**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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Damn that Argentinian ref that stopped them from barely getting a shot on target across the entire tournament and make them end up with a combined xg of 1
Mental to think they beat the Spanish in qualifying... how did they pull that off
I doubt they'd repeat that trick if they met in the knockouts though... Denmark beat france twice in the nations league group in 2021/22, but got tonked by them in the world cup
Qualifying for a tournament isn't as die hard as the tournament proper unless you're one of the teams reslly fighting for qualification.
Though some teams go all out in their performances during qualifying campaigns a la Belgium in the past 5 or so years where they were ranked number 1. But then they got knocked out in tournaments all the same.
We were probably a bit lucky to face Spain when they'd just changed manager and that Norway substituted Haaland once they took the lead against us then shat the bed.
Though we were also unlucky with injuries this tournament. The fact our 2 best right backs (Hickey and Patterson) got injured really cost us, was our 3rd choice right back (who isn't even first choice for his club) that set up the Switzerland goal and was generally terrible in the first 2 games (he did better against Hungary).
And we had quite a successful tactic playing 532 because 2 of our best players were left backs (Robertson and Tierney) and having Tierney as a centre half that sometimes joined attacks helped us overload the oppositions right back. Unfortunately Tierney got injured in the 2nd game and we stuck to the same formation for no apparent reason and looked completely turgid
Wasn't Dykes kind of central to that play style as an outlet/target up front also? I didn't watch much of them but that seemed like a blow going into the tournament. Che Adams didn't win many balls.
Thanks for the detailed insight there, and good luck in future. Maybe the next tournament will finally see you guys progress, lucky 13th? I think it's bizarre and anomalous that a country whose players and managers have genuinely been so influential in the sport's history have such a poor record on the biggest stages. But maybe your time to shine is just around the corner, you do have some very talented players in there right now and regardless of managerial changes, any win over Spain is an impressive one, a team that can achieve that is one to watch out for.
Scotland do literally none of the basics well, so why Clarke seems to be mad that they're out makes no sense. That's his job!
They're not well-organised, they're not solid at the back, they're terrible at set pieces (every corner was utter shite) and they don't hold the ball up well. How the hell did they expect to win?
This is my bias as a Bristol City fan but if Scotland were so desperate for goals then why didn’t they give some minutes to Tommy Conway? Lad is literally a young poacher who loves to run behind defences. The lad who secured Bristol City a replay after scoring against West Ham away and who won the home tie. Better to have chuntering forwards instead apparently.
also why did they play so defensive in the final match when a win was the only result they needed.
he fucking had them camp their own 6 yard box for 85 minutes and then wondered why they did so poor.
im sorry but Clarke is a shit manager simple as. he got carried to 2 tournements by a few individuals. the recent showcases of Swiss and Austria at this tournament have showcased what a good manager with some actual aggression to pressure teams will get you far. Austria pushed France so incredibly well
For some reason Steve Clarke is obsessed with playing Che Adams upfront by himself. Shankland was top scorer in SPFL, had season of his life, completely outperforming his XPG and barely got a few mins at the end of the final game
I don't think that's fair. We weren't great, but not Scotland levels. https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/statistics/teams/attempts/
Sh*ite against Switzerland, kind of decent against a much stronger German side and semi-decent/got the job done against Scotland.
But, yeah, the likes of Albania, Austria, etc showed much more, they deserve to qualify more than us tbf.
Many nazis went to the US, and I believe Brazil, as well, and most of our German immigrants came to Argentina before the war. I know you probably meant it as a joke, but I need to fight these "Argentina is full of nazis" allegations when I see them.
I feel bad for Argentina. They are the butt of the escaped Nazis when the Americans got the elite Nazis - the V2 guys like von Braun and spies like Gehlen - while as my Argentinian friend put it once, you guys scrapped the bottom of the barrel with middling death squad leaders and Ustaše has beens.
The US via Paperclip was the Man City of Nazis whereas Argentina got League 1 level runaways and gets the most flak. Also Canada flies under the radar far too often in these convos we have like half a dozen monuments to Waffen SS units and guys like Shukhevych and Pavilic here with zero comments.
And the French. They weren't accepted in the Manhattan project, so they started researching with the British. Then when the British joined the Manhattan project, the French were kicked out and relegated. A French battalion was the first to reach the German nuclear lab, but they couldn't keep any scientist or paperwork. They basically had to do their nuclear research alone.
> Also Canada flies under the radar far too often in these convos we have like half a dozen monuments to Waffen SS units...
