Scottish Players in Action 18/19

[Kirk]

19 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Injuries mounting up for us. Naismith limped off after less than 5 minutes today and yesterday Charlie Mulgrew only lasted 15 minutes V WBA. Also we know John Soutter is definitely out. Griffiths with issues also.

No harm to Nasiy and Mulgrew but its not the worst thing, we need to get past these guys and look to the future a bit, will give Mcburnie a decent chance and a centre half (fuck knows who as we really dont have many decent ones) but should also be going 4 at the back anyway.

18 hours ago, PASTA Mick said:

Goal for Forrest in the semi! 

He was his usual shite self, running in to players, not going past anyone on the wing and some nice shite crosses. he went past someone once i can remember then played the wrong ball. Sorry i know you love him, but he is utter dung!!

18 hours ago, PASTA Mick said:

Cracking goal for Christie. 

Absolute belter, took it really well and looked quite lively when he came on, still think he is very lighweight though.

17 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Bates will definitely be called up imo. He's performing well in the German second tier so should be in the squad.

Did he not get sent off the other day? it canny do any harm to give him a shot though as we are very short in centre halfs

[Third Lanark]

19 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Obviously not a Scotland player but Che Adams is doing well in the English championship, a goal and an assist yesterday. Only 22, would he be worth calling up and seeing if he would like to play for us?

Striker  situation is now desperate - much worse than the centre back situation. So, yes.

[SWMM82]

37 minutes ago, Kirk said:

No harm to Nasiy and Mulgrew but its not the worst thing, we need to get past these guys and look to the future a bit, will give Mcburnie a decent chance and a centre half (fuck knows who as we really dont have many decent ones) but should also be going 4 at the back anyway.

He was his usual shite self, running in to players, not going past anyone on the wing and some nice shite crosses. he went past someone once i can remember then played the wrong ball. Sorry i know you love him, but he is utter dung!!

Absolute belter, took it really well and looked quite lively when he came on, still think he is very lighweight though.

Did he not get sent off the other day? it canny do any harm to give him a shot though as we are very short in centre halfs

I agree we need to see past Mulgrew and Naisy and look to the future, I fear things will get worse before they get better..... and they WILL get better.

But to say Forrest is utter dung is a complete nonsense. Genuinely don’t know where some fans have been in the last couple years. He is one of the best attacking players we have got. Wingers by nature can blow very hot and cold, but Forrest has been remarkably consistent for two/three seasons now.

[mccaughey85]

38 minutes ago, SWMM82 said:

I agree we need to see past Mulgrew and Naisy and look to the future, I fear things will get worse before they get better..... and they WILL get better.

But to say Forrest is utter dung is a complete nonsense. Genuinely don’t know where some fans have been in the last couple years. He is one of the best attacking players we have got. Wingers by nature can blow very hot and cold, but Forrest has been remarkably consistent for two/three seasons now.

I think the problem with Forrest is he's been great for Celtic the last couple of seasons but doesn't recreate that performances for Scotland. Saying that he should defo be in our squad and if we could get him performing the way he does for Celtic then we would have a better chance of qualifying.

[Kirk]

47 minutes ago, SWMM82 said:

I agree we need to see past Mulgrew and Naisy and look to the future, I fear things will get worse before they get better..... and they WILL get better.

But to say Forrest is utter dung is a complete nonsense. Genuinely don’t know where some fans have been in the last couple years. He is one of the best attacking players we have got. Wingers by nature can blow very hot and cold, but Forrest has been remarkably consistent for two/three seasons now.

I genuinely don't know one Celtic fan who rates him, and I know plenty. I watch him most weeks and it's the same. Canny go past someone, on the rare occasion he does he makes the wrong decisions. Yes he has odd good games for Celtic but not consistently at all. As a winger, for the he strongest team in the league he should be taking folk on and getting past them almost every time, and his end product should be far better. He's had years in and around the main squad now so there's n excuse. An absolute waste of a jersey every time for Scotland.

[SWMM82]

6 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

I think the problem with Forrest is he's been great for Celtic the last couple of seasons but doesn't recreate that performances for Scotland. Saying that he should defo be in our squad and if we could get him performing the way he does for Celtic then we would have a better chance of qualifying.

Yeah I agree with this, but the problem with Forrest when he plays for Scotland is that he sees a lot less of the ball in forward areas. I remember watching Scotland in Lithuania, and he played really well, his movement, his link up play, his pace caused them all sorts of problems, BUT we were on the front foot from the start in that game.

i would sooner have Forrest at right wing back than Stephen O’Donnell who’s lack of pace was brutally exposed in the game against Israel.

