Taxi for potter?

[Sir David Gray]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Really? Seconds away from our worst ever home result, the legendary 4-6-0 formation and 5 points from 5 games. Improvement?

I accept we have some decent youngsters coming through and players competing in the EPL but that is not down to Levein it's just his good fortune. Whether he is the man to get the best from this group of players is debatable.

There's no two ways about it, we were cheated on Saturday by a very "clever" striker and an abysmal referee but that does not excuse Levein's overall record.

He really should have been sacked on the spot, as soon as his formation and team line up in Prague was announced. It took the term "anti-football" to an unprecedented level.

After that, our performance, and the fact that it took a goal in the 97th minute to defeat a team that represents a nation with a population the size of Falkirk, made me extremely embarrassed.

[Septimus]

Particularly in the first half Scotland were second best. We still have the expectations we had when Hampden was filled with 120,000 pipe smoking bonnet wearing fans and every boy in the land wanted to play for the national team. As that stupid song says "These days are gone now".

Incidentally, and begging pardon for my ignorance in advance, what is that tie that Levein was wearing?

[H18sry]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/14780267.stm

[johnrebus]

Scotland now play the sort of dull football that he was famous for at Hearts and Dundee United. It got results to a certain extent, but not at Scotland.

The Czechs were miles ahead of us in most aspects of the game and really should have turned us over.

For me, there has been no progress since Burley.

Potter, GTF

[ronaldo7]

His record speaks for itself.....He's worse than Bertie.

He's got favourites, and has double standards regarding selection.

He's a patronising, condescending pr!ck.

The sooner he's out the better.

4-6-0 Enough said.

[Twa Cairpets]

The minute he chose a 4-6-0 he should have been placed in stocks and had rotten fruit thrown at him prior to being banned from all football for life.

A mediocrity as a club manager, his ability to sound faintly intellectual without actually having a clue is as far as I can see the only reason he got the gig in the first place. The childish spat with Fletch (with blame admittedly on both sides) is beyond belief, and the embarrasing trawl through the lower divisions for players with Grannies from Troon further disenfranchises supporters fromt he National team.

But the 4-6-0 was the killer for me. I dont know how many Scotland fans made the trip - a couple of thousand perhaps - but it is the duty of the manager to go and at least attempt to score. Even San Marino and Andorra play with a striker. He should have been made to personally pay the costs of every fan and write an apology letter. It was that abject removal of hope and expectation that made me lose a lot of my interest int he national team - I dont think Ive watched a game since. Lets face it, we aint going to win the Euros, but at least we can give it a bit of a go.

The man should be punted, now.

[--------]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/14780267.stm

That's about as fair an assessment as I've seen.

Against my better judgement I was persuaded to watch the game on Saturday.

IMO Scotland got themselves ahead at half-time after a few very lucky escapes - they could have been at least 2 down before they scored. But this is football, after all, and should have led to a better, more confident second half. However....

In the second half they fell back, played too deep, and allowed a poor Czech side too much possession. The Czech pen shouldn't have been, but when Wilson stuck his foot out (with no chance of getting anywhere near the ball) anyone could see what was coming. Stupid, STUPID Mr Wilson.

I could see why the Scots one was turned down - Berra took a stride, trying to stay upright, after he was clipped. He would have been better to have gone down right away. Unfair, yes. Very unfair, yes. However, the fact is that Berra WAS fouled in the 18-yard box and SHOULD have had a penalty and won the game.

But in terms of touch, possession and tactics I would say that the result in the end was a fair one.

I have the feeling that Scotland under Potter are going round in circles - progressing nowhere.

But at least they're not going directly down the tubes like another team I could mention....

[Dashing Bob S]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

There's no two ways about it, we were cheated on Saturday by a very "clever" striker and an abysmal referee but that does not excuse Levein's overall record.

He really should have been sacked on the spot, as soon as his formation and team line up in Prague was announced. It took the term "anti-football" to an unprecedented level.

After that, our performance, and the fact that it took a goal in the 97th minute to defeat a team that represents a nation with a population the size of Falkirk, made me extremely embarrassed.

This is the crux of the matter. This act was not only negative, it was also unbelievably stupid and it will cast a shadow over Potter for the rest of his managerial career. The fact that he won't ever deploy this tactic again shows that he knows it was a stupid mistake. If he was daft enough to do it again, then he would be dismissed as an utter lunatic.

The circumstances of Scotland's defeat were hard to take, but I couldn't shed a tear as we got what we deserved. If any team had lined up against us like Potters Prague team, then we'd have been laughing and calling it poetic justice if we scabbed a point. The bottom line is that any side as anti-football as Scotland don't deserve to progress.

I was watching the game with two Norwegian friends who know nothing about Scottish football other than we are 'the team that plays with no forwards.' This, like it or not, is Potter's legacy. Scotland's was that of Reilly, Law and Dalglish, and that has been swept away by his anti-football actions. It should be unacceptable to retain that busted flush as Scotland manager.

