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Czech Republic v Scotland


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All this in the space of a week. Going to be a wild ride.
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You know what...we might actually fluke results in these games.

Nah, who am I kidding? We’ll get pumped in them all as Clarke will see his 5-4-1 as a rip-roaring success and continue with it.
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1 minute ago, Beth Paige-Black said:

Marshall 7/10

McTominay 4/10
McKenna  6/10 
Cooper 4/10  

Palmer 6/10 
Armstrong 3/10 
McLean 5/10 
Fleck 4/10  
Robertson 5/10 

Christie 7/10 
Dykes 6/10  

Manager 2/10.  

A 6 for Christie and you are spot on imo

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1 hour ago, Jacky1990 said:

I really like him as a player.

Good as breaking up play (fouling when needed) and playing the ball forward at all opportunities. Scored the occasional goal.

But he isnt a centre back.

Spot on. Should probably be first pick in centre midfield to be honest. My only concern with McTominay is whether he’s going to be able to keep progressing as well this season. Lot of top competition in Man Utd’s midfield so  I think he’s going to be limited to sub appearances or only starting cup games.

23 minutes ago, ropy said:

Does anyone get any joy out of watching football?

ME!

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17 minutes ago, Swing Kicker said:

plus the breakup of the ussr has created a whole load of new nations, many of whom are decent at football. There were far less developed footballing nations back then. A point the likes of Willie Miller forgets to address when slagging every new generation and bragging about getting humiliated on the big stage with our "world beaters"

and Yugoslavia breaking up

However there was a time Scotland failed to qualify from groups won by World giants ; 1961 Czechoslovakia , Italy , West Germany

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seems to be full agreement that mctominay isny a defender.

anybody got a changed opinion on cooper tonight? 

cant remember him standing out too much , was it him who turned his back instead of pressing at one point as the czech boy hit a long shot? 

mckenna played fine though with some good clearances and looked over both games like he actually gives a f*ck

Edited by greenockraver
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A I have just seen the " highlights "
The goal we lost , shades of one we lost to Kazakhstan. Men behind the ball but not moving
Back four for the Israel game please Steve
It doesn't matter how many defenders you have on the pitch when the midfield will alow the opposition chances to play balls in behind them.

We need to decide who our best defensive midfielders are and give them that role to do. Then we can allow the attacking players we have more freedom. The defense needs protected but playing one of the players most likely to do that at cb isn't bearing fruit.
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I said after Friday we didn't need both Jack and McGregor in a game we were favourite for but we certainly need one of them. McLean is very neat and tidy but a holding midfielder he ain't. Some of his clumsy challenges, pitiful attempts at interceptions and generally poor positional awareness gave me Vietnam style flashbacks of watching Charlie Adam in that role for us

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One of the problems with the Nations League set up is it limits friendly opportunities compared to previous years - from his comments post-match I feel Clarke saw this as the closest thing to a friendly we’ll have any time soon and the best opportunity to experiment with the team. I think it’s fairly clear he won’t be carrying on with three at the back in any of the games ahead. Why he didn’t change it for the final ten/twenty minutes when we were under the cosh though I have no idea.
 

17 minutes ago, greenockraver said:

seems to be full agreement that mctominay isny a defender.

anybody got a changed opinion on cooper tonight? 

cant remember him standing out too much , was it him who turned his back instead of pressing at one point as the czech boy hit a long shot? 

mckenna played fine though with some good clearances and looked over both games like he actually gives a f*ck

I thought Cooper played pretty well actually, the best I’ve seen him. Played a few risky passes early on though he had limited options at times from the midfield. 
Both him and McKenna had pretty good games, the problem was the defensive three/five had absolute zero support covering from the midfield which left them, and McTominay in particular, very exposed. I think Palmer recognised that actually as he got caught very tight to McTominay a few times, though he also may have got confused playing a back five.

There were a few occasions the lack of midfield cover was very clear when they worked the ball inside and the CB’s were possibly a bit slow out to meet a Czech player taking a pot shot 25-30 yards from goal, obviously wondering where the hell the midfield were.

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I was at work so only seen the highlights, but from those and judging from the comments on here, it sounds like another poor performance, albeit we got the result. Good to see Dykes on the scoresheet I’m very happy for him. Hopefully it’s just a knock that he’s picked up. 
As far as CF go, Dykes has staked his claim to the jersey. I’d also be calling Ross Stewart into the squad. 
Our problem, in my opinion our main problem is lack of physicality, aggression in the middle of the park, we don’t have an athletic aggressive defensive midfielder. If we had one, the midfield would function so much better. 

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Just now, Rscot said:

I was at work so only seen the highlights, but from those and judging from the comments on here, it sounds like another poor performance, albeit we got the result. Good to see Dykes on the scoresheet I’m very happy for him. Hopefully it’s just a knock that he’s picked up. 
As far as CF go, Dykes has staked his claim to the jersey. I’d also be calling Ross Stewart into the squad. 
Our problem, in my opinion our main problem is lack of physicality, aggression in the middle of the park, we don’t have an athletic aggressive defensive midfielder. If we had one, the midfield would function so much better. 

U r bad @ trolling

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Thinking as constructively as I can about the formation, it comes down to this squad of players being ridiculously hard to balance.

Since Ryan Fraser appears to have chucked it, James Forrest is the only out-and-out winger in the squad. Using wing backs might therefore appear logical in terms of opening up both sides and encouraging Andy Robertson's athleticism and directness.

Then you have our options in central defence which, at least from our natural centre backs, are all exclusively left-footed and can't really be trusted to protect the weaker right-side - this is why we saw an out of position McTominay in an attempt to cover. 

These things considered, I can understand why we started as we did against Israel. What I can't understand is why Clarke allowed it to last 135 minutes beyond the first half of that game as it was an absolute fucking flop.

Too many players were lost and out of position and we've seen one clear cut chance created from open play over two games against dross opponents, which was Dykes' goal tonight - this comes down to the make-up of our midfield, which is either deep-sitting ball-winners like McTominay or Jack, or a host of others who have made their names mostly as advanced or 'number 10' midfielders: their treatment of the ball in deeper positions has been slow and cumbersome, locking Robertson out of the game. 

We don't really have anyone to receive the ball, turn an opponent and spread the ball wide in a couple of touches which is what you need to get the most out of an advancing wing back. Billy Gilmour can't come into this team quick enough, regardless of the formation we play.

There is no system that fits perfectly, but we saw some exciting attacking performances in the last Nations League group with 4-2-3-1 or similar variant - Brazil 1970 in comparison to what we've seen in the last two games. I can't fathom why Clarke, whose relative success in club management appeared to be based around perfecting the basics, seems intent on fucking around with this dud set-up - if he continues to do so he will piss away the play-off and have us bottom of this group.

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