sunshine1875
10-10-2009, 09:22 AM
In the late 70s and 80s, we had Scotland teams that could compete at the highest level - ok, never good enough to get out of World Cup group stages, but still good teams.
Obviously, the quality of player across the team has dropped since those days and no-where more than the centre-backs. We have had some fantastic centre-backs that were great leaders on and off the park - McQueen, Holton, Buchan, Miller, McLeish, Hansen (though he did not always do it for Scotland) and a few more.
Today, our best centre-back is viewed as being Gary Caldwell. Have we really dropped that far. Watch him today and try and compare him against the past greats. His positional sense is poor, his passing is over-ambitious and usually off-target, he will make a run forward only to leave gaps at the back, he is too slow, he has little physical presence, he will have his hand up attempting off-side when there is none and he will point to where the ball is going to be played - why? The sad thing is he is probably the best of the bunch.
Oh - how we have dropped standards!!
Obviously, the quality of player across the team has dropped since those days and no-where more than the centre-backs. We have had some fantastic centre-backs that were great leaders on and off the park - McQueen, Holton, Buchan, Miller, McLeish, Hansen (though he did not always do it for Scotland) and a few more.
Today, our best centre-back is viewed as being Gary Caldwell. Have we really dropped that far. Watch him today and try and compare him against the past greats. His positional sense is poor, his passing is over-ambitious and usually off-target, he will make a run forward only to leave gaps at the back, he is too slow, he has little physical presence, he will have his hand up attempting off-side when there is none and he will point to where the ball is going to be played - why? The sad thing is he is probably the best of the bunch.
Oh - how we have dropped standards!!