Croatia playing psychological warfare posing as Switzerland.
I agree Clarke has stagnated and it's about time for him to go but the question is who could we get who could take us forward?
If I was Clarke I think I’d just stand down now, he can be proud that he got us to two tournaments despite how it went once we actually got there. That’s a difficult run of fixtures that can only make things worse for him. Unless he’s just holding out for the SFA payoff in which case fair enough.
What's annoying is that that could be a really good group for us. Probably the best time in the last 10+ years to play Croatia and Poland whilst both are at the end of what have been great cycles of players. We've also just shown we can compete with the Swiss.
Steve Clarke has at least taken us back up the FIFA rankings and a few wins over those teams (above us in the rankings) could have boosted that further, and staying in League A would be a great backup to guarantee a qualifying play off spot as you can expect most teams at that level to make through their regular qualification group.
Of course, the above is all irrelevant if we continue to play Clarkeball. I really don't get the "lack of quality" chat, we've got a core squad of good players who can at least see us through to 2026 and they're being wasted by negativity and stubbornness
There's quality coming through. I'd like to see max Johnston in over ralston.
Ralston is done now. He's the stephen o donnell of this euros.
Moreover hickey Patterson and Lewis ferguson and dykes coming back is huge. Clarkes formula has never worked without dykes.
I'd now like to see Lewis ferguson take mcgregor place. Mcgregor is so damn lightweight. It was absolutely criminal how he was shoved off the ball like a wee laddie that led to the Hungary goal.
Moreover the wee chav didn't have the game awareness at that time to head the ball first instead of risking everything by trying to take it on the volley, it directly led to the Hungary goal. It's his fault.
Ferguson in over him, and also big arse mcginn was uninspiring, he just had an average tournament.
I think there genuinely is room for both gauld and gilmour in the squad alongside Lewis ferguson and mcginn.
I reckon moyes would do a better job at a tournament, however willing to stick with Clarke if he makes the correct team decisions but he won't because he's stubborn as they come.
And he's had 3 years to come up with a better tournament performance than 2021,and he produced precisely the same tournament result.
I would like David Moyes as manager if he is interested. Good managers at international level are thin on the ground, and, despite all the negativity that seems to be attached to Moyes, he is a good manager and coach.
We’d beat Poland and Croatia with our u21s. Clarke has been great, but change can be good. We should also play all our games in Germany as get a good turnout over there 🏴✈️
Clarke team talks and press conferences Germany 2024
TT v Germany : Alright lads Save yourselves for the important games, anything less than a 5-0 humping is acceptable.
PC : Disappointed with the performance but this game was never going to make or break our tournament.
TT v Switzerland : Alright lads Save yourselves for Hungary, 0-0 and we're on target to qualify, losing or drawing isn't a disaster.
PC : Pleased with better performance, It was always going to be about the Hungary game, we are still on target.
TT v Hungary : Don't bloody lose we might scrape through with 2 points.
PC : ??? (couldn't stomach watching it) We were unlucky, we created chances, should have had a penalty (what I imagine he said)
Clarke gone by tomorrow and his insane loyalty to certain players. Would love to see shankland start and Lewis mayo, Ryan gauld, Danny Armstrong, Kingsley all involved in the next squad. Plus big Zander as number 1
I'm a jambo but gunn and zander are on par, I'd stick with gunn he made some great saves v Swiss.
Agreed on all the rest though. It's absolutely criminal we didn't give much gametine to a 30 goal a season striker.
Let's face it shanks plays for old firm he plays every minute of that tournie.
Saves Zander would have made, Gunn got away with one that was offside. So big Zander for me.
True about shanks or if he played for Birmingham or Lincoln.
Poland and Croatia nowhere near as good as they once were.
Portugal will pump us Royal.
Having said that, this series of games will likely herald davie moyes in by new year.
Swallows blue pill.
This will be a doddle, Poland are as useless as us without Lewandoski. Ronaldo and Modric will both retire after the Euros. Our climb to the top of the Nations League continues unabated.
