Match Thread (International) Scotland vs Austria, Israel and the Faroes

[strachanmcgheegoal]

Chris Martin ?

[Andy_123]

I'm grateful to him for being competent enough unlike his predecessors to get us to a tournament, but on this occasion with an increased amount of teams qualifying and two goes at it via the nations league, it's no more than we should have expected from any other competent manager.

The current qualifiers are pretty much over already after another poor result v Israel. We need Austria to slip up to have any hope of 2nd and we are only 2 games in. Even then, does 2nd get you anything?

[Poodler]

5 minutes ago, strachanmcgheegoal said:

Chris Martin ?

That’s been the hardest part 

[aberdeen1970]

6 minutes ago, Andy_123 said:

I'm grateful to him for being competent enough unlike his predecessors to get us to a tournament, but on this occasion with an increased amount of teams qualifying and two goes at it via the nations league, it's no more than we should have expected from any other competent manager.

The current qualifiers are pretty much over already after another poor result v Israel. We need Austria to slip up to have any hope of 2nd and we are only 2 games in. Even then, does 2nd get you anything?

I think you're expecting too much from a Scotland manager especially so early into his reign after taking over a shit show. 

And there's an awful lot of speculation in that post.  There's absolutely no guarantee any other manager would have qualified. 

But you've made your mind up about Clarke being a failure already so I'm not going to change it. 

What is it you actually want?  Do you want him sacked and replaced before he gets to take his team to the Euro finals?  

[WesthillWanderersFC]

24 minutes ago, Millertime said:

He plays left sided centre half for arsenal

I agree with you that he is better than Robertson and should play left wing back for us

Robertson, again, was horrific in his crossing last night

Nope.

He’s been left back for Arsenal for a while in a back 4.

He has played regularly at the left of 3 centre halves for them plenty of times though, but not laterally

Tierney is more adaptable than Robertson so he’ll be the one that’s gets played left centre half for Scotland, whether that’s in a back 3 or back 4. 

 

[Sheepo]

1 hour ago, aberdeen1970 said:

 

He's qualified for the European Championships and is unbeaten so far in the World Cup qualifiers. 

What else were you expecting him to have achieved so far? 

 

If that's average for a Scotland manager why has no one else managed to qualify since 1998. And Craig Broon's teams were hardly exciting either BTW. 

To be fair I am sure Strachan, Mcleish & Smith would have got to a tournament if they had the Nations League route available to them also

[Guest]

2 hours ago, aberdeen1970 said:

 

He's qualified for the European Championships and is unbeaten so far in the World Cup qualifiers. 

What else were you expecting him to have achieved so far? 

 

If that's average for a Scotland manager why has no one else managed to qualify since 1998. And Craig Broon's teams were hardly exciting either BTW. 

I think folk are fair to ask how we've failed to beat Israel in 4 matches. 
 

He did what he had to do to get us to the Euros, and for that we're all thankful. But, you can still have question marks. 
 

Sat off Israel in the first half last night and go in deservedly 1 down, could've been 3/4. Come out with a higher press and 4 at the back and the first 15 mins of the second half we could've reversed the score line to 2-1, if we took our chances. 
 

Then he makes the inexplicable decision to take off Che Adams who was looking to stretch the game and run in behind, and bring on Lyndon Dykes to go more direct, with no one moving beyond him. It was like he was satisfied with a point.

 

The draw against Austria was only a good result provided we beat Israel, now, once again, we're asking for other nations to do us a favour and we have to avoid some embarrassing result somewhere down the line. 
 

It's out of our hands. 

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, Sheepo said:

To be fair I am sure Strachan, Mcleish & Smith would have got to a tournament if they had the Nations League route available to them also

To go to a very decent side like Serbia and turn in a performance that got us through, was absolutely sensational. 
 

Other than that, Clarke's results have generally been pretty average. 
 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Millertime said:

He plays left sided centre half for arsenal

I agree with you that he is better than Robertson and should play left wing back for us

Robertson, again, was horrific in his crossing last night

He hasn't played LCB for arsenal since about October/November. He's been excelling at left back in a 4 for them. 
 

