Caledonian Craig Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 I was at the match on Saturday and the whole thing was a little flat. The atmosphere was lacking and pre-match stuff was lack lustre apart from the flag rolling across the North Stand. The performance was dire and only when we smelt the fear of defeat did we up the tempo and look like scoring. It was crazy as for as dire as we were we could still have pinched the win. What Strachan has to ascertain or instill into the players is that the intensity has to be there from the first whistle which it wasn't on Saturday. The tempo we had in the last 10 minutes is how we should have started so why didn't we? Now onto player performances - well who comes out of it with pass marks? Well I thought Patterson was decent enough as was Robertson and the direct attacking of Burke were refreshing and all we had to cling to in the first half in an attacking sense. I expected Chris Martin would be getting slated post-match and so he is but considering he was given jack-sh1t of a supply I don't see what else he could do. He did come closest to scoring for us with a glancing header and when changes were made even those coming on made no real difference (Griffiths missed a golden chance with a header unmarked eight yards out and Forrest dragged a shot wide from a similar range). As I see it just now if we don't score a few goals per game we will struggle to get a result as our defence (as a unit) is so fragile and looks likely to ship goals at every attack so attack is crucial (especially for tomorrow). The result was a nightmare as a win was assumed to be a given but the way the match panned out and how bereft we looked for long spells then a draw is a point salvaged. As we saw with Wales yesterday no results in international football now can be taken for granted and I reckon Lithuania are capable of taking points off of other teams in our group as well which will help. However, after two games our qualifying hopes are already looking precarious at best but a win tomorrow will steady the ship and eliminate Slovakia from contention. Therefore, we must put aside the disaster of Saturday as a win tomorrow could put a far rosier complexion on things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Hunt Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said: Therefore, we must put aside the disaster of Saturday as a win tomorrow could put a far rosier complexion on things. I know this is all conjecture and it does not address the problems we have in defence and IMO playing at home. However, had we drawn 1-1 in Malta then dealt with all the embarrassment and WGS-out cries that would have followed, then won 5-1 against Lithuania on Saturday, we would all be feeling a bit better perhaps. And we would still have 4 points and the same goal difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 2 minutes ago, Jacques Hunt said: I know this is all conjecture and it does not address the problems we have in defence and IMO playing at home. However, had we drawn 1-1 in Malta then dealt with all the embarrassment and WGS-out cries that would have followed, then won 5-1 against Lithuania on Saturday, we would all be feeling a bit better perhaps. And we would still have 4 points and the same goal difference. Yes that is a way you could look at it and suppose that scenario would have been better as we would be going into the Slovakia match with our tails up and with momentum. Saturday's performance was dire - no hiding from that. On the current face of it the draw was dire but I suspect Lithuania will be taking points off of other teams (not just Malta) as well. A couple of games ago they displayed they are no mugs drawing with Poland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parklife Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 They're a team ranked 117th in the world. This is reminiscent of when folk tried to argue that Georgia aren't rank rotten, despite being ranked about 130th in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Hunt Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 It is just the old feeling of having been here so many times before that gets me. After our first home game we are talking about other teams taking points off rivals. Getting increasingly worried about the atmosphere at home and how it affects players. Just hope we can get something tomorrow but find it hard to gauge the quality of teams and players I see and know so little about. Just the usual I suppose, support the lads and hope for the best. Do not believe that 'we should be beating the likes of...' However, playing away without the expectation of winning should help IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion Rampant Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 2 minutes ago, Parklife said: They're a team ranked 117th in the world. This is reminiscent of when folk tried to argue that Georgia aren't rank rotten, despite being ranked about 130th in the world. Yeah, Lithuania were pretty gash on Saturday. They pressed quite well and were given enough space to look competent in spells but most of the good stuff they did was as a result of us playing so poorly. They must have had 3 or 4 decent opportunites given to them by poor passing/marking/decision making by us and contrived to waste all but one of them. They had a 3 on 1 not long after we got our equaliser and managed to make an arse of that. Had we produced a performance like that against Solvakia, Slovenia or England we would have been resoundly beaten. Massive improvements required tomorrow night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 9 minutes ago, Parklife said: They're a team ranked 117th in the world. This is reminiscent of when folk tried to argue that Georgia aren't rank rotten, despite being ranked about 130th in the world. Agreed but I have said it before it is something engrained in the Scottish psyche. We excel in dropping points in matches we should win and many great managers of the past have suffered that in charge of Scotland. Look at our disasters against Costa Rica, Iran, Georgia and stacks more for evidence of that. Just as Germany has a winning psyche we have an inferiority psyche that haunts us when expectations are high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rossy Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 The lack of tempo from the beginning cost us. As did only having one striker who simply couldn't hold the ball up. On looking back, we weren't horrific...we've seen worse. However, Strachan seems only to be able to get a consistent 70% out of whatever players he chooses.....and that's simply not good enough. A Scotland manager can only be a success if he manages to get a team out that's greater than the sum of its parts.O'Neil does that at Ireland and Michael O'Neil does it for Northern Ireland. Strachan doesn't, and as such can only considered a failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exile Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Not the most enjoyable matches recently. More and more games seem to be either 'must win' or unwinnable, or both. Hopefully Slovakia could be an opportunity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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