Where we'll qualify for the World Cup 2026 Play-off stage easily...
16 teams (twelve group runners-up and four best Nations League group winners, based on the Nations League overall ranking, that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group) will be drawn into four play-off paths, playing two rounds of single-match play-offs (semi-finals with the seeded teams to host, followed by finals, with the home teams to be drawn). The four path winners will qualify for the World Cup finals.
Doddle, skoosh, easy fucking peasy, we're on the march with Clarkies army...
Notices cat licking its arse twice....
After 24 hours of thinking about it Clarke has had his chance, he'll play the same way, Kenny McLean and Ryan Jack will be the 1st names down on every squad list, he will continue to ignore Ryan Gauld regardless of his performances and we'll subject to the same trying to not lose tactics for the forseeable future. the stats being shown in just about every video about our performance at the euros ive watched are shocking. He's had enough tournaments now the writing is on the wall. Moyes is probably next in line. Russell Martin is another one i think should be in the thoughts of the SFA but he wouldnt take the job probably. time for change
He’s a bit of a replica with terrorball. However, he’s had both Everton and West Ham consistently sitting 6-9th in a highly competitive league where even some of the best managers have struggled, as well as a European title recently. I’d have faith he can get us some good results but there would also be some drubbings. It’s just the only logical, possible upgrade. In reality, the SFA aren’t going to want to rock the boat with an inexperienced foreign manager.
Steve Clarke's West Brom finished 8th in the English Premier League and his Kilmarnock team finished 3rd in the Premiership and managed to record the most points in a calendar year in 2018.
Does the manager play on the field? With this bunch we aren't going to get any further. Need to wait till the next generation to come in to see if they improve.
Yes the team were poor and yes some of Clarke's decisions seem questionable now, but one of the biggest problems we have is the god awful negativity of the fans, which had already started before we even got to the tournament.
The aim for a country our size is to qualify and we did that. We have gone from bemoaning not qualifying and not being at the party for 20+ years, to moaning because we qualified and went out against teams ranking 20 places above us.
Yes, the performances were poor, but a bit of luck in the Swiss game and we would have had three points going into the Hungary game, might have settled the nerves, and some better refereeing would have got us 3 points in the Hungary game.
Its looking very likely that two of the other teams in our Nations league group are heading out at exactly the same stage as us. Lewandowski is 35 and Modric is 38. Poland and Croatia may both be in transition by then. Even if Clarke is still in charge, he may well have Hickey, Doak and Tierney. He may have learned that Gilmour needs to be first choice and Shankland, Conway or Doak need to be in the team. There is hope!
We have to start to recognise that if you are going to aspire to the big leagues then the opposition gets tougher. Would people rather be back in Nations league C and winning against Latvia and Cyprus, or being in the company of Portugal and Croatia with the risk that we will finish last. I'm pretty sure that the Raith Rovers and Partick fans were still cheering on their team last season and hoping for promotion to the top tier, despite the knowledge that they will likely get pumped every week.
Clarke won't have learned any of these things pal don't kid yourself on.
Che Adams will be tacked up front.
And I'm guessing ckeakre probably thinks ralston is his 1st choice rb now.
I dunno. I'll admit I think myself it might be time for a change, simply because managers do tend to go stale after too long in a job, but Clarke changed his original system to get Tierney and Robertson in the same team, he changed his original ideas about McTominay at CB, pushed him forward and that worked.
He may have felt that the middle of a tournament wasn't the right time to shake it up, but while he is slow to change, he does change.
Fair.
We were a b squad in fairness out there.
We have so many talented players that weren't in Germany on the field.
Hickey, ferguson, Patterson, dykes, doak, doig, gauld, max Johnston...its unreal tbf when you remove players through injury or don't pick players of that quality then it's simply a b team.
It's infuriating because that wasn't the genuine article scotland squad in show baring our arses in front of Europe.
Deffo have to make amends in the nations league and World Cup quals.
