2022-23 season non-Hibs games thread

Has McGinn played that many games this season? Stats seems to suggest 36 for Villa in all competitions. Not a paltry number but not really comparable to what would be expected of him if he gets a move to the likes of Spurs or Man Utd as is often touted.

I think this season has dragged on far too long and next year is only going to be worse with the early start and break for the World Cup but top players need to be able to hit 60 or 70 games a season in a hectic year. If McGinn can't do that then he has hit his ceiling.

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Originally Posted by Hiber-nation

Anticipating a few call-offs for the trip to Armenia.

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Wouldn’t be that bothered if most the team withdrew.

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Originally Posted by Glory Lurker

Agree. SFA have been in denial for forty years. The game here doesn't work. Perhaps we should have another think tank that doesn't say anything and definitely doesn't achieve anything.

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unfortunately those at the top will think just getting to the stage of playing Ukraine with a chance to play Wales in the final will be enough success for our game, for whatever reason we just haven't got that little bit extra that's needed, those with more knowledge of the game than i will know what's needed further down the chain(youths etc)but i doubt very much those at the top are progressive enough, would a cash injection from the government work wonders or just be wasted by our football authorities.

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Originally Posted by Hiber-nation

Anticipating a few call-offs for the trip to Armenia.

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and miss out on a wee holiday jaunt...nah :)


the players will be 'eager' to make up for todays embarrassment

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Originally Posted by SloopJB

I think the players all played as well as they could. Managed to keep the score line down to 3 which has to be applauded.
Not much you can do against a team full of players who are just better.

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Firstly, I thought we were garbage. First sentence here is nonsense. They didn’t play as well as they could. Second sentence, just tongue in cheek sarcasm as far as I’m concerned. Third sentence ....... they don’t have players better than ours .......... they were motivated and interested, ours weren’t. Bottom line, we didn’t turn up and Steve Clarke has to shoulder as much blame for that as he has clearly failed to motivate them.

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Originally Posted by Pretty Boy

Has McGinn played that many games this season? Stats seems to suggest 36 for Villa in all competitions. Not a paltry number but not really comparable to what would be expected of him if he gets a move to the likes of Spurs or Man Utd as is often touted.

I think this season has dragged on far too long and next year is only going to be worse with the early start and break for the World Cup but top players need to be able to hit 60 or 70 games a season in a hectic year. If McGinn can't do that then he has hit his ceiling.

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The Mcginn of the last few games has been much more akin to the Mcginn at Villa. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes poor

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Originally Posted by Pretty Boy

Has McGinn played that many games this season? Stats seems to suggest 36 for Villa in all competitions. Not a paltry number but not really comparable to what would be expected of him if he gets a move to the likes of Spurs or Man Utd as is often touted.

I think this season has dragged on far too long and next year is only going to be worse with the early start and break for the World Cup but top players need to be able to hit 60 or 70 games a season in a hectic year. If McGinn can't do that then he has hit his ceiling.

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Disappointed with his finishing the last two or three games used to be worth at least two or three goals a game for Scotland 😀

I've stayed away from the 'getting rid of Clarke' wagon up until now, but that result has changed it for me. That's an embarrassment, complete and utterly. No excuses against a team as bad as that.

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Originally Posted by SloopJB

Those Irish players just proved they are better.

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This is one of the worst Irish teams in modern history, it's not better than our team, hence why it's so frustrating. Even the Irish couldn't believe it, they've been chronic for so long now, of course we turn up and give them a win.

They scored more goals today in 50 mins than their last 12 Nations League games combined.

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Originally Posted by vuefrom1875

And wry?

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Give you that 👍

Wales 0 Belgium 1 50 mins

Netherlands 2-2 Poland

The Dutch were 2-0 down 6 minutes ago.

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Originally Posted by 500miles

Still nae decent centre forwards or centre halfs. It means we always have to be on absolute top of our game to win games and as soon as we drop off a bit, we struggle.

