kwhitelaw

Did he not also have a better record than both Van Gaal and Mourinho after the same number of games?

The bit I've highlighted is a major concern for me! It's really not a free hit we should be relying on and after watching the performance in Kazakhstan I'm convinced too many of the players have this attitude as well. If we have an absolutely honking qualifying campaign confidence will be rock bottom going into that play off and we could be watching another horrendous performance against a team that we could be well with in our abilities to beat!

McLeish will not walk and unfortunately he's going to be our manager until at least June as even he isn't shite enough to get a bad result in San Marino. If they did sack him it still wouldn't be enough, McRae and Petrie need to follow him, they're the ones who insisted on giving him the job.

Aye and should we be concerned that McBurnie is missing for Swansea today due to illness?!

Fletcher now a doubt after going off injured at the weekend, that's a big blow if we lose him!

With both McGregor and Gordon now in their late 30s should we be looking now for potential replacements for the WC qualifiers? Bain seems the obvious choice having displaced Gordon at Celtic but is he actually as good as the other 2 in their prime? I've only really watched Sportscene highlights so I'm not the best person to provide an opinion. McGrorie is on loan at Morton for the rest of this season so it would be good see how he develops this season and over the next 2/3 years

Certainly not being smart with a spelling mistake like that! Oooft! fair play, I’m not willing to write him off just yet, you are. Guess we’ll agree to disagree

It was widely noted at the time, that for an 18 year old rookie playing in his first CL game against one of the best attacking players on the planet, he played well and did not disgrace himself! The entire Celtic team were out of their depth that night unfortunately!

Not quite. He was thrown in the deep end last season against PSG, performed well against Neymar and looked like he would keep Lustig out the team before a dip in form. He's 20 years old, still learning and a great prospect for the future. The fact he's already the go to back up RB at the best team in the country shows without a doubt he's a prospect! Your making yourself look a bit daft writing him off already!!

Vs Estonia at Pittodrie 1993 Think qualification for USA '94 was well over by this point. Also pretty sure this was Estonia's first competitive goal

You're not wrong there! I think we're more than capable of winning tonight, but i'm not getting my hopes up! Unless we get an early goal it's going to be a long game!

Got to admit I had the same feeling as Chripper after the final whistle on Saturday. While I was obviously delighted and surprised with the score I felt it was still not the most inspiring performance. However, when McLeish said in his interview the plan was to sit in draw them out and pick them off on the counter attack, I thought, actually, fair play they fecking nailed that tactic! I just hope he's got something as clever up his sleeve for tonight because that won't work against Israel! If anything that's probably going to be their tactic tonight! I can see tonight being a very frustrating game! But if he gets the win he deserves to lead us for the Qualifiers

Agree with all of this. After the 1-1 draw at home with Lithuania I was done with Strachan but to his credit he turned it round, albeit mainly thanks to Brendan Rodgers whipping the Celtic players into shape! I quite liked the way McLeish was setting things up in the beginning trying to keep things tight and pressing teams! The start of the Belgium game looked promising until we gave away a stupid goal and then we collapsed! Since then it’s been dreadful to watch. Even the win over Albania was a slog. At the end of all this there are 3 people that truly deserve the wrath of the fans, Regan, McRae and Petrie. Thankfully one has slithered off but the other 2 need disposed of ASAP.

This is brutal! I honestly can't believe i'm dreading a game against Albania ffs! We should, at an absolute minimum, be expecting 4 points from these 2 games, 6 points really if rankings are to be believed! The crazy thing is if we do get less than that from these games it would look really harsh to consider sacking McLeish thanks to all these calls offs. The whole SFA board to GTF as soon as humanly possible! It's utterly embarrassing considering how well we were doing under Strachan a year ago!

Aye I get what you’re saying about Fletcher but the lack of goals often overshadows important work like his link up play which is just as important. Remember he played most those games up front on his own, an often thankless task for Scotland! If he starts these 2 games, which is likely, and he misses multiple sitters then I’ll be the first to say bin him. I think starting Paterson up front for these 2 games is a helluva risk when you’ve got an experienced striker in the squad already. If he’s still banging them in for Cardiff when the qualifiers come around then absolutely give him a chance up front for us. its not a position I’d like to be in if I was McLeish! If Fletch has a stinker everyone will slate him for not starting Paterson/McBurnie etc but if he goes with one of them and they don’t cut it he’ll look a fool! Christ, I can’t remember the last time I was dreading a Scotland game this much lol

Totally agree the system is the problem. The players that are currently in the squad are, on paper, perfectly capable of beating both Albania and Israel without any major issues. I disagree with a couple of points though, no way is Paterson our best option up front, I know he's scored some goals in the EPL but it's not his natural position and its not like he's on some kind of streak. Our best option up front with this current squad is still Fletcher and he's still a decent enough option to have! I don't understand people wanting him ditched. The Tierney/Robertson problem is one of our own making. It's pretty simple, for these 2 games at least, play Tierney at RB in a back 4 like Strachan was doing. He performed well at RB against higher ranked opposition in the WC qualifiers. If we'd done that against Israel we might not have made Kayal look like a world beater! If in the future we have a natural RB and 2 CBs available, its down to a choice of one of the 2 at LB, which means it's Robertson and Tierney sits on the bench. But McLeish doesn't have the stones to do that.

