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Which midfielder don't you start?


mrniaboc

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2 hours ago, mrniaboc said:

Then put Tierney at left CB so that's the left side solid. Have McKenna as the other CB and whoever at RB with McTominay covering them. Griffiths up top. Now we're cooking! 

I really like the idea of Mctominay covering the right hand side, our left hand side already has our other two top players so should look after it's self.

Griffiths is over rated though and would sooner have Fletcher, McBurnie or even Paterson( if I didn't have him at right back } up front

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On 8/11/2019 at 2:44 AM, mrniaboc said:

McGregor
Forrest
Christie

These three chuckle-heads just lost in a match against a Romanian side. (And Scott Brown)

And yet, for some reason that I have absolutely no comprehension of, people think our midfielders are good.

People are mocking me for suggesting that Andy Robertson (or Tierney) play in the anchorman position. At least these two are actual football players, as opposed to frauds that can only do it against free transfers.

Edited by The_Dark_Knight
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8 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

we get it, you don't rate the scottish players except maybe 2 or 3. 

You don't have to repeat this every ten minutes

You chose your day well to mock me.

8 hours ago, Tartan_McCole said:

Ach, it's the lesser of two evils. It's either this or every thread on the forum turning into a discussion on Andy Robertson being anchorman.

...And you, too.

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2 hours ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

These three chuckle-heads just lost in a match against a Romanian side. (And Scott Brown)

And yet, for some reason that I have absolutely no comprehension of, people think our midfielders are good.

People are mocking me for suggesting that Andy Robertson (or Tierney) play in the anchorman position. At least these two are actual football players, as opposed to frauds that can only do it against free transfers.

Well, they also won us the Nations League, guaranteeing us our first playoff in almost 20 years. Football's funny like that. 

Also, I find it funny that of the 11 men in the starting lineup tonight, you're singling out for criticism two of the players who actually scored. Forrest and Christie held up their end just fine. 

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27 minutes ago, mrniaboc said:

Well, they also won us the Nations League, guaranteeing us our first playoff in almost 20 years. Football's funny like that. 

Also, I find it funny that of the 11 men in the starting lineup tonight, you're singling out for criticism two of the players who actually scored. Forrest and Christie held up their end just fine. 

What, against the 64th team in the world and the 84th team in the world? (Although I'm sure Israel were in the 100's when they beat is) The gods themselves do tremble...

And you can't say that, "our first play off in almost twenty years", as the Nations League is new. If the Nations League were a thing for the past twenty years we'd regularly get a play off spot via that method.

Regardless, we'll lose the play off.

Did you watch the match? Cluj were the better team. Cluj were also the better team in the first leg. 

Our midfield is so bad that I'm advocating one of our left backs to play in midfield. People can mock that notion all they like, but the simple fact is that I called the result today. Why? Because I looked at Celtic's midfield.

Edited by The_Dark_Knight
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10 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

What, against the 64th team in the world and the 84th team in the world? (Although I'm sure Israel were in the 100's when they beat is) The gods themselves do tremble...

And you can't say that, "our first play off in almost twenty years", as the Nations League is new. If the Nations League were a thing for the past twenty years we'd regularly get a play off spot via that method.

Regardless, we'll lose the play off.

Did you watch the match? Cluj were the better team. Cluj were also the better team in the first leg. 

Our midfield is so bad that I'm advocating one of our left backs to play in midfield. People can mock that notion all they like, but the simple fact is that I called the result today. Why? Because I looked at Celtic's midfield.

Celtic's attacking midfielders scored and created goals. Their defence conceded more goals. That means the attacking midfielders aren't any good? I don't follow. 

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1 hour ago, mrniaboc said:

Celtic's attacking midfielders scored and created goals. Their defence conceded more goals. That means the attacking midfielders aren't any good? I don't follow. 

In football you defend from the front. The second line of defence is the midfield, the very fact that Christie, McGregor and Forrest got bitch-slapped by mighty Cluj is a clear sign that they are average players. Did those three play well throughout the two legs? No.

I don't really care who scored what, the simple fact that a tiny Romanian team is able to comprehensively knock out a team that has five Scots in their lineup. That, to me, is alarming.

