3, with Kante and Matuidi. It's working well so far. They're completely in control of the middle. Scotland are terrible though, to be fair.
International Friendlies May/June
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
On the right of a midfield 3.
Giroud 2-0, good work by Payet.
Nice assist by Marshall.
Its been over 20 years now where Scotland simply havent produced enough technically proficient players to be able to produce consistent results against quality teams. The gap has grown too far and no matter who is the manager of Scotland they simply dont have the quality of players capable of qualifying for any tournament.
Koscielny 3-0. France looks much better than against Cameroon, even though it’s got to be said that Scotland are crap.
2-0 Zhiru again
3-0 Koscielny
0-2 Wijnaldum
Tony & Griezmann coming on at HT 
Martial playing well. Some beautiful moments of skill.
Pogba Free kick - hits the post
He's a joy to watch. goosebumps
People rave about Coman but Martial seems to have more creativity, more guile.
Martial's dribbling is ridiculous tonight, altough the defending is pretty shit it has to be said. But he is a joy to watch.
He’s definitely showed enough to start on the left against Romania.
Lloris is shoite.
Ffs! I'm losing money it seems on Slovakia, who beat Germany 3-1 away the other day, but now can't beat Northern Ireland at home. Football bloody hell!
Martial seems to play a different role for France. He roams eveywhere.
People are right to rave about Coman there is no need to downrate one for the benefit of the other, they are both great.
I agree. I think he's more talented.
and I find Martial to have more potential and the better of the two. I 'downrate' who I want.
He didn't, Coman was better but Martial has been better than Payet.
Pogba Free kick #2
I miss paddy
He has true charisma. No wonder he got along so well with Fergie. Cantona, Ronaldo, Evra, all Fergie's favorites. Charisma attracts charisma. Helps that they could play a bit as well.I miss paddy
Griezmann has been well average btw.
https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CkIhGt1WUAAKlsQ.mp4
Nice bit of skill.
Nice bit of skill.
Well in my opinion Payet has been really good, and effective, the last two matches, Coman’s been extremely good as well. Martial adds certain type of directness to their attack. It’s a great scenario for Deschamps though, he’s got such a ridiculous bench to turn to.
Hate these endings to friendlies. Nothing for Martial to work with, all slowing down and showboat passing around the back and oleh's
Griezmann's scalp showing the effects of his canary hair dye 2 years ago. Take that balding cnut.
Why did Croatia warm up with a match against San Marino
Scotland arguably have more technically gifted players than they have for a while. Albania, N.I and Ireland are not technically better than Scotland and are at the Euro's!
Scotland would have made the Euro's if not for some shocking decisions by Strachan, who for some reason get's highly praised in this country. The performance in Georgia which all but ended a play off chance was pathetic. Scotland settled for a draw in Ireland which ended up costing them as Germany blew it in Ireland. Scotland played well against Germany and Poland in four matches and far better than Ireland did against both teams yet came out with much less points! Ireland were so lucky throughout qualification scoring 3 goals in injury time to secure 4 extra points whilst Scotland lost 2 points due to a very late injury time goal at home to Poland. Scotland were the better team, had the better performances but ended up losing out due to one horrific performance in Georgia.
Strachan's favourtism towards certain players is going to cost Scotland going forward, continues to shoe in Fletcher and the poor Forrest and Mulgrew. Even-though these were two friendlies against Italy and France, not to have a single shot in target in over 180 minutes and three in total is nothing short of embarrassing. Far too negative when the best players are more comfortable going forward. In both these games he's had an extremely talented Barrie McKay on the bench and instead of putting the most technically gifted and most talented player in the squad a decent run out in both games, he's decided to put on the likes of Oliver Burke, Craig Bryson and last night a LB/CB who's hardly played much this season on the wing instead of the lad.
Sorry we will have to agree to disagree here.
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Fair enough Stack.
