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Livingston currently showing that three at the back CAN work


Chripper

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1 hour ago, teecee- said:

Disagree, game is meaningless unless we lose 3-0. Irrespective of result we must beat Israel.

^ Both games utterly massive...

1) WIN GROUP. nations league play off for euros AND pot 2 for main euro2020 draw
2) 2nd Place. pot 3 for euro2020 draw
3) 3rd Place. pot 4 for euro2020 draw

I would say #2 or #3 means we probably wont be going to euro2020 ?
A 32 team tournament with Hampden as host stadium : really cant afford to be missing out on that....

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The Albania game is massive in that winning it would give us a much better chace of being one of the best group winners, therefore giving us a home tie for the semi final.

Winning the group with 6 points would likely mean that we are 3rd or 4th in the table of group winners, meaning we could conceiveably be away to someone like Serbia.

Much rather win our last 2 games and give us a better shot at a playoff semi at Hampden.

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On 23 October 2018 at 5:23 PM, ErsatzThistle said:

Said this a couple of times before but I would get Craig Halkett, who plays centre half for Livi, called up for the national team to at least to train with the team.

Halkett looks a good player and is worth a closer look.

A 23 year old with how many top flight appearances ?

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20 hours ago, ceudmilefailte said:

A 23 year old with how many top flight appearances ?

Don't care how many top flight appearances he's made. The boy clearly has some talent and should be in the squad. Well ahead of the utterly pish Jack Hendry anyway.

Same goes for Michael Devlin and Ryan Porteous. Call them up.

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On Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at 12:01 PM, Haggis_trap said:

^ Both games utterly massive...

1) WIN GROUP. nations league play off for euros AND pot 2 for main euro2020 draw
2) 2nd Place. pot 3 for euro2020 draw
3) 3rd Place. pot 4 for euro2020 draw

I would say #2 or #3 means we probably wont be going to euro2020 ?
A 32 team tournament with Hampden as host stadium : really cant afford to be missing out on that....

Agree that we can't afford to miss out, but it's a 24 team tournament and also I don't think it's possible for us to be higher than Pot 3 for the Euro draw?

 

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For me, the key to 3 at the back is the midfield ahead of them. it needs 2 defensive minded mids who are consistent, committed and hard working. We haven't had that in the national side, generally just throwing in McDonald, and putting all the pressure on him, while McGregor doesn't mark and one and McGinn passes that ball to their forwards.

The midfield has been a problem for along time, even the latter years of Darren Fletcher, it was a problem as he was not doing what he should have been doing defensively. Brown used to give people a kick and get them working, but he's gone and we need to sort the position out now.

If we're going to get anywhere, we need stability and teamwork. If we're going to play 3 at the back, I want to see 2 out and out defensive players infront of them, probably McDonald and Shinnie, else we might as well not bother.

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On 10/27/2018 at 9:34 AM, Toepoke said:

Agree that we can't afford to miss out, but it's a 24 team tournament and also I don't think it's possible for us to be higher than Pot 3 for the Euro draw?

 

Might be wrong : but think the seeding is done on euro nation pots.
So if we go up...

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On 10/25/2018 at 6:35 PM, ErsatzThistle said:

Don't care how many top flight appearances he's made. The boy clearly has some talent and should be in the squad. Well ahead of the utterly pish Jack Hendry anyway.

Same goes for Michael Devlin and Ryan Porteous. Call them up.

Jack Hendry is 23 and has a lot of talent. It’s not all fulfilled, but he is a very good footballer. 

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I can't believe people are saying the Albania match is meaningless.  The double-header this month is as important as any I can remember.  

Euro 2020 play-off

Whilst the result against Israel is the most important in terms of finishing top, winning both matches could see our semi-final be played at Hampden rather than away from home.  

Euro 2020 draw

If we finish top of the group, or as one of the best 2 second placed teams, we will be in pot 3 for the Euro 2020 draw.  If we finish as one of the worst 2 second placed teams, or in third place, we will be in pot 4.  Beating Albania would help us finish as a best 2nd should be fail to beat Israel.  The advantage of being in pot 3 is we'd get a team like Albania, Cyprus or Estonia rather than someone like Turkey, Sweden or Serbia. 

World Cup 2022 draw

The draw for the World Cup in Qatar is due to take place in July 2019.  The pots for this draw are usually made using the FIFA ranking.  That means it is highly likely that we have just 4 games to improve our rankings before the draw - the two next month and 2 Euro 2020 qualifiers in March (potential for 1 qualifier 1 friendly if we are in one of the smaller groups).  There will be 2 matches in June 2019 but I think the pots will have been decided before the results of those matches have been calculated into the rankings.  

We have no idea who we are playing in March.  It could be France away where we have little chance of victory or it could be Andorra as home where a victory will give us very few points.  We really need to win both matches this month to give our rankings a much needed boost ahead of that draw. 

The inability of the SFA to pick friendlies which could potential improve our rankings, and with it our chances of World Cup qualification, is criminal in my opinion.  

