Georgia v Scotland and Scotland v Germany

[Gribz 743]

We need at least a draw on Monday to have any chance, a defeat will mean Scotland won't be going anywhere next summer.

 

Id go one further and say a win is needed. Id imagine Rep will beat Georgia at home plus Poland will be getting 3 pts from Gibraltar.

[Bearman 9]

Id go one further and say a win is needed. Id imagine Rep will beat Georgia at home plus Poland will be getting 3 pts from Gibraltar.

 

A draw against Germany will give us hope as long as RoI and Poland share the points in the last game.. RoI will beat Georgia and Poland will easily dispatch Gibralter as you say. So a win against Germany isn't required although it would be something to celebrate. The key is beating Poland added to shared points with Germany.

 

Defeat on Monday means failure though.

 

There is a play-off of course if we finish 3rd in the table - not worked than one out yet!

Edited September 6, 2015 by Bearman

[Gribz 743]

A draw against Germany will give us hope as long as RoI and Poland share the points in the last game.. RoI will beat Georgia and Poland will easily dispatch Gibralter as you say. So a win against Germany isn't required although it would be something to celebrate. The key is beating Poland added to shared points with Germany.

 

Defeat on Monday means failure though.

 

There is a play-off of course if we finish 3rd in the table - not worked than one out yet!

 

We would need to beat Poland at home in October plus the 3 pts from Gibraltar in the last game to have a slight chance of a play off and that means we need Germany to win in Dublin and Ireland not to win in Poland. Its going to be tight but even a point against Germany still makes things difficult as Poland at home is a tricky one also.

 

We will only get a chance of 2nd place with 3 wins and that's unlikely. If we beat Germany then id have another look at it but Germany still need to pick up points, on one hand that's bad as they could come to Hampden and rip us up but on the other hand they may also need to beat Ireland.

 

Im looking for Georgia to do us a favour against Ireland, if they could pull a draw out of the bag there it would sweeten things but there is also the case of only 8 play off spots and we could end up being the worst place 3rd team as the wins against Gibraltar will be deducted.

[Bearman 9]

Scotland has a history of abysmal failure wrapped up in 'glorious failure' they have a wiki page on it.

 

I can't see how this 'glorious failure' can be avoided now tbh it really all comes down to beating the World Champions and that might happen then we lose to Poland...you could write a book on Scotland and football all you get here is Celtic '67 .

[Rousseau 9,361]

I'm not saying there is a conspiracy here, but the team seems to be picked on where they play (EPL, EC, Celtic), rather than how well they play together. It's like they are shoehorned into the team regardless of how they play, their style, or their form. Anya is a perfect example. He's a decent player that comes into plans out of nowhere because he played a good role in Watford's promotion. He is a WB for Watford, but Strachan has him playing LM and drifting inside (not entirely different but it is a different role). Morrison is more an attacking player, but is shoehorned into a defensive role. Maloney is a decent player, but I think he's wasted on the wing.

 

A team of average players that work well together are surely better than a group of individuals that may be better players individually? If one forgets for a second that Wales have Bale, they play a 3-5-1-1 (sort of?) because it suits the players they have: decent CBs, couple of players that play well at WB, and have very good CMs in Ramsey and Allen etc; the system has been developed to take advantage of their players strengths. Their Striker is a worker rather than a goalscorer to allow Bale that free role. A Bale gets you to 9th in the World!?

 

Once again, Scotland are out-of-date.

[Doc 280]

I

 

A team of average players that work well together are surely better than a group of individuals that may be better players individually?

 

 

Couldn't agree more. Northern Ireland are the epitome of this right now. Best of luck to them.

 

Scotland were clueless on Friday night. I'll be amazed if that changes against Germany.

[ian1964 10,410]

Keith Jackson: Arrogant, complacent and inept - Stewart Regan and his men continue to let our game down

 

KEITH says it's an embarrassment to see men in Scotland tracksuits strewn across a departure lounge floor, and atrocious treatment by the very people who are supposed to be in their corner.

 

THERE’S a dangerous culture of denial and self preservation taking hold on Hampden’s sixth floor.

 

Dare to point out where Stewart Regan and his merry band of blazers are getting it wrong and you’re accused of having an agenda. Be bold enough to actually highlight their incompetence and you’re perpetrating a witch-hunt

 

It’s known as playing the victim card and over these last few years of Scottish football’s decline few have played it better, or more often for that matter, than Regan.

 

The chief executive is again adopting the Teflon position despite overseeing an absolute farce on Friday night as the Scotland team were stranded in Tbilisi when they should have been whisked back to base camp to brace themselves for the extreme challenge of world champions Germany.

 

That they got no sympathy from the foot soldiers who had followed them to Georgia was, perhaps, understandable.

 

And in the grand scheme of things, amidst a refugee crisis and deadly conflicts, it does feel petty to be banging on about pampered sportsmen missing a charter plane.

 

Some in the Tartan Army would have been happy had Gordon Strachan and his squad been forced to walk it home after the 1-0 defeat.

