BucksburnDandy

This is how I would line up. As much as Gallagher hasn't been playing for Motherwell recently, hard to ignore his past performances for Scotland. I'd move McTominay into midfield to try to replace Jack and I would play McGinn as the 8 and let Armstrong push on to support Dykes and Fraser. I realise that Clarke won't drop McGregor but I would as bar Belgrade, he's barely performed in a Scotland shirt. Got a bad feeling about tomorrow sadly. Scotland 1-2 Austria.

Anna Signuel absolutely doing a number on Shelley Kerr and her assistant over 180 minutes over the past few weeks. To not even get a playoff from this group and with the finals in England, Shelley Kerr should really be gone but the self isolation will allow her to stay. Can't admit to being Kerr's biggest fan before now and I was probably in the stick with Anna Signuel camp back in 2017. Really disappointed for the women tonight. Horrible to miss out in such a fashion.

Disappointed and frustrated that we have blown two very good chances to win the group but overall, if you had offered me the Euros and a comfortable 2nd in the Nations League group back in August, I'd have bitten your hand off. The harsh lessons of the last two games are essentially poor final balls, poor finishing and overall just making incorrect decisions in the final third. However, once again the performance was far, far better than the previous two against the same opponent so that is a positive going into March. Presently, the only change I can see is Ryan Fraser coming in for either Ryan Christie or John McGinn as you get a bit more consistent end output from Fraser. However you can see what Steve Clarke is bedding in and he took us to a tournament. So the moon howlers on Twitter just need to wise up a bit. Roll on 7th December for the World Cup draw.

Ultimately today was a weird one. Very deeply frustrated at losing the game as it piles on pressure for the game over in Israel. And yet the performance was not the worst at all, particularly in the first half. In terms of most of the changes, there wasn't a significant drop off in quality and we had the better chances in the match. However we did see a considerable drop off in quality up front and also in our final ball. On the latter first, our final ball was absolutely brutal at times, particularly in the second half where we were determined to float in a lazy cross without getting to the byline or try to thread a pass where none was on. On the lack of quality up front, I know Oli McBurnie is given a lot of stick. But it is thoroughly merited. He should have scored when threaded through by Armstrong and his header, while under pressure, was straight at the keeper. He does not win anywhere near as much as Dykes and the ball does not stick up front for McBurnie. In my mind, Naismith and Griffiths are better options when both are fitter than the bold Oli. Other than that, we missed McTominay and Tierney at centre half carrying the ball out into the midfield and we missed Jack to control the midfield. However, I think it is unfair to say any of the three centre halves did anything wrong, just that Cooper and Considine aren't as comfortable carrying the ball forward. The three centre halves did fine. Tierney was absolutely outstanding at left wing back today, superb display and Christie did well, as much as the final ball didn't come off for him. Ultimately it is a missed opportunity down to our own wastefulness, one which we may well regret come this time Wednesday night. And yet, there were more positives than negatives performance wise to take from the display. Onto Wednesday and restoring our strongest team possible to start the match.

Touche my good man

In all the celebrations, I hope that SSC can have the lads totally focused again on the game tomorrow as this is another big one, as mentioned previously by fellow posters and by SSC himself today. With Robertson sounding unlikely to play, the debate is whether to play Tierney at LWB knowing that he probably couldn't then play in Israel with the way Arsenal and Scotland are managing him, play Taylor at LWB and Tierney at LCB or Taylor at LWB and one of Considine, McKenna or Cooper at LCB. It is a tough conundrum for Clarke particularly to ensure that we are as strong as we can be tomorrow. If SOD is replaced by Palmer, I wouldn't want to drop Tierney. Further forward, it feels like McBurnie will replace Dykes up front but I would rather it was Griffiths myself. And in the midfield, McLean and Armstrong will likely replace Jack and McGregor to freshen that area up. As such, I would likely go: Marshall; SOD, McTominay, Gallagher, Cooper, Tierney; Armstrong, McLean; Christie, Griffiths, McGinn. But I think Clarke will go: Marshall; Palmer, McTominay, Gallagher, Cooper, Tierney; Armstrong, McLean; Christie, McBurnie, McGinn.

Ah what a night. Magnificent, the boost we have needed as football supporters for so, so long. Hope everyone on here had a great night/day wherever you are in the world from New Zealand to Los Angeles. You all deserve it. What Steve Clarke has done is nothing short of remarkable. That group now turn up, believe in themselves and think we can beat anyone. We rarely concede and we have balls of steel. A stunning turnaround from previous regimes. I could list every player and say how magnificent they were. Special shout outs to Gallagher who dealt with Mitrovic well, Dykes and Christie again for their great work up front and David Marshall for a magnificent save in extra time followed by yet more penalty heroics. A perfect night, proud Scotsman today.

