RicoS321

Half time, 0-3 down. Holy crap, if that is the future of the Scotland Nationl team, then we're absolutely fucked. They are really bad. They're playing like they've just come straight from a 3 hour training session. That involved alcohol. The second goal, the midfielder passed it straight to their player. In itself, fine, but then he didn't sprint to get it back, he jogged across leaving the fullback 2 on 1 until the last second, and he ended up getting easily skinned. Just really lazy, and a sign of terrible coaching. The third came from a simple corner. It's in Murcia for some reason, so perhaps the Iceland lads are more used to the hot weather. I won't be watching the second half.

U21s Vs Iceland on YouTube just now. Edit: just lost a goal, 0-1 down, lovely ball for the strike

Not too bad. I thought the clubs might have got together to do a bit of joint marketing and really tried to make a big deal about the fixture. Obviously, the exorbitant cost of tickets is unhelpful in this. It's a far better fixture than playing either of the scum in semis or finals.

I should have made the border at Stonehaven, just to be sure.

A reminder to all super-fans that are in phase 1, like me, you can buy your tickets now.

I assume you mean English Championship? Anyway, we've got players playing at roughly the same level as the Greeks, possibly slightly higher. We beat them over there, and we could have beaten them over here had we set up correctly (I have a feeling we will beat them in WC qualifying by doing so). Our biggest issue is that we lack quality in some key areas of the park, and Clarke doesn't seem to know how to mitigate that (or he does, but then does it until it dies). Adams is a prime example. He's doing well in Italy, but it's very clear that he isn't the guy to be holding it up with a guy hard up his ass. To mitigate that, you bring in Conway or Hirst (preferably the former, Hirst looks like the new Chris Martin to me) to occupy defenders. Take out McLean and play one of Christie of Ferguson instead. Bring McKenna into the team, then you've got two centre backs comfortable taking the ball out of defence on their correct sides. I rarely watch English fitba, so I've no idea what McGinn does for Villa, but it's very clear that he needs to be playing high up the park for Scotland, as he either can't play sitting deep, or Villa have other players to mitigate the constant errors he makes (which are fine further up the field) and his inability to get back in. I would consider making McTominay and McGinn an either/or situation, or play McTominay as the striker alongside Adams. We're completely imbalanced as a squad, and Clarke tries his best just to play all our best players, but I don't think we can continue to do that. There's five subs these days, and they all have huge schedules with their clubs, so maybe it's time to start benching some of our "star" players in order that we have really good options from the bench. Christie or Ferguson, McTominay or McGinn, Robertson or Tierney, Nicky Devlin or... nah, there's some players that are too valuable to miss any minutes on the pitch. We also need viable systems to change to earlier in games if things aren't going well. Clarke doesn't seem to have that. In fact, he has one system that he sticks to for years, and only when it proves untenable, he switches to another one that will be the system for the rest of eternity. I know that he did sort of attempt to change system last night, but it was half arsed at best. Wilson is obviously miles away from being a Scotland player, but to take him on in some sort of weird front three was abysmal. It was the sign of someone out of ideas. We need a couple more Doaks of course. In a couple of years time, he'll have had all that trickery and direct running worked out of him by the modern game and percentage fitba, so hopefully we have another couple coming through.

Aye, Scotland should just make up a new region of the world, filled with shite teams, so they can qualify every tournament. Greater Alba. We'd play Shetland and Orkney, Inner Hebrides, St Kilda and Rockall, Faroe Islands, Greenland

Aye, an ageing McKimmie would have done the business at right back tonight. Hanley is a sub for a league one team, but he started on his wrong foot ahead of a guy playing in La Liga every week. McLean also playing a league below Christie in the same position. Johnston getting minutes versus Ralston not. Gordon is really the only one that you'd want replaced, but where the options are much worse. Like Brown, the players that he is loyal to do/did a job, and were loyal in return (McLean never misses a squad). However, that has to be balanced against the reward for your progression and effort between squads (minutes on the park, level of team), and I think both managers were off on that. Clarke will be looking at someone like Hanley and suggesting that he did very little wrong. However, doing little wrong is the bare minimum. McKenna would have advanced the ball forward, either carrying it from defence or moving it quickly. That's a net positive. Similarly Christie would have been better sitting than McLean, who did just okay. Johnston would have been rewarded for playing every week with his opportunity. Clarke is just too safe, and too slow to change. Clarke's peak team that beat Spain was top class. Brown's peak teams were very good too. Pragmatism and safety definitely works to a large degree. Until it doesn't. Knowing when to move on is a skill neither possess.