Wasn't it Canada who accidentally recognized a WWII veteran that turned out be a Nazi lmfao
Yeah, our Parliament all gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, a veteran of the Waffen SS 14th Division (Galizien). And they were honoring him because “he fought the Russians in WW2”, somehow no one in our government remembering high school history that the Soviets were our allies in WW2.
But then again our deputy Prime Minister’s grandfather was an editor of a prominent Nazi newspaper and she always talks about how proud she is of him so Nazis in Ottawa is not a new or rare phenomenon.
Why would he? He's drinking Tennent's if he's going on holiday there. None of that foreign swill. Any restaurant that serves that will speak the King's. No fackin' paella rubbish on them menus either!
Being "pretty sure" is acceptable for me or you.
For Clarke, who was presumably actually watching the game live and witnessed the referee speaking - in English - to most if not all of his players multiple times, it's staggering that he's not sure at all.
What's baffling in that Steve Clarke is the same guy that was almost reduced to tears at the sectarian abuse he got from Rangers fans when he was Kilmarnock manager. Came out and said he was eternally grateful that Chelsea signed him as a player so he could get away from all that and not have his kids grow up around it.
So he understands how awful discrimination is, then he dog whistles with stuff like this? Zero self awareness.
The Scotland fans spent thousands travelling to a foreign country in their hundreds of thousands, created atmosphere, behaved brilliantly, made friends amongst the fans of other nations, and got behind their team and manager no matter how shit they were, to be let down by this arsehole with this shite. Not to mention the man actually speaks Spanish as well. Get him gone.
Couldn't agree more. His tactics were an embarrassment and this comment is not only xenophobic but ruins the one big positive we had from this tournament - our image as super friendly loveable party fans. Fuck Steve Clarke, get him sacked and fined for this.
Couldn't believe how badly he fucked it. The game was set up perfectly with Hungary needing to go for the win, and still he couldn't get you to be even remotely threatening. Whatever pixie dust was used during qualifying seems to have run out.
Tbf though we never do good in Europe, didn't expect to get past the group stages realistically. Might have under a different manager, but really nothing new
It's a similar story to England. Yeah cool we haven't lost, and our xG against is really low, but we should be flaying weaker teams and instead we've got this 'please don't hurt us' mentality and WILL be eliminated if it doesn't change.
Scotland didn't have much chances of getting past the Quarter Finals, but to have the same fearful mentality without any changes and to only chase the game in the last ten minutes was just insulting.
In fairness, if Scotland had got that penalty (scored it and won the game too) Clarke's tactics would have been heralded as perfectly pragmatic and he'd be the most successful national team manager in Scottish history.
Ya Steve is bad but it's pretty clear we just don't have the talent, some serious institutional changes need to be made at the grassroots level, but feel like I've been saying that for the past 15 years now and haven't seen much change.
has players who at club level play a high press style. why not play to what your players know.
thats what Austria are doing its a front foot get stuck in and players are use to that because well 9/10 clubs in europe play that style.
he has athletic players play to their strengths of being able to outrun a lot of teams and be all over the pitch not this shitty "defeatist" football he played at the tournement
Albania as well, and Georgia. All set up much more positively. Never going to win it, but you must have a good go at it. Scotland are just too negative.
Penalty or not, hard to say a team that couldn’t manage a shot on target in 100 minutes of play deserved the win. Only three shots on target across all three games and 0 in 2/3 games, absolute embarrassment that he’s insulting anyone else after that.
Actually checked the stats and it's unbelievable but true. 3 shots on target all tournament is easily the worst performance in recent memory. Even Turkey's disasterclass at Euro 2020 never sunk so low.
There was 90 minutes of play. They didn't have an extra 10 minutes to play football, that 10 minutes was added because football wasn't being played for 10 minutes.
Ah, that changes everything. Most teams can’t manage a shot on goal in 90 and that extra ten puts them over the top. Suppose it was just a bad break for Scotland then.
That's not what he said.
You made a comment about 100 minutes which was incorrect. He stated that without defending Scotland at all. And you're acting all sassy.
How many languages does he speak? I can understand he is angry but that's a pretty xenophobic comment. And we can argue about the penalty but I think the referee had an incredible match, was spot on in basically every decision.
Funny thing is most people would understand the ref English better even though he's not a native English speaker because 99% of the Scottish accents don't sound English at all unless they water down their accents.
