Why no decent Scotland strikers

peasandgravy7

peasandgravy7

Well-Known Member
We must have the poorest set of strikers going right now with none of them hit 10 goals, any reason why we haven’t produced a decent striker in decades?
I know the SRU has a dedicated team looking for Scottish qualified players playing elsewhere, is it time for the SFA to do the same.
 
i'd say theyre stifled by the need to have a goal-scoring striker at all times so clubs buy there " ready made " players ......... hence why Shankland only now is getting recognition at the age of 28 , clubs don't persevere with youth/young strikers
 
Scottish football sides put in place utter pish like Christian Doidge rather than build pathways these days, stems from constantly getting lower league English managers in as well thinking they are going to smash a glass ceiling with some lower level mediocrity.

Hibs are a club in particular who seem to have totally abandoned the idea of playing young players despite it serving them well in the past
 
The most noticeable thing for me is no genuine wingers in the squad - and none I can think of off the top of my head that I would want to cap.

SPL is a pretty low standard generally but Shankland has been banging them in this season - against Celtic and Hibs and in Europe as well (only managed a penalty against us.)

Adams is 1 in 3 for Southampton in a decent league, and Dykes would pop up with a few with decent delivery.

We've seen ourselves in the past that you can have the full/wing backs swing in a dozen decent balls from deeper areas without creating any decent chances. You need wingers or inverted wingers who can move defenses around and create space for things to happen.
 
Rory Wilson might be the answer to that problem in a couple of years.

Unfortunately we won't see the benefit of him but he looks to be flying down south in the EPL development league.
 
A quick look there says the current top scorer is McGinn with 18. Striker wise Dykes is on 9, he’s the second highest that’s still playing followed by McTominay with 8.
 
Has there ever been a decent Scottish Striker? When I say that I'm talking about scoring goals regularly.

Look at the top scorer of most countries sitting on 50/60/70 goals ours has been at 30 since Law and Dalglish in the 70/80s.

Even McCoist was a 1 in 3 when it came to internationals
 
I thought it was telling when the squads were announced that Scotland has 3 Forwards listed and England had 7.
We obvioulsy know at club level how difficult it is to find good forwards

I don't think finding international players who once owned a Scottish Terrier is the answer. It would be much better if we looked longer term and all the academies were encouraged by the governing bodies to develop good forwards.
 
Strikers in general are a dying breed, managers prefer a more complete player that brings everything like a Firmino. I do think that with Pep going with Haaland that might change as most like to copy him.

Unfortunately clubs up here don’t give many a good chance and rely on older foreign players and the good young ones are in academies down or on loan as their not ready yet.

There is a few to watch out for and hope a few make the next step up.
Dire Mebude
Rory Wilskn
Josh O’Connor
Rory McLeod
Kieran Bowie
Ethan Laidlaw
Alfie Bavidge
 
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peasandgravy7 said:
We must have the poorest set of strikers going right now with none of them hit 10 goals, any reason why we haven’t produced a decent striker in decades?
I know the SRU has a dedicated team looking for Scottish qualified players playing elsewhere, is it time for the SFA to do the same.
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I'm sure the SFA will be doing that anyway, I'm sure when Levein was manager he said they were looking at anyone who was eligible to play. Didn't do him much good though
 
Strikers need opportunities to score, and plenty of them. Also you need to play to their strengths.
 
Boab4 said:
Thought Shankland was the best striker in the world?
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30th best striker in europe according to some stats guy on one of the Rangers podcasts. You can say stats mean nothing ofcourse but he does take most of the chances for Hearts.

Certainly a much better finisher than a lot of crap posters suggested he was around Christmas.

I think he will get goals for Scotland at the euros if he is picked but probably wont be the first game.
 
Going off on a slight tangent but always puzzles me why a nation as big as Germany has struggled to produce a world class striker for well over a decade now
 
Thommo2006 said:
Has there ever been a decent Scottish Striker? When I say that I'm talking about scoring goals regularly.

Look at the top scorer of most countries sitting on 50/60/70 goals ours has been at 30 since Law and Dalglish in the 70/80s.

Even McCoist was a 1 in 3 when it came to internationals
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Even at club level we don’t have many strikers anymore. Back in the day you had plenty kicking around other Scottish clubs. Folk like Scott Booth, Dougie Arnott, John Robertson, Keith Wright, Darren Jackson, Billy Dodds (before coming to us) etc playing at a lower level of the league. They guys maybe weren’t the best, but they scored regularly for the clubs they represented.
 
