BraveheartGordon

My squad in the other thread will be way closer 😎 also it’s a double header including the nations league match not just Belgium.

I thought Shinnie played really well and I really like him but his 2 best positions are the 2 strongest in the squad, he’s really unfortunate.

Having now had 4 matches since the new manager was appointed I think we're now in a good position to assess how the plyers that came into the squad performed and what the next squad which will take in our first nations league match could look like, here are my thoughts. New Players: Jordan Archer: 2 poor errors against Peru have surely played his way out of contention for future call ups. Jon McLaughlin: Solid debut and some good stops from long-range, blameless for Mexico goal. Bain: Solid enough performance and displayed some good distribution ,handling not as clean as JM. Scott McKenna: Areal find, 4 really strong performances played him into the first 11. Jack Hendry: Looks a real prospect and particularly impressed with his calm passing and ability to step forward. Stephen O'Donnell: Hard task in both matches but thought he coped decently and the squad is weak at right-back. Lewis Stevenson: Looked shaky in 1st half against Peru but recovered to do ok in the 2nd half. Barry Douglas: didn't look out of place against Hungary but has 2 first class left full backs ahead of him so might be well placed playing further forward. Scott McTominay: shows top drawer composure to pick angled passes under pressure, also offers a physical presence in midfield, his Scotland career can only grow. McDonald: showed a disappointing lack of aggression v Costa Rica but McLeish rates him. McGeouch: Gave the ball away far too many times over the 2 matches and put us under needless pressure. McLean: Played out of position in first match but stuck to his task, thought he was really poor against Mexico for someone of his ability. Christie: Was atrocious against Mexico and kept displaying poor control. Cairney: Had a poor first half v Costa Rica but possibly on the verge of an EPL breakthrough season. Russell: Worked hard and might have earned another opportunity. Murphy: I thought he tracked back well against Peru to help Stevenson out and had or 2 impressive runs including one to beat 3 peru players and win a free-kick. Morgan: Looked bright and exciting but his involvement in September's matches will come down to his club situation. McBurnie: Offers us a physical presence at number 9, was unlucky not to score his header against Mexico. Phillips as a 9: Looked impressive against Hungary holding the ball up and managing to get on the scoresheet, offers a physical presence but tends to drift out of games too easily. Squad for Septembers games GK: McGregor and Gordon are stick ons if fit but Marshall being MIA means one of the goalies mentioned will get a chance as 3rd choice. McGregor, Gordon and Scott Bain Defenders: 3 CB's pick themselves leaving one spot which I think McLeish might choose a right footer (even if I don't rate Hanley), McLeish might carry O'Donnell or another right back in case we play a back 4. Hendry, McKenna, Mulgrew, Hanley Tierney. Robertson, O'Donnell and Paterson Midfield: I think the squad will be midfield loaded. McTominay, Mcginn, McGregor, Armstrong, Cairney, McDonald and McCarthur. Wide players and forwards: I think McLeish will balance 2 right sided wide players with someone who prefers playing on the left so Murphy or Morgan might get the nod ahead of Russell. Forrest, Fraser, Murphy, Griffiths, McBurnie and Phillips. In all the matches I think McKenna, Hendry, possibly O'Donnell, McTominay,, McBurnie and Phillips as a striker all probably add to the existing group.

With all our players available and at an ideal time of the season Peru and Mexico away would be an incredibly hard task, so given that we were at a terrible time of the season and missing half our squad, I think we did ok. McLeish will have learned a lot about the players featured and I think he’s in good stead to pick the squad for September.

France 2-0 up and Togo down to 10 men at half time! Looking great to go through!

Don’t know why McCrorie didn’t play, he was outstanding on Wednesday and Doohan looked shaky in the opening game as well.

I’m fully in agreement with this, it’s not so much the live qualifier rights that every twitter Da moans about, I understand about bidding issues and whilst we’re part of the UK England will always take precedent. But I can’t stand waiting for a 10 min slot on ITVs England centric programme when they also do special England only highlights. We should expect a 60 minute programme with extended highlights and analysis of our matches with Scottish pundits who have knowledge of the players and not Dean Saunders or Ian Wright humouring us.

