BraveheartGordon Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Would love to strategically plan games to improve our world ranking to improve seeding (I know our UEFA coefficient comes into it too). But Algeria in 19th, Romania in 13th or even Tunisia in 36th would be clever to improve our ranking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Would love to strategically plan games to improve our world ranking to improve seeding (I know our UEFA coefficient comes into it too). But Algeria in 19th, Romania in 13th or even Tunisia in 36th would be clever to improve our ranking. The Greeks would be a decent shout. I don't know where they lie or will lie come the next ranking but if still reckon they'd be above us and they are also on the slide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fringo Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Would love to strategically plan games to improve our world ranking to improve seeding (I know our UEFA coefficient comes into it too). But Algeria in 19th, Romania in 13th or even Tunisia in 36th would be clever to improve our ranking. Didn't realise they were so high in the rankings when I posted in another thread ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProudScot Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 Regan tweeting we aren't playing at all next month when some teams are having 2 friendlies and literally everyone playing atleast 1 :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tartanpar Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Regan tweeting we aren't playing at all next month when some teams are having 2 friendlies and literally everyone playing atleast 1 :-/ There are 14 UEFA countries currently without a game but a good few of them (Russia, Northern Ireland etc) will definitely play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one t in scotland Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Stewart Regan has said on twitter it is unlikely we will play.Perish the thought that useless fückwit would have anything planned in advance. How does that imposter get way with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottincarlisle Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Can't believe if we had qualified automatically the SFA wouldn't have wanted a home friendly as a thank you/party night. There must have been plans for November. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big clarky Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 What about Thialand away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Odd that there was no back up plan.... Remember in Vaduz and Allicante (before the Spain game kicked off) all the talk was a friendly v Luxembourg (but turned out to be Cyprus) and even after the last campaign there had been talk of a game during the play-off break for ages (I am sure the first reports of the Norway game had started popping up before our final game against Croatia at Hampden). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bossman4 Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Talk today it's Strachan that doesn't want a friendly, worried about damaging morale the reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Talk today it's Strachan that doesn't want a friendly, worried about damaging morale the reason. As soon as you fall of the horse the best thing to do is get straight back on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kumnio Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Strachan should gtf then. Practically every country plays, yet we sit out again, do the SFA only employ people who believe this crap, we have had a succession of managers who didn't want to play friendly games. The rest of the world must be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bossman4 Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Strachan should gtf then. Practically every country plays, yet we sit out again, do the SFA only employ people who believe this crap, we have had a succession of managers who didn't want to play friendly games. The rest of the world must be wrong. Wales must believe it, havn't played a friendly since June 2014. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Strachan should gtf then. Practically every country plays, yet we sit out again, do the SFA only employ people who believe this crap, we have had a succession of managers who didn't want to play friendly games. The rest of the world must be wrong. It's hard to disagree with this if in fact its true. He's the manager, it's his job to lift the players and team morale if and when it's at a low ebb. After the last 10 days it's as low as it's ever been for many a year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaid Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Strachan should gtf then. Practically every country plays, yet we sit out again, do the SFA only employ people who believe this crap, we have had a succession of managers who didn't want to play friendly games. The rest of the world must be wrong. It was Berti Vogts approach to playing as many friendlies as he could do and not really worrying about the results that much that ultimately saw him sacked and him being considered as a complete disaster. Now logically, Vogts approach is completely correct, using friendlies, when there's nothing at stake in the result to try new players out, try new tactics and the like. However, what he failed to get is the impact that continually losing games has to the confidence of both the team but also the wider support. Losing becomes a habit it's difficult to get out of. The fans get nervous, that translates to the players, it's a vicious circle. I suspect that as manager of Germany, he probably didn't lose many friendlies so never came under that pressure before. We've just come off a disappointing run on a little high with a good result against - admittedly - poor opposition and I can see how a another bad result could set that back again, especially with no other game for at least 4 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 It was Berti Vogts approach to playing as many friendlies as he could do and not really worrying about the results that much that ultimately saw him sacked and him being considered as a complete disaster. Now logically, Vogts approach is completely correct, using friendlies, when there's nothing at stake in the result to try new players out, try new tactics and the like. However, what he failed to get is the impact that