bazmidd

Italy is not on the list for quarantine after visiting so strange. Don't think he has actually been in any of the u21 squads to my knowledge. Good player would definitely help having him in there at left back. That would be a right good back 5 at that level. McCrorie McCrorie. Porteous. Johnston. Hickey

How is Hickey not in this squad by the way!

McCrorie has played in Midfield and on the the right side of a back 3 for Aberdeen this season, he has also played right back for the u21s their whole campaign so he is very versatile and has generally played well in every position he's played so far.

I think some of the Under 21s may get promoted to the senior squad as well. Ross McCrorie has made a good start to the season could see him coming in maybe Porteous also

I was thinking more the 3-5-2 Sheff Utd play, keeps an extra man in midfield and an extra man in defence.

Why shouldn't we play two up front by the way. We don't have one top all round striker so play two with different qualities that compliment each other. I've long thought our 1 striker approach is far too easy for opposing defenders to play against. We always played two up front before when we played 3 at the back in the 90s. Why do we insist on flooding our team with Midfielders, we have some mad belief we have an abundance of quality midfielders and need to squeeze them all in when really they are all just much the same good Premier League midfielders just pick 3 of them and play 2 up front

Let's not go overboard again here though. I like Patterson, and like yourself enjoy watching him for the Scotland youth teams he had a good debut for the u21s. He is still very suspect defensively though at the minute. He got ripped in the UEFA Youth League for Rangers by the young Atletico Madrid winger so he is still very much learning. Going forward he has really good attributes though. Would I have him in my next squad, yeah due to the sheer lack of options and his attacking qualities I probably would but I wouldn't heap too much pressure on the lad he is by no means the finished article.

I get the feeling your angling for an argument rather than a discussion... But anyhow.. Yes of course we should discuss the potential of our young players, I love watching the Scotland youth sides in the hope I can see a few potential stars in the making but... As I said they are very few and far between and a lot on here are very guilty of overrating and hyping up our young players. Bates and Hendry are clearly good examples.. Where exactly did you expect these guys to end up? The Premier League? Because they are now playing at the sort of level I expected them to end up at. I am guessing you overrated them and expected more

My main point is too many on here are guilty of overrating the potential of young players in Scotland and then tearing them to pieces when they don't match unrealistic expectations of them. People on here spoke of these great young hopes at centre back like it was some sort of golden generation when in reality we had a few decent centre backs at SPL level of a similar age with decent potential. But guys like Hendry and Bates now get slaughtered when they are actually still carving out half decent careers for themselves and are at where realistically they were always going to get to.

It's funny because not so long ago people on here were waxing lyrical about our young up and coming centre back options. I remember the list, Souttar, Bates, McKenna, Hendry with Jason Kerr and the likes thrown in for good measure! These guys were bummed up as per usual because they played a few games in the SPL and so that has proved to be their level. Potentially maybe SPL to Championship maybe a game for a bottom side in the Premier League at a push. Maybe McKenna could still achieve this as for the others no chance. But this is nowhere near the standard we require to start qualifying for major tournaments again. We need centre backs playing consistently in the Premier League for at least a mid table side before we can even start to think about qualifying again. Need to stop holding out for these lads to blossom into centre backs they are never going to become and hope the next batch are better. Personally I think Morrison and King etc already look better at their age than McKenna and the likes did at 16 and 17 so here's hoping. Souttar I must add has been very unfortunate with injuries but it seems one too many now for him. I always remember the best prospect I have seen in my time watching Scotland, John Kennedys career ruined by injury too, very unfortunate.

Fair enough I'll stick Ross McCrorie in there, I like him as a player and his mentality, he could do a job at right back no bother, been playing it very well for the u21s as captain.

Marshall Palmer. McKenna. Tierney. Robertson Gilmour McTominay. McGinn. Armstrong. Fraser. McBurnie

Was wondering what the Kai Kennedy situation was, he has been touted by a few ex pros as one of our best prospects, also won player of the tournament at the Arkansas Youth Tournament which Rangers won. By all accounts I think Gerrard really likes him as a player he has had good things to say about him in the past, but he's not signed a new contract which obviously Gerrard doesn't like. Hope something gets sorted and he can start pushing on soon either at Rangers or somewhere else. He may look at Nathan Patterson moving into the first team squad and starting to get mins against the likes of Bayer Leverkusen and still may stay. Wherever he goes he needs to start playing first team games. If Rangers don't bring through some of their prospects it is criminal, they have a good bunch right now

Getting a bit desperate when we start throwing Jim White into the starting 11

No, it was a 4-2-3-1 McCrorie at right back and Patterson right midfield. Campbell generally sitting deepest of the Midfielders and Turnbull in behind Hornby Doohan McCrorie. Porteous. Johnston. Harvie Campbell. Ferguson Patterson. Turnbull. Middleton Hornby

McCrorie played right back like he has done this whole qualifying campaign.