You could argue there’s quite a few positions Scotland is producing good players.

Must be our worst spell for Goalkeepers? CBs is another area aswell as strikers and wingers.

We can produce decent wing backs and cms though…..
 
stefanovitch said:
Seems odd to me that it's the same guys in the squad every time (more or less) regardless of form.

Surely with the goals Shankland has scored for Hearts this season he should have had more game time.
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Shanklands is 29 years old and has two starts for Scotland. Flopped at Aberdeen and flopped when he went to Belgium. He’s had a great season for Hearts but is so overrated on here it beggars belief imo.
 
The last decent Scottish strikers to play for either of the big 2 here have been Boyd and Miller. We aren't giving younger strikers a chance really. Struggling to think of even one we've produced through the reserves/academy who become a regular player in the post-Souness times.
 
Because they are developed playing fellow diddy teams and, when their team are playing park the bus when its a game against Rangers or them.

And neither Rangers or them really buy Scottish.

The talent is starved as a consequence.
 
Thommo2006 said:
Has there ever been a decent Scottish Striker? When I say that I'm talking about scoring goals regularly.

Look at the top scorer of most countries sitting on 50/60/70 goals ours has been at 30 since Law and Dalglish in the 70/80s.

Even McCoist was a 1 in 3 when it came to internationals
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Denis Law has the only decent scoring record truth be told. Before that you're looking at Lawrie Reilly who had an outstanding record over much fewer games given the era he played in.
 
Thornliebank_Bear said:
30th best striker in europe according to some stats guy on one of the Rangers podcasts. You can say stats mean nothing ofcourse but he does take most of the chances for Hearts.

Certainly a much better finisher than a lot of crap posters suggested he was around Christmas.

I think he will get goals for Scotland at the euros if he is picked but probably wont be the first game.
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Got a link to that because there is absolutely no chance he is in the top 30 strikers in Europe?
 
GeeSpot said:
The last decent Scottish strikers to play for either of the big 2 here have been Boyd and Miller. We aren't giving younger strikers a chance really. Struggling to think of even one we've produced through the reserves/academy who become a regular player in the post-Souness times.
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And Boyd got a ridiculously low number of caps
 
WinkieWATP said:
Got a link to that because there is absolutely no chance he is in the top 30 strikers in Europe?
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He is if you have some understanding of football and are not glued to sky and bt sports.

This is all these debates are about... he cant be a quality player cos he is no on sky with Pep.

I seen it on some podcast which i cant even remember the name of it but am more than happy to believe them and accept it is now a fact.

(it is probably just stats not on ability or value)
 
I don’t understand why the number 9 position is such a talking point.

Scotland play a system that allows them to play two left backs. Which other nation in the world would be so tinpot as to feel the need to get more left backs in the team? Your answer is none.

The lack of any pace and creativity in the wings is a more pertinent issue, imo. As well as that god awful 3-4-3 Clarke deploys.
 
Scottish football has convinced itself that the battle is in midfield and there seems to be much more focus on midfielders or defensive players than wingers/wide players and strikers.

Maybe there’s a tendency to bring in talent to play in the forward positions as well?

There is definitely a lack of really strong talent in the forward positions.
 
Scotland could have 3 strikers starting and it would produce %^*& all

Slow turgid football with no fluidity

Starts 2 left backs
Starts 4 Centre midfielders

No guile, no creativity no fluidity.

Those two friendlies were utterly pointless. He starts Shankland v the dutch when everyone knows that's really not the type of game to start him. Should of started v Northern Ireland.

Takes 4 goalkeepers and plays one both games
3 changes last night from Friday. Some guys played less than 15 minutes over both games. How are they ment to prove anything.
 
Porto Loyal said:
And Boyd got a ridiculously low number of caps
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Scotland played 1 up front under Big Eck and Walter and that was always going to be Miller. Was the same with us, Boyd was normally on the bench against Celtic or in Europe. It'll probably be the same with Shankland.
 
What has shown up in these last 2 Scotland games is, Shankland is too slow for International level but good enough at SPFL level
 
Gameboy said:
Strikers in general are a dying breed, managers prefer a more complete player that brings everything like a Firmino. I do well that with Pep going with Haaland that might change as most like to copy him.