continually losing games has to the confidence of both the team but also the wider support. Losing becomes a habit it's difficult to get out of. The fans get nervous, that translates to the players, it's a vicious circle. I suspect that as manager of Germany, he probably didn't lose many friendlies so never came under that pressure before. We've just come off a disappointing run on a little high with a good result against - admittedly - poor opposition and I can see how a another bad result could set that back again, especially with no other game for at least 4 months. Some good points but we made a play off under Berti, regardless of how that play off ended but his overall competitive record wasn't bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norsefox Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Every other nation uses friendly dates, but Scotland who can't qualify in 18 years of trying choose not to. I wonder who must be right? We need to build a conveyer belt into the senior side. How many players did Strachan call up for experience? How will we know if they're good enough? Ah it, we'll find out when they get their first caps once the current team retires. Fool proof plan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintlyscot Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 I would have played 1 game....In effect a b international for all the guys on the fringes of the squad and the handful of young players who might be able to step up in the next 6-12 months. Am sure a challenging but winnable fame could have been found. Can see the reason why it would have served no purpose for experienced guys or with euro commitments but surely we need to find out about the rest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 It was Berti Vogts approach to playing as many friendlies as he could do and not really worrying about the results that much that ultimately saw him sacked and him being considered as a complete disaster. Now logically, Vogts approach is completely correct, using friendlies, when there's nothing at stake in the result to try new players out, try new tactics and the like. However, what he failed to get is the impact that continually losing games has to the confidence of both the team but also the wider support. Losing becomes a habit it's difficult to get out of. The fans get nervous, that translates to the players, it's a vicious circle. I suspect that as manager of Germany, he probably didn't lose many friendlies so never came under that pressure before. We've just come off a disappointing run on a little high with a good result against - admittedly - poor opposition and I can see how a another bad result could set that back again, especially with no other game for at least 4 months. In one of his first interviews didn't Vogts not say you only learn to improve by playing the best of the best (as we did play a couple of pretty high profile teams during his time.... France, Portugal, Spain etc.... Plus he mentioned a number of times about wanting a game v Brazil) but the one thing he was good at was arranging games against nations of a similar standard/Style as our next opponent (ie Romania before Moldova, Hungary before Slovenia, Austria/Norway before Germany etc) but he did go into over drive a bit with the friendlies and played a large part in his downfall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaid Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Some good points but we made a play off under Berti, regardless of how that play off ended but his overall competitive record wasn't bad Which I guess is my point, Vogts had an okay record in qualifiers but a terrible record in friendlies which just built up the pressure on him that when it started to spill over into qualifiers ultimately did him in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 (edited) Every other nation uses friendly dates, but Scotland who can't qualify in 18 years of trying choose not to. I wonder who must be right? We need to build a conveyer belt into the senior side. How many players did Strachan call up for experience? How will we know if they're good enough? Ah it, we'll find out when they get their first caps once the current team retires. Fool proof plan TBH there is a touch of "old school" about Strachans attitude (it is very paw broon'ish at times about building a team, rather than build a squad) and when it comes to friendlies his attitude is the same (bar the England games, especially Wembley, has there been a friendly he has actually talked up? Most friendlies he just seems to brush to the side) Edited October 18, 2015 by wanderer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McToot Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 i'd have played one game. The problem we seem to have in this country is the media go into overdrive about friendlies being meaningless. Imo they're anything but. They count towards rankings (I know this isn't a massive issue till the next world cup draw). Our defence leaks awful goals. They would no doubt benefit from more game time together against quality strikers. We can't break down stuffy teams that sit in like Georgia. A game or two against teams like that would provide the chance to different options. We've players who this may be their last campaign who have held a position for years. Who's best to come in and replace? Do we just throw them in to the team in a qualifier. Keeps the national team in peoples mind. The right game at home getting lots of young kids along to watch and hopefully enjoy breeds the next generation of Scotland fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Langtonian Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Friendly in March and that,ll be it till we play malta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McToot Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Friendly in March and that,ll be it till we play malta I think we'll play 1 in March and 1 in May. The likes of the Netherlands will probably play 8 friendlies between now and the start of the qualifiers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 (edited) Be interesting to hear what the media and Strachan will be like once the Nations League comes into play in a couple of years..... I suspect though that these will become glorified kick abouts for B teams once the novilty wears off. Edited October 18, 2015 by wanderer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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