Scotland v Israel - build up and thread

[Jim Beem]

Fortunately/Unfortunatley Ill be at Tannadice. 👍

[Bino's]

1 hour ago, Texas Pete said:

In fairness he was never getting on against Albania so I can’t really blame him. 

In fairness if Allan McGregor got injured or does tonight he would have played

 

[romanticscot]

Same line up as Saturday. 

[Texas Pete]

19 hours ago, Bino's said:

In fairness if Allan McGregor got injured or does tonight he would have played

 

Not when McLeish agreed to release him. Gordon would have played. 

I suppose he took a calculated risk based on the chances of both Gordon and McGregor getting injured (which one of them did). 

[weekevie04]

Lots to be positive about last night, a little to be worried about ; but mostly lots to be happy about.

This was a big game. A lot has been made of the media not knowing how big a game it was, but most journalists media outlets I followed before the game certainly were talking up the chances of winning the group and a playoff spot. Also, our past struggles in double headers e.g beating Albania (a) and Israel is a much harder task than Lithuania followed by Malta.

The lack of pressing for their two goals (and McGregor's position for Kayal's strike ; although he did make up for it with that huge save from Tomed at the end) was a worry. Right back also looks an issue, Paterson most certainly is not the answer and he does not play there for his club even if he did for Hertz ; too often too sloppy when he did have the ball, out of position, lazy/slow and Israel and Albania made lots of their attacking runs down that side.

Bates who I have not seen much of at all, certainly looked very solid in both games. Valuable experience for him and a good understudy to have for a hectic qualifying campaign.

Christie and Forrest were brilliant in both games. Christie's wee touch for Forrest's second goal was wonderful. Another player, another time would have over/under hit the flick through. We have players like those two, McGregor, Armstrong also know where the goal is - so we do look dangerous from the areas Israel scored from.

Make no bones about it, last night was a HUGE result.

We have secured ourselves an insurance Playoff - two games away from the Euros (one will be at Hampden too ),  so we can go in to the Euro qualifying hopefully with some of the gallus we had in these two games and try to take the game to teams like we have just played ; we also managed to stay in Pot 3 (we all know how hard it gets once you slip in to Pot 4) ; we won and won under pressure - whilst Albania was not a must-win, we need two excellent results to progress and we did.

Yes, there is some work to be done in a few areas ; but there are lots of positives from the last few games and whilst I was underwhelmed by the appointment, maybe the calloffs/injuries will turn out to be making of the management team. I really hope a lot of the dubious call offs are only returned to the squad via a late call up and not automatically included in the first squad.