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Squad to play Albania and Israel


PASTA Mick

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4 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said:

Scotland squad update:

OUT: Charlie Mulgrew, Kevin McDonald & Stephen O'Donnell. 

This is where we need to take a leaf out of the Irish’s book. Call up a larger squad, a pool of approx 36 players. I’ve heard people say that we don’t have the players, well we won’t know until we try. Maybe McLeish and his staff are looking at certain players, and maybe they don’t believe they are good enough, but we’re now going into these games with two centre halves and two right backs.

Liam Cooper at Leeds, Murray Wallace at Millwall, Ryan Porteous at Hibs, even David Bates at Hamburg, should be called up to train with the squad, and if they aren’t good enough then they don’t play, simple.

Get Tom Cairney in the squad, get Ryan Jack in since McDonald is out. John Fleck has been  Sheffield Uniteds main man for two seasons.

Can Cadden cover at right back? Is it too much to have a look at Jason Naismith who’s playing every week for Peterborough?

We’re down to the bare bones and I’m starting to worry that the players don’t want to play for the manager.

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2 hours ago, PASTA Mick said:

Scotland squad update:

OUT: Charlie Mulgrew, Kevin McDonald & Stephen O'Donnell. 

Blessings in disguise in my view. Both don't look good enough for international football. Hopefully forces McLeish into a more cohesive side built around moving the ball around quickly, like Strachan nailed in 2017

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4 hours ago, DOUBLE A said:

Gordon out

Bates, Bain, Jack and McTominey called up

OK. This inclusion makes me suspect that Cairney either doesn't want to play for us or we just aren't selected him. McTominay has only come back from injury a couple of weeks ago; Cairney about four weeks. 

I'm usually an eternal optimist when it comes to Scotland, but I'm starting to get embarrassed for us. I'm beginning to see the big picture, and I'm afraid to say that we're now in a place that we'll never recover from. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Is anyone else feeling this or is it just me?

 

 

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9 hours ago, Chripper said:

OK. This inclusion makes me suspect that Cairney either doesn't want to play for us or we just aren't selected him. McTominay has only come back from injury a couple of weeks ago; Cairney about four weeks. 

I'm usually an eternal optimist when it comes to Scotland, but I'm starting to get embarrassed for us. I'm beginning to see the big picture, and I'm afraid to say that we're now in a place that we'll never recover from. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Is anyone else feeling this or is it just me?

 

 

I’m not sure how the second paragraph relates to the first. 

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10 hours ago, Chripper said:

OK. This inclusion makes me suspect that Cairney either doesn't want to play for us or we just aren't selected him. McTominay has only come back from injury a couple of weeks ago; Cairney about four weeks. 

I'm usually an eternal optimist when it comes to Scotland, but I'm starting to get embarrassed for us. I'm beginning to see the big picture, and I'm afraid to say that we're now in a place that we'll never recover from. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Is anyone else feeling this or is it just me?

 

 

Just you.

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10 hours ago, Chripper said:

OK. This inclusion makes me suspect that Cairney either doesn't want to play for us or we just aren't selected him. McTominay has only come back from injury a couple of weeks ago; Cairney about four weeks. 

I'm usually an eternal optimist when it comes to Scotland, but I'm starting to get embarrassed for us. I'm beginning to see the big picture, and I'm afraid to say that we're now in a place that we'll never recover from. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Is anyone else feeling this or is it just me?

 

 

Cairney is completely overrated on here - he didn't stand out at all when he played for us and has generally looked out his depth in the EPL this season (albeit playing in a poor side doesn't help).

 

A classic case of absence makes the heart grow fonder.

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12 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

Re Cairney: we can discount the waiting on england nonsense as southgate has showed no interest. I would guess he is struggling for match fitness aftera lengthy lay-off.

 

He's been playing the last few weeks, starting for Fulham.

Lack of fitness is definitely not a reason.

 

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3 hours ago, er yir macaroon said:

I’m not sure how the second paragraph relates to the first. 

It doesn't. By "usually" I meant not yesterday and certainly not today.

3 hours ago, adamntg said:

Just you.

Seriously? So you do see light at the end of the tunnel? Explain why.

2 hours ago, Hercules Rockefeller said:

Cairney is completely overrated on here - he didn't stand out at all when he played for us and has generally looked out his depth in the EPL this season (albeit playing in a poor side doesn't help).

