Group A: Germany, Scotland, Hungary, Switzerland

[MikeH72]

England could win it despite Southgate, but he's absolute pony. If man u were actually thinking about it Ratcliffe must be huffing glue in his spare time.

They absolutely can not.

 

[Rita_Poon]

 

[DualityNSNO]

Clarke getting pelters?
He can only work with what he has.
Imagine Southgate with this lot....

Yeah and he used to turn these exact same players into a compact unit that regularly scored goals, or at least tried to.

No shots on target until the 98th minute of the 3rd game man, this is down to some horrendous setups.

 

[Paris]

Mate, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but offsides are not decided by “the officials” anymore. It was just onside.

I’m pretty sure that they went for a Twix.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Or maybe going for someone not bricking it as much as Clarke is as next manager.

No way that the player pool in Scotland is worse than Hungary/Slovenia, etc. - if you don't play to anyone's strengths - you don't win. They have some quite decent players, some of those play in the Prem and do well (or are at least average in the Prem, which is already better than someone in Hungary playing for a local team), who got on the pitch and had no idea what to do somehow.

As @Abertonian said above - they played some good direct footy while qualifying, but forgot all about that in the last few friendlies for literally no reason and went ultra defensive. Scored goals at least in just about any game and any opposition, had shots - went to the tournament proper and that went out the window too. Didn't help that Gunn had a stinker in literally every game too tbh.

Moyes was on the BBC arguing there's two big problems. A) they don't do well enough on the development side. B) not enough of their players migrate to better standard leagues compared to comparative sized nations.

Chuck in a crap manager... there we have it.

 

[stipe]

Hussars beat Highlanders

Or maybe going for someone not bricking it as much as Clarke is as next manager.

No way that the player pool in Scotland is worse than Hungary/Slovenia, etc. - if you don't play to anyone's strengths - you don't win. They have some quite decent players, some of those play in the Prem and do well (or are at least average in the Prem, which is already better than someone in Hungary playing for a local team), who got on the pitch and had no idea what to do somehow.

As @Abertonian said above - they played some good direct footy while qualifying, but forgot all about that in the last few friendlies for literally no reason and went ultra defensive. Scored goals at least in just about any game and any opposition, had shots - went to the tournament proper and that went out the window too. Didn't help that Gunn had a stinker in literally every game too tbh.

Its not about player pool, its about player development and priorities and emphasis when developing young players.
Here in Croatia (and in old Yugoslavia) its/was all about technique above all else, priority was always put on elegant, passing style and admiration for that style of play, so all young kids who train football (or wants to) are from the start trained in that way. Hell big physical players are looked down upon here and stereotyped as talentless with "two left foot".

Northern way (British, Scandinavian) was always physical with endless crosses in the box (at least thats how it is stereotyped here), Scotland and Scandinavian countries seemed still very much stuck in that way.

 

[MikeH72]

I’m pretty sure that they went for a Twix.

They might as well have done, because the technology makes offside decisions for them so they wouldn’t have been required.

 

[DuncanPatterson]

 

[The Celtic View]

The amount of beeping for those first two guys sounded like an Ice Cube track being played played on Radio 1...

No one forced him to spend ten grand going to Germany. Did he think that would make Scotland play like Pep's Barcelona?

 

[DualityNSNO]

Hussars beat Highlanders

If that's not a newspaper headline - missed opportunity

Its not about player pool, its about player development and priorities and emphasis when developing young players.
Here in Croatia (and in old Yugoslavia) its/was all about technique above all else, priority was always put on elegant, passing style and admiration for that style of play, so all young kids who train football (or wants to) are from the start trained in that way. Hell big physical players are looked down upon here and stereotyped as talentless with "two left foot".

Northern way (British, Scandinavian) was always physical with endless crosses in the box (at least thats how it is stereotyped here), Scotland and Scandinavian countries seemed still very much stuck in that way.

