Scotland v Israel

[2426255]

Yeah, I guessed it was rubbish - how could he make such a daft error absolutely amateur.

[craigkillie]

Yeah, I guessed it was rubbish - how could he make such a daft error absolutely amateur.

The article is terrible in general. It talks about the "the despairing days of Gordon Strachan's era, only four years ago" and how there was clamour for a back three. Four years ago today we had just beaten Slovakia at Hampden to take our run to four wins and a draw (England at home) in our last five qualifiers. And there was no clamour for a back three as he suggested, because we had kept clean sheets in four of those games.

[Tartan Dave]

57 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

The article is terrible in general. It talks about the "the despairing days of Gordon Strachan's era, only four years ago" and how there was clamour for a back three. Four years ago today we had just beaten Slovakia at Hampden to take our run to four wins and a draw (England at home) in our last five qualifiers. And there was no clamour for a back three as he suggested, because we had kept clean sheets in four of those games.

I thought we played a back 3 against England, seem to remember Tierney lcb?

[Ken Deans]

Rules clearly state two yellows gets you suspended next game and relevant for play offs but not the finals. Surprised at the Scotsman tbh. Che Adams has one only.

Outrageously optimistic for this one

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:

The article is terrible in general. It talks about the "the despairing days of Gordon Strachan's era, only four years ago" and how there was clamour for a back three. Four years ago today we had just beaten Slovakia at Hampden to take our run to four wins and a draw (England at home) in our last five qualifiers. And there was no clamour for a back three as he suggested, because we had kept clean sheets in four of those games.

Strachan's era was let down by 2 last minute goals, and 2 poor performances against 5th seed teams (Georgia; Lithuania).  In the last 20 years, things have been far worse than they were under Strachan.

I genuinely would like to have seen what he could have done with these players, as they are significantly better than what he had to use.

(I don't miss him being an arse, but then SC has that in abundance too).

[ScottishZizou]

Just reminded myself of the squad by looking at the Twitter post by SNT. Just hilarious every time. Why isn’t “x” in squad, laughable that he’s not and this guy is. If you flipped it round, other people or possible same people moaning that the other guy is in etc. Just people permanently seething.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit of a “is Clarke that good” thinker before the Austria game. Penalty shootouts are more luck from a managerial perspective for me but that was a cracking result in Austria. A lot of my Clarke doubts were based on how on earth we can’t beat Israel in our last 4 attempts so would love for him to break that run.

Hanley suspended is a big blow as he’s been excellent for us of late. I’d remove O’Donnell for Patterson in starting XI. As good as SOD can be when we are on the break, his use of the ball is suspect in a game where you’d hope we’d have close to equal possession (maybe we don’t want that). 
 

Gordon, Hendry, Cooper, tierney, Patterson, Robertson, mctominay, gilmour, McGinn, dykes, Adams 

I like Armstrong but lack of game time and good result without him sees him miss out for me. Mcgrgeor probably harsh to miss out after Austria but I just don’t think he’s that good. Buzzing for this game

[craigkillie]

38 minutes ago, Tartan Dave said:

I thought we played a back 3 against England, seem to remember Tierney lcb?

We might have done in that game, but Tierney was right-back in a back four for the rest of them, in which we kept four clean sheets in four matches.

Edited October 6, 2021 by craigkillie

[Barney Rubble]

41 minutes ago, Tartan Dave said:

I thought we played a back 3 against England, seem to remember Tierney lcb?

You are correct - Anya, Berra, Mulgrew, Tierney, Robertson was the defensive line-up.

[the snudge]

2 hours ago, pthardie said:

I would recommend Grain and Grind on Battlefield road next to the old hospital or Sinclairs on Sinclair Dr, both good food and good coffee in both and about 10 minutes walk from Hampden

Brilliant thank you!

[Theyellowbox]

3 hours ago, ScottishZizou said:

A lot of my Clarke doubts were based on how on earth we can’t beat Israel in our last 4 attempts so would love for him to break that run.

I suspect a lot of us are the same. Sort of feels like we play them so often that one of these times we should be giving them a hiding, but never happens.

Probably because we play them so often, there is less liklihood to spring a surprise.

I've a gut feeling that Saturday might be the day we do something a bit special against them. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by Theyellowbox

[The Algebraist]

2 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

I suspect a lot of us are the same. Sort of feels like we play them so often that one of these times we should be giving them a hiding, but never happens.

Probably because we play them so often, there is less liklihood to spring a surprise.

I've a git feeling that Saturday might be the day we do something a bit special against them. 

I do sometimes wonder if we should chuck a complete curveball against them just to switch it up. Play nothing but left backs or similar....