It’s pretty clear a lot of fans made their mind up about McLeish before he even got the job and are sitting waiting anxiously to tell all the other fans I told you so. His remit is to take us to Euro 2020, I’ll see how he gets on with that to judge him thanks, and way more is being made out of the Peru match than the situation and overall performance warrants.

We learned not to play Jordan Archer. Which is absolutely crucial going forward.

Honestly I thought in the first half we were really well structured, and were on the edge of creating opportunities, if we kept it to 0-0 at the break then Peru start to get nervous and we can play on counter-attacks. Unfortunately a moment of madness from Jordan Archer killed the game plan and you can’t afford that type of error at international level. In fact Peru only had 2 serious attempts on goal in the match, 1 was a penalty and the other was another GK error. We were playing with in many cases our 4th or 5th best choice options against their full strength World Cup side and save for the aforementioned errors we were right in the game.

Peru would trounce Panama, completely different level.

Archer and Stevenson look really shaky, we’re thankfully well covered for the competetive games in those positions.

Looks like a diamond to me with Phillips and Murphy as split strikers.

I’m in the same boat, I watched the Togo game by signing up to a website called tv player which is a free site that gives you access to all the freeview channels. Then connected my desktop to my tv with a VGA cable, was easy enough. Edit:it appears the game is live on Facebook and not the channel so you could just do the same but watch it on Facebook.

————Archer————— —-Hendry—Mulgrew—-McKenna Paterson——————————Shinnie ———————McTominay————— —————McLean———McGinn—— ————-McBurnie——Phillips—— Phillips and Mcburnie giving us target options in a system that operates almost as 5-4-1 off the ball with Phillips shaping off and 3–5–2 on the ball. McTominay sitting in midfield to let McGinn and McLean express themselves.

Thought we were superior to Togo in almost every aspect of the game, Togo were a bunch of hatchetmen and the player who was sent off should have had 5 yellows and the last tackle was worth a red (as opposed to his second yellow) ankle breaker. I quite like our game model and there’s a lot of bright players in this age group.

I don’t think your point necessarily does stand in all honesty because the home friendlies and nations league are both part of Sky’s package. The previous away friendlies were live on premier sports and it would be interesting to know if they bid for Hungary or these matches. Could see BBC picking up away friendlies on a regular basis if premier sports aren’t interested just based on a lack of competitor tbh.

When Miller and McLeish played those games the average distance covered by a player in an international match was 5km, it’s now well over 10 km a match. Playing Saturday, Wednesday back then is the equivalent of playing one game now.

Neither are most of the squad members, Lewis Stevenson wouldn’t get a look in at left back if the entire first 23 left the squad in protest. I still think Cummings has potential.

France have an unbelievable array of talent from Varane in defence, Pogba, Kante and Matuidi in midfield and a frightening array of ability from Ousmane Dembele, Coman, Martial, Griezemenn and Mbappe amongst others. If they click they’ll be unstoppable.

I thought he was rotten too until he played in a 3-0 won at Pittodrie and never looked back. He’s played twice at Pittodrie, Celtic Park and once at Easter Road and has never lost, defends his box really really strongly but technically leaves a bit to be desired but that’s where Germany will develop him.

Delighted to see any young Scottish player moving abroad, he’s a terrific defender in terms of doing the basics and was outstanding for Rangers in the 0-0 old-firm game. Needs to improve his use of the ball to get to the very top and hopefully Germany will do that for him.

I honestly wouldn’t be averse to trying him as a target man striker, doubt he’d lose a header in the box. Failing that, trying him instead of Hanley at RCB might be where he fits in.

As I was watching Robertson flying past Man City players tonight in the Champions League Quarter finals it definitely struck me how genetically inferior he looked....

Im sure it was Nigeria in 2014 at Craven Cottage.