3 games into Euro 2024 & I'm already sick fed up of the coverage the England team is getting.
Is there another channel that's covering it which doesn't feel the need to tell you what flavoured crayon Harry Kane had for breakfast?
🏴 The day after the night before and it’s time to be brutally honest.
Scotland last 10 Games: W 1 L 9 GA 26. There is something fundamentally wrong in our set up.
I think we’ve got a good squad of players who should be doing far better than we have been and the manager has to carry the can for that.
The humiliation of the 5-1 defeat to Germany is on the head of Steve Clarke, in my opinion. Defeat wasn’t a surprise but the manner of the loss is not acceptable.
Tony Kroos had 102 passes in midfield and 101 were completed giving him a 99% accuracy. I don’t blame the players for that. I blame the tactics and the way Clarke set us up. We stood off from minute 1 and watched the opposition play football in front of us. WTF?
McGregor was isolated sat in front of a back 5 and he had Christie, McTominay and McGinn in front of him doing absolutely nothing. They were just filling spaces. They never engaged or pressed.
Time and time again McGregor had Havertz and Gündoğan to deal with and then the likes of Wirtz was also dropping into those pockets between defence and midfield.
I felt sorry for McGregor because he was so isolated as our back 5 was so rigid. Not one of the three centre backs stepped up to put pressure on the German players who were dropping in alongside McGregor and had him outnumbered.
Steve Clarke is a pragmatic coach and in Munich it felt as though we were on a tight leash and this has been his style from day 1 and I’ve never liked it.
I know what the Clark fanboys will say: ‘but we’ve qualified for two Euros under Clarke’ but it has never been easier to qualify for a major tournament with the nations leagu, play offs and expansion of Euros etc
We got two great results (not performances) v Norway and Spain to be in Germany but we carried a lot of luck in both games and the Clarke fanboys will jump to his defence but these are the same fanboys who scream about how lucky England are when the get an easy group etc
Performances under Clarke, on the whole, have not been great and for the game against Switzerland he has to change the pragmatic set up / tactics / mindset or we’ll be the first country to crash out of Euro 24.
It’s not over and I’ll continue to believe but Wednesday is huge not just for our national team but also for Steve Clarke 🏴
If Ronaldo never scores again, and Haaland also plays to 38, he will need to score 43 goals a season for the next 16 years just to level CR7’s career total.
There is so much going on in financial markets around the world.
And as most of it is actually happening outside the US, it can easily get overlooked.
A global macro thread.
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Your 2021/22 Europa League finalists, Glasgow Rangers! 💙❤️
Pack your bags, Bears! You're off to Seville!
✨ What an incredible journey this team have been on...
#UEL
They lost their first two group stage matches.
They lost Steven Gerrard.
They were drawn against tournament favourites Borussia Dortmund.
They had to go to Belgrade.
They lost the first leg to Braga.
They never gave up.
Rangers are Europa League semi-finalists.
#RangersFC