Scotland v Moldova

[Marshmallo]

11 minutes ago, Thumper said:

Can people still whining about having to wear a mask when half the fucking national team are quarantined please just hurry up and die and give the rest of us peace?

Awful awful post.

[2426255]

4 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

Awful awful post.

Not as bad as yours laying the ground for a wee climb down regarding Jack Hendry. 

[Cardle is Magic]

1 hour ago, Thumper said:

Can people still whining about having to wear a mask when half the fucking national team are quarantined please just hurry up and die and give the rest of us peace?

You sound absolutely mental. Weren’t you the moron who shrieked racism because people didn’t know how to pronounce your striker’s name?

I also don’t see masks/face coverings mentioned once in my post and it wasn’t what I was referring to. Instead your addled brain went straight to wishing death upon me.

Edited September 2, 2021 by Cardle is Magic

[accies1874]

I don’t disagree but I can see Clarke wanting to get a settled defence for the last two games and so I can see him playing the same defence that he’ll want for Austria, so they get that time to work together on the pitch and get a bit of confidence back. I don’t mind if it’s either O’Donnell or Patterson, at least it’s be a bloody proper right back. 

That's understandable, as is the view that it could give O'Donnell some more gametime before Austria. Patterson's just so much more positive in possession and taking players on, though, which we'll most likely need.

I was saying to someone yesterday that it's frustrating how COVID and the fixtures have aligned as you'd ideally give O'Donnell and McGinn the Denmark and Austria games and Patterson and maybe Turnbull starts against Moldova.

[Meadow_Jock]

2 hours ago, 2426255 said:

 

Moreover, it changes nothing as Israel and Austria are our direct competitors for the 2nd place playoff and always have been. Look at the upcoming fixtures, we could potentially be back in 2nd place at the halfway point (especially if we get a healthy win and boost our goal difference) after the Moldova game on Saturday heading into the Austria match:

This. There's been a lot of lazy pish trotted out after last night about how we "must" get six points from our next two games - and clearly we should aim to - but actually that all depends on Israel vs Austria, which is the real big game on Saturday night.

If Austria fail to win  (and bear in mind that an Austria win is currently odds against with the bookmakers) then we will - somewhat remarkably - probably go into the game in Vienna on Tuesday comfortably ahead of them on goal difference and with a slightly easier run-in. In this scenario, a draw in Vienna would be a perfectly good result, and the group comes down to a goal difference shoot out which we ought to be quite well-placed in. 

Certainly one to keep an eye on.

[2426255]

2 minutes ago, Meadow_Jock said:

This. There's been a lot of lazy pish trotted out after last night about how we "must" get six points from our next two games - and clearly we should aim to - but actually that all depends on Israel vs Austria, which is the real big game on Saturday night.

If Austria fail to win  (and bear in mind that an Austria win is currently odds against with the bookmakers) then we will - somewhat remarkably - probably go into the game in Vienna on Tuesday comfortably ahead of them on goal difference and with a slightly easier run-in. In this scenario, a draw in Vienna would be a perfectly good result, and the group comes down to a goal difference shoot out which we ought to be quite well-placed in. 

Certainly one to keep an eye on.

Some people get emotional, begin to cry and become hysterical. It's not that bad everyone, we're in a reasonable position.

[Binos]

Laboured 2-0 victory coming up 

[Coooombe]

Anyone know how many tickets we've sold for this? 

[latapythelegend]

21 minutes ago, Coooombe said:

Anyone know how many tickets we've sold for this? 

38-39K by the looks of it.

[2426255]

2 hours ago, accies1874 said:

That's understandable, as is the view that it could give O'Donnell some more gametime before Austria. Patterson's just so much more positive in possession and taking players on, though, which we'll most likely need.

I was saying to someone yesterday that it's frustrating how COVID and the fixtures have aligned as you'd ideally give O'Donnell and McGinn the Denmark and Austria games and Patterson and maybe Turnbull starts against Moldova.

I think we have to find a balance between winning the game well and not draining the players who are going to start the Austria match.

The question as always is do we start strong and hopefully get a few goals in front before looking to rest key players or start with backup players and bring on first choice players if we need to rescue the game? I'm sure it will be a mix, but that's the basic scenario.

I think if we play our strongest team for the full game it will compromise us in Austria.

Edited September 2, 2021 by 2426255

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

8 minutes ago, 2426255 said:

I think we have to find a balance between winning the game well and not draining the players who are going to start the Austria match.

The question as always is do we start strong and hopefully get a few goals in front before looking to rest key players or start with backup players and bring on first choice players if we need to rescue the game? I'm sure it will be a mix, but that's the basic scenario.

I think if we play our strongest team for the full game it will compromise us in Austria.

Start strong and get the game won.  Bring key players off after no more than an hour with less pressure on the fringe players

[Lex]

This. There's been a lot of lazy pish trotted out after last night about how we "must" get six points from our next two games - and clearly we should aim to - but actually that all depends on Israel vs Austria, which is the real big game on Saturday night.
If Austria fail to win  (and bear in mind that an Austria win is currently odds against with the bookmakers) then we will - somewhat remarkably - probably go into the game in Vienna on Tuesday comfortably ahead of them on goal difference and with a slightly easier run-in. In this scenario, a draw in Vienna would be a perfectly good result, and the group comes down to a goal difference shoot out which we ought to be quite well-placed in. 
Certainly one to keep an eye on.