Agreed! Add to the fact he'll be playing alongside his McKenna with the pair of them doing great for Aberdeen, it's not the worst option we've ever had!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46107813 BBC gossip column reporting Mulgrew will be on the injured list. Cooper and/or Bates have to be called up now.

Sorry but we just have different views on how you should pick an international 1st team. I believe that you pick the best, in form player available for each position within reason. Maybe that will be an uncapped 21 year old playing in the SPFL or maybe a veteran 31 year old in the EPL it just depends on the current circumstances. Imo blooding young players is for the clubs or the U21s, U17s etc. What Strachan was guilty of in the beginning was picking EPL players regardless of form and playing time for their clubs, his squads were more like a club mentality than internationals. He wised up and changed this when Celtic had a regular Scottish core to their team and we went on our best run for years. I honestly couldn't give a monkeys about the EPL, I spend more time paying attention the Scottish Championship but it is probably the most competitive European top league outside Spain and you need to have talent about you to command a starting place in most teams in that league! Ignoring players or saying we don't need them when they are competing at that level simply because they 'failed' before is crazy. That's the main point i was originally making! I also don't believe that SPFL player should automatically be trumped for an EPL player. Lets use Tierney and Robertson for example, at the weekend there Robbo was rested and Moreno came back into the squad. If Moreno had played a blinder and the keeps Robbo out the Liverpool starting 11 then absolutely Tierney should then be the 1st choice Scotland left back. Same for any other position. Or lets say that Robertson starts against Albania and inexplicably has an absolute shocker, I would not criticize McLeish if he dropped him for the Israel game and played Tierney.

So how exactly would you pick the squad?! If the criteria for getting in the Scotland squad is past Scotland performances then we may as well just scrap senior national football now and start following the U21s!! With the exception of Snodgrass, none of those players currently are in the same position as McArthur in that they are starting every week for a top flight team. Also Bannan should absolutely be in or around the squad, he's currently one the top performers in the Championship. Elliot, Matteo and Quashie? Aye I see where you're going with that and you're only able to with the luxury of hindsight! At the time they were all playing at a much higher level than their actual Scottish born counterparts (Matteo was born in Dumfries but anyway..) and Matteo had Champions League experience with Leeds Utd! Of course playing in a top league doesn't mean they'll be great at international level. Are you suggesting we go back to this nonsense that Strachan was spouting about picking players to suit a specific system? That was simply bollocks, international football should be about finding the best system to suit the best in form players at your disposal! I should also follow that up, however, by saying I don't agree with the Tierney/Robertson situation though. One should start over the other at left back, end of. I agree with you on Henderson and McTominay.

Agreed! He was never a world beater but gave his all and scored some important goals. Also, losing an experienced English Premiership player who starts every week is no big deal?!! I didn't realise we were so blessed with an abundance midfield talent. We certainly didn't miss his experience in Israel.....

also 'edited to add' in forum speak 😜

Not heretical but imo definitely wrong! Tierney is a fantastic left back, no disputing that one bit, but Robertson is far better at this time! You just have to think back to his performances under Strachan! He was excellent for us and for much of that time wasn't even starting for Liverpool! He was rank against Israel but he was clearly marked as our danger player and was given extra attention also the rest of the team were rank that night which didn't help him either! ETA if any Scot is starting regularly for a top 4 EPL team then they absolutely should be in the starting Scotland 11

I get what you're trying to say but you're leaving out some pretty key points here, 1 Livi train with each other week in week out so have had time to learn the system and put to to effective use, 2 Gary Holt isn't trying to shoe horn in a player (Tierney) at centre back when it's not his natural position simply because he doesn't have the balls to leave him on the bench or play him at right back where he has been more effective. I saw McFadden was on the BBC yesterday bleating on about having to find a place for Tierney and Robertson simply because they're the 2 best left backs we have. Sorry but that's simply utter bollocks! We saw against Israel that system makes both players less effective. Also please don't give me any "but it worked against Albania" patter. Albania were so bad there was little need for any game plan!

It's not really any different to asking to see inside a woman's hand bag or requesting a pat down to check you've nothing dodgy in your pockets.