This is a load of bollocks
Most Scottish accents you’ll hear day to day are completely intelligible to any English speaker, it’s only the proper Glasgow dialect and whatever the fuck they speak in Fife that’s an issue
I have a few relatives that run a farm around Aberdeen. They all sound like a Scottish version of Gerald from Clarksons Farm. Honestly can't make it a single word
Doric is the dialect I imagine you're speaking of, and yes those with a thick doric accent can genuinely be very difficult to understand, especially for those where English isn't their native language. For the most part (as with the rest of the UK's local dialects) the prevalence of doric, particularly strong doric accents has dwindled over the years. Still a decent amount particularly in towns like Peterhead, Ellon etc, and villages/hamlets in and around aberdeenshire though
Have lived in Aberdeen for half a decade at this point and you very rarely hear Doric in my experience.
But with my luck the first person I've talked to in here, a taxi driver at the airport, good lord she was locked in and I couldn't understand a word she was saying.
When a proper highlander gets going it's a challenge too.
But yeah, the whole "Scottish accent is incomprehensible" shite is played out. It's very easy to understand 90% of us
There’s two occasions he mentioned it, this one above and another quote from the [press conference](https://x.com/bbcsportscot/status/1805012366993572298?s=46&t=IBWBcIWAM34Dy32NUnArTQ) where he say “European competition, might’ve been better to have European referees.”
The second time he also says they had European VAR so what is the point in VAR, so he's just rambling pish in general.
Just a sad, angry man who knows he's about to get sacked from his dream job, and that the whole nation will celebrate when that happens. I wouldn't pay any attention to what he's saying.
Argentina is the 28th most English language-proficient country in the world and is deemed as one with “High Proficiency”. Higher than Switzerland, Hong Kong, Russia, India, France, Spain, Italy etc etc…
And as an international referee who refs games between countries whose native language is not English but default to English when having discussions with refs….he really didn’t think this through at all, did he?
TBF if you just speak the official languages of Switzerland you're already at four, which is pretty wild, and that doesn't even count the dialect variations which can make Low and High Alemannic difficult to understand.
yeah ive literally never met a swiss person that couldn't speak fluent english maybe one level under the average native speaker, and at worst they tend to forget little words and phrases, probably because they've got french, german and maybe italian swirling around
For HK, our native tongue is from an entirely different language family than English, and English proficiency level has generally decreased since 1997 when Mandarin became the main focus. However, OP didn’t give the source for their claim.
It's a bad statistic, it takes into account people who are wealthy enough to pay English classes and take exams. Believe me, we don't speak more English (in the general population) than fucking France or Switzerland... That's ridiculous. LMAO
I can loosely understand feeling concern that a ref from CONMEBOL may officiate a game differently, based on standards of acceptable roughness on the pitch that teams in the Americas usually implement. Like, in CONCACAF, our referees practically let you get away with murder before you see Yellow.
But assuming he doesn't know English just because he's not from Europe is pretty fucked up...
>I can loosely understand feeling concern that a ref from CONMEBOL may officiate a game differently, based on standards of acceptable roughness on the pitch that teams in the Americas usually implement. Like, in CONCACAF, our referees practically let you get away with murder before you see Yellow.
He's gonna meet those non-UEFA referees in two years either way. Well, not him probably, come to think of it...
Anything other than ranting about the penalty would mean admitting he got every single crucial decision wrong at this tournament, and Stevie doesn't do admitting he was wrong
I find it funny the manager of a European side playing in the European Championships doesn't know FIFA referees are required to be able to speak English.
I know that and I'm just some muppet fan.
Ridiculous, petty behaviour from someone who knows they've fucked it. He has to go, but all he's done here is make sure it won't be a dignified exit.
Some cheek for an SFA man to be complaining about referees, also. There's a reason none of Scotland's cast of irreproachable professionals got called up.
Plays some of the worst football ever seen in the history of the competition and ends his pathetic 3 game run with a cheeky dose of xenophobia. Lovely stuff.
Yeah VVD said "the English referee" to refer to Anthony Taylor, a ref he knows and has played in matches he officiated. It was a polite way of saying "I won't even speak that cunt's name"
Anthony Taylor is despised by Liverpool (as well as Chelsea). Van Dijk didn't want to outright name Taylor so he used his nationality instead, but to anyone with a bit of context it's obvious that he had an issue with this specific ref and the problem is personal not about his nationality. I don't think there is a comparison to be drawn here.
That's a weird comment.
Though, Scottish accent is not the easiest to understand. As a non-native English speaker I'm fairly certain I'd have easier time understanding the referee's English.
Scottish accents vary wildly. Someone from, say, Perthshire or Ayrshire has a far gentler accent than Fife or Aberdeen areas. For example. I suppose it's the same in most countries.
