andyD

err I can. He doesn't deserve to be picked on his current form. That's only the 2nd game he's score in out of his last 10. The mythical goal a game Jordan Rhodes hasn't been seen for a few years and his goals are less and less each season. Chris Martin has 3 more goals that Rhodes this season, him being in the last squad over Rhodes was 100% the right call and utterly justified. You could argue for his inclusion over Stevie May, but personally I'm fine with Strachan using the last couple of squad spots to bring people in and offer them a taste of what the international squad is like (e.g. Gauld, May, MacLeod). I think that'll do us more good in the long term than just putting our 4th best striker on the bench constantly.

I thought Brown was pretty disappointing in both the recent games and would rather see mulgrew in a lone holding role against gibraltar. McGregor Hutton - Martin - Hanley - Robertson Mulgrew Maloney - Morrison - Anya Fletcher - Naismith

Yep not sure how it stayed out, thouhht his first touch was a bit heavy, but unlucky not to score. @27 seconds.

Bit harsh on Bolasie. He's big, quick and skilful and if he was Scottish he'd probably be in our starting 11.

For me, Mulgrew was the best of our defensive mids in both games. Got involved defensively, was a presence in the box (one we especially needed against irelands height when they came up for corners), he was good on the ball showing some neat turns to work a yard for a pass and he moved the ball on well. Man of the Match.. tough to call, but he'd the first name down for me in that position. I don't remember any "very good passes" from Fletcher, I'll see if i can pick up a copy of the game from somewhere and see, but even if he did play a couple of good balls, it doesn't make up for all the things that went badly for him.

He's the most unreliable of our 'stock' back 4 (Robertson, Hanley, Martin, Hutton), but he's more solid than he gets credit for. Against Ireland he showed great discipline after that early booking. Still got involved, but didn't do anything silly. I honestly don't know how much potential he has, he's past 150 appearances for club and country, that's a lot more than say Anya or Bannan. If he was going to develop into a quality player I'd have expected him to be further along by now, but I have a feeling he'll end up much as he is now. He's not that aware, not comfortable on the ball and incredibly one footed. He is however combative, a willing to stick his head on things and a decent foil for Martin. He's more consistent than Berra and while I respect Greer's contributions, Hanley's 10 years younger and that has to be considered. Hanley's the best choice for us at the moment imo.

He was incredibly poor for me against England. Passes went astray, his control was lacking, he missed tackles, committed too early and got beat too easily.. it was pretty much a horror show from him. He probably does need to move on from man utd and go somewhere he can play every week, and get back to a good level. He's still a squad player, but Mulgrew, Brown and Morrison are the only player vying for a start in the deep midfield roles. Fletcher's in a battle with McArthur for a place in the squad and he needs to improve on Tuesday if he's going to keep winning that. :/

Chris Martin - The problem for me was he looked lazy next to Naismith. Naismith was chasing and harrying and trying to pressure all the time, where as Martin was mostly jogging around, waiting for England's play to break down. Derby are comfortably the best team in the league, so maybe he doesn't appreciate that he's got to work harder when in a Scotland shirt. You'd have thought that Friday was a good lesson in that regard tho. Stevie May - I like him, I'm not sure he's quite there yet. but he's got good potential and looks like he has the right attitude. I'd much rather see him in the squad than Griffiths for example. Rhodes - Some seem to think he's still scoring a goal a game.. he's not. he's firmly off the boil at the moment, even tho his club's doing well. He's score a massive 1 in his last 9 appearances. He's not in the squad purely on merit. If he starts scoring a lot again he's got every chance of forcing his way into the squad against Gibraltar. Watt - I think the calls for him to play are just pure fanboyism. He's started 2 games this season for liege, out of 19. and he's scored just 2 goals in 13 appearances. He's not a starting player and he's not scoring goals. When he is, great, get him in. Right now he's not. Russell - Looked great going forwards when he came on. Didn't follow his runner which may have prevented the 3rd goal for England tho. Would definitely like to see him start on the left vs Gibraltar, shifting Anya to the right so he can cross on his natural foot. Naismith - Can play the targetman up top. He did it a few times during the last campaign to good effect. Sure it's not his best positon, but he's good at it and he's our best option if Fletcher is injured. If Feltcher's out, I'd like to see a forward 4 of: ------------Naismith Russell - Maloney - Anya

