Bleak times ahead for Scottish football indeed. Following on from last nights fiasco by Celtic, their green cousins are being thrashed by Maribor. Who I hear you say, are Maribor. I checked and they are in Slovenia. They have been domestic champs six times, but hey ho, another sad night for Scottish clubs in European competition.

3-0 at the moment.

:furtive2:

I noticed it's still all kick and rush stuff. Same with Celtic. Both teams picked to defend and counter-attack. Neither played the system. Every time, it's Miller (or whoever) knocks it long and wide to Riordan (or whoever), so that it's a physical battle as the winger and full-back race to the ball. Then launch it into the box hoping someone's there as there is no time to pick out a colleague. No skill required.

How about Miller to de Graff to Miller to Riordan to Weatherspoon to Miller to Riordan back to Weatherpsoon etc etc etc until they have carved a good opening for Stokes to pounce. For years, Scotland has been getting pumped by players that wouldn't get in our teams (Baldur Bett was a key player when an Icelandic team beat Dunfermline, MyPa, player for player, were substandard to Motherwell etc etc etc). It's just embarrassing. It's much the same with England and English teams, hence the demise of the successful British manager, with very few exceptions.

Still, gotta laugh :_blah:

The poor performance of top Scottish teams is put into focus by the fact that Shamrock Rovers only lost 2-0 to Juventus.

same sorry story every year now. our so called top teams just seem to get whippped by teams youve never heard of before. One thing is clear they dont like very early season games, so is that just poor preperation. Hmmm unless we are playing Icelandic, Faroese, Scandanavian or Russian teams this must be the case. The listed countries play summer footie so you would not be suprised by there sharpness etc. But the likes of Braga and Maribor are weeks away from there season starting, so in theory we should be sharper than them. So why we failing - are we diluding ourselves that there are not enough young players in Scotland, and any Tomasi, Darius or Henrick should be better than our homebrew. Past climate shows we wont learn the lessons, until one largely home grown team makes it with exciting fearless football again. Will we ever see the likes of the Dons and Arabs tear teams to shreds again. Ido think that Terry found the right formula last season ( 4-2-3-1) but can we take it further, if we do I think they would need another couple of years together, but given our standing in the poor state of the scottish game, anyone showing real form this season may be easily skimmed of for a wad of cash. hope the teams atmosphere in the dressing room blends well, as that can be the thing that keeps the good guys, as our budget wont do it alone.

So much for the media slagging off the lesser teams that have represented Scotland recently - Gretna, Queens, Livi, etc County might have done better than Celtic and Hibs, but alas we will never know. This year is the top teams in order representing us, lets just see how far we go. Well done Craig Brown's Motherwell by the way, 1-1 to a decent Norwegian team in the middle of their season, but can see them burning up towards the end of the season, but hey maybe we will be their to take their place.

The sooner we all accept that Scottish football just isn't that good compared to other leagues in Europe the better. These results aren't shocking at all and instead of querying where we go wrong we should be working hard to address the problem.

Edited July 30, 201015 yr by RiG

Where can Scottish footie go from here? Teams getting p!ssed all over, by minor european teams. Why is it we never progress, yet other "lesser football nations" come on leaps and bounds. I cant help but think we need to go and look at how its done in other countries and adopt these methods....rather than plodding on with the same failing system

I think the "hoof-the-ball-aimlessly-up-the-park-at-all-times" tactics that most Scottish teams seem to use is a part of the problem.

Edited July 30, 201015 yr by Renegade

Where can Scottish footie go from here? Teams getting p!ssed all over, by minor european teams. Why is it we never progress, yet other "lesser football nations" come on leaps and bounds. I cant help but think we need to go and look at how its done in other countries and adopt these methods....rather than plodding on with the same failing system

I wouldn't say Portugal was a " lesser football nation " and by finishing runners up ahead of Porto , Sporting etc I'd hardly class Braga as " minor " .

Where can Scottish footie go from here? Teams getting p!ssed all over, by minor european teams. Why is it we never progress, yet other "lesser football nations" come on leaps and bounds. I cant help but think we need to go and look at how its done in other countries and adopt these methods....rather than plodding on with the same failing system

I wouldn't say Portugal was a " lesser football nation " and by finishing runners up ahead of Porto , Sporting etc I'd hardly class Braga as " minor " .

