Tag: Kieran Tierney

Celtic go down meekly to Hibs. Meanwhile, it’s Valencia in the last 32.

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First things first and that’s Celtic’s performance away at Easter Road yesterday. Truth be told the team looked exhausted –  not surprisingly after being run ragged against Red Bull Salzburg during Thursday night’s emotional rollercoaster – and as a result pretty devoid of ideas.

I wrote a piece over a week ago about how the players looked out on their feet away against Motherwell. We dropped two points that night as we wilted badly in the second half but recovered pretty sensationally to bury surprise table-toppers Kilmarnock 5-1 at Celtic Park a week ago on Saturday.

Thursday night though saw us come up against easily our toughest opposition of the season and for me the best team we’ve seen at Celtic Park since PSG clinically dispatched us 5-0 in the Champions League group stages 15 months ago.

Each one of our three domestic defeats this season have come in the weekend after a midweek European game and all have been away. So the taxing effects of  European football definitely plays a part but our away record, in general, this season has been pretty awful with 15 points dropped from a potential 27 in the league and only two wins from seven away ties in Europe.

Hibs have themselves been struggling of late having gone through a period of no wins in seven league games which saw them lose four times. They arrested that decline with a 1-0 win away at Hamilton Accies last weekend but generally weren’t given much of a hope yesterday. So much so that their prematch decision to reduce the Celtic away capacity so as to allow more Hibs fans tickets looked utterly absurd as half of the stand where our support usually sits was left virtually empty.

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Another great call from Rod Petrie.

Brendan decided to really utilise the squad and even went for three at the back with Ajer brought into partner Simunovic and Benkovic. Kieran Tierney was rested and in came Emilio Izaguirre with Scott Sinclair being asked to cover a right wing-back role in the absence of the injured Lustig and Gamboa.

In midfield, Ryan Christie was missing after being stretchered off with an ankle injury on Thursday night and Tom Rogic was also left at home to recover from his recent exploits. In came Brown and Ntcham to replace them with McGregor, Forrest and Edouard all retaining their places.

The last three, in particular, were noticeably quiet and looked a little jaded.

Apart from the fatigue side of things the likes of Brown and Ntcham never clicked all day and Izaguirre, who had been so impressive when he came in against Kilmarnock, really struggled with Sinclair looking pretty lost in an unfamiliar defensive role.

Hibs hit a lot of cross-field passes and balls in over the top which cost us no end of trouble and we were ultimately undone by two excellent though preventable finishes from Slivka in the very first minute and Kamberi in the second half.

The introductions of Lewis Morgan and Mikey Johnstone brought some urgency and penetration to the play in that second period but ultimately was too little too late. Johnny Hayes also appeared but did nothing of note which is pretty customary of his appearances in the hoops.

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Kamberi finally finds some form. 

The result meant that Rangers returned to the league summit due to a narrow win at home against lowly Hamilton and Kilmarnock also remain above us after a comfortable 3-1 home win against Dundee. We do of course have games in hand and no one’s really worrying especially as we can go top again if we beat Motherwell at home on Wednesday night and Rangers drop points at Easter Road which is as we’ve just discovered no easy place to go and get a result.

The likes of Boyata, Lustig, Rogic, Tierney as well as the inform Christie will also all be back soon – some as early as Wednesday night apparently – but even with that we clearly need reinforcements in January.  Up front plus at right fullback are two key areas we definitely need to address.

Earlier on today there was also the draw for the Last 32 of the Europa League. Being that we would be up against one of fifteen seeds we could only hope for something winnable and I think we got that when Valencia came out of the hat.

On paper, the Spaniards did well in their Champions League campaign to gain 8 points in a group that included one of the tournament favourites in Juventus as well as the once mighty Manchester United. But the truth is they were out by the time of the final group game which they won against a struggling Man U side who had already qualified. Valencia recorded a 2-1 home victory but for anyone who keeps up with English football that’s not that great an achievement these days considering the stumbling form Joe Mourinho’s side have shown this season so far.

