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Denmark v Scotland


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As has been said by many people, you'd expect to lose that game with the players at the disposal of both sides. It's the manner of defeat that really sets alarm bells ringing.

The back three has returned far more bad results than good, but whenever it has worked it's been with two holding midfielders, a more advanced midfielder ahead of them and usually another attacking midfielder playing off a striker rather than two centre forwards. It has never once worked with a flat three in midfield and very rarely worked with two centre forwards.

So Clarke decides to go with the flat midfield three that was an abject disaster v Czech Republic & Croatia; lo and behold, the midfield was a shapeless mess, that disarray playing a significant part in both goals. It was hard to tell what Fraser was actually supposed to be doing because possession across the halfway line was so rare, but it looked like he was actually up alongside Adams rather than dropping off him the way he or Christie would be in behind Dykes in the very rare passable performances we've had with the back three.

The game was already gone after those absolutely embarrassing goals, which you can absolutely put down to players not knowing what they're supposed to be doing just like gaols conceded v Croatia and Austria and every humiliating failure to beat Israel and so on, but Clarke realises the need to change at half-time and makes a sub. He correctly withdraws a centre back... we might finally see the abject failure that is the back three launched into the sun never to return! However all he's doing is reshuffling the personnel.

Yes, it's an improvement on the first half through the combination of Denmark being in first gear with the game already won and Andy Robertson no longer being absolutely hung out to dry in a position he never has and never will play again because it was blatantly a ridiculous idea to anyone with a brain, but it is still not good enough and was never close to the most sensible set up with the players at his disposal. Not one of them had a clue what they were supposed to be doing in that system.

Get it in the fucking bin if we ever want to win a game against anyone other than minnows again.

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6 hours ago, qos_75 said:

The Afghan Army put up a better defence against the Taliban. It really was that fucking woeful. 
 

 

That second goal is absolute school boy stuff, the Danish players are passing the ball around the edge of our 18 yard box and when they receive it there isn’t a Scottish player within 5 yards of them. Doesn’t matter what level of team you are playing, if you give players time on the edge of your own box you can’t be surprised when they play a pass that results in a goal. As much as I would love to see Scotland at a World Cup again, we are getting nowhere near it with defending like that. Ive watched junior teams with more defensive organisation than we had tonight. 

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The first half may be the most miserable 45 minutes anyone has ever had:

- Andy Robertson RWB was our Marvin Bartley on the left of midfield

- No link between midfield and attack

- WBs must have got over the halfway line once each

- The midfield ahead of a back five is always going to get dragged around if you don't have much of the ball, but the personnel didn't give us a chance

- Genuinely no idea what our attacking plan was

The second was better and Dykes, as untalented as he is, does seem to make us play better. How much was it a case of Denmark easing off though?

On paper, losing 2-0 to the top seed isn't usually a disaster but that performance and the baffling selections/tactics are concerning going forward.

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That first half was painful to watch. We have players who can’t play simple 5 yard passes to a teammate. I also enjoyed the several passes between Hanley and Cooper before giving it back to Gordon who shelled it straight out of the park.

Denmark didn’t have to get out of 2nd gear and are so far ahead of us tactically and technically. Playing arguably the best LB in the world at RWB was a sheer master stroke too, but it was evident after around 10 minutes that it wasn’t working. Launching balls up to Adams and Fraser in the hope that they might do something was embarrassingly bad.

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Did I expect a result last night? No. I also didn't expect that first half performance. We looked all over the place. The thing that always frustrates me is that other small countries always seem to manage to do 'something'  with even less at their disposal than us. Ireland for example, leading Portugal into injury time last night. Checking their line up how many of them would get into our squad? very little on paper, yet I wouldn't expect us to lay a glove on a team like Portugal just now-especially based on last night. The thing that worries me is Clarke doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes. 6 points needed now or its curtains

