Caledonian Craig

I'd sat bitterness because we refuse t massage their egos by selecting their sub-standard striker.

That would be some feat considering we are playing Northern Ireland.🤣

Cooper is NOT that much more experienced at international level than Souttar. He has about 8 more caps. Souttar has the advantaged too of getting regular first team football at present unlike Cooper.

Fair enough. There are enough examples out there that says do not judge a player's capabilities at international level by the league level they play at. We do not know until players are tried.

Yes this was how I did it. Just booked a trip from Munich to Berlin, a return trip from Berlin to Cologne and return trip from Berlin to Stuttgart and cost £175 and that is first class too.

One thing worth taking on board is the German squad for this match had an almost complete overhaul for the squad from the last matches with 19 changes between the two squads. Now that can over muddy the waters and over complicate things. It also tells me the boss is not sure of his best player/squad and also what his best team is. We have far less an issue on that front.

It is all relative though. In terms of depth we are much better depth than say 5 to 10 years ago across the pitch in general apart from goalkeeping department. And I would include Tierney as if Robertson is injured I am sure Tierney would slot in there.

International standard? Well of course our strikers are of international standard. Their presence in our national ream proves that in the part they have played in getting us to a major tournament. Dykes has scored nine goals for us only two short of much lauded Joe Jordan and has a better strike rate than him. Nobody would deny Jordan was international standard.

Hmmm Charlie Adam (Liverpool) played like a massive steaming turd for us. Give me Championship player Stuart Armstrong anyday. Dykes has never been an EPLplayer but has been of more good to us with goals and assists than Charlie Nicholas (Arsenal) ever was.

An EPL player is not automatically a better player than a Championship one. For some weird unexplainable reason a section of our fans think players magically transform into a better player because they play in the EPL. Say, for example, Norwich City get promoted from the Championship this season all of a sudden opinions on Gunn, Hanley and McLean will change. Why? They are and will be the same players they are now. Being an EPL player is just an ego massager for fans.

I made the same point last night. We rely too much on the Tierney/Robertson partnership. It is of great benefit to us but when either are injured we lose an attacking threat and our defence is simply not as secure. We need to have a Plan B and C for such eventualities.

And I have seen us win 2-0 or 3-0 and not play as well such as both games V Cyprus and home against Georgia and home 3-2 win against Israel. We certainly played better than our 2-1 win in Norway too.

I agree with most of this. To add I have seen us win matches by two or three goals and not play as well. It is very frustrating as confidence will take a knock and puts doubts in minds. Positives were for an hour we were the better team. We created lots of chances playing some really nice stuff against a country ranked six in the world - a watching alien would have watched that first hour and thought we were the higher ranked. Negatives were we did not take our chances and crumbled alarmingly in the last 18 minutes with the defence going from looking pretty secure to having more holes than a golf course. That needs addressing. In our remaining three matches before the Euros we need three confidence-boosting wins and much tighter defensive performances but worries will linger even if we do that given the quality of the upcoming opposition.

Yes that is most likely but we need to be more secure defensively when we do not have Tierney/Robertson on the pitch. When we lose that partnership our attackibg threat losing one of its most potent weapons and defensively we open up.

To me it is clear we rely a heck of a lot on the Robertson/Tierney partnership when that is not in place our defence ships goals. We saw that in the few games when they were out where we leaked goals and as soon as Tierney went off we went from 1-0 down and well in the game to 4-0 down. That is no coincedence. We need to learn to organise the defence far better when Tierney or Robertson are out. A real disappointing scoreline which flattered Netherlands as for two thirds of the game we were the better side. We have to dust ourselves down and tighten up at the back and start finding the net on Tuesday. We really need a win to end this bad run and build confidence.

So this increased contribution has ramped up since just after the 2014 IndyRef and goes totally against the grovelling and pleading pledges made on the eve of the referendum of financial incentives if a No vote was returned.

My thoughts exactly. This should be the time for any of us continuing to desperately sniff around Newcastle's cabale of Anderson (already took the piss), Gordon (pinned his colours to the mast) and Barnes and Livramento who have expressed their international ambitions elsewhere already.

This is all fine by me but I'd have preferred him coming out with this statement BEFORE he got called up by England. It would have stopped him being foolishly linked to Scotland when he so wanted only to play for England quite clearly. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68621944

You do realise that defence/armed forces are devolved to the UK Government as is (largely) the economy as we all have to follow the tripe spewed up by the Tory budget. And if you think the UK government are more competent than the Scottish Government you must live in Neverland with Peter Pan and Wendy. The British Army it is well known are going into war zones equipped with equipment 40 years out of date and much of it does not work. And the economy - well the least said about that the better.

Not so much? It was more like not at all.

Carver today saying Hickey may be back training with Brentford's first team in two to three weeks. With Brentford lingering near the bottom of the table they won't have the luxury of easing him back in so it is far from inconceivable that Hickey will get a game or two under his belt before the end of the season. And then we have two friendlies he can get match fitness built up in so I won't be writing him off just now.

For sure. The SNP will splinter into a couple of different parties I think and obviously they will need to take a whole new look at who they want to appeal to politically. The former unionist parties would then have a new choice to either embrace independence and set its sights on improving an independent Scotland or fight for re-unification.

Yes my point is perhaps the SNP are loathe to wade in on Labour too much as Labour would point blank refuse any coalition should that situation arise. Also thinking about it perhaps SNP are comfortable enough with Labour getting in at Westminster, wait for the inevitable implosion and point to the walking disasters (Tory and Labour parties) that are destined to forever rule Scotland unless we get independence.

I do see what you are saying and do tend to agree but perhaps there is a little trepidation to do this yet. There is still a rank outside chance would then perhaps struggle to get a full majority and if that happened then zilch chance of Labour turning to SNP for a coalition and potential referendum as a caveat. That could perhaps be a reason.

Is that you Charlie?