Scotland v Cyprus and Spain Squad discussion

[N4Footsoldier]

Were people not banging n about Tommy Conway a few months ago?

He has more goals in less appearances than Brown this season playing arguably on a better team.

[DOUBLE A]

18 minutes ago, N4Footsoldier said:

Were people not banging n about Tommy Conway a few months ago?

He has more goals in less appearances than Brown this season playing arguably on a better team.

He’s been injured since the start of January 

[thesaint]

21 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Our goals in recent times has not been uber-dependent on the strikers anyway. The midfield weighs in with goals from likes of McGinn and Armstrong plus the defenders have chipped in too. This squad is not a heck of a lot different from ones that went on a fine run of results last season.

Yeah.I and was saying that regarding the midfield hopefully getting goals but to state the bleeding obvious it always helps when you feel your forwards are scoring for their clubs and hopefully can transfer it to International football.Nobody in that forward line are scoring freely if at all(Dykes aside as he has been injured but could obviously be pretty rusty).As i said i hope they are great in these two games.

[Toepoke]

Watching Haaland in action tonight (five goals v Leipzig and only played an hour) I'm certainly glad we're not playing Norway this month!

[Tartan blood]

9 hours ago, bigfingers said:

Likes of Turnbull really needs to leave Celtic. Def a talented player. 

Might be the final push he needed to leave.

With this mass stockpiling event currently happening at Celtic right now, he seriously needs to get out. It's not going to get any better. Same goes for Ralston.

[Caledonian Craig]

42 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Watching Haaland in action tonight (five goals v Leipzig and only played an hour) I'm certainly glad we're not playing Norway this month!

Haaland supplied by world class midfielders which Norway do not have. Worth pointing out.

[Templeton_Peck]

1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Haaland supplied by world class midfielders which Norway do not have. Worth pointing out.

Apart from the captain of the team leading the EPL..

[Caledonian Craig]

5 minutes ago, Templeton_Peck said:

Apart from the captain of the team leading the EPL..

Four world class midfielders to one. Big difference there.

[DAVIDB46]

Still feel a lot of these players,will be withdrawn as injured by their clubs.

I don’t think clubs really trust us with their players especially in England , due to our less than sophisticated training 

Even those that are not injured don’t exactly play much club football . Worrying times 

[Bzzzz]

19 hours ago, thesaint said:

God forbid we should ever take a gamble. Doak on the bench as a possible impact player would have been interesting. 

Exactly. Would have loved to see him come on to noise Spain up. 

[ceudmilefailte]

8 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Four world class midfielders to one. Big difference there.

Four is pushing it and for long enough only one was getting regular game time. And that was in the SPFL 

Norwegians will be thinking qualification is done and dusted. 

[Toepoke]

11 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Haaland supplied by world class midfielders which Norway do not have. Worth pointing out.

Tbh last night he was supplied by dreadful defending more than any quality midfielders.

I think our best hope is that he has off nights against us but plays blinders in their other games.

 

[theabsentee]

2 hours ago, Bzzzz said:

Exactly. Would have loved to see him come on to noise Spain up. 

Would love to see him in the squad but it wasn't realistic since he got injured a couple of months ago & hasn't seen any first team action since only recently being back.

   

  

[Third Lanark]

The squad is very much as expected and that in itself is refreshing. What Clarke is doing is creating consistency of selection which breeds confidence and a club spirit. Every other manager we have had has chopped and changed according to whether someone is in form or not and unsurprisingly the results have been mixed at best. And there is myth that he is reluctant to use youth; Hickey, Gilmour, Patterson and Porteous, to name a few, suggest otherwise. I too would like to see Doak but his time will come.

[scotlad]

5 hours ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Four is pushing it and for long enough only one was getting regular game time. And that was in the SPFL 

Norwegians will be thinking qualification is done and dusted. 

I think he was referring to Man City's midfield, not ours.

Norway still have some very decent players who play at a high standard and are capable of supplying Haaland - 21 goals in 23 internationals shows as much. Norway's weak points, though, are in goal and in defence.

[scotlad]

21 hours ago, bigfingers said:

Possibly just due to lack of options. Fraser and Forrest are a thing of the past now. 

Forrest almost certainly is; Fraser might get back in if he can find regular first team football somewhere decent.

I watched Stoke again last night, against Middlesbrough, and Brown offers workrate and the ability to run with the ball...and that's about it. He can't beat a man with skill, his first touch isn't great, he doesn't cross the ball and late on in the game he missed a sitter which almost certainly would have won Stoke the game. 

Options are limited in that position but I don't think Brown offers more than Ryan Gauld or Lewis Morgan - who Clarke has completely ignored so far - or even Michael Johnston, who is a year younger than Brown but has grown fed up of being overlooked and has now fucked off to play for Ireland instead.

[Kirk]

23 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Whys fraser not included in the squad?

 

22 hours ago, ProudScot said:

Perfectly set up for Kirk to say because he’s a shitebag 

Not shitebag, just shite. 

[mccaughey85]

3 hours ago, scotlad said:

Forrest almost certainly is; Fraser might get back in if he can find regular first team football somewhere decent.

I watched Stoke again last night, against Middlesbrough, and Brown offers workrate and the ability to run with the ball...and that's about it. He can't beat a man with skill, his first touch isn't great, he doesn't cross the ball and late on in the game he missed a sitter which almost certainly would have won Stoke the game. 

