Belgium vs Scotland

[Savage Henry]

They didn't get lucky, they changed and it shows.

Yeah. It’s not luck.

[MarkoRaj]

2 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/27827569

No luck involved. Every top country invests and trains their youth teams well. Germany, England, Belgium, France. They all do it. 

We are all over the place and expect a coherent flow of youth players. Pretty much all the talent comes from the three or four clubs in Scotland who do value youth. Livy, Hamilton, Celtic, Hibs. You could argue a few others. Otherwise it comes from down south via big academies.

Lets have a ten year plan and a system like France does that’s the same from u12 to the full side. 

Build from the bottom up. 

"Play 4-3-3 from u12s" does not in any way explain how some of the best players in the world, most of whom were youth players in different countries, all peak together at the same time

[Lyle Lanley]

Taylor, O'Donnell and McLean deserve to keep their places in the starting 11. 

[Andy_K_97]

10 minutes ago, KillieMogwai said:

Lads, lads, lads.

Every manager claims to learn from defeats, but the only one I've genuinely seen doing it is Clarke.

To be honest, as much as I like to slag off Aberdeen and (ex)Hibs players, I'm just glad we've got a manager who isn't afraid to try Scottish Premiership players at International level. Going by some who worship the EPL, you'd have thought we would have been pumped by Cyprus and allow Belgium to run up double figures. 

We beat a tricky Cyprus team and didn't embarrass ourselves tonight, even with chucking in an untested LB at the last minute to replace our best player and Champion's League-winning captain.

 

We're on a positive gradient for the first time in fucking ages. 

 

 

 

Agreed completely. We didn't embarrass ourselves tonight when under the previous gaffer our team would have resembled the charred ashes of a once-burning building at full-time. Scotland's qualifying campaign isn't going to be defined by the games against Belgium, nor will qualification itself hinge on them - it's the crap mistakes we make against the lower-ranked teams that will have cost us if we fail to make it out of the group stage. There's plenty of positives to take from the two games here - the manager now knows more about the pool of players that he can call upon, we know who our number one keeper is after two good games, Greg Taylor didn't look out of place at all deputising for Robertson, the midfield is starting to look quite decent and we've got a few months now to see if our striking options will improve.

At Killie we did get an improvement in the tactics right away but the wins took slightly longer to materialise. However when they did it was very hard to stop them from coming. This qualification cycle may have come too late for Clarke to get us out of the group, but if we can perform well in the remainder of the games and not embarrass ourselves then teams can start to fear a visit to Hampden or indeed a visit from us. You can write me off as a deluded blue and white spectacle-wearer if you want to - and you've every right to - but going by what I've seen we have every reason to believe that we can make it to the Euros by either means of qualification. Clarke is very much the real deal in terms of management and I have little doubt that by the end of this year we'll see him work his magic with the national team. 

[ewan14]

28 minutes ago, KillieMogwai said:

Lads, lads, lads.

Every manager claims to learn from defeats, but the only one I've genuinely seen doing it is Clarke.

To be honest, as much as I like to slag off Aberdeen and (ex)Hibs players, I'm just glad we've got a manager who isn't afraid to try Scottish Premiership players at International level. Going by some who worship the EPL, you'd have thought we would have been pumped by Cyprus and allow Belgium to run up double figures. 

We beat a tricky Cyprus team and didn't embarrass ourselves tonight, even with chucking in an untested LB at the last minute to replace our best player and Champion's League-winning captain.

 

We're on a positive gradient for the first time in fucking ages. 

 

 

 

Sorry to be boring but ( unfortunately ) Russia beat Cyprus one nil tonight , repeat one nil

[kingjoey]

43 minutes ago, The Grass Is Greener. said:

What’s McGinn got to do with anything he didn’t even play?  

You’re all over the place tonight.

You’ve slightly missed the point there, Mr Greener. Read his post again.

[Derry Alli]

I can see why Aberdeen players never got picked in the past. If only Kilmarnock players weren't getting picked as well the team might improve. 

[wastecoatwilly]

2 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

I thought that we did ok tonight. A number of players played well, and the only ones who didn’t really come up to scratch were Armstrong, Russell and McGregor. McTominay wins the ball well, but got caught in possession too often and needs to know when to release the ball. Plaudits to Greg Taylor for playing well and Steve Clarke for picking him. Great performance from Kenny McLean. If the ball had landed at any other Scottish player than James Forrest, we would have gone 2.1, and then who knows. Forrest seems to have forgotten to shoot when the ball comes to him in front of an almost empty goal.

I agree with most of that but McGregor has played nearly 70 games this season far too many not Scotland's fault thou.
Hopefully Griffiths and Christie can come into the squad, McLean has played his way into the team for me and McTominay is getting better with every game,
Taylor can hold his head high from that performance,harsh score line when you think the goals were scored at the end of 45 and 90 plus an off side goal.
For me it's Russia or us for second.
 

[ewan14]

47 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

Give them a bit of leeway, they're really excited. 

They've never had glory like this in 100 years. 

2 players in the worst Scotland team ever, and one tie In Europe. What a time to be alive for them. 

