Stevie O'D

[MJC]

3 minutes ago, Toxteth O'Grady said:

I thought he was a bit out of his depth tbh

Painfully so unfortunately. 

[wellwell91]

1 hour ago, GazzyB said:

I cannot fuckin believe McGregor got dropped today. By far and away our best ball playing midfielder, dropped for McTominay to kick people. 

Speak to any Celtic supporter and they would have Turnbull in their team before McGregor, Christie or Forrest !!!

Seen a stat the other day, he had the 3rd most assist in the whole of Europe last season and he didn’t get into the team until December 

Exactly what is missing from this Scotland team a bit of creative ability 

If your good enough your old enough 

[bobbybingo]

1 hour ago, texanwellfan said:

He slots the easy ball to the right and it never happens but had it gone in we would be talking about that goal instead. 

If he'd scored from there, yeah,  we'd have been talking about it for the next 30 years. But he hit the guy in front of him. You just know if someone's gonnae score a goal like that, it'll be against us, partly down to our usual bad luck, partly down to our poor play/decision making.

[Spit_It_Out]

Don't think O'Donnell actually didn't do that bad to be fair if anything we were set up pretty badly,tactics were poor aswell.We looked so much better with 2 up front.

I just can't see us scoring in this tournament.

[Pepper]

The first goal was infuriating. They had players over for about three or four crosses before they scored. Terrible defending from the entire team. 

Second goal its all Hendry's fault IMO. Taking on that shot when he's got such a easy ball out right was criminal. No other team in the tournament makes that mistake, but that said and 9/10 the striker misses that chance. Credit to the boy for an outstanding finish. 

For all the Czech Republic looked pretty average we just don't have the quality to take advantage. 

O'donnell wasn't awful, but he wasn't great either.

 

[Spiderpig]

7 minutes ago, Pepper said:

 

Second goal its all Hendry's fault IMO. Taking on that shot when he's got such a easy ball out right was criminal. No other team in the tournament makes that mistake, but that said and 9/10 the striker misses that chance. Credit to the boy for an outstanding finish. 

 

 

 

It was never Hendrys fault, yes he could have passed the ball inside, but  David Marshall  was 100% to blame, wtf was a keeper doing 10 yards from the centre circle,  when the ball was midway in the Czech half?

If he had been in goals or at least on the 18 yard line, the Czech player would either not have tried the shot or If he did Marshall would have saved it easily. But fair play to schick it was a brilliant effort.

[Lobey_Dosser]

Just home from the game. First and foremost, it was a pleasure to be back in a stadium, the organisation, atmosphere etc all very good. 

My heart sank though when the lineup was announced. The absence of Tierney was a huge blow but there’s not much you can do about injury. Leaving McGregor out though, I just don’t get it. We didn’t have anyone in midfield looking to pick up the ball from the centre halves and knit the play together. 

Anyway onto O’Donnell. He made a nervous start then plugged away as best he could with minimal support as he went up and down the right. There were worse players on the park...

[ropy]

O’Donnell was fine, he could have been used more, was often in space , same with Forrest when he came on, a great run then ignored.

[Pepper]

10 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

It was never Hendrys fault, yes he could have passed the ball inside, but  David Marshall  was 100% to blame, wtf was a keeper doing 10 yards from the centre circle,  when the ball was midway in the Czech half?

If he had been in goals or at least on the 18 yard line, the Czech player would either not have tried the shot or If he did Marshall would have saved it easily. But fair play to schick it was a brilliant effort.

Keepers stand in that position all the time. When you have comfortable possession the only way you put yourself  in danger is by giving the ball away, and that's by trying a ridiculous long range effort that's never going to go in. 

Play the pass and there is no danger whatsoever. Marshall can see the game in font of him and would have expected the ball to go wide every time. 

[Big Wispy Flossy]

O’Donnell is largely fine defensively but he’s no attacking threat whatsoever. I know many will point out he’s meant to defend but when you play that formation you need to be able to add something in the final third.

I like O’Donnell as honest a pro as your ever likely to see and been a good signing for Motherwell but  someone more attacking minded needs to play that position next couple of Scotland’s games as grinding out 0 0’s is no longer an option

[dennyc]

I think Clarke handed the initiative to the Czechs before they even kicked off.  With his team selection and defensive mindset. .

At that level you need goal scorers but he goes with two out of form players in Dykes (who was shite) and Christie ( Who was even worse). Meantime two in form (and recent) goal scorers are left sitting on the bench. Adams should have started and there is even a case for Nisbet alongside him in a front two. With that midfield supporting two penalty box strikers I think the Czechs would have been under pressure.

Clarke is too cautious and too loyal to under performing players.  Although don't say that to Gallagher who has done nothing wrong in Scotland's colours. He might not be my favourite player following his contract nonsense, but to not have him on the bench was poor. Did we really need two reserve Goalies?

Just watching Slovakia beating Poland and appreciating what can happen when the underdog actually tries to win the match as opposed to being set up not to lose.

[fizoxy]

O'donnell was OK. A lot of folk had a problem with him starting, so are picking on every little mistake. Maybe the rangers backup right back will get his place eventually,  but I can see why Clarke decided to go conservative.

Marshall was in a bad position for the second, although I don't tend to pay attention to where the goalie usually is in those situations, but the ball took a fortunate ricochet and landed just right for their striker, and 9 times out of 10 the player first times it and misses by miles.

I'm more concerned by out our inability to convert any of our chances. We should have scored at least one.

[Spiderpig]

38 minutes ago, Pepper said:

Keepers stand in that position all the time. When you have comfortable possession the only way you put yourself  in danger is by giving the ball away, and that's by trying a ridiculous long range effort that's never going to go in. 

