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My Opinion on Debutants


Caledonian Craig

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Last night was a handy exercise to assess the fringe players and those that may or may not have a part to play in the coming years. My opinion on them is a bit hit and miss.

Scott McKenna was solid enough but needs to work on his ball distribution as he seemed to hit a fair few passes either out of play or to the opposition. Defensively, he was competent enough so I'd say he is worth another look perhaps in a more central role if Eck persists with the wing-back system.

Scott McTominay was tidy enough but didn't rip up any trees. I did like that he looked comfortable on the ball but hoping he can make more of a mark on the games in the future. Again decent enough to merit another look.

Kevin McDonald was a disappointment for me. Largely anonymous and did not show me that he merits a place in a Scotland starting line-up anytime again soon I am afraid. The match passed him by and I'd prefer to see what others can do in his position now. In any case at 30 he's hardly one for the future.

Oli McBurnie was the pick of the debutants for me. Worked hard up front at closing down their defenders. When he got the ball he held it up pretty well and off-loaded to the supporting players. Also went close forcing a good save from Nevas in the first half and had a penalty appeal turned down. Needed more support in attack and was isolated a lot of the time. Did well in my opinion.

Jamie Murphy was not on long enough to form a real opinion I am afraid.

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1 minute ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Last night was a handy exercise to assess the fringe players and those that may or may not have a part to play in the coming years. My opinion on them is a bit hit and miss.

Scott McKenna was solid enough but needs to work on his ball distribution as he seemed to hit a fair few passes either out of play or to the opposition. Defensively, he was competent enough so I'd say he is worth another look perhaps in a more central role if Eck persists with the wing-back system.

Scott McTominay was tidy enough but didn't rip up any trees. I did like that he looked comfortable on the ball but hoping he can make more of a mark on the games in the future. Again decent enough to merit another look.

Kevin McDonald was a disappointment for me. Largely anonymous and did not show me that he merits a place in a Scotland starting line-up anytime again soon I am afraid. The match passed him by and I'd prefer to see what others can do in his position now. In any case at 30 he's hardly one for the future.

Oli McBurnie was the pick of the debutants for me. Worked hard up front at closing down their defenders. When he got the ball he held it up pretty well and off-loaded to the supporting players. Also went close forcing a good save from Nevas in the first half and had a penalty appeal turned down. Needed more support in attack and was isolated a lot of the time. Did well in my opinion.

Jamie Murphy was not on long enough to form a real opinion I am afraid.

That's a pretty fair analysis imo. I would personally only give mcburnie more game time when the serious games start as I think he did reasonably well given the difficult job he had. McKenna maybe deserves another chance in the friendly games as well as he was solid enough.

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McKenna - Solid enough, did not really do anything spectacular. A solid defend first player so thats what we should expect. Headers and hoof it out. Solid though. Would suit a back 4 in my opinion.

McDonald - I dont remember him doing too much but i felt bad as we played with 2 defensive midfielders for some reason and people expected him to get forward, not his game

McTominay - Not sure what people expected but he did exactly what he normally does, short passes, sits in front of the defence and gets the ball to creative players. Again this issue was we had 3 of these players at home.

McBurnie - Worked hard and ran a lot. very isolated up front, nobody apart from robertson got forward to help him.

Murphy - dont remember him even being on.

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59 minutes ago, jamboman said:

McKenna - Solid enough, did not really do anything spectacular. A solid defend first player so thats what we should expect. Headers and hoof it out. Solid though. Would suit a back 4 in my opinion.

McDonald - I dont remember him doing too much but i felt bad as we played with 2 defensive midfielders for some reason and people expected him to get forward, not his game

McTominay - Not sure what people expected but he did exactly what he normally does, short passes, sits in front of the defence and gets the ball to creative players. Again this issue was we had 3 of these players at home.

McBurnie - Worked hard and ran a lot. very isolated up front, nobody apart from robertson got forward to help him.

Murphy - dont remember him even being on.

3? McTom. McD and ?

 

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Don’t think we got to see the best of McDonald (or Cairney for that matter) due to the system we played. Cairney is the more advanced of three midfielders at Fulham while McDonald sits as the holding/defensive player. A 4-2-3-1 would have suited them better, however I’ve been a fan of trying a back three for a while now.

If McBurnie can continue playing regularly and scoring at club level he’s a good option to have (either as an alternative to Griffiths or as his strike partner).

Liked the look of McKenna but would like to see more untried centre halves like Liam Lindsay or Murray Wallace called up as well. 

McTominay looks very comfortable on the ball, just hope we don’t put too much pressure on him too soon.

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I thought McKenna was really solid tbh, didn’t put a foot wrong all night and should be a mainstay in the team.

McTominay looked really composed under pressure and moved it out of tight areas well, I’d really like to see him protecting with Armstrong, McGregor or McGinn making up the other 2.

I thought McDonald didn’t involve himself in the game enough and used the ball poorly, the difference between McDonald and Cairney in midfield compared to Armstrong and McGregor was like premier league to championship, they completely changed the game when they came on.

McBurnie did ok, worked hard, but didn’t stretch the back line which was disappointing, I’d quite like to see Cummings on Tuesday to see if he offers more.

Murphy got nice and close to Phillips for the few minutes he came on and linked well for the Robertson chance.

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