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McBurnie's scored 3 times as many goals at home this season than Firminho.. Firminho's trash! If he was Scottish, I'd not have him near the team! Roll on Dykes!

It's logic if Gilmour is not going to be in the full squad. If he is going to be in the full squad (which takes about 1 minute to find out on the phone, so should have happened already), then it would be more logical to leave him out of the U21s, rather than have to call up a replacement next week after the senior side is announced.

Literally a few hours before you.

Paper talk that Clarke's been trying to get him to choose Scotland. Bit of an odd one to me. A very average striker, having i guess an exceptional season for him. 9 goals in 25, up from 2 in 36 last season. He's got some height about him, which was a reason I had suggested Ross Stewart a little bit ago. But Dykes only seems to score unmarked tap-ins from what I can see. The odd header. He does seem to make chances for others which is good.. but.. Griffiths, Shankland, McBurnie, Naismith, Rhodes, Hornby, Brophy.. It feels like Dykes would be bottom of this list (whatever order you want to put the other 7 in)

It's probably our weakest positon, yeah. Wednesday have been weird. 3rd at xmas.. but have only won 2 games since and so plummeted down the table. The manager has frozen out 3 of the biggest players and Fletch got injured at the same time. the manager seems to be the problem, tho as is always the case when a team is struggling, the players could do more than they are. Don't think Palmer's had a notably good season, nor a notably poor season. He did seem to be linking up well with Ryan Christie last time out, and put in 3-4 balls that should really have been put away. So in the absense of any season competition, I figure he keeps the shirt until he actually does something wrong, much as Hutton did (for about 5 years).

Wednesday's problems are not down to Palmer. That they held Man City to 1 goal and then ship 5 to Brentford kinda signposts the issue. There's a lack of organisation and lack of coherence to the team, it's not a question of individual ability. I wouldn't drop a guy just because his club side lost one game.

McLean is garbage, so no. 10 caps in and he's proved he's not good enough. Forrest has probably the worst return of any player in the national team I can remember. For the caps he's had his influence on games has been dire. Scored in just 2 caps and only has 3 assists. From 34 caps as a forward player. He's player against Lichtenstein, Malta and Lithuania twice, Qatar, San Marino twice.. from all those games together he has 1 assist. He had 2 matches where everything just dropped for him, and since then he's reverted to normal and not looked a threat in 8 appearances since. Compared to Ryan Christie.. who has 1 goal, 5 assists from 8 competitive games. So the inclusion of Forrest tells me we're not playing our strongest side and we're not giving ourselves the best chance of a result. We have better players than James Forrest. Shinnie actually hasn't spent much time on the pitch. 104 minutes of competitive football for Scotland. 6 caps in total. Just 2 starts. One of those was at left back, which is no longer his position, and yes was at fault in the Kazakh debacle. But he came on in the win against Israel and showed drive and energy in midfield. He's also an actual defensive midfielder which is something we've lacked. We've been crowbarring in McGregor , McGinn and Armstrong into that role and while Armstrong's not let himself down in that position the other two have, with McGinn cementing his spot further up the pitch. Shinnie would be a square peg in a square hole. Playing a role that he plays for his club and which could benefit us as he's Aberdeens former captain and we could use some organisation in the middle of the park. In my view Shinnie is a viable candidate for a starting spot. 2 from McTominay, Gilmour, Shinnie and Fleck. Shinnie and Forrest are essentially opposites. Forrest has a couple of freakishly good games which seem to have made people forget how awful he's been across the piece, while Shinnie has one awful game (along with everyone else on the pitch in dark blue) and so everyone takes that as the sum total of him as a player. Shinnie makes more sense in the 11 that Forrest does, tho Forrest has to be in the squad due to our complete lack of available wide players at the moment.

Yes, because in your scenario you need a goal.. ffs. 😄 If you're 2-1 up with 10 to go you'd want Shinnie or McLean.. well ok not McLean, he's a bombscare. You're stating the obvious and comparing apples and oranges for no apparent reason. Back to the actual topic. Gilmour makes himself available, he's calm on the ball and accurate with his passing. This cannot be said of several of our supposedly wonderful midfielders. Most notably, McGregor and McLean. Both have been in the side and repeatedly failed. I would put Gilmour in ahead of them, with no reservations.