Get rid of him now. He isn't going to qualify us for any competition and he's already done more than Vogts ever could to destroy our international reputation.

[Seveno]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Agree. I think Levein is getting us more like a club side in terms of workrate and set-up. A big improvement from Burley.

I recall people in the past saying "let's build a team, so forget the Euros and get a team ready for the World Cup qualification". I suggest we are better placed now for that than we were a few years ago. All we need to find is a striker to score barrowloads of goals - no dig intended at Miller who actually played well yesterday.

' more like a club side' ? As in a Scottish club side playing in Europe ? No wonder we're so crap.

[ancient hibee]

If you only play one up against superior players (just about everyone)it means that they get plenty ball at the back and are able to build up a nice passing game unhindered-hence Miller picks up a stupid booking trying to run around daft breaking up the game.It also means that the long passer-Adam on Saturday- has only one runner to aim for making it easy for their defence.What makes it even worse is that despite having 4 defenders and 5 midfielders at no time did we control the game and with 5 minutes to go we couldn't even hang on to the ball.

[ancienthibby]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

After another usual disastrous campaign foray,will the knives be out for Mr.Negative?Pivotal point(or lack of)being THAT first game against the czechs!Step forward Gordon Strachan.

Sorted!

[Mikeystewart]

Will wait till the end of the campaign but even if we don't qualify would be a joke if he was punted, with the way he removed the deadwood and brought in some good players was good whilst getting decent performances on the way. I think everyone will agree if he does go the no strikers mess will come back to haunt him. Other than that I think he has done well enough to be allowed one more campaign. A definite improvement on Burley and the only manager I would prefer to have in the job is Smith, don't think it will happen any time soon so will stick with levine for now.

[Hiber-nation]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

The minute he chose a 4-6-0 he should have been placed in stocks and had rotten fruit thrown at him prior to being banned from all football for life.

A mediocrity as a club manager, his ability to sound faintly intellectual without actually having a clue is as far as I can see the only reason he got the gig in the first place. The childish spat with Fletch (with blame admittedly on both sides) is beyond belief, and the embarrasing trawl through the lower divisions for players with Grannies from Troon further disenfranchises supporters fromt he National team.

But the 4-6-0 was the killer for me. I dont know how many Scotland fans made the trip - a couple of thousand perhaps - but it is the duty of the manager to go and at least attempt to score. Even San Marino and Andorra play with a striker. He should have been made to personally pay the costs of every fan and write an apology letter. It was that abject removal of hope and expectation that made me lose a lot of my interest int he national team - I dont think Ive watched a game since. Lets face it, we aint going to win the Euros, but at least we can give it a bit of a go.

The man should be punted, now.

Excellent stuff TC.

Plus he appointed Kenny Black as one of his assistants. That is also a sackable offence as far as I'm concerned.

[AlbertK86]

get him out of here. He is an arrogant bar steward. Was shown up as a asap manager in the championship. Should have been binned after the ridiculous 4-6 formation. The fact he has refused to pull in another striker means we will have one up front against a team who just drew nil nil against the minnows of the group. He is pathetic. Can't admit he is wrong and if he thinks that we are making progress as he quoted then he is blind as well as arrogant

[woody47]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Craig Levein.........please GTF ASAP!

Agree absolutely.

[snooky]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Yup. agree with that 100%.

Just to even think about a that formation for the national side is bad enough but to actually go through with it was embarrassing.

What about the poor fans that travelled to watch that, for the want of a better word, surrender?

[Albion Hibs]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

When written like that, that stat looks really bad, however, consider the fixtures:

Lithuania A - 0-0 A draw away from home to Lithuania, shortly following their fortunate victory over the Czech this seemed like a decent result at the time. Especially given that we'd lost in places like Georgia not too long before

Leichtenstein H 2-1 Home win. Not very pretty and at times heart in the mouth stuff against a poor opponent. We dug in and kept going and got the victory though.

Czech A 0-1 Narrow defeat but admittedly the tactics were nothing short of shocking. We went there not expecting too much given that they had only lost 3 Euro qualifiers in their last 5 campaigns

Spain H - 2-3 World champions who are nothing short of phenomenal, possibly one of the best teams ever. After coming from 2 goals down we were only about 10 minutes from what would have been a fantastic result

Czech H 2-2 Had the beating of them and a ludicrous decision in the last minute cost us the win.

I dont think its as bad as some folk make it out to be

I would agree with that. It is the typical .net analysis of something, with little to no consideration being given to how the games actually played out, the reality being that a fair number criticising wont have even watched the game or the ones that went before.

It is the same old fasination with having someone sacked that seems to run through certain sections of our club...."I want that one" mentality which is slowly but surely making us a laughing stock. As for Gordon Strachan I will pass on that one thanks, again internet lovers doing some name chasing with no thought to anything else.