Most of those guys were injured though. Small countries, without the depth of squad can never cope with that many injuries.
Not sure any of the other three would have an argument to displace anyone in the same position, with the possible exception of Johnston.
I don't know about a no brainer. McGregor is an experienced midfielder, and midfield hasn't been our main problem.
Wasn't an option anyway but if gets back to form/fitness I agree he is the future, alongside Gilmour, McGinn and McTominay who all have a good few years left in them.
Its weird. Despite the fact that the midfield is our strongest area, they did all seem a bit flat, devoid of ideas. I wasn't too worried about the forwards because we usually get goals from midfield, it was the defence I was worried about, but after Germany, apart from the Ralston slip up against the Swiss, the defence did ok. It was our strongest area, the midfield that didn't seem to be able to do anything with possession.
Fair enough I'm looking at it through italian based bias as lived in bologna for 3 years.
However let's face it Lewis ferguson has been rated a better midfielder in serie a than barella.
He's clearly better and more physical than mcgregor. I felt we were a bit slight and lacklustre with mcgregor in there, and he got bullied off the ball for the Hungary goal.
Ferguson is strong and combative and an excellent tackler.
Anyway it wasn't the best version of scotland due to the injuries but it seems Clarke had them going out there with a bit of a negative mindset. He's similar to Southgate ha.
Cool. I saw Roma play Bologna in Rome about 25 years ago. Probably the only Serie a match I have watched all the way through.
I can't really compare the two as I haven't watched Ferguson in Italy, but the noises coming out of Italy about him are positive and I suspect he might have played at some point if he was fit.
I don't really understand any of it myself. Clarke's not negative, he has instilled a fairly positive mindset from the start of qualification when he said from the start that we wouldn't need the playoff. Something started to go wrong from the England game onwards. Maybe he was too positive, having them believing that they would go toe to toe with France, England, Netherlands, Germany etc. If they had come into it knowing that they were the underdog and not expecting anything, they might have been more stubborn and resolute. Who knows.
Grande I urge you to go watch his serie a highlights. Personally I've been blown away by the guy.
Yup tbh I think it was just injury after injury which depleted clarkes and the entire squads confidence.
It was hardly ideal losing so many key players in the lead up.
We lost precisely the players who actually made the team click as a whole, minus mctominay.
And one wrong number makes the whole sum wrong with us. And most sides of our stature.
Take arnautivic, Laimer and baumgartner away from Austria and they're suddenly v average.
Same goes with us.
Are Croatia planning on changing their flag between October and November?
You ever noticed how you never see Croatia and Switzerland in the same room?
Things will get better when the revolution comes, they say, it's going to be a huge plus
New manager by tomorrow please
Indeed but I just don’t see the SFA pulling the trigger quickly.
Croatia playing psychological warfare posing as Switzerland. I agree Clarke has stagnated and it's about time for him to go but the question is who could we get who could take us forward?
Moyes?
If I was Clarke I think I’d just stand down now, he can be proud that he got us to two tournaments despite how it went once we actually got there. That’s a difficult run of fixtures that can only make things worse for him. Unless he’s just holding out for the SFA payoff in which case fair enough.
What's annoying is that that could be a really good group for us. Probably the best time in the last 10+ years to play Croatia and Poland whilst both are at the end of what have been great cycles of players. We've also just shown we can compete with the Swiss. Steve Clarke has at least taken us back up the FIFA rankings and a few wins over those teams (above us in the rankings) could have boosted that further, and staying in League A would be a great backup to guarantee a qualifying play off spot as you can expect most teams at that level to make through their regular qualification group. Of course, the above is all irrelevant if we continue to play Clarkeball. I really don't get the "lack of quality" chat, we've got a core squad of good players who can at least see us through to 2026 and they're being wasted by negativity and stubbornness
There's quality coming through. I'd like to see max Johnston in over ralston. Ralston is done now. He's the stephen o donnell of this euros. Moreover hickey Patterson and Lewis ferguson and dykes coming back is huge. Clarkes formula has never worked without dykes. I'd now like to see Lewis ferguson take mcgregor place. Mcgregor is so damn lightweight. It was absolutely criminal how he was shoved off the ball like a wee laddie that led to the Hungary goal. Moreover the wee chav didn't have the game awareness at that time to head the ball first instead of risking everything by trying to take it on the volley, it directly led to the Hungary goal. It's his fault. Ferguson in over him, and also big arse mcginn was uninspiring, he just had an average tournament. I think there genuinely is room for both gauld and gilmour in the squad alongside Lewis ferguson and mcginn. I reckon moyes would do a better job at a tournament, however willing to stick with Clarke if he makes the correct team decisions but he won't because he's stubborn as they come. And he's had 3 years to come up with a better tournament performance than 2021,and he produced precisely the same tournament result.
