andyD

Don't think McBurnie did well or badly, he had next to nothing to work with. Cooper however was at fault for both goals. Where the line between realistic assessment of events, and 'anti-cooper'? If either of the things i pointed out wrong or slanted? Thought he was poor again last night, tho poor against Belgium is different to me from poor against Russia. Yet to see what he adds tho.

Cooper barely went near Dzyuba, Mulgrew was handling him all night. Cooper spent the night not picking up Golovin. Maybe seeing it on the telly made it clearer what people were doing and where.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkuCYQO1GL4

"..then he would have covered my ass"?

Well, that was awful. Can we agree that he should be dropped down the list behind Devlin, Bates Hanley, Lindsey Findlay and hell, even Jack Hendry! Mistakes for the both the goals. The first is largely Cooper's fault.. I can only assume he he doesn't see Golovin coming, which is an embarrassing lack of awareness. McTominay's with his name, Robertson's with his man.. Cooper steps up off Golovin to pressure McTominay's man for no apparent reason and it's just dinked in to Golovin who's now wide open. Robertson gets across, and yes, fluffs his clearance.. but the situation never happens if Cooper just stayed with Golovin instead of running off after someone else's man. Defenses can't operate if the players don't play their part in the whole.. and Cooper abandoned his task to try and do someone elses when it wasn't required. For the 2nd goal, McGregor and Fraser conspire to give the ball away.. Cooper 100% sees Golovin coming this time, but rather than angle to go with the runner, he squares up to the passer. I can only assume he thought he could cut out the pass somehow, but as soon as he's square he's screwed. He's not 10ft wide, so the pass is easy and Golovin leaves him for dead as Cooper can't get moving after squaring up. It's an easy cross under no pressure for Golovin as a result. All round it was an embarrassingly poor display. I've seen enough to draw a line thru his name.

I'd agree that Tierney is our most solid defensive option at right back. I'd probably have gone with him against Russia and Belgium if available. But we do need an alternative option for games where it's not backs to the wall. To me we've got a choice between O'Donnell and Palmer. Paterson's perhaps an option, but (like Jack) it's starting to be a very long time since he played a meaningful number of games at right back. The rest of our options are kids with potential, none of whom are playing at a high enough level to really be staking a serious claim. So it's O'Donnell or Palmer, not astounding players either of them, but the best options when Kazakhstan and Cyprus come around. As for the 2nd goal.. The last person I'd blame there was O'Donnell.. there's 3 mistakes before the ball gets to the far post. McGregor's pass to Fraser was awful and left him far too much to do. Fraser's touch was risky and it didn't come off. He's better off putting it into the stand and shouting at McGregor not to make such awful passes. Once Russia is in possession, Cooper sees the runner coming and for some reason squares up to the passer, as if he's going to somehow cut it out. That makes it incredibly easy to roll it past him and guarantees that the Russian player gets to it first. And then they're in our area firing the ball across goal.. it's not O'Donnell's fault. Some might say he was too far up the pitch, but that's a rubbish argument too. We're 1-1 in a must win game, in comfortable possession with a midfielder on the ball in our own half. We should never ever turn over possession in that situation and the fullback is quite right to push forward looking to contribute to the attack.

Yet you're saying Tierney should be our 1st choice right back. Every time Tierney's played there our right-side has stalled completely as he can't overlap and cross of his right foot. When the ball came to Tierney he 100% of the time stopped, turned inside and looked to pass to the center mid player. Zero forward momentum, zero pace out wide and zero attacking tempo on that flank. I find it bizarre that the criticism levelled at O'Donnell (which is somewhat harsh taking in all his caps, not just Russia) is an apt description of the player you want to replace him with.

