Steve Clarke - What did O'Donnell do wrong?

Aww Skew said:
Really? You honestly think most of the team are shit?

We’ve got players that are starters for their clubs in the EPL, championship and playing in Europe with rangers and Celtic

Don’t want to overstate how good they are but there’s a decent group of players there that a good manager would get more out of

The only real weaknesses I see are at CB and Striker, also taking into account Tierney gets shoe-horned in
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They're not the worst Scotland squad but some of the shite being pushed would make Joseph Goebbels blush, not sure which of the BBC muppets issued this statement seconds before K.O. in the Czech match, "get ready lads you could be on your way to being the greatest ever Scotland team" FFS!
 
It’s genuinely difficult to go from watching a team coached by Gerrard and Beale to watching one coached by uber-alcoholic Steve Clarke and the uber-lady's front bottom that is John Carver.

It’s honestly like watching a different sport. We’d have put 4/5 past that Scotland team.
 
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The first thing O'Donnel done wrong was giving up netball for football. Anyway given these "sensitive times" there should have been no way back for this ersehole when he muttered dirty orange bastards while playing fifa with others in the squad.
 
Yoniboy said:
They're not the worst Scotland squad but some of the shite being pushed would make Joseph Goebbels blush, not sure which of the BBC muppets issued this statement seconds before K.O. in the Czech match, "get ready lads you could be on your way to being the greatest ever Scotland team" FFS!
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That dick, Rob mclean twice said 'there's alot to like about this scotland side' with 5 minutes left he was still expecting a grandstand finish.
 
He will 100% start Gilmour and Patterson then throw them under the bus the alky bigoted bastard. Hope England end his managerial career on Friday.
 
Its not about what O'Donnel did but about what more another player(Nathan) could have done.
 
YoungGer97 said:
McLaughlin

Hanley Cooper Tierney
Patterson Robertson

McTominay Gilmour
McGinn

Armstrong
Adams

​
A good manager makes this team a regular feature at tournaments, probably gets them into the knockout rounds fairly handily and has them playing a decent brand of football. There's absolutely no excuses. Many other countries have just the same problems and actually do better with less capable squads.
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Armstrong isnt a guy to play off a main striker and neither Patterson nor Gilmour should be thrown into the likes of the England game. Fraser and Adams up top would be a better option and I'd have McGinn and McTominay with Gauld in front of them. It's criminal that Ryan Gauld isnt in the squad. If you want to protect Patterson then Armstrong plays as right wingback because he's better going forward than O'Donnell even if he isnt going to be the best defensively. Patterson and Gilmour are players who will grow into roles as they continue to develop.
 
Why is that embarrassment of a manager still in a job? He should have walked after the game the other day. Clueless, uninspiring, and way out of his depth with tactics last seen in the early 1900s.
 
iaatpies said:
We don't.

Patterson may well become a very good rightback in the fullness of time. Right now he isnt ready for the England game, although he could have coped against the Czechs just fine. The only other player for that position is Stephen O'Donnell as the other right sided options arent defensively sound. A big difference from our left side where we've got Robertson as first choice and Tierney very capable of playing there.

Middle of the park? Gilmour may be the dynamic, attacking midfielder we need but who do we have around him? A combination of guys with the same kind if skillsets - lots of energy, a bit of dig but a lack of composure and football intelligence. It makes the omission of Ryan Gauld on the back of a very good season in Portugal even more frustrating because he could have given the Scottish midfield something different.

Attacking wide players? The whole reason we're playing 3-5-2 is because at a national level we don't have anybody who can play the wide roles in the same way that the Rangers front 3 do. Fraser and Adams would be a better front pairing than Dykes and Adams for their movement, but who would that 3rd attacker be in a modern 4-3-3 formation?

