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Caledonian Craig

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A really great thing about this campaign is when we have had injuries or suspensions ruling key players out their replacements have stepped in and done a great job. I am thinking of Cooper and Souttar last night and other emerging talent really does make it very competitive to get into our squad at present. It means that long-term squad and fringe players are gradually being phased out for better options. The only areas that may not be the case is in goal and the strikers.

Right-back/right wing-back: Patterson, Ralston, O'Donnell and maybe competition looming large from Ramsay.

Left-back/ left wing-back: Robertson, Tierney and emerging talents such as Hickey and Doig.

Centre-backs: Hanley, Hendry, Cooper, Tierney, Souttar, McKenna and McTominay with others on the fringes who have done a job in the past such as Gallagher and Considine plus Kerr Smith is emerging.

Midfield: McGinn, McGregor, Gilmour, McTominay, Armstrong and Jack.

Even the strikers are having a battle to be involved with Dykes and Adams the obvious starters but Christie did really well last night and has weighed in with big goals for us. With Brown now flung into the mix and Nisbet will Fraser be seen as expendable now for his strop.

It really is great to see we have a large pool of players who we know can be relied on to put in a good shift for us. Long may it continue and lets hope for more emerging talent to rise to prominence and keep the bandwagon gathering pace.

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I don’t think the goalkeeper situation is as much of a concern as it was. If Gordon gets injured or retires we have McLaughlin (who I reckon will be Rangers number 1 soon or he’ll move if the new manager doesn’t fancy him) or Zander Clark who is a decent keeper. Hopefully McCrorie will either break through at Ibrox or get a move.

Our striker situation isn’t as grim as it was a couple of years ago either. Ok so Dykes and Adams aren’t exactly Ronaldo but they have shown they can score goals for us. Jacob Brown could also prove a valuable find.

Things can change quickly in football and you just never know who will emerge on the next couple of years. 

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2 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

A really great thing about this campaign is when we have had injuries or suspensions ruling key players out their replacements have stepped in and done a great job. I am thinking of Cooper and Souttar last night and other emerging talent really does make it very competitive to get into our squad at present. It means that long-term squad and fringe players are gradually being phased out for better options. The only areas that may not be the case is in goal and the strikers.

Right-back/right wing-back: Patterson, Ralston, O'Donnell and maybe competition looming large from Ramsay.

Left-back/ left wing-back: Robertson, Tierney and emerging talents such as Hickey and Doig.

Centre-backs: Hanley, Hendry, Cooper, Tierney, Souttar, McKenna and McTominay with others on the fringes who have done a job in the past such as Gallagher and Considine plus Kerr Smith is emerging.

Midfield: McGinn, McGregor, Gilmour, McTominay, Armstrong and Jack.

Even the strikers are having a battle to be involved with Dykes and Adams the obvious starters but Christie did really well last night and has weighed in with big goals for us. With Brown now flung into the mix and Nisbet will Fraser be seen as expendable now for his strop.

It really is great to see we have a large pool of players who we know can be relied on to put in a good shift for us. Long may it continue and lets hope for more emerging talent to rise to prominence and keep the bandwagon gathering pace.

You've left Turnbull out of that list which is surprising; if, God forbid, McGinn is unavailable then he would seem to me to be the best option albeit he has different qualities to McGinn. Basically the same squad as I listed on another thread with the proviso that Considine really has been consigned to the past now.

Compare that to Clarke's first squad; virtually half of those have been consigned to history. Devlin? Findlay? Even Taylor.

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6 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

You've left Turnbull out of that list which is surprising; if, God forbid, McGinn is unavailable then he would seem to me to be the best option albeit he has different qualities to McGinn. Basically the same squad as I listed on another thread with the proviso that Considine really has been consigned to the past now.

Compare that to Clarke's first squad; virtually half of those have been consigned to history. Devlin? Findlay? Even Taylor.

There are many I could throw in there but at the moment Turnbull is yet to really break into the side with a dazzling performance but for sure he is another option. Others being talked about as options as well that I never mentioned being Ryan Gauld and Ross McCrorie.

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Probably a cycle too early but I think Lewis Ferguson and Turnbull will have big future for us. Dominic Hyam is another CH who could feature over the next few years although we seem to be pretty deep at Centre Half now which is crazy to think given the drought we had for a good 10 years. Doesn't seem like too long ago we were fielding Garry Kenneth against Zlatan!!

Throw in Dominic Hyam at West Ham into the emerging RB/RWB list. Sounds like he'll be featuring in the EPL before the season is out.

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13 hours ago, ghorne67 said:

Probably a cycle too early but I think Lewis Ferguson and Turnbull will have big future for us. Dominic Hyam is another CH who could feature over the next few years although we seem to be pretty deep at Centre Half now which is crazy to think given the drought we had for a good 10 years. Doesn't seem like too long ago we were fielding Garry Kenneth against Zlatan!!

Throw in Dominic Hyam at West Ham into the emerging RB/RWB list. Sounds like he'll be featuring in the EPL before the season is out.

Don’t think Lewis Ferguson will be good enough to be a starter for us 

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Think Clarke has a serious problem with the centre back situation...... Who does he leave out!!! Seriously, the lads who have stepped in as cover are playing just as well as the supposed first choice. Souttar was a late call up, I would be happy with him starting, same as Cooper. Both had a great understanding of each other. What a great situation🤣

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17 minutes ago, Bobby Russell's Lovechild said:

Think Clarke has a serious problem with the centre back situation...... Who does he leave out!!! Seriously, the lads who have stepped in as cover are playing just as well as the supposed first choice. Souttar was a late call up, I would be happy with him starting, same as Cooper. Both had a great understanding of each other. What a great situation🤣

It was only short time ago we had real problems in that area and things are suddenly looking a lot better. 