Marshall - Made a couple of decent stops, and didnt have a chance with either goal. I still don't trust his distribution tho. We gave the ball away far too easy all night and he was part of that. O'Donnell - His worst game for Scotland by a distance. Looked bereft of confidence. Mulgrew - Did ok for me. Managed to draw a fair few fouls from Dzjuba and made him do his best work away from the goal. Cooper - Poor. Abandoned his man resulting in the 1st goal and squares up making the ball in behind him easy for the 2nd. Robertson - Another below par game. Armband is a curse for him it seems. Should have done better for the 1st goal. McTominay - Seemed to be our only center mid all night and got utterly overrun as a result. McGregor - Disappeared. It was why I was loathe to pick him before the game and sadly he's shown it again. Sometimes he just doesn't turn up and in international football every game is vital. Really can't afford to have him in the side, which is a huge shame because he has talent. Forrest - Quiet, but we didn't really supply our wingers much. Could have tucked in and helped the midfield more, but I feel like his (and Fraser's instructions were to stay up and look for breaks. Our distribution was so poor and hurried that we never found them. McGinn - Goal aside did very little. Had expected to see his energy shine in this game, but instead he seemed to get lost in that attacking mid role. Didn't do enough defensively and should have dropped a little deeper to congest the midfield at 1-0. Fraser - Much like Forrest. Kind of cut off from the rest of the team as out center mids and fullbacks were as far forward as we managed to hold possession. McBurnie - No supply at all, so can't really knock him. McLean - Poor. Came on and caused calamity. He's either trying way too hard or just isn't good enough. Embarrasses the players around him. Offered for an easy ball from McTominay who was under pressure. Then as McTominay plays the easy ball, McLean sprints forward to receive and impossible pass.. so McTominay's pass hands possession to the Russians on the edge of our box. I no longer care if Armstrong's only getting a handful of minutes, he's better than this. Christie - A bright spark when he came on. Brave on the ball, willing to try something and got his head up. Would start him every time he's available tbh. Phillips - Standard Phillips.. nothing much to say. Bit worried by Clarke for the first time too. We stuck to 4231 thru-out. Didn't adjust anything to what was happening in the game. e.g. if at 1-0 we'd dropped McGinn to man-mark Golovin, that might have made a big difference. If we'd dropped from the desires 4231 to a 451, narrowed the midfield we might have congested it enough to stifle Russia. But we just carried on as we were, I guess trying to win 2 or 3 nil, even when the game was swinging Russia's way. We also went defensive in response to going behind.. only returning to the same sort of thing we had before with 10 minutes left. I'm not sure what we were trying to achieve there.. a draw was as good as a loss, so to try and shut up shop at 2-1 down, steady the ship and nick a goal at the end is as much folly as just losing 3-1. It didnt make sense to me at the time and a few days later it still doesnt.

Strachan: I understand why he was sacked. Didn't qualify and all that. But I did always seem like a weird thing to do right at that moment, given the form of the team. Unbeaten in 7.. taking points from Slovenia home and away, Lithuania away, Slovakia at home and so close to beating England at home. Now all those games look very lose-able. And while he maybe should have thrown younger players into the starting lineup sooner, he had them around there and they'd likely have stepped up the following campaign due to retirements if nothing else. So while he wasn't perfect, we were always in with a shout and could pull off some really good results. It could have been a lot worse.. and it now is. McLeish: Couldn't go soon enough. It was just incoherent. The constantly shifting system and call ups. It's like he was just scattergunning, hoping to find something that worked, rather than sitting down and taking a look at what we had and how that could be used. Also the performance against the Khazaks was.. just awful.. and essentially ended this campaign in the opening match. Not sorry he's gone at all. Clarke: Too soon to judge, but Russia was the first time i was worried. The first time i thought "what on earth's he doing there?" We go 2-1 down, and he swaps McGinn for Christie (like for like position-wise) and takes Forrest off for McLean. A right forward for a defensive mid, pushing McGregor to left wing and Fraser to the right. It seems like our response to going behind in a must win game was to go more defensive. And we stayed like that until the last 10 minutes. Also all his changes seemed to just be shuffling the players within the system, there was no change of formation to try and push the issue, maybe that's a symptom of it being early days and not having had time to work on another system with the players, but you'd like to think that they could cope in a pinch. The rest of this campaign feels like it's just friendlies for us now. Build up to the playoffs. A lot of work to be done it seems.

You couldnae have had a different name?

Are you coming up with alternative forum names?

Urgh...

Can't pick Jesus he's Brazilian.

Did i hear wrong or.. there was no suggestion that he apologised. he just 'cleared up the situation'. So that means there was nothing to apologise for, else he would have. So.. he just explained what the video was about, and everyone got on with their lives. Shame some on here can't do the same.

I'd go with this i think: McBurnie Forrest - McGinn - Fraser McTominay - McGregor Robertson - Mulgrew - Hanley - Palmer McLaughlin Can't be throwing MacGallivray into these games. And I still just don't trust Marshall's distribution. It was poor in the last games, and it'll cost us sooner or later. McLaughlin's also playing for a team tied for 1st, while Marshall's shipping goals all over and in the relegation zone. Yes, different tiers, but it's going to affect their mentality and the choices we make. I'd rather go with the confident guy. Mulgrew and Hanley is the only pair that really makes sense. They've both got experience, they've played together before and Hanley's playing at the top level while Cooper isn't. Taylor did well last time, but it's Robertson 100%. At right back, not much between them. Putting Palmer in is a bit of a risk, as if he has a bad time against Cheryshev (who has shown he's capable of doing that to people) then his international career is probably over. I think Palmer's a bit more agile that O'Donnell tho, so might be better able to stay with his man on this occasion. McTominay.. nailed on. I want to play Armstrong as he's super consistent and reliable and that's what we need. But given that he's not even played half an hour of football this season, it's really hard to justify putting him in. He's not going to be fully match sharp. McGregor's the obvious alternative to me. Moves the ball well.. can disappear sometimes, but i just don't see McLean or Jack as more reliable options. McGinn could play deeper, but I'd rather see him further forward, going beyond the striker, and having the freedom to close down all over without it leaving gaping holes in our defensive shape. So McGinn edges out Christie for the attacking mid slot because of that workrate and ability to disrupt. The wide 2 are the wide 2. They're the best we have. Up top, it's McBurnie for me. It feels too soon for Naismith (he's said so himself), he's just played so little football.. and Russell isn't a center forward. Given that Jack Harper's good looking move to Getafe has morphed into a crappy loan to LaLiga2, there was maybe a case of Shankland given he's scored 7 in 3 league games, but oh well. Of the options in the squad it's got to eb McBurnie for me. Certainly not confident, given the absences. Fletch, McKenna, Tierney, Gordon and a match sharp Armstrong would all be in my 11, but we've got what we've got available. Just got to hope for the best.

