Scotland squad.

[Big Ramy 1314]

1 hour ago, PASTA Mick said:

I'd have Hanley at Celtic. 

I'd have Danny McGrain back at Celtic...

[Caledonian Craig]

I am not sure where this Hanley love-in is coming from. His appearances were in Scotland sides that leaked goals with him at the heart of defence. At present the defence has been shored up with the likes of Cooper, Considine, Gallagher and Tierney all showing they can do a job there. Perhaps its that old confused mentality? Where if you play in the EPL even for 10 seconds you are elevated into a better player. Sorry but football does not work like that.

[er yir macaroon]

14 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I am not sure where this Hanley love-in is coming from. His appearances were in Scotland sides that leaked goals with him at the heart of defence. At present the defence has been shored up with the likes of Cooper, Considine, Gallagher and Tierney all showing they can do a job there. Perhaps its that old confused mentality? Where if you play in the EPL even for 10 seconds you are elevated into a better player. Sorry but football does not work like that.

I’m not sure where the hate-in is coming from either. We’ve shipped goals with umpteen different defenders. He was a young man back then. 

He’s probably a £5M player nowadays. Not a world beater but I’m glad he’s an option when fit. 

Edited November 10, 2020 by er yir macaroon

[Caledonian Craig]

Just now, er yir macaroon said:

I’m not sure where the hate-i. is coming from either. We’ve shipped goals with umpteen different defenders. He was a young man back then. 

He’s probably a £5M player nowadays. Not a world beater but I’m glad he’s an option when fit. 

Yes another option but in the last few games we have been solid at the back so why the craving to bring in a player who played in a defence that leaked goals at the expense of players who have served us very well in the past few games. I fail to see the logic in that.

[Kirk]

47 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Yes another option but in the last few games we have been solid at the back so why the craving to bring in a player who played in a defence that leaked goals at the expense of players who have served us very well in the past few games. I fail to see the logic in that.

Because it's good to have decent options in the squad, no doubt there will be coronavirus and injuries to contend with. By your logic we would be as well just getting in a few of the juniors that arent playing this season as cover since they havent lost any goals for us?

[Big Ramy 1314]

When do our Warriors arrive in Serbia tae give them a right good fuckin Scottish doin?? Cunts... Intae them...🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Third Lanark]

1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Yes another option but in the last few games we have been solid at the back so why the craving to bring in a player who played in a defence that leaked goals at the expense of players who have served us very well in the past few games. I fail to see the logic in that.

Well, maybe because he is an experienced RIGHT-sided defender - and we are quite short of those.

[PASTA Mick]

2 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I am not sure where this Hanley love-in is coming from. His appearances were in Scotland sides that leaked goals with him at the heart of defence. At present the defence has been shored up with the likes of Cooper, Considine, Gallagher and Tierney all showing they can do a job there. Perhaps its that old confused mentality? Where if you play in the EPL even for 10 seconds you are elevated into a better player. Sorry but football does not work like that.

He made his debut when he was 20, which is pretty young for a centre-back.

He did play in some bad results (but so did a lot of other players).  He also played when we won 1-0 in Croatia, and again when we beat them 2-0 at home.

I think it's very unfair to put any significant blame on him for any of the poor results we had whilst he was playing.  

And he's not played 10 seconds in the EPL.  He's been at 3 different clubs in the EPL and been a regular for two of them.  In my opinion, he is a better player than Cooper, Gallagher, McKenna and Considine.  

[Caledonian Craig]

55 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said:

He made his debut when he was 20, which is pretty young for a centre-back.

He did play in some bad results (but so did a lot of other players).  He also played when we won 1-0 in Croatia, and again when we beat them 2-0 at home.

I think it's very unfair to put any significant blame on him for any of the poor results we had whilst he was playing.  

And he's not played 10 seconds in the EPL.  He's been at 3 different clubs in the EPL and been a regular for two of them.  In my opinion, he is a better player than Cooper, Gallagher, McKenna and Considine.  

You are missing my point here - everyone is.