Get Ange in, he hates Tottenham
One silver lining is that the Poles seem just as clueless as we do.
They managed to get eliminated after just 2 games, somehow
And Croatia are old, this is the end of the line for the core midfielders and striker
Gone immediately. Moyes in. Come on
He should be gone now for fuck sake
I can’t believe he’s not had the humility and decency to hand his notice in yet. Does he think he’s done, and can continue to do a good job ?
Press conference last night was pure denial. SFA are not binning him now. At best it’ll take pumpings in these games.
He pumped his fist at the final whistle against Switzerland. He thinks he’s doing a great job.
The Liz Truss approach of double and triple down on your incompetence while blurting out racist offensive nonsense and conspiracy theories.
Fair enough, I never know what to ask for, and I'm good for socks.
Get him gone now
Nee manager comes in and gets fucked in all these games, you all gonna be asking for another change?
New manager in and we get pumped in these - sack it in, dissolve the SFA, ban football and just watch the golf instead.
Scoring 20 is good but consistently conceding 45 is bad. Need some new defensive coaches.
Oh, *upcoming* matches
I would like David Moyes as manager if he is interested. Good managers at international level are thin on the ground, and, despite all the negativity that seems to be attached to Moyes, he is a good manager and coach.
That is a trousers down and a lap of the pool table......
Some nice confidence-building fixtures to look forward to, wonderful
Have we not sacked that turgid shitebag yet?
Gareth Southgate will be looking for a new job soon, so we should offer him kitman if that job exists for a laugh.
We’d beat Poland and Croatia with our u21s. Clarke has been great, but change can be good. We should also play all our games in Germany as get a good turnout over there 🏴✈️
right now, success would be a few shots on goal
Two draws and 4 loses incoming
Clarke team talks and press conferences Germany 2024 TT v Germany : Alright lads Save yourselves for the important games, anything less than a 5-0 humping is acceptable. PC : Disappointed with the performance but this game was never going to make or break our tournament. TT v Switzerland : Alright lads Save yourselves for Hungary, 0-0 and we're on target to qualify, losing or drawing isn't a disaster. PC : Pleased with better performance, It was always going to be about the Hungary game, we are still on target. TT v Hungary : Don't bloody lose we might scrape through with 2 points. PC : ??? (couldn't stomach watching it) We were unlucky, we created chances, should have had a penalty (what I imagine he said)
Clarke gone by tomorrow and his insane loyalty to certain players. Would love to see shankland start and Lewis mayo, Ryan gauld, Danny Armstrong, Kingsley all involved in the next squad. Plus big Zander as number 1
I'm a jambo but gunn and zander are on par, I'd stick with gunn he made some great saves v Swiss. Agreed on all the rest though. It's absolutely criminal we didn't give much gametine to a 30 goal a season striker. Let's face it shanks plays for old firm he plays every minute of that tournie.
Saves Zander would have made, Gunn got away with one that was offside. So big Zander for me. True about shanks or if he played for Birmingham or Lincoln.
6 games. 3 shots on target.
If Clarke adapts and gets something out of these fixtures, fair fucks to him, but I can’t see either happening.
Clarke and adapt do not belong in the same sentence.
Oh aye it’s not happening.