Meh, same here, but realistically you need both. I've played and helped coach youth teams and it was mostly on the technique, but then Messi/CR7 rose up so it was all the "I can do it on my own", which they obviously can't and Messi obviously doesn't either anyway, but that's beside the point. Kids frown a lot when you tell them they have to also learn to effing run, no work ethic, etc.

Going to Scotland they focus a lot more on fundamentals and physique, but not much past that sadly - so you have grocks and occasionally a natural talent who can play ball better (a-la McGinn currently). So it's all work ethic and no technique, the reverse.

Then again we've had literally no success lately (and our players are constantly unfit), so maybe a good top-to-bottom approach that focuses on overall progress for young player development is better. Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia (to an extent - Ukraine?) seem to be doing that, judging by the amount of players in the NT from local leagues who don't look out of place at the Euros - for a smaller country (not in terms of population but rather developmental financial power) this is the best you can get, unless you walk into a golden generation (Bulgaria @ WC94)

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Not a pen for me he was looking for it

Yeh if he did not have hold Oban shirt as they go over probably would have got it.

 

[stipe]

If that's not a newspaper headline - missed opportunity

Meh, same here, but realistically you need both. I've played and helped coach youth teams and it was mostly on the technique, but then Messi/CR7 rose up so it was all the "I can do it on my own", which they obviously can't and Messi obviously doesn't either anyway, but that's beside the point. Kids frown a lot when you tell them they have to also learn to effing run, no work ethic, etc.

Going to Scotland they focus a lot more on fundamentals and physique, but not much past that sadly - so you have grocks and occasionally a natural talent who can play ball better (a-la McGinn currently). So it's all work ethic and no technique, the reverse.

Then again we've had literally no success lately (and our players are constantly unfit), so maybe a good top-to-bottom approach that focuses on overall progress for young player development is better. Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia (to an extent - Ukraine?) seem to be doing that, judging by the amount of players in the NT from local leagues who don't look out of place at the Euros - for a smaller country (not in terms of population but rather developmental financial power) this is the best you can get, unless you walk into a golden generation (Bulgaria @ WC94)

Bulgaria had good generation in 90s with Stoichkov, Romania had good generation with Hagi, Hungary had legendary team many decades ago, Czechs were great in 90s and early 2000s, Belgium got golden generation, we (Croatia) had two very good generations (in 90s with Suker, Boban, Prosinecki, Boksic and recent one with Modric and company), Uruguay in South America with population of 3 million is always there. Portugal and Netherlands are also not very large countries.

So smaller to medium countries still can compete, but development philosophy and emphasis from younger age is crucial. This "cross the ball and hope for the best" is just not that.

 

[DualityNSNO]

Bulgaria had good generation in 90s with Stoichkov, Romania had good generation with Hagi, Hungary had legendary team many decades ago, Czechs were great in 90s and early 2000s, Belgium got golden generation, we (Croatia) had two very good generations (in 90s with Suker, Boban, Prosinecki, Boksic and recent one with Modric and company), Uruguay in South America with population of 3 million is always there. Portugal and Netherlands are also not very large countries.

So smaller to medium countries still can compete, but development philosophy and emphasis from younger age is crucial. This "cross the ball and hope for the best" is just not that.

Exactly mate, but even that would've been a plan last night, and they didn't even do that - they forgot how to play together and just passed it around in defence for 70% pointless possession.

 

[stipe]

Exactly mate, but even that would've been a plan last night, and they didn't even do that - they forgot how to play together and just passed it around in defence for 70% pointless possession.

Yeah, weird game, both teams seemed to remember they need to win in like 90th minute

 

[DualityNSNO]

Yeah, weird game, both teams seemed to remember they need to win in like 90th minute

At least Hungary tried and had some shots to be honest - their plan started off as some weird mixture but they kept going for a counter as soon as they saw what Scotland are trying to do; hit the post and all.

Scotland's best chance fell to Grant Hanley of all people, as the game was ending Also as a side note Hanley's looked like he's 40 for about 15 years now. Remember seeing him for Blackburn in 2011 or 2012 or so and thinking he's close to 30, shocked to see he was 19-20 at the time