On a sticky afternoon in Skopje, all the left-over optimism of the Smith/McLeish era evaporated along with the sweat on the fans' foreheads. Scotland put in a performance as bland and uninspiring as a press conference with manager George Burley and paid for it with a defeat which now surely means that anything but victory in Reykjavik on Wednesday finishes off any chance of World Cup participation almost before qualifying has started.
Where to point the finger? Crumbs, where do you begin? I'm going to start with having a go at the gaffer. While I recognise that he can only do so much when the players are out on the field, everything about Scotland in the first half seemed to point to errors on his part. Firstly, the decision not to bring the players out to acclimatise a few days in advance, not because they were knackered by the end but because they looked terrified to play at anything other than a tempo resembling a slow motion replay. Secondly, the tactics, for Macedonia have played 3-4-3 for years, yet it seemed not to have occurred to the Scots coaching staff that our defenders (not exactly twinkletoes with the ball at their feet) would be pressed and that midfield would be cramped. Yet with our little-and-littler front pairing the long ball wasn't an option and, quite frankly, we couldn't pass our way out of a paper bag in the opening 45. Only in the second half did the message go out to stretch the play, to create space, and by then the damage was done.
Finally, and most damning of Burley, though, was the lack of motivation apparent in so many of the players. Gordon, McManus and Robson got pass marks for me. The rest, frankly had schockers. For example, the best you can say about Kenny Miller's performance is that nobody died as a result. Considering that he is a player whose defining characteristic is his workrate, he never showed for the ball, never ran into the channels and looked about as likely to score as Quasimodo at a Miss World contest. I look forward to hearing the explanation for delaying Kris Boyd's introduction for so long - even if he wasn't winning headers, the fact he was challenging defenders meant our midfield could pick up the scraps and led to our better moments in the last few minutes. The logic, as I have said a million times before, beggars belief; if you are desperate for a goal, why on earth leave your most prolific striker sitting on the bench for so long?
I know it's only one game. I know that the Macedonian goal came from a free kick that was never a foul. I know we had two stonewall penalties turned down. I know Ferguson and Hutton were injured. But today's performance and result were nothing less than a catastrophe and I defy anyone to find any sort of positives to take to Iceland for the next game, which I fear could be the next nail in what already appears to be George Burley's coffin.
L.
Robson was poor today, Hartley should never play for Scotland again, but the fact that Alexander and Naysmith are anywhere near the first XI is the entire reason we're not going to qualify for the World Cup. We have a good first XI and then acres and ACRES of mediocre second-raters.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting a bit sick of managers being blamed for player lack of motivation. They're big boys who shouldn't need someone telling them to try hard. Craig Brown was hardly the most inspiring guy to listen to but you never had to worry about Colin Hendry etc lacking motivation.
ReplyDeleteThere's no excuse for players like Hartley, Robson and Fletcher not being able to make basic passes.
Also, the decision not to go out a few days early was made after looking at the training facilities and see they were so poor that they'd likey cause more injuries, hardly something your average Scotland squad needs help with.
In conclusion, the majority of the blame for the defeat has to go down to the players.