Scotland v Moldova

[TDYER63]

5 hours ago, Squirrelhumper said:

Looking like a good crowd.

Apart from the south Upper, its looking pretty full.

Some of those red sections only have 1 single ticket available 

That has pleasantly surprised me after Wednesday night’s display , unless previous sales reports  were understated. We truly must be a nation of masochists right enough.

I hope people dont all turn up at the last minute with it being a Saturday night game. 

[bonzo]

6 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

Ones less likely to fall asleep at games dressed as a shortbread tin though. 

WIn/win. 

Mmmmmm shortbread, now I'm away for a snooze. 

[Caledonian Craig]

1 hour ago, Tartan blood said:

I'm not sure why you and so many others are so keen on playing 2 strikers. Our biggest problem on Wednesday and the Euros was the total disconnect between the midfield and the strikers. Playing 2 strikers isn't going to solve that. It just adds an extra player to be isolated.

1 striker is fine, if they can finish. We need more creativity in the midfield. Fraser was basically tasked with doing that by himself against Denmark, though he was pretty much playing as a striker anyway.

Get McGinn back in, keep Fraser in, and ideally another attacking midfielder like Christie or Turnbull, but I doubt that'll happen.

The side I posted is what I believe Clarke will start with not the side I want to see him start with.

[Third Lanark]

2 hours ago, Hercules Rockefeller said:

Wouldn't count on it, Clarke seems to rate SOD.

 

Time for Patterson to be our first choice right-back. None of this "you need international experience" nonsense please. Blooding promising youngsters has been a brilliant strategy for Wales and we need to start doing the same thing.

Quite. Patterson has aleady proved himself at a high level, despite not having played many games. 

[Tartan blood]

3 hours ago, Scot1 said:

Having an attacking outlet, threat on the right side from right/back or right/wingback would also make a big difference.

Yeah, I'd be happy for Fraser to play there, or give Patterson free reign to bomb forward. I'm an ally of O'Donnell, in general, but I'd prefer a more attack minded wing back for Moldova at least.

1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

The side I posted is what I believe Clarke will start with not the side I want to see him start with.

Apologies, it wasn't really aimed at you, your post was just the most recent I spotted that had 2 strikers. 

I'd honestly give Nisbet a go versus Moldova. As much as I like Adams and Dykes, they have both failed lately.

[Malcolm]

1 goalkeeper - Gordon

2 right back - Patterson 

3 left back - tierney

4 right half back - gilmour

5 centre half back - hanley

6 left half back - ferguson

7 right wing - fraser

8 inside right - nisbet

9 centre forward - adams

10 inside left - mcginn

11 left wing - Robertson 

 

would be my team

 

 

 

[Squirrelhumper]

[hamilton wanderer]

That looks like it’s over 40,000 now.

If we can get the results (a big if obviously) we need in the next few days then the Israel game (with a 5 pm Saturday kick off) could sell out!

[Guest Scot1]

Tweak to my team now I see McGinn is fit and available.

Patterson Hanley Cooper Robbo

      Ferguson Tierney

McGinn.    Gilmour.  Turnbull

                   Dykes

McGinn and Turnbull and to a lesser extent Gilmour can all rotate during the game. Could even start Fraser instead of Turnbull for a bit of pace.

[Squirrelhumper]

[weekevie04]

Not particularly looking forward to this. I'm sure once the game kicks off that will change, but we never do well in these games. 

Hopefully Clarke proves us wrong, and we put in a great performance. This is an ideal match for the likes of Gilmour, Robertson, Adams, Paterson etc can show us what they are about.

Have a feeling, it'll be a very unconvincing 2-0 win with Moldova having a few chances as well. 0-0 at half-time possibly. Don't rule out Moldova scoring either like Kazakhstan did to us at Hampden. 

 

[kumnio]

Regardless of everything else, let’s get a good win tonight. Cmon Scotland!!!

[thelonehutch]

Think we'll turn the style on tonight! Deserve a few breaks but let's hope they save them for Austria, that's the big one.

Cmon Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Caledonian Craig]

If you think we are struggling look at Ireland. 1-0 down at half-time at home to Azerbaijan. Unless they turn that around they will be pointless and bottom of their group after four games.

