Day 10 | Scotland v Hungary | Switzerland v Germany

[RopersReturn]

It’s clear the Scottish FA are pretty far behind with investment in academy’s, and development of youth players. They were technically inferior to every other team in the Euros.

 

[Zehner]

I mostly agree with this take. Still wasn't a good game from Germany, some players just had a bad day. Even Kroos misplaced passes under no pressure. No better timing for such an off day than the final group match when you already qualified for the next stage.

But one thing has to be factored in (and in my opinion makes a huge difference compared to previous tournaments that ended badly for Germany): This team is able to change it's approach The preferred option clearly is a highly technical attacking play in narrow spaces, but opening it up and going brute force obviously works as well, with more direct players like Raum or Füllkrug. When I think back to the world cup I remember the team mostly trying the same thing all the time without varying much (and to be fair they were just bad at finishing in some games then). This time there seems to be much more willingness to tactically adapt.

Which is funny because Nagelsmann (rightfully) stated how much he dumbed down his approach to deal with the limited training time he has with the national team.

Yes, I think the versatility is a huge factor as well. It's a bit similar to Spain. With Musiala, Wirtz, Gündogan and Havertz up top dribblings and combinations in tight spaces are obviously the first solution but we also have very good long shot takers in Kroos, Andrich, Wirtz and even the two fullbacks and we can be a threat from crosses. Not only because of Füllkrug but Havertz is a big threat in the air as well. And it is not even just about the goals that come from those things but the threat alone means that teams can't get too comfortable while defending. If they just crowd the box, it's a matter of time until a shot or a header goes in so they have to put pressure on them which again means more space in the dangerous areas.

But we really need to cut out the individual mistakes. You mentioned Kroos who played the rather dangerous pass to Musiala before the 1:0 and had an almost identical pass to a turnover by Gündogan. Swiss played less ambitiously than us, obviously, but they executed their game plan with more concentration and made almost no clear mistakes. That's the small details Kroos spoke of a few days ago.

 

[LDUred]

I’m not convinced it’s a stonewall penalty either. The defender hasn’t even done anything other than chase back and Armstrong has initiated contact by crossing in front of him despite the ball moving the other side. There is a strong knee in the back of the leg because of that so I can see an argument for both sides but it certainly isn’t clear cut for me.

Yeah, it is one of those that you've seen given but just looks like a soft pen.

It feels like Clarke is clinging onto that rather than acknowledging the stark reality of three shots on goal in three games.

 

[thisisnottaken1]

I think they started the qualification strongly but that was a while ago. Since September last year, the only team they've beaten is Gibraltar.

Yup. We’ve been absolutely horrible since September. I don’t know what’s happened.

 

[LA BOMBA]

I think that makes sense. However that won't happen as qualification would then have to be ditched. There's no point playing the same format (and the Nations league) just to see 20 teams drop out. Given half of them are San Marino, Andorra, Malta, Faeroes, Liechtenstein it would just be playing games for the sake of it e.g. 5 team group and top 3 go through automatic with 4th getting a play off.

Who wants to have qualificiations anyway? It's literally the most boring part of football.

I have yet to see a football fan saying "wow I really look forward to Euro qualifications."

UEFA has 55 members.

Have the top 24 ranked NTs qualify automatically and then a knock-out tournament between the other 31 to determine the last 8 spots.

Then we have a 32 team Euro, 8 groups, 2 progress.

The quality of the Euro wouldn't decline at all as the mid-level European NTs are basically interchangeable in quality. For example on this Euros we could easily fill the remaining 8 spots with the likes of Norway, Wales, Finland, Greece, Bosnia etc. and the quality would not decrease at all.

A 32 team Euro is the future, and it would also give an opportunity for some smaller Euro nations to participate in an international tournaments regularly and promote football there. It wouldn't be any worse than WC, the #32 European team is still stronger than some of the non-Euro participants of the recent WCs.

 

[fps]

Which 8 teams would you want to lose? The teams sitting on one or two points have been competitive and have generally been one goal away from qualifying for the next round in games. It’s exactly what you’d want from the group stages.

I just don’t want third place teams limping through. There’s too much football as it is and it would make it more special.

 

[baskinginthesun]

Yup. We’ve been absolutely horrible since September. I don’t know what’s happened.

Clarke hasn't moved the team on. Stuck to the same old shite. It worked in qualifying but, you could see it failing towards the end of that campaign. Could have tweaked the system, introduced new players, changed formation. But, he decided to stick to what he knew. Our biggest let down is we have no potency. Bit, he stuck with one attacker and two left wing backs. That was our threat. It's so easy to defend against.

 

[Demyanenko_square_jaw]

Szoboszlai aside - he's clearly not at his best, I agree -, it's really weird to read opinions like this. We had 14 shots compared to Scotland's 4 (5 vs 0 on target), we had an xG of 1.57 compared to Scotland's 0.22, we hit the post/bar twice... this Hungary team is never going to play glamorous, exciting, front foot football because the players are far too limited for that but there's no question which team created more and did more for the win last night.

I don't think those stats are incompatible with the impression I got of the game. Until late when things became end to end and both sides went for it, the Hungarian attacks were sporadic (six shots coming during the end to end period), with a number of speculative longer range lower-percentage attempts, and the tempo of the team for a must-win situation was too laid-back and happy to let the Scots have a lot of the ball (i'd guess they had about 60% possession). In isolation from knowing the wider context, most of the game felt to me like the sort of 3rd group game where one team (Hungary here) is already qualified and plays within themselves, yet are still better and more dangerous near goal with the attacks they have and the other team huffs and puffs more without being able to do too much.

It was only my initial impression at the end of the game though, that it had an odd feel to it considering the situation both teams were in. Obviously the reality is more likely to be that Hungary were trying their best to win the game throughout, with the tactics they thought best, and just unable to do a lot more because of their own limitations and form. Hungary usually play better football in the small amount of games and highlights i've watched over the past 2-3 years, but those were all nations league and qualifiers that were long enough ago to be a team in very different form. Did you think they played as well as they could have in these three games?

 

[Gio]

Szoboszlai aside - he's clearly not at his best, I agree -, it's really weird to read opinions like this. We had 14 shots compared to Scotland's 4 (5 vs 0 on target), we had an xG of 1.57 compared to Scotland's 0.22, we hit the post/bar twice... this Hungary team is never going to play glamorous, exciting, front foot football because the players are far too limited for that but there's no question which team created more and did more for the win last night.

To be honest I was surprised how passive you were. Neither team did enough for a win in the first 90 minutes of the game. Both were far too conservative and it was only in the injury-time chaos-ball that both teams played that chances were actually generated. Most of your and our expected goals came during injury time. Neither team deserved to win in my view.