5 performance schools players in that squad, they are starting to filter through

The only plus point is we somehow managed to come out of both games still unbeaten, but even that may turn out to be a bad point as it is just papering over some massive cracks in the team! Those two performances were up there with some of the worst I have seen from a Scotland team, really really bad, disjointed, slow and ponderous, gave the ball away easily all over the park, pressing was erratic and not as a unit, no pattern to our play or any clear indication of how we were set up to score a goal apart from punt it long to dykes or down the line, it was so bad. Absolute night and day from how Strachan used to set up his team, I thought Strachan had his time, but he had built something, he had a style of play we weren't far away we needed someone to come in and build on it, we have just regressed massively, and even more worryingly after what 10 or 11 games now Clarke still does not have a clue what his best system or best 11 is!! That is dangerous. Clarke is a good manager so I hope this was just experimental from him and I hope he does have a clear plan moving forward but if that was it those last two games then we have no hope

Was keen on trying the 3 at the back but it just looked far too disjointed on Friday, much the same way as it did the last time we tried it. It doesn't work for our best players, Robertson is an attacking overlapping fullback, he's no good at facing up a defender and taking him on. Forrest is no good at all defensively on the other side. McTominay isn't a centre half, he is a really good ball winning midfielder and ball carrier much the same as McGinn, and you wouldn't even think about playing McGinn at centre half. The most comfortable I have actually seen a Clarke team play so far was the first half of the 3 nil defeat away in Belgium, which I know sounds a bit daft but bear in mind Belgium are class and up until the end of that first half when they scored that is the most organised and best shape I have seen from us under Clarke yet, there was something to work on there and if McKenna and Forrest hadn't fluffed that easy chance 2nd half it might even have made for an interesting end to that game. 4-4-1-1 is what I would go with Marshall Palmer. McKenna. Cooper. Robertson Armstrong. McTominay. Fleck. Tierney McGinn Dykes

No Stuart McKinstry either been class for Leeds youth team

I actually tried my hardest not to go overboard but my reaction to watching him v Liverpool was exactly the same as Roy Keanes, everything he did just had class written all over it. I know he is still very very young, but that just makes his performances all the more impressive. To completely control games in the FA cup and Premier League against real good sides in Liverpool and Everton, bearing in mind his small stature, against seasoned Premier League players is hugely impressive

Watching this lad recently has given me the belief he genuinely has the ability and character to transform the way we as a country currently play football. If ever there was a massive shining example that the performance schools are starting to work then it is this young lad. Everyone knows the Scotland youth sides have slowly but surely began to implement a more creative passing game at at that level playing through the lines, and this kid might just be the one to finally bring that style straight to the full team. I swear this kid must have a Spanish granny or something because he looks like he's come straight from La Masia at Barcelona. Everything he does is pure quality, and it is not just the average fan raving about him here it is some of the best midfielders in recent times to have played the game. Roy Keane, Frank Lampard praisi g him to high heavens. We have had our fingers burned with young lads in the past who have been built up and spectacularly failed but I don't think we have ever seen a kid like this from Scotland certainly not in modern times. He has backed it up in these two games, he is more than ready now and it is going to be exciting watching him play and the way our country starts playing football. I honestly think he has the potential to be that good.

Juventus played for years with no natural width, the formation should suit our best players. A diamond in Midfield would suit us with Gilmour at the base in the Pirlo role, McTominay and Fleck Box to box and McGinn attacking midfield. Griffiths and McBurnie up front

I just don't see how McGregor can get the nod ahead of Fleck after last night's performance. Those are the games you want to see him stand up and take the game by the scruff of the neck but he just floated around the periphery. Fleck is doing everything McGregor is doing at a much higher level, he deserves to start the play off games and going by McTominay’s return last night he should be beside him.

It seems some of our big players are all returning just in time, Tierney back in training today, McTominay in the squad for Man Utd tomorrow, McGinn not far away now.. All coming together perhaps.