Scotland Vs Faroe Islands Weds 31st March

[forameus]

Remember when we played what was essentially one-at-the-back against Gibraltar, they got their first ever competitive goal in front of a stunned Hampden and then Strachan immediately changed it?  

Good times.

[DukDukGoose]

5 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Or we develop two definitive formations/styles of play dependent on who we are playing...

A back three means we have less attacking players on the field, when we need to break a team down -  it’s that simple. 
 

Shouts that playing an extra central defender makes us more attacking, as it means they can step into midfield, as opposed to having an actual attacking player on the pitch instead are fucking wild. Do we want Jack Hendry stepping into midfield, or an extra attacking midfielder that we have plenty of.

Dearie me.

The defender steps up which changes the shape and drags the opposition out of position. One of the midfielders then moves forward/wide.

[No_Problemo]

1 minute ago, Merkland Red said:

Dearie me.

The defender steps up which changes the shape and drags the opposition out of position. One of the midfielders then moves forward/wide.

Condescending response not required when you are going to spout nonsense.
 

And a defender can’t step into midfield in a four, while having more attacking players in front of him? 

[Bing.McCrosby]

Just now, craigkillie said:

I thought I explained it in the post, but I'll repeat it again anyway. The back three system Scotland have played for the last year, which I was initially critical of but have come around to, allows the wing-backs to basically play as midfielders, basically giving you either a 3-4-3, 3-5-2 or 3-6-1 depending on the personnel. In addition to that, if you have Hendry and Tierney (or McTominay and Tierney) you've got two centre-backs who are comfortable progressing out of defence with the ball, and indeed are encouraged to do so. That gives a lot of flexibility in the number of players in attack and the angles which we can attack from.

The Faroes are clearly going to sit back and be stuffy, so having a system where they can't really match us up man so easily seems like a good idea. The change that you might make would be to have Fraser as RWB rather than O'Donnell for a game like this (ideally it would be Forrest if he was in the squad). If you play a back four then your centre backs are always more reluctant to get forward and join the midfield because the system doesn't offer them the same amount of freedom. You saw how restricted Tierney was last night in the second half when he basically had to play as only a defender.

Getting tied up in "oh he's a defender" is unhelpful, you want to be looking at what the player does for the team. It's just the same as people judging centre-forwards entirely on goals, it's not how football works in 2021, particularly when you don't actually have any centre-forwards who are going to be regular goalscorers at this level. It's why I felt McTominay should have been kept as a centre-back even if he had been playing very well for Man Utd in midfield. I was revisiting that opinion on the basis of how well he played on Thursday, but I thought he was very poor last night which definitely makes me think we should consider pushing him back when Jack is available.

It shouldn't really matter whether we play a three or a four against the Faroes, we should be winning anyway, but if we want to play the three at the Euros then it would make sense to get a bit of continuity. It's not like playing a back four against a Pot 5 team is really going to help us decide whether it's something to switch back to later on.

Well you said some stuff, but its absolutely nonsensical.

Its not in anyway an advantage to have Steven O'donnell playing as a winger. When hes a terrible winger.

If we had say Armstrong or fraser in a 442 or 4231 we would have better players in the forward areas.

Rather than hoping for Jack Henry or Stephen O'Donnell to run the full length of the pitch. Which they would have to, as there standing doing nothing.

But you might be right and be onto something. Perhaps every top side who dominate the ball have got it wrong. As literally none of them have 3 centre backs.

[DukDukGoose]

11 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Condescending response not required when you are going to spout nonsense.
 

And a defender can’t step into midfield in a four, while having more attacking players in front of him? 

Celtic played a back four with Tierney. Tierney stepped forward, Lustig tucked in with Brown now playing in front of a back 3. The left winger moved in field to play off the striker as Tierney now occupied his role. If you were to class this as a formation then it would have been something daft like 3-1-2-2-2. When Celtic would be defending everyone would then return to their starting positions in a 4-2-3-1. 

Celtic did ok.

 

[accies1874]

Remember when we played what was essentially one-at-the-back against Gibraltar, they got their first ever competitive goal in front of a stunned Hampden and then Strachan immediately changed it?  
Good times.