And just to clarify, am not a Celtic fan, I am u fortunately a Buddie!

[andyD]

1 hour ago, Third Lanark said:

Striker  situation is now desperate - much worse than the centre back situation. So, yes.

It's not that terrible.
> Naismith potentially out, but probably back by then.
> Griff being non-committal, but would be daft for him to pull out again.
> Ok, McBurnie 8 league games without a goal
Upsides tho:
> Fletcher scored a decent goal and looked decent at the weekend.
> Rhodes scored 2 against Villa last week.
So we've got 2 guys who can step in.

And we're probably only playing 1 up top with a man off him (McGregor, Mackay-Steven, Russell.. Christie?)
So we're covered well enough.

[andyD]

Just now, SWMM82 said:

Yeah I agree with this, but the problem with Forrest when he plays for Scotland is that he sees a lot less of the ball in forward areas. I remember watching Scotland in Lithuania, and he played really well, his movement, his link up play, his pace caused them all sorts of problems, BUT we were on the front foot from the start in that game.

i would sooner have Forrest at right wing back than Stephen O’Donnell who’s lack of pace was brutally exposed in the game against Israel.

And just to clarify, am not a Celtic fan, I am u fortunately a Buddie!

Aye, I dream of Forrest defending corners..
O'Donnell's done ok over the piece. A lot of our current issues stem from the center of midfield, the problem is there are popular players in there not doing what they should, but because they're popular, others take the criticism ahead of them.

[mccaughey85]

3 minutes ago, Kirk said:

I genuinely don't know one Celtic fan who rates him, and I know plenty. I watch him most weeks and it's the same. Canny go past someone, on the rare occasion he does he makes the wrong decisions. Yes he has odd good games for Celtic but not consistently at all. As a winger, for the he strongest team in the league he should be taking folk on and getting past them almost every time, and his end product should be far better. He's had years in and around the main squad now so there's n excuse. An absolute waste of a jersey every time for Scotland.

Most of my Celtic mates rate him and a quick glance at Celtic forums will tell you that they mostly rate him. To deny he's been good for Celtic the last couple of seasons is daft imo. Problem is he doesn't really bring that form over to Scotland which is why I usually don't want him to start. If we could get him producing for Scotland then he could help us see off the likes of Israel and teams of that standard.

[mccaughey85]

9 minutes ago, andyD said:

It's not that terrible.
> Naismith potentially out, but probably back by then.
> Griff being non-committal, but would be daft for him to pull out again.
> Ok, McBurnie 8 league games without a goal
Upsides tho:
> Fletcher scored a decent goal and looked decent at the weekend.
> Rhodes scored 2 against Villa last week.
So we've got 2 guys who can step in.

And we're probably only playing 1 up top with a man off him (McGregor, Mackay-Steven, Russell.. Christie?)
So we're covered well enough.

Mcburnie scored 2 league goals on the weekend and is currently on 6 for the season. Guys only 22 so room for improvement. Saying that hopefully Griff comes back as he's clearly our best striker imo.

Edited October 29, 2018 by mccaughey85

[SWMM82]

6 minutes ago, andyD said:

Aye, I dream of Forrest defending corners..
O'Donnell's done ok over the piece. A lot of our current issues stem from the center of midfield, the problem is there are popular players in there not doing what they should, but because they're popular, others take the criticism ahead of them.

I would hope there would be enough height in other areas of the team to deal with set pieces.

O’Donnell at best is a steady Eddie, but never international class. That’s just my opinion though......I would hope Big Eck knew a bit more about the game than me though..............

[andyD]

5 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Mcburnie scored 2 league goals on the weekend and is currently on 6 for the season. Guys only 22 so room for improvement. Saying that hopefully Griff comes back as he's clearly our best striker imo.

Oh, good. Haven't been thru the weekend's scores yet, so that's good news.
I like McBurnie, I think he's got a bright future.

[mccaughey85]

Just now, andyD said:

Oh, good. Haven't been thru the weekend's scores yet, so that's good news.
I like McBurnie, I think he's got a bright future.

I like mcburnie but I can't see him being good enough for the EPL. I think championship will be his level. Saying that if he can score goals at that level then he will always be in our squad at the very least.

[andyD]

2 minutes ago, SWMM82 said:

I would hope there would be enough height in other areas of the team to deal with set pieces.

O’Donnell at best is a steady Eddie, but never international class. That’s just my opinion though......I would hope Big Eck knew a bit more about the game than me though..............

Height from who tho?

Looking at the 11 vs Israel..  O'Donnell was one of only 4 players over 5'10.

