Now, this is not just based on last nights game against Northern Ireland, but based on facts and figures. Boyd is the best striker that Scotland have at our disposal. His goals record is better than all other available Scottish strikers. Boyd's record is played: 246, goals 122, McFadden: played 224, goals 54. Miller: 355, goals 102.

Now the reason for him not getting a game at Rangers is beyond me and the same with Scotland. I suppose Burley could trot out the excuse of him not playing for Rangers, but that has never stopped anyone getting a game for Scotland - Darren Fletcher for example. Burley appears to being going for a twin pronged attack, so there cannot be a tactical excuse of just using one up front, where the striker was expected to run about like a dafty searching for scraps, holding the ball up whilst waiting for support.

No, Boyd is what we have been crying out for since McCoist finished, a born goal scorer. If we are to qualify, I think we should have a place in a twin pronged attack for Kris Boyd.

Who's with me?

I'm with you. Either McFadden or Miller up front with Boyd. There's no point leaving our best goalscorer out when we need to score goals.

Kris Boyd is by the far the best of a very average bunch of strikers Scotland have just now. Kenny Miller can run all day but has fuck all end product, McFadden is an inconsistent sandancer while Boyd is a natural goalscorer.

With you all the way!

Despite his lack of goals I don't mind Kenny Miller too much, and I think his much-talked about work outside the box is useful. My plan against Macedonia would be to play Boyd through the middle with Miller and McFadden on either side as a sort of three-pronged attack. I would still expect Miller and McFadden to track back a bit, but basically have 3 solid midfielders behind them - Fletcher, Robson, Hartley, Thomson, Brown, Ferguson (if fit) etc - to shore things up.

The best teams always find a way of fielding their special players. Despite his shortcomings Kris Boyd is a special player - his instincts are incredible and his goalscoring record proves that.

Boyd should start everytime over Miller for both club and country, if i was him I would be feeling pretty pissed off being second choice to that pile of shit, why anybody would rather play a forward who runs about all day but never looks like scoring is beyond me

At home, and when we play very weak teams away, yes he should play.

I also suspect that if he did get a run, and maybe even got a couple of goals there would still be plenty who would want him out fo the team due to his laziness.

Then they are fucking idiots then..........

Given the choice of a headless chicken who gives 100% but never looks like scoring or Boyd who gives less effort but is always good for a goal or two every game he plays in I know who I would prefer!!!

Feckin Rovers fans at Scotland games!

He may be lazy, but he can score goals. Miller does not look like getting anywhere near scoring a goal at the moment and should be dropped.

I've no time for people who berate good players who don't put in much effort and still get the job done, yet idolise shite players that "work hard" and offer nothing.

I wouldn't say at international level he's good for a goal or two a game.

I suspect if our opening games had been at home he would have played last night.

To be fair, Kenny Miller has generally done a good job for Scotland. He's also scored some important goals.

I can fully understand why Boyd doesn't play, though I would like to see him get more games.

Maybe. I was very surprised he didn't get any game time, though.

Yes, I was too.

It's pretty much accepted that he cannot possibly be picked away from home. I don't really have a problem with that approach.

i ll agree, mcfadden is more of a scorer of greater goals than a great amount of goals. Miller is too similar to him and he suits playing the lone striker more. Watching miller and mcfadden at times were pretty good in the first half but they fell away in the second half and burley refused for some reason to take them off. We need someone with killer instinct upfront and boyd has that.

Im with you, no doubt Boyd should start, we need goals yet leave the most prolific scorer on the bench and dont even give him a run. You see what he done Rangers last season, he won both domestic cups for us pretty much, Scotlands strike force should be shaped around him.

As we don't have a Faroes/San Marino type in our group he'll be lucky to get the last 15 minutes in any of our away games.

It will be a sign of real desperation I expect.

He has, yes, but we picking him on account of his past record is wrong. He has been murder lately and deserves to be dropped.



True, although I would still play him away against lesser opposition. Any team which is equal/better then fair enough. This often applies at home too.

Murder for Scotland or Rangers?

He scored against quality opposition (Croatia) in his last Scotland game, and generally played well throughout our Euro qualification.

Hmm. Look at most out and out strikers and you will find they are largely posted missing for the 80 minutes except for the 10 minutes where they have been putting the ball in the net. That would do me everytime, because you know that they might only get two or three chances in the match but they will take at least one of them. Perhaps you might be right if we are playing the Dutch away, but not the likes of Norway or Macedonia away. Even against the Dutch away, I would still find a role for him, with either McFadden or Miller doing his running in a less advanced role.



Agreed.

I think the cautious outlook with Miller or McFadden as the lone stiker was needed after Berti, just to stop the rot, however, the squad has developed a lot since then and we no longer need to be as cautious with our outlook.

Miller has a good record against some of the larger nations, in terms of goal scoring. Boyd has yet to score against any international teams of note.