Andy Robertson, like most his Liverpool team mates, has seen his form fall off a cliff. The team would probably be better balanced with Tierney at LB rather than Robertson. 
 

Robertson is a classic example of being a good player in amongst a specific system, but failing to look particularly great in any other style of play. 

[Ke1t]

8 minutes ago, ConsiCanBoogie1903 said:

To go to a very decent side like Serbia and turn in a performance that got us through, was absolutely sensational. 
 

Other than that, Clarke's results have generally been pretty average. 
 

 

Depends on what the bar for average is. 

Typically our average is 'Not Qualifying', so 'qualifying' would place his results at above average. 

We looked a far more capable side against a very decent Austrian side... most organised I've seen us look in years. 

I don't think we'll qualify from this group, so we'll go back to pretty average, I suppose. 

[Ten Caat]

1 hour ago, Millertime said:

He plays left sided centre half for arsenal

I agree with you that he is better than Robertson and should play left wing back for us

Robertson, again, was horrific in his crossing last night

Arsenal have been using him as a conventional left back for months now (when he's fit which seems to be a bit of a problem)

 

[aberdeen1970]

9 minutes ago, Ke1t said:

Depends on what the bar for average is. 

Typically our average is 'Not Qualifying', so 'qualifying' would place his results at above average. 

We looked a far more capable side against a very decent Austrian side... most organised I've seen us look in years. 

I don't think we'll qualify from this group, so we'll go back to pretty average, I suppose. 

Exactly. 

You've got to judge him on reality, not fantasy.  And the reality is, compared to many previous Scotland managers, he has a good record.

Whilst the team aren't exactly inspiring, they are generally competitive.  

 

 

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, Ke1t said:

Depends on what the bar for average is. 

Typically our average is 'Not Qualifying', so 'qualifying' would place his results at above average. 

We looked a far more capable side against a very decent Austrian side... most organised I've seen us look in years. 

I don't think we'll qualify from this group, so we'll go back to pretty average, I suppose. 

I think this is a chance for us to kick on. I'd say our better players are further forward, last night was a must win game and he started like we could afford a draw. 

I don't think he should get the dunt or anything, I just think he's sometimes asking the players to play with unnatural limitations.

[torry_battery_ram]

I didn't understand why he dropped Christie and Armstrong from the starting eleven. Once those 2 came on we looked much brighter and more threatening going forward.

I do think Clarke saw a draw as a good result last night as he was going on about losing on their previous 2 visits in his after match interview.

I also wouldn't be at all surprised if he is planning on not being around for September's qualifiers as I think he wants the Celtic job.

[Andy_123]

4 hours ago, aberdeen1970 said:

I think you're expecting too much from a Scotland manager especially so early into his reign after taking over a shit show. 

And there's an awful lot of speculation in that post.  There's absolutely no guarantee any other manager would have qualified. 

But you've made your mind up about Clarke being a failure already so I'm not going to change it. 

What is it you actually want?  Do you want him sacked and replaced before he gets to take his team to the Euro finals?  

I’ve never classed him as a failure. I’ve just said he’s done as well as any competent manager should have done. And there isn’t that much speculation there, it was McLeish who got us into the playoffs and he was a terrible manager for us second time round. Clarke got past Israel on pens (drew 0-0), then Serbia on pens (drew 1-1). He qualified without actually winning a game in 90 mins. 

There’s plenty questions to be asked of him - a formation purely to squeeze in Robertson who doesn’t play well for us and which doesn’t get the best out of most others, a fairly dire style of play unless we fall behind and have to attack a bit more, and continually struggling to beat a team ranked 40 places lower than us. His main plus point for me is abandoning the ‘English championship players are the best’ mentality of the last few managers before him. 

It’s a similar situation to McInnes here. He’s achieved something early on that should really have been achieved by any previous manager who knew what they were doing, but because those previous managers were poor, which should have absolutely no bearing on evaluating how Clarke is doing at all, he’ll be immune to criticism for many fans regardless.

