Starting 11 for Belgium and Albania games

[MarkoRaj]

On 12/08/2018 at 14:10, woof! said:

I think this would be best. With Robertson providing crosses, Paterson will be very dangerous at the back post.

It's not just those 5 players, there will be strikers to aim the crosses at

[craigkillie]

If we're going for three at the back then I'd rather have Fraser than Paterson at right wing-back.  I don't mind Paterson as a solid right-back in a four, but I don't think he works as well when he's asked to do it on his own down the flank.  I thought Fraser did well there against Hungary, and we'll hopefully be on the front foot in most of the Nations League games anyway.  I obviously have to admit to being extremely biased, but I'd also rather see O'Donnell start there ahead of Paterson.

We should also call-up Jacob Brown.

[SpoonTon]

10 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

If we're going for three at the back then I'd rather have Fraser than Paterson at right wing-back.  I don't mind Paterson as a solid right-back in a four, but I don't think he works as well when he's asked to do it on his own down the flank.  I thought Fraser did well there against Hungary, and we'll hopefully be on the front foot in most of the Nations League games anyway.  I obviously have to admit to being extremely biased, but I'd also rather see O'Donnell start there ahead of Paterson.

I'd say the evidence suggests that Paterson is anything but a solid right back in a back four, but I do agree that he'd probably be even worse at wing back. 

[Peppino Impastato]

Paterson doesn't have it defensively to play RB, rwb he'd be more likely to get away with.  

As for O'Donnell put the pipe down there's a reason Paterson earns ten times what he does.

[Guest DAVIDB69]

Interesting mcleish has said griffiths won’t play if he is not playing club football.

Change of tact very different from strachan where you could go months without playing club football and still be guaranteed a game.

You could also use scotland games previously as a way for building up your fitness for club football

[Gordopolis]

8 minutes ago, DAVIDB69 said:

Interesting mcleish has said griffiths won’t play if he is not playing club football.

Change of tact very different from strachan where you could go months without playing club football and still be guaranteed a game.

You could also use scotland games previously as a way for building up your fitness for club football

I think he's bluffing - basically trying to put a rocket up Griffiths' arse to compel him further to steal ahead of Dembele and Edouard.

[Peppino Impastato]

8 hours ago, Gordopolis said:

I think he's bluffing - basically trying to put a rocket up Griffiths' arse to compel him further to steal ahead of Dembele and Edouard.

Not really, he didn't say playing from the start every week did he?  Griffiths is obviously going to be PLAYING club football, regardless if it's ten mostly off the bench or not.

[Gordopolis]

5 hours ago, Peppino Impastato said:

Not really, he didn't say playing from the start every week did he?  Griffiths is obviously going to be PLAYING club football, regardless if it's ten mostly off the bench or not.

Nor did I. But as it stands Griffiths is 3rd choice behind Edouard and Dembele. That's unlikely to get him enough game time to be sharp enough for international football. He has to break ahead of one or both of those players in Rodgers' pecking order (or find another club where he'll be first pick)

[skippy2015]

Nor did I. But as it stands Griffiths is 3rd choice behind Edouard and Dembele. That's unlikely to get him enough game time to be sharp enough for international football. He has to break ahead of one or both of those players in Rodgers' pecking order (or find another club where he'll be first pick)

Mctominay will be lucky to be in squad if he’s looking for players who have game time

[Peppino Impastato]

19 hours ago, Gordopolis said:

Nor did I. But as it stands Griffiths is 3rd choice behind Edouard and Dembele. That's unlikely to get him enough game time to be sharp enough for international football. He has to break ahead of one or both of those players in Rodgers' pecking order (or find another club where he'll be first pick)

No he doesn't

[craigkillie]

Any manager who makes a hard and fast rule about having to play club football in order to be selected is, quite frankly, an idiot. His job in every single competitive game is to pick the best team which can get him the result we need. Some players need to be playing regularly in order to perform well for Scotland, but others can do perfectly fine even when they're not playing at all. Alan Hutton put in some of the best performances of his Scotland career whilst he was frozen out at Aston Villa - dropping him on principle would have been incredibly stupid.

Fortunately, I don't think McLeish is daft enough to actually do this in practice. Someone has asked him a question and he has made a comment in an attempt to motivate one of his players.

[Gordopolis]

3 hours ago, craigkillie said:

Any manager who makes a hard and fast rule about having to play club football in order to be selected is, quite frankly, an idiot. His job in every single competitive game is to pick the best team which can get him the result we need. Some players need to be playing regularly in order to perform well for Scotland, but others can do perfectly fine even when they're not playing at all. Alan Hutton put in some of the best performances of his Scotland career whilst he was frozen out at Aston Villa - dropping him on principle would have been incredibly stupid.

Fortunately, I don't think McLeish is daft enough to actually do this in practice. Someone has asked him a question and he has made a comment in an attempt to motivate one of his players.

All of which is reasonable. The only point I was making was pretty simple: a Leigh Griffiths playing regularly is a far better thing for Scotland than the bit-part player he is for Celtic now. I don't think there's any argument against that.

In any case, I'm sure McLeish will pick him unless he's injured. But he's right to rattle Griffiths' (and Rodgers') cage to see if he can improve the situation.

[Guest DAVIDB69]

Any manager who makes a hard and fast rule about having to play club football in order to be selected is, quite frankly, an idiot. His job in every single competitive game is to pick the best team which can get him the result we need. Some players need to be playing regularly in order to perform well for Scotland, but others can do perfectly fine even when they're not playing at all. Alan Hutton put in some of the best performances of his Scotland career whilst he was frozen out at Aston Villa - dropping him on principle would have been incredibly stupid.

Fortunately, I don't think McLeish is daft enough to actually do this in practice. Someone has asked him a question and he has made a comment in an attempt to motivate one of his players.

 

If you are not playing club football , you should not be playing international football , you aren’t match sharp, you have no form to speak of etc.

[craigkillie]

Match sharpness and form aren't the only things that are important to a player.  Ability is quite a big one.

[accies1874]

Given his supposed form this season, I'd imagine Allan McGregor will be favourite for being the number one. 

[Honest_Ally]

Yeah I would agree with that and he played well in his last appearance. When is the squad announced? I just  got my tickets booked for all 4 home games this year.

[forameus]

Good news if he's talking about Griffiths like that and actually meaning it.  We should never be going into games treating anyone as must picks.  The team - and by extension the squad - needs to be made up of the best combination of players we have at that moment.  Griffiths on his day will be our best option, but we don't have the luxury of putting anyone out hoping that their day will be that day.  

[Salvo Montalbano]

Mctominay will be lucky to be in squad if he’s looking for players who have game time

He came off the bench in the first Man Utd game of the season...

[skippy2015]

He came off the bench in the first Man Utd game of the season...

For 14 mins....

[No_Problemo]

Good news if he's talking about Griffiths like that and actually meaning it.  We should never be going into games treating anyone as must picks.  The team - and by extension the squad - needs to be made up of the best combination of players we have at that moment.  Griffiths on his day will be our best option, but we don't have the luxury of putting anyone out hoping that their day will be that day.  

What even is that last sentence.

Griffiths is a must pick, he is miles in front of any other option. If Griffiths doesn’t play a single minute between now and our First Nations league game he should still be starting, the other options are utter shite.