The mascots did okay, and the laddie on sign language for the anthem. A really bad performance, the worst in a while. Up there with Germany and the Ukraine games. We do have a huge imbalance in the squad, but that's not exactly news. I was a bit concerned before the game, because I hate seeing a team play so negatively in the first of a two legged game. Greece would have been coming to Hampden knowing that they could beat Scotland comfortably, with a few tweaks to their approach (stop crossing it to our defenders). We are laboured all over the park, with an overload of central midfielders and a striker being asked to play the role of the other big lad that usually plays. Adams needs another player to play off of (very similar to Nisbet for us), or just don't bother. Christie can't play the role that he no longer plays for Bournemouth because he can't play it. Those are two managerial errors in my opinion. We struggle to build quickly from the back as Gordon can't kick it, and Hanley is playing on his wrong fucking foot (I don't think he played a single pass with his left tonight). McGinn cannot play deep, just fucking take him off. I think Clarke should perhaps step aside before qualifying gets under way. He's too loyal to too many players, and too rigid with his setup, struggling to change things in games other than personnel switches. I wouldn't like to see him get sacked, and he can still leave with his dignity firmly intact. It reminds me of late Craig Brown era Scotland.

In fairness, I've seen that before. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with only having five minutes on air l, and if there's a lag from the SD coverage on the other channel. Anyway, we're looking like the Dons in their shitey period. Lots of playing out the back and giving it away, with zero coverage back the way.

Game is live on BBC2, which is great, but we get five minutes of a build up. Meanwhile, over on BBC1, viewers in Scotland are treated to some English pish women's game. Surely they can switch up the programming so Scotland can turn England off? Dicks. Can anyone confirm whether viewers in England were given Scotland on their BBC1 on Thursday?

I'm very glad I started a new thread for him. Been hugely justified.

Nah, Gilmour is ace. I'd have dropped McLean. Although McLean gets his 50th cap tonight, which is impressive, he's been great for Scotland. Christie is a weird one, as Clarke sees him as someone who offers width, but he hasn't done that in years. Would be interesting to see him in his club role for Scotland.

Doohan unsettles me.

Watched the last fifteen. Must have been about fifty free kicks. 0-2 a decent result though. Didn't see much of Boyd as he went off after I turned on.

The young dons did alright for Cove. Lobban looked assured, and Emslie quick and ran at them, like a young Morris. In previous times, both might get a chance in the squad next season, but I'm not sure there'll be a route for them with the way we're building our squad. They'd both need a bit of work.

Cove Huns in action on BBC alba

Can't believe I missed that. He was a bit weird too, like all the best dandies.

He didn't play in the Celtic game

I missed the Dons fan, was it the prison warden Scottish lad? Anyway, probably like a lot of people, I watch a tremendous amount of shite on Netflix and other channels. Turgid crap that I sit through just to see what happens. Netflix, especially, seems to have a lot of terrible output. Adolescence was definitely not that. Probably the best thing I've seen on Netflix, and the best TV in years. Taking a subject and really conveying it. Great stuff, and the child actors were top quality, without exception.

Not got his own thread yet. Injured again tonight for Bulgaria. Do we just keep rushing him back? He pulled up slightly with what looked like a hamstring twinge in his first game back when taking a goal kick, I'm wondering if he's still suffering with injury.

Nah, he's played a few 90 minutes since the turn of the year. The last two games too. Not sure he'll start in Sunday, might be Christie

Piece of piss, those lads were shite.

Great half from Scotland, don't look like the away side. Definitely not a pen, but once the ref has given it, would have been difficult to overturn. The ref has actually been fairly decent, letting the game flow, as they love a dive. The shape has looked very good for us, we are nice and compact off the ball, and pressing well, and very good on the break. No real underperformers in that team so far. Adams was unlucky with his chance, he was taken by surprise and probably didn't realise how much time he had. His second chance was maybe easier for him in that he had time to pick his spot, and he was inches away. He was working hard as always and he's always on the shoulder.

Come on Fiji.