We have nowhere near the quality of side that Croatia do.
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I didn't really enjoy Keane at the end.
We give the English pundits pelters for getting carried away and for taking themselves too seriously.
They've had a good time, they've enjoyed the tournament and Wright was acknowledging the fact in a light-hearted way.
In the past they've driven me nuts and I'd have enjoyed their pain, but I didn't think they needed it or deserved it tonight.
Lee Dixon would have done Keane.
I know. But what chance do we ever have when our players are constantly told they aren’t up to much and can’t compete? A bit of positivity would do wonders. We have a small country mindset and it’s part of the problem with the national team. It creates a risk averse culture. The last Scotland manager was too scared to give younger, more forward thinking players a chance until it was almost too late and stuck with tried and tested ‘stuffy’ players to ‘compete’. When he eventually took the risk with younger players, we came back within touching distance of making the play-offs, he shat it again with this small nation mindset and went back to the ‘stuffy’, sit in, ‘play to our strengths’ type players.
There does need to be some realism but it needs to be balanced with a bit of positivity.
Again, I know that but the younger age group cohorts in the national set up seem to compete better with bigger nations than the senior squad. A big part of that will be down to talent and coaching structures. Some of it, I reckon is down to the negativity of the Scotland squad management.
It's easy to compare ourselves to Croatia as we're a similar sized nation but I saw more in England that I'd like to see Scotland copy.
Talented, articulate, home-grown manager who has worked with many of the players at a younger age group.
Entrusting young players, making them the core of the squad.
Consistency of team selection.
Fostering a club-like atmosphere.
Engaging with the media.
Having the balls to ditch duds who were there on reputation rather than performance (Joe Hart).
I read on another thread that they play a lot of Futsal in Croatia. The main thing we need to change in Scotland is to get youngsters playing as much as possible. Until we do that we're stuffed, and we'll always have a restricted pool to choose from.
That said, I don't think we're all that bad, and have some decent young players to give us some hope.
For a bigger country it’s easier for a Southgate type manager to just say to the young players ‘go out and express yourself....’ more often than not they’re up against far inferior players so even with the worst manager in the world the players could pull them through.
This tournament England have managed to beat in 90 minutes Panama, Tunisia and Sweden.
With the billions of pounds floating about their game I’m for from convinced there’s is the blueprint we should be following.
Totally agree. Let’s hope we have a go at trying to qualify rather than hoping to.
We have nothing to lose, as we never qualify, so a positive approach and a desire to win rather than not lose has to worth a go. Starting with and end to all the negative pish about not being tall enough, small nation etc.. followed by picking Scottish players not guys who’s granny was born in Scotland!!!!
Not Keane's biggest fan but really can't stand Ian Wright and delighted that someone is there to let England know their "its coming home" patter is unfounded, arrogant nonsense.
Here's the discussion:
https://youtu.be/QzMA9oURY-M
Thanks for sharing I missed that from watching in the pub
Keane should have knocked him out! Wright was being a dick taking the Micky out of his accent when Keane was making a good point, or at least a point Wright didn’t agree with
Can you imagine the outcry if Keane started doing his own impressions...
This was racist
Study what other small countries are doing. Scottish tennis looked at Belgium who had two women no 1s and men in top 20. Be dedicated with no booze, birds etc. Continue to improve and learn from setbacks. Work on technique, fitness, tactics and mental side. And don't listen to the English.
Good on Roy Keane. As always, the English media got way ahead of themselves.
I wasn't too unhappy when England beat Columbia because I thought their antics were a disgrace but by the time I got to the semi final I was totally pissed off with the hysteria. The BBC had essentially become the EBC last night with its pre-match news coverage and I was delighted that the English media and pundits like Wright were put back in their box.
That's not taking anything away from Southgate who seems like a really decent guy and manager, or his team who definitely punched above their weight.
Roy Keane is nothing but an absolute dick. Wouldn’t dream of actually giving anyone or anything any praise and would much rather come across as being ‘too hard’ to enjoy anything. Why they still put him on the tv is beyond me.
As Ian Wright said, they got to the semi final, fans and pundits enjoyed the journey and yes, they maybe talked about the final a bit. But the players and manager didn’t, they remained professional and didn’t quite have enough to get there. That wouldn’t have changed had the fans and pundits taken the “one game at a time” approach.
Please, for the love of humanity, we're not going to have to hear for 2-4 years that Southgate has somehow reinvented football by taking England to a round that any one of us on here could've done also?
It's laughable and pathetic at the same time watching people north of the border buy into this idea that Southgate and England are the new galacticos of world football and world domination is only a matter of time.
I thought Lee Dixon looked strangely quiet in fact looked gutted!!:greengrin