Euro 2020 vs Euro 2024 squad comparison

[Tartan blood]

Just for a bit of fun, I thought it would be interesting to compare the current squad with the previous one. Which one is better?

Bearing in mind, we have a fair few excellent players missing (Hickey, Patterson, Dykes, Doak and Ferguson) but the 2020 squad was also missing 2 key players (Jack and McLean).

There are 11 new faces in this squad. Which could also have had Hickey, Ferguson and Doak (for anyone still trying to claim Clarke is too loyal).

Here's a reminder of the 2 squads:

 

2020: 

Craig Gordon, David Marshall , Jon McLaughlin, Liam Cooper, Declan Gallagher, Grant Hanley, Jack Hendry , Scott McKenna, Stephen O'Donnell, Nathan Patterson, Andy Robertson, Greg Taylor, Kieran Tierney, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, John Fleck, Billy Gilmour, John McGinn, Callum McGregor, Scott McTominay, David Turnbull, Ché Adams, Lyndon Dykes, James Forrest, Ryan Fraser, Kevin Nisbet

 

2024:

Liam Kelly, Angus Gunn, Zander Clark, Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney, Jack Hendry, Ryan Porteous, Liam Cooper, Scott McKenna, Grant Hanley, Greg Taylor, Anthony Ralston, Ross McCrorie, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Billy Gilmour, John McGinn, Kenny McLean, Scott McTominay, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Jack, Lewis Morgan, Che Adams, Lawrence Shankland, Tommy Conway, James Forrest

 

[Orraloon]

Not much in it really. Keeper wise we are pretty similar. Porteous is definitely better than Gallagher. At right back Ralston, O'Donnell and Patterson are all a pretty similar level, IMO. Not seen much of McRrorie. McLean is much better than Turnbull. I'm more excited by Conway and Morgan than I ever was about Fraser and Nisbet. 

The key difference for me, is that the main players who are likely to play are all much more experienced than they were 3 years ago.

[Tartan blood]

3 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Not much in it really. Keeper wise we are pretty similar. Porteous is definitely better than Gallagher. At right back Ralston, O'Donnell and Patterson are all a pretty similar level, IMO. Not seen much of McRrorie. McLean is much better than Turnbull. I'm more excited by Conway and Morgan than I ever was about Fraser and Nisbet. 

The key difference for me, is that the main players who are likely to play are all much more experienced than they were 3 years ago.

I think if we didn't have any injuries we'd be saying the current squad is significantly better. But now we have a handful of players that are yet to prove themselves. E.g Morgan, Conway, McRorie.

Your second point is a good one. 2024 McTominay is much better than 2021 McTominay, for example. Same goes for Gilmour and Christie.

[bdgsct]

Patterson and Dykes is a negative. Porteous is a positive. The rest I'm pretty neutral on. As has been said, Hickey, Ferguson and Doak would have been huge improvements. We need to bring through more youngsters or we'll have a problem in 5 years time. Also mentioned, 30 more caps for all the regulars should make them much better players although I don't think all have improved in the way we might have hoped since 2021.

[Tartan blood]

45 minutes ago, bdgsct said:

Patterson and Dykes is a negative. Porteous is a positive. The rest I'm pretty neutral on. As has been said, Hickey, Ferguson and Doak would have been huge improvements. We need to bring through more youngsters or we'll have a problem in 5 years time. Also mentioned, 30 more caps for all the regulars should make them much better players although I don't think all have improved in the way we might have hoped since 2021.

11 new faces from the last squad is, sort of, a positive. However, we now have 15 players with tournament experience and a bucket load of caps. 

I'd say our first 11 has definitely improved, even if some think the squad hasn't. Ralston isn't better than Hickey, but he is better than O'Donnell, who started all 3 games last time.

 

[theabsentee]

33 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

11 new faces from the last squad is, sort of, a positive. However, we now have 15 players with tournament experience and a bucket load of caps. 

I'd say our first 11 has definitely improved, even if some think the squad hasn't. Ralston isn't better than Hickey, but he is better than O'Donnell, who started all 3 games last time.

 

Cheers for this, looks quite similar but like you've said most of our starters are still playing at or closer to their peak.. Only a couple of squad men are probably past it in Cooper & Hanley.

   What would be interesting is the have these stats from the other qualifiers as 11 changes in 3/4 seasons isn't a lot. Also the average age of our squad compared with other qualifiers, I have a feeling as 4 of our 5 withdrawals are young players we might have one of the oldest squads in the tournament

[Caledonian Craig]

The core first team has very few changes but it is far more experienced now and more battle-hardened. The squad has more goals in it than any squad we have sent to a major tournament (goals per player average-wise) and I would like to think they will be determind to put behind tgem the 2020 disappointment.

