International Friendlies May/June

you conveniently ignore the quality of the qualifying group.

I dont believe Scotland are in the top 24 of European teams, the players simply arent good enough.

The moment the qualifying group was announced I knew we couldnt qualify, anyone who thought we could has a completely unrealistic view of the players abilities.
 
I'm sorry but your completely wrong in saying it was an unrealistic view. Majority of Scotland fans expected us to get third, in-fact after the performances away to Poland and Germany and win at home to Ireland everybody started to say we could finish top 2! I was in the minority who was very unhappy with the draw in Ireland and unfortunately it cost us.

You'd be lying if you didn't think we wouldn't finish in the top 3 if we took 4 points from 6 against Ireland and were unbeaten against Poland. Germany's poor form against Ireland, their late goals and the defeat in Georgia was especially crucial. Ireland didn't deserve to finish above us on performances in my view.

Not sure if your underrating our squad or overrating Poland and Ireland here, but we were the better team than Ireland in both games. Whilst Poland were lucky to snatch a draw at Hampden. It was a failure to not finish third in that group, simple, but we ain't going to agree so may as well just leave it as it is. :D
 
Interesting to note that 31 players from the Championship will play the Euro against 34 players only from La Liga & 22 from the French league

euro_ligi_zestawienie.jpg
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Who is now the best Scottish player according to you?
 
Mark_Barca said:
You've went away back 20 years and beyond, something I never mentioned. I said in my first post 'for a while' i.e last 10 years or so, hence why I compared the current squad to the squads back in 06-08. Of course the Standard from the 70s and 80s has decreased nobody suggested otherwise..

In that list in 98 you had a players from Hearts, Aberdeen, Utrecht(bottom half Dutch league) Notts Forest(Championship) and bottom half Prem teams in Leicester, Spurs and Wimbeldon. The recent Scotland squads have had around 15 players who play in the Prem Not to mention the championship in England currently is a strong league. I stand by the original point that the squad as a whole has more technical type players than it has in the last 10 or so years.
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10 years ago and a little further back was probably the darkest days of Scottish football in terms of talent, being better than that still isn't good enough to qualify for anything, unless you get a very soft qualifying group like Northern Ireland and Albania got.

Mark_Barca said:
The Scotland squad is not full of quality, of course it isn't, but Strachan has failed no matter what as this squad should be at the Euros. Especially when the likes of Ireland, N.I and Albania are!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_national_football_team
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania_national_football_team
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_national_football_team

N.I current and recent squads. Players from Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, Luton,Wigan, Hartlepool, Peterbrough, MK Dons, Dundee United, Ross County, Millwall, Melbourne, Doncaster, Fleetwood, Notts County and Hamilton. Fair to say far lower level than Scotland's squad.

Look at the 'clubs' those three countries players play for, you surely can't believe it's better or stronger than Scotland's? Yet those three were good enough to make the Euro's. The Scotland squad should be making a 24 team European Championship and not blowing it in Georgia.
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Northern Ireland was arguably in the softest qualifying group there was with Romania, Hungary, Greece, Finland and Faroe Islands, Scotland would've probably have qualified from that group too. Albania on paper was in a pretty tough group, but neither us (Denmark) or especially Serbia lived up to our/their potential, although the biggest reason behind Albania qualifying was that they somehow got 3 points for the cancelled match against Serbia, even though the drone was Albanian.

Ireland qualified ahead of Scotland, which probably is as it should be, since Ireland do have a few good players in Coleman, McCarthy, Whelan and Long who plays for top 10 teams in the PL (Everton should be that atleast). Scotland simply don't having any good players atm. as I see it, Fletcher isn't anywhere near as good as he used to be. Andrew Robertson might be someone who can get a good career at a top 10 club in the PL, but you don't get very far if your best player is a left back.
 
Ramsey's died his hair to make himself recognisable in the tournament, hasn't he? :wenger:

He was invisible for most of the 2nd half of last season in fairness.
 
Czech Republic Vs South Korea not a bad game. Korea winning 2-1 at the moment. The Czechs will trouble precisely no one this month. A total gimme for Spain, Turkey, and Croatia.
 
Koreans doing a good job here of making up for that 6-1 shaming against Spain the other night. Though to be fair their keeper was a catastrophic neophyte.
 
Son busy up front. Shop window for him. Could see him doing half a job at Leicester if Vardy goes to Arsenal.
 
Is it me or are there referees these days in better nick than some of the players? This guy in Prague is in absolutely premium physical condition.
 
Commentator on my stream talking about the racial homogeneity of the Korean team being a real asset. Not sure he should develop that thought.
 
Some filthy challenges going in from the Czechs. Not nice to watch.
 
Tell you what the weather in Prague looks great. Lots of empty seats though. Prague must be an excellent place to take in a match.
 
God I hope France don't win the Euros. Please anything but that crapulent outcome.
 
Just watching Sweden, why have they got any less chance of winning it than England?
 
That's it! It's all over! South Korea beat the Czech Republic 2-1!
 
Lurpak99 said:
A lack of quality in most positions, but they do have Zlatan, and he's better than any English player that's for sure.
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Agreed but if yoy are talking about elite quality we are the same. Don't rate Lallana, Sterling, the full backs etc as elite either. Anyone might beat us.
 
Needham said:
Agreed but if yoy are talking about elite quality we are the same. Don't rate Lallana, Sterling, the full backs etc as elite either. Anyone might beat us.
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Elite players maybe not, but England still have better players on every position apart from Zlatan's.
 
Lurpak99 said:
Elite players maybe not, but England still have better players on every position apart from Zlatan's.
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As we more or less have re. Wales. But they could still turn us over. That's down to England's dodgy talent level as much as anything else.
 
Ibrahimavich seems genuinely delighted when one of his teammates scores a goal. That's a part of his character he has really worked on since the Utd rumours started.
 
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