To be fair to Forrest, Celtic's last game was his first one back and he lasted an hour. He's not fit enough for the Scotland squad, but it's not really fair to give the impression he's fully fit but cant get in the celtic team. Anyway we do have options. Anya's #1 b a distance at the moment, but behind him you have Snodgrass, Maloney and Forrest who can play either side. Russell's been playing largely off the left for Derby and getting rave reviews. GMS could do a job over there as well. So that's 6 players who I'd have no real worries about seeing taking up that position for us, before you even get to moving Naismith, Bannan or Robertson there, or turning to George Boyd, Ryan Fraser or Craig Conway. We're got good cover in the wide areas. Center Back really is the only place we don't have at least two players that you can be confident in when they line up.

Aye, was pleased for Hanley that he still had a decent game even after a fairly early booking. He could have gone the other way, and stood off too much, not made tackles or done something stupid for a 2nd card. He stayed disciplined and didn't make the ref make a decision. Well done to him. Think Anya's performance is being a bit under-rated. Coleman's a quality fullback and he's a big threat for ireland going forwards, as well as solid defensively. How much did you see of him coming forwards on Firday? Pretty much none. Anya's pace alone meant he had to stay back more so as not to get caught, something a slower player (Bannan, Burke, Dorrans) just wouldn't have done. He carried the ball reasonably well, put in a few decent crosses and also wasn't as wasteful as he has been on some previous occasions. he cut back in and rolled it into someone rather than hit a wild cross to nowhere with his left. A Solid 7/10 for me. Mulgrew was standout, Robertson was standout. Marshall's kicking was just embarrassing. Brown seemed quiet. Whittaker was reasonably steady, couple of moments, but he did ok. Everyone else, good games.

Brown Mulgrew and Morrison, sure. McArthur has been a bombscare and made horrific errors pretty much every time he's pulled on a shirt for us. He seems a different player at international level that at club level. Adam, is not and never was a defensive midfielder. He played there because Levein was daft. Adam should only be used in the forward role bnehind the striker that Naismith played recently. But even then there's a fair few players ahead of him for that. Cairney's also a more forward minded player. MacDonald, maybe. But he's spent most of the last 4 years playing at League One level. He's got a ways to go for me before he can be claiming a spot ahead of Darren Fletcher. Bridcutt I like. He has potential, tho he's knocking on 25 now.. plus he cant buy a start for Sunderland and was on the field for the 5 goals in 45 minutes for Southampton recently. Not blaming him for it, but he's part of that side so shares some responsibility. Again, no way he's in ahead of Fletch. Right now we're in a good place. for defensive mid I think. We've got 4 decent ones and that should do us. The problem is they're all 28+. Mulgrew, Brown, Morrison and Fletcher. Even McArthur if he can stop doing silly things is 27. It's a generation of players that we'll lose pretty quickly and there's not a lot coming up behind them. We need MacDonald and Bridcutt to push on and Ryan Jack to step up.. plus some new talent to really start coming thru. Maybe I'm being a bit dramatic worrying about it, for example, right back doesn't look an better. Hutton and Bardsley are both 29, Whittaker's 30. All 31-32 by the time the Euros come around. After that.. Caddis i guess? Palmer's still a million miles away judging by the weekend. Other than that we don't look too bad in terms of future options. anyway, gone a bit off track.

i wouldn't go that far. he's still a decent player and we're not blessed with a lot of good players in that area. Brown and Mulgrew to start for me, Morrison can operate there.. after that we don't have much. McArthur doesn't seem to have the mindset for international football, he's been a mess whenever he's played for us. So there's definitely still a place for Darren Fletcher in the squad. He might not be the box to box player he once was, but he's smart enough and experienced enough to be able to slot into other roles. Writing him off already seems a bit extreme.

This move didnt happen, did it?

I'd agree.. and that's not what i'm doing, so i'm not sure why you bought it up.

Is fletcher quicker than mulgrew? really? neither are speed merchants, but i'd actually be surprised if fletch was the quicker of the two. Mulgrew has a better understanding with Brown, they're club mates and played together a fair few times for us as well. He's spend much of strachan's reign playing defensive mid for us, and successfully so. He's a fair bit taller than fletcher and so more useful in both boxes. His dead ball delivery is better than probably anyone else in the squad. Fletch is an underperforming 'big name' player who can't get a first team game and has barely kicked a ball in years. It might sound like i'm being brutal on Fletch, but that's the reality right now. The more I think about it the less of a question there is. Fletch should be a bench player for Scotland right now.

