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1 minute ago, piffer said:

We can talk about the levels of players in the Scottish squad but none can get close to where Modric is currently or has been in his career.

Gilmour is our only hope. His level of composure at that age is incredible. 
 

Modric is a bit like Pirlo. Doesn’t need speed, he’ll bring the game down to whatever pace he wants it at. He’s that good.

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11 minutes ago, mitch14 said:

Will be interesting to see - I think this tournament might have come six months too early for a few positions. 

Equally If Euro 2020 had happened in 2020, BG wouldn't have been anywhere near it.

We got beat by one of worlds best today, WC semi finalists - arguably  most difficult group with them and England away!. . Would be nice if teams stopped scoring world class goals against us in the Euros, but it is the Euros -happens. 

Edited by RAG
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We've potentially got a half decent team if we can build it around Gilmour. 

Hopefully we haven't missed out chance of qualifying for the World Cup. 

I think that the achievements of this side have been exaggerated slightly. With a 24 team Euros we would probably have qualified in 2000, 2004 and 2008. 

We haven't reached the last 16 since 1992. 

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Just now, Guff92 said:

Totally agree. McGinn needs to take responsibility for his missed chances. 
 

Mctominay is too good to not play in the midfield, especially with Gilmour unavailable. 

Mctominay is a suoerb player, him and Gilmpur will form our misfield for yeara to come.

Adams up front is also very very good.

Rbbertson should stop taking corners, his delivery has been s**te from the dead ball the whole tournament.

Were better with 3 at the back, but who do we have coming rhrough to partner Tierney?

A few answers and more questions aftwr this tournament.

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5 minutes ago, Guff92 said:

Gilmour is our only hope. His level of composure at that age is incredible. 
 

Modric is a bit like Pirlo. Doesn’t need speed, he’ll bring the game down to whatever pace he wants it at. He’s that good.

I hope your right. Gilmour is a great talent and hopefully he realises his potential.

For me Modric is in that upper echelon of player that no British player has been in for a long time. Messi, Ronaldo, Xavi, Iniesta, Zidane. Players who for a prolonged period of time really put their stamp on football and totally control things. 

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7 minutes ago, Killiepies said:

8 EPL players  plus McGregor starting.Best squad we have had for years.No excuses about players not good enough.McTominey,Robertson,Tierney,McGinn all top men in the Premiership

I make it seven plus McGregor, if you count Grant Hanley as EPL. 

The best we've had for a long time, I agree. 

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2 minutes ago, piffer said:

I hope your right. Gilmour is a great talent and hopefully he realises his potential.

For me Modric is in that upper echelon of player that no British player has been in for a long time. Messi, Ronaldo, Xavi, Iniesta, Zidane. Players who for a prolonged period of time really put their stamp on football and totally control things. 

A bit harsh on Paul Scholes. 

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3 minutes ago, Angelo's Ashes said:

It's easier to qualify for a 24 team tournament though, which was my point. 

Rubbish. It’s actually not easier to qualify, thats why .scotland don't qualify now. There's more European nations than in 1992, following the break up of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia etc, their constituent parts are ‘bigger’ than Scotland, with more recent football pedigree of producing Wc players. 

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2 minutes ago, RAG said:

Rubbish. It’s actually not easier to qualify, thats why .scotland don't qualify now. There's more European nations than in 1992, following the break up of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia etc, their constituent parts are ‘bigger’ than Scotland, with more recent football pedigree of producing Wc players. 

The only new nation since 2008 is Gibraltar. 

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Just now, Angelo's Ashes said:

The only new nation since 2008 is Gibraltar. 

We were comparing 1992 with 2021. 
If you think about it in 92, by beating Yugoslavia rather than Serbia, we”d have already knocked out Croatia. 
I onow Yugoslavia in end didnt play in 1992, but you get my point. 
Is same with Slovakia and Czechs in our qualifying group too, or was that nations league?

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Having a player of Modric quality in an attacking or midfield role is what marks out teams that go far in these kind of tournaments. We don't have anyone of that quality and the quality we do have is mostly in defensively minded players. 

I honestly thought we would have done better than that though. The midfield  was shambolic McGinn was everywhere but he had to be as the other two were poor. But then he fluffed two half decent chances.

Got to give a lot of credit to Che Adams. He ran himself into the ground and was always trying to make something happen but big Dykes was too static tonight and the wide players too slow to come forward.

