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Why not play Maloney (right foot) on the right of midfield, with Fletcher and Ferguson (both central midfielders) in central midfield with Pearson (left foot) on left midfield? Where on earth did the 'masterstroke' of playing Maloney left, Pearson centre and Fletcher right come from?
Fletcher was so out of touch it was embarrassing, clearly not fit and Dailly should have replaced him at half time. Why Beattie was put on but not Robson is anybody's guess, at least Robson has a) a touch b) can hold the ball up c) can dribble d) can shoot.
Ah well, least we should (fingers crossed) have our first class line up on Nov 17th to see if we can pass the finish line in glory! That's presuming there are no more tactical howlers like tonight.
Whoever decided this game should be chosen to use a limted edition shirt should be shot!
It doesnt excuse the performance but why use it for such an important game, unbelievable!!!!
#2 Selling jerseys seems to be the main point of Scottish football. My Canadian friends get mad when there's any hint of a change to a team's hockey jersey as they know it's just to force fans to buy another. Fortunately they don't follow football where you're lucky if a team comes out in the second half with the same kit they had on in the first.
Yes I agree the jersey idea was just stupidity by the SFA just trying to get more money out of the campaign, but can't excuse the performance because of that.
Fletcher lacked match practice badly and it showed.Pearson was really a waste of space last night, I don't think he found a team mate with a pass the whole game. Kenny Miller also had a very poor game and everybody else was either average or poor. But hopefully with a full squad we can beat the Italians at Hampden.
so who now wants to buy a maroon scotland top worn by the team beaten 2-0 by the 104th ranked team in the world?
nice one SFA!
Was it the fax machine or the magic box that put that Scotland midfield together ?
We Scot are quick to critisize when we lose
7 - Spot on.
Cheer up, folks. We lost this one, but we're still in it. Another performance a la the 2 against the French and most of the Ukraine game and we can beat the Italians. Hopefully we'll have all the boys that were missing last night back and Fletcher will be match fit.
Aye.. it could be worse ..your name could be Mclaren an you could be in charge of a bunch of "Numptys" ...the only piece of "artificial turf" looks to be on Mclarens noggin! ..wheres he going with that double scoop thing from the seventies...perhaps he thinks if he gets close enough to Bobby Charlton they can both stay dry...?
Georgia Schools XI 2 - Scotland 0
Where was the need to have a 3rd kit when the dark blue wouldnt have clashed with the Georgia kit. SFA fools.
#13 Id rather have seen Scotland playing pish in the dark blue than that kit last night.
Boycott the red jersey,let the greedy fools at the sfa be left with thousands off them,it took me several minutes to figure which team was Scotland wearing that nightmare strip.
Sadly this was the game when our "big name" players never turned up. It was the time for the likes of Ferguson and Fletcher to take control and dictate the game. Unfortunately neither could. It was a major disappointment, not in the result (it was always going to be tough), but in the preformance. We made it easy for them and they didnt have to work too hard for the goals. We faced a 16 or 17 year old keeper and we were 2 down by the time he had to make a save.I dont blame Eck. I think he has done a very good job, and the team he put out should have been good enough to win. Sadly his players let him down.However, as has been said, when the campaign started, few would have believed that we would be going into the last needing a win to go through. So, lets not get too down and hope it was simply a blip. Lets make it the toughest game the Italians have ever had.PS. Definitley the strips fault. Dress like Hearts, plaay like Hearts. Only joking, honest.
Here's hoping the limited edition strip will go with the limited edition poor result.
The Hampden game is now as important to Italy as it is to us. If we win, they are 4 points behind us with 1 game to play so unless France get toppled by Ukraine on the night Italy play Faroes then Italy need to take something at Hampden or they could be left at home. A draw at Hampden obviously gives the Italians a 1 point deficit and the chance to overtake us on the home straight whereas an Italian win means they are home and dry. Now, I'd love to see us win at Hampden and get to the 2008 finals but, sad to say, it almost looks beyond us. Italy are no mugs. Stand by for a series of free kicks conceded by "fouls" on the edge of the area. Never mind though - there are enough signs of a resurgence to take us up the rankings far enough to avoid having 3 world class nations in our group next time.
With a bit of luck we might get England in the 2010 qualifiers!
