1st 11 versus Ukraine - TA specific - Tartan Army Message Board Jump to content

1st 11 versus Ukraine


Malcolm

Recommended Posts

Okay, it’s a while away yet, but assuming everyone Is fit and in form… what’s your first 11?  Be tempted to go

 

                                        Gordon

patterson     Hendry       Hanley.    Tierney.      Robertson

                             Gilmour.           Mcgregor

                          Mctominay.           Mcginn

                                              Dykes

 

My questions would be…. Should I start dykes and Adams and drop a midfielder (Mctominay or McGregor).  Should souttar be in contention after his man of match display, or Cooper as he also played well.  Otherwise team picks itself I think.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Souttar is that good I would start the same team we did against Denmark with only the Paterson O'Donnell swap.

Don't think Hendry's that good and reckon Adams is better than Dykes. I probably over rate Christie but want some one playing off the striker.

A mistake free Hanley might be better than Cooper but there's no one in Norwich expecting 90 minutes of error free Hanley.

Back three might suit him better though, but I think it suits all central defenders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, aaid said:

Hopefully the opposition won’t have twigged that we’ve been playing 3-4-3 recently as people on this thread haven’t worked it out yet. 

🤣

343 is exactly the formation I'd go with in general, even if we hadn't been playing it lately. 

We always go on about our midfield being our strongest area, but the 352 basically meant we only played 3 midfielders and relied very heavily on McGinn to do most of the creativity. It vastly under-utilises one of our biggest strengths.

With 343, you choose one of Dykes or Adams. I wouldn't be uspet with either being the starter, but not both. Then McGinn and another attacking midfielder would get almost free reign to create. 

This my team:

                       Gordon

           Hendry Hanley Tierney

Patterson Gilmour McGregor Robbo

           McGinn Dykes Christie

 

I'd be fine with swapping McGregor with McTominay, and Dykes with Adams.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Actually it's a 3-4-2-1  unless you think we're Liverpool and and Christie and McGinn are Mane and Salah.

They were both well advanced against Denmark, a lot closer to 3-4-3 than 3-4-2-1.

Add to that that both Robertson and O’Donnell were much further advanced as well than they’d be in the latter formation. 

Edited by aaid
Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, aaid said:

They were both well advanced against Denmark, a lot closer to 3-4-3 than 3-4-2-1.

Add to that that both Robertson and O’Donnell were much further advanced as well than they’d be in the latter formation. 

Didn't think Christie and in particular McGinn were wide enough to  call it a 3-4-3, but what ever it was it worked.

One thing we can agree on it wasn't a back five.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting to see McTominay playing a kind of makeshift roaming back three role at times against Chelsea. He may end up competing with Hendry if midfield stays as McGinn, Gilmour and McGregor and we stick with our general formation. Will be interesting to see how the winter games pan out. There's bound to be a few more twists and turns on form, injuries, game time, etc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

 

Agreed, no chance any of the midfield 3 are being dropped if fit. 

I can't see where McTominay fits in unless it's centre half and even then he's up against it. 

McT is a great player to have on the bench. He gives the manager loads of options. Mind you, the way Clarke uses his subs, he's probably unlikely to ever get more than 15 minutes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gordon

Patterson Hendry Hanley Teirney Robbo

Gilmour McGregor

McGinn

Dykes Adams

            

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t get the continued obsession from some folk to try and fit McTominay in.  
 

Gilmour and McGregor are clearly working in midfield. McTominay has never looked comfortable at RCB and the improvement of Hendry and re-emergence of Souttar are far more natural options for that role. 
 

McTominay is a good option for the bench for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AlfieMoon said:

I don’t get the continued obsession from some folk to try and fit McTominay in.  
 

Gilmour and McGregor are clearly working in midfield. McTominay has never looked comfortable at RCB and the improvement of Hendry and re-emergence of Souttar are far more natural options for that role. 
 

McTominay is a good option for the bench for me. 

It’s the old he plays for Man United so he must be pure dead brilliant and he needs to play irrespective of form.