Of course it’s certainly not a two horse race for second spot. Israel are currently above us, and we can’t seem to beat them at home or away.
If they were to beat Austria on Saturday they’d be two points ahead of us and in second with a superior goal difference. Would put them in the driving seat.
A draw would probably be the best result for us, and then hope Israel don’t get anything in Denmark while we need to get something in Vienna.

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

2 minutes ago, Lex said:

 

Of course it’s certainly not a two horse race for second spot. Israel are currently above us, and we can’t seem to beat them at home or away.
If they were to beat Austria on Saturday they’d be two points ahead of us and Austria in second with a superior goal difference. Would put them in the driving seat.
A draw would probably be the best result for us.

 

In fairness they still have the three best teams in the group to play away from home.

A draw is the best result obviously

[2426255]

Finally people are beginning to calm down and see sense.

This isn't that likely a scenario, but if we lose or draw to Moldova and Israel v Austria ends up a draw we are still in a position where we could get 2nd place with a win in Vienna just to put the group into context.

We could conceivably get 3 points from 9 in Vienna and still be in joint 2nd place, so the nonsense about 6 or 7 points only applies if we had an aim of winning the group which from the start was ambitious. The Austria game is the big one for us this round, we'll be up against it if we lose that.

Edited September 2, 2021 by 2426255

[KingRocketman II]

11 minutes ago, 2426255 said:

Finally people are beginning to calm down and see sense.

This isn't that likely a scenario, but if we lose or draw to Moldova and Israel v Austria ends up a draw we are still in a position where we could get 2nd place with a win in Vienna just to put the group into context.

We could conceivably win get 3 points in Vienna from 9 and still be in joint 2nd place, so the nonsense about 6 or 7 points only applies if we had an ambition of winning the group which from the start was ambitious. The Austria game is the big one for us this round.

you talk about seeing sense and looking at how other fixtures and permutations show us to be in quite a reasonable position.

That really is complete head in the sand stuff. If you in all seriousness think we will qualify based on the majority of our performances and results under Clarke, then you are delusional.

There is zero, absolutely zero evidence, that this team can pull off a big win of the sort that is essential to end up in the qualifying places. You can tie yourself up in knots all you want about other results etc but the team overall is way less than the sum of its parts, and that is entirely down to the manager. 

[2426255]

10 minutes ago, KingRocketman II said:

you talk about seeing sense and looking at how other fixtures and permutations show us to be in quite a reasonable position.

That really is complete head in the sand stuff. If you in all seriousness think we will qualify based on the majority of our performances and results under Clarke, then you are delusional.

There is zero, absolutely zero evidence, that this team can pull off a big win of the sort that is essential to end up in the qualifying places. You can tie yourself up in knots all you want about other results etc but the team overall is way less than the sum of its parts, and that is entirely down to the manager. 

We are in a reasonable position for a team ranked as a middle of the road nation. What makes you think the Scotland team should be finishing in the qualifying places? Why are the Scotland players better than those of Israel and Austria? I think we have shown we can get big results, not all the time but sometimes. I just don't see where you're coming from.

I also never said I think we'll qualify anywhere, I think we have a chance - that's all. All I'm saying is don't go in a huff if you were expecting something unrealistic from the outset.

Edited September 2, 2021 by 2426255

[KingRocketman II]

Scotland players are better than Israel based on, er rankings. We are not better than Austria, according to the rankings, because they win more games than us. I would say we are on a par with Austria in terms of player ability. 

Very simply put, do you think Scotland should be playing better with the availability of core players like McTominay, Robertson, McGinn, McGregor, Gilmour, Tierney, Fraser, Christie and Forrest than what performances have been? Yes or No? 

 

[2426255]

10 minutes ago, KingRocketman II said:

Scotland players are better than Israel based on, er rankings. We are not better than Austria, according to the rankings, because they win more games than us. I would say we are on a par with Austria in terms of player ability. 

So one the one hand you say we have better players than Israel because of the rankings and on the other hand the ranking don't matter and our players are at least as good as Austria. That's the kind of logic that I can't follow and the kind of logic that gets you in the hysterical mindset you're presently in.

Edited September 2, 2021 by 2426255

[KingRocketman II]

5 minutes ago, 2426255 said:

So one the one hand you say we are better than Israel because of the rankings and on the other hand the ranking don't matter and we're at least as good as Austria. That's the kind of logic that I can't follow.

I didn't say that at all. You misread. And you also failed to respond to a simple yes or no question that perhaps was also too difficult to follow. I'll leave you to your permutations. 

[2426255]

28 minutes ago, KingRocketman II said:

• Scotland players are better than Israel based on, er rankings.
• We are not better than Austria, according to the rankings, because they win more games than us.
• I would say we are on a par with Austria in terms of player ability. 

The way I read that is:

• The rankings say Scotland's players are better than Israel.
• The rankings say Austria's players are better than Scotland.
• I think Scotland's players are on a par with Austria's players.

So on the one hand you use the rankings to say Scotland's players are better than Israel's players and on the other hand discard the rankings in favour of some other reasoning to say Scotland's players are on a par with Austria's players.

You think Austria have had easier games then? Or is it just pure doublethink?

Edited September 2, 2021 by 2426255