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gkm_vancouver

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2 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Carthorses. 🤣

I wish we had a few of them "carthorses" now. 🤣

Any one of Aitkin, Miller, McLeish Narey and even Hansen, who was never that great in a Scotland shirt, would walk straight into our team right now.

Look, I did say "compared to.." All were great defenders - in their right positions.

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6 hours ago, Third Lanark said:

Thoroughly deplore the idea of converting centre halves into midfield, albeit as defensive ones. I'm old enough to remember Jock Stein playing 2 - yes, 2 - centre halves  (McLeish and Roy Aitken) in a middle four with Strachan on the right and I forget who on the left. Needless to say, it was a complete failure, with absolutely zero creativity in the middle. That was  a rare occasion though when we were short of real midfielders at the time.

I can vaguely remember that but a quick check through the archives and all I can find is one of the games in the tour of Canada in 1983, must be some other game though  

TBF, at the start of his career, Aitken alternated between CB and DM and it was only later that he tended to play at CB for Celtic but DM for Scotland.  I don’t mean this disparagingly but I don’t think Aitken was capped primarily for his footballing ability but for his other attributes.

Mind you, nothing comes close to Craig Brown playing 5 centre backs in Brussels.

 

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4 minutes ago, aaid said:

I can vaguely remember that but a quick check through the archives and all I can find is one of the games in the tour of Canada in 1983, must be some other game though  

TBF, at the start of his career, Aitken alternated between CB and DM and it was only later that he tended to play at CB for Celtic but DM for Scotland.  I don’t mean this disparagingly but I don’t think Aitken was capped primarily for his footballing ability but for his other attributes.

Mind you, nothing comes close to Craig Brown playing 5 centre backs in Brussels.

 

http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Seas1970-80/1979-80/M0542Sco1980.html

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4 hours ago, Toepoke said:

Injuries apart he was almost ever present for his entire career!

 

There were fewer internationals in those days, hence players who played then generally have fewer caps that their modern counterparts.

Scotland will have played 15 games this calendar year, in 1992, when we also played in a Euros final, we played 11.

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15 minutes ago, aaid said:

I can vaguely remember that but a quick check through the archives and all I can find is one of the games in the tour of Canada in 1983, must be some other game though  

TBF, at the start of his career, Aitken alternated between CB and DM and it was only later that he tended to play at CB for Celtic but DM for Scotland.  I don’t mean this disparagingly but I don’t think Aitken was capped primarily for his footballing ability but for his other attributes.

Mind you, nothing comes close to Craig Brown playing 5 centre backs in Brussels.

 

In a must-win game too.  🤦‍♂️

Roy Aitken is slightly before my time but watching old re-runs of Scotland games from the 80s I was left baffled that he won so many caps.  However, if he was actually a centre-half playing out of position that it explains it!

6 hours ago, Scot1 said:

Not suggesting we throw him right in as CDM, but maybe that’s the best way forward for him. Not sure how far he can go as a centre half. 
At international level, I’d have Souttar in front of him, possibly Welsh, and there are younger centre backs coming through. Hendry is still relatively young. His National caps as a centre halve maybe very few. 
This may well be the case at club level, I’m not sure he has the physicality to play Centre Halve any higher than the English Championship 

I wouldn't have said physicality is an issue for Porteous.  On the contrary, if he could tone down the physicality a notch or two it might actually help his career!

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3 minutes ago, scotlad said:

In a must-win game too.  🤦‍♂️

Roy Aitken is slightly before my time but watching old re-runs of Scotland games from the 80s I was left baffled that he won so many caps.  However, if he was actually a centre-half playing out of position that it explains it!

I wouldn't have said physicality is an issue for Porteous.  On the contrary, if he could tone down the physicality a notch or two it might actually help his career!

If he was to move to England, he’d be an average to small centre halve, with probably average pace to decent pace. Lots of bigger, more athletic defenders than him down there. That’s what I was getting at

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27 minutes ago, scotlad said:

In a must-win game too.  🤦‍♂️

Roy Aitken is slightly before my time but watching old re-runs of Scotland games from the 80s I was left baffled that he won so many caps.  However, if he was actually a centre-half playing out of position that it explains it!

