bazmidd

Now now. I actually stated Ryan Jack being a consistent performer for the second best team in Scotland didn't warrant a call up. We weren't speaking about anyone else. Again maybe read exactly what I write before coming to your light blue tinted conclusions and making idiotic comments. It is Ryan Jack we are talking about here is it not? I think it is very fair to say my statement is correct, that Ryan Jack being a consistent performer for Rangers isn't enough to warrant a call up, which I then elaborated on by stating there are better players in the same position, in better form, playing for better sides. What do you not get.

Deary me definitely a proper Rangers man I'm dealing with here. When did I ever state only Celtic players from the Scottish Premiership should be selected. Can you quote me on that please mate, or are you just making up absolute nonsense to suit some pathetic old firm argument your having with yourself in your own head

Why should Ryan Jack be in the squad because he is one of the most consistent performers for the second placed team in the Scottish Premiership, a team that were miles of the league winners and made it to zero cup finals. Playing consistently well for Rangers means absolutely hee haw. We have far better options than Ryan Jack in Midfield.

I would say we do need 3 or 4 wingers, or inside forwards whatever you want to call them these days as this is usually where our primary creativity or goals come from. Behind Forrest and Fraser we don't have any real decent back up so putting in Johnston or Glenn Middleton as backup ahead of Morgan or Burke I would agree with

Jeez what is the boy doing with that draped round him. Can never fathom out the thinking behind Old Firm fans brought up through that neck of the woods. Even if I was a Celtic or Rangers fan that would be getting thrown to feck and a Saltire quickly wrapped around my neck before my faither saw me and booted my erse

Mikey Johnston is a talent in the number 10 role, defo better in there than out wide.

There is something there with Burke but he doesn't seem to have the character or the self belief or more importantly at this moment and time the trust and backing of his manager. Lennon made his mind up about him after his miss v Livingston. Today seems like his last chance in Lennons eyes and if Lennon gets the job I don't think Burke will be at Celtic next year. This though would probably be a good thing as far as Burke is concerned. Rodgers leaving has turned out to be the worst thing that happened to him and he needs to find another coach/manager that believes in him like Rodgers did and in turn give him his own self belief back

These options for captain only help to identify a massive problem in our squad. We have no leaders at the moment. We have no natural experienced leaders in the squad and it isn't helping us at all at that level

By the way I am not a big fan of Ryan Jack but he actually played better at right back against Holland than O'Donnell and Palmer have in any game since

Yeah you are probably right I just honestly could not think of a single other right back as cover for O'Donnell. That gave me the fear just typing that knowing those two are our only options

I kind of think we need someone like Cooper. By all accounts he has been the best Scottish centre half in the Championship this season, but he is also the captain of Leeds. We need more leaders in the squad. Fleck was also captain of Sheff Utd for a while not sure if he still is. Obviously Robertson has experience and is leading the team just now but we don't have much natural leaders in the side to guide the younger guys. When it went tits up and we conceded early in Kazakhstan we badly needed guys in there with experience to get through that rough spell. I think McGregor was captain that night but I don't ever remember him even being captain before at Celtic. Guys like Cooper could help greatly.

Surely they will have the new man in after the last games of the season next week, I'm banking on it being Steve Clarke and him getting the nod after Killies last game of the season. Although I would be willing to bet the SFA haven't actually held talks with anyone yet going by their past record

Our last few performances look like they have just come of a weekender in Ibiza as well tbf! Hopefully they are all professional enough to stay away from that caper till after the games.

What do you reckon the squad should be for the qualifiers in June... I reckon Goalkeepers Bain, Kelly, Gordon Defenders Robertson, Taylor, Cooper, McKenna, Bates, Souttar, O'Donnell, Palmer Midfielders Fleck, McLean, McGregor, Armstrong, McGinn, McTominay, Turnbull Attackers Fraser, Forrest, Snodgrass, Burke, Griffiths, Harper, McBurnie I'm guessing Tierney will be unavailable again, I struggle to think of any other right backs unfortunately and our back up wingers to Forrest and Fraser are so thin that I'd have Burke back in even though he hasn't been playing of late. Turnbull and Harper as two wild cards to see what they can do

Probably not too far off with that to be honest. Some decent Midfielders in our squad but Keith Lasley has just described Turnbull as the greatest young player this country has produced in a generation, that along with Michael Stewarts Ballack comparison is high praise indeed. He does seem to have it all as a Midfielder although as I said there are still some decent options for us in there just now.

How disappointing was Ryan Gauld today, Kris Boyd hit the nail on the head when he said he still looked like the little boy who left but has come back without that half yard of pace on the turn he once had. He has went backwards, very disappointing to see. A player like David Turnbull just breaking on the scene now appears to have jumped way further ahead in the queue for a squad place than Gauld.

