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What is our best starting 11?


Rohan

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7 minutes ago, RabS said:

 

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.

I like Steve Clarkd but if he doesn't rip up the failed blueprint if four at the back and try a five or a three then I just can't see anything changing.

We haven't had the center backs to play a four since the 80s. I'm not sure why no one can acknowledge that.

I advocate Robertson as an anchorman (If Austria and Germany can do it with Alaba and Kimmich I'm sure Robertson might be our version) but at this point I would be open to any suggestions.

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One of the most disappointing aspects of Scotland’s play for years now and under various managers (all on good money, but fail to understand the BASICS) is the inability of Scotland to move up and down the pitch as a team. Sort that, and it’s not difficult and half our problems disappear. Tell midfielders like McGinn for example, if you pick up the ball from a opposition attack that has broken down, look and see if the counter attack is on, if we have 1 centre forwards in the opposition half surrounded by 3 or 4 opposition players, it’s not on. Play across and / or back and allow the TEAM to move up the pitch. It’s the BASICS of how a team functions. No more kamikaze runs were against  numerous opposition players where you lose the ball and don’t allow the TEAM to move up the park. Contrary to popular belief, we have the football players to do this.

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12 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

I like Steve Clarkd but if he doesn't rip up the failed blueprint if four at the back and try a five or a three then I just can't see anything changing.

We haven't had the center backs to play a four since the 80s. I'm not sure why no one can acknowledge that.

I advocate Robertson as an anchorman (If Austria and Germany can do it with Alaba and Kimmich I'm sure Robertson might be our version) but at this point I would be open to any suggestions.

I’d leave Robertson as left wing back, we need someone with more physicality, stronger/ harder in the challenge, tackle, more defensive minded. Someone who can take and give a hit. If teams are gonna score against it should cost them. That’s why Lamie is in my team as DMC he is a hard lad, strong, tall at set pieces, corners, will give you 110% every game, run through brick walls, no nonsense, will launch the ball up the pitch or out if no available pass and can play well enough for the role.

Edited by RabS
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I'd start with a 5311 against better sides than us then adapt it to a 3511 when attacking, with Christie playing off the striker. It would be great if Tierney could operate at rb or at least tried there in a friendly. As for Forrest,  he looked good coming in from the right and playing off the forward but out wide he looks below average. Are we wishing too much from him? Every player right now in the squad is replaceable including Robertson

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9 minutes ago, Rohan said:

I'd start with a 5311 against better sides than us then adapt it to a 3511 when attacking, with Christie playing off the striker. It would be great if Tierney could operate at rb or at least tried there in a friendly. As for Forrest,  he looked good coming in from the right and playing off the forward but out wide he looks below average. Are we wishing too much from him? Every player right now in the squad is replaceable including Robertson

I forgot about Christie, he could play the Naismith, Russell role. It another option. 

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22 minutes ago, RabS said:

I’d leave Robertson as left wing back, we need someone with more physicality, stronger/ harder in the challenge, tackle, more defensive minded. Someone who can take and give a hit. If teams are gonna score against it should cost them. That’s why Lamie is in my team as DMC he is a hard lad, strong, tall at set pieces, corners, will give you 110% every game, run through brick walls, no nonsense, will launch the ball up the pitch or out if no available pass and can play well enough for the role.

I wouldn't say no to anything, to be honest, as long as we ditch the four. You're a Livi fan so you see Lami enough to judge him good enough. I'd accept that. The reason I would play Robertson in the middle because a match is won and lost in the middle. Robertson is I'm fairly taking pelters because the players in the middle and in front of him just aren't producing.

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33 minutes ago, RabS said:

One of the most disappointing aspects of Scotland’s play for years now and under various managers (all on good money, but fail to understand the BASICS) is the inability of Scotland to move up and down the pitch as a team. Sort that, and it’s not difficult and half our problems disappear. Tell midfielders like McGinn for example, if you pick up the ball from a opposition attack that has broken down, look and see if the counter attack is on, if we have 1 centre forwards in the opposition half surrounded by 3 or 4 opposition players, it’s not on. Play across and / or back and allow the TEAM to move up the pitch. It’s the BASICS of how a team functions. No more kamikaze runs were against  numerous opposition players where you lose the ball and don’t allow the TEAM to move up the park. Contrary to popular belief, we have the football players to do this.

100% agree.