Scotland have competent players clustered around the same few positions and gaps in the squad that restrict how the team can play.
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Forrest and Christie have both played wide in European competition, Fraser’s played wide in the EPL. There’s 3 wide players already

Armstrong’s played wide left before and also played across a 3 behind a striker

I get your point re there being a lot of similar players but that’s when you need a strong manager to pick players in their correct positions rather than trying to fit individuals into a formation to suit them
 
iaatpies said:
Armstrong isnt a guy to play off a main striker and neither Patterson nor Gilmour should be thrown into the likes of the England game. Fraser and Adams up top would be a better option and I'd have McGinn and McTominay with Gauld in front of them. It's criminal that Ryan Gauld isnt in the squad. If you want to protect Patterson then Armstrong plays as right wingback because he's better going forward than O'Donnell even if he isnt going to be the best defensively. Patterson and Gilmour are players who will grow into roles as they continue to develop.
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Patterson and Gilmour are good enough to play in their positions for their national team, especially Patterson who has basically no competition in that position, a big boy manager would be playing them and ensuring these guys are blooded young. Being afraid of going up against England with them doesnt cut it for me.

However I agree with the Gauld shout and i think your post illuminates that we actual have more talent in the team than is being made out. We absolutely have the personnel to be a solid and decently successful national side.
 
It wasn’t O’Donnell did a wrong thing.

It was Clarke that did the wrong thing by picking him.

Clarke is deflecting by picking up on the criticism of O’Donnell.

:(
 
iaatpies said:
Armstrong isnt a guy to play off a main striker and neither Patterson nor Gilmour should be thrown into the likes of the England game. Fraser and Adams up top would be a better option and I'd have McGinn and McTominay with Gauld in front of them. It's criminal that Ryan Gauld isnt in the squad. If you want to protect Patterson then Armstrong plays as right wingback because he's better going forward than O'Donnell even if he isnt going to be the best defensively. Patterson and Gilmour are players who will grow into roles as they continue to develop.
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Play David Turnbull just off the Striker then? Celtic's best player last season. Yet Clarke plays guys in front of him like Christie because they played a good game against Serbia 6 months ago....

Where do you even begin with that level of mentalism?
 
Drumchapel-Bear said:
Play David Turnbull just off the Striker then? Celtic's best player last season. Yet Clarke plays guys in front of him like Christie because they played a good game against Serbia 6 months ago....

Where do you even begin with that level of mentalism?
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The best player in a shite Celtic team is no great praise.

Gauld should be there ahead of Turnbull
 
AndyWebsterLoyal said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1405110231923924993
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Is he asking the SMSM to analyse the games ? If so he might as well pack it in now, it's been a long time since I've seen a match report in the SMSM with any sort of objective assessment of the game or the players. Nearest thing to it in the SMSM is the player ratings, that is Brown 9.

What did O'donnell get in the DayLate Rhecord player ratings btw, a 7 ? an 8 ?
 
Sums up Scotland in both politics and sport. No criticism of anything Scotland will be entertained, its all good, why are you putting Scotland down blah blah blah.

The very attitude that resulted in a 23 years wait and uefa having to create a backdoor tournament for Scotland to qualify for a major tournament.
 
The way Patterson came back from the Covid situation to score against Antwerp shows he’s a special player. He’s going to be great. Not playing him is the actions of a wreckless madman
 
iaatpies said:
The best player in a shite Celtic team is no great praise.

Gauld should be there ahead of Turnbull
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My point is, Turnbull was Celtic's best player yet Clarke had two Celtic midfielders on the park before him (Christie and then McGregor). He was better than both players last season in a Celtic shirt.

We should be playing our form players and not showing loyalty to guys who played a decent game 6 months ago.
 
Good, I can enjoy Scotland getting their arse handed to them without feeling bad for Patterson
 
TPB90 said:
Doubling down here just shows what kind of a deluded, bitter bastard Clarke actually is.

O'Donnell shouldn't even be in the squad. Palmer is a better option than him and obviously Patterson.

I fancy England to stick 4 or 5 past Scotland on Friday.
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In doubt he'll get near a squad once Clarke leaves.
 