I wouldn't have said physicality is an issue for Porteous.  On the contrary, if he could tone down the physicality a notch or two it might actually help his career!

There were certainly more skilful players than Aitken but what he had in spades was guts, determination and leadership. 

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14 minutes ago, Scot1 said:

If he was to move to England, he’d be an average to small centre halve, with probably average pace to decent pace. Lots of bigger, more athletic defenders than him down there. That’s what I was getting at

He's the same height as Liam Cooper, who plays every week for Leeds, and a similar height as Ruben Diaz, John Stones, Conor Coady, Raphael Varane, Andreas Christensen and probably many more.

Granted, they'll doubtless have attributes that Porteous doesn't - which is why they're EPL regulars and he's currently at Hibs! - but I still don't think physical stature is an issue for him.

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2 minutes ago, aaid said:

There were certainly more skilful players than Aitken but what he had in spades was guts, determination and leadership. 

That was quite evident, to be fair to him!  

No doubt that's how he got his nickname 'the bear'.

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Apart from the result yesterday, what has me more optimistic is the depth we have in our pool of players, there were a lot of “certain starters” missing and yet those who came in looked more than capable even better in some aspects,, then you have those not called up, gauld, russell, jack, along with a few others. They would not look out of place and in other years would have been in the mix. We are in a good place 👍

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On 11/15/2021 at 6:24 PM, aaid said:

I can vaguely remember that but a quick check through the archives and all I can find is one of the games in the tour of Canada in 1983, must be some other game though  

TBF, at the start of his career, Aitken alternated between CB and DM and it was only later that he tended to play at CB for Celtic but DM for Scotland.  I don’t mean this disparagingly but I don’t think Aitken was capped primarily for his footballing ability but for his other attributes.

Mind you, nothing comes close to Craig Brown playing 5 centre backs in Brussels.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Aitken played more games in midfield than he did in defence? Could be wrong though. 

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38 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

I wouldn't be surprised if Aitken played more games in midfield than he did in defence? Could be wrong though. 

Well he got 57 caps when our regular centre backs were Miller, McLeish, Hansen and Gough with the likes of Hegarty, Narey, Evans and Gillespie getting a significant number of caps as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/28/2021 at 9:32 PM, gkm_vancouver said:

Looks like the Welsh media are just as interested in the venue/ticket allocation, not to mention seeking revenge on the 77 and 85 campaigns...😏

 

Interesting interview. Robert Page comes over well and is pretty good at handling the media.
When he talks about Wales's recent record in big tournaments and their record in home games (in front of sell-out crowds), I'm beginning to think that a daunting task awaits Austria, and potentially us.  But still, a mouthwatering prospect if we can get past Ukraine (not gonna be easy) and Wales beat Austria (not a foregone conclusion).
 

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On 12/2/2021 at 11:26 AM, mcguffin said:

Interesting interview. Robert Page comes over well and is pretty good at handling the media.
When he talks about Wales's recent record in big tournaments and their record in home games (in front of sell-out crowds), I'm beginning to think that a daunting task awaits Austria, and potentially us.  But still, a mouthwatering prospect if we can get past Ukraine (not gonna be easy) and Wales beat Austria (not a foregone conclusion).
 

Page does come across well with the press despite a few of them stoking things up about the old campaigns and the venue. They have done well in recent years so are a bit ahead of us in that respect so if we both manage to get through the semi, it will be an interesting to see if Clarke can get the tactics right - they do seem to pull wins out of the bag unexpectedly.

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7 hours ago, gkm_vancouver said:

Page does come across well with the press despite a few of them stoking things up about the old campaigns and the venue. They have done well in recent years so are a bit ahead of us in that respect so if we both manage to get through the semi, it will be an interesting to see if Clarke can get the tactics right - they do seem to pull wins out of the bag unexpectedly.

Good points. I agree.

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