Are Scotland ‘robots’ at rock bottom? Defeats by Belgium and Russia bring heavy criticism

20 Dec Are Scotland ‘robots’ at rock bottom? Defeats by Belgium and Russia bring heavy criticism

Scotland’s’robot’ side are not even at rock bottom according to Kris Boyd, as the criticism builds following another defeat.
Scotland defeat by Belgium on Monday in Hampden Park, matched on Friday with the 2-1 loss against Russia, also made it four reductions from six in European Qualifiying Group I.
They are in place at the class, nine things with four games remaining away second-placed Russia.
Manager Steve Clarke is finding it easier to get the team working than predecessors Alex McLeish and Gordon Strachan, suffering a defeat after conceding targets.
Will it get worse? What needs to change? And can they still qualify?
Are Scotland at stone? No, says Kris Boyd, which is not a positive. Things can and will get worse if the country rethinks how it produces players.
Boyd did not hold back in his criticism of the existing Scotland squads, stating the players are currently performing like robots, with no strikers and with no defenders that are out-and-out.
“Football in our nation now is a middle-class game,” Boyd said on Sky Sports after the Belgium conquer. “I am reluctant to mention that as a nation, along with also a footballing country, we haven’t hit rock bottom yet.
“I have had to say to the majority of people my age or old, the very first people you desired about the pitch were people from the deprived regions who would put their thoughts where a few people would not stand their foot. These people are now being priced out of soccer now.
“We’re not likely to go everywhere, and worldwide weekend is now about turning upward, observing teams in this way, and accepting where we are.
“Do not get all excited when it boils down to internationals, because if we do not make a complete shift, this is exactly what it is going to be such as for a range of decades.
“The vast majority of our players have been robots, and for me it is only going to get worse. We do not have any strikers, and now we don’t have some defenders who wish to shield.”
Skipper Andy Robertson heavily criticised Scotland’s performance on Friday from Russia, saying he’d”never seen anything such as” the way he sensed the side froze.
Though slightly more favorable on Monday, the Liverpool defender still lamented the”basic errors”, in particular for Romelu Lukaku’s opener.
“Strangely [I’m] a little bit more optimistic than Friday,” he explained. “We played better at times, we had spells at the game when we played more like us.
“But in this point, we’ve got a free-kick at 10 minutes at 0-0 and we abandon ourselves two versus one at the rear and Lukaku isn’t missing out of there. So you wind up 1-0 down once you’ve started very well. All these are items that we will need to modify.
“Three set-pieces, just one for us, two for these, and we wind up 3-0 down in half-time after not doing much wrong. These are the basic errors that we can’t make. It is small margins but compact margins make a huge difference.”
Despite the three defeats in four, director Clarke insists he doesn’t need to experiment at the final four games of Group I, which may frustrate some fans.
Clarke did put his side a target of finishing third at the group, ahead of the Nations League.
“It’s not always about creating, I’m not going to experiment in the following four matches,” Clarke said. “I don’t have to experimentation, I must work with the players who are in my disposal and I must attempt to make us better and definitely more resilient defensively.
“The group’s over regarding qualification. Where we’re in the table 12, it does not look good. There’s 12 points up for grabs and now we have to make certain we finish third in the group, when it comes to rankings and seedings.
“And when we finish third it will mean we’ve performed well, which should give us confidence going to the play-off games in March.”
After their defeat to Belgium but qualifying for their first important men’s championship in more than two decades may still happen, scotland lovers could be in a state of despair.
That’s because topping their Nations League C group ensures them a place in the play-offs, where they will take on the teams which excelled in a and, ideally, closing in that grade of the competition.
Right now, the other teams in the way of Scotland would be Israel or Bulgaria, Serbia and Norway. Just Serbia is ranked above Scotland from the FIFA rankings.
Just how Scotland can still qualify

Read more here: http://apm.mn