[Tartan blood]

50 minutes ago, theabsentee said:

Cheers for this, looks quite similar but like you've said most of our starters are still playing at or closer to their peak.. Only a couple of squad men are probably past it in Cooper & Hanley.

   What would be interesting is the have these stats from the other qualifiers as 11 changes in 3/4 seasons isn't a lot. Also the average age of our squad compared with other qualifiers, I have a feeling as 4 of our 5 withdrawals are young players we might have one of the oldest squads in the tournament

Dropping Gordon will definitely help with the average.

I'll be very interested to see how this squad compares after the tournament is finished. At this point last time round, we were all expecting Declan Gallagher to be an important player. 

Let's not forget Gilmour only played 1 game back then. He is magnitudes better now. Maybe Tierney will stay fit as well...

[exile]

7 hours ago, Tartan blood said:

 

2024:

Liam Kelly, Angus Gunn, Zander Clark, Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney, Jack Hendry, Ryan Porteous, Liam Cooper, Scott McKenna, Grant Hanley, Greg Taylor, Anthony Ralston, Ross McCrorie, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Billy Gilmour, John McGinn, Kenny McLean, Scott McTominay, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Jack, Lewis Morgan, Che Adams, Lawrence Shankland, Tommy Conway, James Forrest

 

Shouldn't Shankland be in bold, the eleventh newbie?

Though I thought Nisbet was worth more game time last time, I'd say Shankland is more prolific right now so comparing on just that front could be seen as a positive. Although one might say his scoring has been patchy for us, I think he offers something different from the others and could shake up a game if our first choice attack is not delivering.

[Tartan blood]

2 hours ago, exile said:

Shouldn't Shankland be in bold, the eleventh newbie?

Though I thought Nisbet was worth more game time last time, I'd say Shankland is more prolific right now so comparing on just that front could be seen as a positive. Although one might say his scoring has been patchy for us, I think he offers something different from the others and could shake up a game if our first choice attack is not delivering.

Yeah, I accidentally missed Shankland. He would be the 11th. In terms of form, for both club and country, Shankland is definitely ahead of where Nisbet was. However, Conway is a downgrade on Dykes (for now).

I've always really liked Morgan, and felt Celtic gave up on him far too quickly. But if Fraser is who he has "replaced" from the last squad, then you've got to say Fraser (at that point) was superior.

 

[Clyde1998]

I think the squads are fairly similar, other than being more experienced.

Of those in both squads: some players (like McGinn, Gilmour and Hendry) will have improved a lot, but others (like Forrest, Jack and Armstrong) have declined.

Of those added/removed for the squads:

• I think Gunn is an upgrade on 2021 Marshall; the others are likely weaker than both Marshall and Gordon (and possibly even McLaughlin) in 2021.
• Ralston is probably around the same ability as O'Donnell was; hard to say how good Patterson actually was in 2021, but behind O'Donnell in selection (so may be on par with McCrorie).
• McLean isn't as good as Fleck was; I'd say Morgan is comparable to Turnbull.
• Nisbet was probably around the level of Shankland and Conway; there's no obvious replacement for Dykes.

We'd certainly have had a stronger squad this year had players like Hickey, Patterson, Ferguson, Brown and Dykes all been fit.

Our strongest XI may be somewhat better, but it's nowhere near as big as if we had those unavailable players.

[Tartan blood]

10 hours ago, Clyde1998 said:

I think the squads are fairly similar, other than being more experienced.

Of those in both squads: some players (like McGinn, Gilmour and Hendry) will have improved a lot, but others (like Forrest, Jack and Armstrong) have declined.

Of those added/removed for the squads:

• I think Gunn is an upgrade on 2021 Marshall; the others are likely weaker than both Marshall and Gordon (and possibly even McLaughlin) in 2021.
• Ralston is probably around the same ability as O'Donnell was; hard to say how good Patterson actually was in 2021, but behind O'Donnell in selection (so may be on par with McCrorie).
• McLean isn't as good as Fleck was; I'd say Morgan is comparable to Turnbull.
• Nisbet was probably around the level of Shankland and Conway; there's no obvious replacement for Dykes.

We'd certainly have had a stronger squad this year had players like Hickey, Patterson, Ferguson, Brown and Dykes all been fit.

Our strongest XI may be somewhat better, but it's nowhere near as big as if we had those unavailable players.

When I first thought of doing this comparison, I envisaged us having a significantly stronger squad than last time. As you say, the injuries now make the squad look quite a bit weaker on paper. However, there are a few unknowns. Conway, Morgan and McRorie may in hindsight turn out to be vital squad members for the foreseeable. Gunn, Shankland and Ralston might flourish as well.