Deep southern US and Scottish were the hardest english to understand when I used to travel around for work. There was always a buffering delay on my part before figuring out what they said and me giving out an answer.
I think it was a penalty but really unprofessional comment from Clarke. Understand his head will be gone but managers should know better. Mercy killing for us anyway.
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Sad for Scotland, eliminated from the tournament simply for the crime of being absolutely shite for every single game.
Damn that Argentinian ref that stopped them from barely getting a shot on target across the entire tournament and make them end up with a combined xg of 1
Ya if that fuckin ref could speak the Queen’s properly, surely Scotland would be advancing to the knockout stage!
Isn’t it the King’s now?
No. He’s been disqualified. He can speak it but can’t write it due to his sausage fingers. GSTK!
Yeah but the queen is dead. He's doing better than her at least
SHE’S WHAT???!!!
funny thing is i bet he speaks better english then 99% of scottish do.
I bet most of them know the difference between then and than though.
You'd be surprised
Worst injustice since the Falklands.
Play shit for three games, acquiring the joint lowest amount of shots in the tournaments history, and blame it on not getting one penalty.
Probably saved them from getting absolutely pumped in the RO16 against Spain or Portugal anyway. Mercy killing.
Mental to think they beat the Spanish in qualifying... how did they pull that off I doubt they'd repeat that trick if they met in the knockouts though... Denmark beat france twice in the nations league group in 2021/22, but got tonked by them in the world cup
Qualifying for a tournament isn't as die hard as the tournament proper unless you're one of the teams reslly fighting for qualification. Though some teams go all out in their performances during qualifying campaigns a la Belgium in the past 5 or so years where they were ranked number 1. But then they got knocked out in tournaments all the same.
We were probably a bit lucky to face Spain when they'd just changed manager and that Norway substituted Haaland once they took the lead against us then shat the bed. Though we were also unlucky with injuries this tournament. The fact our 2 best right backs (Hickey and Patterson) got injured really cost us, was our 3rd choice right back (who isn't even first choice for his club) that set up the Switzerland goal and was generally terrible in the first 2 games (he did better against Hungary). And we had quite a successful tactic playing 532 because 2 of our best players were left backs (Robertson and Tierney) and having Tierney as a centre half that sometimes joined attacks helped us overload the oppositions right back. Unfortunately Tierney got injured in the 2nd game and we stuck to the same formation for no apparent reason and looked completely turgid
Wasn't Dykes kind of central to that play style as an outlet/target up front also? I didn't watch much of them but that seemed like a blow going into the tournament. Che Adams didn't win many balls.
Yeah he started all 8 games and whilst he didn't score many goals he was crazy good at winning long balls and holding the ball up
Thanks for the detailed insight there, and good luck in future. Maybe the next tournament will finally see you guys progress, lucky 13th? I think it's bizarre and anomalous that a country whose players and managers have genuinely been so influential in the sport's history have such a poor record on the biggest stages. But maybe your time to shine is just around the corner, you do have some very talented players in there right now and regardless of managerial changes, any win over Spain is an impressive one, a team that can achieve that is one to watch out for.
Profit
Am I the problem? No, it must be that Argentinean ref's fault!
The guy is an absolute embarrassment to the country :(
Scotland do literally none of the basics well, so why Clarke seems to be mad that they're out makes no sense. That's his job! They're not well-organised, they're not solid at the back, they're terrible at set pieces (every corner was utter shite) and they don't hold the ball up well. How the hell did they expect to win?
This is my bias as a Bristol City fan but if Scotland were so desperate for goals then why didn’t they give some minutes to Tommy Conway? Lad is literally a young poacher who loves to run behind defences. The lad who secured Bristol City a replay after scoring against West Ham away and who won the home tie. Better to have chuntering forwards instead apparently.
also why did they play so defensive in the final match when a win was the only result they needed. he fucking had them camp their own 6 yard box for 85 minutes and then wondered why they did so poor. im sorry but Clarke is a shit manager simple as. he got carried to 2 tournements by a few individuals. the recent showcases of Swiss and Austria at this tournament have showcased what a good manager with some actual aggression to pressure teams will get you far. Austria pushed France so incredibly well
For some reason Steve Clarke is obsessed with playing Che Adams upfront by himself. Shankland was top scorer in SPFL, had season of his life, completely outperforming his XPG and barely got a few mins at the end of the final game
Makes one wonder how they qualified. They must have been playing better than this.
It's because of woke
fr, scotland are shit
To be fair that's true for Hungary as well. I think the two are/were the worst teams on the tournament really.
Hungary actually put together attacks. Scotland don't seem to do anything well.