There's no reason why we catn beat Italy at home with a full side.
As far as last night goes, I think the mistake was Eck's in that he had a formation and team worked out - 4-1-4-1 with Dailly in front of the defence - then changed it because Georgia left their playmaker out.
The shirts had little to do with it - other than the Georgians may have had the hump over being asked to play in their 2nd strip so we could wear our 3rd choice colours. These are a proud people. If Scotland were asked to wear our 2nd choice colours at home so that Germany, say, could wear a 3rd choice blue strip which they had never worn before and would probably never wear again, how would we feel? We would want to rub their noses right in it - and that's what happened to us last night.
Memo to SFA shirt sellers: scrap the idea of 3 sets of colours immediately. Give us a home (blue top) and an away (light coloured top) so we will not ever have a colour clash with anyone. Simple. England manage that with a choice of red or white. Ditto Brazil with yellow or blue. These colours have been kept for years because the colours are distinctive; the shirt style may change but the colour scheme doesn't. It's called a brand identity.
So, SFA, give us blue with white shorts at home and yellow with red or white with blue shorts. KEEP THE COLOUR SCHEME - STOP CHANGING IT! The whole idea of the away strip is to avoid a colour clash. NOT to allow you to grab another 75 notes off the public!
On a night where not much seemed to go right, it’s not hard to find a scapegoat...
1) The strip! Why did they do it? As someone quite rightly pointed out yesterday, this is the time for continuity and for hanging on to everything that reminds us of our identity, not the time to air a limited edition kit. The time and the place was in the S.Africa friendly.
2) The pitch was shocking. We’re no Brazil, but I can’t help feeling that they weren’t comfortable playing on a surface that looked like a farmer’s field at harvest.
3) The team selection and tactics. I don’t think the tactics were wrong as such, but they needed adapted after losing Brown and Hutton. No offense to Murty, he gave his all, but it just wasn’t the same as having Hutton bombing up and down the flanks. Additionally, Ferguson looks like a much better player when he’s got Brown alongside him. Given, he was playing with a couple of injuries, but if Brown had been doing his usual then Ferguson would have been able to concentrate on picking out passes.Fletcher should not have been playing. On his day he’s mercurial and gives us that wee bit of creativity we need, but it was obvious that he’d not been playing for weeks last night. Typical of Scotland, clutching at straws, we’d rather have our best players unfit but playing as giving someone else a chance. The one exception to this rule is Pearson. Even in the minging form he was in last night, I’d rather have a Darren Fletcher with no legs than a Pearson full of running. The guy is not Scotland class. Not by current standards and not by Berti Vogts regime standards. Thanks for giving it your best, but you’re not good enough, no hard feelings. Alex McLeish sort it out please!
Forget the excuses, we simply weren't good enough and were beaten at our own game by a Georgian system which had more than a passing resemblance to the one we used against France.
Let’s be honest though, if someone’d offered us the chance to beat Ita
I want to know what Freck was thinking last night...
...he'd already had the opportunity to see what Topmoller (looks like a 70's gay porn star btw) was thinking tactically...
...Georgia defended narrowly, which in turn makes countering through the middle the best viable option and with the speed of the youngsters on the flanks it was always going to be difficult to attack effectively for us...
...What does Freck do? Puts a team out that's not equipped either for attack or defence against a 4-4-2 formation with wickedly fast wide men...
...he should have used 4-1-4-1, which was proven in the first 15 minutes, after that it just got worse;
Fletcher - Sh1te (played in the wrong position+not match fit)Murty - Sh1teMaloney - Sh1te (played in the wrong position+not match fit)Pearson - Sh1te (played in the wrong position)
Which brings me to the other issue which is now for me indisputable, Ferguson ALWAYS dissappears against fast aggressive teams, he should have been in amongst it last night, growling, snarling and acting like a captain, he looked more like the invisible man on valium...
...thoroughly disgusted with the lack of spirit shown last night, thank god that Brown (the REAL engine of the team), McCulloch, Naysmith, Hutton and Hartley will be available for the glory game at Hampden...
...I believe we can still do it, if only because that team last night were NOT the team that's brought us this far, the team that's been so successful wouldn't have been so embarrassingly AWOL...
...still, maybe the eyeties will have been lulled into a false sense of superiority by that performance.......
