PASTA Mick
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Posts posted by PASTA Mick
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49 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:
Looks doable when you put it like that but it does rely on Austria not winning in Israel although we cancel that out by not losing in Austria.
There are 4 games between the top 4 in September. Each of the 4 play 2 of the others. Its a big month.
Whilst Denmark are storming ahead, I wouldn't bet on them winning all 10 matches. We need to make sure we get any points they drop.
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Looking at my initial predictions, I clearly underrated Denmark.
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25 March 2021
- Israel v Denmark - Draw
- Moldova v Faroe Islands - Draw
- Scotland v Austria - Draw
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28 March 2021
- Denmark v Moldova -Denmark win
- Austria v Faroe Islands - Austria win
- Israel v Scotland - Draw
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31 March 2021
- Austria v Denmark - Draw
- Moldovia v Israel - Israel win
- Scotland v Faroe Islands - Scotland win
Looking to September -
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1 September 2021
- Denmark v Scotland - Denmark win
- Faroe Islands v Israel - Israel win
- Moldova v Austria - Austria win
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4 September 2021
- Faroe Islands v Denmark - Denmark win
- Israel v Austria - draw
- Scotland v Moldova - Scotland win
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7 September 2021
- Austria v Scotland - Austria win
- Denmark v Israel - Denmark win
- Faroe Islands v Moldova - Faroe Islands win
Which would leave it looking like this -
- Denmark - 18 pts (Moldova (A), Austria (H); Faroes (H), Scotland (A)).
- Austria - 11 pts (Faroes (A), Denmark (A); Israel (H), Moldova (H)).
- Scotland - 8 pts (Israel (H), Faroes (A); Moldova (A), Denmark (H)).
- Israel - 8 pts (Scotland (A), Moldova (H); Austria (A), Faroes (H)).
- Faroes - 4 pts (Austria (H), Scotland (H); Denmark (A), Israel (A)).
- Moldova - 1 pt (Denmark (H), Israel (A); Scotland (H), Austria (A)).
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25 March 2021
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20 minutes ago, breeks_mctavish said:
I quite like the idea of a back three of Tierney, Cooper and McTominay with a midfield 3 of Gilmour, Jack and McGinn. Imagine having 2 ball playing defenders looking up and finding Gilmour to link the play through. Jack would have the discipline to cover when Tierney or McTominay bombs forward.
It doesn't look too bad...
Marshall
McTominay Cooper Tierney
Fraser Jack Gilmour Robertson
McGinn
Adams Dykes
Bench to change it: Forrest, Armstrong, McGregor, Christie, McLean, Turnbull, Gauld, McBurnie, Nisbet, Griffiths?
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2 hours ago, bonzo said:
Would we take another 5 points from the next 3 games?
That would be a very good outcome in my opinion.
We'd still be in with a shout regardless of the results in the other games and then have a run of Israel (H), Faroes (A) and Moldova (A) before taking on Denmark at home in the last match.
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6 minutes ago, ProudScot said:
Why on earth are we not playing 442 here.
This is the Faroe Islands at home for Christ sake.
Clearly we need high attacking wingers and not an additional player at the back! Fuck me.
3-5-2 with KT and SM in defence is far more attacking than 4-4-2.
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6 hours ago, Tartan blood said:
To be honest, it's a travesty that team didn't qualify for any tournaments. We were well and truly shafted with the draws we got in qualifying all throughout that period.
I'd love to try a best 11 of this century but it would be so difficult. McFadden would be the only guaranteed starter.
I think Hutton would be too.
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It is so frustrating that we didn't qualify for the u21 finals this time. One win from our last 2 matches and we'd have made it - just like the first time in the Nations League, but we bottled it.
We took 4 points off Croatia and we took 4 points off Czech Rep. We lost twice to Greece which cost us, along with a home draw against Lithuania.
The Czechs have been eliminated from the finals, finishing third behind Spain and Italy, but above hosts Slovenia.
Croatia play England today. A point would put them into the next round but they can still sneak through even if they lose.
What an experience that would have been for the squad!
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23 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:
Even looking at an individual squad, you are still viewing it through the lens of their career. Once we can properly look back at this squad in 10 years, we'll maybe have a different opinion. The problem positions aside, I think some of the players we have now could be comparable. e.g McTominay might end up as good as Fletcher. Fraser might end up as good as Maloney. McGinn as good as Ferguson. Tierney and Roberston are already way better than anyone in that team.
McFadden, of course, would get in the starting 11 of any squad of the past 30 years, in my opinion. He was that good for Scotland.
You make good points and I did try and think about the level those players were at during that campaign. I have also picked the squad that had our best result between 1998 and November 2020.
