It's an interesting scenario re Phillips. He came in v Lithuania in the away match and I honestly thought he added something 'different' to the Scotland team - showing my age but it briefly reminded me of the Tommy Hutchinson factor in the early 70s when Scotland dumped Czechoslovakia to qualify for the '74 World Cup finals in West Germany. Hutchy arrived on the Scotland scene 'out of nowhere' from Coventry City and was a wing revelation who added another skilful dimension to the Scotland side. Phillips briefly 'stirred the imagination' but really fell short of my expectations too! I was hoping he would be one of our key players to push for an epic win last night. IMO we wouldn't be talking about abject failure again if we had one truly world class player in our ranks. We don't have that pleasure but maybe that will change some day!
I think this statement has been used 'out of context' TBF and also note it has been uttered by a manager who is as massively disappointed as any Scotland fan AGAIN! Scotland lost two goals from two set piece scenarios - both absolutely avoidable if you set up properly but also if you have the availability of massive defenders or defensive mid players who take up position in the pen box. England generally provide it, Germany do it, France, Spain, most of the S American international sides do it and they provide it to reduce the risk of losing goals from set piece positions and esp when cross balls are 'hung up' in the air. IMO that's where Strachan is coming from and it's one of the reasons why we are not celebrating qualification to the play offs with a 1-0 or 2-0 result v a team that didn't pose too many goal-scoring threats last night if truth be told!!. The goals we lost last night were absolutely 'criminal offences' in a defensive sense, esp the second goal where we looked weak to deal with a 'second ball' that should not have happened if a 'big Scottish defender' had headed the corner kick clear of our pen box!!!
(09-10-2017, 08:41)Lord Snooty Wrote: Did I hear that right? Strachan just used height of his players as an excuse?
Play it on the floor man!
I think this statement has been used 'out of context' TBF and also note it has been uttered by a manager who is as massively disappointed as any Scotland fan AGAIN! Scotland lost two goals from two set piece scenarios - both absolutely avoidable if you set up properly but also if you have the availability of massive defenders or defensive mid players who take up position in the pen box. England generally provide it, Germany do it, France, Spain, most of the S American international sides do it and they provide it to reduce the risk of losing goals from set piece positions and esp when cross balls are 'hung up' in the air. IMO that's where Strachan is coming from and it's one of the reasons why we are not celebrating qualification to the play offs with a 1-0 or 2-0 result v a team that didn't pose too many goal-scoring threats last night if truth be told!!. The goals we lost last night were absolutely 'criminal offences' in a defensive sense, esp the second goal where we looked weak to deal with a 'second ball' that should not have happened if a 'big Scottish defender' had headed the corner kick clear of our pen box!!!