BookhouseBoys
-
Posts
76 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Tartan Army Message Board News
Media Demo
Posts posted by BookhouseBoys
-
-
2 hours ago, Scot1 said:
I thought Gilmour had his best game for Scotland in the recent friendly against Holland, perhaps the best I’ve seen him play. He was pushing forward much more often, getting involved higher up the pitch. Something I’ve wanted to see for some time. I think there’s more to Gilmours game than sitting in front of the backline.
I do agree we need a defensive / holding midfielder. I’ve posted this a few times.
Porteous, Souttar are possibilities, Hickey looks ideal for the role.Looking more long term, I’m hoping one of Erhahon or Leonard might be options for that role. Both had good seasons in EFL1 and are being touted for moves to the English Championship. If that happens and they kick on next season, they could be considered. Lennon Miller might be an option there too eventually.
-
2 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:
You ever seen some of the defending in the spl? It's comical at times.
Not to mention how poor some of the other aspects are like fitness and technique are.
Look how poor the non old firm teams do in Europe.
Regardless of wether a country has had an easier path they can still be of similar standard to us. Countries like USA, Canada and mexico had MLS players. Cameroon, Uruguay and Costa rica also.
There's heaps of countries that didn't qualify who are of similar standard to us who rely on MLS players as well.
There's probably dozens of established international footballers in the MLS. How many established internationals play in the spl? If you take out the old firm there's probably only a handful. Even with the old firm theres probably less than 15.
Why are you using Ramirez at Aberdeen. His stats were hardly stellar in the MLS and he did reasonably well at Aberdeen.
You have pulled out a couple of guys that haven't made the transition from MLS to the spl as an example of why the spl is better. Thats hardly a very conclusive. Also there's guys like Stuart Findlay and Gary Mackay Steven who struggled in the MLS after being relatively successful in the spl.
I would rather go by how many established international footballers each league has playing or by what I see with my own eyes in terms of technique and tempo of games.
Also what guys have struggled in the spl and went onto be stars in the MLS? Morgans the only one I can think of and even he had some decent performances for Celtic. Also Morgan didn't suddenly start doing well once he moved to the MLS. It's taken him a couple seasons at least to establish himself as a good player there.
End of the day the MLS isn't a great standard but the idea that we can overlook players from there is daft when loads of similar level nations pick players from there.
And if you think we are vastly superior to Canada or USA then go take a look at their squads and get back to me. This isn't the 80s or 90s anymore.
Agree with this entirely. I think MLS and Scottish Prem are much of a muchness for now, but even that might be looking at it with tartan specs. I’m convinced that the MLS will end up being one of the top leagues in the world along with the top 5 in Europe soon enough because they’re pumping that much money at it. That’s likely why Gauld went there in the first place. There was lots of press of interest from all over Europe when he was finishing up in Portugal, but Vancouver offered him what players at the top end of the EPL are getting. It sounded like Sporting pissed him about a lot, though, so it’s not much of a surprise that he chose to go there.
The crowds are also getting better and better and they’re already attracting younger and better players to the league. It isn’t just a retirement home anymore. Adding to that, ‘soccer’ has grown a ton over the past twenty odd years for kids. They’re pouring money in at the grassroots, too. That brings more potential spectators because they love the game, but also more American/Canadian players of a higher quality. So yep, player quality in MLS might be roughly equivalent as the Scottish Prem, but it’s likely to be a good bit higher soon.
-
Although it's true that the MLS has generally been fairly suspect defensively (I think this may have been down to Americans being Americans and wanting to make sure that there's as many 'goalshots in the dangerzone' as possible), I'd say that it's starting to move away from that and is becoming a bit more well-rounded. They've started bringing in a lot of players from Latin America and that is increasing the standard significantly. It's currently probably of a similar level to the Scottish Premiership, but with the amount of money being spent, it'll be superior soon. Gauld and Morgan should both definitely be considered for the squad.
-
2 hours ago, GilmourFan said:
Armstrong is a liability and has no contrition for costing a win against England.
