Scotland v Czech Republic

Very lucky to have gone into half time a goal up.

We have been very poor in the middle of the park bar Fletcher's moment of brilliance for the goal. Charlie Adam lucky to have not given away a penalty. Scott Brown, glad he is suspended for Lithuania, massive liability and so over rated in a Scotland shirt. Naismith, take him off!!


The full backs have been great.


Thoughts so far?

How is Hutton playing?

Absolutely gutted

CHEATING CHEATING BAR STEWARDS.

And to answer your question west, Hutton played very well seeing how little football he has played recently.

Talk about inconsistent refereeing too! Diabolical.

fair result in the end,

Berras did look like a blatant dive, tho was a penalty, and czech got a stonewall penalty turned down in first half.

Scotland bring this on themselves by sitting so far back, that Czech team were there for the taking again and we sat back every time we scored and playing Caldwell and Brown does not help.

Why is Charlie Adam being asked to sit back, i know his passing range is good but thats setting up for a glorified long ball with one striker, so easy to defend.

I completely agree with you mate, we have been robbed with the dive but without a doubt we didn't deserve to win that match if that makes any sense?

Levein doesn't have a clue how to get Scotland to play. The once we've seen a proper Scotland performance under Levein was the game against Spain where we attacked.

Why does Levein play two upfront against Spain and then against a dreadful Czech side he plays one upfront and with our most creative player sitting in front of the back four?

Far too defensive, and like you said that isn't helped with players like Scott Brown. Thank god he is suspended for Tuesday!!

I feel every Scotland manager seems to criminally underrate what we're capable of. Why not attack more? We had the world champions rattled for a good 30 minutes, never seen Puyol look so shell-shocked in my life, yet we sit back against the Czech Republic, shutting up shop trying to defend a one goal lead, when we could try and press on for more.

It's bloody frustrating.

Completely agree, so frustrating.

How would we like to see the team line up against Lithuania?


I am stuck on who will replace Miller, he will be sorely missed.

Unsure, think we need to go with 2 strikers though. Goodwillie and someone else? We surely can't go with one man up front, since no one springs to mind as capable of holding the ball up outside of Miller.

I had 2-1 Scotland!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lost £50 cos of that dutch Flip

The Czech's didn't deserve to lose but that doesn't justify blatent cheating for their point, the referee had an absolute nightmare, I thought Scott Brown was poor first half but our best player second half, Charlie Adam was poor I felt and constantly put us under pressure with losing posession, thought Fletcher had his best game in a Scotland top in years and Miller's pass was World Class, Naismith looked struggling the whole game

Nay Bother wrote:fair result in the end,

Berras did look like a blatant dive, tho was a penalty, and czech got a stonewall penalty turned down in first half.

Scotland bring this on themselves by sitting so far back, that Czech team were there for the taking again and we sat back every time we scored and playing Caldwell and Brown does not help.

Why is Charlie Adam being asked to sit back, i know his passing range is good but thats setting up for a glorified long ball with one striker, so easy to defend.

Agreed. I thought he would have been used in a more attacking role. I had him 1st goal

Scotland were robbed today.

Yeah, we have to 100% go with two up front and go for it. For us to have any chance of qualifying we have to convincingly beat Lithuania and hope that rattles the Czech's a little bit.

I'd go with the following;

McGregor

Hutton Berra Wilson Bardsley

Snodgrass Fletcher Adam Morrison

Naismith/MacKail-Smith Goodwillie




The front two is a slight concern. We really are massively lacking in firepower.

Yeah Scotland definitely should start 2 up top on Tuesday, either Naismith or Goodwillie to partner Craig Mackil Smith

so does this mean Scotland cant finish second?

You really have to hope that Steven Fletcher will come back into the squad. Fletcher, Goodwillie, Miller and Mackil-Smith would give us good options with Naismith and Commons and Maloney as back up

Is Kris Commons injured? I never actually noticed he hadn't been picked, which is a massive shock seeing as he would have without a doubt made a difference today.

Scotland can still qualify, but we have to beat Lithuania at home and Liechtenstein away whilst hoping other results go our way.

The can still finish second bjt we need to either win or remaining 3 games or take 7 from 9 and hope the Czech's drop points, when you consider we've only took 5 points from five games it's just about impossible

Yeah Common's has a knock, to be honest I don't know what's wrong with him but he looks about a stone overweight

Ouch, that isn't a good sign. He certainly hasn't looked the same player this year that he was in the second half of last season.