If he didn't fit in the plans he wouldn't be on the bench. He's just behind Blind on the teamsheet. No shame in that. It comes down to how much he wants to play. He seems like a loyal guy and has been at utd since he was a boy, so i'd be a little surprised if he didn't stick it out and do the job they want him to do. As for him playing for Scotland. I'm one of those who has been alittle underwhelmed by his career for us. Should be be in the squad, yes. He's better than McArthur no question. Is he better than Mulgrew? Maybe.. but i'm not convinced it's worth breaking up the partnership of Brown and Mulgrew in the middle to fit him in. They compliment each other well and give us more together than they do individually.

Is it worth mentioning that Rhodes has 1 goal in his last 7..

So, Whelan's out for the game next month. Surely a help for us.

This is crazy to me. Great assist for the goal against germany. Against Gerogia, he's the guy waiting to nod home Robertsons cross, making the keeper come and palm it out to Maloney for the goal. And in Poland he's played a fantastic ball to Anya, so he can slot it in for Maloney's goal. He's making goals for the guys around him every game, and as long as he's doing that I have no worries about whether he's scoring or not.

His job at that free-kick would be to form a wall anyway, wouldn't it? so his strolling back and being too close to it is actually blocking more options to deliver than if he's scampered back to where he should be making his 1 man wall. Or if he's backing away to where he should be while facing, he's still going to be cut out of the play and irrelevant. Whatever Hutton does they'd still have had the option of the ball wide to Baines who still wouldn't have been picked up by Weimann and the 3 guys in the middle would still have been alseep and badly positioned. The guys behind him should already have shouted at Weimann to be closer to Baines, either they didnt or he didn't listen. As it was, there were still 4 guys behind him who could and should have stopped the goal who didnt. So 'Hutton punished for snoozing' seems crazy when it's really 'Villa punished for Weimann, Vlaar, Clark and Cissokho snoozing. Those four are far more responsible for it than he was.

Aye, bullying them with an offer of £10,000 to help pay for it if they introduce better training for their youngsters. Apparently an incentive scheme for clubs to help themselves and scottish football as a whole is "bullying". I'm left thinking Malpas is a bit of a clown.

1st goal was open play.. cross from the everton right where Baines had schooled Westwood, and it goes nowhere near Hutton. he was around the near post blocking the ball in to Lukaku. It went over all of them to Jagielka who beat Cissokho (i think) to the header. 2nd goal was a break and down to Cleverley being rubbish and a poor attempt to save by Guzan. 3rd it goes wide to Baines, who Weimann is slow to get out to, he crosses low behind 3 sleepy defenders (Vlaar, Clark and Cissokho) who are all too high and Coleman nips in at the back post. Yes it's played in behind Hutton, but Baines isn't Hutton's man, he's Weimann's and Weimann had let him get away from him. Again, i'm not saying Hutton's a perfect player, but can we at least be fair with our criticism?

Haven't found the full quotes yet, but Malpas is being reported as complaining that Wotte was "bullying" clubs to back his plans for youth football by giving them £10k. I wish bullies at my school had given me 10 grand.

i assume you mean the 2nd goal where he was caught forward. To be fair to Hutton there were covering players, it was Cleverley failing to make a challenge that led to the shot, and Guzan really should have stopped the shot. Blaming Hutton's a bit of a reach imo. Thought he worked pretty hard down the right for Villa, including making their best chance off his own back.

I'm really quite bored of you, pal. but i'll make the effort one last time.. which sentance and what's wrong with it? re: changing tune.. i didnt think it was a foul, i still dont. i can see why someone on another nighnt might give it. it you're not paying attention then it could look a lot worse than it was imo. what's changed? i've watched the realtime and slow-mo of the incident at least half a dozen times. i can accept opinions. If you look back thru all my posts on here you'll see that. i'm even able to put up with your condescension.. tho probably not for much longer and i'll just start ignoring whatever you have to say as what would be the benefit for me to listen to you?