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What is our best starting 11?


Rohan

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7 hours ago, er yir macaroon said:

At a time of crisis this team is physically too weak. We need to ditch the two wingers tactic and put in players who will contest the ball, close down space and all the other boring stuff. We need to get in teams faces carve out two or three chances per game and hope we take one. It’s the sad reality for the moment. We need to prioritise what we’re doing when we don’t have the ball. 

Yeah if you look ROI starting 11 today they are solid through the middle with not much flair and they get the job done most of the time. Problem is do we have anyone to make us more solid in the middle and on the wings? 

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32 minutes ago, bigfingers said:

Yeah if you look ROI starting 11 today they are solid through the middle with not much flair and they get the job done most of the time. Problem is do we have anyone to make us more solid in the middle and on the wings? 

Armstrong or Paterson on the right. Christie or Middleton on the left. Middle three, McTominay, Tierney, McGinn, but one of the latter two could also go wide left to accommodate Jack in the middle, who is quite similar to Scott Brown. 

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20 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:

Armstrong or Paterson on the right. Christie or Middleton on the left. Middle three, McTominay, Tierney, McGinn, but one of the latter two could also go wide left to accommodate Jack in the middle, who is quite similar to Scott Brown. 

I think jack could be a shout with mctominay. Maybe mcginn further ahead. 

Shame Armstrong isn't playing much because he does have decent quality. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, bigfingers said:

Yeah if you look ROI starting 11 today they are solid through the middle with not much flair and they get the job done most of the time. Problem is do we have anyone to make us more solid in the middle and on the wings? 

Whilst getting a draw in Georgia would be an improvement for us I don’t think aspiring to be like the Republic of Ireland in their current form is very ambitious. 

Confidence seems to be our problem at the moment. Hopefully we’ll take a good few goals off San Marino tomorrow and if we can win our final 2 games we will hopefully gain some much needed confidence going into the playoff in March. 

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Guest ElChris04
15 hours ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

Had a rethink:

3-5-2

                              Marshall

               Souttar McKenna Tierney

   Phillips                                              Taylor

                            Robertson

             McGinn                    McTominay

              Griffiths                    McBurnie

---

With all the abuse Robertson is receiving i doubt anyone will mock the concept of "playing him out of position" now. Our best players (Robertson, Tierney, McTominay) have to be in the middle.

Bayern Munich and Germany fans thought Löw was off his head when he put Kimmich ( an attacking fullback ) at CDM. 
 

this might look ludicrous but honestly is it at this stage? Everything is worth trying and Robertson has proven to be a Liability, not all his fault of course. And Phillips at right Wing back could be worth the punt. I mean what other good right back do we have? Palmer and SOD are beyond tragic. I’m with you on trying something new.

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3 minutes ago, ElChris04 said:

Bayern Munich and Germany fans thought Löw was off his head when he put Kimmich ( an attacking fullback ) at CDM. 
 

this might look ludicrous but honestly is it at this stage? Everything is worth trying and Robertson has proven to be a Liability, not all his fault of course. And Phillips at right Wing back could be worth the punt. I mean what other good right back do we have? Palmer and SOD are beyond tragic. I’m with you on trying something new.

100% spot on, mate.

Edited by The_Dark_Knight
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All fit, available and playing regularly at club level,

..........................Gordon

Patterson...McKenna...Soutter...Robertson

..............McTormany...McGinn

.... Forrest.......Armstrong.... Fraser

......................Griffiths
 

Problem is, this looks extremely unlikely happening any time soon, but there is options to bring in guys like Bates, Cooper, Cairney (strange that after talking him up big time after getting the job, Clarke seems to have passed on him since then), McBurnie, Burke, McGregor etc and there is still the conundrum of where to fit in Tierney.

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I'm in two minds whether we should be experimenting or trying to get a settled team at this stage.   Clarke maybe has not had the luxury of that choice.

Most countries will have seen/used the nations league as friendlies, while it's become our Chance card.   So do we do something mad for these last games or what?

Then there is a big gap to the play-offs.   Any scope for a friendly in Feb?

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8 minutes ago, Grim Jim said:

I'm in two minds whether we should be experimenting or trying to get a settled team at this stage.   Clarke maybe has not had the luxury of that choice.

Most countries will have seen/used the nations league as friendlies, while it's become our Chance card.   So do we do something mad for these last games or what?

Then there is a big gap to the play-offs.   Any scope for a friendly in Feb?

Officially we can play a friendly any day of the year (except Champions League final day), problem is these would be unsanctioned by FIFA and thus clubs would not need to release players.

This is why you get fixtures in early Jan through to Feb with teams like Moldova v Slovakia or Finland v Estonia, only thing is these are basically league select players, rather than full strength squads (so if we were to do it we would be relying on the kindness of the clubs to give us players, but ultimately end up with a Z-team full of players who under normal circumstances, would be nowhere near the first team).

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Hard one and it obviously depends on the circumstances and opposition to an extent. But we need to start a little thinking outside the box, so to speak as we are we are a little short in certain positions. 
3/5/2

                 Marshall

Gallagher/Souttar.  Hacklett.  Tierney/Mackenna                

Fraser/O Donnell                                 Robertson

Mctominey/McGinn, Lamie, Magregor/Armstrong

      Naismith/Russell R.Stewart/ Dykes(if we get him)

Not so sure about the right-wing back position, there maybe someone more suitable, I don’t have an extensive knowledge of all the players eligible for Scotland. A team with some surprising additions, but I bet you it would function as a team, which isn’t happening at the moment. 
And I’d make Hacklett the captain, he’s a shouter and an organiser. 

