PASTA Mick

We are dreadful 😭

Hopefully I'm right twice.

James Forrest scored a hat-trick.

I read it as Bristol City being bigger than QPR, where Dykes has gone. I could be wrong though. Personally, I'd bet on Martin to outscore Dykes this season, and would have Martin in the squad.

Tonight is hard to predict. I think Israel have defenders and forwards that would walk into our team but our midfield should be much stronger than theirs. I think we will struggle to keep a clean sheet and struggle to score, which is never a great start. The lack of fans hurts us more than them and the lack of football for a lot of our better players won't help. I think 1-1 is a likely outcome. I'm more positive about the match against Czech Rep. They obviously have big issues with covid and I can see us beating them. 2-1 would be my prediction.

Graham Alexander won his first cap at 30. He earned 40 caps in the next 7 years. The amount of caps he won in his 30's suggests that he might have been useful to have about whilst he was in his 20's.

If we were able to pick Fletcher and Griffiths it wouldn't look that bad but it really is our weakest position. Hopefully McBurnie can start performing at this level. I still think he could be a really useful player for us.

It's getting quite hard to keep track of the Scottish players playing outside of the UK now. Are there any others worth keeping a look out for? Belgium Bates - Cercle Brugge Hendry - KV Oostende France Hornby - Reims Germany Morrison - Bayern Munich (U19) Greece Allain - Olympiakos Italy Henderson - Empoli? Netherlands Johnston - Feyenoord Fiorini - NAC Breda Portugal Gauld - Farense Spain Aird - Athletic Bilboa Harper - Getafe USA Cadden - Columbus Crew Mackay-Steven - New York City Morgan - Inter Miami Russell - Sporting KC Wilson - Colorado Rapids

Personally, I think we need to find away to get as many of our better players in the team as possible. Robertson, Tierney and Fraser are the outstanding players we have. After those three, it's McGregor, McTominay, Armstrong, Forrest, Christie and McGinn. The standard starts dropping quickly after that barring a small number of others like Fleck, Burke and McBurnie.

I just can't imagine Palmer and Jack starting with Tierney and McTominay on the bench.

Fleck is 29 and was playing League 1 three years ago.

I think Gauld is more attacking minded than Gilmour.

Possibly but McGinn is our in-form player based solely on the last internationals. Some nice decisions for the manager to make.

Fleck is a good example of a kid with huge expectations getting there eventually. Gauld will get Scotland caps.

I can see the argument for it but I think Forrest gives us more width and has more recent game time than Armstrong. Plus, he destroyed Israel last time we played at Hampden so it would make sense to start him.

You are correct. IIRC, McGregor was the only player to play in the 4 Nations League matches and the 10 Euro qualifiers. I also think he might have played 90 minutes in all of those 14 matches but I can't be arsed double checking.

It will be a very interesting starting XI. I'd be tempted with - McLaughlin Gallagher McKenna Tierney Forrest McTominay McGregor Robertson McGinn McBurnie Dykes

We pretty much need to win every match now.

Plenty of options and time to make the right choice. I personally think he's the best Scottish player about but he has to get this move right.

I'm sure he has plenty of options.

They have. They needed two sides to slip up and that happened.

Not really. He'll end up at a bigger club. He is one of, if not, our most talented players.

People that leave out McGregor and Fraser worry me.

Aiden McGeady.