He's been forgiven too easily.
Fucking hell. You're a maniac.
Armstrong has been a solid Scotland player for most if not all of his career. He's scored crucial goals for us, has been an excellent sub many times and deciding not to bloot the ball out the park sunday league style one time won't change that.
Contrition...! Fucking hell....
-
Yaas! It’s like a reversal of his goal away to Spain…!
-
Just noticed that Robbie Ure (striker, former Rangers and still only 20) is on the bench for Anderlecht today. Seems to have done well for their B team this year and hopefully he can cement a place in their first team squad.
-
Scraping about for some good news: DeZerbi said today that Gilmour is available for tomorrow against Bournemouth. Could be interesting to see him vs Christie as long as they don’t conspire to injure each other…
-
Hasn’t happened yet, but it’s increasingly likely…
Ryan Gauld walking into his first Scotland training session:
-
2 minutes ago, Gala Tartan Army (Borders) said:
Any idea if bad? Saw he came on as a sub then got subbed himself.
You couldnt make this up.
Put it this way. He looked raging, as if he knew it was a bad one.
Fingers, toes, eyes crossed that it’s not. What the hell is going on?! -
Oh shit - McTominay…….
-
1 hour ago, DesiScotsman said:
What position do these 2 play? Any real potential possibility of them being called up for the Euro squad, considering our players are picking up injuries at the worst possible time 😢
Leonard is a midfielder and Bowie a forward. From the sounds of things they both might be looking at moves to Championship sides for next season. If that goes well then I'd imagine they'd be in the mix but I don't think we're at the stage of picking league one players for the euros just yet.
-
I didn't see the game, but read that Luis Binks played very well against Man Utd today. He's on loan at Coventry from Bologna and has vocalised his eligibility and interest in representing Scotland in the past. Anyone see the game and how he played?
-
Max Johnston came on for Sturm Graz the now.
-
Ooft. Every silver lining has a cloud, eh?
Realistically, even if Hickey weren’t to make it (I think that he will), our squad is a still a good bit better than the last time we went to the euros.
-
21 minutes ago, noctonjock said:
Signature assists ? Every cross he hits for Scotland goes way over everyone
This is a pretty impressive post for a goldfish..! In the NI, yep, his crossing was all over the place.
He's had plenty of good crosses over the years - only 8 assists might be more to him not always having the same level of targets to aim for, though.
-
Couple of wee bits from the Liverpool game tonight. Robertson was looking sharp when he came on and produced one of his signature assists for the third. Hopefully that injury is behind him.
Also, noticed Ben Doak on the bench, although not part of the actual match day squad, so maybe he’s getting closer to being back in training.
-
8 hours ago, Scotty2Hotty said:
Well it's still as offensive not that I actually care too much
The word that you used is far more offensive. Seriously, fuck off.
-
49 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:
Regarding our recent poor results, honestly, I think this is a good thing. Being long in the tooth, it is fairly clear that Scotland do best when they're feeling the heat and need to roll their sleeves up. I'm thinking Sweden 90, Holland 78 and various other less memorable occasions. When we're angry and under pressure, bring it on. We've got the players to do it, of that I have no doubt.
Agree with this. For all of the tongue in cheek, "we're just lulling everyone into a false sense of security and then we'll pelt them at the euros" patter, there's possibly an element of truth to it, however unintended it's been..! The past few games should hopefully keep all of the players down to earth and with a wee point to prove.
I also feel a similar way about our opposition at the euros. Both Switzerland and Hungary are beatable, but good enough that we won't take them for granted. Ideal for our mentality IMO. I think that for better or worse, the team took both the Czechs at the euros and Ukraine in the WC playoff a wee bit for granted for different reasons (Czechs at home and had beaten them recently, Ukraine's first game since the war had started so thought they'd be rusty) and it came back to haunt us.
When it comes to Germany, in the opening game in Germany, well that's ultimate underdog territory so we'll be in our element. The other two games, I think we'll respect them enough that there'll be no complacency (I hope..) especially after what's just happened in the friendlies.
