is only going to get better over the years as their youngsters are just as good. We created some decent chances ourselves but ultimately it was always going to be an uphill struggle. Plus let’s not forget it was our 2nd string.

[Clyde1998]

3 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

We've played some excellent stuff tonight.

I agree - we looked quite decent on the ball tonight. The French obviously have a lot more quality than us though.

[Yr Alban]

Brown did look good after he came on. Gilmour put in a power of work all game. Pleased, as a Hearts fan, to see Zander Clark make a couple of good saves.

Defence was fairly poor, but to be fair, it was makeshift.

We got noticeably better when some of the usual starters came on late in the game.

[ProudScot]

Fair play to Jacob Brown, showed he is an option. 

It’s good Clark & Kelly actually have a cap now. 

Gilmour nice goal.

We played well, outclassed but it was largely a second string side out there.

Onto next months two games now 👍🏾

[Tartan blood]

France have clearly been keeping an eye on our results of late and showed us the respect we deserved by putting out a very strong team. We should have returned the favour...

Positives to come out of the match: Debuts for Clark and Kelly, First goal for Gilmour, a proper look at Brown. Frustratingly, all of those could have happened in any other friendly, against non-world cup finalists.

Really the only real benefit to arranging a friendly like this is to test our strongest team against the best of the best. Putting out a weakened side feels like a wasted opportunity.

Edit: I realise this sounds very negative. It wasn't meant to be. I do think we showed that we have decent strength in depth now, and we should take some confidence from the fact we played nice football at times. It bodes well for the Euros.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Tartan blood

[todd]

See all pundits saying 'in the final third' oh fuck off, nips my fuckin arse.  We never even had a final third up until a year ago

[Toepoke]

2 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

Really the only real benefit to arranging a friendly like this is to test our strongest team against the best of the best. Putting out a weakenes side feels like a wasted opportunity.

I disagree there, for me it's better to give more players experience of competing against this standard of opposition. We could've won 4-1 tonight with our strongest team out and there would've been no more benefit (although it would've been a better trip for the fans).

[slasher]

Obviously our second string were never going to trouble a team like the French but all in all I think it was a worthwhile exercise tonight. The only thing that really irritated me was the poverty of our set pieces. Against a top tier side that needs to be on the money. As others have mentioned though, one or two we wanted a look at emerged with some credit.

Its still up for debate just how close we can get to these top sides I think, tonight didn’t really tell us anything in that respect. I’ll definitely be hoping we avoid England and France in the draw but any of the rest I’d be reasonably hopeful we can cause problems for.

[ParisInAKilt]

It’s hard as it is to watch us lose again, I think playing these types of games can only benefit us next summer. 

Let’s go and take 6 points from the next 2 games and finish the year on a high.

[Tartan blood]

12 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

I disagree there, for me it's better to give more players experience of competing against this standard of opposition. We could've won 4-1 tonight with our strongest team out and there would've been no more benefit (although it would've been a better trip for the fans).

I see your point, but is McLean, Kelly, Clark or Taylor likely to get significant minutes at the Euros? Or beyond? 

You could argue Gunn would have benefitted more from the experience than Kelly or Clark.

Ferguson is young and has a shot at breaking into our first 11 in the future, so I can see why he got a start, but I would have been fine with all the aforementioned getting 25mins in the 2nd half in the same way Jacob Brown did. Who I was very impressed with. Possibly the biggest positive of the evening. 

[Exiled ICT]

The tactics from Clarke have been good I think. We all know the personnel are nowhere near a full strength side, but we’ve looked composed on the ball at times and had the right ideas at times. We’ve not just sat everyone behind the ball and have tried to get men forward when we can.

I thought against Croatia and even England at times that the midfield was completely overrun and lacking, with sitting too deep at times. Tonight we’ve pushed up and tried to press and gain the ball back higher up. A bit more bravery at times and we could have created more chances.

This might form a bit of a blueprint of how we setup against bigger teams next year with a better balance between stopping the opposition and trying to get forward to hurt them when we can.