kwhitelaw

Only if they're playing at the top of their game! I mentioned something similar on the Che Adams thread, in the National side we need to get away from this mentality that we should be loyal to certain players. Dylan Dykes is a perfect example, he's been benched by QPR, hasn't scored a goal for months and according to the manager, shot of confidence! Is that someone who should be leading the line for us in our first crucial qualifying games? Hell no! I know our options are sometimes limited but this loyalty thing is something that used to rip my knitting about with Strachan, he was the worst for it!

Surely then the fix is with the actual youth development system and the rules within it rather than diminishing the lower leagues into essentially an OF reserve league? Can you imagine how shit league one would be knowing you only need to finish 3rd to get promoted?! Vanderark14 hit the nail on the head. Scottish football set the national team back 22 years by allowing Rangers and Celtic's greed to take over the running of the game. IMO we need a youth system that keeps under 16's out of the clutches of clubs. A system similar to the NFL in the states would be my choice. Local youth teams funded and guided by the SFA performance schools should coach young kids until 16. Let clubs youth scouts keep tabs on their development and once they reach 16 allow clubs to offer the best of these kids contracts but cap the numbers per. Or you could even go a bit further and like the NFL, the weaker clubs get first dibs of the best ones! And if 16 YO Rangers fan says no to Hamilton knowing Rangers want to offer him something, he's denied player registration until compensation is agreed to SFA etc.

You've basically confirmed my point here which is essentially Rangers and Celtic have hoovered up so much of the youth talent in the country they can't actually develop them properly. Whereas a team like Dundee Utd who (like basically every other non OF team) can't afford to run a reserve team promote younger players faster who then end up making something of themselves. Can't you see the major flaw in the OF youth development? Why should the lower leagues suffer for a system that's so obviously flawed?!

Will it? Most those kids won't go on to represent either club let alone the National team so imo it will benefit no-one other than Rangers or Celtic to the detriment of the lower league clubs and the competitiveness of the lower leagues. Also as a Morton fan I'll have no extra interest watching my team play a Premiership clubs kids side than I would Queen of the South or Ayr United, in fact I would be less interested. This just reeks of the old firm now having to deal with the problem of them hoovering up all the decent talent and money within Scottish Football and now have nowhere to actually develop these kids as no other club can afford to run a decent reserve side and league. Colts, along with the Welsh and Irish sides, have added nothing to the Challenge Cup, they've ruined it in fact and will add nothing to the lower leagues

Sorry to be pernickety but Burke wasn't involved in the play-offs at all and McBurnie's sole contribution was a penalty in the final shoot out which, considering the pressure he's been under, was well taken so fair play to him, but he's been useless otherwise. Dykes is the only one who can feel aggrieved if he loses his place to Adams, but he's not playing well right now. I totally understand people being cynical about him changing his tune but the sole purpose of international football is to play the best/most in-form starting 11 possible so based on his current club form I'm happy that Adams will be in future squads. If he goes off the boil I'll shed no tears if he's binned.

Looking at the confirmed pots my favored group would be: Croatia Sweden Scotland Luxembourg Andorra Moldova

Don't think I've been this excited/nervous for a game since Italy 07!! As said above these guys are closer to our level and anything is possible. Just hope the players believe in themselves coz they CAN do this!! Hope you guys all enjoy yourselves tonight! CMON SCOTLAND

The original plan pre-covid was pub with my mates and then if we were successful get bladdered and crash at my parents house so I didn't disturb my then pregnant wife 😂 Now it's a few beers in front of the telly to calm the nerves and trying not to shout too loudly so I don't wake up my 6 month old. Euro 96 and France 98 were the only 2 finals I have any real memories of us at, I can remember bits and pieces of Italia 90 and euro 92 but was too young to care.

Fraser did himself no favors with what he said in his interview but that reaction is well OTT imo. No one bats an eyelid when clubs dump injured players at the end of their contracts on the scrap heap every close season but we're meant to be outraged when a player does the same to a club?! F***. Right. Off! BTW Fraser isn't exactly my favorite player right now as he essentially downed tools for the national team last season too but the fact is the guy was out of contract and had every right to do right by himself first.

