Scotland v Czech

[DiegoDiego]

Marshall was maybe a bit too casual in his positioning but he's entitled to believe we're never giving the ball away in that position. 

His entire job is compensating for the f**k ups of others.

[accies1874]

They were better technically and had the ability to actually just pop the ball through midfield every so often. It was waaaay too easy for Czech attackers to bear down on our defence - one pass and they were there. Having O'Donnell + Hendry on the right and Armstrong covering on the left made for simple interchanges down the flanks too.

I do wonder just how much Tierney would've improved things. There were a couple of instances where I was just expecting him to pop up down the left and was left disappointed, but the centre of the park was congested as f**k for his runs so we could've seen a similar situation to the second goal. He is a better passer than Cooper though, and his bravery in possession would've helped considering the shitebaggery from others. Robertson flourished in his absence tbf.

Adams is our best striker so should start. Dykes inability to win headers in the first half was infuriating, but fair enough, they had big CBs. What you wouldn't expect from a midfield of Armstrong-McTominay-McGinn was that they were never anywhere near the second balls in the first half. Pump it up to Dykes, he loses the header, Czechs win the second ball, pop it forward and get between the midfield and defence.

[DA Baracus]

Tierney played against Austria and Israel. We didnt win either game.

He's definitely one of our best players, and we are better with him in the team, but he's still just one player. He doesn't magically win us games on his own. The team can still underperform if he's in it, even if he plays well (see: Austria).

[Jacky1990]

6 minutes ago, Pepper said:

I'm in the Hendry at fault camp.

No other team lose that goal as no one shoots from there given the obvious and easy ball out wide, which gives us the opportunity to put in a decent cross. 

It was a ridiculous decision to shoot. 

Marshall was maybe a bit too casual in his positioning but he's entitled to believe we're never giving the ball away in that position. 

99 times out of 100 we get away with it, which is the most galling thing. 

He scored from a not dissimilar position 12 days ago and he'd just hit the bar from the edge of the box. Plenty of players score from similar positions.

Why not have a pop? Obviously in hindsight it was the wrong decision and he had easy options either side. But the defense spent the whole game playing the safe, easy, sideways pass and getting us nowhere. He stepped forward and took some responsibility on the ball, fine.

No one would be blaming Tierney if it was him that stepped forward and hit it.

[DA Baracus]

1 minute ago, accies1874 said:

Pump it up to Dykes, he loses the header, Czechs win the second ball, pop it forward and get between the midfield and defence.

It's so easy to play against. Most other teams use it as a last resort when there is no other option on, usually when they've been pressured in to it.

We do it as the first option far, far too often. It's garbage football and just isn't effective in general. Watching other games in this tournament shows that we're so behind in terms of approach, yet I think we have the players to play differently (you named some in your post), and we often see these players do so for their club sides, alongside the players of other teams in this tournament.

 

[Stellaboz]

That's why Gilmour should start. He doesn't shite himself with the ball when an opposition players comes within ten yards of him.

[accies1874]

It's so easy to play against. Most other teams use it as a last resort when there is no other option on, usually when they've been pressured in to it.
We do it as the first option far, far too often. It's garbage football and just isn't effective in general. Watching other games in this tournament shows that we're so behind in terms of approach, yet I think we have the players to play differently (you named some in your post), and we often see these players do so for their club sides, alongside the players of other teams in this tournament.
 

I was surprised to see Armstrong (I think) talking about them playing too many long balls. Yeah, they clearly did, but that seemed to be the gameplan so I don't know why he was disappointed about it.

[DA Baracus]

1 minute ago, Stellaboz said:

That's why Gilmour should start. He doesn't shite himself with the ball when an opposition players comes within ten yards of him.

That would be good, but if the team are positioned to play the aimless punt, he may often have little passing options and be forced to pass to someone who will shell it.

1 minute ago, accies1874 said:

4 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

It's so easy to play against. Most other teams use it as a last resort when there is no other option on, usually when they've been pressured in to it.
We do it as the first option far, far too often. It's garbage football and just isn't effective in general. Watching other games in this tournament shows that we're so behind in terms of approach, yet I think we have the players to play differently (you named some in your post), and we often see these players do so for their club sides, alongside the players of other teams in this tournament.
 

I was surprised to see Armstrong (I think) talking about them playing too many long balls. Yeah, they clearly did, but that seemed to be the gameplan so I don't know why he was disappointed about it.

Maybe he was disappointed with the gameplan?

[Binos]

The gameplan was honking 

[RandomGuy.]

There's no defence for Hendrys decision to shoot there. Simple pass to the right to set up a cross, and 2 players completely free in the most dangerous area of the pitch.

He's so high up the park because he dozily followed a striker into the centre of the park.

Ball had come over from the left which is why Cooper/Hanley aren't covering the massive gap he's left, while O'Donnell bombs forward expecting the pass.

His shot doesn't directly cause the goal, but a culmination of yet more naive, rash, decision making from Hendry creates the situation.

He's nowhere near good enough and it's wild he started this game. McTominay there and Gilmour central wouldve been far more preferable.

Edited June 14, 2021 by RandomGuy.

[Guest Flash]

4 hours ago, 19QOS19 said:

4 hours ago, Lord Snooty said:

23 yards I make it.
 

