I'm not just saying this after the result and performance today.
IMO Scotland should have pushed out the boat and got perhaps a manager with more experience, not that theres many at the moment. Perhaps bringing in a foreign manager. Basically we should have spent more money on a better quality manager as at this moment in time all I can see happening as bombing down the rankings list again.

Greame Souness all day long.

Passionate, Scottish and has a great porno tash

i would rather bomb down the rankings than appoint a foreign manager

Mark McGhee would have been a far better appointment.

Doesn't matter who you get in, the players are shite.

KNEE is JERKING, MAN I'M REACTING!

WOW, IT JUST WON'T STOP.

another mess up by the SFA blazers?

I agree. We should get someone in with a proven track record at international level, maybe someone who'd at least won something at that level. Berti Vogts, for example.

Isnt the whole point of starting a thread like this and putting forward an argument like this, that you come up with some sort of solution?? Or offer a reasonable and lucid argument as to why Burley shouldnt have got the job?? Who do you suggest we spend all this money on then?? f**k it lets go all out and hire Jose from Inter Milan, its not an overpaid foreign muppet weith no idea opf the scottish game that we need, man even Jesus couldnt have performed the miracle of us winning that game if the first half performence was anything to go by.

Didnt we have a supposed decent foreign Manager who had won a major international tournament, yet managed to FUBAR the whole squad playing style, mentality, ethos and passion. And thus we effectively raced down the rankings faster than Usain Bolt ran the 100m recently.

The guys been in the job five minutes, had 3 games which were friendlies, 2 of which were against teams who qualified for the Euro Championships, 1 of whom gubbed that lot down south, not once but twice, and hes lost his 1st competitive game granted to poor tactical choices, poor player positioning, shameful performences and poor refereeing, and here you are crucifying him.

Your not an Old Firm fan by any chance are you??

he needs time to adjust to international football, and he needs to start realising if its not broke dont change it, if Fletcher is played on the right by Ferguson ( a man whos won more trophies than Ive had hot dinners) then why does Burley think that putting him centrally will work? Same applies to Robson (a DM not a winger) as it applies to Brown.

Theres not many managers out there who are a) willing to take the job on and who could actually do much of a better job in the same amount of time.

The problem with racing up the rankings and competing against teams like France and Italy, is that there is only one place to go afterwards, and thats right back down the table you raced up.

Jesus its one game we lost, but as usual this is another example of the overgrowing pessimism that is integrated into the Scottish psyche whenever we play an international.

The SFA cannot afford to push the boat out on a better manager, they can't even get a sponsor for the Scottish cup. Burley wouldn't have been my first choice of manager but now he has the job he deserves the nations support, to judge our manager after one competitive game, albeit a disasterous one is very harsh.

Got the feeling a few weeks ago that some of the daily's had in for Burley and the way the record reported his comments about Broadfoot's limited quality seems to point that the DR seem to have the knives sharpened for the first available opportunity to do him. Be interesting to see the fall out from today.

I don't honestly see how we could have got anybody better than Burley. I await him being the most talented manager thread after a win against Iceland...

Get an Italian in eh!! Away ya hun.

First off Still_Game can you read as you surely can read the first sentence of my first post and surely you can see that it says I support Dundee.

George Burley simply isn't good enough even if you disregard his short spell in charge of Scotland. Personally I would have preferred Craig Levein or Billy Davies if the SFA insist on not getting national experience or a big name manager.
Now I know there is not alot to choose out there but surely there is better than Burley available. Just because we failed with Berti doesn't mean a different manager would fail. Regardless if he beats Iceland and even Holland my opinion will still be the same unless we qualify. As anything less will be a step backwards after the huge progress we made during the Euro 2008 qualification, this time round the task is much easier but with a bigger goal and added pressures.

That's just nonsense. Wee Berti would be a better bet than Souness.

He should never have been sacked from Hearts.

Don't see how we can blame Burley for our inability to play a simple game well - control, then pass, the fucking ball. After an abysmal first half there were at least signs of life in the 2nd and the lads should take some credit for that, but technically we're gash. Mcfadden has some creativity in him but theres little else around him. Burley has f**k all to do with this: our league is piss weak and our players, though honest, are just not good enough. I want us to scrap out a result this week as much as anyone but i'm not going to hide behind another made up scapegoat just so we can kid on that we're anywhere close to a good footballing team.

Watching the roi game against Georgia should show the Scottish players how to do it. Georgia are a far better team than Macedonia, but roi absolutely bossed that game, doing nothing spectacular (they have no spectacular players). Scotland will no doubt thrash Macedonia at home, but today they were atrocious and seemed unable to do even the basics.