You know, a person can be a realist without being a hater. And you can get all semantic about this all you like, fact is that Scotland don't have many good football players. 

And trust me on this, Christie, McGregor, Forrest, Bain, etc, are average football players. Last night was an indicator of that. How you can somehow justify their performance and protect them is baffling.

The scary thing is that they're the best we have.

You can defend them all you like. Chances are that in our next three matches Russia will steamroller our midfield twice and Belgium once.

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55 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

In football you defend from the front. The second line of defence is the midfield, the very fact that Christie, McGregor and Forrest got bitch-slapped by mighty Cluj is a clear sign that they are average players. Did those three play well throughout the two legs? No.

I don't really care who scored what, the simple fact that a tiny Romanian team is able to comprehensively knock out a team that has five Scots in their lineup. That, to me, is alarming.

You know, a person can be a realist without being a hater. And you can get all semantic about this all you like, fact is that Scotland don't have many good football players. 

And trust me on this, Christie, McGregor, Forrest, Bain, etc, are average football players. Last night was an indicator of that. How you can somehow justify their performance and protect them is baffling.

The scary thing is that they're the best we have.

You can defend them all you like. Chances are that in our next three matches Russia will steamroller our midfield twice and Belgium once.

Tbf last night's result doesn't reflect well on Celtics Scottish midfielders but lots of good players have off nights and Celtics defence were terrible coupled with Scott brown giving away a daft pen. What I don't understand is your logic regarding McGregor and Christie etc being average. Yes in the grand scheme of things they are average but are they any worse than Iceland or northern Irelands midfielders. The answer is no, but those countries seem to get results and go to tournaments. We have to make the best with what we have and you seem unable to grasp the difference in levels when talking about players who are good and average. For a country our size we will always have to rely on average professional journeymen but hopefully we can have a few genuine stars who will help us punch above our weight when well managed. For example when discussing spl footballers I may say that Cosgrove is a good striker or Stevie Mallan is a good midfielder but that doesn't mean I think Cosgrove or Mallan are able to play for man United or Tottenham. Everything has to be taken into context and guys like McGregor, Armstrong or Christie are always going to be mainstays of our squad and even team. Anyways I think you should look at the positives for once and that is we have mcginn and mctominay who can play centre midfield. Those two at least look like they can be top players in the epl and both are relatively young as well. So it's not all doom and gloom. What we need is a few more genuine class players who can cut it at epl level especially at centre back.

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7 hours ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

You chose your day well to mock me.

...And you, too.

It's not the points you make I have an issue with, it's your tiresome need to repeat it in every single thread you appear in therefore ruining any discussion by turning it into the chripper show again.

I think everyone is aware our squad has failings, you dont need to repeat them everyday.

 

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1 hour ago, mccaughey85 said:

Tbf last night's result doesn't reflect well on Celtics Scottish midfielders but lots of good players have off nights and Celtics defence were terrible coupled with Scott brown giving away a daft pen. What I don't understand is your logic regarding McGregor and Christie etc being average. Yes in the grand scheme of things they are average but are they any worse than Iceland or northern Irelands midfielders. The answer is no, but those countries seem to get results and go to tournaments. We have to make the best with what we have and you seem unable to grasp the difference in levels when talking about players who are good and average. For a country our size we will always have to rely on average professional journeymen but hopefully we can have a few genuine stars who will help us punch above our weight when well managed. For example when discussing spl footballers I may say that Cosgrove is a good striker or Stevie Mallan is a good midfielder but that doesn't mean I think Cosgrove or Mallan are able to play for man United or Tottenham. Everything has to be taken into context and guys like McGregor, Armstrong or Christie are always going to be mainstays of our squad and even team. Anyways I think you should look at the positives for once and that is we have mcginn and mctominay who can play centre midfield. Those two at least look like they can be top players in the epl and both are relatively young as well. So it's not all doom and gloom. What we need is a few more genuine class players who can cut it at epl level especially at centre back.

Excellent post but dont expect the tambs most arrogant poster to take any of that in. 

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7 hours ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

In football you defend from the front. The second line of defence is the midfield, the very fact that Christie, McGregor and Forrest got bitch-slapped by mighty Cluj is a clear sign that they are average players. Did those three play well throughout the two legs? No.

