the_fadiator

That said, what does Boyd mean by this: ""As for central midfield; I watched [Celtic trio] Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong and Callum McGregor run all over the top of him last week." Three players playing in the country's best team collectively outplay a player from a lesser resourced, worse side? Hardly surprising. Was Shinnie expected to win the midfield battle alone? Is the bar set higher for him? I don't see a player that'd make much difference to us, but that seems pretty harsh or I'm missing the point.

Aaarrrggh!! How can I retain any credibility and have some sympathy with the views of Alan & Boyd. And if we're going for form Scottish-based players, Dylan mcgeouch can feel hard done by. The squad shows there's a shortage of international quality players.

I think there's an odd resentment or reservation for the England-based players amongst many fans on here. I wish we had better players than Bannan & McArthur and others, but there's little to suggest Scottish Premiership stand outs are better than players in the English Championship or bottom end of the EPL. Any player that's a stand out and deemed capable is eventually sold for transfer fees Scottish clubs can't resist. The England-based players are more used to coming up against bigger, faster players like those they face at international level. Bannan's highly regarded by fans and managers alike. McArthur has an FA Cup winners medal and over 150 games in England's top league. Both of them are fairly obvious squad choices. We'll need to freshen it up, but the Scottish-based players aren't some panacea to our qualification woes as much as we want them to be.

McLeish maybe, but no thanks to the others.

Lost the midfield, showing 4-4-2 isn't for our players. They aren't good enough. McArthur, Bannan, Fletcher, Phillips didn't work, though I thought Fletcher had a very good game. Ultimately Lithuania at home killed us.

Really weird he reportedly said that Strachan, who lives in England, wasn't heading south enough to watch him play [typically from the bench].

We need to address what we lacked on Thursday which for me was a lack of drive & goal threat in centre midfield. The coaches really need to think hard about the fitness of the players from Thursday and conclude McGinn or McArthur need to start, with McGregor providing the goal threat. Slovenia are out; we need energy and fight to remind them not to bother.

C'mon, Martin for Forrest & Anya for Tierney ain't 'like for like'. Not the substitutions I wanted, but credit where it's due for changing things and getting the goal.

I thought the centre mid selection was wrong and so it proved. We lacked drive in there. Glad McArthur came on, but should've been earlier. Fletcher hit some good passes, but looked like he didn't have the legs at times. Didn't think Morrison offered much. Bannan was better on the left. I wouldn't play all 3 against Slovenia. Tierney rightfully subbed as defender kept showing him inside as he knew he wasn't playing with his right foot. Fair play to Strachan with his subs getting the win. Hit the crossbar twice and a couple of great saves and penalty shouts.

Unless we lose both games then I hope he stays. He's moved towards picking confident, form players. That demonstrates learning in the role from previous mistakes and just about justifies him staying on rather than ripping it up and starting afresh. I don't care about interviews or whether he picks Aberdeen players who are very much borderline and wouldn't make a tangible difference anyway. If he goes then Michael O'Neill will do nicely.

Still fancy De Boer in the role?

I doubt he will. I think it'll be the 2nd team Jamboman posted. I can't see him dropping McArthur, regardless of the recent game time. He'll be asked to close down Hamsik, with Fletcher organising everything beside him. The 1 behind Griffiths is the most difficult to predict.

Hamsik has scored today. One off Maradona's record for Napoli. He really is a class player and we'll need to stop him, possibly justiying McArthur's inclusion with his harassing style!

I didn't know? Really. Some people fall into habits. I have the Esh-Pee-Ell ingrained. I have absolutely no doubt you spend far more of your time than I do watching and thinking about Scottish football. I wouldn't have it any other way.

No hugely relevant to the point being made, but take that one.

He didn't exactly set the Championship on fire in his first season. There couldn't have been too many clubs willing to take a punt on him so it's good he's gone down a level to hopefully show what he can do.

It's definitely not, but it's better than the SPL.

Maybe. Agree Fletcher isn't exactly prolific. Started 24, scored 11 last season is respectable enough, especially when he has decent link up play. I like May and hope he does well and gets a move to a bigger club. It's disappointing that he didn't do much in England and has stagnated for a few years.

Having been away and successful at a higher level, I wonder how many goals Fletcher would score against a Dundee defence.

There's decent arguments for all of them. Darren Fletcher's one of our leaders, is a good organiser and whilst his Scotland career may be coming to an end, I don't think it's wise to ditch him at this stage, especially when he's playing 90 mins in the EPL. Snodgrass is lucky to get in, but is a better wide player than Shinnie and McGregor. He's also proven he can score and create goals for us so that threat probably shaded it for him. Bannan has started the season on fire, so saying he shouldn't be in may be more about greater exposure to the Scottish game.

Burke praises Dougie Freedman as a "father figure" at Forest. Palace linked with move for Burke. Freedman appointed Palace's Director of Football.

The Shinnie and McGregor thing is not great from the point of view that the international squad should be about rewarding form. Who would you leave out?

If it was Steven, he scored at the weekend and don't see any better option. Griffiths will start anyway.

I don't see it that way. Sure if he hits some form, probably at a new club, he'd be selected.

Really don't see how that'd make much of a difference, especially when we're still just about in it. For McGregor, there's a bigger argument to swap Armstrong who's been out of sorts. Not much point when Armstrong's integrated into the squad and systems, Bannan played 90mins at the weekend, maybe MoM(?), suits Strachan's passing game and is by all accounts loved by Sheffield Wednesday fans. Fletcher played 90mins at the weekend in Stoke's win against Arsenal. He's unlikely to start, but his experience and leadership is bound to be useful at the tail end of the campaign. Shinnie's surely viewed as just a decent battling SPL player.