You seem to be offering Forrest as the only attacking option and touting him because he's the only attacking option. 😄 I honestly can't think of a situation where Forrest would be the best option to bring on if you wanted a goal. He literally never scores. We play 1 up, there will be two strikers on the bench, probably McBurnie or Brophy or Naismith.. You'd bring one of those on, not Forrest. The only time I'd ever bring Forrest on is due to injury.

There's an echo in here!

Or to put it another way.. 34 caps.. 32 of them without a goal. 😁

He's not that bad technique-wise. He's just much better running at people than stationary with the ball at his feet. He's a wide forward, not a center forward. When he plays up front he doesn't really look like he knows where he should be and what he should be doing. Understandable as he's 22, hasn't had masses of game time and was just kinda thrown up there by Lennon and expected to perform. Out wide he looks better and has more of an idea of his role. Fortunately he's playing wide in La Liga, so he should get better at it. Haven't seen much of him in La Liga this season, and he's only really played up front for Celtic in recent years (benched at Leipzig and West Brom), and I don't think he knows what is expected of him as a center forward. He's not experience playing there, didnt seem to be getting much instruction from Lennon and had no senior forward to learn from (it was Weah and Edouard, who are both young. Griffiths was away at the time). Spain seems to be doing him good tho: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/nov/29/oliver-burke-i-feel-like-a-proper-footballer-again-really-good-in-myself

He had a great start to his career in the Championship to be fair, was going past people and scoring for fun. Things only derailed a bit after his Leipzig move. He hasn't really had regular starts anywhere since, even at Celtic he never got more than 3 starts in a row and he was out of position there to boot.

Strachan capped Oli Burke at 18 iirc. Any more recent than that?

It's disrespectful to drop a player for a better player? Good grief. I hope the management don't have that view or we're properly screwed of the forseeable future. As for McLean, he's been a liability in just about every game he's played for the national side. He can't defend and doesn't have the workrate or quality needed for international level central midfield. He's a decent championship level player, nothing more. That's not disresectful, it's reality. He's never going to play for Real, and it's not disrespectful to say so.

Crazy to think that there's zero communication between the u21s call ups and the senior side. It's a simple, 1 minute phone call. So we should assume at this point that Gilmour is not in the senior side. Which is an equally crazy situation. Good enough for Premier League top 4, champions league and MotM against Liverpool, but Clarke doesn't think he's ready. Great. Can we have Levein back? Clarke is making him look good.

Speaking of the Scottish Messi.. Ryan Gauld. 7 goals in 7 games for Farense. Enjoying his best run of games since he went to Portugal. Across the last 12 games he's scored 50% of the team's goals, and the club look likely to be promoted straight back to Liga Nos. So two good things. #1 he's fit and seems to be staying fit. #2 he can still play a bit. Long way from a call up of course.

Agreed. But there is a difference between having and showing talent and playing to that standard every week, season after season. Over the years we've produced some decent prospects, but it seems somewhere along the way their heads have got in the way of their feet. Either thinking they've arrived, or losing the drive that made them excel in the first place. So we can agree he's got fantastic talent. And the early signs about his mentaliy are good. But right now everything's great. He's getting accolades from ex-pros and the fans are loving everything he does. But he's going to have bad days and he's going to be criticised at some point. How he deals with those times are probably what will be the making or breaking of him.

Glad you have something to look forward to.

Might be a wee bit overboard, but the fact that in Gilmour and McTominay, we have two young center mids with awareness, workrate and ability on the ball.. that's very encouraging, given how all over the place our central midfield has been for a long while now. Add McGinn ahead of them, and Christie and Fraser either side, and it's a solid line up. Griffiths being back up top is great too. Our first 11 is looking decent, and young.

