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Mick's in nets for them the night as well, two decent stops from him already.
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Ah well the goal might not have been the prettiest but at least the right team won.
If only we'd taken one of those early chances, then maybe NI might have tried to play a bit of football and we may have seen a better match.
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£35 a ticket to see Scotland play Gibraltar, I'm surprised there's as many as 25k paying to get in tbh.
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A lot there would have bought there tickets as part of the "season ticket" package they now offer to the SSC, but it doesn't save you that much. In fact, it saves you less than the cost of your SSC membership anyway. I didn't renew at the start of this campaign because the prices and the benefit of the membership have gotten completely out of touch. That and the scheduling is a farce now, with only one Saturday game I'd struggle to get to any of them. If today's game had been £25 a ticket and on a Saturday afternoon it probably would have been near capacity.
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I have quite a serious agenda with Alan Hutton. He's useless.
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Too many players last night who weren't match fit. Hutton, Mulgrew, Anya, Naismith and Fletcher all aren't playing regularly with their clubs and it showed. Too many players a yard off the pace, especially in the final third.
I felt we were too open, especially away from home with a team of so many players who weren't match fit. Naismith played as more of a second striker than a third centre midfielder. Georgia aren't a bad side, we only scraped a 1-0 win at home against them. I'd have preferred if Strachan had started McArthur in centre midfield along with Brown and Morrison, with Anya, Griffiths and Maloney as a front three. That would have given us a bit more solidarity in midfield and more pace up front, two things we lacked last night.
It's going to be extremely tough to qualify now, we'll probably need to take 4 points from the two home games against Germany and Poland.
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Stevie Ferguson for Scotland manager IMO.
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Was stunned at how bad we were, a win would have set us up nicely, and the only chance for some of these players to make a major championship in their careers, but nothing.
A tough group yes, but it will be galling to have to watch it next summer with Wales and probably N.Ireland there.
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I think the warning signs are there guys -
When Fletcher celebrated scoring a hat-trick against some policemen & plumbers in the Gibraltar game - I feared. He should of comfortably scored 5 goals that game. Such a wasteful striker. Unless he finds club game time and form I never want to see him in a Scotland jersey again.
Alan Hutton as been living off a good season 5 years ago. Not fit, No pace. Terrible decisions. He doesn’t hide to be fair however in my happiest of moods he simply isn’t an international player.
Scott Brown has a fantastic engine. However he is a walking yellow card and flatters to create.
Mulgrew in fairness is not a central defender and in the air was out of his depth.
Attacking wise the one trick pony of Forrest leaves me angry why a player with a more diverse approach to attacking play like GMS for example doesn’t get a shout.
I appreciate Strachan staying loyal and building on the little quality he has, however a spice of hungry players with a point to prove would spur this sorry bunch.
We are below average failing in the basics and not playing well. We will be watching from the armchair next summer... Hang up the Glengarry guys and follow Wales.
Highlander29
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09-08-2015, 07:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-08-2015, 07:42 PM {2} by JailendLoyal.)
Scotland vs Germany:
Poor judgement from McArthur for Germany's first goal, there should be more protection in front of the CBs though. All 3 of our centre midfielders were somehow caught ahead of the ball. With a team with Muller, Gotze and Ozil, they should never be allowed to run at your CBs. The deflection was lucky, but Muller shouldn't have got the opportunity and space to run at our two centre backs.
Unbelievable free kick by Maloney. There was nothing Neuer could do there apart from palm the ball right back in front of goal. Yes, the own goal was a little lucky, but the quality of the free kick forced Neuer to palm the ball into an extremely dangerous area. Maloney's positioning for Germany's second was very poor though. You have to keep your shape as best you can and just move across the pitch, but we completely lost our shape for Germany's second. I'm really not sure why Maloney ended up in the centre midfield position. The space Can had was ridiculous at international level and we got punished for that.
Wonderful technical ability from McArthur for our second goal. Germany looked suspect at set pieces all game despite being a fairly tall team. Germany failed to clear the ball and its superb technically from McArthur. Our two goals have come from great technical ability.
Very clever run by Muller for Germany's third, but too much space in front of the CBs again. Why was there no holding midfielder? Nobody tracking the run of Gundogan, nobody protecting the centre backs. Disappointing from the centre midfielders, another really avoidable goal IMO.
I think our biggest weakness in this qualifying has been how clever we are on the pitch. We just seem to make so many small mistakes on the pitch, especially in the defensive areas. I think last night's game against Germany really summed up a Strachan team. Full of passion and workrate, but not clever enough. Technically I think we're a good side. The likes of Maloney, Morrison and McArthur have very good technical ability. We've scored goals throughout the qualifying campaign - 2 goals away to Poland and 2 goals at home to Germany, for example. The Georgia game was the only game we haven't scored in. Defensively I just don't think we've been good and clever enough. If we had at least one top CB and a really good holding midfielder, I think it would be a different story. I'm just not sure we've got the players to be solid defensively in International football. Hanley and Martin are our two best centre backs and neither are close to being top quality. I like both Morrison and McArthur in centre midfield, really good passers, but we need a proper holding midfielder and Brown isn't that man.
It's not over yet, we could still make third place and the play-offs, even though it'll be very difficult.