Ah well, lads, cant win em all.
The only ray of light in this very bleak post-match feeling is that at least the strip manufacturers will have lost a TONNE of money! I mean, noone's gonna buy that strip now!
Serves them right, the money-grabbing leeches.
#22 Slaine
Still into that 70's gay porn mate? Does Toppy remind you of one of your favourites? ;)
Decent points, it has proved that we have absolutely no strength in depth.
Thought it was actually a nice strip, but I am confused as to why it was felt we had to wear an 'Away' strip when there was no colour clash with our first choice strip?
#4
Could someone explain to me what is the big problem with the SFA trying to generate more revenue??? I must be missing something here!!!
#18. Agreed that the strip should be binned. Could it be that the team's (lack of) performance was because they didn't like playing in a Hearts strip. I AM joking but last night was always on the cards with the loss of regulars in the squad. It just proves just how small a nation we are and the size of suitable squad is just not up to the demands. It WILL be some night on 17th Nov.--let's hope they are ALL fit and well and let's hope that we can all stand the nervous tension.
#24 - JJ - I'm pretty sure he starred alongside Souness in Perm Pumpers...
...Can you believe how much space there was in the middle last night? On at least a half dozen occasions I saw Georgian players walking through the midfield with the ball before chipping it over to the flanks where the turn of speed totally cut us open at the back...
...they were aggressive, confident, fast and sharp, all the things we were not...
...Just hope Freck gets it right against Italy, for us not to be in the finals would be the biggest injustice of all, especially when you consider some of the other dross that will get through with less points than us...
...Anyone notice how many police and military personnel were present in the stadium last night? There were a LOT of polis and soldiers there with nightsticks and firearms, and still one bam managed to jump the barrier 3 feet away from a soldier and run onto the pitch, (wouldn't want to be him the morning btw). Kind of proves the point that you can't guarantee stopping a lone nutter when he's determined to get on the pitch...
...Finally, WHY are Scotland playing in strips manufactured by an ITALIAN company that were founded to produce clothing and footwear for fascist soldiers in the two world wars. Why aren't Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England obliged to support British manufacturers Umbro? Why Diadora, perpetrators of the infamous Pink strip?Still, at least they'll be getting a commercial humping on this one :-D.......
#28 Slaine
Aye mate, pretty much sh*te all the way through the team. Still, set us up for some day against the Italians no matter the final outcome.A truly woefull performance but it should not detract from what we already accomplished in this group.
Did you see the way the invader curled into a ball holding his face as soon as they caught up with him? I fear a kicking for the silly git.
Well we should have been winning more 50/50 balls. The midfield was too slow to react to these hence when Georgia one these it left a big space for them to run at us all the time.
Fletcher was pish and clearly not match fit. Maloney has 2 feet but should have been on the right for this game.
All in all a poor performance but hey lets concentrate on beatin the eye ties at home
Don't know about the rest of you, but I had a bad case of de ja vu last night. Maybe it's just being a Jambo. Somehow it felt even worse than the usual Scotland meltdown.
:-(
Bring on the Italians. We can STILL do it!
#31
apparently so. explain then.
Each major finals the scotland team has failed to qualify for over the last ten years has cost the SFA and scottish footbal around five Million for each event.
Do the SFA sit back do nothing or try and compensate by attempting to generate income through other sources?
I'm guessing by your responce is the SFA sit back do nothing, then theres even lessmoney to reinvest back in the game in scotland?
Blaming strip for performance and result...pathetic.
all this crap last night on commentary 'is the strip cursed'.
if a strip has such an impact on team and fans, might as well take up stamp collecting or something cos your wasting your time in football!
this nonsense is the sort of thing i have come to expect from english media and fans.
Its bad enough listening to Ian wright and Co. without hearing it north of the border!
Braw jersey, braw result, I having one and I'm waering it against the Italians, that'll confuse them
lets celebrate we only now need to win its so simple well done Eck you saved us having to think about more than one thing at a time, how would we reorganise if they equalised then took the lead and we had taken off all our good players and put on our holding players, my god we would not have qulaified, in Austria - Switzerland we were in Greece, romania and Denmarks group which we qualified easily and only lost out to a ronaldo special in the 101st minute
you read it hear first
The strip had f all to do with the result. Even if it is mank!