In La Liga, they are struggling with only three wins from 16 matches and an incredible ten draws. Two of their defeats have been away from home and they only have two wins from nine home matches with six draws and one loss. They have only 19 points and are in 14th place, four points above the drop zone.  The goals have hardly been flowing either with only 15 so far in this campaign whilst conceding 13. In Europe, they have scored six and conceded six.

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The Mestella is where we are headed. 

All this after blowing over €126 million on players in the summer which included the €40 million capture of 21 -year-old Portuguese winger Gonçalo Guedes from PSG and veteran French striker Kevin Gameiro from Atletico Madrid for a mere €16 million. Belgian international striker Michy Batshuayi is also there on loan for the season from Chelsea and that deadly strike force has delivered a rather pathetic return of six goals in all competitions and their most dangerous marksman currently is, in fact, Spanish striker Santi Mina who has six this season and 35 in 114 appearances for them.

The other big summer singing was French midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia who cost them €25 million from Inter Milan in the summer having previously cost the Italians €40 million from Monaco. He was injured at the weekend though and will be out for between eight to twelve weeks so there’s a good chance we won’t have to worry about him at all.

The star man is, or at least was, striker Rodrigo who’s 19 goals in 44 games last term earned him a place in the Spanish national side for the past summer’s World Cup. However this year he’s hit a measly two in twenty games and is bang out of form.

Backed by billionaire Singapore business magnate owner Peter Lim they could go on a spending spree this January in theory but based on their previous transfer dealings they have actually already spent double what they had spent in total over the two previous seasons combined plus they have only brought three players in, in total, during the past two winter transfer windows, two of which were loan deals.

All in all……….it’s doable.

There is a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and February 14th when they visit Celtic Park in the first leg but as of now, it’s a tie you’d take especially considering some of the Leviathans we could have drawn in the next round.

Let’s just hope that eight and a half weeks from now we’re top of the league, playing well with a stronger squad and that Valencia are pretty much in the same predicament if indeed not worse as they are now.

I guess that’s what I’ll be asking Santa for, for Christmas. Well, that, a pair of Diesel jeans, a significant financial windfall and a win at Ibrox.

 

Europa League Preview: Celtic vs Red Bull Salzburg. Win, draw or bust!

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Tomorrow night Red Bull Salzburg visit Glasgow and we find ourselves in a tricky predicament.

The results fell for us just the way we wanted them two weeks ago on matchday five. We did what we needed to do in Trondheim and despite surprisingly starting as underdogs Salzburg maintained their perfect record in the group by seeing off Leipzig 1-0.

So going into matchday six we sit second top on 9 points whilst Leipzig are on 6. Salzburg are of course already far away and over the hills having qualified with their win at home against their Red Bull counterparts and sit on 15 points.

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More of this will be required.

In theory, it’s all worked out beautifully for us. We need just a draw and a solitary point to progress to the last 32. Of course, if Rosenborg can do the unthinkable and hold out for a draw somehow over in Germany then we won’t even need that and the 9 points will do us but let’s face it….that’s not going to happen. The Norwegians have been pretty hopeless thus far having lost all five group matches as well as conceding 13 goals and only scoring three. In their home fixture against Leipzig, they were spanked 3-1 and now literally having nothing to play for as they were eliminated by us a fortnight ago.

Added to that their season ended a week ago on Sunday when they sealed a historic treble by winning the Norwegian Cup final so safe to say their players have been on both party and holiday mode ever since. There’s even a chance Niklas Bendtner might already be back home in his native Denmark serving his 50 days house arrest already after he was convicted of clouting a taxi driver.

Leipzig are struggling of late having lost two of their last three league games including a surprise 3-0 hammering away to lowly Freiburg at the weekend when they played a full strength team. They’ve actually lost four out of their last six if you include their last two Europa League games and all of this comes after they had only lost only one of their previous 14 matches in all competitions and had gone 11 straight unbeaten against domestic opposition. But even with all that being said I still fully expect them to hammer an unmotivated and potentially unfit Rosenborg side and if there’s an early goal it could be an avalanche.

