Russia v Scotland

Wasn’t expecting much ahead of this game, didn’t see the first half but thought we started the 2nd half well & didn’t get decisions that could have led to set piece chances.... but as that start to the 2nd half went on with no reward I knew what was coming... I left the room just as the Russians got the corner that preceded the opening goal & was still in the kitchen when the second went in, the third & fourth were just woefully defended by Mulgrew & Devlin in particular, both bullied at the exact same moment by the Russian CF giving him a tap in, then the more experienced Mulgrew was hopelessly out of position & chasing shadows (looked like a dog chasing his tail) while Devlin turned his back on a slightly sclaffed shot that he could have blocked with his foot comfortably.

It is time for a complete clear out of so called central defenders that are getting games because none of them are fit to wear the shirt. It is also time for an overhaul in playing style. Get back to basics of getting stuck in to the opposition, instead of giving them free possession & the time to cut us open.

Our chances of qualifying now rely on the Nations League play offs & frankly, based on last night’s evidence there is no way we will qualify.

I watched that last night and thought about the Livi games I've seen over the last couple of years. The difference for me is that Livi are well aware that they are playing teams with better resources and players but they make up for that by playing with hunger and desire and sticking to the basics. Those players last night looked overawed and feart.

Never mind picking players just because they operate in the EPL. There they are surrounded by other quality players who do their jobs well and they fit in. The Northern Irish and the Icelandic teams are put together with ordinary players (like Livi) who then go out and give it a good go making themselves hard to beat. That's what Scotland need. Pick the players who can do that job (like Holt and Martindale do at Livi)

There are too many players in the Scotland team who are first picks purely because of where the ply their trade or because they have been around the team for a while.
We need a root and branch clear out and a new approach.

Let's face it it won't be any worse than the garbage we've watched recently.
Rant over.

Yep we're too easy to open up and play against, we can't outplay teams like Belgium, or even Russia for that matter, it is like Holt keeps saying, the minute we think we're better than we are, and can go out and match teams, we'll get gubbed. Scotland used to have far better players than we have now, but we also put in the effort to make ourselves hard to beat, same as Livi do.

Our defence is hopeless, that's where we need to start from, we've decent enough midfielders, just need a Kenny Miller type striker to run about and give us an out ball, I might be biased, but i'd even go as far as to say Dykes would be perfect for the job.

It may not suit the footballing purists, but we aren't good enough to play a John Hughes style of tippy tappy football, i'd rather see us get moaned about because we are the team everyone hates playing with a no nonsense approach than admired for being a gutsy loser that tries to play football 'the right way'.

Yeah, we are all agreed.

Dykesy was getting mentioned as a potential call up although his preference would be for the land of his birth... he didn’t rule out changing his mind though