One thing to remember is that the 2020 Euros was actually a fairly freshened up squad itself. Gilmour, Patterson, Turnbull, Adams, Nisbet were all new to the fold. The likes of Considine, Griffiths, McBurnie, A.McGregor, C. Paterson, Palmer and plenty others, were all "removed" from the pool.

I'm actually gutted for Doak. Even if he only got 2mins of action, the experience of being away with the squad at a tournament would have been so valuable.

 

[N4Footsoldier]

I think the main factor in the difference in squad strength is the additional 3 years of playing together at international football, which is not to be underestimated.

Of course this time around we have more injuries than we would have liked being a big blow. But I do feel better this time around seeing as the squad last time qualifying through the back door play off having scraped by Israel in a dire game on penalties before (deservedly) scraping past Serbia having played a great 90mins away from home, contrasted by the relative ease with which we qualified for Euro 2024 centred around 2 big results v Spain and Norway and on the whole, consistency of beating teams we should be beating until we were home and dry.

That said, the respective qualification campaigns mean nothing now. It's all about executing over there.

Edited June 10 by N4Footsoldier

[Marky]

3 minutes ago, N4Footsoldier said:

I think the main factor in the difference in squad strength is the additional 3 years of playing together at international football, which is not to be underestimated.

Of course this time around we have more injuries than we would have liked being a big blow. But I do feel better this time around seeing as the squad last time qualifying through the back door play off having scraped by Israel in a dire game on penalties before (deservedly) scraping past Serbia having played a great 90mins away from home, contrasted by the relative ease with which we qualified for Euro 2024 centred around 2 big results v Spain and Norway and on the whole, consistency of beating teams we should be beating until we were home and dry.

That said, the respective qualification campaigns mean nothing now. It's all about executing over there.

Agreed. This time there should be no imposter syndrome. We are there on merit through the standard method.

[wanderer]

IMHO the squads are night and day.

I think Clarke did make some poor choice for Euro 2020 (main one being Gordon should have been our No1 keeper, as Marshall had been greatly off form since the start of the year), but ultimately it was a learning curve, which I feel we got the benefits from that experience in pretty fast (apart from the "blip" around the Ukraine and Ireland games two years ago, we pretty much went from strength to strength after the Euros).

People talk about Northern Ireland and that South America tour they did, and how that kick started things for them, and I feel Euro 2020 was the same for us, and we should be going into this tournament older and wiser than we were last time.

Unfortunately injuries to key players are what is probably going to cost us the most this time around.

[Tartan blood]

2 hours ago, wanderer said:

IMHO the squads are night and day.

I think Clarke did make some poor choice for Euro 2020 (main one being Gordon should have been our No1 keeper, as Marshall had been greatly off form since the start of the year), but ultimately it was a learning curve, which I feel we got the benefits from that experience in pretty fast (apart from the "blip" around the Ukraine and Ireland games two years ago, we pretty much went from strength to strength after the Euros).

People talk about Northern Ireland and that South America tour they did, and how that kick started things for them, and I feel Euro 2020 was the same for us, and we should be going into this tournament older and wiser than we were last time.

Unfortunately injuries to key players are what is probably going to cost us the most this time around.

In hindsight, Gordon definitely should have been number 1 last time round. Though I think he'd been playing in the Scottish championship leading up to that. So you can understand Clarke's decision.

Hopefully we don't have a "what if" scenario when it comes to injuries. We have a lot of injuries but actually you could argue it is only Hickey missing from the first 11. I've got a funny feeling Ralston is going to be the surprise package of this tournament. (Like Hanley was last time)

[Malcolm]

slight differences but not much either way in terms of quality.

more experience as has already been noted.

 

[BryanBlessed]

As others have said, a lot of the players have greatly improved. McGinn narrowly avoided relegation with Villa before the last Euros and now he's just captained them to fourth place. McTominay, Gilmour and Christie have also greatly improved.

[deso1]

As everone else has said...very little difference. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see our performances being much different either.

I would have been confident of improved performance in the finals, had Hickey and Dykes been fit.

(No complaints with Ralston, just think Hickey is a world class wing back) and Dykes is streets ahead of our other options, despite his lack of goals at club level.

Let's hope the extra experience helps us this time.

 

 

[Dodger]

10 hours ago, BryanBlessed said:

As others have said, a lot of the players have greatly improved. McGinn narrowly avoided relegation with Villa before the last Euros and now he's just captained them to fourth place. McTominay, Gilmour and Christie have also greatly improved.