Options are limited in that position but I don't think Brown offers more than Ryan Gauld or Lewis Morgan - who Clarke has completely ignored so far - or even Michael Johnston, who is a year younger than Brown but has grown fed up of being overlooked and has now fucked off to play for Ireland instead.

Morgan should definitely have gotten a chance.

[thesaint]

11 hours ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Four is pushing it and for long enough only one was getting regular game time. And that was in the SPFL 

Norwegians will be thinking qualification is done and dusted. 

Lets hope they are.Nothing like an attack of over confidence for it to go wrong.

[Caledonian Craig]

18 hours ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Four is pushing it and for long enough only one was getting regular game time. And that was in the SPFL 

Norwegians will be thinking qualification is done and dusted. 

I was referring to the world class midfield Man City have compared to Norway. 

Question. If Haaland is all Norway need to win matches where were they in Qatar and in the last Euros?

Edited March 16, 2023 by Caledonian Craig

[BraveheartGordon]

13 hours ago, scotlad said:

Forrest almost certainly is; Fraser might get back in if he can find regular first team football somewhere decent.

I watched Stoke again last night, against Middlesbrough, and Brown offers workrate and the ability to run with the ball...and that's about it. He can't beat a man with skill, his first touch isn't great, he doesn't cross the ball and late on in the game he missed a sitter which almost certainly would have won Stoke the game. 

Options are limited in that position but I don't think Brown offers more than Ryan Gauld or Lewis Morgan - who Clarke has completely ignored so far - or even Michael Johnston, who is a year younger than Brown but has grown fed up of being overlooked and has now fucked off to play for Ireland instead.

Mikey Johnston wouldn’t be anywhere near any Scotland squad under any manager, his end product is atrocious and hasn’t held a regular game at any point in his career.

As a wide player/10 on top of Christie, Armstrong, Fraser I would say Ben Doak, Barrie McKay, Scott Wright, Dire Mebude, Glenn Middleton and even Steven Bradley would all be ahead of Johnston just now.

The idea that Clarke is somehow ignoring or overlooking Johnston is laughable.

Gauld and Morgan are fair comment, I would consider both for the squad but equally don’t think the MLS is a good career move for a player in early to mid 20’s and will very rarely see an upwards positive destination afterwards.

[Caledonian Craig]

38 minutes ago, BraveheartGordon said:

Mikey Johnston wouldn’t be anywhere near any Scotland squad under any manager, his end product is atrocious and hasn’t held a regular game at any point in his career.

As a wide player/10 on top of Christie, Armstrong, Fraser I would say Ben Doak, Barrie McKay, Scott Wright, Dire Mebude, Glenn Middleton and even Steven Bradley would all be ahead of Johnston just now.

The idea that Clarke is somehow ignoring or overlooking Johnston is laughable.

Gauld and Morgan are fair comment, I would consider both for the squad but equally don’t think the MLS is a good career move for a player in early to mid 20’s and will very rarely see an upwards positive destination afterwards.

Nail on the head on everything.

The MLS is a league only for players looking to fill their wallet for one last hurrah. Players in their 20s should not be contemplating such a move as it does not lead to better things career-wise.

Edited March 16, 2023 by Caledonian Craig

[kwhitelaw]

7 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Nail on the head on everything.

The MLS is a league only for players looking to fill their wallet for one last hurrah. Players in their 20s should not be contemplating such a move as it does not lead to better things career-wise.

Aye exactly this.  MLS is an entertaining league to watch but that's because it America and they know the value of entertainment. It's a league that encourages open attacking play rather than sitting deep and defending for your life which sucks any enjoyment out of a game for a neutral.  As such, players like Gauld (who languished in Sporting Lisbons B team and Portugal's lower leagues on loan) and Morgan (who struggled to hold a regular place in the Celtic team as he wasn't really all that effective) are thriving.  Put the pair of them on against a team like Georgia who we've struggled to break down in the past with better players and they'll do SFA (pardon the pun)

[mccaughey85]

So whats everyones team for these games.

Mine is this

                         Gunn

    Hickey  cooper hendry   robbo

                     Mcgregor

          Mctominay      mcginn

  Armstrong                       tierney

                       Adams

Swap in christie for armstrong and dykes for adams in the second half. Ferguson deserves gametime as well, maybe put him on for mctominay second half.

[scotlad]

12 hours ago, BraveheartGordon said:

Mikey Johnston wouldn’t be anywhere near any Scotland squad under any manager, his end product is atrocious and hasn’t held a regular game at any point in his career.

As a wide player/10 on top of Christie, Armstrong, Fraser I would say Ben Doak, Barrie McKay, Scott Wright, Dire Mebude, Glenn Middleton and even Steven Bradley would all be ahead of Johnston just now.

The idea that Clarke is somehow ignoring or overlooking Johnston is laughable.

Gauld and Morgan are fair comment, I would consider both for the squad but equally don’t think the MLS is a good career move for a player in early to mid 20’s and will very rarely see an upwards positive destination afterwards.

Aye, apart from the 40 odd games he played for Celtic between 2018 and 2020, including European fixtures.

My point was more about Jacob Brown though, rather than Michael Johnston.