Team for forthcoming matches - Page 17 - TA specific - Tartan Army Message Board Jump to content

Team for forthcoming matches


Malcolm

Recommended Posts

19 hours ago, Orraloon said:

I don't want to worry anybody ;) but Albania's away record in qualifiers is pretty good. It's probably better than their home record.

I'll be happy with any victory but I would prefer a wee 2 goal cushion in case the head to head or GD comes into it later on. 

Job done.:ok:

A similar performance in Israel could get us another 3 points. We still need a good striker though. That's our biggest weakness now.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the main thing we've gotten out this is the formation works... It's just fitting the right players into it. It all depends who we play, against a team even from League B we would have been punished a couple of times last night and we were far too open when McDonald left the park. I don't think McDonald is great but we definitely need someone in the holding role going forward. Disappointing McArthur pulled out as he would have plugged a lot of gaps. McTominay seems our best option at the minute going by his cameo, a lot more mobile and passes the ball a lot quicker than McDonald. Ahead of him should be two more attacking midfielders and this is a straight choice between McGinn, Armstrong and McGregor. All have different qualities would be happy with any of them. Ahead of them Fraser has to play instead of Russell and give him the same freedom Russell was allowed. Fraser could be very exciting further forward. Then it's between Naismith and Griffiths for number 9. The rest should be as it was apart from Mulgrew he has been the weak link at the back and McKenna should come straight in for him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Job done.:ok:

A similar performance in Israel could get us another 3 points. We still need a good striker though. That's our biggest weakness now.

 

Two wins against Israel and we should top the group, as long as we don’t lose by 2 goals in Albania. Even a draw in Haifa would do as long as we don’t lose in Albania (and still beat Israel at home of course).

I’d rather win all our games though which should guarantee a home game in the first playoff game but that might be a bit greedy. I’ll just be happy if we win the group to be honest.

Who do you think our striker should be then?

Griffiths isn’t exactly banging in the goals at the moment but I wouldn’t write him off yet. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, bazmidd said:

I think the main thing we've gotten out this is the formation works... It's just fitting the right players into it. It all depends who we play, against a team even from League B we would have been punished a couple of times last night and we were far too open when McDonald left the park. I don't think McDonald is great but we definitely need someone in the holding role going forward. Disappointing McArthur pulled out as he would have plugged a lot of gaps. McTominay seems our best option at the minute going by his cameo, a lot more mobile and passes the ball a lot quicker than McDonald. Ahead of him should be two more attacking midfielders and this is a straight choice between McGinn, Armstrong and McGregor. All have different qualities would be happy with any of them. Ahead of them Fraser has to play instead of Russell and give him the same freedom Russell was allowed. Fraser could be very exciting further forward. Then it's between Naismith and Griffiths for number 9. The rest should be as it was apart from Mulgrew he has been the weak link at the back and McKenna should come straight in for him.

i agree, i think we're very weak in the defensive midfield position.  Jack is no defensive midfielder at this level.  I like McGinn going forward but he's not the man for defensive keep ball.  McDonald seems the only option if McArther isn't around.

Would have McDonald, Armstrong and McGregor in there.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

 

Who do you think our striker should be then?

 

It's our biggest weakness partly because there is no obvious solution. I would play the exact same team again against Israel, depending on availability. Try out somebody new against Portugal. But he also needs to give the Thumb some time on the pitch as well. 

The boss seems to be keen on Johnny Russell, it would be good to him get a couple of goals.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

It's our biggest weakness partly because there is no obvious solution. I would play the exact same team again against Israel, depending on availability. Try out somebody new against Portugal. But he also needs to give the Thumb some time on the pitch as well. 

The boss seems to be keen on Johnny Russell, it would be good to him get a couple of goals.

 

I have a feeling McBurnie would have started against Albania if he hadn’t pulled out so I would expect him to feature against Israel at some point if he’s fit. 