We just need a Ronaldo/Messi type quality striker to emerge from nowhere in the next few months and Andy Robertson will Be lifting the World Cup in a years time. 😂😂😂

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I think we need a bit of reAlism in this thread.  There are about four, maybe five players that are good enough to be considered top quality international level players, these being Mcginn, Robertson, tierney and gilmour, plus maybe Gordon.

every other position we have decent but not great options and I would gladly see better talent emerging.

 

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4 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

I think we need a bit of reAlism in this thread.  There are about four, maybe five players that are good enough to be considered top quality international level players, these being Mcginn, Robertson, tierney and gilmour, plus maybe Gordon.

every other position we have decent but not great options and I would gladly see better talent emerging.

 

We are never going to be in a position where we have 11 or more world class players. Would be fantastic if we did but realistically it’s not going to happen. 

As for realism, people are riding on a crest of a wave after one of our best match performances ever and certainly our best qualifying performance for 20 years. 

Feel free to continue to piss on everyone’s chips though if that’s your thing. 

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We are never going to be in a position where we have 11 or more world class players. Would be fantastic if we did but realistically it’s not going to happen. 

As for realism, people are riding on a crest of a wave after one of our best match performances ever and certainly our best qualifying performance for 20 years. 

Feel free to continue to piss on everyone’s chips though if that’s your thing. 

Lot of folk got carried away on our baw hair qualification for euros ; suspect some now just a bit more guarded

if we lost say gilmour and mcginn with injuries for play offs ; then we re left pretty exposed quality wise going forward

andy robertson really needs to work on his finishing ; he gets presented with loads of chances but typically fluffs it

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Just now, Auchinyell Sox Change said:

Lot of folk got carried away on our baw hair qualification for euros ; suspect some now just a bit more guarded

if we lost say gilmour and mcginn with injuries for play offs ; then we re left pretty exposed quality wise going forward

andy robertson really needs to work on his finishing ; he gets presented with loads of chances but typically fluffs it

Some people just prefer to moan and worry rather than celebrate when we actually do something worth celebrating. Nothing in particular wrong with that but why drag others down? There will no doubt be plenty to worry about in the near future. 

More often than not Robertson fires straight at the goalkeeper when through on goal. It’s weird because we know he can deliver great crosses and can score goals. His finish against Lithuania a few years ago was very good. 

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2 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

Some people just prefer to moan and worry rather than celebrate when we actually do something worth celebrating. Nothing in particular wrong with that but why drag others down? There will no doubt be plenty to worry about in the near future. 

More often than not Robertson fires straight at the goalkeeper when through on goal. It’s weird because we know he can deliver great crosses and can score goals. His finish against Lithuania a few years ago was very good. 

Got foot in both camps mate

i prefer this side to the much lauded 80s and early 90s mob ; as more open and exciting; less square passing etc

Aitken/mcleod/albiston/speedie/sharp crap

i was thinking robbo away to serbia : and czechs at euros ; think he had one at keeper v moldova ?

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10 hours ago, Auchinyell Sox Change said:

Lot of folk got carried away on our baw hair qualification for euros ; suspect some now just a bit more guarded

if we lost say gilmour and mcginn with injuries for play offs ; then we re left pretty exposed quality wise going forward

andy robertson really needs to work on his finishing ; he gets presented with loads of chances but typically fluffs it

I don't want to get drawn into a debate about the quality of our squad, but that is absolute nonsense. Gilmour wasn't even in the squad that qualified for the Euros. 

Regarding McGinn, yes, he is arguably our best player at the moment but we have a very exciting player in Turnbull that can take his place long term. But I'd happily see the likes of Armstrong, Christie, Fraser, Forrest all play there as well.

At various times in the past year we've been afflicted by injuries and it has hardly weakened the team at all. This is by far the best team we've had since the 90s (and possibly beyond). Part of the reason for that is because of the depth we have. The 2007 first 11 was fantastic, but if McFadden or Miller were injured, we really struggled. Not now.

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11 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

We are never going to be in a position where we have 11 or more world class players. Would be fantastic if we did but realistically it’s not going to happen. 

As for realism, people are riding on a crest of a wave after one of our best match performances ever and certainly our best qualifying performance for 20 years. 

Feel free to continue to piss on everyone’s chips though if that’s your thing. 


we have had zero world class players since Kenny dalglish.  This is the best squad we have had in twenty years I would say so guess we can be happy with that.

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Realism Malcolm? Lets get real.

In Craig Gordon we have a goalkeeper that certainly stands amongst the best five goalkeepers we have ever had.

In Andy Robertson he is our best left-back of all-time - not really one worth debating.

At right-back we have great potential breaking through in the form of Patterson. Certainly our best option down the right since Alan Hutton and I i think he can be even better than him.

Our central defenders may not match up to our past greats like Miller, Hendry, McLeish and such-like but they sure surpass recent options we had in that position proven by the amount of goals we concede now.

In midfield we have John McGinn who is by far the best midfielder we have had since the glory days of Souness et al. For me he has surpassed Souness as well. One of our best midfielders of all-time. Argue against it if you wish but the clues are glaring. He scores, he sets goals up, he wins the ball and links up superbly with others.

Midfield also has Billy Gilmour - a young talent who has a glittering future ahead of him. We have not had a player who looks so at ease on the ball with an eye for a pass for so long that I cannot think of another player we have had like him.

In attack we actually have options who have proven they have goals in them. Dykes and Adams have ten goals between them in 33 games. I cannot recall the last time we have had TWO potent strikers available to us at the same time. Different traits and qualities but both capable of scoring goals.

 

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