I like watching Scotland, they always give it a good go and show great passion and courage. They just lack a cutting edge. It's a shame they haven't got the quality available to them that they had in the 70's and 80's.
Picking Matty Phillips would have been a start - wtf doe he need to do to get called up? Most assists in Europe last year, yet can't get in Scotland squad!! My mates are all gutted, they thought they had a real chance of qualifying this time, but have realistically blown it now.
That's not England's fault though is it? You said the dross served up by England. They can only beat what's put in front of them. They won 0-2 in Switzerland playing counter attacking football when everyone said they would get a hiding. They just can't win with some people.
Ok, my bad, the dross served up by England and San Marino!! I'm sure the Poland v Gibraltar game tonight was similar - it's the problem of involving all these minor countries whose teams would probably struggle in the Conference, they're always going to park the bus when the big teams come to town - not entertaining football though
Who is a minor country these days? Iceland who many would have put in that group are through to the finals if I'm not mistaken. NI are nearly there. Luxembourg beat someone. Faroes are no walkover amy longer. Norway beat Croatia. Holland are really struggling to make even the play offs. Who'se to know San Marino and Gibraltar won't beat Scotland soon....And by the way I heard England were first to make the finals.
Faroes did the double over Greece, Euro Champions 12 years ago! With coaching and fitness levels improving so much they're all a banana-skin awaiting the established 'big-boys'. We even lost to Northern Ireland when they were makeweights 10 years ago. They'll never be separated from the qualifiers as it's all part of the revenue stream...
Iceland have been a good team for several years now and this success was coming after having a good u21 team. It does no one any good to have these nothing teams playing everyone else. They don't learn anything from losing 7-0, certainly much less than they would from having genuinely competitive fixtures with teams of a similar calibre. The Faroes have shown they can be competitive- San Marino have been around for decades and don't seem to have improved.
Plus, the fact that there are few really easy Internationals these days, does that not suggest that Rooney's goal scoring record is arguably more impressive than Bobby Charlton's as there were many more easy games in his day? (That doesn't take away from the fact that Charlton was a fantastic player).
On what basis do you say that? Rooney has won 10 of his caps against San Marino, Andorra and Leichenstein. He has won many others against teams like Lithuania, Estonia, Kazakstan, Aberjizan, Macedonia, Belarus, Trinidad. Charlton won two caps against Luxembourg and one against the USA when they were crap, the rest against what I would regard as decent footballing countries. Here's a list of them. http://www.englandstats.com/players.php?pid=215 and here are Rooney's http://www.englandstats.com/players.php?pid=1126 Plus of course Charlton played midfield. Rooney is obviously our best player of the last 10-15 years and deserves the plaudits for taking the record (which he will soon). But for a striker his goals per game ratio is the key, and he comes out as about the same as Owen and Shearer for England and well behind Lineker. Jimmy Greaves leaves them all in the shade of course.
I think it should be mentioned that Charlton started as a winger and ended up as Ramsey's midfield kingpin. Those of us fortunate to have seen him in his prime would always rate him as exceptional. As Stan says, Greavsie was different class...
My point is that nearly all teams these days are well set up and hard to beat. I'm not sure even some of so called top sides in Charlton's day were as well set up as teams like Switzerland. For me, Charlton was probably England's greatest ever attacking player. Greaves was the most natural finisher. However it's hard to compare players from different eras imo.