As a wednesday fan.. i'm not going to subscribe to the blunts channel to verify that or not.

Doesnt sound like McBurnie to me.. But also.. how did some chump on twitter who's never had a like or a retweet in his life and has never been near Sheffield get a behind the scenes expose video from Sheffield United? To me this is as fake as they come, and he's just trying to get some followers.

I'm expecting Mulgrew and Hanley. Hanley's playing premier league and going ok, while Cooper is Championship and doing ok. Hanley and Mulgrew probably also know each other from squads of old and probably played together a few times, tho right now I cba to check if they did or no. If another centerback gets injured.. well.. Lindsay gets a call? Or.. David Bates will play tonight, so that'll show he's fit enough. Really not sure why there's only 3 centerbacks in the squad. I kinda hate when managers do this.. I berated previous managers (Strachan and McLeish) for only taking one right back in squads on more than one occasion, so I'm not going to spare Clarke criticism for only taking 3 centerbacks. If you can take 8 center mids.. you can take 4 center backs. 😕

Umm.. I'm calling fake on the video. In the video, McBurnie has a bit of an accent.. the vowels are there. But that's not how he sounds at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJUHA-3FOl4 So, that makes me think those voices are just dubbed on the top by someone wanting to do him down for some reason. There's also weird lip syncing around "you injured, you're gonna leave me go on my own?" which suggests it's dubbed on too. It also makes zero sense as a conversation about Scotland, given that Fleck doesn't make squads regularly, Fleck wouldn't 'come along' if he wasn't injured.. All in all, any right minded individual should just toss this video aside. It's garbage.

So players now get one game, where the entire team plays awful, many much worse, then we just write them off. Seems a solid plan, can't see how that could go wrong.

The loss of center backs does look to have hurt us badly. It's pretty freakish.. McKenna, Souttar and Findlay all injured at the same time. Bates sat on the bench (when he's even in the squad) at Wednesday, with no prospect of a game any time soon. Tierney out injured, so we can't even use him as cover in the middle. Liam Linsday now at stoke, but stuffed into a back 3 and getting wrecked every week. It's a huge problem.

Exactly. The the interivew, I took it that Clarke had talked to Griff.. and it was a case of just let him get his feet back under him, and not throw him into the high pressure cauldron of a vital qualifier with Russia. Seems like great man management to me, much like when Rodgers gave Griff the leave of absence in the first place.

They're the team i support.. and yeah, we're diddy these days. Going on 20 years out of the Premier League.. Just an average championship side, who hope to get lucky every season. Spent zero money this summer and heading into September without a manger. If we do well we'll finsih be above Bristol City and Preston North End. Can you point my at something O'Donnell or Palmer have done wrong in any of their 10 caps? Or are you just "Jack's great, they suck" that's how it is.

Why's that? It's 'just a feeling', aye? You reckon a guy who's barely played right back in years, will be better than a guy who plays there all the time and's not done much wrong in the 9 internationals he's played in. Why is that? It's your imaginary fear of O'Donnell or Palmer doing something wrong (which they haven't yet) fighting with your imagination of how imperious Jack must be at right back, were he hasn't played even semi-regularly since 2012. Like, i can't control your imagination, but you should probably give it a go.

O'Donnell and Palmer are both perfectly fine at right back. People pick on them because they think they're from 'diddy teams'. No one can actually point at anything significant they they're done wrong. Our weakness is central defense and it's link with central midfield, and it has been for a decade or more. And that hasn't changed in this squad. We have 3 centerbacks out injured. We're going to go into these qualifiers with a pairing that's never been tried and at least one of the back 2 not having barely played international football in 3 years, ot never having played it at all. Combine that with a problem position in defensive mid, with the question of who plays along side McTominay.. We have a long list of players who all have their downsides for playing there. But some types would rather just blame the right backs before a ball is kicked, and probably will after even if they do nothing wrong. Hiding to nothing for both of them isnt it. Kinda sad that some on here can be so blinkered as to say "i like him, i dinnae like him, so ill have a go at one and ignore the failings of the other."