Our destiny is in our own hands and we really need to just focus on what we need to do. It’s a daunting task as Red Bull Salzburg are the form team of Europe. Managed by the impressive Marco Rose they sit top of the Austrian Bundesliga with a 14 point gap over second-placed LASK Linz and are unbeaten in an incredible 29 games in all competitions this term. That does include being eliminated on away goals over two legs against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League qualifiers but either way, it’s pretty impressive. Slightly terrifying actually.

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Less of this is also required. 

I’m looking for crumbs of comfort here but having won their first 10 straight league matches they’ve actually drawn three of their last seven and were held to a 2-2 draw away at bottom side FC Admira Wacker Mödling on Saturday.

So there’s always that.

But then I remember they’ve also scored 75 goals in those 29 games. I mean we’ve been pretty free-scoring this season but even having played five games more – 21 domestic games plus 13 in Europe – more than them we’ve only scored 64 goals by comparison. They really are an awesome attacking team.

We are of course in pretty good form ourselves having only lost one of our last seventeen domestic games and haven’t lost any of our last twelve with ten wins. More than half of our goals have come in that time too so in actual fact our recent scoring exploits have matched the Austrians, domestically at least.

In the Europa League, they’ve scored three times the number of goals we have – 15 to 5 – which is telling but despite playing five games more than them we’ve actually only conceded 20 goals all season to their 22 in all competitions.

That last one begs the question should we defend and try and hold out for a point?

My swift reply would be ‘no’. Of course, we shouldn’t bomb forward and attack them relentlessly either. They are deadly on the counter attack as we found out over there and have pace throughout the team. Israeli international Moanes Dabour was scoring goals for fun this season but only has one in his last eight however his Japanese internationalist striking partner Takumi Minaminois has stepped into the void in that time scoring six and Fredrik Gulbrandsen, Xaver Schlager and 19-year-old Hannes Wolf have also all been in pretty hot form in front of goal of late too.

Even taking how good they are going forward and our impressive number of clean sheets this season into consideration the fact is we are just not built for all-out defence. And against elite European opposition, and make no mistake Salzburg are just that, we never keep a clean sheet so any notions of a backs to the wall job are fanciable at best.

This situation reminds me of when Maribor came calling in a Champions League play-off against Ronny Deila’s Celtic back in late August of 2014. We had, of course, gained a credible 1-1 away draw in the first leg and Callum McGregor’s goal would have been enough to take us through if we’d held them to a goalless draw at home. But a home crowd on a big European night at Celtic Park demands more than just holding out for scoreless draws and Deila’s side looked like they literally didn’t know whether to stick or twist all evening. In the end, we conceded late on and there was no way back for us.

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To quote the legendary Arthur Montford: “The faces tell it all.”

I’m stating the obvious here but our game plan on Thursday needs to try and get the balance right between defending when we need to and attacking when we can. It’s easier said than done and we may need to carry a bit of luck. In fact, the chances are we definitely will.

I’d definitely like to see the in-form James Forrest get at their veteran 33-year-old left back Andreas Ulmer as much as possible with both Odsonne Edouard and Scott Sinclair also needing to effectively exploit the space given up by the attack-minded right-back Stefan Lainer. At the same time, Kieran Tierney needs to replicate his awesome display against Leipzig and Christie, Benkovic, McGregor and Rogic all need to translate their incredible domestic form into a continental affair.

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How we’d all love to see this again. 

Salzburg, in theory, could write the game off. They’re already through and have a home tie on Sunday against third-placed SKN St. Pölten which is their final league game before a two months winter break. But with only two games before such a mammoth domestic break the chances are they are unlikely to rest anyone or to drop down through the gears as they have a chance to complete the first half of the season undefeated.

As much as we may be up against it maybe we should have faith in our own form and let’s not forget the Celtic Park factor. Far bigger and well-resourced sides than Salzburg have visited Celtic Park in the not too distant past and come away with only a draw or worse. We are also on an unbeaten home run of seven games in Europe with six wins which includes the notable scalps of Leipzig and Zenit St.Petersburg.