Unfortunately clubs up here don’t give many a good chance and rely on older foreign players and the good young ones are in academies down or on loan as their not ready yet.

There is a few to watch out for and hope a few make the next step up.
Dire Mebude
Rory Wilskn
Josh O’Connor
Rory McLeod
Kieran Bowie
Ethan Laidlaw
Alfie Bavidge
Click to expand...
All of those cosched be utter garbage internationally
 
Players are coached from a young age about defence , passing , formations etc but it’s very ‘ midfield orientated’ Freedom and instinct is taken out of players to conform with this. . I think all of this takes away a strikers individuality. There’s none really coming through of any note. It’s not a good situation at all.
 
There is probably a bigger question about body types / physicality / race
Similar to why Scotland produced a large number of boxers (but all in lower weight classes

Both Rangers and the tims haven’t developed their own strikers for decades, rather damning and surely the youth academy should be making it a priority given the cost of a good striker and difference it can make to a teams results
Perhaps much more needed in terms of strength and conditioning in youth forward players for them to compete / break through into first team
 
Not just strikers, Scottish football is just not producing talent.

The transition from boys club > Pro Youth > reserves > senior isnt working.

The all but eradication of things like competitive school leagues and to a lesser degree things like BB teams and the complete absence of availability of pitches for an old fashioned kick about means kids have a very narrow window of opportunity to actually play the game. When I was looking for a team for my seven year old, I was asked by more than one club of he had a minimum of 2 seasons experience. Mental.

Is football still banned in playgrounds as well?

As kids, if we weren’t in class, we were playing football. Somewhere, somehow. In our estate of maybe 1500 residents, we also had about 8 distinct ‘teams’ outwith BC, School, BB’s and the Lanarkshire Selects.

Ironically, by formatting everything, it has made it inaccessible for loads of kids.

It’s lost its soul in this new, formal structure.

Kids want three kits, training gear, rain jackets and £200 boots before they play nowadays.
 
Academy coaches overcoaching kids.

A striker scoring loads of goals gets a season in midfield or on the wing to "enhance" their game.

Rangers have had many a great striker at youth level then forced them further back on the pitch but it's right across Scotland.
 
Cowan_rfc said:
Academy coaches overcoaching kids.

A striker scoring loads of goals gets a season in midfield or on the wing to "enhance" their game.

Rangers have had many a great striker at youth level then forced them further back on the pitch but it's right across Scotland.
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All under “at’s how the Dutch dae it” banner from people who’ve never set foot in the Netherlands.

Don’t even get me started on parent coaches.

The amount of number 9’s at Boys Club level with the captains armband and the same surname as the coach is beyond parody.
 
Number 4 said:
All under “at’s how the Dutch dae it” banner from people who’ve never set foot in the Netherlands.

Don’t even get me started on parent coaches.

The amount of number 9’s at Boys Club level with the captains armband and the same surname as the coach is beyond parody.
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Parents shouldn't manage their own kids teams.

In their own time yes.
 
Number 4 said:
Not just strikers, Scottish football is just not producing talent.

The transition from boys club > Pro Youth > reserves > senior isnt working.

The all but eradication of things like competitive school leagues and to a lesser degree things like BB teams and the complete absence of availability of pitches for an old fashioned kick about means kids have a very narrow window of opportunity to actually play the game. When I was looking for a team for my seven year old, I was asked by more than one club of he had a minimum of 2 seasons experience. Mental.

Is football still banned in playgrounds as well?

As kids, if we weren’t in class, we were playing football. Somewhere, somehow. In our estate of maybe 1500 residents, we also had about 8 distinct ‘teams’ outwith BC, School, BB’s and the Lanarkshire Selects.

Ironically, by formatting everything, it has made it inaccessible for loads of kids.

It’s lost its soul in this new, formal structure.

Kids want three kits, training gear, rain jackets and £200 boots before they play nowadays.
Click to expand...
The pro youth system was a laudable attempt at adding structure and quality coaching to youth football at the expense of those traditional feeder clubs like [Glasgow West Scotland] Possil YM, Eastercraigs, Drumchapel Ams, Harmony Row etc. It's failure is it has made the whole system incredibly incestuous with kids becoming locked into the system at the expense of anyone outside. A friend of mine's son played for no less than 4 clubs in pro youth between 12 and 16. He was not alone.
 
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