Tartan Chris

Don't think McDonald is better than the current options in the first 11. Cairney should certainly be ahead of likes of Snodgrass and James Morrison though. He's on his way up in his career, those two are on their way down.

Jordan Archer had a brilliant game for Millwall at Cardiff, really should be getting a run out in the friendly next month. Tom Cairney back from injury and scored today, from a Kevin McDonald assist.

Matt Phillips scored against Man. City.

Yep central midfield will need a bit of regeneration in next 12 months ahead of the next campaign. That's the thing for me, Coutts and Fleck are first choice players for a team who've had a ridiculous winning run in the last 12 months and it shows no sign of stopping. Radio covering the game last night expressed bemusement Coutts had never had a call up, he has the best passing stats of any midfielder in the championship.

Coutts and Fleck going top of the championship....

Said it before but Coutts is worth a look...currently the most accurate passer in the championship. https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/this-showcases-just-how-important-this-midfielder-is-to-sheffield-united/ For people wanting Bannan to get a bigger role under the next manager Paul Coutts is currently outperforming him at that level.

McBurnie really needs a loan to a championship club I think. He was going to Barnsley in August but that fell through at the last minute which was a shame as they're a very attacking team.

Is it not worth giving him a call up regardless? He is actually playing some minutes for Man. United now, came on v Benfica last week so Mourinho clearly thinks he's got something as he isn't a manager who usually plays youth. I'm thinking the way Wales have gone about things, calling up Ben Woodburn when he hardly plays for Liverpool. At least you'd know if he was truly committed then or another McCarthey/McGeady.

Swansea-Man. United worth a watch tonight....McBurnie and McTominay both starting for their respective clubs.

He scored a decent amount for Fulham last season. I think he offers more than Rhodes at international level. Rhodes in his few starts hardly got into the game. Think Scotland need to move away from continually calling up players who've seen better days in their career. Rhodes and Stephen Fletcher would be two. Arguably Darren Fletcher is another but depends on whether Brown plays on for another campaign.

Moreno having another brilliant game for Liverpool.

What has Rhodes done at club level in last two years to even warrant a call up? He scored loads at Huddersfield and Blackburn but did nothing at Boro and just warms the bench at Sheff Weds now so looks like a career that has just stalled. Chris Martin gets loads of stick but he contributed in this campaign and is still a reasonably decent championship striker even if he's not in the Derby team atm so I have no issue with him being the back up for the next campaign.

You never know. Xabi Alonso was a mainstay in a Liverpool side that won CL, missed a game for the same reason and from that moment Benitez stopped trusting him and then sold him 6 months later.

Bizarre how he's being treated there. We know he's a decent player from Hull, Moreno is dogs***, when he has played for Liverpool in the cups he's played pretty well by all accounts and yet he then gets dropped and dosen't even make the 18?! Anyone know if he's having off the pitch issues. Didn't he become a Dad recently? Maybe there's been some issue with that.

McKay and Coutts scored today....

Does Walter Smith get a free pass then? Going back to Rangers in the middle of the campaign was more accepted than testing your luck in the premier league?

He has taken a country who couldn't even score a goal in some qualfying editions to euro 2016 last 16 and now comfortably 2nd in their world cup group. He also did well at club level, got St Pats into Uefa cup group stages. Again what was the last club outside the old firm in Scotland to do that, Aberdeen in 2007? Only area you can argue Norn Iron have better is in central defence. If Scotland had Johnny Evans and McAuley as options play offs would've happened imo.

First two campaigns I give him a pass. First one he only came in halfway through and Levein had predictably messed up the easy games (two draws at home to Serbia and Macedonia and lost to Wales) so really no hope of qualifying in that situation. Did beat Croatia home and away which remains his best competitive results. Euro 2016 was a tough one. Some excellent results and performances first half of the campaign (2-2 in Poland, beating ROI 1-0) which set things up nicely until it was all thrown away by losing in Georgia (and then ROI somehow beating Germany). It was a tough group though. Germany (last 4), Poland (quarters) and ROI (last 16) so much stronger than this current group. This time it was all in reverse. Some really poor results/performances in the first 4 games and then he stumbled upon a winning formula which he should've done sooner e.g. giving Griffiths some starts. Still a better manager than Burley, Levein and Vogts at least.

Won't there be a friendly in September just before the nations cup starts, pretty sure there normally is or a midweek in August just after the season starts? I'd normally agree with not playing them in June but given it's world cup year they'd be loads of top quality teams needing to play to warm up for the world cup. I also think it will give the new manager an idea which players are fully committed and the others that pull out a little too easily from the squad given it's the end of the season. Personally I'd call up an experimental team for next month e.g. don't call up Berra/Mulgrew. Not because they're rubbish (they've probably one of the better CB pairings over last 10 years) but they're both 30 + and CB area is desperate for some young players to join.

Said before but play loads of friendlies and your world ranking suffers. There were examples of Swiss and Poland, Switzerland I think played one friendly in 12 months and they're in top 10 of rankings. I'd rather sort everything out and then have the two friendlies in March and then another two in May/June.

For people want a manager who values possession Paul Lambert should be right at the bottom. At the end of his tenure at Villa we were averaging 30%.

South Africa manager atm. They have two games v Senegal next months. 4 points and think they make the world cup. I wouldn't say his record is incredible but if you want an international experienced manager he'd be in the running.

He would probably be the caretaker if there were friendlies next month.

Archer's done very well at Milwall.Should start some friendlies in the next year.

I honestly think McLeish will get another crack at it. He wants the job, no club to have to pay compo, his results were pretty good last time so if he could repeat that in a much weaker group than 2007 there would be a good chance of qualfiying and his dour, defensive play (I had a year of watching it) is perfectly suited to International football.