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Completely agree. Our abysmal forward threat makes it easy for the opposition. Couple that with awful defending and we're huffing and puffing to win games, while praying the opponents down't score. We need to accept that unless Scotland are 100% at it for 100% of the game, we are very average. Last few games we've lacked drive and lost as a result.

Wales drawing with Belgium whilst we consider ourselves better than them, getting pumped 3-0 by Ireland. Deluded fan base. We are *****. Battered everywhere we go.

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Originally Posted by JamesHFC

Wales drawing with Belgium whilst we consider ourselves better than them, getting pumped 3-0 by Ireland. Deluded fan base. We are *****. Battered everywhere we go.

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Do grown ups actually come out with this battered everywhere we go nonsense

FT Wales 1 Belgium 1


Wales have only lost once in seven games against Belgium over the last nine years

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Originally Posted by Aldot1981

Do grown ups actually come out with this battered everywhere we go nonsense

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Qatar here we come. I’ve paid money to watch us get thrown about by Ukraine and Ireland. Ireland mate, 3-0. If they can beat us by 3, Wales would have done us by 5.

Scraped in the back door to the euros.

One decent performance at Wembley seems to be buying him more time.

Good squad on paper but now coming across too loyal and too stubborn.

Would get rid.

Rather than get rid, I’d rather Clarke just did things a wee bit differently.

I suspect that we’ll maybe see a bit of a refresh come September. He’s been caught out the same way a few times now and I think he’s too canny a manager to keep making the same mistakes.

We’ve not had a good past few games and we didn’t have a good Euros last summer. Other than that there has been a vast improvement over the past couple of years and we’d be nuts to chuck all that away imo.

He needs to learn how to play without the fragile Tierney. And he needs to figure out how to keep performance levels up beyond the end of the domestic season when the players look like they are dead on their feet or on holiday mode already. He’s got s good bit of work to do in creating and taking chances against non-diabolical opposition and I think he has a few big decisions to make regarding who he leaves out the centre of defence and midfield to get a unit that is better than the sum of it’s parts.

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Originally Posted by Smartie

Rather than get rid, I’d rather Clarke just did things a wee bit differently.

I suspect that we’ll maybe see a bit of a refresh come September. He’s been caught out the same way a few times now and I think he’s too canny a manager to keep making the same mistakes.

We’ve not had a good past few games and we didn’t have a good Euros last summer. Other than that there has been a vast improvement over the past couple of years and we’d be nuts to chuck all that away imo.

He needs to learn how to play without the fragile Tierney. And he needs to figure out how to keep performance levels up beyond the end of the domestic season when the players look like they are dead on their feet or on holiday mode already. He’s got s good bit of work to do in creating and taking chances against non-diabolical opposition and I think he has a few big decisions to make regarding who he leaves out the centre of defence and midfield to get a unit that is better than the sum of it’s parts.

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That system we play, is so reliant on that double act of Tierney & Robertson on the left.

I can’t for any reason understand why Clarke doesn’t change it when Tierney isn’t available. Even Stevie Wonder can see you can’t play the same system/setup with McKenna in the LCB position that Tierney would take up.

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Originally Posted by CL0762

That system we play, is so reliant on that double act of Tierney & Robertson on the left.

I can’t for any reason understand why Clarke doesn’t change it when Tierney isn’t available. Even Stevie Wonder can see you can’t play the same system/setup with McKenna in the LCB position that Tierney would take up.

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because Clarke is Clueless………he needs to go now

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Originally Posted by JamesHFC

Wales drawing with Belgium whilst we consider ourselves better than them, getting pumped 3-0 by Ireland. Deluded fan base. We are *****. Battered everywhere we go.

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Maybe youre deluded. How many times have we been 'battered' over the last few years? Very poor tonight for sure but folk should settle down a bit.

I've not seen Ireland play so well since Jack Charlton was in charge.

wonder what Callum McGregor is pointing out to John McGinn here...

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...l=f&x=447&y=86

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Originally Posted by cabbageandribs1875

wonder what Callum McGregor is pointing out to John McGinn here...

