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We don't play narrow and leave the wing-backs to it for width. Our primary route to victory are the wide areas - they're key to how we attack. Our attacking midfielders are always involved in those attacks in wide areas. They work with the wing backs and central midfielders to get into the zones depicted below. We attack via those routes as a team - not just via the wing-backs or any individual player. Playing with a back-3 facilitates the wide attacks, it's not just a negative defensive tactic - it's the platform to build our wide attacks. In the last camp that primarily involved Tierney, Robertson, McTominay and Christie on the left as well as Patterson, McGinn and Gilmour with help from Dykes, Hendry and Porteous on the right.

That's fine. All of the players suggested to replace Ferguson have only previously performed the attacking or deep midfield role for Scotland, not both which Ferguson was able to do. We have a lot of cover for both roles so maybe you'll get your wish, but I still think Ryan Jack will be first on the list if he can prove his fitness. https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/24181054.scotland-manager-set-disappoint-five-euro-2024-hopefuls/ Armstrong (5) and McLean (5) were the midfielders most often brought on when we were chasing the game, not Ferguson (3) which I found quite surprising and they haven't dropped out of the squad as it stands.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/archie-gray-snub-scotland-england-32611260 Just recording this really as a timesaver for later on when it inevitably comes back to the surface again at some point in a similar fashion as the Ryan Fraser is still in the doghouse with Clarke, Scott McTominay was a striker as a kid and Steve Clarke hasn't tried hard enough to make the Newcastle-4 join Scotland myths have. I can just hit copy, hit paste, job done.

You want to replace Lewis Ferguson with a player who is able to give us an option as a substitute, someone who can help us get back in the game if we're chasing it (needing a goal) - is that correct?

You're fixating again SD. Ryan Fraser isn't going to make or break our tournament this summer. He was in the Euro-2020 squad that didn't match your expectations for fun, was he not?

Oh my days. Just saw the results. The good news keeps rolling in.

Tricky, ideally want both to lose, but given that's not possible I can't break with a time honoured tradition in favour of a short term thing. Dundee, you have my backing on this one. Hopefully not another 7-zip - that's all i ask.

Historically speaking, Ryan Jack has only ever missed squads because of injury. Lewis Ferguson receives reduced gametime because Scott McTominay and John McGinn have his attacking role covered. The last time Fergie missed a squad (Sep-22) Ryan Fraser, David Turnbull, Jacob Brown and Ryan Jack were called up. The last time Fergie and Jack were unavailable at the same time Allan Campbell was called into a squad that already contained Turnbull and Brown. (Armenia, Ireland - Jun-22). A lot of time has passed since 2022. The team and Ferguson's role have evolved. I think the simplest, most obvious solution is Ryan Jack if he can prove his fitness - he doesn't need loads of game time as he's still a core member and benefits from Clarke's loyalty system.

I think it's just a problem with trying to reduce even a moderately complex and variable element into broad, generic and static categories. It's not only in football, but in other areas of life. Many things don't fit neatly into boxes and often labelling or categorisation exercises end up problematic. It's a big issue in statistics: is it before the line, on the line, after the line? Where do you draw the line? or Is Pluto a planet? all that kind of stuff. It's how we break down and understand the world, but you probably have to accept it has limitations.

Looking at the Scotland matchday squad numbers from 1-23 they've been quite consistent over the last year. They were more erratic prior to that. It gives an idea of the specific player who holds which shirt, the type of player holding the number and the number in the squad by position. The defenders and goalkeepers are consistent. There are caveats with the midfielders and strikers: #18 and #19 swapped between Sep-23 and Oct-23. Between those two numbers there was always one midfielder and one striker. #11 (Christie) was classified as a striker up until Mar-24 at which point he has been re-classified as a midfielder. #20 has always been held by Ryan Jack when he is fit and in the squad. It's clear that guys like McCrorie and Taylor get assigned whatever number is free and that points to them being fringes players. I found this interesting, but only to a point. I wouldn't recommend using the above information on it's own to base any firm conclusions on the selection for Euro-2024.

His performance was a bit of a car crash in that Czech game. I wonder if privately it's a relief for him not to be involved with Scotland now. He can just watch the Euro's on TV with a beer having been and done it. The pressure during the Euro's must have been immense. Same with this one. Fan expectations go through the roof.

I'm going to say yes. Yes he is.

To be fair Dumbarton are probably still using 90's big man, little man tactics.

Chelsea are my english team so buzzing with this result. Cole palmer doing what cole palmer does best: goals and assists it's his time to shine

That's basically how I see it. Shame for Fergie and hurts our depth, but not in my top XI for players I don't want to miss the tournament. @Butters Scotch will be devastated.

I think Simon Murray deserves a crack ahead of Armstrong. He's been banging them in for County and with Fergie out the picture this is his chance I believe to come into the squad and show us all what he can do. We need goalscorers and Murray certainly is that. Armstrong: 6 goals in 33. Murray: 11 goals in 32. He doesn't just do it against the duffers of the league (Dundee etc) he can do it against the big boys like we saw yesterday where showed that killer instinct that we are sorely lacking. And if that wasn't enough his link up play is fantastic, he's full of confidence - the boy is absolutely flying. I'd start him against Germany and that's no joke - he's the in-form Scottish striker. He's scored 4 in his last 5, compared to Shankland who's only managed a poor 1 in his last 5 (a penalty). CASE CLOSED

Here we go.

Numbers as positions weren't brought into the game by geeky fanboy hobbyists. They were brought in by the people who work in the industry. They've been around for long enough even if they've only been popularised recently. They're an efficient way to categorise players, nothing else.

If Lewis Ferguson definitely misses the tournament it could be said that no-one replaces him and any decision around the midfielders is taken away. So 8 midfielders including Ryan Jack or 7 without. Alternatively if it's assumed that Ferguson was definitely in the squad then it will go to a different position, probably an attacker or maybe a spare full-back given Clarke's comments around the centre-backs in March. If the squad is increased to 26 then that might change the dynamic.

Why would I be? I've got nothing against Dundee and you've had a good season by your standards. Yes I find it fun bamming you lot up, especially @Bigmouth Strikes Again, but honestly well done - Tony Docherty has really done very well. What I said is true though, you needed a few things to go your way to help you over the line - no shame in that.

Nah, you've got it wrong pal. The top-6 is Dundee's Mount Everest - they're quite right to celebrate their achievement and the only respectable thing to do is tip your hat to them. Yes, they used every trick in the book to do that. Hibs and Aberdeen had bombscare seasons and they required a last minute favour from Motherwell to get the deal done - but they did it and that's all that matters.

I don't think it was something done by design, but I haven't fully looked into it - just picked up a few things from one or two podcasts/audiobooks. The wiki article (linked below) states that Argentina developed a numbering system independently to the rest of the world. They use #5 to describe their deep midfielder instead of #6. That was also mentioned in the (audio)book Pep Confidential (Perarnau). I think it might still be popular to this day in Argentina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squad_number_(association_football)#:~:text=5– Centre Back (or Sweeper,%2FBox-to-Box Midfielder

or get enough "assists"...

Opposite for me.