kwhitelaw

You think Southgate & Arsenal would risk a further hip injury to a £30m player in 2 games that wouldn't matter a jot to qualification? Not a chance. I agree Robertson's statement seems worrying, but it think it's probably being a case of needing to choose his words more carefully. I don't doubt his commitment at all either.

Jesus wept, I'm as frustrated about the situation with Tierney as the rest of you but can we all get some fucking perspective please?! The lad is just back playing from a serious hip injury which was exacerbated by playing far too many games over the last 2 seasons. Hip injuries are are a bloody minefield at the best of times, just look at what Andy Murray has had to go through over the last 2 years with his! Let him fully recover, the last thing we want is him fucking up his hip again against bloody Cyprus or Kazakhstan in games that essentially don't mean much (I know coefficients, finish 3rd, blah blah) and he's out again for the play offs. If he plays regularly for Arsenal between now and the play offs in March and pulls out again with the same excuses, by all means rip him a new one, but i think we should cut him a bit of slack for now.

If we fail via the playoffs then it’s time for Clarke to do what O’Neill did for NI, bring on the best young players from the U21s and start from scratch. It will probably mean sacrificing the World Cup qualifiers and maybe even the next Euros but needs must. anyone under 30 who calls time on their international careers from this squad I say good riddance to them, they’re obviously not committed enough.

This is becoming brutal. We really need to get some much needed confidence and momentum going before the playoffs and these 2 games were a great chance to do it. A fully fit squad should have been more than capable of getting 6 points but now, especially with that defence, I'm worried we may only get a point now! What rips my knitting most is, with the possible exception of McTominay, all these guys will be playing next week for their clubs. Fucks me off no end...

Both these games are giving me the fear! We need to get off to a flyer in Cyprus and if we get an early goal we should win no bother. Cyprus 1-2 Scotland Scotland 1-0 Kazakhstan

Nope! It's minging! For the same price I've bought the Score Draw 1982 home and away tops instead, they'll do me for the foreseeable future

Best 1. 2. 3. Take your pick from any of the last 20 years for the worst ones. I didn't mind the 3 home tops from Euro 96 through to France '98 or the 2011 Adidas home effort, and the 2014 away one actually grew on me.

Jeez, I think folk might be over reacting just a touch here. Firstly, before his injury Tierney was pretty much an ever present in the squads, including friendlies, and was played out of position either at RB or CB in a back 3 to accommodate our lack of options there and didn't grumble. Now, I don't know how true this is as it came from someone "in the know" with a friend who worked for Celtic. But when his injury was at it's worst and he wasn't even playing for Celtic there were supposedly real fears for Tierney's career. Scott Nisbet's career ending pelvic injury was used as a comparison. Thankfully it never went that way but the fact it was a concern is maybe why Celtic weren't and Arsenal having just shelled out £25M for him, aren't keen for him to play too many unnecessary games! People have mentioned Darren Fletcher playing and travelling through his illness for Scotland like some sort of martyr. Did it occur to any of you that if he had maybe put himself first and rested when he should have, Scotland and Man Utd maybe wouldn't have been robbed of his talents for nearly 2 years?! If Tierney himself is keen to play in these games either then you know what I'll cut him some slack this time round. A lad of his talent, risking his career before he's 25 to play Cyprus and Kazakhstan just seems a tad idiotic to me.

Oooft! I didn't think they could do much worse than that white sleeved monstrosity a couple of years ago but they have! That is absolutely honking!

Marshall, while nowhere near his best anymore, was in no way at fault for the goals we conceded in the last 2 games. He also made some pretty impressive stops as well to help keep those scores down. Our problems won't be solved until our defense improves. As Marshall is the only one playing regularly for his club side at the highest level so it has to be him in goal with either (or both) McLaughlin or Kelly as back up

If Scotland's style of play were similar to Celtic's I'd be in total agreement. But would Christie be of any use with Clarke's route 1 hoofball tactics?

Shame, he was one of my favorite players over the last 10 years. As many have said he'd have had many more caps if not for a couple of really bad injuries! I'm pretty sure we had to do with out him for the majority of the Euro 16 qualifiers where, at his peak, he could have made the difference in a couple of those games that saw us lose out again.

Aye why not?! We can go one better and not even tell them it's happening! We'll round them up by jumping them and putting a bag over their head SAS style!! Bag comes off and their in an army training camp in the highlands with Clarke in full Gunnery Seargent Hartman mode. Couldn't hurt could it?