Absolutely shitting it, and with a day off tomorrow, the day is going to drag like mad. In terms of team, I'd probably plump for: Marshall; SOD, McTominay, Gallagher, Tierney, Robertson; Armstrong, Jack; Christie, McGinn; Dykes. But I expect Clarke will play McGregor instead of Armstrong. As much hope as I have, I just can't see us winning. 22 years of utter nonsense has really left this 28 year old extremely cynical about our chances.

Considine. Look it up on YouTube. Yes sir, he can boogie.

Ultimately 5 at the back looks like the correct system going forward so well done for spotting it earlier than most. For me the reason it has successfully worked so far under Clarke but was a monumental failure under McLeish comes down to both the tactical knowledge of the manager and the players deployed. McLeish for being a defender has not been famed for overly strong defensive sides bar maybe his Motherwell days. When he deployed his three at the back, he left it unbalanced with McKenna deployed at LCB while the ball playing Mulgrew was stuck in the middle of the three thus expected to do the most defensive job of the three. The performance in Israel was one of the most woefully open defensive displays I've had the "pleasure" of watching in a stadium. The Souttar sending off was the culmination and if it wasn't for Allan McGregor, we'd have been buried 5-1. Compare that to now where Clarke has players drilled in with all the knowledge they need to play solidly. He identified the need for the more ball playing defenders to be the ones playing each side of the three while allowing McKenna and Gallagher to just defend in the middle of the three. The wing backs were significantly defensively more disciplined while offering some help to the attack. Any formation relies on a good manager to deploy it correctly and that is where Clarke is succeeding in comparison to McLeish.

Full credit to Scott McTominay, been a standout in all three games this week. His attitude has been spot on, his awareness off the ball defensively has gotten better and the bonus of him carrying the ball forward is welcome too. Well done big lad.

Considine, Gallagher and SOD this week have proven me totally wrong. Delightfully so too I hasten to add. Full credit to all three of them, honest lads who play with hard work and quality in their games.

A massive result last night for this group of players who deserved the success they have had this week. They have bought fully into Steve Clarke's plan, they have tactically executed it to the letter to the point where we have chucked both Considine and Hanlon in at very little notice and both did fine. Indeed if anyone a month ago had said a back five at the end against the Czechs would contain 2 from Motherwell, 1 from Aberdeen, 1 from Hibs and Scott McTominay whilst keeping a clean sheet, you'd have been laughed out the room. Special credit has to be paid to SOD, McTominay, Gallagher, Considine, Cooper Robertson, Taylor, Hanlon and David Marshall over the last week. They have put together some excellent individual and collective defensive displays against three reasonable teams including the free scoring Eran Zahavi and a good Czech side and come out with three clean sheets. It's been an excellent building block. Fraser, Dykes and McGinn once again linked superbly last night until the former two understandably ran out of steam. They've been a delight of a triumvirate this week and you can see burgeoning confidence there. Also shoutout to Ryan Jack last night who again had a good game. Yes we rode our luck a couple of times but we deserved the breaks for the work that we put in. Czechs also had let offs when Fraser blazed over and McBurnie crashed his shot off the bar. Collective spirit and workrate of this group is making them even more endearing to watch and support, full credit to the players and Clarke. All in all, a great win and a superb end to the perfect week. The fact we have again taken the Nations League seriously and will reap the benefits of more glamour games and more importantly both better seeding for the next Euros and a better playoff route just adds to the positives.

McTominay has played well this week at RCB. The positive thing about the shift to three at the back is we have seen McKenna, Cooper, Gallagher and Considine all look comfortable in it. Tierney did also in the game he played. Ultimately that is a very big positive moving forward

Very content with tonight both in terms of result and performance. Yes it isn't pretty to watch at times but the 3-5-2 is the way forward for us just now. Our defence looks way more solid just now and unlike when McLeish gave it a half arsed try, Clarke drills and briefs the players down to the finest detail on how to play it. 2 goals lost in 4 games compared to the 19 we lost in the 8 non-San Marino games of last year. Better than that, the second half performance was actually reasonably decent. We looked a threat going forward with Fraser and SOD linking well for the goal and Robertson linking a bit better when McGregor came on too. Dykes really did well in his hold up play and McGinn was much more like his usual self. Well taken finish by Dykes who looks to be a very good find for us. Fraser was superb tonight, very good performance from him and looks to finally enjoy playing for Scotland. Even enjoyed McBurnie tonight who did well, was unlucky with his header and managed the game out superbly in injury time. The three centre halves deserve credit tonight too. McTominay really is growing very nicely into that position, and he did well stepping out tonight. Gallagher again strolled it as did Considine, whose many European games for Aberdeen shone through tonight with the ease of which he slotted in there. For once it is nice to have the better of the Irish in-laws watching their team try to play nice stuff and winning no games while we shitfest our way to wins.