Scotland manager Craig Levein has included Darren Fletcher and Alan Hutton in his starting line-up to face the Czech Republic. Charlie Adam is also given his first competitive start, with Kenny Miller playing as a lone striker. National team captain Fletcher has featured in only two competitive games since March, the same month as Hutton's last match at any level. The visitors are without their first-choice goalkeeper Petr Cech. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/14757862.stm Scotland starting line-up: McGregor Hutton Caldwell Berra Bardsley Naismith Fletcher (captain) Adam Brown Morrison Miller Substitutes (from): Gilks, Marshall (goalkeepers), Crainey, Hanley, Wilson (all defenders), Bannan, Cowie, Dorrans, Forrest, Robson, Snodgrass (all midfielders), Goodwillie, Mackail-Smith (both forwards). Czech Republic squad: Jaroslav Drobny, Jan Lastuvka, Ales Hruska (all goalkeepers), Zdenek Pospech, Jan Rajnoch, Tomas Sivok, Theo Gebre Selassie, Roman Hubnik, Daniel Pudil, Petr Jiracek, Michal Kadlec (all defenders), Tomas Rosicky (captain), Tomas Hubschman, Daniel Kolar, Jaroslav Plasil, Kamil Vacek, Jan Rezek, Vaclav Pilar, Milan Petrzela (all midfielders), Milan Baros, David Lafata, Tomas Pekhart (all forwards). I'm a tad worried by the inclusion of Darren Fletcher. No doubting his ability but concerns regarding his match fitness in such a crucial game. Also, I find that when he plays for Scotland he almost tries to take too much on his shoulders and considering he hasn't played a competitive game yet this season that only intensifies my concerns. Maybe it would have been better to start with Adam flanked in the middle by Brown and Robson with Naismith and Morrison offering the width.
Seems just about the right line-up. I thought Danny Wilson looked good against Denmark but Caldwell and Berra is a good partnership. Hutton and Bardsley is a pretty mouth-watering prospect at full backs, if they're on their game. Fletcher obviously is a bit of a gamble but he's still better than the other options, if fit. Hopefully Charlie Adam will take on some of the mantle Fletcher tries to carry in a lot of Scotland games. Looking at that team, I'm pretty confident. We look strong all over and we've got options on the bench. (We'll see how long that lasts). As if it needed confirming, Lithuania are out the picture, after a dismal 0-0 draw against Lichtenstien. Tomorrow's a must win, no doubt about it.
Well that was a good time to get a goal. Good old Kenny Miller does his old trick of doing nothing for 45 mins then pouncing on the one chance he gets. It's been fairly stuffy so far. We've had more of the ball but have looked pretty incapable of breaking down the Czech defence (last minute excepted). They've had a couple of decent chances but haven't looked good in front of goal. Baros especially missed a sitter. To be fair, we've looked a bit more lively in the last 10 minutes or so. We're really struggling to get Naismith and Morrison into the game with the Czechs looking comfortable to flood their third when we're in possesion and look to hit us quickly on the break. Can they afford to do that in the 2nd half? They'll surely look to come out in the 2nd half and get on the ball a bit more and build attacks against us. They need to 'not lose' this. Could go either way. They're good but not great, if we can stand up to them and maybe take one of the few chances we're likely to create, we should win win this one. Wouldn't make any changes now but if nothing much changes, I'd bring Snodgrass on for one of Naismith or Morrison, probably Naismith. Brown could be walking a tight-rope with that yellow card, which isn't ideal with Fletcher not 100% fit (although he's looked OK so far). Cowie and/or Robson will probably make an appearence.
What an unbelievable ripoff. How on earth does that referee decide a penalty on one end when the Czech forward drags his foot over the top of the defender's foot, which was already in place on the ground, and then the Scot gets legitimately tripped up and he calls a dive. I can't even begin to express my anger. Will this referee receive any scolding at all from the federation? I mean, the guy completely ruined the match with two back-to-back wrong decisions in the box, both in favor of the same team. It's entirely unfair.
Absolutely gutted! I thought the ref got the two penalty decisions wrong. Wilson didn't touch the guy for their penalty and Berra was clearly brought down. He pretty much hit the ground face first, hardly a dive. We're out though and, to be honest , the ref is not the reason why. We weren't good enough today. The Czechs are not a great team and we just weren't really good enough to beat them today. Too many average performances.
The referee was poor throughout but we should not allow a Czech dive to distract us from a poor team performance and an abysmal managerial performance. The XI was poor, the system failed, the bench was poor and his initial inaction then substitutes were shocking.
I have been wondering, why is Kenny Miller praised so much? Yeah he got a goal today, but how many times has not been a factor. Why not give Kris Boyd a chance?
