borojock

My exact same thoughts when the fixtures came out, i also think the same about the Portugal friendly next month and the friendly fixtures at the end of last season. The only decent friendly i think we have had since McLeish came in was Hungry. If we have 2 or 3 more of those types of matches where we had a decent chance of winning the feeling around this place and probably in teh squad would be a lot better However to be fair to the SFA i have read (not certain if this is correct) that we had to play a friendly match and we could have only played against group A or B teams in the nations league and i imagine the options were only 2 or 3 teams of which Belgium was one It would have been interested to see if we could have played a non UEFA team as i see the Dutch played Peru (i think it was) on Thursday night - if this was the case i would have preferred to have played a lower ranking non UEFA team to give us a chance of building some momentum. Thats if the option was there

agree it will be an uphill struggle possibly being 6 points behind Albania with only 3 games to play - the thing with being in a group of 3 is you cant afford any slip ups even more so then the usual qualifying format

I think the only thing the SFA need to know is this is a massive game and we need to win the next 4 games - i'd like to think they are taking it seriously it would have maybe worth someone coming out from SFA or management and just dropping a little line acknowledging the importance, maybe have got bigger crowds for games as im sure some fans dont appreciate its importance

He seems to be switched on and have the right mental attitude from the very little i have read and seen of him which will hopefully help him to a decent level First team football is essential for him now so its good to see he's getting it and who knows where he will be in a couple of seasons

Unfortunately doubt neither are good enough to make a significant impact at top level international football - its shame as well as if they were mentally mature enough i think they could have developed to be better players then they will turn out to be

Just had a run through the Albanian team that started on Friday and there is nothing world class and other then the GK and RB there is nothing great I really think if we get the formation, style and tactics right we could get this campaign off to a great start

Great post and after reading it ive changed my mind for the 100th times and im now going for 4 - 2 - 3 - 1, i think your right on playing as many players in their natural position as possible and Fraser is wasted at RWB. I'd play Tierney at RB as i think we have better CB's then RB's so makes more sense and he knows the full back position better then the centre back. If i was McLeish i'd be telling him he better get practising on his right foot. One thing i disagree is McTominay just dont see it and i think many are blinded by the fact he plays (sometimes) for Man Utd Would got for Mcgregor Tierney Souttar Mulgrew Robertson McDonald McGinn McGregor Armstrong Fraser Griff

I don't want to stretch this debate out too long as its completely pointless as we have a new manager and i know we should be backing him However to answer the questions personally if I was the head of the SFA I would have kept Strachan i would have made 2 changes. I would have asked him to change his backroom team to bring a freshness and different perspective and to help him change and bring new ideas and players in & i would have brought in a board of advisors of experienced and successful scottish managers (a bit like the director of football position) who after each round of fixtures would sit down with him and discuss some of his decision making and offered their advice in a consultative manner to offer different perspectives which he could go away and consider. I feel this would have reduced his stubbornness and opened up his horizons The last qualifier we had one really bad result (not performance but result) Lithuania at home. If we had won that we would have been in the qualifiers. Yes the nature of the away loss's to England and Slovakia was bad but the result wasnt a surprise as we were away to 2 better ranked teams. The last 6 competitive games was won 4 drew 2. That's momentum we were progressing under him. Yes there were some things which he did that i didnt agree with like keeping the same players in the squad who were match fit or on form If you look at Michael O'Neil or Gary Speed's first 10 results it started off very slowly and poor and i think neither of those managers would have retained there jobs if they were Scotland manager and had the same start - there is something to be said of consistency of manager However as i said at the start the debate and argument is mute as we are where we are

Direct doesn't necessarily have to be long balls up to a target man

I agree with everything you say but i think the most important question the SFA should have asked themselves at the time is will we get anyone who is significantly better then Strachan and will bring anything different - i didnt think at the time or still do that Mcleish is that much better, but out of everyone who wanted the job Mcleish was probably best option What i think would have been better was if Strachan cleared his backroom staff out and got a new one - Fergie did it at Man Utd for years with his assistants he had 7 different assistants during his tenure there. If Strachan had freshened his support team i think that would have been the best option

I agree i would keep the same formation and pretty much the same players I'd change the style McLeish was talking about playing a passing style game we dont have the players or quality for that kind of game, i'd try and be much more direct and wouldnt be aiming at playing the ball from the back.