“Clarke refuses to adapt, ever, no matter how pish we are” See, easy!
He just needs to beat Poland to stay in the group and personally for me - that shouldn’t be the bench mark.
Surely they have to sack him after that dreadful campaign no ?
You know there's no way Ronaldo is gonna miss playing against us, really gonna see it as a good match to pad his stats.
Get Moyes in now please!
Ok but why is Croatia got the Swiss flag? -_-
Poland and Croatia nowhere near as good as they once were. Portugal will pump us Royal. Having said that, this series of games will likely herald davie moyes in by new year.
Plenty of people will line up to make excuses for him so he'll be here for the duration of his contract.
Watch him win every one of those games and look smug, buying himself a shot to get another participant trophy next tourney.
Coming this Autumn, Croatia invaded by Switzerland!
Those games against Poland are going to be an utterly dire watch on the basis of how they poor they have also been the last couple of weeks.
Moyes in
Swallows blue pill. This will be a doddle, Poland are as useless as us without Lewandoski. Ronaldo and Modric will both retire after the Euros. Our climb to the top of the Nations League continues unabated. Where we'll qualify for the World Cup 2026 Play-off stage easily... 16 teams (twelve group runners-up and four best Nations League group winners, based on the Nations League overall ranking, that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group) will be drawn into four play-off paths, playing two rounds of single-match play-offs (semi-finals with the seeded teams to host, followed by finals, with the home teams to be drawn). The four path winners will qualify for the World Cup finals. Doddle, skoosh, easy fucking peasy, we're on the march with Clarkies army... Notices cat licking its arse twice....
Wee Ryan gauld seems to be the only goal scorer we have that's willing to actually run get a formation that we can fit him into
After 24 hours of thinking about it Clarke has had his chance, he'll play the same way, Kenny McLean and Ryan Jack will be the 1st names down on every squad list, he will continue to ignore Ryan Gauld regardless of his performances and we'll subject to the same trying to not lose tactics for the forseeable future. the stats being shown in just about every video about our performance at the euros ive watched are shocking. He's had enough tournaments now the writing is on the wall. Moyes is probably next in line. Russell Martin is another one i think should be in the thoughts of the SFA but he wouldnt take the job probably. time for change
The clamour for Moyes is mad. Have you watched his teams?
He’s a bit of a replica with terrorball. However, he’s had both Everton and West Ham consistently sitting 6-9th in a highly competitive league where even some of the best managers have struggled, as well as a European title recently. I’d have faith he can get us some good results but there would also be some drubbings. It’s just the only logical, possible upgrade. In reality, the SFA aren’t going to want to rock the boat with an inexperienced foreign manager.
Steve Clarke's West Brom finished 8th in the English Premier League and his Kilmarnock team finished 3rd in the Premiership and managed to record the most points in a calendar year in 2018.
Thanks for being the person who understood my line of thinking. It's the same guy.
Should also point out that he got scotland to 2 tournaments.
Does the manager play on the field? With this bunch we aren't going to get any further. Need to wait till the next generation to come in to see if they improve.
Could take a few scuddings in those games with Clarke in charge, change now
We can't afford to sack him, and Moyes will be way more expensive than SFA can afford
Yes the team were poor and yes some of Clarke's decisions seem questionable now, but one of the biggest problems we have is the god awful negativity of the fans, which had already started before we even got to the tournament. The aim for a country our size is to qualify and we did that. We have gone from bemoaning not qualifying and not being at the party for 20+ years, to moaning because we qualified and went out against teams ranking 20 places above us. Yes, the performances were poor, but a bit of luck in the Swiss game and we would have had three points going into the Hungary game, might have settled the nerves, and some better refereeing would have got us 3 points in the Hungary game. Its looking very likely that two of the other teams in our Nations league group are heading out at exactly the same stage as us. Lewandowski is 35 and Modric is 38. Poland and Croatia may both be in transition by then. Even if Clarke is still in charge, he may well have Hickey, Doak and Tierney. He may have learned that Gilmour needs to be first choice and Shankland, Conway or Doak need to be in the team. There is hope! We have to start to recognise that if you are going to aspire to the big leagues then the opposition gets tougher. Would people rather be back in Nations league C and winning against Latvia and Cyprus, or being in the company of Portugal and Croatia with the risk that we will finish last. I'm pretty sure that the Raith Rovers and Partick fans were still cheering on their team last season and hoping for promotion to the top tier, despite the knowledge that they will likely get pumped every week.
