Time to go Steve Clarke

[invergowrie arab]

I must be misremembering about people purring about the technical ability on show and control of the game v England.

We also pumped Demark.

Anyone who thinks we aren't as good as Saudi or Canada or SSC wouldnt have a plan to keep us in the game to create chances can frankly f**k off.

[Bing.McCrosby]

The games referenced were against Argentina, Germany and Belgium. Not slightly higher ranked teams.

The only team in that list comparable really are England. Which we played well in.

I think the point is relevant tho, these teams (Canada, Saudi, japan) peformed better than the sum of their parts. Which is the result of good management. At times were definitely not. At times were doing well.

 

[Cal]

1 hour ago, Elgin Macca said:

I'm far from anti-Clarke but I did find myself thinking similar after watching some of these games. Although I do believe we are slowly getting there I couldn't see us laying a glove on Argentina/Germany etc just now but these teams somehow find a way with (on paper) a far less superior squad.  

Japan have a better team / squad than us. 

 

I don't consider it a shock that they beat Germany. Japan are probably on par  player wise with the likes of England, Denmark etc.

 

Take your point about some of the other teams though who I think we're better than on paper, e.g. Canada 

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Cal

[PB1994]

1 minute ago, Cal said:

Japan have a better team / squad than us. 

 

I don't consider it a shock that they beat Germany. Japan are probably on par  player wise with the likes of England, Denmark etc.

 

Take your point about some of the other teams though who I think we're better than on paper, e.g. Canada 

 

Japan do not have a squad on par with England ffs .

It will go down as a shock result but I don’t think anybody would really have been that surprised by it. Japan have a good squad with a lot of players playing at a high level. Similar if not better than Scotland.

[Cal]

1 minute ago, PB1994 said:

Japan do not have a squad on par with England ffs .

It will go down as a shock result but I don’t think anybody would really have been that surprised by it. Japan have a good squad with a lot of players playing at a high level. Similar if not better than Scotland.

- Tomiyasu (keeps Tierney out arsenal team) on their bench

- Mitoma at Brighton (been a star so far) on their bench

- kyogo, hatate from celtic would walk into our starting 11, not even in their squad

Last World Cup they almost beat Belgium (who outclassed England in groups and at 3rd place play off). Most of their players are in Germany (some in other top leagues).. they're  a good side but are underestimated by EPL media in the UK.

[PB1994]

23 minutes ago, BingMcCrosby said:

The games referenced were against Argentina, Germany and Belgium. Not slightly higher ranked teams.

The only team in that list comparable really are England. Which we played well in.

I think the point is relevant tho, these teams (Canada, Saudi, japan) peformed better than the sum of their parts. Which is the result of good management. At times were definitely not. At times were doing well.

 

I bet Canada, Saudi and Japan are exactly the same as us though. I don’t know about you, but I’d be surprised if any of us are watching those teams on a regular basis. That’s the first time I’ve watched Canada and haven’t seen any Saudi or Japan games since they last played in a World Cup.

If you looked at our game against England in the euros in isolation I bet we would have had a lot of other nations saying the exact same thing about us.

I don’t think those nations are doing anything that we aren’t, okay they are qualifying for world cups but Europe is probably the toughest qualification phase you can get for a team of our size. They will have great displays like they have had this week but they will also have some shockers. Just like Scotland.

 

[PB1994]

2 minutes ago, Cal said:

- Tomiyasu (keeps Tierney out arsenal team) on their bench

- Mitoma at Brighton (been a star so far) on their bench

- kyogo, hatate from celtic would walk into our starting 11, not even in their squad

 they're  a good side but are underestimated by EPL media in the UK.

I don’t disagree with any of that but they are not on the same level as England. If they faced each other in this tournament, not sure if that is possible, then everyone would be expecting England to go through, quite rightly, but it would be a tough game for them.

With Scotland, again, it would be a tough game very tough even but I’d still say Scotland would have a good chance of winning it.

[Cal]

Just now, PB1994 said:

I don’t disagree with any of that but they are not on the same level as England. If they faced each other in this tournament, not sure if that is possible, then everyone would be expecting England to go through, quite rightly, but it would be a tough game for them.

With Scotland, again, it would be a tough game very tough even but I’d still say Scotland would have a good chance of winning it.

Agree I don't think we are far behind, it would be tight but they do have a very good squad. I don't see them being the same level as Canada, Saudi Arabia.. then again I don't know much about Saudi.

[Bing.McCrosby]

Just now, PB1994 said:

Japan do not have a squad on par with England ffs .