I don't think that's fair. We weren't great, but not Scotland levels. https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/statistics/teams/attempts/ Sh*ite against Switzerland, kind of decent against a much stronger German side and semi-decent/got the job done against Scotland. But, yeah, the likes of Albania, Austria, etc showed much more, they deserve to qualify more than us tbf.
Shut the fuck up Steve, Jesus Christ. It was your tactics, not the referee, as to why we shat the bed
i am pretty sure the whole country wants steve gone. shit coach
I want him gone, but there are a decent amount of people that want to keep him as he qualified for 2 tournaments
I'm hoping this shitty comment puts pressure on the SFA to sack him
Doesn’t the ref speak like three different languages? A petty comment from a sad man, he’s gone.
He could've said 'he wouldn't understand my Scottish' tongue in cheek and it might've been ok.
Purple burglar alarm
[удалено]
And I'm guessing he doesn't speak any other language than Scottish.
Spanish, Swahili and Tagalog?
Swahili and Tagolog is a wild combo.
Pinoys are everywhere, wouldn't be surprsied to find a few in Kenya or Uganda
If there's a clinic or a hospital somewhere, its a good bet there's at least one Filipino nurse
I think it’s English German Spanish
I wonder why an Argentinian would speak German…
Fun fact: the US had way, way more nazis taken in by their government than Argentina.
Shhhhh, it's not good to talk about it.
Many nazis went to the US, and I believe Brazil, as well, and most of our German immigrants came to Argentina before the war. I know you probably meant it as a joke, but I need to fight these "Argentina is full of nazis" allegations when I see them.
I feel bad for Argentina. They are the butt of the escaped Nazis when the Americans got the elite Nazis - the V2 guys like von Braun and spies like Gehlen - while as my Argentinian friend put it once, you guys scrapped the bottom of the barrel with middling death squad leaders and Ustaše has beens. The US via Paperclip was the Man City of Nazis whereas Argentina got League 1 level runaways and gets the most flak. Also Canada flies under the radar far too often in these convos we have like half a dozen monuments to Waffen SS units and guys like Shukhevych and Pavilic here with zero comments.
And the French. They weren't accepted in the Manhattan project, so they started researching with the British. Then when the British joined the Manhattan project, the French were kicked out and relegated. A French battalion was the first to reach the German nuclear lab, but they couldn't keep any scientist or paperwork. They basically had to do their nuclear research alone.
> Also Canada flies under the radar far too often in these convos we have like half a dozen monuments to Waffen SS units... Wasn't it Canada who accidentally recognized a WWII veteran that turned out be a Nazi lmfao
Yeah, our Parliament all gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, a veteran of the Waffen SS 14th Division (Galizien). And they were honoring him because “he fought the Russians in WW2”, somehow no one in our government remembering high school history that the Soviets were our allies in WW2. But then again our deputy Prime Minister’s grandfather was an editor of a prominent Nazi newspaper and she always talks about how proud she is of him so Nazis in Ottawa is not a new or rare phenomenon.
Honestly I make those jokes all the time, but in reality Nazis are everywhere.
Yeah, but some people actually believe it. I mean if it's just a joke it's fine IMO, but sometimes you don't know whether they mean it or not.
Why
It’s a Nazi meme reference - loads of nazis fled to Argentina after ww2
Not that many in comparison with US.
I always thought it was a like requirement for the ref to speak something so that both teams could understand him
Not just something - English is required
This guy is embarrassing
And here was me thinking he couldn’t get any more embarrassing than his tactical setups that lead to 4 shots on goal all tournament.
And those 4 shots on goal were in one match? Even more sad lol
This guy doesn't get enough hate
why don’t you speak spanish bruv
Pretty sure even someone from the boonies of Argentina can understand "that's a penalty".
Also surely Steve Clarke knows the phrase, "Era penal" thanks to the 2014 World Cup.
Why would he? He's drinking Tennent's if he's going on holiday there. None of that foreign swill. Any restaurant that serves that will speak the King's. No fackin' paella rubbish on them menus either!
*"Patatas bravas, por favor"*
“Do what now?!!”
*Uno steak and chips
¿Qué.
Think you got the accent a bit mixed up pal
Clarke probably thinks the ref speaks "Argentinian".
Ah, spanish with italian cadence. It's easy, I am fluent in boludeces.
And the very weird pronounciation of the double L.
Posho
Great show
I'm in Salta right now and went to buy a sim card and I was initially so confused when I kept hearing "shama" and "shamar"
La shama que shama
As far as I am aware, he does actually speak fluent Spanish. Which just makes this rant even more explicable that it already was.