Edited by RabS
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16 minutes ago, RabS said:

Hard one and it obviously depends on the circumstances and opposition to an extent. But we need to start a little thinking outside the box, so to speak as we are we are a little short in certain positions. 
3/5/2

                 Marshall

Gallagher/Souttar.  Hacklett.  Tierney/Mackenna                

Fraser/O Donnell                                 Robertson

Mctominey/McGinn, Lamie, Magregor/Armstrong

      Naismith/Russell R.Stewart/ Dykes(if we get him)

Not so sure about the right-wing back position, there maybe someone more suitable, I don’t have an extensive knowledge of all the players eligible for Scotland. A team with some surprising additions, but I bet you it would function as a team, which isn’t happening at the moment. 
And I’d make Hacklett the captain, he’s a shouter and an organiser. 

 

Recently there does seem to be a few more people coming round to the idea of a 3/5 man defence. People thought that Steve Clarke would come in, wave a magic wand, and get them organized at this level. He's a manager, not a magician.

It's been fairly obvious (to me) for a very long time that our defenders cannot cope playing at such a high level in a back four.

As you said, it's time to think outside the box, and stick with it for at least two qualification campaigns.

Edited by The_Dark_Knight
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I’m a Livingston man 3/5/2 was our CIS cup team formation. That was 2004. I’m not hung up over formations, it depends on personnel. But what is the way to get our players functioning as a team. With people who can do the job. There are still a lot of people on this board advocating playing 1 up front, and then naming a striker who can’t do the job. As far as I can tell there are only 2 centre forwards capable Dykes if we can get him and Stewart of Ross County. Both are relatively young and in form. Don’t see anybody mentioning them in this board.

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5 minutes ago, RabS said:

I’m a Livingston man 3/5/2 was our CIS cup team formation. That was 2004. I’m not hung up over formations, it depends on personnel. But what is the way to get our players functioning as a team. With people who can do the job. There are still a lot of people on this board advocating playing 1 up front, and then naming a striker who can’t do the job. As far as I can tell there are only 2 centre forwards capable Dykes if we can get him and Stewart of Ross County. Both are relatively young and in form. Don’t see anybody mentioning them in this board.

Dykes has been mentioned. He came out and stated that the only way he'd play for Scotland is if Australian didn't call him up. In other words, he sees Scotland as a second choice.

Which is fair enough, he is Australian.

And as for the striking situation, I'd play two up front. My first choice would be Griffiths and McBurnie. For too long we've asked our sole striker to run around like a headless chicken, feeding on scraps.

Playing two would lighten the load and give our midfielders an extra outlet.

Edited by The_Dark_Knight
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The other advantage of 3/5/2 and disadvantage of 1 up front is it allows our Centre forwards (and midfield to an extent) to harass the opposition back line, force them to make quick decisions, force them to play passes quickly. That’s was one of the major failures against Russia. And that was Clarke’s fault. It was obvious that the players were instructed not to press the Russians in their own half. The Russians strolled up to the half way line playing passes at their leisure. Clarke didn’t even change it when we were 2 and 3 down. 2 centre forwards harassing opposition defenders in their own half, I bet we begin to lose less goals. And obviously look more dangerous in attack too. 

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5 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

Dykes has been mentioned. He came out and stated that the only way he'd play for Scotland is if Australian didn't call him up. In other words, he sees Scotland as a second choice.

Which is fair enough, he is Australian.

And as for the striking situation, I'd play two up front. My first choice would be Griffiths and McBurnie. For too long we've asked our sole striker to run around like a headless chicken, feeding on scraps.

Playing two would lighten the load and give our midfielders an extra outlet.

Macburnie doesn’t have the physical presence. I’d play Naismith or Russell, someone with a bit of cleverness to link up the attack and midfield and who can drop back and defend when necessary. Although it does depend on the opposition, against a San Marino, yeah maybe go with 2 out and out centre forwards. But then again maybe play a 433 or a 343 against such teams.

Edited by RabS
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1 minute ago, RabS said:

The other advantage of 3/5/2 and disadvantage of 1 up front is it allows our Centre forwards (and midfield to an extent) to harass the opposition back line, force them to make quick decisions, force them to play passes quickly. That’s was one of the major failures against Russia. And that was Clarke’s fault. It was obvious that the players were instructed not to press the Russians in their own half. The Russians strolled up to the half way line playing passes at their leisure. Clarke didn’t even change it when we were 2 and 3 down. 2 centre forwards harassing opposition defenders in their own half, I bet we begin to lose less goals. And obviously look more dangerous in attack too. 

Exactly!

Plus it would give our midfielders another target to hit, instead of aiming for a lone striker.

Defences have such an easy time against out one striker. It's been like that for far too long now, from Miller to Steven Fletcher, Naismith, Griffiths. 

I think Clarke is too set in his ways to do anything radical and progressive. So prepare to see another outing of 4-2-3-1 tomorrow.

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16 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

Exactly!

Plus it would give our midfielders another target to hit, instead of aiming for a lone striker.

Defences have such an easy time against out one striker. It's been like that for far too long now, from Miller to Steven Fletcher, Naismith, Griffiths. 

I think Clarke is too set in his ways to do anything radical and progressive. So prepare to see another outing of 4-2-3-1 tomorrow.

Yep and he is getting paid a decent wage but lacks imagination and a football brain. I put in Lamie from Livingston because I think he could do a Roy Aitken DMC job even though he usually plays CD sometime fullback, he would add some desperately needed steel/fight to the midfield, I don’t see anyone else at the moment. Just give him instructions to keep it simple, pass the ball to our better footballers, tackle, defend, patrol in front of our back line, shift across and cover if Tierney or Souttar push forward. But he is an unfashionable player from an unfashionable team.

Edited by RabS
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