Scotland squad

[Panda]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c62348nw4yqo
 

Didn't realise Ron Yeats was from Aberdeen.

 

[Jute]

Same team as Thursday.

 

[OrlandoDon]

Not really sure what else to do away at Portugal. In an ideal world we have a fit hickey at right back, tierney in the middle (although will he really ever be fit?) and Ferguson for McLean. Hopefully doak comes good and becomes a starter, but we’re crying out for a decent central defender and forward. Maybe nisbet finds form? 

[Jute]

I would like to have seen Gauld start to give us a bit more width and more attacking threat. 

[OrlandoDon]

8 minutes ago, Jute said:

I would like to have seen Gauld start to give us a bit more width and more attacking threat. 

Who would he replace? Most likely mcginn or Christie? Hard to argue dropping mcginn, and Christie is a EPL regular. 

[Jute]

Christie would be one to drop out for me. Being an EPL regular should not guarantee you a start. Gauld offered more than Christie on Thursday so should get the start in my opinion. 
 

Christie is 8/1 to score anytime before anyone asks. 

[BigAl]

On 07/09/2024 at 12:08, Panda said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c62348nw4yqo
 

Didn't realise Ron Yeats was from Aberdeen.

 

Always was.

Lack of knowledge unbecoming of a supposed journalist 

Indicative of 21st century BBC standards.

[Jute]

1-0 up with yet another McTominay goal. 

[Jute]

1-0 up at half time. Nearly every Portuguese attack has come down our right. Gunn, McKenna, and some poor Portuguese finishing keeping us in the game. 

[RicoS321]

Poor half. Should be tanking this pish. 

In all seriousness though, we're not keeping this up for ninety minutes and getting a clean sheet. I'd take McGinn off, he's not been great. Christie on a yellow is an accident waiting to happen too. Some good solid defending though, McKenna having a great game.

[RicoS321]

Difficult to describe it as unlucky, got what we deserved. We don't have the depth of squad required to play that like for ninety. The subs made things worse, as they often do under Clarke. It's easy to point to the individual errors, but when you're on the ropes all game, it is difficult not to make them. Not the worst performance though, again, we're just not at the level of Portugal. 

[Jute]

So 1 win in 14. Sat too deep at start of second and the inevitable equaliser arrived courtesy of another shot Gunn should have saved. He then redeemed himself with another couple of excellent saves and we did get up the field a bit for awhile but slowly got deeper and deeper and Portugal just kept coming down our right to go after Ralston and eventually got a cross in where McKenna switched off and it was 2-1. Seen some in press describe it as a positive performance but would argue that 2-1 flattered us and if Portugal had a decent striker or Ronaldo in his prime we probably get hit for 4 or 5.

[BigAl]

I have seen this script played out more times over the decades of watching Scotland than I can possibly remember.

It's one of these things in life that never changes unfortunately 

[OrlandoDon]

40 minutes ago, BigAl said:

I have seen this script played out more times over the decades of watching Scotland than I can possibly remember.

It's one of these things in life that never changes unfortunately 

Not unlike Aberdeen against the old firm, particularly Celtic, and a factor in mcinnes being canned. Nobody wants to watch that, we got nothing from the game and got what we deserved. Scotland had moved away from these types of performances but they are definitely back, and our results over the last couple of years prove their effectiveness.

when did mcginn last have an influential game for Scotland? It’s been a while. Not sure of the position he plays for villa but he’s ineffective for us. Glad we’ve moved away from a back three to accommodate Robertson and tierney, time to rethink midfield as mcginn offers little at present.

[wee toon red]

Promotion to League A or whatever it's called is coming back to bite us in the short term, as predicted. We've done alright in both games but been undone by individual errors that teams at this level punish. Certainly last night was a different game to Thursday but in both we've at least been competitive. Had we been playing lesser teams then who knows, we could be sitting with six points from six.

This "season" of the Nations League has to be about gaining further experience of playing teams at this level, which is why it's so good to see kids like Hanley, Ralston and McLean getting good game time.

[RicoS321]

36 minutes ago, wee toon red said:

Promotion to League A or whatever it's called is coming back to bite us in the short term, as predicted. We've done alright in both games but been undone by individual errors that teams at this level punish. Certainly last night was a different game to Thursday but in both we've at least been competitive. Had we been playing lesser teams then who knows, we could be sitting with six points from six.

This "season" of the Nations League has to be about gaining further experience of playing teams at this level, which is why it's so good to see kids like Hanley, Ralston and McLean getting good game time.

Ralston is only 25! He's a placeholder for Hickey I guess, and probably about the level of Stephen O'Donnell before him. I assume that Barhun might be the replacement for McLean, but Clarke obviously felt that he wasn't ready currently. In my opinion, Ferguson should be used further forward (slowly replacing McGinn), but I have a feeling that Clarke might shoehorn him into McLean's role when fit. Porteous should be ahead of Hanley in my view, but I don't think there's much difference, with Porteous being slightly better on the ball. I don't think that there's another good replacement for that area. Otherwise, it's good to finally see players like Conway being given opportunities, although it's probably not enough. It was noticeable how much poorer we were in both games after Dykes went off. He's a good focal point, and offers respite against those better teams in Group A. Overall though, we've been okay and playing to our level. The hope is that this experience works in our favour when the next qualifying campaign comes round. It'd be nice to get some points on the board, perhaps against Poland away or one of the home games. I'd say that in the Poland game we were unlucky, whereas against Portugal we rode our luck. I'm not sure that the multitude of subs we have these days helps managers like Clarke. He never seems to get the balance right between making the right changes and making the correct number of changes. It's almost like we feel obliged to be making double and sometimes triple subs every game these days, and it often affects the balance of the side. He's always had players that he doesn't want to take off during games, and doesn't seem to analyse whether moving players to a different role is better than taking on a sub. For example, Barron should have come on to replace McGinn against Poland. Barron is not a better player than McGinn, but he's better at holding midfield than a McGinn who's just played 80 minutes. Clarke's success at Killie was down to him having players playing simple roles, and just swapping them out for guys who were similar when the original player tired. That's not to say that you can't change tactic during games, just that there is often no need to.

[Jute]

3-0 up at half time. 

[BigAl]

4-0 now 

Lennon Miller

[BigAl]

Good to see Calvin Ramsay back on a football pitch 

[Jute]

Ramsey played well in first game against Spain. 5-0 win sets up the game against Belgium nicely.