Fingers crossed for the right result and a memorable night that will exceed anything we’ve achieved since defeating Barcelona on that famous night back in 2012.

Ryan Christie & co….it’s over to you.

Oh and don’t forget the disco lights. They’re guaranteed not to disappoint.

Europa League analysis: Celtic superb against Red Bull and now off to the Tony Macaroni.

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Well, that was glorious, wasn’t it?

The European performance we’ve all been waiting for from Brendan’s side.

A full 90 mins of passions, desire, precision and above all an end product.

In many ways, it reminded me of our display at home in the Champions League against Bayern Munich last season where we pushed them all the way and deserved victory but somehow came away with a defeat. However this time we got our just rewards.

RB Leipzig were a really good side. Shorn of talents such as star striker Timo Werner, his strike partner Yussuf Poulsen and playmaker Emil Forsberg they still fielded a front three of Bruma, Cunha and Jean-Kévin Augustin who cost a total of €38 million.

They were strong, accurate in the pass and aggressive from the get-go in a way that I hoped we would be but sometimes you just have to accept you’re up against a really good side who sit fourth – a point behind second – in the Bundesliga for a reason.

Celtic gradually got back into the game and a strong run by the in-form Forrest led to a ball spraying across the box where it was met on the left by Kieran Tierney who steadied himself before driving home.

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The Bhoys celebrate the opener.

We then dominated most of the first half but were unable to make the pressure count and Rogic placed one over the bar from the edge of the box after it was laid on by Christie that you would usually fancy him to do better with.

In the second half, the match followed the same pattern with two talented and energetic teams going at it. The post-match possession showed Celtic with 47% and Leipzig with 53% underlining just how evenly matched the contest was though for the best part the Germans were reduced to speculative long-range efforts which whilst always dangerous never really concerned Craig Gordon. However, he did have to make a terrific save from a corner which was met well at the front post by Marcel Sabitzer.

Up the other end Scott Sinclair raced through on goal not long after but failed to pull the trigger and then Edouard harried his way into the box and you thought he’d scored only for the ball to shave the post after taking the slightest nick off keeper Yvon Mvogo’s leg.

You just started to get the feeling it might not be our night with chances like that not being converted.

And that feeling became a reality when Augustin rose to impressively head home a pinpoint cross from Konrad Laimer that caught Lustig sleeping at the back post.

But alas said feeling only lasted 14 seconds as Celtic went rampaging up the pitch from the restart and Ryan Christie crossed for French Eddy to tap home from point-blank range to make it 2-1.

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My thoughts exactly Odsonne.

There were some hairy moments thereafter with Youssouf Mulumbu entering the stage and contributing a chaotic 10 mins in which he looked miles off the pace and continuously misjudged passes and tackles. From this Leipzig were able to break into the box and Kevin Kampl nearly broke the crossbar with a thunderous strike. They say you need a rub of the green to win on nights like this and that was definitely ours.

Anyway, with a great sigh of relief, that’s how it finished and now Celtic need to win in Trondheim against Rosenborg in three weeks to go into the final group game with our hopes of qualification intact. A win there coupled with a Salzburg victory at home to Leipzig would mean the Austrians go into the final group game on 15 points with the group sewn up and likely to rest players for their trip to Glasgow. A draw actually makes them group winners as well so really Leipzig have to win that one. If they do then it’s a straight shootout between us and Salzburg in the final game with Celtic requiring to win 2-0 to progress from a very tough group where Rosenborg have thus far only been spectators. Incredibly though they too can still qualify as well. If they beat us by more than a goal and then give the Germans a pasting at the Red Bull Arena on Matchday Six then they’ll the ones to progress which would be incredible. So let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

Anyway, what a display. So many great performances. Christie is banishing all pining for the departed Stuart Armstrong with his sudden emergence, Forrest is on fire, Rogic was relatively quiet – clearly identified as the danger man and subsequently shackled –  but still looks a class apart at times, Sinclair is refinding his form, McGregor is playing out of his skin, Benkovic looks terrific at the back – shame we can’t keep him – and Tierney was the star man as he relentlessly rampaged up the left-hand side all night.