My thoughts are sacking Strachan was only the right thing to do if we appointed someone who was significantly better, who would have a significant positive impact on the team and results and done something radically different. If we get someone who is around the same and does pretty much the same then whats the point? Now if we tied that into the well trodden debate (which im not trying to reignite) of does the Manager have to be Scottish If the answer is yes then i genuinely dont think there was a candidate who was that much better then Strachan and would have made an significant positive impact If the answer is no then i genuinely think the ones who would have been that much better than Strachan we couldnt have afforded. My personal choice (which i said at the time) would have been Lars Lagerback i would have broken the bank to get him. He started the Iceland revolution off and has since Norway who have been as bad as we have in recent times and has played 5 and won 5. Thats the type of manager we should have been aiming for . Sadly i still dont think McLeish knows his best formation, style or tactics

Belgium game really hard to take but they are one of the best teams in the world with a set and successful manager, players, formation, tactics, style, formation and momentum - this game was always going to end up like this and i get the feeling Portugal in a month will be the same Albania and Israel are not the same - their qualifying and friendly results over the last 2 years have been just as bad as ours. They dont have any real world class players between them. They have very few great players Israel i'd say none Albania only the GK who is Lazios number 1 and their RB who is Napoli's first choice. There managers arent great. They have no momentum behind them. If we get the right formation, style and tactics i think we can win this league, which IMO would be huge for us. However my real concern is i dont think McLeish knows his best formation, style and tactics.

Disagree with the word Coward 100%, i get what you mean and i agree with what you mean however i think the coward is very harsh and unfair I would put the word down to maybe bad decision making, poor application or something along those lines McGregor, Gordon and Marshall are our top 3 by a country mile Ive said it for a while but i think were going to be in a terrible position GKing wise in 3 years there is nothing of true quality that i can see coming through

I've read somewhere that Albania arent quite as good as Belgium

like the idea of that will have to have a look at it myself

I would strongly suggest they have a obligation to the team and the manager but the fans? Why would they have an obligation to the fans? What does McArthur owe to me and you

It must be nice to be so self righteous - personally i dont think these players have a single obligation to any Scotland fan, especially McArthur who regularly gets slagged off by fans To turn the tables round do you not think us fans have an obligation to the players and the team to support them and not to jump to conclusions based solely on assumptions, guesses and hearsay I don't have a clue on McArthur's fitness levels, pain levels or medical treatments that he is going through to be able to play for Palace. However as i don't have all the info to make an informed decision i have decided not to jump to assumptions and wild accusations but i choose to look at the facts that he regularly turns up to play for scotland and always tries his best (sometimes its not good enough but you could say the same for pretty much any player who has played for us in the last 20 years) and decided to give the guy the benefit of doubt based on that

agree 100% with this

Im assuming you know the pre and post match medical treatment and injections he goes through im also guessing you know what pain level he has during and after the game

Cant see him getting any real game time this season unless there is injuries, suspensions or Mourinho falls out with someone For the 3 midfield positions i see him as 8th I really think some are blinkered by the fact that he plays for Man Utd rather than his ability and we've been caught out by this a few times

I find any accusations that these players don't care about playing for Scotland funny In my very humble opinion Snodgrass & McArthur have made more sacrifices and put more time and effort into the Scotland team then 95% of the fans that will be at Hampden for the games. They dont have to go away and train with the squad, fly round europe and be away from their familes for a week or so and deal with the fans slagging them off when they dont play well. The only reason they do this is because they want to play for scotland. They dont need the money, the exposure of playing international football to further their career etc

Agree completely on this the Nations League is something we should be taking as seriously as euro and WC qualifiers

Are they in the second division on Portugal - if so its very concerning that no top league team in the country was interested in taking him

However if we had 2 or 3 injuries / suspensions / retirements etc to our current strikers then Watt would be in line for a call up as thats how few strikers we have at our disposal You could look at most position in our squad and if we took out the top 2 or 3 players it leaves us looking at some scary players