-
I don’t think he’s quite there yet, but for me the long term solution is Josh Doig coming into that Tierney slot when KT is unavailable. He seems the most similar in style of the other players that would get put there. As I say, though, I don’t think he’s quite there yet.
-
U21s
in TA specific
4 hours ago, ProudScot said:Rory Wilson the superstar striker goal machine on the bench for Alfie Bavidge. Only a halfwit dinosaur like stark would make that call
Never mind that. There was a midfield three of Lennon Miller, David Watson and Bailey Rice. Three technically gifted players who all have experience of senior football and Stark’s like: “punt it o’er the top of thum, lads”. Bypassed them completely and put the entire game on a plate for Italy.
We’ve finally got players that can play a bit but we’re using managers at u19 and u21 that stick to the tactics from the times when we didn’t. -
30 minutes ago, todd said:
Gilmour sent off for bad tackle apparently. Haven't seen it but can't imagine him being malicious
It wasn’t malicious. It was just the follow through of a 50/50. If he’d pulled out, he’d probably have been the one injured. Still a red, though.
-
7 hours ago, Squirrelhumper said:
David Watson with another big goal for us.
He's played a lot of games (usually 90 mins) and only turned 19 last week. Was sub on Saturday to manage his workload as was starting to look a bit leggy of late but he's gonna have a great career.
Haven’t seen much of him. That’s good that they’re managing his minutes. Do you think he’d be the type to continue on the newly founded Scottish pipeline to Serie A? Seriously hope that a few more take that leap - I’ve been thinking that possibly Barron at Aberdeen would be one that’d benefit if the option came up. Maybe Miller at Motherwell eventually, too.
-
12 hours ago, BryanBlessed said:
I think if a player is too good to ignore and clearly better than the person they're replacing, he puts them in, of course. I don't know if anyone could really say that Christie is going to do a better job than the players we already have in midfield.
Shankland is a better player than Dykes and, every week, he's showing he's actually a fair bit better so I hope he gets his shot.
Totally agree with you on Shankland. I think Christie might have a chance of being tried further back since there’s a ton of evidence now from his domestic games that he can be really effective there. I remember him being good defensively for us even when playing higher up - Denmark at home sticks out in particular. Would be great to have that extra option back there along with Gilmour and McGregor either way, since most of our other midfielders are either AMs or box to box.
-
5 hours ago, BryanBlessed said:
It seems that Clarke likes consistency in selection as he won't get enough time to do patterns of play stuff etc. with new players or current players in new positions. That's why I don't think he'll move Christie and why he'll maybe keep Dykes or Adams up front...
Don’t mean any of this personally, but I see this point being made about Clarke fairly often and I just don’t see it as being true. He’s never seemed afraid of adding or dropping players as and when necessary. Gilmour, Patterson, Hickey and the players that they replaced all being examples of this. He’s used McTominay in just about every position except goalkeeper(!) at this point and he has also done a fair amount of experimenting between 5 and 4 at the back, sometimes mid-game. It was said about him during the last Euros and then he went and stuck Gilmour in against England…
There is always going to be a certain amount of consistency required to create cohesion that comes naturally with international football and since as a nation we have a smaller pool of players to choose from, it’s probably accentuated even more, but I do think that Clarke has pushed on that as and when is sensible, be that with the system or players.
All that to say that I wouldn’t be surprised to see a two of Christie and Gilmour in one of the friendlies because they seem to be the most in form for those two positions that we have at the moment. I’m still a big fan of McGregor, though and think he’d be brilliant to come off the bench for one of those two.
Scotland Starting XI in 5 years
in TA specific
Posted
Only few I can think of that haven’t been mentioned are:
Erhahon - had a great season and apparently has championship clubs after him
Oné - seems to be doing well in the youth team at Sheffield Utd and made their first team bench a couple of times
Borland - still only 16, but getting rave reviews for the Aston Villa EPL2 team. Sounds like he might be of a similar mould to Gilmour