Strength in depth

[0Neils40yarder]

I think you have to go back to the squads of 1996 and 1998 to see an equal strength in depth to our current squad/player pool.

 

Goalkeeper and centre forward are still areas of concern, but when you look at our starting back 5 last night and our midfield 4 we looked extremely solid but also a very significant danger to Spain.

Robbo, Tierney, Hanley, Porteous and Hickey were tremendous to a man but backing them up you had Cooper and Patterson and that's before you consider the likes of Souttar and McKenna out injured and Doig/Taylor not selected.

In the middle, we couldn't find a place for an in-form Lewis Ferguson or an out of form Billy Gilmour.

An option or 2 up front would be good to see.

[The Black Bra]

Yeah, remember being really impressed by the triple header in September, the fact we managed to get what we needed considering the amount of first choice players missing, especially by the third game.

[Scots_Wha_Hae]

We don't really have any players who need to retire imminently either. We may see Jack go after Euro 2024 as his body will struggle more as he gets older, and of course Gordon surely can't have long left, but otherwise nobody of much significance is likely to drop out before the end of the WC2026 cycle. On that basis over the next 3+ years we should only add to our depth and with the likes of Doak hopefully emerging and Gilmour establishing himself as well as Patterson, Hickey, Ramsay etc. getting more experience the overall quality of the team should go up too.

[Diamond Scot]

Was saying this last night when I was having a little moan about McToms needless booking at the end. He will get a suspension at some stage of the campaign now and normally id be really worried that a main player would miss a major game however now we have suitable replacements who can step in and do a job.

[0Neils40yarder]

12 minutes ago, Diamond Scot said:

Was saying this last night when I was having a little moan about McToms needless booking at the end. He will get a suspension at some stage of the campaign now and normally id be really worried that a main player would miss a major game however now we have suitable replacements who can step in and do a job.

Thought McTominay showed last night what he is all about, he's been wasted at the back or in that holding role...full of energy, getting forward to support and being a right pain in the erse. 

That booking was utterly stupid though

[Caledonian Craig]

1 hour ago, 0Neils40yarder said:

I think you have to go back to the squads of 1996 and 1998 to see an equal strength in depth to our current squad/player pool.

 

Goalkeeper and centre forward are still areas of concern, but when you look at our starting back 5 last night and our midfield 4 we looked extremely solid but also a very significant danger to Spain.

Robbo, Tierney, Hanley, Porteous and Hickey were tremendous to a man but backing them up you had Cooper and Patterson and that's before you consider the likes of Souttar and McKenna out injured and Doig/Taylor not selected.

In the middle, we couldn't find a place for an in-form Lewis Ferguson or an out of form Billy Gilmour.

An option or 2 up front would be good to see.

Lets not forget Jack Hendry as a defensive option who offers a goal threat too.

[Grim Jim]

1 hour ago, Diamond Scot said:

Was saying this last night when I was having a little moan about McToms needless booking at the end. He will get a suspension at some stage of the campaign now and normally id be really worried that a main player would miss a major game however now we have suitable replacements who can step in and do a job.

Aye, so long as someone else can step in with all these goals 😄

[Caledonian Craig]

As touched on by Robertson last night too there is a lot of experience now in the squad even without Craig Gordon. Robertson (62 caps), Hanley (48 caps), Tierney (37 caps), McGregor (51 caps), McTominay (39 caps), Armstrong (41 caps), Christie (37 caps) and lots more in the mid to high 20s.

[Scots_Wha_Hae]

10 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

As touched on by Robertson last night too there is a lot of experience now in the squad even without Craig Gordon. Robertson (62 caps), Hanley (48 caps), Tierney (37 caps), McGregor (51 caps), McTominay (39 caps), Armstrong (41 caps), Christie (37 caps) and lots more in the mid to high 20s.

Robertson only 5 caps from our all time top 10 (Christian Dailly with 67 currently 10th). This team could end up containing a number of all timers both for caps and goals.

[Orraloon]

50 minutes ago, Scots_Wha_Hae said:

Robertson only 5 caps from our all time top 10 (Christian Dailly with 67 currently 10th). This team could end up containing a number of all timers both for caps and goals.

Robbo is also only 8 games away from our all time most games as captain. He overtook Billy Bremner last night. Only George Young has captained Scotland more times. 

[Diamond Scot]

Watching the highlights and couldnt believe Stephen Oddonnell got 26 caps. 