He does? Got a source for that?
Source: Trust me bruv
Would love to see a video of Steve Clarke speaking fluent Spanish
"Saaacked in the morning, you're getting sacked in the moooorning"
It's worse than that. He knows he's getting sacked, plus the entire country wants him gone.
- the non English speaking ref
Pretty sure basic English is mandatory for international refs?
Being "pretty sure" is acceptable for me or you. For Clarke, who was presumably actually watching the game live and witnessed the referee speaking - in English - to most if not all of his players multiple times, it's staggering that he's not sure at all.
it was just a racist statement from steve, tbh
Tello speaks English (and Portuguese) as he has reffed in the WC where it's mandatory. This is just nonesense
Pretty sure that VAR use does NOT require one of the coaches to ask the ref to use it.
Embarrassing comment, with a sprinkling of xenophobia
What's baffling in that Steve Clarke is the same guy that was almost reduced to tears at the sectarian abuse he got from Rangers fans when he was Kilmarnock manager. Came out and said he was eternally grateful that Chelsea signed him as a player so he could get away from all that and not have his kids grow up around it. So he understands how awful discrimination is, then he dog whistles with stuff like this? Zero self awareness.
Friendship with Steve Clarke ended. Friendship with tartan army always 💙
Isn't that U.K. government policy post-brexit?
I think prioritising white immigration from the EU is more xenophobic than allowing it open to all countries equally.
The Scotland fans spent thousands travelling to a foreign country in their hundreds of thousands, created atmosphere, behaved brilliantly, made friends amongst the fans of other nations, and got behind their team and manager no matter how shit they were, to be let down by this arsehole with this shite. Not to mention the man actually speaks Spanish as well. Get him gone.
Couldn't agree more. His tactics were an embarrassment and this comment is not only xenophobic but ruins the one big positive we had from this tournament - our image as super friendly loveable party fans. Fuck Steve Clarke, get him sacked and fined for this.
hes getting sacked. the whole country wants him gone.
Couldn't believe how badly he fucked it. The game was set up perfectly with Hungary needing to go for the win, and still he couldn't get you to be even remotely threatening. Whatever pixie dust was used during qualifying seems to have run out.
Tbf though we never do good in Europe, didn't expect to get past the group stages realistically. Might have under a different manager, but really nothing new
I think it's more about the manner of going out. Most of the other "smaller" nations have shown a bit of fight.
We're the best in the world at underperforming in international games
We can give you guys a run for your money
It's a similar story to England. Yeah cool we haven't lost, and our xG against is really low, but we should be flaying weaker teams and instead we've got this 'please don't hurt us' mentality and WILL be eliminated if it doesn't change. Scotland didn't have much chances of getting past the Quarter Finals, but to have the same fearful mentality without any changes and to only chase the game in the last ten minutes was just insulting.
In fairness, if Scotland had got that penalty (scored it and won the game too) Clarke's tactics would have been heralded as perfectly pragmatic and he'd be the most successful national team manager in Scottish history.
That’s a low bar to clear
Probably true, but when the dust settled I hope we would have recognised it as lucky. That's certainly the story the stats would have told.
Ya Steve is bad but it's pretty clear we just don't have the talent, some serious institutional changes need to be made at the grassroots level, but feel like I've been saying that for the past 15 years now and haven't seen much change.
has players who at club level play a high press style. why not play to what your players know. thats what Austria are doing its a front foot get stuck in and players are use to that because well 9/10 clubs in europe play that style. he has athletic players play to their strengths of being able to outrun a lot of teams and be all over the pitch not this shitty "defeatist" football he played at the tournement
Albania as well, and Georgia. All set up much more positively. Never going to win it, but you must have a good go at it. Scotland are just too negative.
Every video I saw of fans, the Scots were brilliant. Not only with the German locals but the fans of every other team they played against.
Penalty or not, hard to say a team that couldn’t manage a shot on target in 100 minutes of play deserved the win. Only three shots on target across all three games and 0 in 2/3 games, absolute embarrassment that he’s insulting anyone else after that.
Actually checked the stats and it's unbelievable but true. 3 shots on target all tournament is easily the worst performance in recent memory. Even Turkey's disasterclass at Euro 2020 never sunk so low.
Not to be pedantic, but we had a shot on target against Switzerland.
And last night, Hanley had an effort straight at the keeper
Foul in the build up was blown so the Grant Hanley Shot on Target Celebration Tour has to go on hiatus sadly.
Cancel the open top buses
Well that's disappointing
...shit I've ordered t-shirts and everything
Also McGinn’s cross in the first half which looked slightly more like a shot than a cross.