League champions 1965 , less than 100 years

 

Not the worst Scotland team ever

[KillieMogwai]

3 minutes ago, ewan14 said:

Sorry to be boring but ( unfortunately ) Russia beat Cyprus one nil tonight , repeat one nil

Not sure what you're getting at here?

By positive gradient, I'm meaning long-term.

As I said before, I doubt we'll qualify out of this group.

The Nations League playoffs could be a strong possibility, but I think we'll be in a much better place for the tournament after that, with Clarke in chaarge.

[ewan14]

21 minutes ago, Empty It said:

Thought McKenna played a better game than any of the Celtic players.

not too difficult , especially with Forrest being Mr Hyde tonight

[KillieMogwai]

3 minutes ago, wastecoatwilly said:

I agree with most of that but McGregor has played nearly 70 games this season far too many not Scotland's fault thou.
Hopefully Griffiths and Christie can come into the squad, McLean has played his way into the team for me and McTominay is getting better with every game,
Taylor can hold his head high from that performance,harsh score line when you think the goals were scored at the end of 45 and 90 plus an off side goal.
For me it's Russia or us for second.
 

To be fair, Forrest and McGregor must be knackered. 

Totally agree about Griffiths (good for Brophy to have some real competition for the No.9 shirt ), and Christie will be a big player for Scotland once fit again.

Who do we have to push Forrest, though? Or to give him a break at least? Are there any youngsters coming through on the right wing? 

 

[Kuro]

27 minutes ago, Andy_K_97 said:

Agreed completely. We didn't embarrass ourselves tonight when under the previous gaffer our team would have resembled the charred ashes of a once-burning building at full-time. Scotland's qualifying campaign isn't going to be defined by the games against Belgium, nor will qualification itself hinge on them - it's the crap mistakes we make against the lower-ranked teams that will have cost us if we fail to make it out of the group stage. There's plenty of positives to take from the two games here - the manager now knows more about the pool of players that he can call upon, we know who our number one keeper is after two good games, Greg Taylor didn't look out of place at all deputising for Robertson, the midfield is starting to look quite decent and we've got a few months now to see if our striking options will improve.

At Killie we did get an improvement in the tactics right away but the wins took slightly longer to materialise. However when they did it was very hard to stop them from coming. This qualification cycle may have come too late for Clarke to get us out of the group, but if we can perform well in the remainder of the games and not embarrass ourselves then teams can start to fear a visit to Hampden or indeed a visit from us. You can write me off as a deluded blue and white spectacle-wearer if you want to - and you've every right to - but going by what I've seen we have every reason to believe that we can make it to the Euros by either means of qualification. Clarke is very much the real deal in terms of management and I have little doubt that by the end of this year we'll see him work his magic with the national team. 

Put it this way, Belgium are the number one ranked team in the world, and I'd rather have our manager than theirs.  

[Dindeleux]

1 hour ago, Tidser said:

Saltcoats Victoria manager. Given Clarke's a Saltcoats man, that's going home. Can't imagine him going back to Kilmarnock. 

[Kuro]

Infact I don't think there's any doubt Scotland have the best manager of any of the countries in the British isles, wouldn't dream of swapping him for any of them.

[kingjoey]

20 minutes ago, wastecoatwilly said:

I agree with most of that but McGregor has played nearly 70 games this season far too many not Scotland's fault thou.
Hopefully Griffiths and Christie can come into the squad, McLean has played his way into the team for me and McTominay is getting better with every game,
Taylor can hold his head high from that performance,harsh score line when you think the goals were scored at the end of 45 and 90 plus an off side goal.
For me it's Russia or us for second.
 

Don’t get all defensive about McGregor. Of course he is a great player and should be in the starting eleven every time, and he has played a lot of games. But he was poor tonight.

[edinabear]

4 minutes ago, Kuro said:

Put it this way, Belgium are the number one ranked team in the world, and I'd rather have our manager than theirs.  

Rather Steve Clarke than Roberto Martinez!!!  Hahahaha hahaha. Well done to Steve Clarke beating Cyprus with a last minute goal and instead of losing 4-0 to belgium we now lose 3-0. McLeish would have been slaughtered for these results.

[Kuro]

Just now, edinabear said:

Rather Steve Clarke than Roberto Martinez!!!  Hahahaha hahaha. Well done to Steve Clarke beating Cyprus with a last minute goal and instead of losing 4-0 to belgium we now lose 3-0. McLeish would have been slaughtered for these results.

Shut up.

[ewan14]

15 minutes ago, KillieMogwai said:

To be fair, Forrest and McGregor must be knackered. 

Totally agree about Griffiths (good for Brophy to have some real competition for the No.9 shirt ), and Christie will be a big player for Scotland once fit again.

Who do we have to push Forrest, though? Or to give him a break at least? Are there any youngsters coming through on the right wing? 

 

are there any young , natural left footed players coming through to play on the left wing ?

[ayrmad]

8 minutes ago, Kuro said:

Infact I don't think there's any doubt Scotland have the best manager of any of the countries in the British isles, wouldn't dream of swapping him for any of them.

I wouldn't like to detract from MO's results at Northern Ireland.