Play the pass and there is no danger whatsoever. Marshall can see the game in font of him and would have expected the ball to go wide every time. 

Scotland in comfortable possession aye OK, we did  gave the ball away and if  Marshall was where he was supposed to be ie near the goals the ridiculous long range effort as you call it would have been saved, his fault nobody else to blame.

[texanwellfan]

No blame on Hendry. The final third is where you can actually take risks and he chose the shot over a pass. That’s fine. Just an unfortunate bounce of the ball when it was blocked. There’s no reason why Marshall should have been that far up the field

[wellsince75]

There were several individual needless errors that could have caused us goals  - we lack quality and could have conceded a few more had they been more ruthless. 

We worked hard but sadly that's not enough at this level. 

[Erskine Alpha]

OD wasn't the problem it was down to the fact that there was no central midfield dictating any play or at least willing to grab the game by the scruff of the neck

 

[stv]

1 hour ago, dennyc said:

 

Although don't say that to Gallagher who has done nothing wrong in Scotland's colours. He might not be my favourite player following his contract nonsense, but to not have him on the bench was poor.

Maybe there was some hidden clause in his Scotland ready to kick in if he was selected.

Dont really care.

 

[steelboy]

2 hours ago, Big Wispy Flossy said:

O’Donnell is largely fine defensively but he’s no attacking threat whatsoever. I know many will point out he’s meant to defend but when you play that formation you need to be able to add something in the final third.

I like O’Donnell as honest a pro as your ever likely to see and been a good signing for Motherwell but  someone more attacking minded needs to play that position next couple of Scotland’s games as grinding out 0 0’s is no longer an option

He has contributed in the final third. He has two assists against Austria and Slovakia in the past 12 months. 

The tactics in general are far too negative.

[Spit_It_Out]

Too easy to read for me today.Lets just attack down the left flank time and time again a fair number of times O Donnell had got himself into good position only for everything to come through Roberston.

If we had a Tierney today it might have made a wee bit of difference attacking down both flanks but the lack of getting into the Czech box was poor.

[GazzyB]

Whilst it wasn’t a smart decision to lash one from 30 odd yards the 2nd goal is 100% Marshall’s fault. There’s an aerial picture of where he was as Hendry shoots and it is absolutely criminal. 

[David]

16 hours ago, Toxteth O'Grady said:

I thought he was a bit out of his depth tbh

I don't understand that argument to be honest. If he was playing for us in an opening game of the Euros against England at a packed Hampden or Wembley, then fair enough. 

He was playing against the Czech Republic in a half-full Hampden. A team he played against in the Nations League also in a half-full Hampden when we beat them 1-0. 

It's not as if the Czech team was suddenly better because it's the Euros. Or are we thinking that O'Donnell suddenly lost it mentally because despite the surroundings all being the same as previous times he's played for Scotland, it was the Euros? 

I actually feel for the guy to be honest. He must know every single foot out of place will be highlighted by the Glasgow media and Rangers fans on social media as to why a kid who's played a handful of senior games should be in the team ahead of him. A kid who, if he played for any other side except Rangers or Celtic, would never be near the squad in all probability.

Looking at it subjectively, he was no worse than most of the players out there yesterday. We were bang average all over the park. The Czech's took their chances. We didn't. 

[ropy]

I thought McTominay was poor.

[CoF]

2 hours ago, David said:

I actually feel for the guy to be honest. He must know every single foot out of place will be highlighted by the Glasgow media and Rangers fans on social media as to why a kid who's played a handful of senior games should be in the team ahead of him. A kid who, if he played for any other side except Rangers or Celtic, would never be near the squad in all probability.

Exactly this. There isn't a position in the first team that's under as much scrutiny as O'Donnell's for the simple reason that there's a 'Rangers wonderkid' who has played 8 senior games apparently waiting to take his place. 

He looked nervous in the first 20 but settled into the game and was no better or worse than anyone else. 

[Stu92]

Criticism of SOD is pretty unfair in my opinion, and as others have said it is entirely because of Patterson's club team. I've said it since long before he was a Motherwell player, but for all that O'Donnell may be limited technically he is an entirely competent defender and Clarke was entirely correct to pick him over an untested teenager in a game of this magnitude. Claims of not offering anything going forward are also a bit off the mark, he got forward plenty yesterday just with little reward.

Criticism of Marshall also pretty unfair. Virtually every single goalkeeper in today's game will take up a similar position when everyone is that far up the field. I don't necessarily blame Hendry for taking the shot on, but there should've been a bit more discipline from Cooper and Hanley to drop a few yards back to the halfway line. We were starting to build a good bit of pressure on them after half-time, but ultimately just a rush of blood has cost us as defensively we switched off.

[mio]

I thought SOD had a poor game yesterday and there were a few cringe moments. One where he just ran into Christie when Christie was shaping up for a potential chance (whether that ended up in row z is irrelevant)

regardless of SOD limitations he was not the only one who was poor yesterday. So frustrating as I think a win was our only chance of progressing, the Czechs weren’t great but did a professional job on us. They had that added bonus of having a good striker.

As much as I can understand Clarke playing that team, tournament football is ruthless, top international managers are ruthless. They need to be brutal and in my view Gordon is a better keeper, I saw enough from Forrest playing against the Dutch to see he could do well as a wingback instead of SOD . Mcgregor and Christie should be out and gilmour and Turnbull in. And Adams should always start.  If the same side as yesterday or similar shape of team goes out against England I fear a disaster.