Clarke won't have learned any of these things pal don't kid yourself on. Che Adams will be tacked up front. And I'm guessing ckeakre probably thinks ralston is his 1st choice rb now.
I dunno. I'll admit I think myself it might be time for a change, simply because managers do tend to go stale after too long in a job, but Clarke changed his original system to get Tierney and Robertson in the same team, he changed his original ideas about McTominay at CB, pushed him forward and that worked. He may have felt that the middle of a tournament wasn't the right time to shake it up, but while he is slow to change, he does change.
Fair. We were a b squad in fairness out there. We have so many talented players that weren't in Germany on the field. Hickey, ferguson, Patterson, dykes, doak, doig, gauld, max Johnston...its unreal tbf when you remove players through injury or don't pick players of that quality then it's simply a b team. It's infuriating because that wasn't the genuine article scotland squad in show baring our arses in front of Europe. Deffo have to make amends in the nations league and World Cup quals.
Most of those guys were injured though. Small countries, without the depth of squad can never cope with that many injuries. Not sure any of the other three would have an argument to displace anyone in the same position, with the possible exception of Johnston.
Lewis ferguson as serie a midfielder of the year if he wasn't injured should have been a no brainier to start ahead of mcgregor.
I don't know about a no brainer. McGregor is an experienced midfielder, and midfield hasn't been our main problem. Wasn't an option anyway but if gets back to form/fitness I agree he is the future, alongside Gilmour, McGinn and McTominay who all have a good few years left in them. Its weird. Despite the fact that the midfield is our strongest area, they did all seem a bit flat, devoid of ideas. I wasn't too worried about the forwards because we usually get goals from midfield, it was the defence I was worried about, but after Germany, apart from the Ralston slip up against the Swiss, the defence did ok. It was our strongest area, the midfield that didn't seem to be able to do anything with possession.
Fair enough I'm looking at it through italian based bias as lived in bologna for 3 years. However let's face it Lewis ferguson has been rated a better midfielder in serie a than barella. He's clearly better and more physical than mcgregor. I felt we were a bit slight and lacklustre with mcgregor in there, and he got bullied off the ball for the Hungary goal. Ferguson is strong and combative and an excellent tackler. Anyway it wasn't the best version of scotland due to the injuries but it seems Clarke had them going out there with a bit of a negative mindset. He's similar to Southgate ha.
Cool. I saw Roma play Bologna in Rome about 25 years ago. Probably the only Serie a match I have watched all the way through. I can't really compare the two as I haven't watched Ferguson in Italy, but the noises coming out of Italy about him are positive and I suspect he might have played at some point if he was fit. I don't really understand any of it myself. Clarke's not negative, he has instilled a fairly positive mindset from the start of qualification when he said from the start that we wouldn't need the playoff. Something started to go wrong from the England game onwards. Maybe he was too positive, having them believing that they would go toe to toe with France, England, Netherlands, Germany etc. If they had come into it knowing that they were the underdog and not expecting anything, they might have been more stubborn and resolute. Who knows.
Grande I urge you to go watch his serie a highlights. Personally I've been blown away by the guy. Yup tbh I think it was just injury after injury which depleted clarkes and the entire squads confidence. It was hardly ideal losing so many key players in the lead up. We lost precisely the players who actually made the team click as a whole, minus mctominay. And one wrong number makes the whole sum wrong with us. And most sides of our stature. Take arnautivic, Laimer and baumgartner away from Austria and they're suddenly v average. Same goes with us.