A fantastic performance that conjured up memories of the heady European nights enjoyed under Martin O’Neill, Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon and the first time a Brendan Rodgers side has really put it together for 90 mins against top-level continental opposition who were really on their game.

Oh and let’s not forget the much-maligned disco lights which actually helped ramp up the pre-match atmosphere and created a pretty magnificent aesthetic.

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The disco lights played their part.

Anyway, it’s onto tough tackling Livingston for an early kick-off at the idyllic Tony Macaroni Arena on Sunday. A nice little venue that I’ve been to a few times before though back when it was only just called Almondvale.

Livi got off to a flyer under new player-manager Kenny Miller this season that saw him leave after about 20 mins only to be replaced by blink and you’ll miss him ex-Celt Gary Holt who formed part of the memorable Hamilton Cup winning side under Lou Macari back in the balmy summer of 1994 over in Canada.

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That’s Gary down the front with the big trophy. 

He guided the West Lothian side to a pretty remarkable seven league unbeaten run with five wins and two draws which included drawing at Tynecastle and defeating Steven Gerrard’s juggernaut 1-0 at home.

However, they have had a recent reality check with back to back defeats at home to St.Johnstone and away to Hamilton.

Still, expect a tough and physical encounter on a pretty piss poor artificial surface that has more sand on it than a beach in Largs and more pellets than a neglected rabbit’s hutch.

Then we enter the dreaded international break that no one is interested in that will likely see Alex McLeish make more bizarre tactical decisions.

But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Until then let’s bask in the warm afterglow of our best European display in years.

 

 

 

International round-up: Scotland 1 – 3 Portugal. Nothing to see here.

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Another international match under Alex McLeish and another defeat.

The reason I bother with these international reviews is because our players generally feature pretty significantly in proceedings.

For this one, Kieran Tierney was allowed to drop out due to a ‘loading issue’ which is bullshit football ‘tech-speak’ for him being tired due to the number of games he’s played so far this season.

No doubt Brendan’s been on the phone and requested that he be rested as opposed to being played out of position in a pointless friendly.

Leigh Griffiths, of course, hasn’t featured in the last two internationals now as he tries to improve his fitness. Of course, we know the real reason is that he can’t stand Big Eck and his banal ongoing decision to choose Johnny Russell and Steven Naismith up front ahead of him.

Craig Gordon was back in after being fairly dropped for the on form Allan McGregor and also back in the line-up was James Forrest, ludicrously not started against Israel after scoring four times for us the weekend before, and ex-Celt Stuart Armstrong. Callum McGregor also got his latest cap. Jack Hendry also got a start which was purely due to Charlie Mulgrew and John Souttar being unavailable.

On the whole, it was much better performance though ultimately another bad result as the ruthless Portuguese punished every error from Scotland, proving that even without the scandal-plagued Ronaldo why they are rated number seven in the world rankings.

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Just another day at the office.

Portugal’s goals came in the following order:

  • HĂ©lder Costa (43′minutes),
  • Macedo Lopes (74′minutes),
  • TuĂ© Na Bangna (84′minutes)

Costa’s was a tap-in after an Andy Robertson mistake but the other two were fabulous goals. A great header from Lopes after a floated cross to the edge of the box and a peach from Banga just inside the box subsequent to skinning Graeme Shinnie.

Stevie Naismith posted a consultation at the death resulting from a beautiful back-heel from another ex-Celt Gary Mackay-Steven which set him up for a tap-in.

Scott McKenna had missed a stick-on opportunity to equalise earlier with a diving header that went inches past.

All of the Celtic players did okay with the exception being Jack Hendry who continues to look way out of his depth when faced with any opposition remotely resembling quality.

For McLeish, the 4-4-2 formation with an actual left back playing in position worked better and with the recalls of Forrest and Armstrong there was a lot more vibrancy to the team but the same old errors continue to be punished. Rather like Celtic in Europe Scotland look completely incapable of keeping the back door shut for 90 mins.