We need to be immense against italy. At least its at home...
Its squeeky bum time thats for sure! Even more so for our neighbours south of the border.
Do we REALLY need to squabble about the bloody strip like a bunch of kids? Lets face it if we'd won you'd all be saying what a lovely, lucky strip it is and clamouring to buy one and get the reflected glory. OK, so the team didn't play well, and they should take the blame, but we can still make it. Let's have a bit of faith.
With Smith now firmly ensconced as CEO of the SFA the only surprise was that the old orange away strip masquerading as "peach" wasn´t reintroduced
#42....no chips on you , eh! Clown!
a shocking performance last night. The only good thing yesterday was England getting pumped!.
I really dont rate some of the players we had playing last night.
Murty - Absolute pish. was at fault for 2nd goal by backing off and backing off. Robbie Nielson could have done a better job!
Pearson - Not international quality im afraid.
Maloney - Same boat. dont nothing
Fletcher - Shouldnt have been playing. looked totally out of sorts
Weir and Alexander were at fault for the 1st goal and none of them looked too confident.
#40Alan 22, The strip was totally to blame for Scotland's defeat because Georgia thought that they were playing Northampton Town. Cobblers! No, it's true!
43
Believe me, empirical evidence is a far better tool for making french fries than sunflower oil.
Rent Boy Maloney should never be allowed to wear the Maroon again.
Weir is past sell by date
fletcher wisnae fit
2 full-backs coudnt lace ma boots
Tactics should have been changed after 10 mins when it was obvious what was about to happen.
And as for our anthem ..... dont start me on that one
SI think we should go for our true 2nd strip ... white top and Maroon shorts against the Ities.
Definetely the strip to blame. And having two ex Jambos on the park. And I'm sure I've seen Darren Fletcher walking down Gorgie Road. Oh and Graham Alexander's mum has a maroon car, and Murty has a Maroon 5 cd.Yep its definetely Hearts fault.
QUick question from the point of view of a rugby fan that knows very little about football. You score a goal by kicking ball in goal, so how did it take us 73 mins to have a shot on target? What exactly where we doing in that time?
At least our rugby team gives a good account of themselves in the QF of a WC.
21 Your bang on the button. Barry is useles in games where the opposition are full of energy and pace.Be more use as a ballboy but then it's his ba, he woudna gee it back.Pish is not severe enough to describe that performance, especially his. Captain, leader on the park. You must be having a laugh.
Yeh, yeh! Blame the strip, blame the players, (mind you, Pearson and Maloney were p**h, Fletcher wiznae fit, and Ferguson seemed half-hearted), blame the tactics, blame! blame! blame!
How about this theory, its exactly what we wanted, to play in maroon to fool the Italians into thinking it wiz our second team, fool Fifa into marking against another team with the ratings, and confuse the fans.
It works for me. I say bring on the 'lowly', 'easily fooled' and (oh!) world champions, the Italians.
C'Mon SCOTLAND, easy, easy, easy.....
Why does everyone rave about Ferguson - the guy is hopeless! No drive, no aggression, always back or sideways. Fletcher had the excuse that he isn't fit due to coming back from injury too soon, Scott Brown was injured obviously, but what's Barry's excuse? If he wasn't playing for an OF team, he wouldn't be regarded nearly as highly.
We need 110% against the Italians. Personally I'd bring Dailly in, he has shown his passion for his country and we'll need that. Ferguson couldn't even bring himself to sing Flower of Scotland FFS!
#52
While that was a poor performance all round including Ferguson you cant put all the blame on him, he has been superb for Scotland recently. Watch the way he plays, head up constantly looking for an incisive pass. If there is no decent option ahead of him he is forced to go sideways or back, better that than lose the ball. (To be fair he did lose it a couple of times last night)
#53
I'm not sure thats how it works...
if it was the case surely scotland would have been wearing hibs strips during the period when berti vogts was in charge of the team.
55:- Brilliant.
Well you,d know all about french fries Gerry bhoy.
