Israel v Scotland - 18 / 11 / 2020

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

4 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Was it ever established if McLeish was indeed drunk during live interviews or was it something medical?  I remember there was a debate on here about it.

He appeared on Goals on Sunday a few months before he was re-hired as Scotland boss and he was slurring his words.  And in a few press conferences as Scotland boss he seemed half a step slow when speaking.

Remember the 'concerning' incident in Kazakhstan?  He's an alky mess who should never have been put in that position.

[BrigtonClyde]

9 hours ago, Andrew Driver said:

Yet there's members of the forum who thing we're better.  They are a top 40 in the world side, as are we.  Slovakia are clearly worse.  

Tend to agree.  In terms of passing & movement I'd say Israel have been consistently the best team we've played against.  I don't know if their problem is lack of cutting edge or whatever, but they've always looked impressive enough.

For us, the last 3 games have shown a massive improvement in the approach & style.  Pressing much higher up the park and moving the ball about much quicker has a future, reverting back to the old sit deep and hope for the best doesn't.

We've the best centre back options we've had for years, still think the best WB options in an attacking sense are Tierney & Palmer, and while not many, we do have strikers who'll score.  But in the main they've been working off half chances, we rarely open up defences.  Our midfield are full of hard working players with decent ability, but we could still use that one player with the extra level of class who can help create more clear cut goalscoring opportunities.  Easier said than done finding one, but that would make a big difference.  Losing only one goal a game away from home shouldn't be disastrous, you should almost expect the home side to score, but that's what's costing us.  I know we did have one or two good chances over the past couple of games, but last night they looked a little bit like the energy levels were down, reverted a little bit too much to long balls up to Dykes, and some of the final ball decision making was poor.  But at least the team are now watchable compared to even just a month ago.

Clarke's constantly said it's a work in progress and he's right.  It's a much better position to build from and maybe not going up to the top tier now is a blessing in disguise even if it did cost us a playoff place.  At least there's now reasons to be fairly optimistic

[TheScarf]

Just now, Carnoustie Young Guvnor said:

Remember the 'concerning' incident in Kazakhstan?  He's an alky mess who should never have been put in that position.

I do now you've mentioned it.  It did seem a very jobs-for-the-boys appointment.

[TheScarf]

Israel look miles better than Slovakia.  Not sure what their ranking is about.  They're clearly a lot better than 88th.

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

5 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

I do now you've mentioned it.  It did seem a very jobs-for-the-boys appointment.

Aye who was the SFA walloper presented McLeish with a barely concealed stauner going on about how they've been pals for 30 years?  Fuckin incredible.

[harry94]

14 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Was it ever established if McLeish was indeed drunk during live interviews or was it something medical?  I remember there was a debate on here about it.

He appeared on Goals on Sunday a few months before he was re-hired as Scotland boss and he was slurring his words.  And in a few press conferences as Scotland boss he seemed half a step slow when speaking.

He did an interview and said he had the odd senior moment but was fine and gets regular medicals etc which include cognitive ability.

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

22 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Israel look miles better than Slovakia.  Not sure what their ranking is about.  They're clearly a lot better than 88th.

They finished 5th in their 2020 qualifying group and 2 of their 3 wins were against Latvia

I'm not saying they're terrible, but they don't really get results

[John Lambies Doos]

Is it possible McLeish has early Dementia, very common in footballers?
Tbh it's a bit unfair to give Clarke all the credit- McLeish won the nation's group as manager (including a win against Israel), Clarke won 2 penalty shootouts against similar teams to us.
Voilla we make the Euros!
We need to be realistic here, rest of Clarke's record isn't brilliant (remember we just beat a Czech B team and were backs to wall at Hampden)
However I do think he's developed a great team spirit and we will get better - but let's not pretend that we have been achieving amazing results under Clarke.

[kingjoey]

I know it’s stating the bleedin’ obvious, but in the last two games, which we have lost both times 1-0, we have had 33 shots with 12 of these on target. The problem that we have as a country has totally turned on its head in the last 5 years or so. We complained 5 years ago that we had no decent defenders and that was our shortcoming at that time. Now the defence is sorted but we have no one that can score goals. A fully fit and functioning Leigh Griffiths would probably go a long way to fixing this though.

[paranoid android]

From 

to

in less than a week.

[Lex]

Amazed at how many people think Griffiths is the answer. He’s now 30 years old, clearly unfit, struggles to get a game for his club when he is fit and has had a myriad of off field issues throughout his career. He has a grand total of 4 Scotland goals in 21 appearances.

Whatever or whoever the answer is, it’s not him.

 

 

[G51]

3 minutes ago, Lex said:

Amazed at how many people think Griffiths is the answer. He’s now 30 years old, clearly unfit, struggles to get a game for his club when he is fit and has had a myriad of off field issues throughout his career. He has a grand total of 4 Scotland goals in 21 appearances.

Whatever or whoever the answer is, it’s not him.

 

 

McBurnie's gotten pelters on here the last few weeks but he did much, much more across the week than Griffiths did .

If we're going to sully ourselves by picking someone of his character, he should at least be, y'know, good and capable of contributing to mitigate it.

[ftk]

Shankland is the answer!

 

Him and Griffiths are the most naturally gifted goalscorers we have . Problem is hes probably not the best we have at holding the ball up. But give him chances and he will score.

 

 

 

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Has Shankland ever scored consistently above the second tier of Scottish football?

I’m not saying he’s incapable of doing it, just that I wouldn’t be pinning our hopes on him just because he scored a million goals against defences containing Sean McGinty or Tam O’Ware.

[No_Problemo]

20 minutes ago, G51 said:

McBurnie's gotten pelters on here the last few weeks but he did much, much more across the week than Griffiths did .

If we're going to sully ourselves by picking someone of his character, he should at least be, y'know, good and capable of contributing to mitigate it.

McBurnie got 156 minutes compared to Griffiths 54 so it’s a pretty irrelevant point. In any case I don’t think there’s much between their respective contributions. 

[Dunning1874]

21 minutes ago, G51 said:

McBurnie's gotten pelters on here the last few weeks but he did much, much more across the week than Griffiths did .

If we're going to sully ourselves by picking someone of his character, he should at least be, y'know, good and capable of contributing to mitigate it.

I'm not arguing that Griffiths was good either, but what contribution to McBurnie make that allows anyone to claim he offered more than anyone else?

He played in all three games and contributed absolutely f**k all. A complete waste of skin.

[accies1874]

Last night Griffiths completely stunk the place out. He should absolutely be in the squad and will hopefully get good by the Euros, but McBurnie definitely offers more right now.

[HibeeJibee]

1 hour ago, Carnoustie Young Guvnor said:

Aye who was the SFA walloper presented McLeish with a barely concealed stauner going on about how they've been pals for 30 years?  Fuckin incredible.

Allan McRae of Cove Rangers who was SFA President at the time. Helped organise McLeish's testimonial at Aberdeen.

[TheScarf]

So an Aberdonian Aberdeen fan appoints the former Aberdeen stalwart as the national team manager.  Sounds about right.

[HibeeJibee]

2 hours ago, Scary Bear said:

In summary, good first XI but after that it’s not good enough, and if we have to play 3 games in a week that kills us.

Unfortunately there are 3 games in 1 week (and 1 day) at the Euros, and 3 games in 1 week in March + September for first 60% of WC 2022 qualifying, so we really need to get a handle on it.

Edited November 19, 2020 by HibeeJibee