Thankfully, ESPN employ minions to go looking for interesting but tricky statistics, such as the one that this is the first time in 53 years of European club competition that all Scottish clubs have been out by the end of August.
By the time they read that out after the Rangers game, I'd already used wikipedia to look back over the last 15 seasons. Had it not been for ESPN's uber-geek, I probably wouldn't have got to bed till about 4am.
It is worth pointing out that, until recent seasons and the expansion of European competitions so that clubs finishing 15th in the Andorran second division qualify for the Europa League (all right, I am exaggerating a smidgen), that, by the time you had played two European ties, it would be mid-October. Still, it is utterly depressing that no Scottish side is left. For one, it harms the image of the league; for another, the schadenfreude I experienced at watching the Old Firm suffer is balanced out that the dread of them having a lot more free midweeks this season and less stress on their squad depth, presumably making them stronger on SPL weekends.
And finally, it damages our co-efficient to the point where getting a Scottish side into the Champions League or Europa League becomes all the more difficult. So how have we fallen so far, so fast, considering that Rangers made it to a UEFA Cup final only three years ago, and Celtic achieved the same in 2003?
Let's look at the individual teams...
RANGERS
Everyone, with some justification, is focusing their ire on the failure to see off Slovenians Maribor. Do they, as current leaders of their domestic league, perhaps deserve more respect than the Scottish press, and indeed the Scottish champions, gave them? Considering only two of their players are current squad members for the Slovenian national team, probably not. Rangers might not have the financial clout of a decade ago, but Maribor certainly didn't find £3million to spend on players this summer.
The main reason Rangers exited the Europa League was profligacy at Ibrox in the second leg, where they missed chance after chance, especially at 0-0, and seemed to hit the panic button too early. Their opponents clearly earmarked Nikica Jelavic as the main threat, and gambled on leaving more space for his strike partner...a shrewd move as, when the heat is on, you can always rely on Kyle Lafferty to mess things up; the Northern Irishman could not have hit a cow's backside with a banjo.
But this latest setback actually seems to have distracted everyone from the bigger crime...the exit from the Champions League qualifiers to Swedes Malmo, where McCoist inexplicably sent out his side for the first leg (at home?!) with the same 5-4-1 formation Walter Smith saved last year for Manchester United and Valencia. Even then, having lost the first leg, they still should have won the tie, only to have two players sent off in Sweden (both for avoidable and stupid straight red offences) and the concession of a late goal.
Why are Rangers out? Poor tactics, poor finishing, poor discipline. All three should concern Ally McCoist, as Rangers have not exactly set the heather alight domestically either.
CELTIC
In terms of recent European catastrophes, defeat to Sion of Switzerland does not really rank up with the hideous losses to Artmedia Bratislava and Utrecht. It's also a trickier one for me to comment on as I didn't see a single second of the two legs, and because they were really up against it after conceding a penalty and red card in the first minute of the return leg.
But, again, there is a huge difference in resources between the two clubs. Yet, for all their quality, Celtic couldn't break their dogged, defensive-minded opponents down in the first leg at Celtic Park, a turgid 0-0 draw (I might not have seen the match, but I've never seen a goalless draw that couldn't be described as turgid, or maybe lacklustre). Neil Lennon's side faced exactly the same problem when they lost to St Johnstone last week, and - until a blunder from Ricky Foster that was worthy of punishment by castration - at Pittodrie earlier in the month.
It is, in fact, Celtic's big achilles heel under the stewardship of Neil Lennon; when the going gets tough, there isn't a plan B, an alternative tactic. Not only that, but when the players turn to the bench to look for guidance and help from a thoughtful, shrewd manager, they instead see a wee naff jumping up and down waving his arms and turning the air around him blue, in a manner more worthy of a street corner outside Celtic Park than the dugout inside it. Walter Smith might have been capable of finding a way to get a result away from home in Europe when both a goal and a man down - Neil Lennon (and indeed Smith's successor at Ibrox) was never going to be able to manage that.
HEARTS
Hearts got the most glamorous tie they could have hoped for, and with the first leg at home, in front of a crowd that have turned the place into a cauldron. When setting up your team, as massive underdogs, would you go for option A, a screen of defensive midfielders and a gameplan designed to frustrate, or option Romanov, two wingers and an attempt to go toe-to-toe with a bunch of international class players?
It's hard to believe that Hearts' new coach, the Portuguese Paulo Sergio, went for such a kamikaze plan without having his arm twisted by the club's Lithuanian owner. Say what you like about a fairly creditable 0-0 in the second leg against a bunch of Tottenham's youth players; this tie was over as a contest within the opening 30 minutes at Tynecastle, at which point Spurs were already three up. It was so bad that Clive Tyldesley actually sounded pitying, the patronising git. When we are down, you either help us up or kick us in the groin, you don't stand over us sounding sympathetic.
That said, Hearts at least managed something that neither of the Old Firm did - they won a match, having disposed of Hungarian also-rans Paksi in a previous round.
DUNDEE UNITED
Of course, the Arabs didn't even last beyond the end of July, dumped out by Slask Wroclav of Poland; this was blamed, as all these early defeats are, on the fact the league season hadn't started and their players weren't match fit. It wasn't a problem for their opponents, whose domestic campaign started a week later than United's. Continental sides seem to be able to cope with early European ties and this 'match-fitness' issue, so why the heck can't we?
I'm not really interested in United's exit though; this week is all about the humiliating defeats for Rangers and Celtic, and the humiliating thumping Hearts got the week before. There may not be as much money or quality available as in the days of Dick Advocaat and Martin O'Neill, but these were still matches that should have been won with something to spare. If the national team don't get the job done against the Czechs this week, Scottish football might well have reached its nadir.
L.
1 comment:
Good site
Post a Comment