It would be interesting to see peoples best XI of all the players since 2000. I think only KT and Robertson would appear regularly in peoples lists from the current squad, but others have the potential to achieve far more than players like McFadden and Fletcher did for us.
I think we'd have reached Euro 2008 if it had as many teams as Euro 2016 and Euro 2020 has had.
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57 minutes ago, Taylor1996 said:
Not sure why people are saying that we have the strongest squad since the 90s.
We don't.
A look at the 00s and we had the likes of McFadden, Fletcher, Fletcher, Hutchinson, Miller, Naysmith, McNamara, Weir, Hutton, McManus, Brown, Naismith, Maloney, etc, in the same squad.
Only Tierney and Robertson would break into the first XI from back then. Maybe McTominay.
I do agree that we were stronger in the past. I think you need to pick one squad to compare to this one. The Euro 2008 campaign squad was good - how would you compare the two?
This was the initial squad for the Lithuania (H) and France (A) double header -
Goalkeepers: Craig Gordon (Sunderland), David Marshall (Norwich City), Allan McGregor (Rangers)
Defenders: Graham Alexander (Preston), Russell Anderson (Sunderland), Gary Caldwell (Celtic), Alan Hutton (Rangers), Jay McEveley (Derby County), Stephen McManus (Celtic), Gary Naysmith (Sheffield United), David Weir (Rangers).
Midfielders: Scott Brown (Celtic), Barry Ferguson (Rangers), Darren Fletcher (Manchester United), Paul Hartley (Celtic), Lee McCulloch (Rangers), Stephen Pearson (Derby County), Barry Robson (Dundee United), Gary Teale (Derby County).
Forwards: Craig Beattie (West Brom), Kris Boyd (Rangers), James McFadden (Everton), Shaun Maloney (Aston Villa), Kenny Miller (Celtic), Garry O’Connor (Birmingham City).
I've highlighted the ones that I think would get in a combined squad. However, we do have more players playing at the top end of the table in England now. Far more Celtic and rangers (RIP) players back then.
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The decision to appoint McLeish was a disaster that we all saw coming. It set us back years!
But, we've gone from losing 4-0 to Belgium and Russia; and 3-0 to Kazakhstan and Belgium in a single campaign to being harder to beat, and able to compete with teams that I would say have slightly stronger squads.
Making Euro 2020 was so important and Clarke has to take a lot of the credit. I just wish we'd got over the line in the Nations League because that play-off insurance would be so useful to us.
One issue Clarke had to solve was finding a way to get our best players on the pitch at the same time. We has largely managed that. I think he was far too loyal to some players that were part of the November squad and it has been costly this month.
The next big issue for Clarke is goal scoring. He knows it and that is why he brought Adams in. He's a bit unlucky that Griffiths, Burke, McBurnie and Dykes are all out of form. Shankland and Nisbit are in better form but unproven over a long period of time at the top level. Forrest is also a loss, no matter what folk say on here. I'm not sure there is anyone in the under 21s to get too excited about, although I'm not writing Hornby off just yet.
If your forwards aren't scoring, you need your midfielders to help out. McGinn has done that. I personally think getting the best out of Fraser is key to us going forward - I think he is superb despite this indifferent club form. Christie and McGregor have had tough seasons too.
If Clarke takes anything away from this campaign, I hope it is that he realises that international squads need to keep evolving. Gauld, Turnbull and Gilmour could have made a difference - even if they just put pressure on players that aren't playing well but are still getting called up.
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Faroes results since start of 2020
- W 3-2 v Malta
- W 1-0 v Andorra
- L 4-0 v Denmark
- D 1-1 v Latvia
- W 2-0 v Andorra
- L 2-1 v Lithuania
- D 1-1 v Latvia
- D 1-1 v Malta
- D 1-1 v Moldova
- L 3-1 v Austria
P 10, W 3, D 4, L 3.
The do tend to score goals, although their opposition has been mainly teams of a similar level. I expect a tight game and the longer it is 0-0 the more nervous we will be. We really do need to start the game strongly.
My XI would be -
Marshall
Tierney Hanley Hendry Robertson
McTominay McGregor
Armstrong McGinn Fraser
Adams
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5 matches without a win 😪
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We had a chance to put Israel right out of it.
We've also not played well enough in either match to suggest we will easily win on Wednesday.
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Looking at my initial predictions -
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25 March 2021
- Israel v Denmark - Draw
- Moldova v Faroe Islands - Draw
- Scotland v Austria - Draw
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28 March 2021
- Denmark v Moldova -Denmark win
- Austria v Faroe Islands - Austria win
- Israel v Scotland - Draw
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31 March 2021
- Austria v Denmark - Draw
- Moldovia v Israel - Israel win
- Scotland v Faroe Islands - Scotland win
I'm not sure what the best result is for us in the Austria v Denmark game. Probably anything other than an Austria win?