By the time he hits it Marshall is on the D. If that was his starting position and the boy scored we'd be calling it a wonder goal. I'm not trying to defend Marshall I just think his starting position is taking the shine off what a cracking goal it was. I blame Hendry far more than Marshall for it.

If that had been his starting position, he would have been back on his line in time to save it comfortably. He had already run 15 to 20 yards to get to where he is in the picture from the time he knew the striker was about to receive the ball. So, if he had started from there, from the point the ball broke to the striker until the point he had the shot, Marshall would have had enough time to get back because he would have been maybe 8 to 3 yards off his line at the point the striker shot.
Saying that, if he had started from where he is in the picture, the striker would maybe not have had a shot from so far out anyway and it would have been a different situation he had to deal with.

[Binos]

Just now, RandomGuy. said:

There's no defence for Hendrys decision to shoot there. Simple pass to the right to set up a cross, and 2 players completely free in the most dangerous area of the pitch.

He's so high up the park because he dozily followed a striker into the centre of the park.

Ball had come over from the left which is why Cooper/Hanley aren't covering the massive gap he's left, while O'Donnell bombs forward expecting the pass.

His shot doesn't cause the goal, but a culmination of yet more naive, rash, decision making from Hendry creates the situation.

He's nowhere near good enough and it's wild he started this game. McTominay there and Gilmour central wouldve been far more preferable.

I think he had no faith that odonnell would do anything with it

[Jacky1990]

4 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

It's so easy to play against. Most other teams use it as a last resort when there is no other option on, usually when they've been pressured in to it.

We do it as the first option far, far too often. It's garbage football and just isn't effective in general. Watching other games in this tournament shows that we're so behind in terms of approach, yet I think we have the players to play differently (you named some in your post), and we often see these players do so for their club sides, alongside the players of other teams in this tournament.

 

This.

The tactic seemed to be get the ball up to Dykes and Christie and McGinn to pick up second balls. Which is fine as a Plan B but not as the main tactic.

Considering how weak our right hand side was, it makes it a bit baffling how resistant we were to go through the middle and how static we were in midfield in general.

We absolutely have the players in midfield to be better and more progressive in possession, but we seem so reluctant to do it 

I wonder if having Dykes up there creates that problem for us. We know he'll battle and go up for headers, so we automatically go to that whenever there isnt an easy short pass on. Playing Adams up top might force us to keep it on the deck cause he's not as physical.

[Gordopolis]

Somewhere in the middle:
-The 2nd goal wasn't entirely 'Hendry's fault', but his poor decision making triggered the whole situation.
-Hendry is 95% of the time pretty good and easily up to international football for us, it's just that he still has the 5% naivete in him that can and does cost us goals.

[Scumjob]

Dykes shouldn't start either of the next two games for me.

Today he was shown up as a Championship level striker and given he was up against a Championship centre half (Kalas) and his Czech league partner that doesn't bode well for England (Mings) and Croatia (Caleta-Car) who have 6 foot 4 or 5 centre halves who will win the aerial duals all day long.

Adams looked like he had far, far more about him.

[Binos]

2 minutes ago, Jacky1990 said:

This.

The tactic seemed to be get the ball up to Dykes and Christie and McGinn to pick up second balls. Which is fine as a Plan B but not as the main tactic.

Considering how weak our right hand side was, it makes it a bit baffling how resistant we were to go through the middle and how static we were in midfield in general.

We absolutely have the players in midfield to be better and more progressive in possession, but we seem so reluctant to do it 

I wonder if having Dykes up there creates that problem for us. We know he'll battle and go up for headers, so we automatically go to that whenever there isnt an easy short pass on. Playing Adams up top might force us to keep it on the deck cause he's not as physical.

We had no possession in midfield

They had an overload as we inexplicably played a back 5 despite Tierney being injured 

[RandomGuy.]

4 minutes ago, Binos said:

I think he had no faith that odonnell would do anything with it

Pass it inside to the two players completely unmarked centrally then.

His whole "thing" is apparently that he's a ball playing defender, which apparently means he's worth picking despite his defensive deficiencies, so such a simple pass shouldn't be outwith his vision.

[Bairnardo]

I think in the end of the day, raking over the ashes looking for wee positives here and there just hides the fact that as a team, most games we simply arent able to do what needs to be done. We sort of lurk around on the edges of games. Wee half chance here, wee half chance there. Good spell here, decent 5 minutes there but we just dont have the quality to be clinical and ruthless. Thats whats stuck out for me today. A complete lack of any killer instinct that you desperately need in this sort of tournament.

[Binos]

3 minutes ago, Gordopolis said:

Somewhere in the middle:
-The 2nd goal wasn't entirely 'Hendry's fault', but his poor decision making triggered the whole situation.
-Hendry is 95% of the time pretty good and easily up to international football for us, it's just that he still has the 5% naivete in him that can and does cost us goals.

It's almost like he's a lower half of the Belgian league level player

[Binos]

1 minute ago, RandomGuy. said:

Pass it inside to the two players completely unmarked centrally then.

His whole "thing" is apparently that he's a ball playing defender, which apparently means he's worth picking despite his defensive deficiencies, so such a simple pass shouldn't be outwith his vision.

He's not Ronald koemen so he definitely should not have shot

I don't think he should have been on the pitch