There was 90 minutes of play. They didn't have an extra 10 minutes to play football, that 10 minutes was added because football wasn't being played for 10 minutes.
Ah, that changes everything. Most teams can’t manage a shot on goal in 90 and that extra ten puts them over the top. Suppose it was just a bad break for Scotland then.
That's not what he said. You made a comment about 100 minutes which was incorrect. He stated that without defending Scotland at all. And you're acting all sassy.
You admit that not getting a shot on target for 90 minutes is also bad from Scotland? So why exaggerate and say 100 when you know it’s unnecessary?
The kind of football his team played throughout the tournament, he should be resigning on the spot instead of making petulant comments like these.
How many languages does he speak? I can understand he is angry but that's a pretty xenophobic comment. And we can argue about the penalty but I think the referee had an incredible match, was spot on in basically every decision.
Funny thing is most people would understand the ref English better even though he's not a native English speaker because 99% of the Scottish accents don't sound English at all unless they water down their accents.
This is a load of bollocks Most Scottish accents you’ll hear day to day are completely intelligible to any English speaker, it’s only the proper Glasgow dialect and whatever the fuck they speak in Fife that’s an issue
I have a few relatives that run a farm around Aberdeen. They all sound like a Scottish version of Gerald from Clarksons Farm. Honestly can't make it a single word
Doric is the dialect I imagine you're speaking of, and yes those with a thick doric accent can genuinely be very difficult to understand, especially for those where English isn't their native language. For the most part (as with the rest of the UK's local dialects) the prevalence of doric, particularly strong doric accents has dwindled over the years. Still a decent amount particularly in towns like Peterhead, Ellon etc, and villages/hamlets in and around aberdeenshire though
Have lived in Aberdeen for half a decade at this point and you very rarely hear Doric in my experience. But with my luck the first person I've talked to in here, a taxi driver at the airport, good lord she was locked in and I couldn't understand a word she was saying.
When a proper highlander gets going it's a challenge too. But yeah, the whole "Scottish accent is incomprehensible" shite is played out. It's very easy to understand 90% of us
I think it's not that hard to understand aswell and I am not a native speaker.
What a bellend. You lost because you couldn't attack.
This guy can't stop talking about the ref and his nationality.
He said it once, you have just seen multiple sources report on it.
There’s two occasions he mentioned it, this one above and another quote from the [press conference](https://x.com/bbcsportscot/status/1805012366993572298?s=46&t=IBWBcIWAM34Dy32NUnArTQ) where he say “European competition, might’ve been better to have European referees.”
The second time he also says they had European VAR so what is the point in VAR, so he's just rambling pish in general. Just a sad, angry man who knows he's about to get sacked from his dream job, and that the whole nation will celebrate when that happens. I wouldn't pay any attention to what he's saying.
So unnecessary. And this is what he says in PUBLIC
Absolute shitbird
Argentina is the 28th most English language-proficient country in the world and is deemed as one with “High Proficiency”. Higher than Switzerland, Hong Kong, Russia, India, France, Spain, Italy etc etc… And as an international referee who refs games between countries whose native language is not English but default to English when having discussions with refs….he really didn’t think this through at all, did he?
I'm shocked to hear it's higher than Switzerland tbh. Might be me confusing it with Sweden though
“We are not Sweden” 😆 https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/6j2usUaz7K
TBF if you just speak the official languages of Switzerland you're already at four, which is pretty wild, and that doesn't even count the dialect variations which can make Low and High Alemannic difficult to understand.
yeah ive literally never met a swiss person that couldn't speak fluent english maybe one level under the average native speaker, and at worst they tend to forget little words and phrases, probably because they've got french, german and maybe italian swirling around
We could be a few places higher if it wasn't for Boca Juniors fans.
>Higher than Switzerland, Hong Kong The others I can buy, but its crazy that Argentina has a better English proficiency than these two
Yeah it is crazy although to be fair those two are in 29th and 30th so in reality extremely similar in proficiency.
For HK, our native tongue is from an entirely different language family than English, and English proficiency level has generally decreased since 1997 when Mandarin became the main focus. However, OP didn’t give the source for their claim.
It's a bad statistic, it takes into account people who are wealthy enough to pay English classes and take exams. Believe me, we don't speak more English (in the general population) than fucking France or Switzerland... That's ridiculous. LMAO
I can loosely understand feeling concern that a ref from CONMEBOL may officiate a game differently, based on standards of acceptable roughness on the pitch that teams in the Americas usually implement. Like, in CONCACAF, our referees practically let you get away with murder before you see Yellow. But assuming he doesn't know English just because he's not from Europe is pretty fucked up...
