RicoS321

Ramsay? Aye, he's a suspicious one.

Like most teams, Scotland rarely setup to play long ball, that's simply a function of being a worse team than your opponent, being pressured and then having to go long. Had we played with nisbet instead of Dykes, we'd still have seen the same volume of long balls, just we'd have seen the ball coming back at us quicker. We didn't play long ball against England because we had a more balanced midfield with Gilmour there rather than Armstrong, so even with Dykes up front we could keep the ball in to feet and utilise the long ball when under pressure. In reality it's very difficult for a manager to prevent the long ball when his team is under pressure and I can guarantee that Clarke wasn't asking his players to play long ball as a tactic. We had a midfield three that was playing in a straight line for most of the game, all doing similar things at the same time (as happened against Czech Republic), inviting pressure on to us as soon as we got possession. Clarke should have recognised this earlier than he did and should have fixed it. To be honest, he should be using the metric of the number of times that we're forced to go long as an indicator that his tactics were failing and acted much sooner to change it. Belgium went long to Lukaku on numerous occasions last night as Portugal got more and more possession, similarly the Czechs with Schik against the Dutch, it's just a function of ability versus pressure rather than a coaching decision.

Good to see he's sorted himself out with a new career.

I've a feeling that they won't be publicised to avoid folk turning up. Probably all be at Cormack park to avoid covidry.

I think they were on their backs.

That's pish, think he'll turn into a very good player.

I agree with your first point, but not your solution. The midfield and the wide areas were the issue. I don't think it's stubbornness either, it's fear, as it was with McInnes (and many, many other managers). The inability to see that the game isn't going your way and a goal for the opponent is inevitable. The subs should have been on well before their second goal (well, a few minutes at least). Despite our great chance with McGinn, that game was only going one way. We needed to be proactive and take the gamble to win the game, as you nearly always do as the underdog. O'Donnell off for Forrest or Fraser and Armstrong off for Christie or Turnbull. Double sub, try and affect the game positively and throw them off their stride. Our midfield was a straight line, just as it was against the Czech Republic, and was far too easy to play against. Clarke changed nothing tactically. You only get one chance and you need to be prepared to take risks.

I'm fairly confident he'll be shite.

McRorie likely right back next season anyway, maybe this guy will be the pressure he needs to get his finger oot. I don't think Ramsay is ready and could do with a 6 month loan at a championship club.

Could imagine that if Ukraine get an equaliser we'll see a very pedestrian draw played out.

Gurr joins on a one year deal (no loan). Welcome aboard etc.

Could have been a big table tennis table.

Nice goal. We'll take him back now. Return the English guy.

I had a tenner on that result at 50-1. Funded my season ticket. Was bricking it for the last twenty. Had the tenner covered by a more sensible bet like, I wouldn't normally put that on at such large odds. Also had a tenner on morata to score first. Been a great day for gambling.

It just shows how difficult it is in my opinion. I didn't agree with Clarke's team on Monday but I can completely understood his reasons for picking it. McGregor wasn't in great form, Adams hadn't completely proven himself, O'Donnell showed tonight that with good support he's much better than some Hun no mark. The margins are so fine in international football, it's exceptionally difficult to get every selection right. Well done Clarke tonight, spot on.

I understand what you're saying, and I agree to an extent, but those were Marshall's instructions (or certainly he wasn't told not to push forward), so I don't see how it's his fault. You can see him coming further and appears to be shouting at the defence. The two players you suggest were covering were clearly not further enough across because they weren't expecting Henry to fuck up from that position either. They were as far out of position as Marshall was with obviously a slightly less risk attributable.

Seven straight wins should setup an interesting home tie against the Tims like.

He shouldn't have been in his box though, he is required to be up the park a bit when the defence is so high up. He should have been about the thirty yard line, giving him plenty of time to get back when the ball deflected, his positioning was poor, but not massively poor. It was really bad decision making from Henry. There were two easy passes available (O'Donnell was the ball) that would have made for a really good opportunity to score. A defender should always know if he's last man (or close to last man) when stepping up with the ball like that, he would have been very aware that there was zero cover behind, so he should have been passing and backtracking. It was fairly basic stuff. Marshall is obviously at fault too, but Henry was the main culprit for me, Marshall would have been out of position for a few seconds at most trying to communicate with his defence and would have rightly expected the ball to remain upfield for that period. It's no different to defenders getting caught out of position when another defender passes it straight to an opponent unexpectedly.

Ach, I think we can forgive Marshall for that one. When you see how high up the rest of the defence was, he's actually probably only 5 yards or so from where he should have been to act as a sweeper. 99 percent out of 100 times he'd get away with it. As for dykes, he did okay in the first half, he worked hard and put himself about the place. If Christie had offered more we probably wouldn't have been complaining as dykes was only ever there for his hassling defenders and holding it up. Even when Adams came on, I think he'd have been far less effective without Dykes. You're spot on with the McInnes shout, but that's the same with nearly every other manager over the years, from Levein to Strachan and now Clarke. Again, it's because the first goal is so important that they almost always take the cautious approach, when the answer was probably Dykes and Adams. Nisbet is a decent finisher but isn't as intelligent with hold up play as Dykes. The problem that Clarke has now is that Dykes would probably have been the preferred option against England when we'll see little of the ball and we need a target up field, but he's played himself out of a start. I'l don't think Adams has what it takes either unfortunately. I just wish managers would learn that they only ever get one chance at this and a risk is nearly always the way to go. As you say, very like McInnes, we saw this so often in our European ties where we had a good chance but failed gloriously due to caution.

I don't think Paterson is that good though? O'Donnell is poor but he's generally sensible enough. I think I'd trust Forrest to mark his man over Paterson. McTominay one was never a pen, he charged head first into the defender. He was terrible today, really didn't put in the effort required. He should be dragging his midfield through games like these. He didn't show up. Totally agree about Tierney, knew we'd be up against it when he wasn't in the squad. Surely must be questionable whether he'll go from not being on the bench to being fit to play England. Will be a huge miss, Cooper doesn't offer much at all in there.

0-1 halftime. Unlucky to be down, a decent even game. Good goal, just a bit disorganised at the back, with Henry slow to get across leaving O'Donnell with two men so just a fraction too late to block the cross. Not much the defenders or keeper could do from there. Hanley and McGinn been good, Robertson excellent, dykes been okay. Need more from McTominay and Armstrong and Christie to get on the ball more.

Aye, that link should help us for a couple of seasons you'd think. Assuming he can spot a player that is. Hopefully be a decent signing, and if he is decent he isn't just whisked away in January like that shitey Welsh goalie. I'm not convinced that putting our eggs in the 19 year old basket is the way to go, so hopefully we'll see more action to take over when consistency becomes an issue.

Great match. I had a fiver on 3-2, which worked out nicely too.

England the better team so far. Croatia not a patch on their 2018 team, but modric world class.

It was point blank though. Often those ones just hit a goalkeeper without them knowing much about it, it was a bit unfortunate. It doesn't help that they showed about 83 slow motion replays of it. Of course your going to save it in slow motion.