Scotland Vs Belgium/albania - General Football & Other Sports - TheMortonForum.com Jump to content
TheMortonForum.com

Scotland Vs Belgium/albania


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 104
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • 2 weeks later...

Might just be me but I really don't care about and am not concerned by that in any great way.

 

It was a friendly we didn't even want but were obligated to play three days before a competitive game, and it showed in our performance. It was played at walking pace with our new team against an extremely efficient and consistent one: we turned off a few times, were punished for it, so it goes. There's no point rushing to any grand judgements in a game nobody wanted, nobody wants to get injured for the real one in a couple of days. International friendlies are consistently dreadful affairs, but even by the usual standard the ones we've had this year have been stupid.

 

If we go out against Albania and it's a similar affair then by all means worry but if we go out and win comfortably then last night is irrelevant. I might be being wildly optimistic but I'm reasonably confident we'll top the group.

AWMSC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There’s something “off” with McLeish and has been for some time now.

I along with many others have felt the same since long before he got the Scotland job. I wondered how much of this was bias so I've watched some of his press conferences from years back (you can find a lot of Birmingham ones on YouTube). It's fair to say he's never been the most eloquent, but his speech has become MUCH more halting over time and he's using some odd words. Maybe we're all reading too much into this but I think it's going to come out that he's had a stroke or something and the authorities hushed it up.

EOho8Pw.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The lapses in concentration are the worrying part for me.

 

ETA: If you want the short version, skip to the last sentence...

 

Aye, no doubting that it's a concern but at the same time I think the fact that there was nothing at all at stake and such a low intensity to the game that it's probably natural that players aren't quite as focused, especially when they're looking ahead to the next game. Again, if this all happens on Monday then it's a serious issue but I'm reasonably confident that when it gets to the proper games the mindset will be different and the players will be a lot sharper. They might not be, of course, but I'm not really that arsed until the real stuff starts.

 

On the subject of McLeish, I actually have a lot of sympathy with him. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he should have got near the job and I'm not particularly happy that he's in, but irregardless of that I think he's been handed a bit of a bum deal from the off.

 

For starters, everybody knows he was way down a pretty uninspiring shortlist in a seriously botched recruitment process and I think that's both weakened his authority and also meant there's an awful lot of pressure on him to the extent that some people seem to be actively wanting him to fail.

 

The lack of authority manifested itself most clearly in the build-up to the ill-judged South/Central America jaunt when we ended up with what amounted to a "C" squad. If Michael O'Neill had been appointed quickly after Strachan's departure I don't think we'd have seen as many call-offs in the first place, and even if there was he would have been able to have dished out a few threats over it and cracked the whip a bit. McLeish, on the other hand, lacked the authority to do so and would probably just have been mocked if he had tried it. That's not a good situation for anybody and none of it was really McLeish's fault although as it transpired I think he handled it well and made the best of bad lot.

 

As well as that, he also inherited a squad badly in need of renewal - Strachan's refusal to blood new players (99 year old Sean Maloney playing in a friendly against France, for example) was arguably his biggest failure especially when the 2018 qualifiers were dead in the water after a couple of games - so he's been stuck with a batch of already awkward friendlies whilst trying to refresh his team and try out new players in a situation not dissimilar to Berti Vogts'. 4 defeats from 5 isn't a good look, but at the same time I don't really think there's a huge amount to be read into them. Certainly losing to Costa Rica wasn't great, but they were preparing to go to a World Cup whilst we were having to dish out a load of debuts, so it's not exactly a humiliation; similarly, losing away to Peru and Mexico in their last matches before the World Cup in inhospitable circumstances is far from a catastrophe, nor is losing to an exceptionally consistent Belgian side.

 

I don't really think McLeish has done a great amount wrong in those games as such, the odds were stacked against him or any manager. In the midst of it all, I've liked that he's tried to talk his players up whenever he can; if nothing else, at least that's an improvement on Strachan's defeatist, condescending s***e.

 

Ultimately it's all about what happens in the real games and we need to just wait and see how they go. I'm certainly not as downbeat as a lot of people seem to be, simply just because I don't think anything that's happened since McLeish was appointed has been hugely important. 

 

None of this is necessarily to defend McLeish as some sort of ginger Guardiola or anything, it's mostly just ambivalence. I personally think we'll do fine in the Nations League and go into the qualifying group in decent shape, but if it goes tits-up I won't exactly be flabbergasted either. I'm almost entirely indifferent about everything until we play a real game.

AWMSC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aye, no doubting that it's a concern but at the same time I think the fact that there was nothing at all at stake and such a low intensity to the game that it's probably natural that players aren't quite as focused, especially when they're looking ahead to the next game. Again, if this all happens on Monday then it's a serious issue but I'm reasonably confident that when it gets to the proper games the mindset will be different and the players will be a lot sharper. They might not be, of course, but I'm not really that arsed until the real stuff starts.