Just listened to Levein's interview, he calls the Czech's a good side.

Really?

If we win our next two games and Czech's lose there next against Spain it will put us 1 point ahead going into the final game.

We have Spain away and the Czech's have Lithuania away, its possible this will come down to goal difference. I can't see us beating Spain but I can see the Czech's losing or drawing at Lithuania which would either put us through or take it to goal difference.

It should come down to the final game against Spain barring Scotland f***ing it up or Czech's doing a miracle by beating Spain.

As for the game today I have been someone in the past who doesn't think Brown, Naismith and Caldwell shouldn't be in a Scotland strip and nothing that happened today changed that. I have also been a critic of Miller who I think is a good player is often over used and has his weaknesses but he played well today. Would have liked to have seen 2 upfront when we let in the first equalizer, there just didn't seem to be any sense of urgency from the manager.

to qualify we'll have to get more points from the final three games than we've managed in the first five, just can't buy it, 4 points out of 9 at home isn't good enough

I agree gaffer the tactics at times have been overly negative and 4 from 9 at home is extremely poor. I still think we will get 6 points from the next 2 and it will go down to the last game where we will narrowly miss out after a heroic showing against Spain. Your typical Scotland situation.

We have some good players and its going to be a same to see them wasted.

Just so frustrating how negative we are. Why can't a manager come into the Scotland post and even just try to play a bit more offensive?

I just don't like Craig Levein, he doesn't inspire confidence at all in me and he hasn't done much in management thay merits a topjob like he's got in my opinion, I'd rather have Gordon Strachan in charge

I've always wanted Strachan in charge too.

How long is Levein's contract?

I'm sorry to mention it but if we'd got anything but a loss in the first game away to the Czech's we could have been in a far healthier position going into these last 3 games.

We have some of the better depth our squad has seen in recent times with some of the better players and we still approach the game so negatively.

Craig Levein seems to be approaching the job from the point of whats best for him rather than whats best for the national team by trying to play it so safe.

I would have sacked Levein after that ridiculous 4-6 formation, not lining uo with a striker was borderline criminal

the-gaffer wrote:I would have sacked Levein after that ridiculous 4-6 formation, not lining uo with a striker was borderline criminal

Agreed, there is playing for a draw and then there was this. Whatever made him believe that it would actually work is beyond me!

I just hope that a few more of the u21's make a step up for the World Cup qualifiers and that Levein is oot the door!

I really feel for my Scottish neighbours due to the fact that the ref either chose not to see the blatant penalty or used some other excuse to not give one.

I shall be keeping an eye on whether Scotland experiment with their youth in future matches.

Not a match Wilson will remember fondly. Came on for the injured Bardsley and was caught out of position for the first goal minutes after coming on. Then there was the penalty decision - should he have put his foot in?

In any case, bringing a player on who's played next to no competitive football this season for the final 15 minutes of a international against a team who are piling on the pressure doesn't seem too clever. Not to mention LB is not his favoured position.

Team for tomorrow then?

No Miller, Adam, Brown. We have Whittaker back but not sure if he'll dislodge the full backs from Saturday as they both played very well.

McGreger

Hutton Caldwell Berra Bardsley

????

Naismith ??? Fletcher Morrison

Goodwillie


Looks like will be the rough team for tomorrow, or will we see a more attacking formation? No, didn't think so.

I was hoping for 2 strikers after Miller was ruled out for tomorrow but with Mackail-Smith pulling out and the managers negative approach it was always a pipe dream.

I'd love to see Bannan start alongside Fletcher tomorrow as its his best position and he's great creative player. Bardsley is looking doubtful due to injury so Whittaker is looking likely.

I'm praying that third CM turns into a striker but I've a funny feeling Robson will be playing tomorrow.

Bannan is a loos to I'd say(bit of bias).

Not looking forward to the next match to be honest. Hopefully we'll be going all out saying as it all or nothing

Also a little surprised that a certain board member hasn't been on this thread blaming the OF for the state of our national team....

must be swinging his golf raquet about somewhere

That certain board member couldn't moan, we'd have won if the referee didn't make an honest mistake

I think Levien is doing a decent job.

We have gathered up a few quality players and our squad looks a lot more talented than a few years ago. We seem to be playing as a team with a bit of spirit.
Good to see so many Scots breaking through in the E&WPL.

The future looks a darn sight better than any time in the last 10 years.