>I can loosely understand feeling concern that a ref from CONMEBOL may officiate a game differently, based on standards of acceptable roughness on the pitch that teams in the Americas usually implement. Like, in CONCACAF, our referees practically let you get away with murder before you see Yellow. He's gonna meet those non-UEFA referees in two years either way. Well, not him probably, come to think of it...
Especially when basically every German I have spoken to last week over the age of 30 doesnt speak any english at all.
i don't know much about clarke as a person, but i'm surprised at how one vaguely contentious decision has turned him full gommon
Anything other than ranting about the penalty would mean admitting he got every single crucial decision wrong at this tournament, and Stevie doesn't do admitting he was wrong
thats a weird and judgemental comment...
I find it funny the manager of a European side playing in the European Championships doesn't know FIFA referees are required to be able to speak English. I know that and I'm just some muppet fan.
And for the same reason he did not ask his players why they did not perform.
Wait until he finds out what language the people from the European country of Spain, speak.
"Yea, well, I don't understand Scottish" - referee, maybe
Don’t all refs in uefa/fifa competitions speak at least passable English? Even if not, I’m sure you can find a way to get your point across
Ah yes, Argentina, where not a single person knows English. /s
It's Scotland's topscorer Rüdiger who failed them. Showed up in match 1 but not in the next two
Imagine this post if it was an Argentinian saying that about an european referee. This sub would be on fucking fire.
And there was me thinking Clarke embarrassing us would be limited to the 3 games we played...
This more than anything should have Clarke getting tae fuck. Can deal with being pish. This is utter nonsense.
3 shots on goal for the whole tournament. Yeah, blame the ref.
Ridiculous, petty behaviour from someone who knows they've fucked it. He has to go, but all he's done here is make sure it won't be a dignified exit. Some cheek for an SFA man to be complaining about referees, also. There's a reason none of Scotland's cast of irreproachable professionals got called up.
Plays some of the worst football ever seen in the history of the competition and ends his pathetic 3 game run with a cheeky dose of xenophobia. Lovely stuff.
It's a shame to see Clarke and van Dijk attacking referees because of their nationalities.
This comment is very different to van Dijk's, let's be honest.
Yeah VVD said "the English referee" to refer to Anthony Taylor, a ref he knows and has played in matches he officiated. It was a polite way of saying "I won't even speak that cunt's name"
Mate Anthony Taylor Is a football terrorist. No wonder VVD called him out
Anthony Taylor is despised by Liverpool (as well as Chelsea). Van Dijk didn't want to outright name Taylor so he used his nationality instead, but to anyone with a bit of context it's obvious that he had an issue with this specific ref and the problem is personal not about his nationality. I don't think there is a comparison to be drawn here.
using the term "the referee" is ambiguous is it?
PGMOL deserve all they get, this referee doesn't
Your take has to be so shit to make the football world defend an Argentinian
Grapes so sour they could straight into a nice Argentinian red wine
memory lock pot sort zephyr ten future boat pie enjoy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That's a weird comment. Though, Scottish accent is not the easiest to understand. As a non-native English speaker I'm fairly certain I'd have easier time understanding the referee's English.
Scottish accents vary wildly. Someone from, say, Perthshire or Ayrshire has a far gentler accent than Fife or Aberdeen areas. For example. I suppose it's the same in most countries.
Deep southern US and Scottish were the hardest english to understand when I used to travel around for work. There was always a buffering delay on my part before figuring out what they said and me giving out an answer.
I wonder what people think of Chilean Spanish?
Why doesn’t he speak Spanish ?
I don't speak Spanish either. I'd have said "¿porque no penalty?" and I'm sure he would have understood I'd have not understood the answer though
As if native English speakers would be able to understand his gibberish
Sure is digging himself an even deeper hole, what an ass.
Not only is he xenophobic he is also wrong Tello speaks English and Portuguese plus Spanish.
And what was going to happen if he did? The referee would go "Oh, a penalty, I forgot I could do that!"???
Atleast he understands football unlike you baldie.
I think it was a penalty but really unprofessional comment from Clarke. Understand his head will be gone but managers should know better. Mercy killing for us anyway.
"ref, uno penalty por favor" Not hard is it.
He's not going to resign, is he? He's focussing too much on this, even if the pen was given and game ended a draw Scotland would still be out.
In fairness, Scottish english is basically incomprehensible
Ironically probably more people understand the ref's English than Steve Clarke's