Of those, Souttar is suspended and people are talking about dropping all 3 of Mulgrew, McDonald and O'Donnell.


 

[andyD]

5 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

I like mcburnie but I can't see him being good enough for the EPL. I think championship will be his level. Saying that if he can score goals at that level then he will always be in our squad at the very least.

Last bit is certainly true. And he was prolific last season.. haven't seem much of Swansea this season but they seem pretty chop and change, with a different system most weeks. Doesn't seem ideal for getting a coherent forward line that can work together and succeed, but oh well.
As for where he might end up.. probably best to keep expectation low with every player. We've been burned too many times. He has the attributes to be a good player tho, he has the skill and size.

[SWMM82]

14 minutes ago, andyD said:

Height from who tho?

Looking at the 11 vs Israel..  O'Donnell was one of only 4 players over 5'10.

Of those, Souttar is suspended and people are talking about dropping all 3 of Mulgrew, McDonald and O'Donnell.


 

It’s a sad indictment of where we are the now, that we are more worried about how we deal with Israel/Albania’s corners, than what we can do going forward!😝 it’s not like with O’Donnell in the team, we covered ourselves in glory defensively. But i get what you mean. 

I would keep Mulgrew in the team, and would even consider McTominay over McDonald. 

 

[mccaughey85]

12 minutes ago, andyD said:

Last bit is certainly true. And he was prolific last season.. haven't seem much of Swansea this season but they seem pretty chop and change, with a different system most weeks. Doesn't seem ideal for getting a coherent forward line that can work together and succeed, but oh well.
As for where he might end up.. probably best to keep expectation low with every player. We've been burned too many times. He has the attributes to be a good player tho, he has the skill and size.

Yeh he might end up playing EPL but I think chances are he won't. Most times I have watched him he's been relatively poor and hasn't linked up well with his team mates. He does score goals though so he does have that going for him. 

[andyD]

7 minutes ago, SWMM82 said:

It’s a sad indictment of where we are the now, that we are more worried about how we deal with Israel/Albania’s corners, than what we can do going forward!😝 it’s not like with O’Donnell in the team, we covered ourselves in glory defensively. But i get what you mean.  

I would keep Mulgrew in the team, and would even consider McTominay over McDonald.

It's not a sad indictment at all, it's the reality of football these days. None of the diddy teams are as bad as they once were, and every team will get some set pieces, so we need to be able to defend them properly. Unfortunately, most of our squad is about 5'10", so every 11 we put out needs to take that into account and it means picking certain players over others because we know 100% that we will need some height to defend.

The team may not have covered itself in glory, but O'Donnell's done relatively little wrong. Can you imagine if he'd given away the handful of goal scoring chances that McGinn has done in the last few games? There's be people on here ripping him a new one. McGinn's a favoured son tho it seems, so he gets clean away with it.

I'd agree that Mulgrew needs to stay for now. The rest of the back line is pretty green, and Mulgrew's generally a calming influence and can play the ball from the back, which is useful. Ultimately we need to replace him in the next few years, but he's still got value right now.

I think McDonald's been hard done by. He's been largely abandoned by his fellow center mids in terms of defensive work. Any time a defensive mid is hung out to dry, they get criticism, when the problem is they're actually just trying to do the job of 2-3 players. With proper support and workrate along side him he'll be a solid option for us. McTominay and McDonald are both 6'3"-4", so putting them in together would not be the worst idea ever. Solid defensively and both capable on the ball.

We'd then need players ahead of them to make things happen, and that's somewhere we've been falling down a bit under McLeish. I feel like Fraser is vital, despite him not having had much game time. Mackay-Steven can make things happen because he does things that aren't expected. So those two along side Griff (if he grows up) or McBurnie could work well.

[andyD]

16 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Yeh he might end up playing EPL but I think chances are he won't. Most times I have watched him he's been relatively poor and hasn't linked up well with his team mates. He does score goals though so he does have that going for him. 

Link-up play is the something you learn tho. Fletch has learnt to be a decent link-up player imo, but he doesn't have a good enough eye to be a prolific goal scorer. Rhodes was such a prolific goalscorer that he never really had to learn link up play (tho from what i've seen he's working on it). McBurnie has the height and skills to play the role. He maybe needs to hit the gym a bit more and play regularly for a year or two. Let's not forget that he's barely played any first team football still. Despit being 22, he'd made only a dozen or so short sub appearances for Swansea prior to this season. His loan to Barnsley earlier this year was the first time he's ever really got regular 90 minutes of competitive football, so he's very green.