I don't really care who scored what, the simple fact that a tiny Romanian team is able to comprehensively knock out a team that has five Scots in their lineup. That, to me, is alarming.

You know, a person can be a realist without being a hater. And you can get all semantic about this all you like, fact is that Scotland don't have many good football players. 

And trust me on this, Christie, McGregor, Forrest, Bain, etc, are average football players. Last night was an indicator of that. How you can somehow justify their performance and protect them is baffling.

The scary thing is that they're the best we have.

You can defend them all you like. Chances are that in our next three matches Russia will steamroller our midfield twice and Belgium once.

Forrest and Christie scored and created goals in both legs, which is their main job, and McGregor was played out of position. 

Interestingly major football clubs like Leicester City and Zenit St Petersburg value these guys a lot more than you do, but what do they know right? They're only professional organisations whereas you're someone on the internet. 

PS: The only thing that makes me angrier than Celtic winning in Europe is Celtic losing in Europe. I love football. 

 

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10 hours ago, mrniaboc said:

Celtic's attacking midfielders scored and created goals. Their defence conceded more goals. That means the attacking midfielders aren't any good? I don't follow. 

It is a bit strange to slag those 3 off, considering they either assisted or scored last night. If you want to blame Scottish players for the result then Bain and Brown are your men.

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44 minutes ago, Tartan_McCole said:

It is a bit strange to slag those 3 off, considering they either assisted or scored last night. If you want to blame Scottish players for the result then Bain and Brown are your men.

100% 

The Dark Knight goes on about Celtic being “bitch slapped” by Cluj.... but from what I saw, they were only bitch slapped by their own defensive and goalkeeping frailties, on top of the tactical naivety of a manager out of his depth at that level! What Brown did was inexplicable, and Bain’s pathetic attempt to save the penalty and his poor palm away for the third show that he lacks the quality for top European or International football.

Attacking wise they created plenty and scored a few great goals, with those three midfielders heavily involved in all of them. 

Porto were knocked out by Krasnodar last night and Ajax were pushed all the way.....would you call their players just average??

Edited by SWMM82
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9 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Tbf last night's result doesn't reflect well on Celtics Scottish midfielders but lots of good players have off nights and Celtics defence were terrible coupled with Scott brown giving away a daft pen. What I don't understand is your logic regarding McGregor and Christie etc being average. Yes in the grand scheme of things they are average but are they any worse than Iceland or northern Irelands midfielders. The answer is no, but those countries seem to get results and go to tournaments. We have to make the best with what we have and you seem unable to grasp the difference in levels when talking about players who are good and average. For a country our size we will always have to rely on average professional journeymen but hopefully we can have a few genuine stars who will help us punch above our weight when well managed. For example when discussing spl footballers I may say that Cosgrove is a good striker or Stevie Mallan is a good midfielder but that doesn't mean I think Cosgrove or Mallan are able to play for man United or Tottenham. Everything has to be taken into context and guys like McGregor, Armstrong or Christie are always going to be mainstays of our squad and even team. Anyways I think you should look at the positives for once and that is we have mcginn and mctominay who can play centre midfield. Those two at least look like they can be top players in the epl and both are relatively young as well. So it's not all doom and gloom. What we need is a few more genuine class players who can cut it at epl level especially at centre back.

You lost me at "For a country our size we will always have to rely on average professional journeymen". We're larger than Croatia and yet they seem to produce players who play with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus.

I think that makes a mockery of a couple of our players being linked with Zenit or Leicester.

In their previous competitive match Croatia boasted four players from the Bundesliga, one from La Liga, one from Serie A and one from the EPL. Whereas In our previous match we had three players from the Championship, four from the SPL, one from the MLS and three from the EPL And Armstrong and Burke can't even manage a first team spot.

The SFA and the powers that be are happy with keeping to the status quo, as they're happiest when don't have to do stuff and think thoughts and put those thoughts into action.

There has to be a logical reason why a country of four million can produce very good and world class players and we can't. People talk about money. Last time I looked the streets of Croatia weren't paved with gold.

Sadly, though, it also seems that the fans are satisfied with how things are. I mean, deliberating about who should start in midfield. It's cringe-worthy to me. The names being mentioned would barely make my squad. I would trust Robertson, Fraser and Tierney in midfield over any mixture of McLean, McDonald, Armstrong, McGregor, McGinn, etc.