More seriously I hope Gilmour can make a difference as he won't have played in one of these. I wish we had selected Gauld for the same reason, just someone they likely won't have seen.

[2426255]

56 minutes ago, ScottishZizou said:

A lot of my Clarke doubts were based on how on earth we can’t beat Israel in our last 4 attempts so would love for him to break that run.

Israel are a good team, certainly comparable to Scotland - maybe that's why we struggle to beat them? 

[Theyellowbox]

15 minutes ago, The Algebraist said:

I do sometimes wonder if we should chuck a complete curveball against them just to switch it up. Play nothing but left backs or similar....

More seriously I hope Gilmour can make a difference as he won't have played in one of these. I wish we had selected Gauld for the same reason, just someone they likely won't have seen.

Tobe fair, we could probably field an entire team of left backs and still be fairly good.

I agree re Gilmour, he may be the wildcard. If he can create the space with his wee touches and reading of the game, we can get right in about them. They may we end up having to be more defensive as a result.

I'd day since we last faced them, we have improved all over the park. 

 

[2426255]

5 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

I'd day since we last faced them, we have improved all over the park. 

And Israel have just stayed still.  The opinions on here can be so one dimensional.

[Theyellowbox]

20 minutes ago, 2426255 said:

And Israel have just stayed still.  The opinions on here can be so one dimensional.

To be honest, I have no idea whatsoever. Most likely have, but only really concerned with our squad.

I think what maybe sets us apart in terms of progression is we now have a player in gilmour who has the potential to be genuinely World class. I'm pretty sure Isreal don't have such a player, plus Zahavi is that bit older. 

[2426255]

1 hour ago, Theyellowbox said:

I suspect a lot of us are the same. Sort of feels like we play them so often that one of these times we should be giving them a hiding, but never happens.

Probably because we play them so often, there is less liklihood to spring a surprise.

I've a git feeling that Saturday might be the day we do something a bit special against them. 

 

9 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

To be honest, I have no idea whatsoever. Most likely have, but only really concerned with our squad.

I think what maybe sets us apart in terms of progression is we now have a player in gilmour who has the potential to be genuinely World class. I'm pretty sure Isreal don't have such a player, plus Zahavi is that bit older. 

So if you don't know much about Israel then maybe that's why you're surprised when we struggle to give them a good shooing.

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

1 hour ago, 2426255 said:

Israel are a good team, certainly comparable to Scotland - maybe that's why we struggle to beat them? 

Israel came 5th in the last EC qualifying.  The won once versus Austria, twice versus Latvia, and got one point from North Macedonia.  Without Zahavi, they would be bordering on a 5th pot team.  Let's not pretend they are anything but a well-organised, but distinctly average, team, albeit one with a true international-class striker.

What that says about us, I'm not sure, but we've never come 5th in a group, nor do we implode to lose 5-0 against teams like Denmark.

If you deal with Zahavi, you deal with most of what Israel have.  Any national side with Zahavi's goal record would be doing well - if we did, we'd be competing with Denmark for top of the group right now, and probably would have made the last 16 in the Euros.

Edited October 6, 2021 by HuttonDressedAsLahm

[Theyellowbox]

56 minutes ago, 2426255 said:

 

So if you don't know much about Israel then maybe that's why you're surprised when we struggle to give them a good shooing.

What I do know is that they are ranked below us and don't exactly have a massively impressive recent set of results or haven't qualified for a tournament yet, so not a stretch to assume we should on paper be beating a lower ranked team.

I'm no expert on them, but like everyone else, have seen the a lot over the last few years and as an overall squad, I think we are better than them. 

[KingRocketman II]

17 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

What I do know is that they are ranked below us and don't exactly have a massively impressive recent set of results or haven't qualified for a tournament yet, so not a stretch to assume we should on paper be beating a lower ranked team.

I'm no expert on them, but like everyone else, have seen the a lot over the last few years and as an overall squad, I think we are better than them. 

I would suggest that you save yourself some time and don't counter him on this point particularly if you're using your personal assessment of the comparative quality of individual players/teams or using rankings. Basically his argument is that if we win then that is expected; if we lose then that is also expected - immaterial of who the opposition is. 

[DMCs]

1 hour ago, Theyellowbox said:

To be honest, I have no idea whatsoever. Most likely have, but only really concerned with our squad.

I think what maybe sets us apart in terms of progression is we now have a player in gilmour who has the potential to be genuinely World class. I'm pretty sure Isreal don't have such a player, plus Zahavi is that bit older. 

We don't need to win while Israel probably do. That's the main advantage. Avoid defeat and we are still in a great position.