Whether he’ll start or not I don’t know. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

“I was aware of that and James was one of the few guys I got to speak to after the match as most were away seeing their families and stuff. I told him we wouldn’t be playing 3-5-2 all the times and there will be times when we need him in the wide areas." - McLeish

The don't have a proper talk over after the match with the players?   Doesn't seem like a very good set up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/11/2018 at 1:29 PM, bazmidd said:

I think the main thing we've gotten out this is the formation works... It's just fitting the right players into it. It all depends who we play, against a team even from League B we would have been punished a couple of times last night and we were far too open when McDonald left the park. I don't think McDonald is great but we definitely need someone in the holding role going forward. Disappointing McArthur pulled out as he would have plugged a lot of gaps. McTominay seems our best option at the minute going by his cameo, a lot more mobile and passes the ball a lot quicker than McDonald. Ahead of him should be two more attacking midfielders and this is a straight choice between McGinn, Armstrong and McGregor. All have different qualities would be happy with any of them. Ahead of them Fraser has to play instead of Russell and give him the same freedom Russell was allowed. Fraser could be very exciting further forward. Then it's between Naismith and Griffiths for number 9. The rest should be as it was apart from Mulgrew he has been the weak link at the back and McKenna should come straight in for him.

Glad I'm not the only one who thought McDonald did well, Some saying he was hooked at half time  but to me it was very much a tactical switch. .McLeish realised that a holding midfield player was not  needed  as much because of the standard of opposition but more speed and creativity was. If McDonald hadn't started the game and Albania had turned out to be a better team there might be a lot of other threads on the board just now. Thought we were a better unit against Belgium until he got subbed too.

Singing the same old tune but I think the formation only works against teams we are better than, could be the formation makes us better than them but I doubt if that will be the case against higher ranking teams

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Glad I'm not the only one who thought McDonald did well, Some saying he was hooked at half time  but to me it was very much a tactical switch. .McLeish realised that a holding midfield player was not  needed  as much because of the standard of opposition but more speed and creativity was. If McDonald hadn't started the game and Albania had turned out to be a better team there might be a lot of other threads on the board just now. Thought we were a better unit against Belgium until he got subbed too.

Singing the same old tune but I think the formation only works against teams we are better than, could be the formation makes us better than them but I doubt if that will be the case against higher ranking teams

He had also been booked and came pretty close to getting a second booking just before half time. That might have influenced the manager's thinking as well.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 343 is probably the best plan for now.

Half the team pretty much picks itself which is never the greatest sign, but still.. we seem like we're decent enough in those positions.

Robertson, Tierney, McKenna, Souttar, O'Donnell, McGregor

The other 5 positions are interesting and depend on the opposition.
In these nations league games, we're the dominant side. So the 2 center mids don't need to be overly defensive.
McDonald is neat, safe and offers a solid defensive option, but for me we need to be a bit more dynamic since we're intending to be on the front foot. Shinnie and Armstrong are both happy enough to get forward, but can both do the defensive work that needs doing. They're also both pretty sharp on the ball, so would keep things ticking over.

The 2 supporting forwards are obvious to me, tho I'm sure some will disagree. Russell has done enough to show he's a threat, and he works hard closing people down, which will result in errors and turnovers in possession, so he'd be in there for me. The other is Ryan Fraser. Pace, direct, similar workrate to Russell, so together I think they'd be really effective.
Some will say McGregor, and he's decent.. I feel like he missed an opportunity against Albania tho.. could have made the shirt his, but wasn't incisive enough and the door is open now. The other is Cairney, but i dont think the system suits him. His main strength is his passing, and in a 4231, where he has more people running ahead of him, he can use that to the full. This forward 3 have to be the runners, so Cairney doesn't fit there. We could play him as one of the central 2, but h's not got the defensive game of Shinnie and Armstrong has done more to earn the shirt than Cairney at this point.

For the main striker.. Griff is the obvious shout. But.. McBurnie seems like a great option to me. Griff doesn't occupy defenders particularly. He's great finding space, but not so good making it for others. With the likes of Russell and Fraser breaking from deeper, having a striker who it big enough and strong enough to be able to manipulate the defenders is probably the best option. McBurnie's in good goalscoring form and is deceptively skillful, able to make things happen for himself as well as make space for others. There will be times when we might need to go with 2 out and out strikers and for that, I think Rhodes has to come into the picture. 2 from Rhodes, Griff and McBurnie should cause defenses problems.

So my lineup of choice, with everyone fit would be:

Fraser - McBurnie - Russell
Robertson - Armstrong - Shinnie - O'Donnell
Tierney - McKenna - Souttar
McGregor

Excluding McGregor it's an average age of 24. Never thought I'd be saying that a few years ago.


 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...