It will go down as a shock result but I don’t think anybody would really have been that surprised by it. Japan have a good squad with a lot of players playing at a high level. Similar if not better than Scotland.

Of course they don't, absolutely nowhere near it. They started Maeda up front, he wouldn't start up front for us never mind England.

[Lex]

42 minutes ago, Cal said:

- Tomiyasu (keeps Tierney out arsenal team) on their bench

- Mitoma at Brighton (been a star so far) on their bench

- kyogo, hatate from celtic would walk into our starting 11, not even in their squad

Last World Cup they almost beat Belgium (who outclassed England in groups and at 3rd place play off). Most of their players are in Germany (some in other top leagues).. they're  a good side but are underestimated by EPL media in the UK.

They started with Maeda up front? He's not even Celtics first choice striker. They're a well drilled side but they're certainly not full of world beaters. Last 16 probably about their level.

[Cal]

16 minutes ago, Lex said:

They started with Maeda up front? He's not even Celtics first choice striker. They're a well drilled side but they're certainly not full of world beaters. Last 16 probably about their level.

They did which I found surprising given kyogo is a better player in my opinion. But I think he was there for his physical attributes (similar to us not playing Griffiths up top on his own).. Up front is their weakest position I'd say but you don't consistently get to knock out stages of WC only by being well drilled, they have good players.

[Theroadlesstravelled]

It's good to see smaller footballing nations have a go.

Clarke would have pulled another Euro 2020 at the World Cup because that's his style. He would have gone to try and not to lose and timidly gone out in the groups stages. Set up as 5-4-1 with 10 men behind the ball and hitting big punts up to Dykes or Adams. Any attacks come from set pieces, or crosses and absolutely zero flair through the middle of the park.

Remember we were battered by a terrible Irish team for this exact thing.

[craigkillie]

We played Dykes and Adams against England, which somewhat goes against your theory.

[craigkillie]

Which anti Clarke poster runs the Scots Abroad account then… [emoji102]

 


It's noted tactical guru John Walker who claimed after the Euros that he "would have coached Scotland outta that group", and whose own coaching career has taken him to the heights of putting the cones out for Darvel.

He doesn't like Clarke because he hasn't picked substandard players like Ryan Gauld and Liam Henderson despite their notable achievements of, checks notes, not playing in the UK.

[Bing.McCrosby]

2 hours ago, craigkillie said:

 


It's noted tactical guru John Walker who claimed after the Euros that he "would have coached Scotland outta that group", and whose own coaching career has taken him to the heights of putting the cones out for Darvel.

He doesn't like Clarke because he hasn't picked substandard players like Ryan Gauld and Liam Henderson despite their notable achievements of, checks notes, not playing in the UK.

 

I dont know who this person is, but if your reasoning that he "doesn't like Clarke" is that he disagrees with some of his decisions, you must go thru life agreeing with everyone. Or disliking alot of people.

[DA Baracus]

Is Clarke to now be judged on the results of other teams?

Harsh. I'm more old school and prefer to judge managers on the performances of their own teams.

[Bing.McCrosby]

Just now, DA Baracus said:

Is Clarke to now be judged on the results of other teams?

Harsh. I'm more old school and prefer to judge managers on the performances of their own teams.

Its perfectly reasonable to look at the performances of other teams and compare it to our own?

More reasonable than the people who judge Clarke on the performances of previous Scotland squads with different players.

[lubo_blaha]

This works both ways, Canada have lost to Panama and Costa Rica recently. Saudi Arabia have lost to Jordan. Japan lost the Asian Cup to Qatar. I’m sure they would have looked on at our performances against the likes of England and Denmark with envy after those results.

[Bing.McCrosby]

7 hours ago, lubo_blaha said:

This works both ways, Canada have lost to Panama and Costa Rica recently. Saudi Arabia have lost to Jordan. Japan lost the Asian Cup to Qatar. I’m sure they would have looked on at our performances against the likes of England and Denmark with envy after those results.

Ok well japan and Saudi Arabia have just won a game at a major tournament, againts top tier opposition. So in terms of the envy stakes were way ahead of them now.

[Satoshi]

Imagine being dense enough to think Japan is a smaller footballing nation than Scotland. They have 25x the population that we have.

Overall, player wise we are clearly better than Canada or Saudi Arabia (who are in much easier qualifying sections), and probably on a par with Japan. They probably have better depth (because they have 25x our population) but our best players are better than their best players. They don't have anyone comparable to Robertson, for example.

No doubt they are a better team than us though, and are usually far greater than the sum of their parts.