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...l=f&x=447&y=86

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He could have won the treble if they coughed up

I've said it before on this thread, but the SFA is the problem. The way our game is organised is wrong. Bairns shouldn't be near an 11-a-side, size 5 game until they are about 15.

Perhaps, more worryingly, we need to just accept that Scotland isn't a fitba country anymore. We all mind parks choked with kids kicking a ball. It's no like that now. It's not the fault of PlayStations or xboxes,it's just that bairns don't like it like we did.

Edit: Realise that the two paragraphs conflict, but maybe the answer's in between. And it's still that we're finished.

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Originally Posted by Glory Lurker

I've said it before on this thread, but the SFA is the problem. The way our game is organised is wrong. Bairns shouldn't be near an 11-a-side, size 5 game until they are about 15.

Perhaps, more worryingly, we need to just accept that Scotland isn't a fitba country anymore. We all mind parks choked with kids kicking a ball. It's no like that now. It's not the fault of PlayStations or xboxes,it's just that bairns don't like it as we did.

Edit: Realise that the two paragraphs conflict, but maybe the answer's in between. And it's still that we're finished.

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The way the youth games are ran here are mental as well. Some really bizarre rules, some good concepts but a big issue is is the coaches. A lot of coaches here still like the old fashioned hoof up the pitch, and the amount of times a team were playing will have a player try ticks etc and get it wrong and you still hear the old "stop being fancy, keep it simple" shouts at like 8 year old.

That's the age we should encourage creativity, let them figure out what type of player they want to be and let them flourish. There's some great team's and coaches, but there's also some very old fashioned coaching that might win games at youth level, but it doesn't develop the kids.

We need better coaching programmes for the volunteers at your level in order to improve grassroots football, and when that improves the standard of player will drastically improve.

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Originally Posted by cameronw-hfc

The way the youth games are ran here are mental as well. Some really bizarre rules, some good concepts but a big issue is is the coaches. A lot of coaches here still like the old fashioned hoof up the pitch, and the amount of times a team were playing will have a player try ticks etc and get it wrong and you still hear the old "stop being fancy, keep it simple" shouts at like 8 year old.

That's the age we should encourage creativity, let them figure out what type of player they want to be and let them flourish. There's some great team's and coaches, but there's also some very old fashioned coaching that might win games at youth level, but it doesn't develop the kids.

We need better coaching programmes for the volunteers at your level in order to improve grassroots football, and when that improves the standard of player will drastically improve.

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The competitiveness from adults involved at youth levels 100% needs to go. Grown men shouting and swearing at referees, opposing managers and even players at very young age groups is common practice and toxic as hell.

I know of a young lad (under 10) who recently gave up football in favour of rugby having left the pitch in tears due to the vile abuse he revived from adult spectators for giving away a clumsy, but in no way malicious penalty. I completely understand his / his parents decision to do so and we will never know how good a player he might have went on to become.

Imagine acting that way towards a kid anywhere else in society except for a football game.

One of the main problems Scotland have is that we haven’t produced a proper star player for an extremely long time. So many otherwise average nations have been carried for a generation by one great attacking player ( Lewandowski, Bale, Ronaldo, Modric, Ibrahimovic and Salah to name a few). We can’t even produce a decent premiership lever striker let alone a word beater. Add just one of the above into our team and it would be a complete game changer. Unfortunately there is no sign of this changing and just like the others before him, Clarke’s replacement when the time comes, will have the same sub standard pool to chose from.

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Originally Posted by Glory Lurker

I've said it before on this thread, but the SFA is the problem. The way our game is organised is wrong. Bairns shouldn't be near an 11-a-side, size 5 game until they are about 15.

Perhaps, more worryingly, we need to just accept that Scotland isn't a fitba country anymore. We all mind parks choked with kids kicking a ball. It's no like that now. It's not the fault of PlayStations or xboxes,it's just that bairns don't like it like we did.

Edit: Realise that the two paragraphs conflict, but maybe the answer's in between. And it's still that we're finished.

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Andy Roxburgh was saying all of this and more decades ago, noone listened to him then and pretty much what has happened to our game was what he said would happen. The governing bodies take full responsibility for that.