I have no qualms with him being in the squad. It is because some people are calling for him to go into the side (or that is how I read it) at a time when the defence has been solid and settled whereas Hanley's previous games for us he never sparkled. Why should it mean he elbows others out of the way, others who have excelled by the way, on the basis he has EPL experience.

[PASTA Mick]

6 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

You are missing my point here - everyone is.

I have no qualms with him being in the squad. It is because some people are calling for him to go into the side (or that is how I read it) at a time when the defence has been solid and settled whereas Hanley's previous games for us he never sparkled. Why should it mean he elbows others out of the way, others who have excelled by the way, on the basis he has EPL experience.

OK, I don't think I picked up on the point you were trying to make.

Nonetheless, we need to pick our best available XI, whatever that might be, regardless of who played last month.  I don't think you simply start with the defenders that did well last time because they did well last time.  Players missed out because of injury and covid.  If they improve the XI, they need to come in for this match.

It's up to Steve Clarke as to what that best XI is but in my opinion there are a good few that improve the team that weren't available last time. he Hanley argument is now redundant but the same logic applies. 

[Super_Scotlandfan]

Not looking like there will be replacements? When do they fly out?

[fringo]

39 minutes ago, Super_Scotlandfan said:

Not looking like there will be replacements? When do they fly out?

I would have thought they'd fly today ?

[Texas Pete]

15 minutes ago, fringo said:

I would have thought they'd fly today ?

They must be there already or at least in the air surely? If the SFA have done something stupid like flying out the day before our biggest match in years they should all be shot. 

[Big Ramy 1314]

7 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

They must be there already or at least in the air surely? If the SFA have done something stupid like flying out the day before our biggest match in years they should all be shot. 

In the head

[theabsentee]

6 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I am not sure where this Hanley love-in is coming from. His appearances were in Scotland sides that leaked goals with him at the heart of defence. At present the defence has been shored up with the likes of Cooper, Considine, Gallagher and Tierney all showing they can do a job there. Perhaps its that old confused mentality? Where if you play in the EPL even for 10 seconds you are elevated into a better player. Sorry but football does not work like that.

Hanley has made nearly 50 epl appearances, hardly a few seconds. Our defence has been shored up by a combination of good coaching & playing average opposition. I wouldn't have thought Hanley had that pleasure while winning most of his caps. He is far from perfect but he is at his best in a battle against a physical opponent. That's why he is highly respected defender in the championship . He is also a ex team mate of Mitrovic so will have first hand experience of the borderline bullying tactics he uses to wind up his opponents so that's why i think Clarke might have felt for this particular game he was the best fit.

  Anyway we'll never know now so I'll not mention him again which will no doubt please a few cynics on here😉

    

 

[Caledonian Craig]

14 minutes ago, theabsentee said:

Hanley has made nearly 50 epl appearances, hardly a few seconds. Our defence has been shored up by a combination of good coaching & playing average opposition. I wouldn't have thought Hanley had that pleasure while winning most of his caps. He is far from perfect but he is at his best in a battle against a physical opponent. That's why he is highly respected defender in the championship . He is also a ex team mate of Mitrovic so will have first hand experience of the borderline bullying tactics he uses to wind up his opponents so that's why i think Clarke might have felt for this particular game he was the best fit.

  Anyway we'll never know now so I'll not mention him again which will no doubt please a few cynics on here😉

    

 

Nah I am generally chilled out about him. It is just the way people on here are talking our defence is leaking goals left right and centre and that just could not be further from the truth. The lads in possession of the shirts have earnt the right to keep their places in the side (for now). Obviously, that may change in coming weeks and months and Hanley will get his chance then if that happens. In short - if it ain't broke why try to fix it?

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Caledonian Craig

[mccaughey85]

20 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Nah I am generally chilled out about him. It is just the way people on here are talking our defence is leaking goals left right and centre and that just could not be further from the truth. The lads in possession of the shirts have earnt the right to keep their places in the side (for now). Obviously, that may change in coming weeks and months and Hanley will get his chance then if that happens. In short - if it ain't broke why try to fix it?

 

Yeh thats fair enough and I agree with that but alot of ppl seem to think we suddenly have good centre backs and Hanley is somehow worse than gallagher, Considine etc. Clarke has implemented the 352 system really well and it's turned us into a reasonably solid unit.