Yeah I agree, Dykes so far has been a pleasant surprise in these two matches! I really hope he has a good run in the Championship this year and carries that over for us! I've no issue with McBurnie but it just doesn't seem to be clicking with him with Scotland for whatever reason and can see Dykes moving above him in the pecking order Nae bother! 👍

Respectfully disagree with most of this. We've shown in the past a team with a lower standard of players can beat world class teams with the right system, Walter Smith and McLeish Mk1 were proof of that. I'm not saying Steve Clarke is a bad manager but I'm just not sure he's up to motivating this squad. Clarke only realistically had top 6 to achieve with Killie, no one expected him to top or separate the old firm, qualification is a total different kettle of fish. Also loads of different coaches have worked under those guys and people like Sir Alex, how many of his assistants have went on to great success after learning from arguably the greatest manager of all time? Guardiola and Klopp are well known to be inspirational in the dressing room and they're success shows that. We've also seen that shitebag managers (Burley, Levein, Strachan) can set us back years by not accepting their own failures and laying the blame solely at the players feet I do agree we're missing a creative spark type player like McFadden or Dalgleish etc. If you look at our squad and how they play for their clubs, none of them are known for doing anything special so a Scotland squad performance ends up being like a painting by numbers. Robotic and completely devoid of any creativity. There's a stigma with playing for Scotland and IMO the media up here are to blame and some sections of the fans! Rather than talk the team up and give the impression we're behind them they constantly focus on past failures, it's no wonder our players play scared. Christ look at the treatment McBurnie is getting right now ffs! In saying that however, too many players don't seem to have the balls to stand up and prove those people wrong, they hide every time! Completely disagree with your last statement though, we have no right to expect to beat anyone in the top 2 seeding categories for qualifiers I'll admit, but we should be competing with our own level and always be expected to beat the ones in the seeding categories below us.

Even Smith would struggle to make this side hard to beat! The difference between the defenders he had compared to now is stark!

An interesting point, which you could argue gives all 3 the incentive to pick younger players not regularly starting with their EPL or ECL clubs whereas we fill our squad with dross that are clearly not up to international level rather than taking a punt on a younger player like Gilmour for example

All 3 imo have a much better balance of squad whereas we have no decent right back, all our CBs (in this squad) are lefties, no real goal scorer and we're trying to shoehorn in 2 world class left backs into the team to the detriment of both. The main thing I'm clinging onto for the time being is that before he was getting decent results, Michael O'Neill had a horrible record while trying to find the right system for NI, I'm hoping Clarke is going through a similar time and will eventually crack it. Add in some promising youngsters and we could have a future squad to match the like of Wales and ROI

😂 true! But they’ll certainly be concerned if Slavia Prague follow through with their threat of pulling their players out of the squad

There’s absolutely no way after just competing in and winning a game that they couldn’t field a full squad! They’re at it and the game should be forfeited! I have a feeling this is underhand tactics from the Czechs to disrupt our preparations. I’ll not be surprised if the game is forced to go ahead by UEFA and we still lose.

Imo we had better players (especially in 16) many of which were far more creative than anyone we had tonight! Our major problem back then was self sabotage. We had moments of great creativity and often followed that up with defensive catastrophes! Now we’re compact but utterly clueless going forward

Don’t feed the troll mate!

Hope any of you who paid for a photo of yourself on a seat tonight get your money back! Just noticed during the post match analysis they’ve been stuck in the bt stand completely out of shot of the tv cameras 🤣🤣 that just sums the SFA up

Only positive was Israel didn’t have the balls to go for the jugular! That was utter pish! Don’t think the formation was the problem it’s just the players were pish on the night, they had no ideas how to break down a stubborn defence If we somehow manage to fluke our way to the finals next year it will be an embarrassment if we come up against a top class side.

Strange you've not got it to work! I've got the app on my iPhone and it connects to a chromecast! Also got the app on my PS4 which works a treat.

Offt! 4 full backs and only 3 CBs? Not seen the press conference but I'm guessing Findlay and Hanley are injured? I know he's not everyone's cup of tea but Hanley and least merits a place in the squad surely?! God only knows how he's going to line up that squad but my guess will be something along the lines of: Marshall Tierney - Cooper - McKenna - Robertson McTominay Forrest Christie McGregor McGinn McBurnie

Seriously look into these Now TV packages before you sign up to Sky Sports, they could save you a packet in the long run depending on how often you watch live football!

I like it! Nice change from normal yellow or plain white efforts, like the home top though I'll not be shedding £65 for it

He had something like 6 Premier League starts and a few Cup games so it wasn't that much more experience