Looking further ahead -
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1 September 2021
- Denmark v Scotland
- Faroe Islands v Israel
- Moldova v Austria
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4 September 2021
- Faroe Islands v Denmark
- Israel v Austria
- Scotland v Moldova
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7 September 2021
- Austria v Scotland
- Denmark v Israel
- Faroe Islands v Moldova
We've easy got the toughest fixtures of the 4 teams with away matches against the top 2 seeds.
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25 March 2021
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10 hours ago, slasher said:
Having all three in the squad would at least send out the signal places are up for grabs. Based on club form Ryan Christie shouldn't even be in the squad 🙅♂️
Turnbull for Christie is the really obvious change to make because it is so easy to compare them. Anyone that has watched Celtic since Christmas would be selecting Turnbull if they had to pick one.
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17 minutes ago, bazmidd said:
Did you see Denmark's first goal against them? It was almost identical to one we scored at Hampden a while back against them, striker pulls their centre half out of position wins the header flicks it on runner from deep gets on it beats his man for pace and scores.
Yeah, and our best performance against them was with Fletcher up front and Forrest, Fraser and Christie behind. They couldn't handle any of them.
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12 hours ago, bazmidd said:
Let's get at them, Dykes dropping deep with Adams and Fraser running in behind them, they hate pace.
I'd be happy with that!
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We probably need to get better at giving those two players some options in the box for the crosses too.
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Also, we've not won in 4 matches. We need to start winning games!!
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Looking at my initial predictions -
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25 March 2021
- Israel v Denmark - Draw
- Moldova v Faroe Islands - Draw
- Scotland v Austria - Draw
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28 March 2021
- Denmark v Moldova -Denmark win
- Austria v Faroe Islands - Austria win
- Israel v Scotland - Draw
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31 March 2021
- Austria v Denmark - Draw
- Moldovia v Israel - Israel win
- Scotland v Faroe Islands - Scotland win
We really do need to win on Sunday.
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25 March 2021
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5 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:
Discuss our second qualifying match here.....
Surprised to hear Kevin Gallacher thinking a draw in Israel would be a decent result - surely not? We need to go for the win and we can do that by being more dynamic and quicker in attack and hopefully this can be achieved by playing Tierney in a more advanced position. I'd be tempted to go for a 4-4-2 with something like this:-
Marshall
O'Donnell Hendry Hanley Robertson
Fraser McTominay Armstrong Tierney
Adams Christie
Thoughts?
No McGinn?
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What I'd like -
Marshall
Hendry Hanley Robertson
Armstrong McTominay McGregor Tierney
McGinn
Adams Fraser
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6 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:
Realistically, Robertson will never be dropped, nor should he be. We just need to find a way to get the best out of Tierney and Robertson. They did relatively well last night, but it feels more like they take turns at attacking rather than attacking together. If they could form a partnership, that left side would be dynamite. But the fact that 2 of our best players are down that side means they will always be suffocated by the opposition. If one was played on the right, it would force teams to spread out more.
Tierney, McTominay and Robertson would all be in the squad of the vast majority of all international teams. McGinn isn't far behind either. We are finally starting to produce some really top class players.
I'm a big believer in finding a way to get our best players on the pitch together.
It is tricky with Robertson and Tierney probably being our best two and playing in the same position. Clarke has found a way to get them both in but it doesn't mean we can keep evaluating whether we can find other ways.
Personally, I'd start by switching them and trying Robertson at LCB. Also wouldn't mind trying Roberson at RWB. I just think Tierney needs to be playing LWB.
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6 minutes ago, gaz7 said:
Odonnell didn't look like he struggled to me. Alaba was quiet and odonnell blasted by him once and was up supporting a lot. Dykes 1st touch I agree was poor but he set up our best chance and was a bawhair of Robertson's cross and won a lot of balls. Christie as ever ran his heart out had our best chance and set up mcginn. I agree that tierney has more qualities for lab than robertson but l felt last night the 2 of them gave austria a lot to worry about with their different attributes. Anyone that wants Robertson out the team imo knows heehaw about football. He is a pl and champs league winner and a player with that experience and knowledge and skillset will always be in our team. He would be 1st choice left back in every team in the world nearly but you and some others want him out . hilarious patter. Turnbull should defo be in squad as should gilmour. Things are looking up but only results will confirm it.
Where do I say that? I'd have them both in the team but I'd consider swapping them round.
Scottish players in action 20/21
in TA specific
Posted
Forrest should be in the finals squad.
Griffiths won't be anywhere near it.