[hibeejim21]

On one hand unbeaten in 7 is good,and the kind of form that deserves a manager staying in place. On the other, we have choked again when it mattered most. Just like in georgia.

McArthur who can't get a game at Palace ahead of mcginn or mcgregor ? Naaah. mcginn's great at getting forward and driving the team on,mcgregor is good at keeping the ball and finishing. Thats who we wanted supporting the forwards the night.

Bannan played well 2nd half thursday, but both him and phillips were rotten the night....yet they both got the 90 mins.

I like strachan well enough,but some of his decision making has been poor in this campaign.

[0762]

IMO the Lithuania drawn match at Hampden was one of the huge failures in this campaign v a team that we should never have dropped any pts against. I must agree re the omission of McGregor from our midfield when Martin was hauled off - a high energy response was required but I've no doubt Strachan is applying an element of 'protection' to young players who don't have the requisite number of caps yet and therefore the appropriate experience, in his opinion, to tackle this type of 'crunch match' at this international level of footie. Now a German manager or poss even a current England manager would not be so cautious and place the onus on the player to 'grab the opportunity' and perform well BUT is that player probably gonna be of a higher standard or quality, in some cases even at a younger age, where there is no doubt the player will easily 'slot in' to any tactical plan alongside experienced players who will guide them anyway. Kieron Tierney is a prime example of that type of young player and there will always be a 'pecking order' based on the studied ability of these young players, some of whom require to be gradually groomed to full international participation with their confidence bolstered to play well at this level.

[hibeejim21]

Aye but there is an argument tierney should have been involved sooner too,anyone could see the laddie was a good player and physically up to it.

That's the issue with strachan though,in his tenure he has shown he'd rather play players from england who aren't any better than the scottish based boys who were in form and playing regularly.

Just pick the form players ffs. Its not difficult.

[Lord Snooty]

Did I hear that right? Strachan just used height of his players as an excuse?
Play it on the floor man!

[hibeejim21]

It really is an embarrassment snooty.

If heights an issue why play bannan who is smaller than McGregor or mcginn? He really is prone to coming out with nonsense. That he thinks we are technically excellent is a worry too. That boy Phillips can barely control a fitba,Cannae believe he got another 90 mins.

[0762]

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!

---

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!!!

[hibeejim21]

I thought his comments were absolute nonsense.

"so that means we had to pick a team tonight to try and combat the height and strength. Even at that we couldn’t combat their height and strength at set plays. "


If you want to combat height and strength why did he leave his taller players on the bench ?

Bear in mind this is the same man that said Griffiths was too small for international fitba. Then went on to say we just didn't have the players. And now its genetics. Bullshit, we lost last night because of his selection and tactics.

If genetics is the problem how come we produced players of the calibre of bremner,law,johnstone and dalgleish? Bezjak, who scored a free header, is 2 inches smaller than Fletcher who was marking him by the way.

Pace, skill and passing are more important in the days game, look at mcarthur for instance. He's physically strong but he has zero pace and poor skill. Same with bannan and Phillips.

We ended up playing nearly the same team that got humped in Slovakia,thats the real reason for last night..... no genetics.

[0762]

Having now listened to Strachan's interview, the most important word that wee Gogsy used  was 'partly' - genetics are 'partly' responsible for our failure. I don't have a problem with that comment TBH! I then listened to the bbc pundit, Stephen Thompson, commenting that it was ridiculous that Strachan totally (??) blamed genetics on this failure (and then continued to say he should resign). No he didn't!! All he said was it's a factor and in the case of having big players on the subs' bench, IMO Strachan's issue is having the privilege of selecting from a good variety of Scottish players who have the physical and skilful attributes to do something at international level. That restriction has been glaring for years in a number of defensive and defensive mid positions. Therefore it is a factor as described and it's clear today on radio, tv and social media that lotsa Scottish fans concur with that view. It's the misinterpretation of the comment that irritates me! Another factor for failure last night was Fletcher's diabolical 'miss' at a crucial point of the match when we were fighting back to try n win it! Another factor was that poor 1-1 draw v Lithuania. Another factor was Broony's unwelcome injury IMO and another factor was the crazy decision-making of certain Scotland players v England in the last 30 secs of an epic match that we should have won and gained those precious 2 pts that England could've squandered anyway with no damage done to winning Group F!!
We've never qualified for a major tournament in 20 years and there are lotsa reasons why that failure has haunted us. The genetic one is just one of many reasons! Imagine if we fielded a Scotland team of 10 small but skilful outfield players?? We'd be destroyed by 'big teams' with decent skills attached to them and that's a fact! It's that 'fine balance' of different sizes, physicality and competent skills of players that make the difference in providing a top football team and Strachan knows that fact only too well!

[hibeejim21]

Mate, it's just a manager making excuses. He was probably taking the pish,i hope he was taking the pish.

More worrying that he thought we were 'technically excellent' because we weren't.

[0762]

The biggest annoyance Jim is the fact we had the chance to at least get to the play-offs and somehow couldn't fully 'grab the opportunity' by playing well and deciding our own destiny. Maybe he should've gambled with a refreshed all out high energy attacking line up plus high energy subs to finish off the late stages of the game? However, our injuries to certain players were unhelpful. We'll never know now and it's all down to opinion. I still think Gogsy is just disguising his own bitter disappointment as a fan. He may well have 'erred on the side of caution' rather than 'go for it' with a refreshed team that may not have 'run out of steam'! C'est la vie and deja vue for all Scotland fans! Gutted to see the likes of N Ireland replacing us due to our failure but we move on!