Could easily see someone like Hickey getting over 100 caps, especially if we start qualifying because as a min thats another 5 or 6 games without even getting out the group including warm up games.

[Ally Bongo]

Our France 98 squad was really average verging on cack - nowhere near to being close in depth to the current one

 

[Orraloon]

9 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

Our France 98 squad was really average verging on cack - nowhere near to being close in depth to the current one

 

Exactly. Darren Jackson, FFS. 😂

[Third Lanark]

I was thinking we now have virtually 2 players for each position, in the sense that it doesn't really matter who we select as each of the two are equal in ability and experience; e.g. Tierney or Robertson, Hickey or Patterson, Armstrong or Christie, Dykes or Adams. I can't find a like-for-like for McTominay though - or McGinn. I've put Ferguson as cover for McGinn because he's now playing in an advanced role for Bologna but he's still largely untested for us. The advantage of Hyam - though he's uncapped - is that he can play anywhere in the back three. 

                                                                                Gunn

                                                                                Clark

                                                                                Kelly

Patterson        Porteous                    Hanley             Cooper                               Robertson

Hickey              Hendry                       Hyam              McKenna                            Tierney                                                                                     

                                                             Jack                          McGregor

                                                             Gilmour                     McLean

                     Armstrong                       McTominay               McGinn  

                     Christie                                                              Ferguson

                                                                Adams

                                                                 Dykes 

 

 

 

[0Neils40yarder]

58 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Exactly. Darren Jackson, FFS. 😂

That years Jacob Brown

[Orraloon]

2 minutes ago, 0Neils40yarder said:

That years Jacob Brown

Well, not really. Jackson started the first two games at that World Cup. Fuck knows how he managed that? 😂

[The Black Bra]

Pretty sure our France ‘98 squad was the oldest squad in the tournament.

[0Neils40yarder]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_FIFA_World_Cup_squads

 

Goalkeeper, defender, midfield all with plenty of strength in depth. Forward areas a bit hit and miss (what's new), but I wouldn't mind Durie and Kevin Gallacher in our current squad

[Texas Pete]

1 hour ago, Diamond Scot said:

Watching the highlights and couldnt believe Stephen Oddonnell got 26 caps. 

Could easily see someone like Hickey getting over 100 caps, especially if we start qualifying because as a min thats another 5 or 6 games without even getting out the group including warm up games.

We quite often participate in those warm up games already even if we are only warming up for our holidays. 

[ceudmilefailte]

I don't know how many saw Andrew Robertson's post match interview but when he was going on about the strength in depth of the squad and it was Kenny Mclean and Liam cooper who he mentioned.

The amount of people on here who don't get Kenny McLean is unreal.

 We keep on going on about players with potential I think the players themselves seem to prefer to have vastly experienced players to fall back on.

[Texas Pete]

6 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

Our France 98 squad was really average verging on cack - nowhere near to being close in depth to the current one

 

Cack? I’ve just had a flashback to being in school in the 90s. Need to bring that back. Quality patter. 

We had some really good players in that squad as well but aye plenty of cack too. 

[mccaughey85]

6 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

I don't know how many saw Andrew Robertson's post match interview but when he was going on about the strength in depth of the squad and it was Kenny Mclean and Liam cooper who he mentioned.

The amount of people on here who don't get Kenny McLean is unreal.

 We keep on going on about players with potential I think the players themselves seem to prefer to have vastly experienced players to fall back on.

Whats there to get? 

 I dont think mcleans a very good example of squad depth. Hes a championship level midfielder and quite average/poor overall. 

I do like him though and i dont begrudge him being in squad.

 

[ceudmilefailte]

5 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Well, not really. Jackson started the first two games at that World Cup. Fuck knows how he managed that? 😂

We did a lot better in the first 2 games. 

Jackson wasn't a bad player.

[ceudmilefailte]

6 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Whats there to get? 

 I dont think mcleans a very good example of squad depth. Hes a championship level midfielder and quite average/poor overall. 

I do like him though and i dont begrudge him being in squad.

 

Made a post it of who would disagree with the Scotland Captain and you were top of it.

 

[mccaughey85]

6 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

Our France 98 squad was really average verging on cack - nowhere near to being close in depth to the current one

 

Really?

You do realise we started four english championship players against spain?

Our main striker plays for qpr in the second tier.

We tended to not have to resort to second tier players in the late 90s. I remember the outrage at having john mcginlay starting games. 

This squads pretty decent but its not better than 98s. Its probably similar in standard overall.