| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? 09:24 - Sep 12 with 4768 views | Darth_Koont |
Scotland have been playing and developing Clarke-ball for the past few years. And it shares a lot of similarities with how McKenna gets us to play. Namely overloading the flanks with spare defenders stepping forward into space, and with attacking midfielders finding gaps between the lines to support a lone striker running the channels. All with a willingness to play quickly and direct with lots of running to stretch play and finding space.
Clarke and the team have shown that by building the side around the strength of Tierney and Robertson on the left the other areas of the pitch can slowly but surely be tweaked to a higher level of performance than you’d expect from the individuals. We’ve done similarly by effectively building around the dominance of our right side over the past couple of years.
Now both teams are pretty balanced with threat from the other flank, and space and opportunities opening up in the middle for attacking midfielders as a result.
The difference — and what’s possibly interesting from the ITFC point of view — is that the Scotland team plays at a higher level against individuals and teams that are better and have more quality on paper. So this is possibly a glimpse into a Prem League future when we’ll likely need to punch significantly above our weight to compete. What you can see is a team that still wants to get on the front foot but there’s a lot more discipline and focus when defending and indeed we’ve got attacking midfielders like McTominay and McGinn who are very good off the ball and at falling back into a defensive shape.
McKenna rightly talks about learning and adjusting to the Championship and dealing with the threat and individual quality of say the Leeds attack. We should get a glimpse of that tonight against a much higher rated England side.
Now watch Scotland get pumped 3-0 through defensive chaos 😀 ... but I don’t really think that’ll happen. Just like with McKenna and us, I have real faith in what Clarke and the team have built/are building and the clarity behind it. So I’m going for 2-1 to Scotland as the team and Hampden will be right up for it.
|  |
| |  |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 09:24 - Sep 13 with 660 views | nodge_blue |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 08:13 - Sep 13 by Darth_Koont |
Credit to England. They looked very dangerous in possession which we expected, with Bellingham particularly lethal. But off the ball they stopped us from getting going ourselves and relieving the pressure.
Still disappointing from us as we’ve generally risen to the challenge and been much better than that. But we certainly weren’t good enough tonight. |
I must say that a lot of the Scottish fans and pundits took that with good grace.
Its nice to see a respectful kind of end to a fixture that gets a bit too toxic for my liking these days. |  |
| |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 09:26 - Sep 13 with 651 views | _clive_baker_ |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 08:13 - Sep 13 by Darth_Koont |
Credit to England. They looked very dangerous in possession which we expected, with Bellingham particularly lethal. But off the ball they stopped us from getting going ourselves and relieving the pressure.
Still disappointing from us as we’ve generally risen to the challenge and been much better than that. But we certainly weren’t good enough tonight. |
I think people underestimate just how good the current England squad is, absolutely ridiculous talent in Bellingham, Kane, Foden, Stones, Rice, Grealish, Saka. Genuine world class players, not to mention Rashford, Trippier, Walker and others.
Our record in competitive games is excellent. Going through yet another qualifying group at a canter, a group including Italy who we've already beaten away. WC 1/4 finalists going out narrowly to a brilliant France team, previous WC Semi finalists, current Euros finalists only losing on penalties. Right now England are legitimately a top, top international side. One of the best.
Last night was a bit of a schooling but Scotland are in a decent place. 5 from 5 in qualifying is the much bigger picture for them. I would like to see them qualify for the Euros, I don't have any animosity towards the Scottish at all. |  | | |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 09:56 - Sep 13 with 619 views | itfcjoe |
I think last night may have been a bit of an eye opener for Clarke and Scotland, because they didn't really play badly, they just saw the levels required at the very top of the game and saw how far away from it they are - but that is to be expected when you look at personnel of their side.
England really impressive at times, and bodes well for us - but Scotland have been a national embarrassment as a football team for the majority of this Millenium but seem to have got themselves totally sorted now - the expanded Euro qualification has obviously helped but their performances must give them real hope of qualifying for the big one in 2026, they carry on as they are and they'll be right there or thereabouts |  |
| |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 11:00 - Sep 13 with 568 views | Darth_Koont |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 09:56 - Sep 13 by itfcjoe |
I think last night may have been a bit of an eye opener for Clarke and Scotland, because they didn't really play badly, they just saw the levels required at the very top of the game and saw how far away from it they are - but that is to be expected when you look at personnel of their side.
England really impressive at times, and bodes well for us - but Scotland have been a national embarrassment as a football team for the majority of this Millenium but seem to have got themselves totally sorted now - the expanded Euro qualification has obviously helped but their performances must give them real hope of qualifying for the big one in 2026, they carry on as they are and they'll be right there or thereabouts |
Agree to an extent. But that wasn’t a great performance from us while England played very well. So not really reflective of recent years where we’ve gone toe to toe against more fancied opposition.
It shows that we certainly can’t drop our level and get away with it. | |
| |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 11:46 - Sep 13 with 521 views | Stewart27 |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 08:13 - Sep 13 by Darth_Koont |
Credit to England. They looked very dangerous in possession which we expected, with Bellingham particularly lethal. But off the ball they stopped us from getting going ourselves and relieving the pressure.
Still disappointing from us as we’ve generally risen to the challenge and been much better than that. But we certainly weren’t good enough tonight. |
Fair play to you for recognising this.
I was a little offended that you thought Scotland were going to win to be honest. There is nothing that has happened over the last few years coupled with the quality on the pitch to suggest anything other than an England win. Last night reinforced that.
But like I say fair play. |  | | |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 11:59 - Sep 13 with 508 views | Darth_Koont |
| Sco vs. Eng: Glimpse into the future for McKenna-ball? on 11:46 - Sep 13 by Stewart27 |
Fair play to you for recognising this.
I was a little offended that you thought Scotland were going to win to be honest. There is nothing that has happened over the last few years coupled with the quality on the pitch to suggest anything other than an England win. Last night reinforced that.
But like I say fair play. |
It was pretty clear we fell short last night.
But think you’re over-egging it from one game. If you’ve been watching Scotland, you’ll know plenty has happened over the last few years and it was a departure from our recent performances. And, by the sounds of the pundits, one of England’s best performances in recent times. | |
| |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
