Super_Scotlandfan

Fun fact...52% of our last squad have been in an EPL squad. Leigh Griffiths never played in the EPL but seemed to make the bench once! Tipped it over the edge.

For me, Hanley is competing with Gallagher for the central centre back position. Don’t think he’s good enough on the ball to step forward with the ball to anywhere near McTominay’s quality. Although, all our right sided defenders are poor in that department. Would be interesting to see who Clarke thinks in 2nd choice in that position. Might be Palmer?

Yeah, just 19. Seems like we’re struggling a bit for young strikers otherwise.

Goal and an assist for Kyle Joseph. Looks like a player we need to keep in the Scotland set up.

It’ll definitely go ahead whether it’ll be closed doors in a single country or as per the current format. Football is still going on at the moment. It would be odd not to play a tournament after 6 months of vaccines and a likely low infection rate. In September the Super Cup was attended by 15 000 and there were Champions League games in November with 17 000 fans. These were capped at 30%. The infection rate should be lower in June, plus the benefit of vaccinations. I think UEFA will still expect to allow a maximum of 70% fans in their discussions in March. But probably more likely 30%. There will still be social distancing in the summer, not sure how you can do that with 70% full stadiums. Allowing away fans seems a bit mental though. I think they’ll look to refund the tickets people have bought for outside their home country. There’s also the possibility of vaccinating players and coaching staff to ensure games go ahead. Whether that’s ethical or not (depending on where the world is with vaccination programmes) is a different question.

He’s comparing what it was like as a youth at Dundee United to a player playing as a professional for an English Premier League club. Obviously they’ll have more opportunity to have sports scientists and more time with coaches etc. Dundee United would love to do all this too.

Watched QPR v Fulham. Dykes has looked good; winning headers, strong, holds the ball up, making good runs but he’s missed a huge chance...sliced his shot wide after being through on goal. Seems like this has how he’s been all season. Think he’s a guy that will always cause any defence a problem but not someone to rely on for goals.

Belgium do it. Their problem is producing lots of right sided wing backs/full backs/wingers. They play Castagne (who was also Atalanta doing the same thing and played at left back today for Leicester), Meunier, Carrasco, Thorgan Hazard, Chadli...all right footed as wing backs. I remember at the last Euros their only only weak position was at left back. They’ve got round that problem by changing to a back 3 and playing a right footed player at wing back. It might not work out with Tierney but it’s worth a shot. If we play Christie it might be too much cutting in but it might work with someone like Fraser playing behind the striker.

Cutting inside does not = bad, especially when he’ll be doing it further forward as a wing back. It’s definitely worth a discussion as inverted wing backs have worked for some very good teams with players less talented than Tierney. Clarke may try this out in training or during part of the games in March. He wouldn’t be mad for doing it...maybe SOD will end up continuing there but it’s worth exploring. I’d like to see Scotland not just qualify for tournaments, having to play guys like SOD will always give us a lower ceiling. Taking a risk with something more inventive (like Clarke has done with McTominay) to try to get Tierney into more advanced areas might take us to the next level. or maybe it won’t...worth exploring anyway.

Haha but it’s a dig at anyone else that suggests it?! Playing Tierney RWB isn’t that mad. It would be if we had a good standard right sided full back or if we didn’t already have a world class left back. He’s progressed 3 years since Strachan played him at right back. Not a good enough reason to not explore this option again. Belgium play 3 at the back too and play right sided wing backs on the left. They’ve done ok... Leicester have also played a right sided player on the left of defence all season. Saying Tierney can’t do similar is doing him a bit of disservice.

Tierney as a right wing back would be really interesting. Removes our weakest player (realise he’s done ok recently) and we can slot in Cooper or McKenna in the left centre back position. Lots of teams play inverted wing backs. It would actually be more palatable than Tierney at right back as part of a 4.

Another goal for Gauld. Farense have scored 12 this season, Gauld has contributed 4 goals and 4 assists. Brilliant form for a poor team in a quality league.

Yeah the more I read, the more committed he seems to be representing Australia. He’ll have the Olympics next year and World Cup in 2022. And looks like he loves honouring his Mum’s home country. Still seems like an odd decision from the outside looking in though. Proves that nationality isn’t binary and if guys like Che Adams and Caulker actively want to play for us then they should be accepted.

Watched Harry Souttar play for Stoke against Spurs. Despite making a few mistakes he didn't look out of place against one of the best teams in England. And has had a strong start to the season in the Championship Looked up to see if he was still eligible after playing for Australia last year. He's played 2 competitive games for them in World Cup Qualifiers. I had always thought he now had no chance of playing for Scotland again. But according to this article https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54211943 there has been a rule change that will allow players to change nation provided that they have played no more than 3 times competitively under the age of 21. I'm obviously annoyed he chose Australia initially but he's young and naive. I'd hope that Clarke has an informal chat with him to allow him to discuss why he made the decision.

Reminder of his performance against Serbia. We'd lose almost all of these positive actions from defence if he didn't play as a centre back. Obviously it would be offset with getting him more involved if he played in midfield. But I don't think it's worth it at this stage.

Having players carrying the ball out of defence is vital in this formation to create chances. Hanley or Cooper at RCB would be ok defensively but we would lose so much going forward. McTominay can stride forward and make incisive passes. He was brilliant at this against Serbia. There was a huge difference with Considine there against Slovakia. Think it’s a good discussion though. I think Clarke should try someone else there in March to see if McTominay can be moved to midfield.

Clarke would love to play McTominay in midfield. The problem is our right sided defenders are so poor in the formation we are playing. We’d be dropping quality centre midfielders (McGregor, Jack, McGinn, Gilmour) to play someone like Grant Hanley as a centre back that needs to step forward to start and join in our attacks. McTominay has done this brilliantly recently. It’s really helped O’Donnell too, whose a limited footballer compared. For McTominay to move away from that position we’d need to see some right sided, ball playing centre backs stepping forward...Jack Hendry(!), Ross McCrorie, Palmer moving position slightly. I can’t see that happening, but one to try in March I think. Wildcard choice could be Steven Caulker. Interesting to see if he’s thought about.

If Adams approaches the SFA/Clarke noting that he’s fully committed then yes. Doesn’t answer your poll (you could have made it a little less biased!).

Meh. They’re playing him in the wrong position. 😉

18% chance of winning the group according to the bookies. Think we were about these odds to qualify for the Euros before the Israel play off game. Crazy that we've now got the same chance of getting to the World Cup.

The last squad was way too heavy on defenders and centre forwards. could easily do: Taylor to Hickey Considine to Gilmour Burke to Morgan Paterson to Gauld Shankland to Nisbet This would be more balanced than the last squad and we’d be adding more talented players.

Gauld has the most passes leading to a shot in the entire division. And that's from a team that averages 35% possession.

Nations League qualifiers are unseeded and will get an away draw in the play offs so something Austria will want to avoid even if they’re guaranteed a spot.

Was about to rip in to how terrible the starting line up was against them at away from home, remembering that it was Stevie Thompson and Stevie Crawford up front..but we actually started Barry Ferguson, Darren Fletcher, Colin Cameron, Gary Naysmith and Craig Gordon too. We'll still stronger now though mind.

yeah somehow they actually came out on top of the head to head from our 5 recent games. Saw that they beat Austria 4-2 last year and lost 3-1 away. The whole group will struggle away to them. Home wins, away draws against the top 3 teams and away wins against the bottom two and we'll be at the World Cup. 😬