 

The punters had a point. Scotland let them down. But, equally, Strachan and his men were then treated atrociously by the very people who were supposed to be in their corner.

 

So let’s cut through the gloom and examine what went on as a frustrating Friday night lurched into an utterly shambolic Saturday morning.

 

This turned out a strategic calamity that was entirely avoidable. Or it would have been if only the SFA had been willing to pay the price for acting like professionals.

 

The daily rate for hiring the plane which flew Scotland out on Wednesday was £80,000.

 

The deal was with the Dutch version of Ryanair for an aircraft which might be fine for a short hop (so long as you don’t mind sipping a cuppa-soup off your knees) but which was simply not fit for the purpose of flying Scotland’s players across three time zones and 2500 miles for a qualifier of such importance.

 

You’ll be relieved to hear Regan and his president, Alan McCrae, had no such leg-room issues as they took their usual seats at the emergency exits, while the likes of Grant Hanley and Charlie Mulgrew played twister across row three.

 

But even worse than hiring this bucket of bolts in the first place was the decision to then allow it to head home after the team had disembarked.

 

It should have been parked there waiting for them to return.

 

That’s what the Irish did when they went to Tbilisi last September. It’s what Scotland and our top clubs did for years.

 

It’s what Aberdeen and Celtic did with their Euro ties in Kazakhstan. They paid for a plane with beds in it. And they kept it until they were done.

 

The SFA will no doubt see it as making a £160,000 saving.

 

But is flying Scotland’s top players around in reasonable comfort a cost? Surely it should be seen as an investment?

 

That’s the way the Irish saw it and they didn’t have the added concern of a home clash against the Germans a couple of days later.

 

But not Regan’s SFA. For them, this was a risk worth taking to save a few bob.

 

So when Amsterdam was hit by rain storms and the replacement plane got caught up in a backlog of delays, Scotland’s players were left to doss across Tbilisi Airport for the best part of four hours.

 

You can almost hear them whining already at Hampden. “How can we be blamed for the replacement plane going missing?” or “Is the weather Stewart’s fault too now?” Most revolting of all: “Is this because he’s English?” Trust me, that’s exactly the sort of whispering campaign that goes on if the competence of our great leader and his party is called into question. At times that sixth floor must feel like a North Korean enclave.

 

But the truth of the matter is Regan and his men continue to let our game down.

 

What befell Strachan and his players was just the latest example of their arrogance, complacency and ineptitude.

 

It was an embarrassment to see men in Scotland tracksuits strewn across a departure lounge floor, stretching out cramps and strains. At the very least Regan ought to have been big enough to apologise in person, to thank them for continuing to give up their time for the nation and to promise they’d never again be placed in such a ridiculously unprofessional position in Scotland’s name.

 

But, typically, Regan – who was heard jokingly describing his extra leg room as a “perk of the job” – was keeping his head down as Strachan’s players were shaking the lactic acid from their aching limbs.

 

Germany must be laughing up their tracksuit sleeves at this debacle as it would never have happened to them.

 

Tonight let’s hope they don’t make Strachan’s men pay the ultimate price.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/keith-jackson-arrogant-complacent-inept-6396139

[Doc 280]

How incompetent does Rhegan have to be before the man is handed his P45?

 

The performance on the pitch was a shambles but fucking up the return flight when we face Germany 72 hours later in what was always going to be a make or break game is an utter disgrace. Small minded, penny pinching ineptitude for all to see.

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,473]

We would need to beat Poland at home in October plus the 3 pts from Gibraltar in the last game to have a slight chance of a play off and that means we need Germany to win in Dublin and Ireland not to win in Poland. Its going to be tight but even a point against Germany still makes things difficult as Poland at home is a tricky one also.

 

We will only get a chance of 2nd place with 3 wins and that's unlikely. If we beat Germany then id have another look at it but Germany still need to pick up points, on one hand that's bad as they could come to Hampden and rip us up but on the other hand they may also need to beat Ireland.

 

Im looking for Georgia to do us a favour against Ireland, if they could pull a draw out of the bag there it would sweeten things but there is also the case of only 8 play off spots and we could end up being the worst place 3rd team as the wins against Gibraltar will be deducted.

 

I made the mistake of tuning into Radio Scotland to listen to the match and couldn't believe what Willie Miller was saying prior to the match. He was stating that this is not "must-win" game. How do you work that out Willie? Every game in group scenario is a must win game IMO and the point has been proven by the result and where it leaves us. We should have gone all guns blazing v Georgia and that would have given us the luxury of going into the German game with nothing to lose. A defeat is kind of expected but if we managed to pick up anything it would a bonus. Now we have to win this game IMO and the Poland game (Gibraltar should be a given). Typical friggin Scotland. with attitudes like Millers, no wonder we are so far behind

[ian1964 10,410]

Marshall, Hutton, R. Martin, Hanley, Mulgrew, Brown, Morrison, Forrest, McArthur, Maloney, Fletcher.