The thing is, Steve Clarke probably isn't any better a manager than Gordon Strachan was or Davie Moyes or Slaven Bilic is they are all much the same standard, but that is the level of managers we can attract at this moment. All we can hope with the squad we have is that one of them can maybe get that little bit extra out of them. Unless we go get a Mourinho or the likes anytime soon there shouldn't be a major upturn of expectations from us. Unfortunately the job isn't that attractive to the highest calibre of managers so the merry go round will continue, therefore the standard of our manager will be similar to the standard of our players because in reality that is just where we are on the footballing landscape. All we can hope is that something just clicks like it did with Michael O'Neil at NI and someone can find a system and get that extra little percentage out the players that can give us enough to qualify. Who that man is I don't know but luck plays a large part when selecting someone from our list of candidates who are very much all the same standard.

After being torn on the candidates for the job, for me it really has to be Steve Clarke. He just seems to fit. He improves teams, improves players and overachieves with what he has to work with, his finger is on the pulse with the players we have in Scotland and England and the ones coming through. He is also the only candidate that has shown any positivity about the job, stating it would be an honour to manage the national team and positive about the players he would have to work with saying they have the ability to get us to the Euros. It sounds like he would relish the challenge and really believes he could improve us and achieve something. The likes of Moyes on the other hand are making it abundantly clear the national team job would only be his third choice behind Celtic or a move back to England and there is no real genuine enthusiasm coming from him regarding the job. As for the foreign options it doesn't feel like any of them really genuinely want it either unless there is a lot of money involved which I don't think we have. Apart from maybe Advocaat who has stated he wants it but I'm not too sure how that would turn out, would our younger players relate to him, no doubt he was very successful in his day though at club and international level.

Reckon he could make a decent Midfielder....

Middleton, Johnston, Aitchison are standouts at that level. I have high hopes for all of them really hope they can break into their first teams regularly. Along with Hornby and Gilmour these are the best players coming through right now.

There is also an argument to say that with having the top two players for assists in the Premiership that even Kevin Kyle should be able to come back and score for us with those two laying them on a plate otherwise you are saying all Robbo and Fraser assists are down to the ability and movement of the strikers they feed not their ability to create chances. Going from what I have seen in Robertsons case the majority of his assists are through Roberstons ability to cross the ball right on the botton. Fraser has been a mix of good crossing and good link up play with Wilson

Look firstly I believe the players we have at our disposal in the current squad ARE good enough to beat Kazakhstan and San Marino comfortably. We have beaten better nations than them before. There were a number of factors at play for the defeat in Kazakhstan especially and for me the primary factor was being very badly managed. I lay the blame primarily on McLeish and his tactics which I have explained before, this coupled with the amount of call offs, playing an inexperienced backline with no protection in front of it, gaps between Defence, Midfield and Attack as wide as the Forth and players having a very bad night at the office was a recipe for disaster, which it was. A good manager would have adapted to such issues and protected our inexperienced players set us up to stay solid and find confidence by playing our way into the game and slowly gaining control of the game at which point I would expect us to score a couple of goals as our players ARE BETTER than there's. There was no reaction in San Marino because by this point McLeish had completely lost the dressing room. No one really wanted to be there, everything surrounding the game was poisonous and everyone fans players manager seemed to be going through the motions. The players no longer trusted him and his methods after Kazakhstan. To claim our players not knowing the basics of football as the reason for these two results is just complete nonsense. We do know the basic fundamentals of playing football to even claim that is just ridiculous. Could our players be better coached from a young age? Could the quality of coaching be higher? Yes I would agree. But to claim our players are not coached the basics of football until 15 is just ridiculous.

Pogba is the most overrated player I have ever seen. Some players are described as luxury players and are forgiven for not putting the same effort in as other players because they tend to produce the magical moments when it matters, Pogba swans and struts about the park like such players but does not produce anywhere near the amount of magical moments necessary to be described as a luxury player. In facwhat does he actually do apart from hit a world cup pass now and again. He is the very definition of a lazy big time Charlie. He is a bad egg at that club. And it is very sad to see the evolution of the Man United midfield from Paul Scholes and Roy Keane to players like Paul Pogba. They have lost their core values in the a lot of the players at that club and it is only in players like McTominay that those values still exist.

My point is a tremendous one. We're teaching our kids the basics at 15/16, their foreign counterpart is being taught the basics at 5+. Generally, players are only really coachable till they hit 18 years of age. At this time they are looking to break through to first team football. That being the case, generally, our players receive 2/3 years of skillset coaching, abroad they get 13 years. Are you seriously trying to suggest our players don't get taught the basics of football until 15 years old. Are you actually involved with youth football at any level, have you ever watched a youth match at any level, because this suggestion is complete and utter ludicrous. It amazes me the amount of times your arguments seem to revolve around 'facts' that you have just made up.

Is Houston at Rangers not another good right back prospect?