Swansea are a decent club tho, and he's playing the lone striker for them and doing it well enough. I think he'll come good. Wether that means premier league, who knows. I think he'll play at that level, but probably midtable, as Fletch did for a decade or so. He's not likely to turn into the new Drogba.

[mccaughey85]

17 minutes ago, andyD said:

Link-up play is the something you learn tho. Fletch has learnt to be a decent link-up player imo, but he doesn't have a good enough eye to be a prolific goal scorer. Rhodes was such a prolific goalscorer that he never really had to learn link up play (tho from what i've seen he's working on it). McBurnie has the height and skills to play the role. He maybe needs to hit the gym a bit more and play regularly for a year or two. Let's not forget that he's barely played any first team football still. Despit being 22, he'd made only a dozen or so short sub appearances for Swansea prior to this season. His loan to Barnsley earlier this year was the first time he's ever really got regular 90 minutes of competitive football, so he's very green.

Swansea are a decent club tho, and he's playing the lone striker for them and doing it well enough. I think he'll come good. Wether that means premier league, who knows. I think he'll play at that level, but probably midtable, as Fletch did for a decade or so. He's not likely to turn into the new Drogba.

Yeh tbf you make a good point about his lack of first team experience. Hopefully this season he learns alot from playing every week. He's only 22 so there is time for him to improve. 

[SWMM82]

56 minutes ago, andyD said:

It's not a sad indictment at all, it's the reality of football these days. None of the diddy teams are as bad as they once were, and every team will get some set pieces, so we need to be able to defend them properly. Unfortunately, most of our squad is about 5'10", so every 11 we put out needs to take that into account and it means picking certain players over others because we know 100% that we will need some height to defend.

The team may not have covered itself in glory, but O'Donnell's done relatively little wrong. Can you imagine if he'd given away the handful of goal scoring chances that McGinn has done in the last few games? There's be people on here ripping him a new one. McGinn's a favoured son tho it seems, so he gets clean away with it.

I'd agree that Mulgrew needs to stay for now. The rest of the back line is pretty green, and Mulgrew's generally a calming influence and can play the ball from the back, which is useful. Ultimately we need to replace him in the next few years, but he's still got value right now.

I think McDonald's been hard done by. He's been largely abandoned by his fellow center mids in terms of defensive work. Any time a defensive mid is hung out to dry, they get criticism, when the problem is they're actually just trying to do the job of 2-3 players. With proper support and workrate along side him he'll be a solid option for us. McTominay and McDonald are both 6'3"-4", so putting them in together would not be the worst idea ever. Solid defensively and both capable on the ball.

We'd then need players ahead of them to make things happen, and that's somewhere we've been falling down a bit under McLeish. I feel like Fraser is vital, despite him not having had much game time. Mackay-Steven can make things happen because he does things that aren't expected. So those two along side Griff (if he grows up) or McBurnie could work well.

Yeah but I would argue that just because a player isn’t 6 ft plus, doesn’t mean they they aren’t good in the air, Naismith is an example of this. 

I would also argue that pace is just as important, especially in the full back/wing areas. It was borderline embarrassing watching O’Donnell chase back against Israel. 

McDonald is a very ordinary player, doesn’t move the ball quick enough, the only real thing going for him at that level is physical presence. Would much rather have Armstrong or McTominay in there.

For me, McGinn brings a lot more positives to the game than McDonald does. He was excellent against Albania, constantly winning possession then setting us off on attacks. But i do agree he needs to stamp out some of the errors. 

Agree about Fraser as well, needs to be in the team on the left, but I would have Forrest on the right. 

[Tartan_McCole]

3 hours ago, Kirk said:

He's had years in and around the main squad now so there's n excuse.

There's a reason he's been in and around the main squad now for nearly 10 years. However, I can't disagree that he's generally pretty pants when he pulls on a Scotland jersey.

I'd suggest you don't know as many Celtic fans as you think you do.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Tartan_McCole

[Kirk]

1 hour ago, Tartan_McCole said:

There's a reason he's been in and around the main squad now for nearly 10 years. However, I can't disagree that he's generally pretty pants when he pulls on a Scotland jersey.

I'd suggest you don't know as many Celtic fans as you think you do.

Knew that would be someone's response, he's been shite as long as he's been there, came through with a lot of hype and has never lived up to it. Sorry I'll do a count and get back to you

[Chripper]

We can talk about this striker and that striker, but at the end of the day, a striker is only as good as the service that he receives. With the midfield situation we're in, we could have the best strikers in the world and they'd have to work with scraps.

[mrniaboc]

Harper completely missing from Malaga team tonight. Since he's started most of their games this season I guess he must be injured?