I think Levein is a decent manager, he is silly in some of the stuff he is done i.e. ignore Fletcher for not playing then bring on Wilson, Goodwillie most likely tomorrow. I am still hopeful we can get a couple of results and see how things pan out.

[Twa Cairpets]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I would agree with that. It is the typical .net analysis of something, with little to no consideration being given to how the games actually played out, the reality being that a fair number criticising wont have even watched the game or the ones that went before.

It is the same old fasination with having someone sacked that seems to run through certain sections of our club...."I want that one" mentality which is slowly but surely making us a laughing stock. As for Gordon Strachan I will pass on that one thanks, again internet lovers doing some name chasing with no thought to anything else.

I think Levein is a decent manager, he is silly in some of the stuff he is done i.e. ignore Fletcher for not playing then bring on Wilson, Goodwillie most likely tomorrow. I am still hopeful we can get a couple of results and see how things pan out.

I freely admit that I havent watched a game since the 4-6-0. I watch football partly because of the hope of success. To set out a team that is designed to crush that hope entirely, particulalrly when that team exists as a vehicle for national pride, is completely, utterly wrong. I'd much prefer the perennial "gallant loser" tag than that of "craven submitters".

The difference between a national manager and a club manager is that a national manager has a set group of players to choose from that he has virtually no influence over when it comes to their eligibility to play or not. Their sole purpose is to make a silk purse out of whatever sows ear that his particular era of players presents, and be part of the the framework for setting in place the development of future players. It may be that we;ve improved since then, but a scrambled victory over Liechstenstein, and wins over the Northern Irish and Welsh doesnt set the pulse racing.

I'm not one for endlessly changing managers by the way, and I dont think there is an obvious candidate other than (although it pains me to say it) Walter Smith, but I find I can hardly bring myself to listen to Levein anymore.

[ronaldo7]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I would agree with that. It is the typical .net analysis of something, with little to no consideration being given to how the games actually played out, the reality being that a fair number criticising wont have even watched the game or the ones that went before.

It is the same old fasination with having someone sacked that seems to run through certain sections of our club...."I want that one" mentality which is slowly but surely making us a laughing stock. As for Gordon Strachan I will pass on that one thanks, again internet lovers doing some name chasing with no thought to anything else.

I think Levein is a decent manager, he is silly in some of the stuff he is done i.e. ignore Fletcher for not playing then bring on Wilson, Goodwillie most likely tomorrow. I am still hopeful we can get a couple of results and see how things pan out.

Having watched over Levien's tenure from the start, I've seen him humiliate the Scottish game(4-6-0), spend more time at Register house searching for Jock tamsons bairns, and seen more faces than the toun clock.

His record in the Euros is what's just not hitting the spot for me.....Played 5 with 5 points and our only win against Liechtenstein at home in the 97th minute. The sooner him and his cohorts are gone the better for me.

[flash]

Bothered. Roll on Sunday.

[Phil MaGlass]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Don't mean to upset the apple cart here guys but given the last few performances, I dont think he has done too much wrong. Yesterday we shouldve beat the Czech - had it not been for a terrible refereeing decision we would have. In all honesty they are probably a better side than us, as are Denmark who we just beat (albeit a friendly).
We ran the world champions very close and beat a stuffy Leichtenstein team (I know that isn't something to shout out about but we did still win and I'm a "happy clapper"). Whilst it looks just beyond us to qualify for the Euro, Im not ruling out the possibility yet. We have to beat Lithuania and Leichtenstein, which I think we will. Czech then play Spain - where we really have to hope for a Spain win. Then we go into the final games 1 point ahead of them. They play away to Lithuania and we play away to Spain. We have to match their result and we're in the playoffs. If we get that far then as far as I'm concerned Levein has done a good job.
I really don't like the man but at the moment I can't see what we have to complain about. The tactics in the 1st game against Czech were awful, but if we'd have tried to have a go would we have done any better? I dont think Levein had much confidence in his side at that point but as things have progressed and he's seen that the players we have are actually quite good then his tactics have developed.
I certainly dont think that Strachan is better suited to the job than Levein. He's only been succesful when he's had better players at his disposal than everyone his team plays.
I'm a big Scotland fan - nearly as much so as I am a Hibs fan and as things stand Im satisfied with the progress we're making.

Whether we qualify for the Euro playoffs or not Im confident about heading into the world cup qualifiers and expect us to finish at least 2nd in our group.

Im of the same opinion as yirsel, think the team has come on since the yam took over, by the time the WC qualifiers come along we should have a more settled gelled team, a wee bit like us in the next 4 weeks

[allezsauzee]

While the 4-6-0 was a more obvious embarrassment, i actually think Levein's decision to play for a 0-0 in Lithuania was more damaging to the current campaign. We would most likely have won had we shown any ambition in that game and 2 more points would have put us in a much better position.