There should be change in Scottish football. From root-to-branch, Scottish football should be restructured. Our clubs aren't producing good players, our leagues are as technical and tactical based as a pub league and our clubs discover a new way to humiliate themselves in Europe in a yearly routine.

And yet people are be liberating about who should play, McGinn or McGregor.... Good luck with that.

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13 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

And yet people are happy to be deliberating about who should play, McGinn or McGregor.... Good luck with that.

*Edit

We're distracted by the media, on a daily basis. Telling us that x player is good and y player is doing this. But not once have they told us that things could and should be better... Because apparently people have to told everything these days.

Football is our main sport and yet a chunk of our international play either in the English Championship or the SPL.

This, to me, is unacceptable.

And yet certain people here will make it about me. Whilst I'm flattering that people think I wield such power, I'm afraid I have no powers within the corridors of Scottish football.

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7 hours ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

*Edit

We're distracted by the media, on a daily basis. Telling us that x player is good and y player is doing this. But not once have they told us that things could and should be better... Because apparently people have to told everything these days.

Football is our main sport and yet a chunk of our international play either in the English Championship or the SPL.

This, to me, is unacceptable.

And yet certain people here will make it about me. Whilst I'm flattering that people think I wield such power, I'm afraid I have no powers within the corridors of Scottish football.

Fkin hell - you are either at the wind-up or you've completely lost it!  :lol: 

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11 hours ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

You lost me at "For a country our size we will always have to rely on average professional journeymen". We're larger than Croatia and yet they seem to produce players who play with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus.

I think that makes a mockery of a couple of our players being linked with Zenit or Leicester.

In their previous competitive match Croatia boasted four players from the Bundesliga, one from La Liga, one from Serie A and one from the EPL. Whereas In our previous match we had three players from the Championship, four from the SPL, one from the MLS and three from the EPL And Armstrong and Burke can't even manage a first team spot.

The SFA and the powers that be are happy with keeping to the status quo, as they're happiest when don't have to do stuff and think thoughts and put those thoughts into action.

There has to be a logical reason why a country of four million can produce very good and world class players and we can't. People talk about money. Last time I looked the streets of Croatia weren't paved with gold.

Sadly, though, it also seems that the fans are satisfied with how things are. I mean, deliberating about who should start in midfield. It's cringe-worthy to me. The names being mentioned would barely make my squad. I would trust Robertson, Fraser and Tierney in midfield over any mixture of McLean, McDonald, Armstrong, McGregor, McGinn, etc.

There should be change in Scottish football. From root-to-branch, Scottish football should be restructured. Our clubs aren't producing good players, our leagues are as technical and tactical based as a pub league and our clubs discover a new way to humiliate themselves in Europe in a yearly routine.

And yet people are be liberating about who should play, McGinn or McGregor.... Good luck with that.

Croatia and one or two other countries are the exception to the rule. The vast majority of small countries our size don't produce a full team of top players that play in top leagues that's just a fact. We should in the near future be able to field a team that has 5 or 6 epl players with four of those being top 6 players and then the rest would be made up of Celtic players and English championship players. Personally I want to see us produce a few more guys who play in the epl or for Celtic or rangers to be doing well in Europe with Scottish players but at the end of the day we are very very small country in the grand scheme of things and yes football is our main sport but at the end of the day that can only take you so far, there has to be a large enough population to pick from for a country to have a team or squad of top players. Can you name 6 or 7 countries with a population of less than ten million that produce a squad/team of top class players in top leagues. I certainly couldn't. I think Uruguay is the only other I can think of the top of my head.

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Just a thought - why do we take so much pride in domestically based players being in the squad?

If we look at similar sized countries (population) who hugely outperform us internationally: Croatia, Belgium, Sweden as example. How many of their 1st choice squad still play domestically? Very few.

Our squads usually consist of half a dozen Celtic players, and nowadays 2/3 Kilmarnock and 2/3 Aberdeen players, with the odd outlier from Hibs or something. These players form is assessed when their teams do shite against average teams in Europe and well against below average (shite) domestic teams.