If we suffer lots of injuries then I don't see why Hanley shouldn't get a chance to prove himself under Clarke in the new system. Hanley always turned up and gave his all and it was when we were an absolute shambles of team where very few players came out with any credit. 

Anyways regardless the guy is out injured which will greatly reduce his chances of going to the euros should we qualify so we probably won't see him start a game for a while at least. 

[ErsatzThistle]

7 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Yeh thats fair enough and I agree with that but alot of ppl seem to think we suddenly have good centre backs and Hanley is somehow worse than gallagher, Considine etc. Clarke has implemented the 352 system really well and it's turned us into a reasonably solid unit.

If we suffer lots of injuries then I don't see why Hanley shouldn't get a chance to prove himself under Clarke in the new system. Hanley always turned up and gave his all and it was when we were an absolute shambles of team where very few players came out with any credit. 

Anyways regardless the guy is out injured which will greatly reduce his chances of going to the euros should we qualify so we probably won't see him start a game for a while at least. 

I could name quite a few players from the Vogts era who to be fair to them "always turned up and gave it (their) all" but weren't any good on the pitch and had to be binned. 

[Tartan Chris]

Didn't realise Gallagher played in all three of the clean sheets last month.

Guess he's in pole position to start again if we assume Tierney and McTominay are locked in for the other two spots. Big call between Gally and Cooper.

And think the other two decisions will be who is the RWB and who will play as support to Dykes, Armstrong or Christie who can drop into midfield when out of possesion.

Rest of team picks itself.

[mccaughey85]

1 minute ago, ErsatzThistle said:

I could name quite a few players from the Vogts era who to be fair to them "always turned up and gave it (their) all" but weren't any good on the pitch and had to be binned. 

Yeh I ain't saying that he should be in the squad based on that. He's easily good enough for our squad based on the levels he's played at and suggesting he isn't based on performances when we were terrible under Levein is unfair. I have seen most of our players have terrible performances for club and country but now that Clarke is in charge and somehow making guys like gallagher and considine look good then surely Hanley should be given a chance under Clarke to show he can make a positive contribution like those guys. 

Infact how many of our current players who have played more than 20 caps get a positive report regarding their scotland careers.

Most have been average or poor imo. 

[mccaughey85]

6 minutes ago, Tartan Chris said:

Didn't realise Gallagher played in all three of the clean sheets last month.

Guess he's in pole position to start again if we assume Tierney and McTominay are locked in for the other two spots. Big call between Gally and Cooper.

And think the other two decisions will be who is the RWB and who will play as support to Dykes, Armstrong or Christie who can drop into midfield when out of possesion.

Rest of team picks itself.

Gallagher looked really good and he fired into challenges like a man possessed. I would be happy to see him start. 

[Bino's]

[0Neils40yarder]

5 hours ago, PASTA Mick said:

OK, I don't think I picked up on the point you were trying to make.

Nonetheless, we need to pick our best available XI, whatever that might be, regardless of who played last month.  I don't think you simply start with the defenders that did well last time because they did well last time.  Players missed out because of injury and covid.  If they improve the XI, they need to come in for this match.

It's up to Steve Clarke as to what that best XI is but in my opinion there are a good few that improve the team that weren't available last time. he Hanley argument is now redundant but the same logic applies. 

I listened to a bit of BBC Scotland earlier and someone actually mentioned the possibility of starting Considine over Tierney...I mean, c'mon tae fuck?

 

The very notion that we could have an EPL back three in Mctominay, Cooper and Tierney but actually line up with Mctominay, Gallagher and Considine is borderline insane.

 

I've always been of the belief that international football is all about picking the best players available and not picking players that done ok in the last game.

[0Neils40yarder]

3 minutes ago, Bino's said:

Fuckin hell

[Texas Pete]

5 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Gallagher looked really good and he fired into challenges like a man possessed. I would be happy to see him start. 

He certainly impressed me in the last few games and I have no doubt he would be playing for a bigger club than Motherwell (no disrespect intended) if his career wasn’t interrupted by his spell in prison.