It's every single time Roberson got the ball, he had no runners and intelligent movement in front of him. It happens way too much. The turnover of possession is unsustainable and it's unforgivable from players that people laud as being "good". 

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4 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

I wouldn't say no to anything, to be honest, as long as we ditch the four. You're a Livi fan so you see Lami enough to judge him good enough. I'd accept that. The reason I would play Robertson in the middle because a match is won and lost in the middle. Robertson is I'm fairly taking pelters because the players in the middle and in front of him just aren't producing.

I don’t think Robertson has the aggressiveness, physicality we want in there. Lamie also has decent pace, mobility. Not great pace, but decent enough pace, mobility for the role. He would add that fight, steel in the midfield that we are missing, I don’t believe Robertson could give it. I’d also take away the captaincy from Robertson and give it to Havklett, if available he is a shouter and organiser, he will tell others his mind on the pitch.

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33 minutes ago, Rohan said:

I'd start with a 5311 against better sides than us then adapt it to a 3511 when attacking, with Christie playing off the striker. It would be great if Tierney could operate at rb or at least tried there in a friendly. As for Forrest,  he looked good coming in from the right and playing off the forward but out wide he looks below average. Are we wishing too much from him? Every player right now in the squad is replaceable including Robertson

I'd be up for that. And yeah, I think so... It's my opinion that both Forrest and Fraser are best when they have freedom to roam. If they're stuck out on the wing they get disengaged and they suffer because of the lack of service.

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Just now, RabS said:

I don’t think Robertson has the aggressiveness, physicality we want in there. Lamie also has decent pace, mobility. Not great pace, but decent enough pace, mobility for the role. He would add that fight, steel in the midfield that we are missing, I don’t believe Robertson could give it. I’d also take away the captaincy from Robertson and give it to Havklett, if available he is a shouter and organiser, he will tell others his mind on the pitch.

If you think )Lami is good enough then i'd try him. One thing that I do like about Robertson is his mobility and his energy. A central midfield three of Robertson, McGinn and McTominay wouldn't lack for energy.

Yeah. Is Halkett even in the squad? I saw him a lot last season and was impressed. M

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8 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

100% agree.

It's every single time Roberson got the ball, he had no runners and intelligent movement in front of him. It happens way too much. The turnover of possession is unsustainable and it's unforgivable from players that people laud as being "good". 

It’s probably the main reason we’re so bad, on people who don’t understand the game just say “ we don’t have any decent centre halves or we have bad defenders etc” but our midfield and their Kamikaze runs don’t allow our back line, TEAM to push up the park because, as you say, the turn over in possession is ridiculous. Again it’s Clarke’s job to have firstly  noticed this and rectify it by having a word with the midfielders. If the counter attack isn’t on, go sideways, backwards keep possession and move up the field as a team, like any other normal functioning team. When our defence is on the halfway line, begin to construct attacks and try to stay in the opposition half, it’s the BASICS of football.

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8 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

If you think )Lami is good enough then i'd try him. One thing that I do like about Robertson is his mobility and his energy. A central midfield three of Robertson, McGinn and McTominay wouldn't lack for energy.

Yeah. Is Halkett even in the squad? I saw him a lot last season and was impressed. M

You can never be certain until you try him. But I think he has the qualities for what we need, we need a fighter/battler, Lamie is that and he is a decent enough footballer. I just don’t think Robertson can give us that.

Hacklett just picked up a knee injury, out until January I think. He is a good defender and an organiser, not got great pace, but in a back 3 you shouldn’t be getting exposed 1-1 with a speedy CF too often.

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Phillips sounds worth a try, but it’s a position where no one has really jump out at me for the role. But I don’t see an awful lot of football. Is there a good Scottish right back that could do it. Just keep it simple, defend, run up the wing and cross the ball. Robertson would have more leeway on the other side, you could give him licence to cut inside, play 1,2’s at the opposition box etc.

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14 minutes ago, RabS said:

It’s probably the main reason we’re so bad, on people who don’t understand the game just say “ we don’t have any decent centre halves or we have bad defenders etc” but our midfield and their Kamikaze runs don’t allow our back line, TEAM to push up the park because, as you say, the turn over in possession is ridiculous. Again it’s Clarke’s job to have firstly  noticed this and rectify it by having a word with the midfielders. If the counter-attack isn’t on, go sideways, backwards keep possession and move up the field as a team, like any other normal functioning team. When our defence is on the halfway line, begin to construct attacks and try to stay in the opposition half, it’s the BASICS of football.

