Belgium vs Scotland

[ayrmad]

1 minute ago, KillieMogwai said:

Yeah, I heard he struggled. Still, he's only young. Hopefully he'll learn from it.

It's not the easiest place to play, Stokes struggled there big style as well, a large pitch and unrealistically huge expectation at times.

[Gordopolis]

Strange kind of game to summarise, but I'll try.
I don't think any of our players looked lost or confused. All were decent. A few had a notable brainfart (McTominay, McKenna, Burke), but as I say none were flailing madly throughout the game. Equally, I thought McTominay was class for the majority of the game, McLean too. Greg Taylor look assured and composed throughout. Fraser was a threat. Marshall did really well.
3-0 looks like a floor-wiping but all through the game there was a strong sense of purpose and a clear system. That system was flawed in places - the number of wild punts fwd to nobody being the biggest frustration - but apart from that it looked very cohesive and appears to be a strong work in progress.

[NEFarab]

1 hour ago, Gordopolis said:

Strange kind of game to summarise, but I'll try.
I don't think any of our players looked lost or confused. All were decent. A few had a notable brainfart (McTominay, McKenna, Burke), but as I say none were flailing madly throughout the game. Equally, I thought McTominay was class for the majority of the game, McLean too. Greg Taylor look assured and composed throughout. Fraser was a threat. Marshall did really well.
3-0 looks like a floor-wiping but all through the game there was a strong sense of purpose and a clear system. That system was flawed in places - the number of wild punts fwd to nobody being the biggest frustration - but apart from that it looked very cohesive and appears to be a strong work in progress.

I agree with this. A couple of individual errors caused goals but apart from that we were solid.

Ultimately just beaten by a team who are better at football. A stark improve on previous performance and I think Steve Clarke will do a good job. 

[ewan14]

1 hour ago, KillieMogwai said:

Lewis Morgan and Glenn Middleton seem to be the next big hopes. Hastie at Motherwell (if he's still at Motherwell?), too.

Can't think of any on the right. Does Chris Burke count?

thanks , fingers crossed

does he still play for Killie ?

[NEFarab]

Need more proper football men imo. Not enough of them in strong positions these days.

[NEFarab]

PS, thank f**k we appointed a competent manager of that could’ve been ten tonight.

[Jambomo]

Strange kind of game to summarise, but I'll try.
I don't think any of our players looked lost or confused. All were decent. A few had a notable brainfart (McTominay, McKenna, Burke), but as I say none were flailing madly throughout the game. Equally, I thought McTominay was class for the majority of the game, McLean too. Greg Taylor look assured and composed throughout. Fraser was a threat. Marshall did really well.
3-0 looks like a floor-wiping but all through the game there was a strong sense of purpose and a clear system. That system was flawed in places - the number of wild punts fwd to nobody being the biggest frustration - but apart from that it looked very cohesive and appears to be a strong work in progress.

Very well summarised and is pretty much my thoughts on the game.

I am not going to criticise any of the players. Sure there were a few mistakes but all of them put in a massive effort and stuck as well as they could to the plan. Belgium are simply a few cuts above where we are at this point.

[Comrie]

Though 3-0 may look like we were well beaten and Belgium absolutely deserved the three points, but that was a solid performance for the most part as there's a lot you can do when Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne start clicking. I honestly shudder to think what the score would have been with McLeish in charge.

A few noticeable moments aside, there were very few times when the players weren't 100% focused.

[sergie's no1 fan]

Sunderland fans wouldn't let him leave the bench.

You can blame Rodgers for that. He was insistent Lewis went down South and refused to let him join us on loan last summer and January.

He would have played every game for us in the top flight and surely would have developed more than sitting in the reserves for 6 months then sitting on Sunderlands bench.

[Derry Alli]

4 hours ago, NEFarab said:

PS, thank f**k we appointed a competent manager of that could’ve been ten tonight.

Do competent managers make strikers miss sitters? 

[SpoonTon]

Belgium eased to the win without having to get out of 2nd gear.  

I'm struggling to take much optimism out of that. It was pretty much our stock away performance against a top side. 

[kingjoey]

7 hours ago, wastecoatwilly said:

So did McKenna but it's not about the individuals,Scotland need our best players available for the 2 Russian games and the Cyprus away.

I mentioned quite a number of players in my post, it was you that homed in on McGregor. By the way, McKenna had a more than decent game last night and came closer to scoring than anyone else in the team.

[Aufc]

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 but most of the spl players are not good enough to compete at international level. If we can get someone better than the likes of O’Donnell then that would be lovely

However, i do agree that I trust Steve clarke.

[Miss Tea Spoon]

7 hours ago, The OP said:

I’m sure you probably had a point which repudiated mine but it’s very hard to see.

Both players had their formation as footballers in Belgium so I fail to see how Belgium's success can be credited on pillaging their former colony for players?

[SpoonTon]

A "tricky" Cyprus team who have 14 defeats from their last 16 away games. The one win in those was a 2-1 win at Gibraltar. Tricky indeed. 

We're approaching Soviet levels of propaganda here. 

[Monkey Tennis]

53 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

Belgium eased to the win without having to get out of 2nd gear.  

I'm struggling to take much optimism out of that. It was pretty much our stock away performance against a top side. 

Pretty much this.

I wanted Clarke appointed and obviously remain, firmly behind him.

Last night however, he picked a bizarre looking side, and we were duly horsed.  Those highlighting apparent positives are doing so because they like Clarke, rather than because of anything they objectively saw in the game.

[The OP]

17 minutes ago, Miss Tea Spoon said:

Both players had their formation as footballers in Belgium so I fail to see how Belgium's success can be credited on pillaging their former colony for players?

My point was that they played when Belgium were struggling to beat us.

[stumigoo]

Belgium are on a different planet and last night was always going to end up with them winning, it did however please me that we looked a bit more combative (albeit we were camped out for 90% of the match). As others have mentioned it isn't the best game to judge and neither was the Cyprus game given how little time Clarke had with the group. I also think that games at this stage of the year are always a challenge given the season has just ended.

The Russia game in September will be the first true test for Clarke. 

We have a decent pool of players in the midfield but other areas we are severely lacking. Other than our left-backs we are very thin on the ground at the back and our goalkeeping position is looking weak (although Marshall, IMO, played well last night). We still definitely need someone to be able to hold the ball up at the top end of the pitch and although Burke physically is very impressive he is so inconsistent that he probably isn't the answer. Griffiths, if he recovers fully, will make a difference. 

We've got the makings of a solid enough team under the right manager and I believe Clarke can be that man. 

[Dons_1988]

18 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Pretty much this.

I wanted Clarke appointed and obviously remain, firmly behind him.

Last night however, he picked a bizarre looking side, and we were duly horsed.  Those highlighting apparent positives are doing so because they like Clarke, rather than because of anything they objectively saw in the game.

I disagree. I thought first half was pretty positive from a defensive point of view. Aside from the chance they should've scored midway through the first half I don't think they caused us too many problems. Our shape was good and I thought we pressed them at the right times. Our issue was ball retention and getting up the pitch, I'd say this is more down to confidence and bravery rather than any tactical set up. This is a team a million miles ahead of us, I'm not sure how much more we could've expected from that first 45, other than concentrating for an additional two minutes.

The first goal was always going to kill the game and it duly did, the second half was a bit of a write off for me, particularly once the second goes in.

[Jani_Uotinen]

Find a way to play Taylor, Tierney and Robertson! We are 2 centre backs and good striker away from a very threatening team.