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John Fleck


er yir macaroon

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I think it's time he was in the squad. He seems to be one of the best players in the Championship and may yet end up in the EPL before the transfer window closes. We lack a player who dictates play (although arguably Cairney does this). McGregor and Armstrong are both great for us, but they don’t really control the tempo of the game. Fleck could be the man.

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2 hours ago, er yir macaroon said:

I think it's time he was in the squad. He seems to be one of the best players in the Championship and may yet end up in the EPL before the transfer window closes. We lack a player who dictates play (although arguably Cairney does this). McGregor and Armstrong are both great for us, but they don’t really control the tempo of the game. Fleck could be the man.

I’ve not seen much of him since he left Ibrox but he will need to have improved massively if he is worthy of a place in the Scotland squad. 

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Will be very interested in seeing how he does this season will be a big one for him, for me it would be very naive of us / SFA to write him off when hes performing very well in a league that is well ahead of the SPL and in a team that would arguably finish 2nd in the SPL 

I don't think you can base any argument on his rangers performances as that was a lifetime ago 

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56 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:

I think you’ll find he has and plays in a different position, too.

Fair enough. Surely if McLeish had any thoughts of selecting him he’d have been in the last squad though? 

Our midfield isn’t the problem at the moment so can’t really see him getting a call up. Having said that, if he’s playing as well as you say then McLeish should certainly be having a look. 

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41 minutes ago, borojock said:

argument could be made that half of our current squad arent international class

I've said this before but I'm guessing most people wouldn't call Iceland's midfield 'International class' or Northern Ireland's.  In fact I'd go as far as to say I'd rather have McGregor, Armstrong, McGinn, McTominay, Cairney, Fraser and the immediate potential of McTominay and Burke.

Not that I'm saying Fleck doesn't deserve to be considered.  It's just that I think we don't value our midfield enough.

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44 minutes ago, borojock said:

argument could be made that half of our current squad arent international class

I would say it’s more than half... pretty much all of it aside from Robertson and Tierney and maybe the goalies.  Scott brown as well before he retired - we will miss him a lot. 

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58 minutes ago, borojock said:

argument could be made that half of our current squad arent international class

Depends what you mean by international class. At least 75% of international teams are rank rotten. 

If you mean good enough to play in the World Cup then I agree but if you mean they’re not good enough to play international football then they’re the best we’ve got I’m afraid. If there’s nobody better than you from this country then you’re good enough to play for Scotland.

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4 hours ago, Rab The Crab said:

 

He’s definitely got a cockiness that we lack from a lot of our players nowadays.

Or gallus. The word is gallusness. And you're right, we lack players with that quality. Faddy was the last one we had.

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8 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

Depends what you mean by international class. At least 75% of international teams are rank rotten. 

If you mean good enough to play in the World Cup then I agree but if you mean they’re not good enough to play international football then they’re the best we’ve got I’m afraid. If there’s nobody better than you from this country then you’re good enough to play for Scotland.

Its an interesting one "International class", is it being able to play for Gibraltar as that's International football. For me i would say International Class is being able to play competitively and not look out of place at a major tournament and i don't know how many of our players would fall into that category very few i'd suggest.   

What we need with our squad of, lets be honest, limited capability is:

1 - A great manager and a great coaching team that can create a formation, tatctics, structure and set piece plays that play to our strengths and make us hard to beat ala Greece when they won the Euros, 0'Neil with what he's done with N.I. or Lars Lagerback with what he did with Iceland

2 - Great squad harmony and togetherness where players are desperate to play for the team and work together as a team and fight for each other, like Croatia did at the last world cup 

3 - A bit of luck with the draw and in play decisions 

4 - One very very good attacking player like Robbie Keane for Ire, Bale for Wales, Zlatan for Sweden - sadly i cant see where this one is going to come from so we need to rely on the first 3 points  

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9 hours ago, Malcolm said:

I would say it’s more than half... pretty much all of it aside from Robertson and Tierney and maybe the goalies.  Scott brown as well before he retired - we will miss him a lot. 

Agree on Scott Brown massive loss i remember him bossing games for a good few years i also think we'll  miss Fletch (not the Fletch of the last 2 / 3 years but before his illness) a big miss the 2 of them and i dont think what we have at the moment is better than what we did have, sadly  

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1 hour ago, borojock said:

Its an interesting one "International class", is it being able to play for Gibraltar as that's International football. For me i would say International Class is being able to play competitively and not look out of place at a major tournament and i don't know how many of our players would fall into that category very few i'd suggest.   

What we need with our squad of, lets be honest, limited capability is:

1 - A great manager and a great coaching team that can create a formation, tatctics, structure and set piece plays that play to our strengths and make us hard to beat ala Greece when they won the Euros, 0'Neil with what he's done with N.I. or Lars Lagerback with what he did with Iceland

2 - Great squad harmony and togetherness where players are desperate to play for the team and work together as a team and fight for each other, like Croatia did at the last world cup 

3 - A bit of luck with the draw and in play decisions 

4 - One very very good attacking player like Robbie Keane for Ire, Bale for Wales, Zlatan for Sweden - sadly i cant see where this one is going to come from so we need to rely on the first 3 points  

Unfortunately we're pretty much fked on the first 3 points as well.

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3 hours ago, borojock said:

Its an interesting one "International class", is it being able to play for Gibraltar as that's International football. For me i would say International Class is being able to play competitively and not look out of place at a major tournament and i don't know how many of our players would fall into that category very few i'd suggest.   

What we need with our squad of, lets be honest, limited capability is:

1 - A great manager and a great coaching team that can create a formation, tatctics, structure and set piece plays that play to our strengths and make us hard to beat ala Greece when they won the Euros, 0'Neil with what he's done with N.I. or Lars Lagerback with what he did with Iceland

2 - Great squad harmony and togetherness where players are desperate to play for the team and work together as a team and fight for each other, like Croatia did at the last world cup 

3 - A bit of luck with the draw and in play decisions 

4 - One very very good attacking player like Robbie Keane for Ire, Bale for Wales, Zlatan for Sweden - sadly i cant see where this one is going to come from so we need to rely on the first 3 points  

The European Championships has been devalued for me with it going to 24 teams (and potentially 32 in future). Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be complaining if we qualify but there are going to be some bang average teams at Euro 2020. I have no doubt that we can qualify for the next Euros and not look out of place. 

Sweden are a very average team at best and got to the quarter finals of the World Cup so didn’t look out of place until England beat them. 

Our players are definitely good enough to qualify for a major tournament.  We should have made at least the playoffs in the last 2 qualifying campaigns. Easy to say I know but a less stubborn manager would have got us to one of the last 2 tournaments. I’m certain of that. 

As long as McLeish picks and plays our best players then our team will be international class. World class? No. How many international teams are world class though?

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