First up, it's the 3rd choice striker, unlikely to feature. But we need to start looking forward from Naismith, good servant as he's been, he's 33 and spends as much time injured as not. Stewart does offer something a bit different, certainly the opposite kind of striker to Griffiths who is likely to be the number 9, so if we need to change approach then he could be a useful guy to have available. Dembele's a wide forward, Armstrong's a center mid. They're not competing.

Looking thru tho'w available and who's not.. and trying to figure out what the squad might look like and who might have an opportunity to get into it. Best guess right now: Marshall, McLaughlin, McCrorie Palmer, O'Donnell, Robertson, Taylor, McKenna, Findlay, Hanley, Halkett/Gallagher McTominay, Fleck, Gilmour, McGregor, Christie, Forrest, Fraser, Dembélé? Griffiths, McBurnie, Stewart Marshall and McLaughlin seem certs of 2 of the keeper slots, both playing regularly. But MacGillivray has been dropped and Bain and Gordon are both bench players for Celtic now. Archer not getting games, Kelly in and out at QPR. So seems like an opportunity for a spot. McCrorie doing ok at Livi, on loan from Rangers. Seems like a sensible call up to me, tho he's unlikely to get on the pitch at all. Tierney's almost fit, but probably best to let him get back 100%. Still few options at right back. Centerback has vacancies with Souttar out and Mulgrew not playing. Hanley's playing and captaining Norwich, Findlay did ok previously and Halkett has been getting decent reviews for a while. Gallagher could well keep his place tho. McGinn is targetting the last Villa game before the playoffs, but it'd be super risky to call him up imo. No sense in risking another injury. Gilmour seems likely to be in the squad given Clarke was at the Liverpool game. Johnston out injured sadly else I think he'd be in. Burke seemingly ill. Hastie not gettting a look in at Rangers. GMS, Russell and Murphy all over in the MLS now, a long way to come and the season only just starting. The left-field choice is Dembélé.. Siriki Dembélé that is. Playing at Peterborough in league one, but in his last 8 games he's got 4 goals and 7 assists. Was always quick, but seems like he's found some composure now too, still only 23. Might be worth a look in the absense of a lot of the usual names. Griffiths is back playing regular football whcih is great. McBurnie causing trouble up top in the premier league. But after that.. not a lot. Shankland on a dry spell by his standards. Fletch still not involved it seems. Naismith still in and out with injuries and not scored in a month. Martin in and out for Derby. Rhodes not involved at Wednesday. Harper not scored all season. So.. Ross Stewart? Should be back in this week or next, has scored a few goals this season and his height could be useful in both boxes. Brophy is the more likely, but I've seen nothing to suggest he can cut it at international level. Any more for any more?

Mulgrew's not played a competitive game since the middle of August, and by accounts age is finally starting to catch up with him. I like him, and he probably should have got more than 44 caps imo, but feels like we're at the point where he won't be adding to them.

Very good game for Gilmour, looked very comfortable against a very good midfield; lallana, fabinho, milner. Looking around, who is really making a case for themselves? McTominay's become an important player for Man Utd. Armstrong's regular and scoring for midtable Southampton. McGregor's in a hot vein fo form in the league. McGinn's likely to be fit, but only to have played a few minutes. Fleck is mr consistent. Christie really showing what a good player he is this season. It's a tough field to get into! The thing working for him I think is that he's playing deeper than most of them and we do lack a 2nd number 6. McTominay is one, but armstrong, mcgregor, mcginn and christie are all much better in forward areas than defensive areas. So, to me, it's really Gilmour or Fleck for the 2nd 6. Fraser left, Christie right and Armstrong or McGregor behind the striker, as it comes too soon for McGinn who would otherwise be there. I'd probably go with Armstrong as there's still big questionmarks over McGregor's ability to play at international level. He's been the invisible man too often now. So would I start Gilmour? There's certainly a case for it. He's got games against Everton, Villa and Man City before the playoffs. If he's still in the Chelsea 11 and playing to this kind of level then yes, I'd probably start him over Fleck.

That comes off as fairly disparaging towards Shankland.