Squad face Slovenia and Slovakia

[MarkoRaj]

Bannan played in centre mid for Scotland afair

[MarkoRaj]

'The starting line-up had a solid look to it once captain Darren Fletcher was passed fit to allow Strachan to combine him in central midfield with the hard-working James McArthur and the artful Barry Bannan.'

From the BBC report on the slovakia game

I don't remember the last time Bannan played on the wing, it's certainly not been a regular occurrence for a long time

[Barry Ferguson's Hat]

Is Black injured?

[Dunning1874]

Aye, you're right. I thought he'd played there v Lithuania at home but I'm confusing it with the Canada friendly when he came on for Burke.

[forameus]

I can't see him starting Ritchie out wide anyway.  I think he'd be a good one to bring on later if needed, but I'd be amazed if he didn't start us with some natural width.  Likely Phillips and Forrest.

In fact, I'd be surprised if the team was anything other than

Gordon
Tierney
Mulgrew
Berra
Robertson
Brown
Morrison
Forrest
Phillips
Armstrong
Griffiths

MacArthur may come in for Morrison, but that's the only change I can see. 

[sergie's no1 fan]

This. McGregor is a good potential international but he's got to prove undroppable for Celtic like Armstrong did (er, before he got dropped at the start of this season)

Exactly. Imagine the outcry if he dropped Armstrong from the squad for McGregor? Kenny McIntyre was a disgrace the last time, pretty sure they spent all week lambasting the manager for not selecting him.

Weird how the Aberdeen fans aren't crying for Ryan Jack to be in the squad either.

I think we need to go with pace on the wings. Snoddy and Ritchie are just too damn slow, even if they have more technical ability than Forrest, i think we still need to go with him.

[PrestersKTID]

34 minutes ago, forameus said:

I can't see him starting Ritchie out wide anyway.  I think he'd be a good one to bring on later if needed, but I'd be amazed if he didn't start us with some natural width.  Likely Phillips and Forrest.

In fact, I'd be surprised if the team was anything other than

Gordon
Tierney
Mulgrew
Berra
Robertson
Brown
Morrison
Forrest
Phillips
Armstrong
Griffiths

MacArthur may come in for Morrison, but that's the only change I can see. 

Probably right, why change a winning formula. I wish Strachan had cooper in last round to see how he fit in against Malta. Then he could've been in this time round. Our centre halfs are painfully slow.

[Dunning1874]

57 minutes ago, forameus said:

I can't see him starting Ritchie out wide anyway.  I think he'd be a good one to bring on later if needed, but I'd be amazed if he didn't start us with some natural width.  Likely Phillips and Forrest.

In fact, I'd be surprised if the team was anything other than

Gordon
Tierney
Mulgrew
Berra
Robertson
Brown
Morrison
Forrest
Phillips
Armstrong
Griffiths

MacArthur may come in for Morrison, but that's the only change I can see. 

I reckon he will go with Morrison, with both Brown and McArthur a booking away from a suspension. We don't want to be going to Slovenia with neither of them available, so if it's a toss up between Morrison and McArthur it makes sense to go with the one who isn't on a yellow.

[DA Baracus]

Who is MacArthur?

[forameus]

12 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Who is MacArthur?

Sorry, must've spelled it wrong.  MicArthir isn't it?

[DA Baracus]

17 minutes ago, forameus said:

Sorry, must've spelled it wrong.  MicArthir isn't it?

No, he didn't get in the squad this time

[forameus]

Just now, DA Baracus said:

No, he didn't get in the squad this time

Good.  I preferred Mawrisun anyway.

[Bishop Briggs]

3 hours ago, forameus said:

I can't see him starting Ritchie out wide anyway.  I think he'd be a good one to bring on later if needed, but I'd be amazed if he didn't start us with some natural width.  Likely Phillips and Forrest.

In fact, I'd be surprised if the team was anything other than

Gordon
Tierney
Mulgrew
Berra
Robertson
Brown
Morrison
Forrest
Phillips
Armstrong
Griffiths

MacArthur may come in for Morrison, but that's the only change I can see. 

Yes but I'd prefer Fraser to Forrest and, possibly, McArthur to Brown. Brown will not be treated so leniently by a foreign referee. But McArthur's confidence, given Palace's rotten start to the season, will not be great. 

[Senor Bairn]

Fraser should play instead of Forrest. Forrest is murder.