Definitely. And don't even get me started on the idiotic double-pivot of anchormen. People say that we should play with two anchormen in front of the two centre-backs, but people don't realize that that's actually doubling-down on the problem. Because not only do we have two centre-backs who are out of their depth at international level but we're also playing two central midfielders as defensive midfielders. It's suicide. Look at Man United, they're playing Pogba and McTominay as anchormen.. You can see how that is working.

Agreed. Clarke might say that he only has a limited amount of time with the players, but this is 2019, you can impart tactics via tablets and whatnot. That's what American football players do, they literally have to memorize a tactic book the size of a dictionary.

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3 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

Definitely. And don't even get me started on the idiotic double-pivot of anchormen. People say that we should play with two anchormen in front of the two centre-backs, but people don't realize that that's actually doubling-down on the problem. Because not only do we have two centre-backs who are out of their depth at international level but we're also playing two central midfielders as defensive midfielders. It's suicide. Look at Man United, they're playing Pogba and McTominay as anchormen.. You can see how that is working.

Agreed. Clarke might say that he only has a limited amount of time with the players, but this is 2019, you can impart tactics via tablets and whatnot. That's what American football players do, they literally have to memorize a tactic book the size of a dictionary.

In my opinion Mctominey is a box to box midfielder, like McGinn. Those 2 should be competing for the same position. With Macgregor being the “passer” of the three and Lamie being the “animal” 😉

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18 minutes ago, RabS said:

 

You can never be certain until you try him. But I think he has the qualities for what we need, we need a fighter/battler, Lamie is that and he is a decent enough footballer. I just don’t think Robertson can give us that.

Hacklett just picked up a knee injury, out until January I think. He is a good defender and an organiser, not got great pace, but in a back 3 you shouldn’t be getting exposed 1-1 with a speedy CF too often.

I'd be all for both being given a chance.

I just want the manager to try something different. I genuinely thought Clarke would've played with a three for the Russia match, as he did make some pre-match comments about being open-minded with regards to different formations. 

I've been calling for a system change ever since I began posting here. I've faced nothing but resistance. Some people in this place seem to think our team will explode if we differ from a back four. It's not ideal, in a perfect world we'd have two classy central defenders and we'd play with a back four... But it's far from a perfect world.

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1 minute ago, RabS said:

In my opinion Mctominey is a box to box midfielder, like McGinn. Those 2 should be competing for the same position. With Macgregor being the “passer” of the three and Lamie being the “animal” 😉

Spot on. I feel sorry for McTominay. He's being played out of position for club and country.

God know what the lad did in a previous life to deserve this...

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As you said earlier, it’s not just the back 3 it’s also having 2 up front and a midfield 3. Most teams play 3 in the middle now. We can’t get overrun in the midfield. Plus most of our better players are midfielders. But the 2 up top is also very important for options, attack and defence. Although depending on opposition, situation, 1 of the 2 should drift between midfield and attack. 

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4 minutes ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

Spot on. I feel sorry for McTominay. He's being played out of position for club and country.

God know what the lad did in a previous life to deserve this...

The same thing happened with Darren Fletcher, to me he was a natural box to box midfielder but ended up playing in a holding role which just took away half his game. 

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8 hours ago, RabS said:

In my opinion Mctominey is a box to box midfielder, like McGinn. Those 2 should be competing for the same position. With Macgregor being the “passer” of the three and Lamie being the “animal” 😉

McTominay and McGinn should play together, dovetailing each other as box to box midfielders. They are quite simply our best Midfielders and can both do a bit of everything very well. Against better opposition McGregor is just a passenger he offers nothing that we need. Fine against San Marino or Cyprus etc we need creative players in there to break teams down, but against better sides we need players who are ball winners in there who can play in quick transitions and go box to box with one man behind them anchoring. McGinn and McTominay would be my central two every single game, with Fleck coming in as an anchor against better sides and McGregor or Christie coming in against sides we need to break down. 

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On 10/12/2019 at 2:35 AM, 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.

Think you're forgetting that McTom is right-footed and McGinn left. In fact, we have far too many left-footers to give us a good balance: McGinn, McLean, Fleck, McGregor, Christie for starters.

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