I agree with your point on lazy strikers popping up when it matters. I just don't feel that swapping Boyd for Miller is necessarily going to result in us being a free-scoring team, and its easy to forget the negative effect having a lazy player up front can be defensively. Especially against the Dutch.

I'd snap your hand off for 0-0 in Holland right now, with Miller running around like a "headless chicken".

For Rangers admittedly. However, I just can't see him doing it for us this campaign, we need to look elsewhere IMO.

Boyd's record in Europe and against Celtic is quite poor I believe also. He is a bit of a flat track bully I think.

I haven't watched Miller yet for Rangers, however I'm not going to write him off at international level after he had a decent Euro campaign , because of a few bad pre-season & 2 SPL games.

I think his poor domestic campaigns are bound to catch up with him soon. He failed to cut it with Celtic, Derby and has been poor for Rangers from what I've seen of him.

You can't fault him for effort, but his ability to get goals worries me.

On the basis of last night- I reckon Kris Boyd coudl have made a difference to the scoreline- he's strong enough not to be buslted off the ball like Kenny Miller was.

McFadden and Boyd upfront for Scotland would yield results, I reckon

I'm a Celtic man and Boyd would be first on my team sheet every game, why watty or Burley don't play him, god only knows, who gives a f**k if he couldn't tackle a fish supper,or cant run by anycunt or works back.....he SORES GOALS!!!!!! if I was his manager i would just tell him to plant his fat arse on the 6 yard line for 90mins and do what he does best

Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting Miller is past it or crap, I still think he does offer us a lot and gives us options, It's just that I think Boyd should be the main stiker as he gives us a bigger goal threat.

I am not sure I would agree that we cannot use Boyd away from home and I don't think that is a given either. Certainly against the likes of the Dutch we will probably play with a lone striker and that will more than likely be Miller. However, I am not sure we should be playing this way on our travels to Macedonia, Iceland or Norway. In fact, I still feel against the Dutch away, Boyd would be useful with Miller or Mcfadden playing in a deeper role just behind him.

Most teams have a strong spine from the keeper right the way through to the strikers, I think it's time we added an out and out goal scorer to ours and with Boyd that's what you get.

I take on board what HB says about his record against Celtic or European opposition, however, how many games has he played in these fixtures? Surely Smith set Rangers up in Europe the same way he did with Scotland and therefore preferred a more mobile, lone striking option?

Again it's horses for courses, but I feel Boyd should be a major player in the team.

Also in the catagory agreeing Boyd should play. Lack of height in our team as it is.

Kenny Miller is a good sub, bring him on if we are winning, then with his work rate, he can do all the chasing, closing down etc...

McFadden (but pass more) and Boyd every time for me, if we are going to play with two up top.

out of what we have i would play boyd and mcfadden up front has this ever happened? and keep miller for when we play one up front and want him to hunt for scraps tire out a defence

We do need Boyd to play. But I don't think he's suited to tough away games. However, against tired opposition that should be of a lower quality of player, such as Macedonia, I think he could make an impact on their defence from the bench.

McFadden and Boyd wouldn't work, both too individualistic, I just can't see them linking up well. Lots of people are saying Miller's workrate and layoffs with Boyd's finishing would work, and I think it deserves a trial.

What worked really well was the 6-0 drubbing of the Faroes way back in 2007 now, with Miller and McFadden either side of Boyd through the middle. Against the kind of opposition that are going to play in their own half all game - the Faroes or Northern Ireland for example - Boyd can be allowed to just play through the middle and find space, with very little tracking back. Unfortunately there are no whipping boys in our current World Cup group, so I don't see Boyd getting a chance apart from like I say, appearances from the bench against Macedonia and possibly Iceland.

It's simple, he has the best goals to games ratio . Our best goalscorer and we need players like him.

He must play.

We can't rely on Faddy to do everything.

Just thinking back. Walter must have had a blow to the head to play that formation
People are very quick to slag off McFadden as 'ordinary' yet his goals to game ratio is similar to dalglish despite being in a poorer comparitve squad against better opposition in many cases. Miller also is better for Scotland than he is at club level. I also agree with Boyd playing for the sim0ple fact that he scores goals. I am old enough to remember too many games when we have dominated but not been able to score and then been sucker punched. I am also conscious that Burley has plumped for a 442 to appease the romantics....and has not won a game yet whilst his two predeccesors had a far more defensive formation which yielded more goals on average than Scotland normally scores and a decent number of wins ( dont be fooled by the rose tinted specs about our past after Victoria died we were always a 1 nil team when we won games hence having Dalglish/Law as our top scorers on only 30ish).I really dont know the answer, but then I am neither qualified nor being paid to find it. Lets hope Gorgeous George does because it would be a sin to not take advantage of a much better group draw than the last one.

Couldn't believe neither he nor Fletcher played on Wednesday.

