Problems defending the scotch

I dont study openings, but I DO see in my insights that one opening stands out in a negative way. When faced with the Scotch opening, I almost always lose. (12 out of 14) in all other openings i fare much better (win rate around 50 percent). I analysed most of these Scotch losses, but I cant find out why I keep losing. it is NOT t as if I always make the same mistake or fall for the same trap.

My question is: does this point to some obvious underlying problems I should consider working on? Something like 'scotch games are usually full of tactics/far more strategically/really hard to play when.../full of traps/... compared to the average game'. I am fairly new to the game so i really dont know what type of player I am.

The only thing I noticed is that in most of my scotch games, there is usually a lot exchanging going on really early and there arent many pieces left. But according to AI the exchanges are not where i lose the games.

Maybe this gives experencied players some usefull information: Another opening that stands out, but in a postive way, is Scandinavian, when playing with white. 9 wins out of 10.

Uhm yeah.
Problem is that none of my opponents play as kasparov does. 😀 What i am looking for is help on a more general level. If possible, offcourse

I play Scotch gambit a lot with white but i can tell you that two knights defense give me a lot of problems. Try two knight's its the best defense or even better just play 1. c5 :) hope that helps.

@JodyUmmels you are missing the point, the game he showed you is how to play against the best moves, if your opponent drifts away from those they are mostly inaccuracies which you can manage to work around......when I started playing chess I stopped responding with e5 because of the scotch and went for the french instead, it worked wonders as i had lots of theory on it and my then opponents of less than 1600 didnt know how to deal....as I got better i went back to using e5 and I now knew how to deal with the scotch.So my advice is get down and get dirty read the theory and practice.

#3
In one of your games you played 5...Nf6? in the position of #2 which would have immediately lost to 6 Nxc6 with double attack on Qd8 and Bc5.
I present this game #2 as it is a black win over Kasparov himself, the man who singlehandedly resurrected the Scotch.
You can study how Caruana played it out against Kasparov.

What more general help do you want?

I mean the scotch is very dubious, 4.Nf6 is posing very serious problems and Nepo who is the only top player who plays it occasionally said "if you want to win don't play the scotch". Bc5 is ambitious and if you don't want to get mated then

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. e5 Qe7 7. Qe2 Nd5 8.
c4 Nb6 9. Nc3 Qe6 10. Qe4 g6 11. Bd2 Bg7 * is a very reliable line and my stockfish 12 prefers black

#7
Yes 4...Nf6 is the alternative to 4...Bc5

Some people like @tpr really work hard and suggest, thank you all .

I dont like Nf6 because for a beginner the concept of pins hasnt really sank in and can easily forget and lose pieces, plus against stronger players not being able to castle is a serious problem....personally I dont develop my knight before my bishop when using e5....and i have never used this line its just too complicated.