Hardly a european football force either tho are they!

Where can Scottish footie go from here? Teams getting p!ssed all over, by minor european teams. Why is it we never progress, yet other "lesser football nations" come on leaps and bounds. I cant help but think we need to go and look at how its done in other countries and adopt these methods....rather than plodding on with the same failing system

I wouldn't say Portugal was a " lesser football nation " and by finishing runners up ahead of Porto , Sporting etc I'd hardly class Braga as " minor " .

Hardly a european football force either tho are they!

Compared to Scotland I'd say they were .

on a better note motherwell drew 1-1 away in they're first leg and dundee united still have they're 4th round match so its not like scotland have no teams in europe bar rangers next season

Edited July 30, 201015 yr by lukemackay

I think the "hoof-the-ball-aimlessly-up-the-park-at-all-times" tactics that most Scottish teams seem to use is a part of the problem.

It's the Scottish way though - lump the ball into the channels and run after it. That said, pretty passing will only get you so far though (The John Hughes Law). You need to have the players to be able to execute this and we just need to accept that our players aren't as good as those from other nations. I don't know why we have such a hard time understanding this.

Hibs lsing at home now, 0-4 on agg.

For readers of a certain generation, can I suggest the headline "Maribor Stork Nightmares" might be appropriate.

I think the "hoof-the-ball-aimlessly-up-the-park-at-all-times" tactics that most Scottish teams seem to use is a part of the problem.

It's the Scottish way though - lump the ball into the channels and run after it. That said, pretty passing will only get you so far though (The John Hughes Law). You need to have the players to be able to execute this and we just need to accept that our players aren't as good as those from other nations. I don't know why we have such a hard time understanding this.

I think Hibs do have, that's why it's so frustrating. A better manager (I don't think Hughes is bad, just not good enough) and a small investment (pretty disgraceful that he doesn't get that after all the cash brought in) could make Hibs serious contenders. Under a more patient system, de Graff, Rankin, Miller and Riordan should be a far better midfield than is, with Stokes sticking them away. As it is, bang it in to the wings and get someone to run for it. Surprise, surprise we lose heavily - even to teams whose players wouldn't get into our Scottish clubs.

why do we allways focus on the negatives motherwell and dundee united have a playoff tie each and i think scotland have a good chance of having 4 teams in europe with celtic also having a play-off motherwell on form and dundee united with a realy good mixture of youth and pace up front and experience at the back so i think scotland are well represented this year

not to mention dundee united and celtic are seeded so miss al the good teams

Edited August 6, 201015 yr by lukemackay

I think Hibs do have, that's why it's so frustrating. A better manager (I don't think Hughes is bad, just not good enough) and a small investment (pretty disgraceful that he doesn't get that after all the cash brought in) could make Hibs serious contenders. Under a more patient system, de Graff, Rankin, Miller and Riordan should be a far better midfield than is, with Stokes sticking them away. As it is, bang it in to the wings and get someone to run for it. Surprise, surprise we lose heavily - even to teams whose players wouldn't get into our Scottish clubs.

They've made the investment in the wages of the players you list (though Rankin doesn't belong on that list IMO), as well as a training geound and a new stand. Hibs are a well run club.

Cut and paste from my P&B post on the debacle:

Great crowd and atmosphere at Easter Road last night as the game started and a real shame that the team couldn't deliver. I'm not convinced by Maribor and i think Hibs could've beaten them over the two games if they'd been solid and patient. It would've been interesting to see Dundee United play them in a tight game. As it was, Hibs chasing the game were embarrassingly easy to pick apart. They set up with a completely dysfunctional midfield (only de Graaf had any presence in there) and didn't give themselves a chance. The key to Hibs' lack of balance was, of course, Derek Riordan - a player without any positional discipline who refuses to track back leaving the whole of the left side exposed. Ian Murray had a very poor game as a result. For all that, i think Hibs have quite few decent players and should be entertaining to watch this season. Inconsistent - probably, tactically naive - definitely, but entertaining none the less.

Edited August 6, 201015 yr by Caley Stan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHa9bE9AQVI&feature=email