Burley mark II he done f**k all apart from one good league season at Motherwell.

the reason we can point the finger at Burley is the

1- his teams in 4 matches so far have not even looked like winning

2- his teams in 4 matches so far have not even looked like scoring ( when we did it was against the run of play and both goals were scored against players more interested in not being injured than winning )

3- for all that people criticise Smith and McLeish we neither of those manager put thogether a run of such insipid performances in a row as Burely has. Yes we have had injuries of late, but so did Smith and McLeish and we still look a shite site more creative with 4-5-1 than we do with Burley

4 - Our improved performances and results in the prev campaign were in a ferociusly difficult group. We have been dire recently in friendlies yet prev 2 managers never went 4 games without a win !

You mean WE not YOU. p***k, i take banter and love banter, but that is just a shite statement, Most Rangers fans on here are all good lads and decent, you however can stick your St Georges Flag up your arse.

sorry just a bit of tongue and cheek on my part lol



Billy Davies aint good enough either, and Levein doesnt want the job, and im not convinced a foreign manager is the right way to go, foreign coaches struggle to understand the mentality and playing style that we have, and as for our huge progress, i agree we did progress under Smith & McLeish, but I also think were making more of that than was actually there. We beat a half arsed French side, who are not at their best the last 6-12 months, and played well against an Italian side who although have good players have a manager with not a clue.

The bottom line is at the moment there aint many managers out there who are good enough or want the job, and being frank i dont think its a manager were needing, its some fresh blood to let the likes of Fletcher, Brown and a few others realise that there place in the team aint guaranteed, and that whe they pull on the shirt they have to give 110%

Levein,Souness or McGhee would never have accepted arriving in Macedonia just a day before the game or advice from Craig Brown.
The SFA wanted a yes man and thats what they have got.

Very true. Any manager that employs the likes of Brown in has back room staff doesn't really have a leg to stand on when things go tits up.

Give it a rest you fucking trumpet. Just because you dress up in your kilt and facepaint thinking you are William Wallace's 15th removed cousin, and dance about crawing 'best fans ever!!!11' means jack shit to me.

The players aren't good enough, the manager made terrible decisions, and as Austria have proven last night by beating France 3-1, the result against the French was nothing to boast about either.

Scotland won't qualify because in International football terms they are even lagging behind minnows like Macedonia, get used to it.

What a tit you are!You can't even decide which team to follow.

Did your beloved Engerlund not lose to Northern Ireland and they lost to Slovenia?
oh oh oh. F.C Kaunus

Its ok blaming the players but Burley must take the blame for playing scott brown out of postition.Also starting robson ahead of Maloney.And picking paul hartley.And waiting for ten minutes to go then bringing on Boyd.

Why would I support England? Not more of your patently wrong 'Rangers fans all support England!!!!1'. Here's something to chew on, a Rangers fan has more of a vested interest in the Scotland team than you, given their players actually play for the national team unlike St Mirren

On topic, Burley should (and will) have the job until the end of the qualification fixtures, but a performance like that on wednesday and it is game over already in the group. Even if they nick second as I've said they need to play in the lottery of a play off against a team who will more than likely be significantly better than Norway, or Macedonia.

2nd may well not be good enough for a play off spot. It is quite conceivable the since ourselves and Norway have dropped points already, that neither of us ( making the rather large assumption that we will be fighting for 2nd place ) will have the points required to avoid being the wost performing 2nd place side out of all the groups.

Also imo Berti was the worst we've had in years but he was the one that brung in all the inexperienced players and gave them International football that McLeish and Smith made into "world beaters".

Players need to have a word with themselves too.
The midfield were abysmal with the exception of Robson.

Talk of sacking Burley may well be premature and it's very easy to describe such a reaction as 'knee-jerk'.
However, I'm very conscious of the fact that we basically ruled ourselves out of the last World Cup by allowing Vogts the first three qualifying games, when it had been patently clear for some time that he was hopeless.
If we don't beat Iceland, I think it's utterly realistic to suggest it's unwise to let Burley continue.

Point 1. Never once said I have wanted independance for Scotland, so no idea where William Wallace comment comes from

Point 2. Not worn a kilt since I was at a wedding since I was 4.

Point 3. I do not where face paint and cringe at any grown man in the stuff

Point 4. My casual scene thread was deleted, so please tell me how I am a face painted kilt wearing fan. I do however love Scotland more then anything. I know we are not world beaters. I don't expect us to be.