 

[The Buzzard]

I'd get us playing with a back 4 and then shape the middle to front depending on opposition. 

Tierney over to RB because he'd be better at it than anybody else in the squad. See if Robertson might play a bit better if he is in his natural club position. 

Dykes to hold the ball up and have others run off him, especially tomorrow. 

 

[Andy_123]

 

44 minutes ago, The Buzzard said:

I'd get us playing with a back 4 and then shape the middle to front depending on opposition. 

Tierney over to RB because he'd be better at it than anybody else in the squad. See if Robertson might play a bit better if he is in his natural club position. 

Dykes to hold the ball up and have others run off him, especially tomorrow. 

 

I'd probably play that squad but sub in the boy Adams for Christie. He's been pish for a while now

[aberdeen1970]

1 minute ago, Roberto said:

Che Adams for me.

I wouldn't play Christie either.

No reason why we couldn't play Dykes, Adams and Fraser in the same team 

[Ten Caat]

Aye Adams was our best player I thought the other night. Deserves another start and if we can't pair him up with Dykes and also play a winger at home against the Faroes then who can we do against? Christie has been totally rank for 6 months, bench only for me

Hendry has been shite both games he's played and Hanley no better than average. I don't see us going with a back 4 though.......although I do think Tierney might get left out for this one in view of him struggling to stay fit for any protracted length of time.......maybe a back 3 of Gallagher on the right, McKenna centre and Consi on the left?

[NEM]

22 hours ago, aberdeen1970 said:

 

He's qualified for the European Championships and is unbeaten so far in the World Cup qualifiers. 

What else were you expecting him to have achieved so far? 

 

If that's average for a Scotland manager why has no one else managed to qualify since 1998. And Craig Broon's teams were hardly exciting either BTW. 

Given the above claiming Strachan has done better is a bit of a fucking stretch 

That poisonous ginger cunt got us nowhere near qualifying

[BitWait]

The albeit poisonous ginger cunt was the best manager we had in past 20 years and things were looking real good for the future when those cretins at the SFA sacked him.

[The Buzzard]

2 hours ago, Andy_123 said:

 

I'd probably play that squad but sub in the boy Adams for Christie. He's been pish for a while now

Possibly harsh on Adams for sure but i would start with the above tomorrow and bring him on once we've hopefully tired them a bit. 

Christie could maybe get a wee lift from a decent performance tomorrow. McGregor needs to sort his form out too but I don't think we need him tomorrow. 

[Andy_123]

I was meaning start Adams over Christie.

Christie is the one who’s been pish lately. 

[Guest]

I would've had Turnbull in before Christie on merit. 

[aberdeen1970]

4 minutes ago, ConsiCanBoogie1903 said:

I would've had Turnbull in before Christie on merit. 

Different players. Turnbull is competing with the central midfielders.

Christie is classed as a forward. Wide or behind the striker. 

[Ten Caat]

Turnbull in for Fleck would have made sense to me, going on current form

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Different players. Turnbull is competing with the central midfielders.

Christie is classed as a forward. Wide or behind the striker. 

Turnbull more or less plays off the striker for Celtic. He's excellent further up. 

[perthshirered]

2 hours ago, NEM said:

Given the above claiming Strachan has done better is a bit of a fucking stretch 

That poisonous ginger cunt got us nowhere near qualifying

A different argument maybe but I think Strachan was largely responsible for taking us away from the prehistoric style of play we had. When you look at Ireland and their shambolic run, where Kenny is trying to bring them out of the dark ages, then Strachan's results were pretty decent in comparison. Arrogant little shit though. 

 

[aberdeen1970]

58 minutes ago, ConsiCanBoogie1903 said:

Turnbull more or less plays off the striker for Celtic. He's excellent further up. 

They are still not like for like though. 

I'd say Turnbull is an 8 or a 10.

Christie is a 7/11 or a 10.

I'd have dropped Fleck for Turnbull and kept Christie in the squad. 

[WesthillWanderersFC]

These international breaks are tediously long.