Anyway, Big Eck staggers onto the doubleheader with Albania and Israel next month after this sorry weekend brought his record to two wins and six losses. Willie Miller remained optimistic that his friend could pull it off in the Sportscene studios last night obviously completely oblivious to what has occurred so far under his former central defensive partner.

International round-up: Israel 2 – 1 Scotland. Absolute garbage!

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The big adventure continued under Alex McLeish last night and took the national team plus about 1500 weary souls to the cavernous and mostly empty Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa, Israel for the latest instalment of the UEFA Nations League.

There they were subjected to some of the worst football we’ve seen from a Scotland national team in a long, long time.

Now that really is saying something.

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The face of the Scotland national team.

Getting beaten by World Cup qualifiers such as Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico and hammered by the second best national team in the world in Belgium is one thing but Israel are rated 96 in the FIFA rankings and had one win in ten coming into this.

They have some very good players at their disposal such as former Celtic midfielder Beram Kayal, now with Brighton in the EPL, as well as the prolific Red Bull Salzburg striker Munas Dabbur who we know all about after his shenanigans a week ago last night against us in the Europa League.

But the fact remains that they seldom if indeed ever pull it together at national team level until they met Scotland of course.

Scotland were rubbish from the get-go. The nonsense of trying to deploy both Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney down the same flank continues and nullifies the abilities of both. That aside it appeared to be five at the back with a deep-lying midfield and the two strikers completely cut off.

Scotland never pressed the ball at all until going behind in the second half and generally sat deep allowing the Israeli team to ping the ball about in front of them like a classic Brazil team and build both momentum and confidence.

A gift was handed out in the 23rd minute when Peretz needlessly barged Naismith to the ground in the box. Charlie Mulgrew subsequently stepped up and converted and you thought that might actually breathe some life into the Scotland performance but instead, it seemed to fire up the hosts who proceeded to subject the Scottish goal to wave after wave of attack for the remainder of the game.

Peretz made up for his earlier misdemeanour by equalising on 54 minutes which was long overdue and after Souttar walked for a second yellow – his first was mindless and second came from his mistake – there was only going to ever be one outcome and it happened when a hopelessly out of position Tierney scored an OG he’d like to forget with about of a quarter of an hour left.

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John Souttar is the only shocked man on the pitch.

Allan McGregor made save after save and Israel hit the bar when they should have scored and 2-1 flattered Scotland. Despite that Callum McGregor had a few chances to actually pull something out of the fire but shanked them both which was a continuation of his finishing against Albania.

Disjointed, disorganised, fatigued and ultimately dispirited just about sums up Scotland last night as they made it five defeats from seven under Alex McLeish with a first competitive defeat in 23 months.

Players such as Kevin McDonald and Johnny Russell appear to be getting games for no reason whatsoever. McDonald is playing in a Fulham team that are being trounced most weeks and Johnny Russell is playing in the retirement village that is the MLS at 28 and even then is hardly setting the heather alight.

They now play Portugal at Hampden on Monday night which will likely be attended by ten men and a dog and anyone who thinks Portugal don’t have the potential to destroy Scotland without the presence of the scandal-mired Cristiano Ronaldo are sadly mistaken. Portugal won 3-2 away in Poland last night and even without their talisman, they are a handy outfit rated seventh in the world.

Though a right hammering might not be such a bad thing as it might force the SFA’s hand vis-Ă -vis the ongoing farcical second reign of McLeish which hit a new low last night and considering his inability to make any actual big decisions, implement anything approaching a system and his alienation of some of the countries best players a decision really needs to be made sooner rather than later.

Under the previous manager, Scotland had gone unbeaten in seven – six of them competitive – whilst under Big Eck they have lost five in seven scoring four and conceding ten. Expect that to be even worse after Monday evening.

In the post-match press conference, Alex thought the system was actually working in the first half, that the team had kept possession okay and John Souttar’s red card was harsh. He also said he was about to bring on Scott McKenna for Souttar just before he got his second yellow even though McKenna was already on the pitch having been substituted on for the injured Charlie Mulgrew at half-time………………………………

God help us!