Performance had nothing to do with the strip. Maloney was woeful. Fletcher was not fit. Weir deserves a two game ban for falling over when scarely touched. McLeish ditched his successful 4-5-1 midfield when playing away. McFadden and Miller tried manfully to do the business but without much in the way of service. It looked like Bertie was back. They could have played in Brazil strips and still not provided worthwhile opposition to Georgia. There are no easy games in international football these days and it is not going to come any more difficult than Italy for a European championship decided. But it has been an enjoyable ride so far.
this new strip was the worst bit of marketing i have ever seen. the idea was that scotland would beat georgia in it and france would possibly drop points meaning it would be the strip we qualified in making it a big seller.
none of that happened and now it will be half price in a fortnight.
we should have been playing in blue last night. anyone who says there is not a psychological difference doesn't know football. i would rather be playing in the blue of Scotland than the claret of...... who?
Whatever in the world leads anyone to think or believe that the strip has anything to do with a teams performance!!!!...It just wasn't oor day...and thats it!!!!. We need to come away from this game with lessons learnt, and keep the spirit up for when we face the Ities. It won't be easy. The Italians knowthat all they need is a draw...and that will be their objective. There main strategy will be conservation, possession, and counter strikes. They are fast on the flanks, and will operate on counter attacks, when the opportunity arrises. We need to watch the drama queens, and the dives in the box, Ities are excellent divers, with a lot of melodramatics tossed in. Their gollie is ranked as the best, and he;ll be difficult to beat, and they also have a great difence, with Cannavaro rising to the occasion will be a difficult guy to get past. All in all, we need to emulate the games against the French and Ukraine, mix them together and go for a 4-4-2...best bet!!!!
Bring back Charlie Adam
can the muppets of the s.f.a. get any more stupid than they already are ? changing strips at this time was idiotic to say the least. any way these clowns can fill their pockets , they screw it to the hilt. sack the lot of them. oh sorry . you can't. they are the same as politicians.the most protected species on the planet , then the prisoners. it's high time the punters got a grip of reality. find out who spends your money and on what?
#60christopher, 'would you rather ferguson went sideways, backwards or give the ball away?' There are other options including using it creatively. There's no mileage in blaming the others for lack of movement etc. After all, he is the captain and if the system is not working he has the power to change it. He ballooned a free kick over the bar from about 25 yards towards the end and he can't blame that on the others. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Ferguson alone for last night's performance but, as captain, he should be doing more than just wearing the armband.
Shocking game last night, but probably the kick up the backside we need ahead of the Italy game, a dose of reality is no bad thing. It's down to one game, a cup final. Win, and we're through! Stay positive!
However I will say this about Eck's team selection last night:
The full-backs: If Murty wasn't good enough to be in the squad in the first place, why was he on from the start? Surely, McEveley would've been better at left-back as he's a natural left-footer, and Alexander or Dailly at right-back.
The midfield: Fletcher should've only been on the bench. He's been out since Paris, is never a winger, and if he'd picked up a booking, would've been out of the Italy game. Maloney has played about 20mins this season, and in my mind is not a wide player, best deployed up front or behind the main striker. Should've gone with Robson on left, and Teale on right. That way they would've got up the wings and got the ball into the box.
The strikers: Boyd should've started instead of Miller. With an untried young keeper, we needed someone with presence and strength in the box. Anyting spilled by the keeper would've been poached on by Boyd.
What the team should've been:Gordon;Alexander, Weir, McManus, McEveley;Teale, Ferguson, Pearson, Robson;McFadden;Boyd.
#65rab36, The best summary I've read on the match so far.
JD
how can you say that? your basically saying if others are not moving into space and giving fergie an angle then he just has to do it himself?
no he doesn't have the power to change it, thats what eck is there for. the players dance to his tune and his tune alone. thats why we have been so successful recently. everyone buying into the managers ideas and sticking to them.
the entire balance of the team was gone last night. it shows we have not got a fantastic squad but 11 players who can do the business against anyone...... you would have to agree JD that we seriously missed Alan Hutton last night. perhaps you will concede that he is a better player than most give him credit for? i still believe he will get POTY once he scores the winner against italy ;-)
aye thats a good shout rab, would have kept some sort of balance that was sadly lacking last night.
let the italians think they will walk all over us at hampden. it won't happen!
Are we the only national team with a 3rd strip? I may be wrong, but I can't think of any other team that has one! It's madness, yet can be so simple, we play in blue or we play in white, not rocket science is it!!!
