gonzohiggy

Gilmour yes absolutely for me. In place of McLean. The other two, not so convinced. Both have players ahead of them who are demonstrably playing at a higher level and over a longer period.

Obviously you’re entitled to your option however that team has zero chance of being the team. Whilst I don’t doubt that tierney could play midfield and McTominay probably could play up front, we aren’t going to start shoehorning players into other positions when perfectly decent alternatives are available

We definitely need to do something differently against them this time. They have decent strikers and may score a goal here so for me we need to be carrying a more consistent attacking threat than previous games. I’d go for Marshall Hendry, Hanley, KT Fraser McTominay McGregor Armstrong Robbo McGinn Adams

Pretty sure they played together in the first game in Israel where we lost 2-1. Tierney now is an entirely different animal though. I quite like the idea of them interchanging, keeps opponents on toes defensively and both are good enough to play left of a 3.

Watched most of the oldfirm / Glasgow derby today as well as Chelsea Sheffield Utd. A lot of talk of late about the exclusion of Turbull in particular and while I’m a fan, Gilmour at Chelsea is on a different level. Really think we need him in the squad now as he’s a superstar in the making. yes he hasn’t played as regularly as any of us would want but he’s playing at one of the biggest clubs in Europe. If he’d been at Celtic / Rangers / Norwich or Sheffield Utd he’d have played 30 odd games this season.

Thought Christie was quite poor as game wore on by his standards. That said he is always trying to create and his work ethic is exceptional

Can understand the sentiment but O'Donnell is a glaring weak link in that side and had a few jittery moments in the last three games. Same rationale to considine, did well but I'd feel more comfortable with Tierneys pace to tuck round and if our other centre halves are out position. Would be amazed if Tierney played right wing back

Obviously lots can change between now and the Serbia game and the results / performances were encouraging but I'd still be looking to get out best players into the team whilst still retaining the same sort of core as these games. Marshall Palmer, Mctominay, Gallagher, Tierney, Robertson McGregor, Jack Mcginn Fraser, Dykes

Between Palmer, SOD and Mccrorie at the minute although Nathan Paterson and Ashby from the 21s look good prospects. SOD as hard as he tries will not be good enough when we play better sides. Mccrorie could do a decent job I think but is far better in the middle of the park. Palmer is steady and a decent player without being outstanding. I'd be going with Palmer in the short term and hope another option appears further down road.

I don't think hes as quick as McKenna but he's not immobile either. I like a centre half who takes control the way he seems to and balls into our penalty box are like a magnet to his big nut! Not against McKenna just think he's has same dominance or composure.

Agree, Gallagher has looked commanding and composed in every game I've seen him. McTominay, Gallagher and Tierney as my 3.

As I said before, a dependable and experienced player who did himself proud. Easy for me to say after a clean sheet but he was a logical call up and in the game we never looked like conceding. Lots of improvement to come but solid foundations

What's wrong with picking dependable experienced players who will do a good job for a specific game or games? Don't particularly rate either player but they are experienced and less risky than calling up an unproven young player.

Findlay is in isolation along with the rest of killie squad. Consodine is no world beater but be is solid and experienced and plays left of a back 3 for Aberdeen. Pretty logical call up in my opinion.

As a Killie fan I am probably biased / more aware of Clarke's style and beliefs. As many have said, his priority is to be difficult to beat and when a team have that solid base to move forward from then there is something to build on. What he did with killie and he will be striving to do with Scotland also, is be a threat in attack as well as being sound defensively. He / the team haven't got that right yet but for the first time in midweek I could see some light. Yes the game was a hard watch but I thought we looked very comfortable at the back. We just need to get more penetration from midfield to provide ammo to our striker(s) as well as getting more out of Robertson offensively. Players like Christie, mcginn and Armstrong do this well IMO.

Was a statement of fact that they aren't the type of players to create out of nothing (which was required the other night in that formation). I wasn't criticising their performance at all.

Mcrorie is a class act, best in midfield in my view but far far better than O'Donnell at right back. I thought the problem last night offensively was more the personnel than the formation. Other than occasionally mcginn driving forward, we had no creativity or penetration and two strikers who won't create goals on their own. I'd sacrifice one striker, move mcginn up one and have Christie or Armstrong running from deeper. The positive for me last night, aside from the obvious point of winning the game, was we didn't look like conceding at all.

Dreadful performance but we won the game against a team who had players who play at good clubs at a good level. The positives for me are; We won the gane. We know we can't play 352. Gave it a good try. Israel will now be unsure how we will play against them in the important game which will make it harder for them to plan. I actually think this is a big reason Clarke experimented with his formation. Come October I would hope that we would be reverting to 4231 with pace in wide areas and a lot more control of the ball than the last two games.

That's what id play as well.

Before the match I was fine with the back 3 as in theory it allowed tierney and Robertson to play in (nearly) their positions for club sides whilst also perhaps making us harder to beat. While I thought we did look reasonably solid at the back, because of the formation or the way it was implemented, the team generally was far too deep. There was lots of passing in our own half but no width in the attacking third and very little options in middle to front. If we play it again we need a more dynamic midfield and starting positions higher up the park from everyone. Individually thought Tierney, McKenna and Dykes did well enough. The rest were average apart from Callum McGregor who was comfortably the worst player on the park with loose touches and poor passes all over place.

In many cases you are probably right. The smaller European nations however suffer from a degree of snobbery when it comes to scouts from the top leagues. They view our league as being of a quality where they are unable to ascertain whether an outstanding player here would be as good in a top league and are often not willing to take the risk on these sorts of players. This is why guys like van Dijk, Sadio Mane, erling haaland and countless others have to take a small step forward to clubs like Southampton or Salzburg before their big moves despite probably being good enough for that big move in the first place. This could be affecting shankland as well. Everytime I watch him I see a strong boy, with good feet and a natural finisher with both feet. It's blatantly obvious and he's shown it in his fleeting international appearances too. Scouts will see this too but lower end championship and down probably can't afford him and clubs above that may think he's too big a risk at £2-3m.

"International football" covers a wide range of levels of team. Hanley, McKenna Gallagher and Cooper are all more than capable against Israel, cyrpus, Norway or Serbia. Probably not against Belgium.

Possibly but yet they knew mcintyre and Lindsay played. Just get excited about him, it won't hurt!

Slightly exaggerating here are we not? More than capable of playing at Israels level. The general point I was making had more to do with people on here's propensity to be negative. Billy Gilmour is showing his huge potential and there is one post on him but multiple posts about two complete nonentity centre halves.

And Fleck! 😁