 

A classic case of absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Is he head-and-shoulders above what we already have in midfield? Probably not head-and-shoulders, but certainly head. He's captaining an EPL team. Fine, I generally think that the EPL is vastly overrated, but it is a top league. Unless McGregor, McGinn, etc, prove themselves in top leagues then I think we ought to doubt their ability.

I'm not saying that Cairney is a top player, but if Fulham do go down (they will) he'll probably get bought by a mid-table EPL club.

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1 hour ago, Chripper said:

It doesn't. By "usually" I meant not yesterday and certainly not today.

Seriously? So you do see light at the end of the tunnel? Explain why.

Is he head-and-shoulders above what we already have in midfield? Probably not head-and-shoulders, but certainly head. He's captaining an EPL team. Fine, I generally think that the EPL is vastly overrated, but it is a top league. Unless McGregor, McGinn, etc, prove themselves in top leagues then I think we ought to doubt their ability.

I'm not saying that Cairney is a top player, but if Fulham do go down (they will) he'll probably get bought by a mid-table EPL club.

Cairney plays for the team at the bottom of the league, having spent almost his entire career in the championship. If he was so definitely good enough for the top division, why hasn't anyone signed him before now?

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Cairney's an odd one.  I personally think he's a very good player but can he fit our system - somehow I doubt it.  The role he has at Fulham, as a playmaker with little or no defensive responsibilities works only if you surround him with ball winners and runners and trust him to create at least 3 or 4 chances a game.  He's shown, albeit in limited appearances, no sign of doing that in a Scotland jersey and it would be a hell of a gamble to try it in 2 must win games.

These are going to be blood and guts games and we're going to have to dig deep to get results.  Maybe Cairney's time will come but I don't think it's now.

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2 minutes ago, wee-toon-red said:

Cairney plays for the team at the bottom of the league, having spent almost his entire career in the championship. If he was so definitely good enough for the top division, why hasn't anyone signed him before now?

That argument doesn't hold up.

I think it's the common consensus that the English Championship is akin to the SPL, so that's like saying if Callum McGregor is so good why hasn't anyone bought him? Griffiths hasn't played in any of the top 5 leagues, nor has the vast majority of our players.

The majority of our players are Championship/midtable EPL level, Cairney is no different.

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31 minutes ago, Chripper said:

That argument doesn't hold up.

I think it's the common consensus that the English Championship is akin to the SPL, so that's like saying if Callum McGregor is so good why hasn't anyone bought him? Griffiths hasn't played in any of the top 5 leagues, nor has the vast majority of our players.

The majority of our players are Championship/midtable EPL level, Cairney is no different.

I’m countering your point that cairney has some kind of appeal to epl teams, which he clearly doesn’t otherwise he’d have been there before now.

Is he better than Armstrong or mcgregor, who are really his competition for the attacking midfield place? Not sure we’ve seen any great evidence to suggest that he is.

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33 minutes ago, Chripper said:

That argument doesn't hold up.

I think it's the common consensus that the English Championship is akin to the SPL, so that's like saying if Callum McGregor is so good why hasn't anyone bought him? Griffiths hasn't played in any of the top 5 leagues, nor has the vast majority of our players.

The majority of our players are Championship/midtable EPL level, Cairney is no different.

Callum McGregor is a better player than Cairney.

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6 minutes ago, wee-toon-red said:

I’m countering your point that cairney has some kind of appeal to epl teams, which he clearly doesn’t otherwise he’d have been there before now.

Is he better than Armstrong or mcgregor, who are really his competition for the attacking midfield place? Not sure we’ve seen any great evidence to suggest that he is.

No, I'd say all of our midfielders are in the same bracket.

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I have no idea how to rank Cairney against our other midfielders, but I do know that only a couple of months ago he was getting rave reviews for his excellent form in the EPL, then sadly he got injured. He may not be interested in us, though that hasn't been reported by anyone, including himself. He may not be as good as our other options, though it's hard to tell right now. I'd love to see him hit his best form and fitness and join the Scotland squad. We need lads fighting for places, not just walking into them because there are no other options.

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On 11/10/2018 at 1:34 AM, Scotty CTA said:

It's spelled phonetically.

People say 'Zander' and not 'Ander' as the 'x' has already gone with 'Alex'.

Alex-(z)-ander

The 'lazy z' comes from where the 'x' and the 'a' meet.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway is Mulgrew healthy?

Would like top see McKenna and Devlin (for mostly selfish bias reasons).

Which is why Xavier is pronounced Zavier and presumably why Sandy has been a diminutive of Alexander. I guess Zander sounds trendiest and cooler than Alex or Sandy.

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