In a perfect world aye, but can you imagine how those conversations between Clarke and the club managers (especially Gerrard and Lennon) would go if that was suggested? Not a chance the clubs would be up for that. I also seriously doubt many players would be keen to join up for that given they barely have any time off between the end of the season and the start of pre-season these days either. There's an international break in June anyway so that also scuppers that idea

That isn't an option now with the introduction of the nations league and us being in a 6 team group. All international breaks for the foreseeable future require us to play a competitive game. Can't argue much with everything else you've said though

We do have a decent midfield!! On paper at least anyway, 7 of our midfield squad play in one of the top leagues in Europe! So far we've just not been able to find a way to make a decent unit out of them. My only concern so far with Clarke's tactics is that this backs to the wall defending and lumping it up to a lone striker that can't actually hold up the ball (Burke, McBurnie) is completely taking the midfield out of the equation. Clarke obviously needs time to get things right but he also needs to show he's going to use that time wisely! O'Neill spent his initial 3 years working with promising young NI players and eventually it came good. I know he's been hampered by injuries but players like Mulgrew should not be in the side again, he's done! These next 3 games are about getting our promising U21s in the A squad and seeing what they can do. Gilmour especially! If they're good enough it won't do their career prospects any harm. D Fletcher got his debut before he'd kicked a ball for the Man U first team and look how that turned out!

What did Marshall do wrong last night? First 2 Goals were fantastic strikes and his defense were to blame for the next 2! I would keep Palmer in, SOD is chronic! My only complaint was how narrow he was playing at times but I noticed Robertson doing the same quite often so maybe he was instructed to. Agree with Mulgrew being dropped, he's done unfortunately and has been for a while. Can't argue with the rest of your choices.

I might be completely making this up but I seem to remember a couple of games we did ok with Snodgrass up front as a lone striker. I wouldn't be against giving Palmer another shot at RB but BBC don't have him in the squad options

He wasn't bad when he was at Morton last season on loan and I'd have had him back over the 2 roasters we currently have. He definitely has promise, he had a blinder against Dundee a couple of weeks ago in the Friday night live game and earned Queens a decent draw!

Hi all I’ve got a mate on holiday in Chicago hoping to watch the game on Thursday (Christ knows why lol). Can anyone recommend any pubs or supporters clubs that would be showing it? cheers.

He was exactly the kind of manager that we needed at this time. Someone that has a history of being able to organise a team to be hard to beat which he did at WBA and more recently at Killie. He's not going to turn things around overnight unfortunately and he's having (IMO) to also rebuild the confidence of a pool of players that has been utter shattered by the previous manager. Remember 2 of his games have been against Belgium. While I agree that he's no way international class, Stephen O'Donnell was brought in by McLeish and unfortunately there's no better option just now. Palmer may eventually come good but it's not looking great! Tierney is our best option but he won't be ready until the November games Re Devlin, I agree with you but then again he's not going to be an automatic starter, that'll be Mulgrew and Cooper/Hanley I would imagine, so he's only cover. I'm guessing he's ahead of Bates as he's not starting regularly for Sheffield Weds?

😂 If you had told me 3 seasons ago when on loan at Morton, Lawrence Shankland would be getting called up to the Scotland squad I'd have laughed uncontrollably in your face. Fair play to the lad for turning his career right around! Would have been so easy for him to go the other way!

I hate saying this as a Morton fan but I wouldn't be looking at the fact he got a hat trick as any great feat as by all accounts we were utterly shambolic on Saturday! It's never going to happen anyway 1. Would Clarke even risk it? I know the remaining games are effectively friendlies but imagine chucking him in against San Marino (the only team we could remotely justify playing him against) and we struggle to score again! Clarke would be torn apart for it! 2. Who would we omit from the squad in his place? All our strikers play at a higher level and it would be a kick in the teeth for any of those strikers to be dropped for a Scottish Championship Striker. and 3, would he even fit into the style of play Clarke is trying to impose? I really don't see him fitting in as a lone striker capable of holding up the ball (not that any of our current strikers are doing that to any great effect anyway)

It's not nonsense at all! All those players individually will have no doubt earned their own development cost back in the transfer fees they have generated, but for everyone of them there are countless other players who don't make the grade and are essentially money down the drain! That's why clubs are less interested in producing their own youth these days. These schools have only been going since 2012. Less than 7 years ffs! Were the SFA/clubs/whoever honestly expecting a whole national squad capable of qualifying for a major tournament in that short time?

I'm all for doing this at Hampden! Just not sure how we'd fill the extra 10,000 seats though 😂