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Interview with Clarke typifies the attitude:

”How proud were you of the players tonight?”

“How much has the squad developed?”

”Can the way they played at Wembley and tonight give them a building block?”

“How determined does it make you to return to the big stage?”

Might as well have asked him what he had for his tea. In other countries the coach would be grilled about tactical matters.

We do interviews out of Good Morning Britain.  
 

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13 hours ago, skygod said:

We do interviews out of Good Morning Britain.  

Decades of ‘glorious failure’.  I agree the interviews have been token crap, SOD aside and there was the KT ‘rave’ one with Elidh Barbour. KT much cooler than EB obviously - that one on BBC was funny. 

Edited by RAG
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I'll ask again... why are small nations like Wales and Croatia (even Iceland ffs) finding success at major tournaments while we stay pretty much at the same old level?

What have they done, or are they doing, to their set up that we are not?
Bet you it was bigger than having another feckin "think tank"

How can we disrupt the current old boys network "running" Scottish fitba and make genuine progress?

Scunnert ?
 

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32 minutes ago, Angelo's Ashes said:

A bit harsh on Paul Scholes. 

Of the players I’ve seen in real life, Paul Scholes was right up there with the best of them, to the extent that I was taken aback at just how good he was. 

Few other players have had that impact where actuallly seeing their overall game suddenly shows them in a different light. Probably Shearer and Lilian Thuram, and to an extent Tevez, all suddenly shone. 

Scholes remains a wildly underrated player, probably because he was quite shy, didn’t like interviews and didn’t want to chase pop stars or a media career. 

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4 minutes ago, RayD said:

I'll ask again... why are small nations like Wales and Croatia (even Iceland ffs) finding success at major tournaments while we stay pretty much at the same old level?

What have they done, or are they doing, to their set up that we are not?
Bet you it was bigger than having another feckin "think tank"

How can we disrupt the current old boys network "running" Scottish fitba and make genuine progress?

Scunnert ?
 

Talent better spread around the park in Wales case?

Arguably our two best players play the same position and we have to come up with a system to get both in. Our next best batch all play CM so one of them moves to CB to fit in.

I look at Wales. Rodon is an emerging talent at CB, Roberts at RB, Davies a consistent top end EPL LB, Allen until recently a good solid EPL CM. Then they have real talent and flair in Ramsey and probably their best ever player in Bale at the top end of the park.

I spoke previously about how they decided to operate. They identified the players who could take them to the next level and involved them from an early age and no matter what. 

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Next step for us probably isn’t getting out of tournament groups; it’s consistently becoming a presence at tournaments again so that it becomes the norm and avoids the insane amount of expectation when we do finally make it. 

A very long 23 years is too much. We should be looking to Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Croatia, even Wales, and building a solid, consistent base which allows the occasional stars to come through and shine. 

Clarke is dead right to switch the focus to the World Cup qualifiers right away. The group needs to stick together, build that club mentality, make players want to be a part of it again and to feel the pride and passion of a nation. Get to the World Cup and build from there, and help lift the game. 

How do we fix the decades of decline though? We’ve a long way to go, and we’re still limbered with an antiquated SFA which is run like a local bowling club or golf club for old men in blazers. And our club competitions are run for the benefit of two clubs. 

Until we move on from that, we’re hampering ourselves from the off. Clarke deserves praise for kicking us on and making us believe, but the game as a whole needs to be about finding and nurturing young talent rather than a youth system designed to massage the egos of aged wannabes and men with loud voices; we need a serious rethink on goalkeeping; and we need to support youth systems at clubs to positively drive young Scottish players into the game. 

We’re not far off. We have a good manager, good players and you’d like to think we have an appetite for more. 

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16 minutes ago, RayD said:

I'll ask again... why are small nations like Wales and Croatia (even Iceland ffs) finding success at major tournaments while we stay pretty much at the same old level?

What have they done, or are they doing, to their set up that we are not?
Bet you it was bigger than having another feckin "think tank"

How can we disrupt the current old boys network "running" Scottish fitba and make genuine progress?

Scunnert ?
 

By random chance our best players have developed in defensive positions while Wales and Croatia have struck gold with top players in attacking positions. 

Wales are a Bale and a Ramsey away from being very weak. They add the cutting edge, while all our top players are further back. Same with Modric for Croatia. 

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