As you can see, the match against Albania is far from meaningless. I've not mentioned other factors like momentum and team confidence which would be improved with a victory in Albania.  

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1 hour ago, PASTA Mick said:

I can't believe people are saying the Albania match is meaningless.  The double-header this month is as important as any I can remember.  

Euro 2020 play-off

Whilst the result against Israel is the most important in terms of finishing top, winning both matches could see our semi-final be played at Hampden rather than away from home.  

Euro 2020 draw

If we finish top of the group, or as one of the best 2 second placed teams, we will be in pot 3 for the Euro 2020 draw.  If we finish as one of the worst 2 second placed teams, or in third place, we will be in pot 4.  Beating Albania would help us finish as a best 2nd should be fail to beat Israel.  The advantage of being in pot 3 is we'd get a team like Albania, Cyprus or Estonia rather than someone like Turkey, Sweden or Serbia. 

World Cup 2022 draw

The draw for the World Cup in Qatar is due to take place in July 2019.  The pots for this draw are usually made using the FIFA ranking.  That means it is highly likely that we have just 4 games to improve our rankings before the draw - the two next month and 2 Euro 2020 qualifiers in March (potential for 1 qualifier 1 friendly if we are in one of the smaller groups).  There will be 2 matches in June 2019 but I think the pots will have been decided before the results of those matches have been calculated into the rankings.  

We have no idea who we are playing in March.  It could be France away where we have little chance of victory or it could be Andorra as home where a victory will give us very few points.  We really need to win both matches this month to give our rankings a much needed boost ahead of that draw. 

The inability of the SFA to pick friendlies which could potential improve our rankings, and with it our chances of World Cup qualification, is criminal in my opinion.  

As you can see, the match against Albania is far from meaningless. I've not mentioned other factors like momentum and team confidence which would be improved with a victory in Albania.  

Agree with this except that we DO know we will be get getting England and a yellow team in up and coming draw 

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On 10/31/2018 at 9:50 PM, Haggis_trap said:

Might be wrong : but think the seeding is done on euro nation pots.
So if we go up...

Doesn’t work like that.

The pots for the qualifiers will be decided by the final positions in the Nations League (before promotion/relegation).

The best position we can finish is 25th which would put us in pot 3. If we finish 31st or lower we will be in pot 4. 

The only way to guarantee pot 3 is by winning our group. A decent 2nd place may also get us into pot 3 but hopefully we won’t need to worry about that if we can avoid defeat in Albania (or even lose narrowly) and beat Israel at Hampden. 

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On 10/22/2018 at 10:09 PM, Chripper said:

Around one quarter into the SPL season (If anyone has a problem with me calling it the "SPL" they can write the complaint on a piece of paper and bin it. The "Scottish Premiership" sound too fancy for what the competition actually is) has come and gone and Livingston are currently showing that the three at the back system can work. This is a club who, on a weekly basis, is facing clubs with a bigger wage bill, more fans, better facilities, better players and larger budgets, and yet Livingston is leading Aberdeen, Rangers and Hibs and they're only one point behind Celtic and only three points away from the top.

Three of their central defenders scored at the weekend, and one of them is tipped for a Scotland call-up.

You can bet that before David Hopkin changed the Livingston formation none of the defenders had ever played with three at the back before, and yet they have taken the league by storm. They played with three at the back for three seasons, which included two consecutive promotions. They've been playing with three at the back for three years and now they are proficient with it, and yet the clear majority of Scotland fans aren't willing to go three matches, never mind three seasons, with three at the back, before wanting to go back to a tried and failed system. Gary Holt has continued where Hopkin left off. The first time I watched them this season was against Rangers and they were absolutely superb, they won 1:0 and it could've been 4. They were brilliant. Their defence were organized and structured, they hunted in packs and they created tons of chances. They rendered Rangers into a clueless outfit. 

Livingston remind me of Scotland under Craig Brown. They have inferior players, but they bridge this gap by being organized, being compact and working as a single unit.

On a weekly basis Livingston defy the experts and they prove that a three at the back system can work.

Scotland fans are obsessed with four at the back, with very little (Or no) justification. Maybe Scotland people are just fundamentally scared of change, a glance towards the referendum would prove this. 

Do I think for one second that this post will convert Scotland fans to at least giving the three at the back system a fair crack of the whip? Not for a millisecond. I just want McLeish to stick with it.

The way Hamilton Accies strolled through Livi’s back 3 to score the winning goal at the weekend would suggest that they’re not doing that well after all. 

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3 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

The way Hamilton Accies strolled through Livi’s back 3 to score the winning goal at the weekend would suggest that they’re not doing that well after all. 

It was 1:0, not 10:0.

But yes, I suppose you're right, we've done so well with the flat back four for the past 19 or so years.</sarcasm>

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On 11/6/2018 at 3:14 AM, Chripper said:

It was 1:0, not 10:0.

But yes, I suppose you're right, we've done so well with the flat back four for the past 19 or so years.</sarcasm>

It was 1:0 but accies are shite and Livi are now 8th in the league so they are hardly worth gushing over the way you did in your  post. 

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