 

On the subject of McLeish, I actually have a lot of sympathy with him. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he should have got near the job and I'm not particularly happy that he's in, but irregardless of that I think he's been handed a bit of a bum deal from the off.

 

For starters, everybody knows he was way down a pretty uninspiring shortlist in a seriously botched recruitment process and I think that's both weakened his authority and also meant there's an awful lot of pressure on him to the extent that some people seem to be actively wanting him to fail.

 

The lack of authority manifested itself most clearly in the build-up to the ill-judged South/Central America jaunt when we ended up with what amounted to a "C" squad. If Michael O'Neill had been appointed quickly after Strachan's departure I don't think we'd have seen as many call-offs in the first place, and even if there was he would have been able to have dished out a few threats over it and cracked the whip a bit. McLeish, on the other hand, lacked the authority to do so and would probably just have been mocked if he had tried it. That's not a good situation for anybody and none of it was really McLeish's fault although as it transpired I think he handled it well and made the best of bad lot.

 

As well as that, he also inherited a squad badly in need of renewal - Strachan's refusal to blood new players (99 year old Sean Maloney playing in a friendly against France, for example) was arguably his biggest failure especially when the 2018 qualifiers were dead in the water after a couple of games - so he's been stuck with a batch of already awkward friendlies whilst trying to refresh his team and try out new players in a situation not dissimilar to Berti Vogts'. 4 defeats from 5 isn't a good look, but at the same time I don't really think there's a huge amount to be read into them. Certainly losing to Costa Rica wasn't great, but they were preparing to go to a World Cup whilst we were having to dish out a load of debuts, so it's not exactly a humiliation; similarly, losing away to Peru and Mexico in their last matches before the World Cup in inhospitable circumstances is far from a catastrophe, nor is losing to an exceptionally consistent Belgian side.

 

I don't really think McLeish has done a great amount wrong in those games as such, the odds were stacked against him or any manager. In the midst of it all, I've liked that he's tried to talk his players up whenever he can; if nothing else, at least that's an improvement on Strachan's defeatist, condescending s***e.

 

Ultimately it's all about what happens in the real games and we need to just wait and see how they go. I'm certainly not as downbeat as a lot of people seem to be, simply just because I don't think anything that's happened since McLeish was appointed has been hugely important. 

 

None of this is necessarily to defend McLeish as some sort of ginger Guardiola or anything, it's mostly just ambivalence. I personally think we'll do fine in the Nations League and go into the qualifying group in decent shape, but if it goes tits-up I won't exactly be flabbergasted either. I'm almost entirely ambivalent about everything until we play a real game.

Too long, didn't read :)

*insert signature here*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I along with many others have felt the same since long before he got the Scotland job. I wondered how much of this was bias so I've watched some of his press conferences from years back (you can find a lot of Birmingham ones on YouTube). It's fair to say he's never been the most eloquent, but his speech has become MUCH more halting over time and he's using some odd words. Maybe we're all reading too much into this but I think it's going to come out that he's had a stroke or something and the authorities hushed it up.

It is possible, or Parkinson's Disease.

 

Very often people with this illness are dismissed as 'Drunk' or having a drink problem.

 

ETA: Rangers very own 'Big Jock' Wallace had this illness. I can see some parallels between McLeish and Wallace.

*insert signature here*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Irrespective of possible heath issues I just don't see that McLeish has anything to offer managing a league club never mind a national side. 

 

Scotland are living in the past as always.

But then again, whenever a Scottish outfit tries to show some foresight by appointing a forward thinking, intelligent and well educated young coach, there will always be a complete mouth-breather ready to be dismissive and ask:

 

"Whit Experience Hus He Goat?"

 

You can't please some folk. :rolleyes:

*insert signature here*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But then again, whenever a Scottish outfit tries to show some foresight by appointing a forward thinking, intelligent and well educated young coach, there will always be a complete mouth-breather ready to be dismissive and ask:

 

"Whit Experience Hus He Goat?"

 

You can't please some folk. :rolleyes:

 

True - wonder what Mark McGhee  is doing these days

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But then again, whenever a Scottish outfit tries to show some foresight by appointing a forward thinking, intelligent and well educated young coach, there will always be a complete mouth-breather ready to be dismissive and ask:

 

"Whit Experience Hus He Goat?"

 

You can't please some folk. :rolleyes:

 

That is definitely an issue in Scotland, coaching and punditry has traditionally been a closed shop and that's exactly the way the current crop want it. For all Ian Cathro had his flaws, it was obvious from the outset that mouth-breathers like Kris Boyd were lining up to slate him at any opportunity possible. How dare someone who studied the game rather than play it try and disrupt their gravy train. 

 

I think the football media in Scotland carry a far greater weight of responsibility for Scotland's continual failure than they'd ever admit to. They constantly tout 'good football men' like Mark McGhee and describe absolute weapons like 'Yogi' as 'characters'. I'd love to see a new generation of coaches/pundits overhaul the entire landscape. 

You address me by my proper title, you little bollocks! 


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




×
×
  • Create New...