When you look at the squad Scotland used during Euro 2008 qualification which beat France 1-0 back to back it contained the likes of Graeme Alexander, David Weir, Stephen McManus, Paul Hartley, Scott Brown, Lee McCulloch, Kris Boyd, Gary O'Connor, Stephen Pearson, Jay McEvely, Craig Beattie, Christian Dailly and Gary Caldwell etc. Some decent players in there but in regards to technical ability, not so much, Scotland's best assets in this period was the defending ability and passion. Look at some of the players these days who wouldn't play ahead of some of those above but in regards to ability on the ball in a technical sense are better IMO. Fletcher, McKay, McArthur, Robertson, Tierney, Wallace, Morrison, Ritchie, Naismith, Dorrans, Snoodgrass, McCormack, Phillips, Whittaker, McLean, Bannan etc.
The current defence is nothing compared to previous Scotland teams, whilst that Euro 2008 squad had three players who were head and shoulders above anyone currently playing for Scotland. Ferguson, McFadden and Miller.
When you look at the squad Scotland used during Euro 2008 qualification which beat France 1-0 back to back it contained the likes of Graeme Alexander, David Weir, Stephen McManus, Paul Hartley, Scott Brown, Lee McCulloch, Kris Boyd, Gary O'Connor, Stephen Pearson, Jay McEvely, Craig Beattie, Christian Dailly and Gary Caldwell etc. Some decent players in there but in regards to technical ability, not so much, Scotland's best assets in this period was the defending ability and passion. Look at some of the players these days who wouldn't play ahead of some of those above but in regards to ability on the ball in a technical sense are better IMO. Fletcher, McKay, McArthur, Robertson, Tierney, Wallace, Morrison, Ritchie, Naismith, Dorrans, Snoodgrass, McCormack, Phillips, Whittaker, McLean, Bannan etc.
The current defence is nothing compared to previous Scotland teams, whilst that Euro 2008 squad had three players who were head and shoulders above anyone currently playing for Scotland. Ferguson, McFadden and Miller.
Disappointed by your lack of physical impact/fighting spirit but all the players are in holidays so this game doesn't reflect your actual level.
They might be so called technical good footballers, but looking at which clubs they play at, it's clear that they aren't good enough on international level. When Scotland qualified for every World Cup they had players playing for the biggest clubs in England, not least Liverpool, who started with four Scottish players (and had one on the bench) in the 1985 European Cup final. The same year we met Everton in the FA Cup final, with both teams having two Scottish players in their starting lineup, and Everton that season won both the league and UEFA Cup Winner's Cup.
There's been such a massive drop in quality of Scottish players since then, there might be some flashy players in the current squad, but looking at who they play for just shows, that they aren't really that good. Better than Kevin Kyle, but nowhere near Dalglish, Souness, Hansen, Law, Bremner etc. from the past.
Even the Scotland team from '98 (which wasn't a great side) weren't full of players from Championship clubs (Division One clubs back then), they either played in the Premership or for Celtic and Rangers when they were more respectable sides. You even had John Collins winning the league and reaching the CL semi-finals (knocking us out in the quarter-final) with Monaco, just like Paul Lambert had won the CL with Dortmund a year earlier before returning home to Celtic.
I look at that list of players you mention and I dont see the decent players you mention. I guess the problem I have is that the Scottish football scene, fans and general setup doesnt seem to recognise just how poor our players have become.
The most common approach the fans have is to simply blame a manager when the results dont happen. The really really ugly truth is that our players simply arent technically gifted enough and no matter which manager is in place we wont improve.
Your own comments about best assets being defending ability and passion sadden me and highlight the misplaced attitude and beliefs of Scotlands football fanbase. What happens is that filters all the way through to junior and youth and club levels where passion and heart end up being valued more than technically gifted attributes. It means that when things go wrong its the managers fault but over 20 years of failures and diminishing numbers of our best players in key roles at big clubs show its the players abilities that are the heart of the problem.
There was a time when our best players were all key players at the biggest clubs in England, now they are supporting players in the championship. You talk about passion and defence being our best attributes but there was a time when attack and flair were what our players were known for. We dont produce those types of players anymore, we simply dont have anyone who is even remotely top level with respect to that.
However all of that is of course the Scotland managers fault, whoever he may be at the time.
Until Scotlands fan base starts demanding better quality players we will continue our slow slide down the footballing ladder.
Sadly fans being fans will simply continue to blame whoever is the manager at the time. I think the best phrase for that approach is putting the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.