Thoughts from the last week

[borojock]

Its been a tough last week but here's me thoughts

 

• We don't play Italy and France in the qualifiers, we played two teams much better then us, away from home, at the end of a long season, where our players had very little to play for compared to what the Italians and French did. As bad as we were in the last two games, and we were bad, I honestly don't think in a competitive scenario we would be that bad.
• The teams were competing against in the next qualifiers is Slovenia and Slovakia (Malta and Lithuania we should and need to beat & England we will more than likely lose against love to get a draw or two but will be hard). Against the Czechs and Danish (similar standard to Slovenia and Slovakia) only a few months ago we got two wins with no goals conceded. Yes we were outplayed for large parts of the game but we still beat them so I take more from those two games than these last two games.
• I personally think it was a really bad choice of games I understand the argument that you need to play against the best to improve but I don't think we improved or learnt much we know were not at their standard the only thing that has resulted from these games is two bad results and performances and a significant drop in momentum and positiveness
• Strachan for me should still be given this qualifiers but needs to be more dynamic in formation, subs and players he uses. Against Italy and France as well as England I would be playing 5-3-2 same formation Wales use our defence isn't good enough to cope with the quality teams so we need to help it by playing a defensive formation like that. Players he uses why Greer is still in the squad never mind starting I don't get, I admire his loyalty to players but it ssnt helping him he needs to bin the players who are getting to end of the careers and bring in younger players quicker and give them more game time in friendlies and competitive games against pot 6/5 teams. We have no succession planning with players
• We need a full time and quality defensive coach who should be working with our defender on a regular basis as that is going to kill us
• We need one world class quality player - but I cant see where that's coming from

[King Of Paisley]

Agree with your third point. Didn't see the point of arranging these types of games at the end of a long hard season although I get why Strachan jumped at the chance of playing in Malta to try and get a feel for the likely conditions in September which will largely be the same. Although the pitch will be somewhat different from what I gather.

World class player - think we had been hanging our hats on Ryan Gauld potentially developing into the class act that many had tipped him to do. Still a slow process at Sporting Lisbon although encouraging he has been promoted into their first team squad for next season. Whether that will result in regular game time remains to be seen.

As for Strachan himself, I'm starting to wonder if sections of the support and the media are turning against him slowly but surely. He seems to be a man under pressure all of a sudden. I still think he is the man for the job at this current time but I think he even knows 6 points from our first two qualifiers are an absolute must.

[borojock]

2 hours ago, King Of Paisley said:

Agree with your third point. Didn't see the point of arranging these types of games at the end of a long hard season although I get why Strachan jumped at the chance of playing in Malta to try and get a feel for the likely conditions in September which will largely be the same. Although the pitch will be somewhat different from what I gather.

World class player - think we had been hanging our hats on Ryan Gauld potentially developing into the class act that many had tipped him to do. Still a slow process at Sporting Lisbon although encouraging he has been promoted into their first team squad for next season. Whether that will result in regular game time remains to be seen.

As for Strachan himself, I'm starting to wonder if sections of the support and the media are turning against him slowly but surely. He seems to be a man under pressure all of a sudden. I still think he is the man for the job at this current time but I think he even knows 6 points from our first two qualifiers are an absolute must.

Completely agree with the training and playing in Malta the biggest success of the week probably, which is saying something

I still think there is time for Malta I think hes still only 20 and playing at a great club, he does need to start playing first team football for them or someone else this coming season I fear for him if its another season in reserve football. The great hope of Jacky Harper seems to be diminishing maybe playing for  Real Madrid C isn't the success we hoped for

Yes tide is strongly turning against Strachan I think the SFA needs to be back him with a couple of full time coaches to help him out especially defensive, our ability on set plays is shocking