But thankfully we are moving away from the kind of PlayStation selection policy that we had before and that is where results have improved.

yes he had a good game yesterday , but he just easily follows that with half a dozen terrible games .

 

Edited by DAVIDB46
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AlfieMoon said:

I don’t get the continued obsession from some folk to try and fit McTominay in.  
 

Gilmour and McGregor are clearly working in midfield. McTominay has never looked comfortable at RCB and the improvement of Hendry and re-emergence of Souttar are far more natural options for that role. 
 

McTominay is a good option for the bench for me. 

Has anyone put mctominay in there starting 11?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2021 at 9:58 PM, ceudmilefailte said:

If Souttar is that good I would start the same team we did against Denmark with only the Paterson O'Donnell swap.

Don't think Hendry's that good and reckon Adams is better than Dykes. I probably over rate Christie but want some one playing off the striker.

A mistake free Hanley might be better than Cooper but there's no one in Norwich expecting 90 minutes of error free Hanley.

Back three might suit him better though, but I think it suits all central defenders.

 There isn't much in them but Leeds fans have been saying exactly the same thing about Cooper for years but he & Hanley are still captains of their epl teams so mistakes apart they are both strong characters with some leadership qualities.

     Your right though they are all probably more comfortable in a 3, since we have been playing that system the middle man in particular always seems to look really solid. We just have to wait & see where they are form & playing time wise come March.

     Looking forward to seeing how Souttar performs over the coming months. I think we would all be delighted if he can stay fit, look quality consistently & as a consequence unfortunately for Hearts fans attract a lot of interest from not only the OF but high end championship or even low epl clubs. If he does this then i would stick with him as a starter. The lad has had so much bad luck he deserves a chance to establish himself if he club form merits it. 

   

    

  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

                       Gordon

        Souttar   Hanley  Tierney 

Patterson                         Robertson

             Gilmour   McGregor

         McGinn             Armstrong 

                      Adams 

Kinda mad choosing a Hearts starter over a Man Utd starter but i hope Clarke has that difficult decision to make come March. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There may well be another 'breakthrough' player in attack. Stuart McKinstry at Leeds has now made his league debut, albeit as a 5 min subby, against Spurs, and also played as a longer sub in the diddy cup, scoring one in a 6-5 penalty shoot out. I'm thinking he might be the closest we have to bring an option in the Armstrong, Christie area. Dependent on opportunities and form, obviously, but I'm thinking of the first 2 or 3 games Gilmour played for Chelsea, when we realised we had a genuine article. Can't really think of any other young Scot who might be on the verge of playing games at a high level. Especially attackers, as defensive and midfield positions seem fairly nailed on, with several options for Clarke to ponder. Gauld would be my only other suggestion, who could play that creative '10' role off one main striker. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, DAVIDB46 said:

It’s the old he plays for Man United so he must be pure dead brilliant and he needs to play irrespective of form.

But thankfully we are moving away from the kind of PlayStation selection policy that we had before and that is where results have improved.

yes he had a good game yesterday , but he just easily follows that with half a dozen terrible games .

 

This is a bit daft. I don’t see anyone shoe-horning him into the team. I also don’t remember us completing a match with the same 11 who started, so perhaps it’s time to change your way of thinking. It’s baffling if you can’t see McTominay is a good player. I think you’ll find it’s his juvenile Twitter critics who use the PlayStation philosophy, maybe the makers gave him 7 tekker points out of 10 or something. When has a player or former player ever questioned his ability? He’ll be Man Utd captain before long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, theabsentee said:

                       Gordon

        Souttar   Hanley  Tierney 

Patterson                         Robertson

             Gilmour   McGregor

         McGinn             Armstrong 

                      Adams 

Kinda mad choosing a Hearts starter over a Man Utd starter but i hope Clarke has that difficult decision to make come March. 

It'd actually be a Hearts starter over 2 CL starters.  Still, he grabbed his chance and had an exceptional game so maybe it's his jersey to lose now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...