I didn't watch the Scotland game tonight (because I was watching the England one) so my opinion is fairly worthless. But from the bits I've seen through the whole tournament I thought Scotland, despite the end result, were quite good and basically a quality striker short of being a top 'tier two' international team.
There are opportunities in international football now for second tier sides to go deep into these tournaments. Indeed there always have been - Denmark, Greece. Even more so at the moment the top players care about their clubs more and play about 40 games for them so they're knackered and - maybe this is harsh - feel like they're participating in a friendly, or at least something less important than when they play for their main paymaster. So a well organised Scotland type side (or England if I'm brutally honest, because theres not that much difference) should be able to do some damage.
Against England Scotland looked organised and tough to beat. But not entirely without ideas and a bit of threat. And although England are very 6/10 I still think Scotland might have done similarly well against an Italy or Germany. There's a point buried in here somewhere. You celebrate when you draw with England but you also think they're shit. Does that... entirely make sense?
You need a goalscorer. There won't be loads of chances so you have to have a poacher. You didn't. The accent on defence that helps less skilled sides means that, conversely, nobody generates many chances - so you can't have that Dykes guy up front. Or Adams. I'm sure they're great and do a job, but it won't work, because between them they average a goal every 4.5 games. You need someone who will score more often than not when you get an opportunity.
"Ah, but we can't sign players!" Obviously. But a bit of me salivates over a Scotland team that got here with Leigh Griffiths in his pomp, strutting his stuff 15 yards ahead of John McGinn. I remember watching him pull off some extraordinary feat or other for Celtic or Scotland (or hibs, I try to tell myself, but it wasn't) with my father in law and him muttering, "you've got nothing like that", and he was right.
Anyway, international football is a load of nonsense anyway. GGTTH.
