Scotland beat France at the weekend with an experienced team and an experienced manager. In the last 12 months they've won in Norway, Slovenia and Lithuania as well. They also hammered Bulgaria to win the Kirin Cup so they must be doing something right.
Before Berti Vogts Scotland were tough to beat and normally made the play offs of major competitions and got the odd great result at home. The fans weren't happy though and thought the likes of Dailly, Weir etc should have been replaced with young lads who were doing the business for teams like Aberdeen, Hibs and the like. End result. Brown gone and Vogts in.
Bertie Vogts actually did what the majority of Scottish fans wanted him to do. He played a load of young kids and got rid of a lot of experienced internationals. The result. They lost and normally they lost heavily.
Since Walter Smith's came in he's got the old guard back in and kept only the best young players who came through under Vogts (Gordon, McFadden, Fletcher). The result is that they are once again tought to beat and can battle out good results. Still not perfect but probably as good as they could be.
Vogts handed caps out like they were sweeties. Jamie Smith played 5 times for Celtic and all of a sudden he was an international. Anyone Scottish and on form now found themself playing for the National team at Hampden and I now think the same thing is happening at Ireland.
Scotland's team v France was:
Gordon (good young keeper but experienced)
Dailly (not even getting a game for West Ham but a cupboard full of caps)
Pressley (average but experienced Hearts defender)
Caldwell (decent player for Celtic but has lots of experience)
Weir (not getting a game at Everton but experienced)
Ferguson (struggling at Rangers but again has played a lot at a high level)
Hartley (been main man at Hearts for 2 full seasons)
Fletcher (used to big games at Man Utd)
McCulloch (not getting a regular start at Wigan)
Alexander (in and out at Preston)
McFadden (in and out at Everton)
That is not a good team. It's barely even a decent team yet they're getting results we can only dream of and the reason is they're experienced at the back and in centre mid with guys who are used to playing big games in those roles. We need to take a leaf out of their book and get an experienced manager in to galvanise our experienced players, make ourselves hard to beat again and then rely on our good players like McGeady, Duff, Keane to do the busisness at the other end.
"Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something
-- Bobby Sands
I think that somewhere in Dougal's head (Dreams versus reality) that was/is the plan. Except that the la la music is distracting him and bobby has not been well enough to help out.
If that is Delaney's thinking, why not get Bertie (the German one) in and let him do his work on the irish. Willing to give anything a chance at this rate ...well nearly.
I just posted this elsewhere, not aware that you'd started this thread:
What does Scotland now have that we don't?
Team balance / shape ( manager's responsibility)
Physical stature (nothing we can do?)
Leadership / moral courage (where does this come from?)
Football ethos: Scotland play it, we hump it (manager's fault)
Scotland has a self-sufficient credible football infrastructure (FAI resposibility & our responsibility).
I don't even think Walter Smith is that good a manager. But he knows what he's doing & his players respond to him.
On another day Scotland could have lost 3-1. But that's not the point. The way they were set up & went about their game gave them a chance.
Do you think their "Future International" series had any benefit? I'd say it's hard to ignore.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 09/10/2006 at 8:55 AM.
I think it's simplicity that Smith brought to the Scotland job. Scotland don't have great players so they have to be four things. Experienced, organised, fit and motivated. Any team with those qualities will not suffer humiliatons the likes of which we saw on Saturday and will always stand a chance of sneaking a result.Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
PS: Very few of the players who've played the "Future" games have played for the first XI. The impact of these games is minimal I'd say.
Last edited by McGeady10; 09/10/2006 at 8:56 AM.
"Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something
-- Bobby Sands
A lot of the new found optimism in Scotland is to do with the fixtures in my opinion. The Scottish FA did a fantastic job in how they negotiated the list for the qualifiers.
You have an average team who had not performed badly in the WC qualifiers but had a fan base who were not expecting any miracles considering they have the World cup finallists in the group. But what the Scottish FA managed to do was pick the worst team in the section (Faroes) and got them at home first game. Scotland thump them 6-0 and its party time at Hampden. The strikers pick up a few goals and the back four keep a clean sheet. They then secured Lithuania (second worst side) away from home and managed to pull off a 2-1 win.
Now the momentum is behind them. They are six points out of six , the Italians have already lost to France , the Ukraine have dropped points as well and suddenly Scotland are top of the pile and at home. Anyone who saw the game on saturday couldnt fail to be impressed with the support and you could see it raising the players game in the same way we used to under Charlton/McCarthy.
I was never happy that we were going to open our group away to Germany with an inexperienced manager. Whether it was dictated by the Croke/Lansdowne situation I dont know. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but why on earth didnt we take the Cypriots or San Marino at home for the first game. Get the three points for the new manager and then use that belief for the tougher games ahead. Even England secured Andorra first up to give out a drubbing and a nice easy starter for McClaren and co.
Man for man we are the equal of the Scots but the roles are now reversed. We are in the position Scotland have been for the last 10 years. We look average at best, very little 'quality' throughout the side and relying on youngsters coming through and making the grade.
Our confidence (players and fans) has to be at a 25 year low going into wednesday.
Last edited by wallis; 09/10/2006 at 9:42 AM.
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