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Did I expect a result last night? No. I also didn't expect that first half performance. We looked all over the place. The thing that always frustrates me is that other small countries always seem to manage to do 'something'  with even less at their disposal than us. Ireland for example, leading Portugal into injury time last night. Checking their line up how many of them would get into our squad? very little on paper, yet I wouldn't expect us to lay a glove on a team like Portugal just now-especially based on last night. The thing that worries me is Clarke doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes. 6 points needed now or its curtains

The only team Ireland have beaten in the last two years is Andorra.
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Looking at it from a glass half full perspective, Denmark have won all 3 of their games against the 2nd 3rd and 4th seeds in the group without conceding a goal. We were never going to get anything from last night

Despite the shambolic 1st half formation and tactics, we only lost 2-0. At least we know he’ll never try that formation again against a team we actually need to beat. Will he?

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12 minutes ago, Mr Tourette said:

Looking at it from a glass half full perspective, Denmark have won all 3 of their games against the 2nd 3rd and 4th seeds in the group without conceding a goal. We were never going to get anything from last night

Despite the shambolic 1st half formation and tactics, we only lost 2-0. At least we know he’ll never try that formation again against a team we actually need to beat. Will he?

The problem isn't the score (Austria conceded 4 at home), it was an insipid display and another Steve Clarke masterclass in how to completely fail to setup to nullify a talented opponent.

The score suggests a reasonable performance that wasn't on display.  There was more fight in the second half than we sometimes see in these capitulations, but have we improved at all since the poor away performances against the likes of England (3-0), and Slovakia (3-0)?

I'd say no.  We are no harder to beat than the worst times before and during Strachan, and we are no more accomplished in attack (our best attacking performances in recent years were against Israel and Albania under McLeish).

We're in real danger of being in "the emperor has no clothes" territory.  Two penalty shoot out wins are masking serious tactical and managerial shortcomings.

This isn't a golden generation, but it's as good a squad as we've had since France 98. Tierney, McTominay, Robertson, Adams, Gilmour, and McGregor would get into any of our teams in the last 20+ years.  

We need to utterly bulldoze Moldova on Saturday, if not simply to prove that Denmark was just an off day with half a team against exceptional opposition.  Another insipid display, and a meek 2-0 win will do precisely nothing to alleviate the growing concerns.

Edited by HuttonDressedAsLahm
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10 hours ago, HuttonDressedAsLahm said:

Can we please just fucking bin 5atb now?  We concede just as many as we ever did, and we're found completely wanting in attack.  It doesn't work.

Oddly, I'd take it in a game like tonight when we have a full team available and against a very good team, but this evening was an unmitigated disaster.

Mmmm !

Our defence does seem to be regressing atm

 

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And of course bottler Clarke was too afraid to start Fraser at RWB and shoehorned dud McKenna in at LCB.
McKenna wasn't the worst on the park by far. Robertson is vastly overrated, Tierney is an average EPL player along with McLean. Gordon is poor with the ball at his feet. Gilmour shows flashes of skill but his confidence must be low playing in a shite EPL team and an international team just above San Marino.
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4 minutes ago, Ewan8472 said:

Mmmm !

Our defence does seem to be regressing atm

 

5atb doesn't make us more defensively sound.  It surrenders the midfield and invites the opposition onto us.  It seemed to work initially (with Czechs, Slovakia, Serbia, and Israel all failing to beat us, and keeping a few clean sheets), but since that Serbia game we've looked like conceding goals in near enough every game. 

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4 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

That second goal is absolute school boy stuff, the Danish players are passing the ball around the edge of our 18 yard box and when they receive it there isn’t a Scottish player within 5 yards of them. 

This seems to be a common feature in relatively recent times 

Occassional exception when Ryan Jack is playing

 

 

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8 minutes ago, shugster said:
12 hours ago, Jim McLean said:
And of course bottler Clarke was too afraid to start Fraser at RWB and shoehorned dud McKenna in at LCB.

McKenna wasn't the worst on the park by far. Robertson is vastly overrated, Tierney is an average EPL player along with McLean. Gordon is poor with the ball at his feet. Gilmour shows flashes of skill but his confidence must be low playing in a shite EPL team and an international team just above San Marino.

These threads get worse every international window.

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