Not saying that's gospel, but If you paint it out like that. Why would you consider NOT having English PL players as the first names on the team sheet who ply their trade against the best of the best every week? Back to the midfield debate that leaves us with McTominay, Armstrong, Fraser then we work backwards from there surely?

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Think it a curse of having clubs the size of Rangers and Celtic in our league, that most Scottish players can make a  decent living if they end up there that they dont have to challenge themself to go to a bigger league.

Players from  countrys like Croatia,Sweden and Romania have to leave if there going to make a decent living from football.

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1 hour ago, N4Footsoldier said:

Just a thought - why do we take so much pride in domestically based players being in the squad?

If we look at similar sized countries (population) who hugely outperform us internationally: Croatia, Belgium, Sweden as example. How many of their 1st choice squad still play domestically? Very few.

Our squads usually consist of half a dozen Celtic players, and nowadays 2/3 Kilmarnock and 2/3 Aberdeen players, with the odd outlier from Hibs or something. These players form is assessed when their teams do shite against average teams in Europe and well against below average (shite) domestic teams.

Not saying that's gospel, but If you paint it out like that. Why would you consider NOT having English PL players as the first names on the team sheet who ply their trade against the best of the best every week? Back to the midfield debate that leaves us with McTominay, Armstrong, Fraser then we work backwards from there surely?

Kenny  Mclean is more than likely in my starting eleven. 

Perhaps it could be expanded to include players with EPL experience which brings Phillips in to replace Forrest.

But Forrest does look awfully good domestically, but then so do McGregor and Christie even Griffiths when he gets the odd start.

Said it before, it is very easy to put together at team with out SPL players that is no worse than one with them

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46 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Kenny  Mclean is more than likely in my starting eleven. 

Perhaps it could be expanded to include players with EPL experience which brings Phillips in to replace Forrest.

But Forrest does look awfully good domestically, but then so do McGregor and Christie even Griffiths when he gets the odd start.

Said it before, it is very easy to put together at team with out SPL players that is no worse than one with them

Worth remembering that our best spell in recent years was when we filled the team with Celtic players.

Ok, Gordon isn't playing now, Brown isn't an option and Amstrong and Tierney have moved on but I don't think it's as simple as picking players just because they play in England. 

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4 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said:

Worth remembering that our best spell in recent years was when we filled the team with Celtic players.

Ok, Gordon isn't playing now, Brown isn't an option and Amstrong and Tierney have moved on but I don't think it's as simple as picking players just because they play in England. 

Unfortunately, this guy thought it was ....

Image result for gordon strachan angry

Edited by ErsatzThistle
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2 hours ago, N4Footsoldier said:

Just a thought - why do we take so much pride in domestically based players being in the squad?

If we look at similar sized countries (population) who hugely outperform us internationally: Croatia, Belgium, Sweden as example. How many of their 1st choice squad still play domestically? Very few.

Our squads usually consist of half a dozen Celtic players, and nowadays 2/3 Kilmarnock and 2/3 Aberdeen players, with the odd outlier from Hibs or something. These players form is assessed when their teams do shite against average teams in Europe and well against below average (shite) domestic teams.

Not saying that's gospel, but If you paint it out like that. Why would you consider NOT having English PL players as the first names on the team sheet who ply their trade against the best of the best every week? Back to the midfield debate that leaves us with McTominay, Armstrong, Fraser then we work backwards from there surely?

If John McGinn reads this and sees Armstrong's name on this list, but not his own, he'll be very sad. 

Sadder than that time Stevie Thompson chucked a spear at him. 

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34 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said:

Worth remembering that our best spell in recent years was when we filled the team with Celtic players.

Ok, Gordon isn't playing now, Brown isn't an option and Amstrong and Tierney have moved on but I don't think it's as simple as picking players just because they play in England. 

At a time when celtic were in the CL and confidence was high. 

That doesn't mean.we do the same again, pick who's best at this time. If that's all england based players so be it. We won't care if the team performs

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44 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

At a time when celtic were in the CL and confidence was high. 

That doesn't mean.we do the same again, pick who's best at this time. If that's all england based players so be it. We won't care if the team performs

I agree. I want the best XI.

IMO, McGregor, Christie, Forrest and Griffiths are all good enough to be starting for us. 

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