[ilostmyself]

49 minutes ago, Bishop Briggs said:

Yes but I'd prefer Fraser to Forrest and, possibly, McArthur to Brown. Brown will not be treated so leniently by a foreign referee. But McArthur's confidence, given Palace's rotten start to the season, will not be great. 

Brown is without doubt the No1 choice for CM, in the best form of all the options and we want to keep the winning attitude of the Celtic players. I thought McArthur was quite poor in the last couple of ties, would maybe play Morrison next to Brown against Slovakia.

[craigkillie]

Forrest is a better option in front of Tierney, not because he's a better player, but because he is a more tactically aware and conscientious player.  When you have a guy like Tierney who will be playing out of position, that is especially important - someone like Fraser is less likely to track back properly, and is therefore much more likely to hang Tierney out to dry.  Forrest is much better at tracking the full-back and maintaining the shape, which allows us to have more of a livewire type winger in Phillips (or Fraser or Anya) on the other side.

[Aberdeen21]

I have to say our attacking options wide are good at the moment but up front I don't see why we persist with picking fletcher and martin. One of the two would suffice to be a different option for us up top. I'd like to have saw us brought a striker in similar to Griffiths to give us some back up i.e. like a cummings or may.

[forameus]

9 minutes ago, Aberdeen21 said:

I have to say our attacking options wide are good at the moment but up front I don't see why we persist with picking fletcher and martin. One of the two would suffice to be a different option for us up top. I'd like to have saw us brought a striker in similar to Griffiths to give us some back up i.e. like a cummings or may.

But they are both different options.  The only way they're similar is that neither has really benefited from us playing to their strengths.  

If there was another option up front that was better, they'd be getting picked instead.  As it is, we've got three pretty average options, who at least all bring something different to the table.

EDIT: To expand on that, I'm more meaning in the context of these two games.  This is absolutely not the time to be going with anyone untested.  Griffiths - who is probably our best option currently - has only just gotten out of the phase of looking completely out of his depth at international level.  We have no-one even knocking on the door of being close to looking out of their depth in that sense.  At this stage, calling up Fletcher and Martin, who are both ready and capable of playing international football, is a far better option than wasting a squad spot on someone in the hope that somehow they'll play completely out of their skin and surprise everyone.  

These players are far more likely to be involved come the Autumn next year, or March if we a) don't qualify and b) decide to actually play a friendly.

[Gordopolis]

2 hours ago, forameus said:

But they are both different options.  The only way they're similar is that neither has really benefited from us playing to their strengths.  

If there was another option up front that was better, they'd be getting picked instead.  As it is, we've got three pretty average options, who at least all bring something different to the table.

EDIT: To expand on that, I'm more meaning in the context of these two games.  This is absolutely not the time to be going with anyone untested.  Griffiths - who is probably our best option currently - has only just gotten out of the phase of looking completely out of his depth at international level.  We have no-one even knocking on the door of being close to looking out of their depth in that sense.  At this stage, calling up Fletcher and Martin, who are both ready and capable of playing international football, is a far better option than wasting a squad spot on someone in the hope that somehow they'll play completely out of their skin and surprise everyone.  

These players are far more likely to be involved come the Autumn next year, or March if we a) don't qualify and b) decide to actually play a friendly.

You could say that about any Scotland striker tbf! 

Griffiths though, I suppose, is a rare breed in that he is quite happy as a lone striker and it doesn't really blunt him in the same way as it does the other two (and most others since Kenny Miller)

[Diamonds are Forever]

5 hours ago, craigkillie said:

Forrest is a better option in front of Tierney, not because he's a better player, but because he is a more tactically aware and conscientious player.  When you have a guy like Tierney who will be playing out of position, that is especially important - someone like Fraser is less likely to track back properly, and is therefore much more likely to hang Tierney out to dry.  Forrest is much better at tracking the full-back and maintaining the shape, which allows us to have more of a livewire type winger in Phillips (or Fraser or Anya) on the other side.

 

This is what a lot of people don't see and is why Strachan starts him. Yes, against decent opposition he doesn't really have much to offer going forward other than pace, but he does a power of work defensively that will generally go unnoticed.

Even with Celtic, just watch the lack of protection Ralston had with Roberts in front of him rather than Forrest in the PSG match. In addition, having his club mate in front of him will undoubtedly help Tierney when playing out of position.

Apart from anything else, and while it may be overly simplistic, I think we should have as many Celtic players in the starting 11 as possible. They are all playing with confidence, playing on big occasions, and have a good relationship together.