Utter garbage.
When did i say all Rangers fans support England.Making pish up again to support your argument.I know many Rangers fans who go to Hampden,i go with a couple myself,they talk of Scotland as we.You use the words you which is why most posters think you follow someone else,possibly England or R.O.I possibly
I've chewed and chewed on your comment.Considering i have been following Scotland home and away for many years,i would imagine i would have as much a vested interest in my national team no matter who i follow.I'm just not a gloryhunting bigot as i watch a diddy team.
Once players have the blue of Scotland on it doesn't matter which club team they play for,does it?Oh it does,Robson was pish yesterday you said even though apart from Gordon he was the best man on the park but oh wait he plays for Celtic,he must be crap.
Just to add-only one player from Rangers started yesterday.

Just for the record,i agree entirely with your last paragraph.

You can only pish with the cock you've got.


Why?

I couldn't give a shit if Scotland appointed a manager from Azerbaijan, as long as he set the team up to win, and made substitutions that can change a game. Burley hasn't won in 4 games now, and what is worse none of the games his team even looked like winning.

It wouldn't surprise me if Macedonia came over here and turned Scotland over at Hampden, the same way Belarus did by purely passing us off the park.

With Macedonia going with their formation even a simpleton could see that stretching them wide, and firing crosses into the box was going to cause serious problems, which we did, but far too late.

Still can't believe Burley's post match comments 'In the second half things were better, and we were outstanding' I'll have a pint of whatever he was drinking, turpentine most likely.

Like Kevin Kyle & Robbie Stockdale......

...Scott Dobbie, Paul Devlin....

To be fair, Paul Devlin looked okay for a couple of games. He was the Kris Commons of his day, I suspect.

i'm willing to give burley a chance and with that more time. but his comments after the match saying we were 'outstanding' were wide if the mark and didnt fill me with confidence. we were rotten.

Completely agree. It doesnt sit well to start looking at pressing the manager eject button so soon, but then there has literally been nothing to encourage anyone so far in Burley's reign. I cannot think of a moment in any game so far where we have looked as good as, let alone better, than the opposition. If the price of doing the 'decent thing' is to sacrifice our chances of qualifying from the best draw we have had in a long time, then it is perhaps too high a price to pay.

Burley is completely out of his depth in this job and should never have got it in the first place.

His comments after the match were ridiculous.
To say that we were 'outstanding' in the second half was a disgrace and a slight on the knowledge of us Scotland fans.
We had no shape at all and had to rely on the occasional piece of skill from McFadden or Maloney to get the hint of a chance on goal.

Thankfully Kris Boyd was on hand to speak the truth and admit that it was a poor performance.

The good news for Burley is that he reports to the equally out of his depth Gordon Smith.
Between the two of them and George '3 clubs to the wall' Peat, I have no doubt we will continue to be embarrassed in the months/years ahead.

Burley saying Broadfoot is 'a limited player' is another bizarre comment. Alexander is hardly the white Cafu at right back, and he was pish against Macedonia.

It's shocking to think that Burley has watched videos of Macedonia, watched how they set up their system in a 3-4-3, yet he plays 4 mainly central midfielders across the park which provide no width, plays McFadden, and Miller up front when it clearly doesn't work between them well, then hails the performance as 'outstanding'.

You could see the immediate difference when Robson was hooked for Commons, and Maloney on for Hartley.

I agree completely.

To call Broadfoot 'limited' was crass, if true!
Hardly gives him confidence going in to the game.

10 minutes in and it was obvious that we needed to go 433 to spread out their 3 man defence and limit their time on the ball - obvious to everyone except Burley apparently.

I am not a Burley fan as I do think he is sending is in a backward motion, but he is one real game into the campaign- get behind him and support us to victory!

The results over the weekend show that McLeish and Smith fluked some results against an average France team and that the Scotland fans and media went totally overboard in the aftermath of McFaddens fluke in Paris.

And as for Burley, well I remember his Ayr United team and was surprised that he ever got another job in management never mind the international job. Smith and Peat shat it from appointing someone who would argue the toss with them.

Burely cuts a pathetic figure when you see him in the dugout – it reminds me of Strachan in Bratislava when we were on our way to the most embarrassing ever European result. Off the pitch when he is giving interviews isn’t much better.

How anyone expects him to install some passion in the players and the supporters heaven only knows. He should be sacked immediately and an SOS call issued to Graeme Souness.

Agree with that, the red tops seemed to be looking for an excuse to have a go at Burley, unfortunately he's given them a good excuse with Saturday's result.

No it dosen't.It shows that smith and Mcleish are good enough managers by playing the right formation and players.