Did you watch the game today? Miller was barely given anything to work with and scored one goal and did very well to create the other. He can be frustrating at times but he does work well in our system, 'work' being the important word. We do need someone prepared to wrok hard, put in a shift and is able to squeeze something out of not very much. Kenny Miller has done well at this and it's the kind of player he is. I watched him for Cardiff against West Ham this season and it was the same thing. Didn't see much of the ball but kept going and scored a 90th minute winner with what was basically the only chance he was given. Until we get midfielders who are better at creating attacking options against decent international teams (or a manager who can fit what we have into a better attacking unit), the we do need a Kenny Miller type far more than Kris Boyd.
feel for scotland... ref was appauling!! think I could have done a better job.. think kenny miller was brilliant when he had the ball
McGregor's distribution was poor but at least he was quick off his line when required. Hutton was not fit which explains his bad first touch and even worse final ball but Bardsley has no excuse for continually cutting onto his right foot instead of providing width. Caldwell and Berra did as expected. Precious little. Aside from the usual Caldwell mistakes they sat deep and simply passed the ball sideways to each other for the duration of the first half before dropping even deeper in the second. Brown got himself booked and then spent the rest of the game hiding hide until we saw a fleeting glimpse of some passion when we were pegged back the first time. Big Time Charlie tried to spray Hollywood passes all game but they went to everyone and everything bar a Scotland player. Naismith simply fell over repeatedly but at least he was trying unlike his completely anonymous parter in crime Morrison. The only pass marks go to Fletcher, in his first game for months, and Miller for making the most of a bad situation and almost winning us the match. As for Levein I disagree with the starting line-up, I disagree with his failed system, I disagree with his choice of substitutes (*), I disagree with his general inactivity and I definitely disagree with his substitutions. In the second half we fell progressively further back and invited the Czech Republic to attack us particularly as our midfield and attack were continually failing to retain possession. Instead of solving the fundamental problem, our ball retention, he continued to make defensive substitutions while his counterpart made attacking ones in a bid to win the match. Our two goals, while good, were lucky and undeserved based on the balance of play and the chances created. The Czech Republic were there for the taking but we failed. A Czech dive does not absolve the management and players for their poor performances. The game was there for the taking and we simply did not do enough. The Czech Republic were superior in possession and more dangerous in the final third. If Levein and the players had done their jobs in the first place the referee would not have been in a position to decide the match. If you play poorly you always leave yourself open to being screwed over by a mistake, bad luck, a poor decision or cheating. * Are you honestly telling me that the bolded players below are the best available options from that group? Seriously? How the hell Dorrans, Snodgrass and Mackail-Smith missed out completely is beyond me. All three should have at least been available on the bench to bring on. Substitutes (from): Gilks, Marshall (goalkeepers), Crainey, Hanley, Wilson (all defenders), Bannan, Cowie, Dorrans, Forrest, Robson, Snodgrass (all midfielders), Goodwillie, Mackail-Smith (both forwards).
A bit over the top. I'd say a draw was probably a fair result but the decisions are still annoying. What i found more annoying is how deep we dropped in the last 10 minutes. I'd say it's more of a mental thing than anything else.
I thought it was a very average performance on the whole and we got what we deserved out of the game. A draw was a fair result although the manner in which it was achieved was anything but. Our two goals came through Czech Republic mistakes although the second goal was well set up and sweetly finished but that shouldn't detract from the fact that we struggled to create chances. We didn't play with any cohesiveness. Adam was poor. Brown is better off out wide rather than played in the middle. A stupid tackle deserving of a yelllow card left him walking a tightrope and reduced his effectiveness drastically. I was worried about Darren Fletchers fitness before the game but I needn't have been. He was outstanding. Hutton, on the other hand, looked a shadow of himself and questions should be asked as to why he started. Surely Levein must have noticed in training that he was off the pace? Bardsley should have started on the right with someone like Lee Wallace playing on the left. And so another major competition passes us by... time to look forward to Brazil 2014...
We were playing deep for the entire match for two fundamental reasons. The first was Caldwell and Berra lack pace and are completely incapable of bringing the ball out of defence. The second was our midfield and attack, bar Fletcher and Miller, did not show up and were woeful in terms of ball retention and struggled to create anything of note. That is why I am furious with Levein for his initial team selection and refusal to make the required changes. He took a negative approach and compounded that with negative substitutions. We needed to bring on players in midfield and attack to hold onto the ball and get things moving forward. Instead he brought on defensive players, completely ignored the fundamental problem and we were left simply punting balls out of defence and trying to hold out against a Czech team who had more possession, better ball retention, created more chances and made positive changes to try to win the match. It was poor from start to finish.
gotta fancy scotland against lithiuian.. who do u think we'll play instead of brown, miller and adam www.goaladviser.net