He didn't strike me as any worse than the others to be fair. Clarke needs different players in most of the positions.
 
This drivel is essentially a copy of what Strachan used to say after each embarrassing performance by the Teams he picked.

A couple of frauds who are the perfect Scotland Icons given their failure and ever ready excuses.
 
Right you are Steve. So he has full confidence in O"Donnell to hold his own against Sterling or Grealish then does he? Entirely predictable disaster waiting to happen.

Although I have to say I'm in two minds at the prospect of Patterson playing against England (not that I think Clarke will do it given his comments but there's always a chance).

On the one hand, I'd be delighted for the lad and if he takes it in his stride as he has done with everything else in his short career to date, it would be a joy to see him hold his own against a strong England team.

But on the other hand, if we get completely over run as a team (which is more than likely), then it will be a very tough 90 minutes for him and could do more harm to him than good.

The time to start him was on Monday. First game, full of energy and optimism, Clarke should have let him loose on the right hand side and told him to push forward as much as possible. Then, with that game under his belt and assuming he did well, the England game would be a no brainer.

Patterson will be a star, of that I have no doubt- such a confident young lad. But playing him on Friday for his international debut would feel a bit like throwing him to the wolves to me.
 
Let me think Stevie, with pretty much his first touch he managed to nutmeg himself and backheel the ball out of play ending a promising attack. The he clattered Christie who had just gone past two defenders and was making his way into the box, offered zero outlet on his side and generally appeared completely out of his depth. Not the guys fault, but the managers' for putting him out there to struggle. I also suspect the lack of criticism for Marshall is due to the fact the manager (who can do no wrong in the eyes of the Scottish media) told him to take up that position 45 yards from his goal.
 
albert_left_peg said:
What a lot of bollocks.... the system he plays with wingbacks means that his job is to both attack and defend.

O’Donnell can’t do either of them and will get ripped apart by England on Friday
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This is exactly the point. The three at the back system requires that your fullbacks provide the attacking width. O’Donnell doesn’t provide that.

This narrative that Clarke has that the performance on Monday was good is mind boggling. We were shite and if he doesn’t change things we will be shite again on Frida.
 
So he did nothing wrong (aside from not closing the cross down quicker) but could he have contributed more going forward?
There’s your question mr journalist
 
I really do hope o'donnell starts, foden/sterling/rashford/grealish/sancho/chillwell/Shaw can you imagine him up against any of these? He would probably be outpaced by Southgate himself.
 
Seems to me we now have a Scotland manager who will be hoping a young promising player fails miserably and will be ready to throw him under the bus whilst defending some old pals

What a position to be in because of the bitter alky bastard

I feel sorry for young Patterson, feels like he’s on a hiding to nothing under Clarke sadly
 
He may not have played badly, but at this level of competition that’s not enough. If we had a contribution on the right similar to what Robertson offers on the left then we’d be far more effective. Young Patterson has shown he can perform at the highest level and can handle the pressure, he’s more than stepped up every time. Get him in there.
 
Reynold said:
The first involvement I remember O'Donnell having in the game was miscontrolling a simple pass into his feet, under no pressure, which resulted in him back-heeling it out of play for a Czech throw.
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His first 3 involvements were that miscontrol, a "pass" down the line which perfectly bisected the 2 targets and was about 30 yards overhit and finally the Christie tackle.

At one point he did reasonably well to clear up a loose ball in the centre circle but, with 4 Scotland players around him and no danger at all, he proceeded to kick it 40 yards back to Marshall. I've nothing against him personally but he's simply not suitable or good enough to play wing back at this level
 
He's in the team because Clarke hates Rangers in my opinion. Nothing against O'Donnell but, he is completely out of his depth. Clarke is simply doubling down because he is now being shown up to be the clueless fanny many of us know him to be. The amount that were totally blinded by his 'remarkable achievement' of qualifying for a tournament without even needing to win a game was really something.
 
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