In Skopje, I'd start him with Miller. I like Miller's workrate and he will be a nuisance for their defence while if we are going to get the ball wide and utilise our full backs when attacking, then we need a target to aim for in the middle. All too often on Wednesday, on the rare occasion the ball in beat the first man, Evans and Craigan easily mopped it up.

Of course he can be over elaborate with the ball, but I love Faddy playing a wee bit deeper and running at defenders. He was the only one on Wednesday who displayed any sort of craft or imagination and without him in a deeper area, we didn't have anything to feed to him and Miller as Fletcher was a bit off form.

Boyd if given chances will score goals.

There's a reason players like Kris Boyd are a dying breed it's because no one wants them. To be a top level striker you need a lot more than just being to poach goals and we're now seeing a move away from playing strikers which is making players like Boyd increasingly obsolete. Boyd can do a job for us especially at home against the weaker teams but the only games I'd consider starting him in are the home games against Iceland and Macedonia.

I'm not really a fan of Miller and I never really have been but he does a lot more than just run about. He harasses defenders, makes intelligent runs that allows him to be found by the midfield and is lively when he gets the ball at his feet. As everyone knows though his finishing lets him down but to be fair his scoring record for Scotland is decent. We don't have a lot of options up front but Miller is the best of them especially when we're playing a lone front man.

When we're comparing scoring records it's unfair to say McFadden's is so much worse than Boyd's. If you look at the time they've spent at comparably clubs (Motherwell and Kilmarnock) you'll see that McFadden scored 26 goals in 63 games whereas Boyd scored 63 in 153 games. So they are pretty similar really.

I dont see why people on here cream themselves at kris boyd playing for scotland. Yes he is our most natural goalscorer but he is a lazy b*****d. The way i see it is....Boyd needs miller playing beside him. Miller does not need boyd playing beside him. Boyd cant/wont run about chasing down defenders putting them under pressure like miller. When we are playing big teams, the last thing you need is a lazy striker. Against the smaller teams, im pretty sure if miller and faddy played together then they would get goals. We did well enough to nearly qualify in the hardest group last time without kris boyd contributing much. Im also pretty sure he would not have made a big enough difference to help us qualify.

I'd play Boyd as well. He's never let Scotland down on the park, and has scored goals all through his career. I think it's fair to say he hasn't been given a fair crack of the whip at Club or International levels.

His form against Aberdeen was bizarre I must say.
Nonetheless, if you look at Boyd's scoring record for Scotland he consistently scores goals when given the chance, but he rarely gets the chance against the big teams, for the reasons everyone has written above. I expect it to be the same in the upcoming campaign, he'll get goals against the Macedonia and Iceland but won't get the chance against the other two. I do agree that he should've had the chance against NI, especially when they went a man down, but I can understand Burley wanted to try Mcfadden / Miller because that is likely to be our lineup for the majority of the campaign

If with Burley on this one, after all he does see the player train and has watched him more times than most people on this site. He is also an experienced manager who will have a good reason for not picking players, perhaps Boyd doesn't fit the style of football we play. We can only speculate, Burley may pick him in the future, but I don't think this thread will have any bearing on his decision.

Kris Boyd is the best striker Scotland have had since McCoist. But that's not saying much. When Kenny Miller is your main goal threat, you have real problems. Boyd should be playing week in week out for Rangers (and even when he doesn't he gets 30 goals a season) and be first pick for Scotland. Boyd and McFadden up front. Miller condemned to the annals of history.

You say he'll score goals against 'iceland and macedonia' like thats going to be easy, i for one dont think goals will be easy to come by against these teams, especially macedonia and especially away from home, its going to be very hot over there against a team who have had decent results (England, Holland) so it will be an energy sapping top level performance from scotland if they are going to acheive anything, meaning i think Boyd may not take too kindly to such conditions and wont take part in the starting line up

10 minutes at the end of the Macedonia game is not going to work. If he was coming on as a sub this should have been done with at least half an hour to play. I think he has to play against Iceland. We do now need to win and he will score goals.

Agree with all of that, but I bet he doesn't start against Iceland.
Managers are far too 'clever' to give him a proper run and we seem to have a real clever one in charge now.

I can't believe it took so long to introduce Boyd today. There was a point in the second half we were pumping balls into the box and that would have suited him to a tee, sadly we waited until the pressure was over and he never got a chance.

I'd start him on Wednesday night, Iceland are not a great side and we need to win, he won't however, of course, despite him being the only man in the side with a proven goalscoring pedigree.

Boyd MUST start against Iceland now.

f**k it, I'd play with Boyd, Miller and McFadden and try and find three hardworking midfielders who can shut down the opposition.

If we went with that sort of 4-5-1/4-3-3 it might also give Alan Hutton more room to bomb forward when he comes back.

Yes, anyone but Miller. Didn't give McFadden any hope of linking up with him.