Gordopolis

He'll be flame grilling the opposition

Beat me to it. Good to hear from him directly that he's happy and comfortable with the RB role if needed (and defensive MF)

Heady times!

I think the system is the crux of all this. Any 2 of our current defence pool (plus those on the outside like Bates, Hendry etc) will be more often than be not ripped new ones in a 2. 3 gives us a bit of cement at the back, allowing us to play and interchange a number of okay-ish CBs without disaster.

I haven't the foggiest what you're talking about

I thought he was out for the season (or close to it)?

Think we need a different dimension in the striker pool. Either a fit Griffiths or a Nisbet/Shankland or even Naismith depending on how their seasons go. Wouldn't want to be at the championships playing like we were the other night without the means to change things up. Hard to choose who would drop out tho!

I understand the distinction between getting excited about a player and speculating about the details of his performance. But at a glance, there's only 1 post about his game yesterday doing that - everyone else is pretty much reporting that he got yet another start - and anyway it's hardly a crime. The poster who did speculate even said he was looking fwd to watching the highlights later to see how it tallied with his deductions. Free speech and all that. The forum is called Tartan Army Ramblings, after all.

To be fair, the guy is clearly low on confidence.

Yes, everyone stop getting excited about an 18 year old Scot starting week in, week out in Serie A

I totally forgot about GMS - I knew there was another of that gang. Shame he's never really hit the heights, but great to watch on his day

I agree it was a more glamorous move, and as I say his position and playing style made him the most exciting. So maybe a stand out in terms of hype, but not a clearly better player objectively than the others (tho it's hard to compare the 4 mentioned in their very different positions), and to be fair, as things stand he clearly isn't the best of the 4. IIRC even 5-6 years or so back, the Sportscene guys were regularly arguing about who was the best of the group. One week it was Souttar, the next Armstrong, etc. I don't remember it ever being an open and shut case there or elsewhere that Gauld was irrefutably the best... just the most exciting (who couldn't get excited about a Scottish mini Messi after all [emoji6][emoji106]).

Dunno about that. I remember him as being one of a stellar looking group: Robertson, Gauld, Armstrong and Souttar (J). Gauld was probably the most exciting because of his position and style of play, but I don't think he was by far the stand out of that group. That's all by the by. It'd be great to see him earn and get a cap - assuming he can get time off from Burger King [emoji846]

There is the leadership factor, which shouldn't be underestimated. In that last Israel game we didn't have a single outfield player over 30, which is really impressive in many ways as it bodes for a bit more continuity over the next 6-8 years or so, but perhaps we suffered a little from lack of experience and leadership in attack. Dykes had an off night, McBurnie looks like it's never going to happen for him and Griff looks overweight and off it. Naismith is indeed rickety, but he is extremely vocal and knows how to box clever, and this could be thing we need in the squad. All depends on how his season goes. He's not up to speed yet and is just as likely to get injured as he is to hit form. If it's the latter, I think SC will be quite happy to call him up.

He did. He seems to have been "done" for a few years now but has in a few occasions during that time come back for Scotland and provided just what we needed. It ain't sexy to call up a 34 year old injury prone forward who doesn't score very much, but I can see Clarke doing just that depending on how Naismith's season progresses.