[todd]

Watching ROI v Azerbaijan just now, they're more or less already out of the world cup and currently losing to Azerbaijan but still the crowd are loud and getting behind their team! Could you imagine if we were in the same situation? It would be like a fuckin morgue.

[Caledonian Craig]

The team is....

[gkm_vancouver]

We have enough talent and options in the team to create chances and differentkinds of chences with the wing backs, midefield threat and a combination from the three main forwards that offer something different. That should be enough to win by a couple of goals. 

What I'd like to see is to bea bit more clinical in front of goal and a big improvement in set pieces. Being so lacklustre in set pieces in recent games has meant there is more pressure on the team to get open play goals. If we can threaten more from corners and free kicks then that should help getting better results.

[Tartan blood]

3 minutes ago, gkm_vancouver said:

We have enough talent and options in the team to create chances and differentkinds of chences with the wing backs, midefield threat and a combination from the three main forwards that offer something different. That should be enough to win by a couple of goals. 

What I'd like to see is to bea bit more clinical in front of goal and a big improvement in set pieces. Being so lacklustre in set pieces in recent games has meant there is more pressure on the team to get open play goals. If we can threaten more from corners and free kicks then that should help getting better results.

Great to see Nisbet starting. Denmark aside, a decent finisher is exactly what we've missed. This is his big chance to stake a claim in the starting 11.

[Guest Scot1]

Happy to see Patterson starting, and it’ll be interesting to see how Dykes and Nisbet combine. Would have liked to see us switch to a back 4 personally. But it’s an attacking looking side, with threats from all areas of the pitch, which is good to see.

[Tartan blood]

4 minutes ago, Scot1 said:

Happy to see Patterson starting, and it’ll be interesting to see how Dykes and Nisbet combine. Would have liked to see us switch to a back 4 personally. But it’s an attacking looking side, with threats from all areas of the pitch, which is good to see.

Formation isn't always that important, it's the personnel. Plenty of attacking players, so back 5 is kind of irrelevant if it isn't defensive minded players. Both Hendry and Tierney can get forward.

[er yir macaroon]

I don’t like the formation but the personnel should be up to the job. Nice to see Christie in midfield where his energy might lift the tempo. 

[Guest Scot1]

8 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

Formation isn't always that important, it's the personnel. Plenty of attacking players, so back 5 is kind of irrelevant if it isn't defensive minded players. Both Hendry and Tierney can get forward.

I’d have preferred 1 less centre back and another midfielder, Lewis Ferguson for example. Someone who has a bit of aggression, can tackle, win the ball back, track runners. But overall I’m happy with the team but it’s still my opinion that Clark still hasn’t worked out what the best, most balanced midfield is. 

[Third Lanark]

29 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

Great to see Nisbet starting. Denmark aside, a decent finisher is exactly what we've missed. This is his big chance to stake a claim in the starting 11.

Well we can no longer say that Clarke is too conservative. The number of people who were convinced SOD would start...but must say a bit surprised that Nisbet gets the nod over Adams.

[Tartan blood]

17 minutes ago, Scot1 said:

I’d have preferred 1 less centre back and another midfielder, Lewis Ferguson for example. Someone who has a bit of aggression, can tackle, win the ball back, track runners. But overall I’m happy with the team but it’s still my opinion that Clark still hasn’t worked out what the best, most balanced midfield is. 

The midfield has been a conundrum for a long time. You're right, it never has the right balance of defence, holding, and attack. Against Denmark, it was 3 holding midfielders. Not attacking enough, or defensive enough.

7 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

Well we can no longer say that Clarke is too conservative. The number of people who were convinced SOD would start...but must say a bit surprised that Nisbet gets the nod over Adams.

One thing I actually agree with Clarke is that it's better to have a consistent system that everyone knows exactly how to play. If he switches it, it should be a long term switch. So I don't mind a 532, as long as the players are right. Tonight looks pretty good. (Famous last words)

[Guest Scot1]

Hopefully the addition of Patterson alone will give us another dimension offensively without losing any defensive stability. It’ll hopefully make a big difference having an outlet on each flank.

Edited September 4, 2021 by Scot1