Bill Hicks got it right about people who worked in marketing. "KILL YOURSELVES, borrow a gun from a Yank buddy, suck on a tail-pipe, you are satan's spawn filling the world with your evil macinations".
#67christopher, So, how would you define the captain's role?I've already told you that I rate Alan Hutton after my initial misgivings about his occasional defensive lapses and a propensity for simulation. POTY? A distinct possibility.
Simply put..."Outmanaged"...why/where did any resemblance of team strategy show itself in this debacle. I suggest the management of the Scottish team take a look at the 2nd goal....there were three Scottish players within 5 yards of the Georgian who supplied the ball into the area. When are the coaches in Scotland going to start teaching the "basics". Hint....give all the players a copy of the selected formation and what their responsibilities are because they(the players) are obviously ambivilent as to their roles.A deserved win for the home side.
Had a feeling that folk were underestimating Georgia. They have sound technical players who found life embarrassingly easy last night.
Daily was they way to go, not Maloney. Daily has passion and gets the team's blood pumpin' plus a draw would have given us more options. I think we now realise how much Brown means to our side. He should be our captain for 2008 if we get there; he's got great skill, determination and fears no-one which is the attitude Scotland needs as a whole. Ferguson just ain't a national captain. We were short on quality, tired from Saturday and lacking in realism - possibly an infection from the press and fans.
Here's hoping all the guys are fit for the Italy game The boys have got us within touching distance and the last game against the world champions is gonnie be a big, big and tense night in Glasgow. I can't wait.
65# The full-backs: If Murty wasn't good enough to be in the squad in the first place, why was he on from the start? Surely, McEveley would've been better at left-back as he's a natural left-footer, and Alexander or Dailly at right-back.
The strikers: Boyd should've started instead of Miller. With an untried young keeper, we needed someone with presence and strength in the box. Anyting spilled by the keeper would've been poached on by Boyd.------------------------------------------------------------------
Tbh, I think he went with the formation & players in which he thought we had the best chance with. A 4-4-2 would have been my no.1 choice but Freck isn't too adventurous & so 4-4-1-1 was the best attacking formation we could have probably hoped for.
He made 4 crucial mistakes that probably ended up costing us.
1. Full-Backs. Replacing both, then putting a right-back at left-back was crazy when a proper left-back was ready to be sued.
2. Putting Fletcher, a central midfielder on right midfield. Then Pearson a left sided midfield player in the centre. With Maloney a right footer on the left side. It should have been Maloney on right, Pearson on the left. Fletcher in the middle with Ferguson.
3. They finished well at half-time. So he was right to give them another chance at the 2nd. However like PN said in the studio at half-time. Give them 10/15 mins to see if they can do something. If they can't make the changes. They didn't & he waited over 20. At which point we were 2-0 down &a
Daily was they way to go, not Maloney. Daily has passion and gets the team's blood pumpin' plus a draw would have given us more options. I think we now realise how much Brown means to our side. He should be our captain for 2008 if we get there; he's got great skill, determination and fears no-one which is the attitude Scotland needs as a whole. Ferguson just ain't a national captain. -----------------------------------------------------------------
They have 4/5 players missing. Arveladze missing. A 16yr old 4th choice rookie keeper never having played a competitive match before for his club side or even under 16 Georgian side etc. 2 17yr olds, also not first team regulars. A captain with no club side, yet they tore us to pieces. We should have decimated them!
In all honesty it shows how piss poor our players really are in technical terms. Domenech even caught on. Saying give Scotland the ball, make them attack you for a result becuase they probably even wouldn't know what to do with it. How true his words are! Not to mention only 12/13 players that can actually do the job. Without them we need to go barrell scraping for players.
That said, I still see us beating Italy to qualify for 2 reasons.
1. Italy will be far too cockey. They think we're crap & knowing they only need a draw to go through at our expense will make them lack the kind of motivation that they may have had, had they needed a win.
2. The biggest reason is 50,000 screaming fans. They are the 12th & 13th man that drives the team over the finishing line. Look at our home record in qualifying games. With the fans backing, we've always got great results all throughout history. However the fans are also our biggest cause for defeat. We go away & we don't have them all cheering us on which is why we've failed so many t
