What is Scotland’s level? Now that generates another debate. As was heard on Sportsound between Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann and BBC Scotland’s chief sportswriter Tom English.
The latter suggested Scotland’s players are “not good enough” to compete at the top table of international football – nine tournament games across the past two Euros and this World Cup without scoring a non-deflected goal would suggest that.
But former Scotland winger McCann contested you can’t “pull the shutters down like that”.
“You’ve got a guy who’s voted the best midfielder in Italy, in Lewis Ferguson. You’ve got a guy who’s up for Ballon d’Or discussions in Scott McTominay. You’ve got the captain of Aston Villa [John McGinn], who has just won the Europa League,” said McCann.
All that is true, which is where much of the frustration lies among fans…
Barry: Abject failure on the international stage for a second tournament in a row, Steve Clarke has taken these players as far as he can and it would be better for all involved if he did the right thing and tore up that new contract. Scotland need fresh ideas.
Dougie: It’s not the manager’s fault. No manager makes the kind of mistakes on the pitch that Scotland made, but is he the guy to take it forward? There is such a thing as misplaced loyalty, and it’s clear these players can’t do tournament football successfully. If it was a club, there would be an almost total clearout.
William: Once again Scotland have been poor at a major tournament. They have been poor in all three games, giving away poor goals and not looking like scoring. The team don’t take responsibility and constantly take the easy option. Our players are simply not good enough. We don’t deserve to go through.
Hugh: We did our best. First World Cup in my lifetime (I am old enough to have voted three times). Genuinely proud of our boys, whether we go home tonight or not. We were drawn against Brazil and Morocco (again); they’re better teams, not much to be done about that. We had a good innings and we put up a good fight.
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