On the other side, I would say Hanley, Cooper, Adams, Tierney and Armstrong were all in better shape last time around 

[Clyde1998]

19 hours ago, Tartan blood said:

When I first thought of doing this comparison, I envisaged us having a significantly stronger squad than last time. As you say, the injuries now make the squad look quite a bit weaker on paper. However, there are a few unknowns. Conway, Morgan and McRorie may in hindsight turn out to be vital squad members for the foreseeable. Gunn, Shankland and Ralston might flourish as well.

One thing to remember is that the 2020 Euros was actually a fairly freshened up squad itself. Gilmour, Patterson, Turnbull, Adams, Nisbet were all new to the fold. The likes of Considine, Griffiths, McBurnie, A.McGregor, C. Paterson, Palmer and plenty others, were all "removed" from the pool.

I'm actually gutted for Doak. Even if he only got 2mins of action, the experience of being away with the squad at a tournament would have been so valuable.

We obviously don't know how some of the newer players will cope. I don't think Conway, Morgan or McCrorie will be regular starters in the Euros, but I can see all of them playing an important role. Conway and Morgan could certainly play their way into being regulars in the squad with a good tournament; even if we find Conway isn't quite ready yet, he'll probably get an opportunity again within a couple of years.

I think Ralston has the biggest opportunity, as he'll be the starting right-back and is competing to remain in the side once both Hickey and Patterson return. McCrorie will probably only be a temporary option, at this stage.

I think the consistency of the squad will be important. I think we mostly know what our strongest XI is and the regulars will be comfortable playing with each other - creating more of a club mentality. This is opposed to 2021, where many players hadn't played regularly with each other and we'd not long worked out what system these players needed. It's often the teams who are used to playing with, and understand, each other who perform well.

At the last Euros, Steve Clarke had only been manager for about two years and had to spend the first year working out what players were capable of playing regularly for us.

I'm also disappointed for Doak. I think he would've benefitted from being at a Euros, but hopefully he'll have plenty of other good experiences ahead of him.

[Tartan blood]

2 hours ago, Clyde1998 said:

We obviously don't know how some of the newer players will cope. I don't think Conway, Morgan or McCrorie will be regular starters in the Euros, but I can see all of them playing an important role. Conway and Morgan could certainly play their way into being regulars in the squad with a good tournament; even if we find Conway isn't quite ready yet, he'll probably get an opportunity again within a couple of years.

I think Ralston has the biggest opportunity, as he'll be the starting right-back and is competing to remain in the side once both Hickey and Patterson return. McCrorie will probably only be a temporary option, at this stage.

I think the consistency of the squad will be important. I think we mostly know what our strongest XI is and the regulars will be comfortable playing with each other - creating more of a club mentality. This is opposed to 2021, where many players hadn't played regularly with each other and we'd not long worked out what system these players needed. It's often the teams who are used to playing with, and understand, each other who perform well.

At the last Euros, Steve Clarke had only been manager for about two years and had to spend the first year working out what players were capable of playing regularly for us.

I'm also disappointed for Doak. I think he would've benefitted from being at a Euros, but hopefully he'll have plenty of other good experiences ahead of him.

Even at the last Euros Clarke was still very much figuring out how to utilise our squad. I know we got a 0-0 draw with England, but we started 2 low-scoring strikers, McTominay at RCB, and it was Gilmour’s first competitive game. 

Due to the emergence of Gilmour, McGregor's resurgence, and McTominay's attacking prowess, we're a different beast now. There is less reliance on McGinn and our left backs to do everything.

[Orraloon]

7 hours ago, Dodger said:

On the other side, I would say Hanley, Cooper, Adams, Tierney and Armstrong were all in better shape last time around 

I hope you are wrong because Tierney was out injured for the first game of the last EUROs

[BryanBlessed]

8 hours ago, Dodger said:

On the other side, I would say Hanley, Cooper, Adams, Tierney and Armstrong were all in better shape last time around 

I wouldn't say Tierney was any worse as I think his value has gone down due to his injury record. I'm not really sure Adams is worse either to be honest.  Hanley and Cooper yes. 

[Dodger]

2 hours ago, BryanBlessed said:

I wouldn't say Tierney was any worse as I think his value has gone down due to his injury record. I'm not really sure Adams is worse either to be honest.  Hanley and Cooper yes. 

I'm going from memory here so could be wrong but I think Tierney was first choice in a very good arsenal team 3 years ago. This season he hasn't had one decent run of games and even when fit, hasnt always been first choice for Real Sociedad. 

Also think Adams was a regular starter in the EPL rather than a sometimes starter in the Championship.