Caledonian Craig

I would take YouGov poll with a massive pinch of saly. As someone stated earlier Scottish Labour have ywt to get candidates together for a number of Scottish seats so its daft to assume they will walk into seats with unknown candidates. I would say they are applying the poll result mostly carried out outwith Scotland and looking to apply them into Scottish results.

Yes that makes sense.

Utter tosh. A thumping for the SNP is a thumping for independence hopes and gives even less credibility to those of us who ache, crave and desire Scottish independence every day of our lives. If you actually believe what you are posting resign your membership as that sends a bigger message to the SNP otherwise you are no more than a snake in the grass. Do as your hero did and resign and become a fully fledged member of Alba. I am happy with voting SNP as it prevents me being a supporter of this sham of a union. If you are happy voting for a unionist party and are not voting for a pro-independence party (at the very least) then you have no place on this thread. I know the SNP has problems but you stick with it. The other option - knuckle under to your unionist masters.

I am voting SNP. No way am I putting a cross in the box of any party whose vote is perceived as a vote for this corrupt union. If others on here wish to 'support the union' bash on and vote Labour, Tory or Lib Dem but whatever your reason for doing it it will be chalked up as a vote for the union.

Well I presume that would mean he would be fit for the two friendlies which he could use to get match sharp. The alternatives are a confidence shot to pieces Patterson or Tony Ralston.

No it may say slim fit but its not really.

Racist views? Oh ffs please. So fans who only want 100% dedicated players and primarily Scots are racist. You need to go and check a dictionary.

You are living in a world of fantasy:- https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/harvey-barnes-shares-anthony-gordons-28757334

Actually, in that post it says out 'for at least' a month. ☹️

He, along with Geordie mates, have long since pinned their St George to the mast. Move on.

If Patterson gets no game time before the end of the season his confidence remains shot and cannot play in the Euros. If that is the scenario, as looks likely, then Patterson gets left at home and Anthony Ralston goes as back up if Aaron Hickey is fit of course.

I put far more stock in what we do in competitve matches. Those are what get us to major tournaments and Clarke's record on that front is very good. This thread has resurfaced after friendly matches results which will count for nothing. Northern Ireland beat us the other night but much rather be heading to the Euros. Like I pointed out before we are a very good team providing a lot goes for us such as have a fully fit squad for each game, our key players are fit and in form and our best players put in performances close to their best. Plenty of those provisios have not happened in.the last few months hence we have struggled.

Tell you what lets keep this thread going until our next manager in is a Craig Levein-type and we go back to failing to qualify for major tournaments. There is no Ferguson, Water Smith or Jock Stein out there willing to take this job and certainly no foreign managers we can afford who want it and can do it.

You do not seem to grasp we do not have a goalscoring forward at international level. The nearest we have will be Shankland who I think will start in Germany but I do not expect bucket loads of goals from him. When we were on a winning streak last year it was without a prolific goalscorer and if we refind that form then similarly, unless Shankland surprises me, we will do it again via goals from largely midfield with the odd goal from strikers and defence.

No its called playing to our strengths and being realistic. Our midfield is our strength. McGinn almost has as many goals for us as Ally McCoist. After Dykes our next top scorer is McTominay. Our attackers are what they are. They try their very best but we cannot rely on them to transform into prolific international goalscorers. Harsh but realistic. The closest we have to it I'd say is Shankland but would you bank on him scoring a hatful in Germany?

Well there was actually a Plan B. When Robertson went off he was replaced with Lewis Ferguson. If no Plan B he could easily replaced him with Greg Taylor. So we went from 5-4-1 to 4-5-1. It took time but we faired better with the four at the back with no Robertson there. Perhaps something Clarke learnt. However, I'd maybe have liked to have seen us start with two strikers but there you go.

As I said we have shown we can get big results with goals from all over the pitch. It is far more important to score goals less important who scores them. We simply do not have the greatest strikers available to us but as long as goals come from other sources we can still be competitive. At present I'd say we should start with Shankland up front in the June friendlies and go from there.

Actually, I disagree. On our good run of form and results our goals were chiefly coming from midfield with McGinn and then McTominay weighing in with our goals with the odd goal from strikers and it got us by. I do not care who scores and it really doesn't matter who does as long as we do.

The crux of the matter is we have a far smaller pool of quality players to call upon than the European superpowers so to compete if our very best players are not available and/or off-form we have problems. I do not think any manager is able to sort problems like that barring increasing our international standard player pool which just is not there at present.

Just to add too that although John McGinn came in for pelters in both games I thought he played very well V Netherlands but granted was poor against Northern Ireland. He is probably our most influential player and if he is off his game that pulls our level down even more.

I suppose Clarke gambled hoping Patterson and Dykes could use the opportunity to find a bit of form which they need whereas Shankland does not need that but more experience for him would have been good.

Instead of rounding on Steve Clarke I prefer a bit of realism. We are a real good side when things fall for us. When all of our key players are fit and in a rich vein of form we have shown what we are capable of but going into these latest friendlies it was clear everything was not falling for us. Aaron Hickey and Callum McGregor both of whom have been key players for us were out injured. Hanley and McKenna who I am sure would both have got plenty of game time and have played in our big game wins were misses. Also look around on certain Liverpool fan sites and Robertson's form since coming back from injury has been questionable and I'd say they are better placed to judge than us. Tierney is not long back from injury and has a run of sub appearances for his club so obviously not in sparkling form. Porteous has been in and out of the Watford side - not ideal. Cooper has not had any meaningful game time in weeks. Patterson is similar and confidence is clearly low. Dykes has been in a poor run of form too. So you see plenty is not falling for us at present and that cannot happen at the Euros. There is a couple of months for that to change for injured players to get their fitness back and bolster our squad and for players to play themselves into club form and boost their own confidence which in turn is of great benefit to Scotland. Those are the issues, in my opinion, and not Steve Clarke.

No it was exactly like this. From not just one person and not just on one occassion:-

It wasn't just chanting though. Every time I looked over at them there was at least one with arms out-stretched towards us in a confrontational manner. Chants like I mentioned, at a stretch, you could pass off as banter but you see the ulterior motives of their chants in their body language. Arseholes who seem to have time warped from the 1970s and 80s.

Doak is out injured until the end of the season so it won't be him. Extra three players would probably be one of the central defenders who otherwise won't make it so either Cooper or Souttat, a midfielder most likely Ryan Jack if he is back and fit plus an attacking midfielder or striker so Ryan Fraser or maybe curveball striker like Conway as Jacob Brown is also out injured for the season.