Was Russell Martin the one? I can't actually remember which CB we brought on to play with him but do recall the absolute nonsense of Matt Ritchie wearing number 4.

[No_Problemo]

2 minutes ago, Merkland Red said:

Celtic played a back four with Tierney. Tierney stepped forward, Lustig tucked in with Brown now playing in front of a back 3. The left winger moved in field to play off the striker as Tierney now occupied his role. If you were to class this as a formation then it would have been something daft like 3-1-2-2-2. When Celtic would be defending everyone would then return to their starting positions in a 4-2-3-1. 

Celtic did ok.

 

Yes, with a flexible back four - not in a team with three centre halves. I don’t have an issue with a back five, and for several of the reasons already mentioned it works against better teams than us. Against the Faroes we can play a back four and play a more attacking version of what you have just said. 

[Aufc]

Been thinking about this and it is probably daft but wondered about playing tiernay at left mid. He is clearly very good at going forward and his delivery is class. Wondered if him and robertson could work like that.

Marshall

Odonnell
Hanley
Cooper
Robertson

Fraser
Mctominay
Mcgregor/armstrong (gilmour to take this role eventually)
Tiernay

Mcginn

Adams

[DukDukGoose]

1 minute ago, No_Problemo said:

Yes, with a flexible back four - not in a team with three centre halves. I don’t have an issue with a back five, and for several of the reasons already mentioned it works against better teams than us. Against the Faroes we can play a back four and play a more attacking version of what you have just said. 

Tierney often plays in a back three for Arsenal. He's on the left wing playing in Crosses to the right footed winger who now plays as a second striker.

[Bing.McCrosby]

Looking thru the games from yesterday. Literally not one team who was expected to win played 3 centre backs. Not one.

And I'm talking closer match ups than us against the faroes.

Denmark won 8 nil playing a 433. Lucky they didn't figure out that having more defenders is more attacking. They would have won by 20 with those overlapping centre backs.

[CM.]

6 minutes ago, Aufc said:

Been thinking about this and it is probably daft but wondered about playing tiernay at left mid. He is clearly very good at going forward and his delivery is class. Wondered if him and robertson could work like that.

Marshall

Odonnell
Hanley
Cooper
Robertson

Fraser
Mctominay
Mcgregor/armstrong (gilmour to take this role eventually)
Tiernay

Mcginn

Adams

Is this your team for Faroes or your preferred Scotland XI in general? Coopers not in this squad. 

Edited March 29, 2021 by C. Muir

[forameus]

2 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

27 minutes ago, forameus said:

Remember when we played what was essentially one-at-the-back against Gibraltar, they got their first ever competitive goal in front of a stunned Hampden and then Strachan immediately changed it?  
Good times.

Was Russell Martin the one? I can't actually remember which CB we brought on to play with him but do recall the absolute nonsense of Matt Ritchie wearing number 4.

Can't remember who it was, just remember us starting with a "three", but including full-backs, who immediately disappeared forward.  Checked the highlights there and the goal wasn't quite how I remembered it, but we were wide open and effectively playing one at the back.

Actually, on watching again, and being a big fucking geek looking back at line-ups, it was actually Robertson, as Russel Martin had gotten sucked in to an early ball.  It was a "back three" of Hutton, Robertson and Martin, so looks like it wasn't the full-backs disappearing up, it was Robertson deciding he fancied being Grant Hanley, leaving the entire left-half of the pitch free.

[CM.]

6 minutes ago, BingMcCrosby said:

Looking thru the games from yesterday. Literally not one team who was expected to win played 3 centre backs. Not one.

And I'm talking closer match ups than us against the faroes.

Denmark won 8 nil playing a 433. Lucky they didn't figure out that having more defenders is more attacking. They would have won by 20 with those overlapping centre backs.

Switzerland did. 

Infact so did Hungary and they were playing San Marino 

Edited March 29, 2021 by C. Muir

[Bing.McCrosby]

Just now, C. Muir said:

Switzerland did. 

Fair enough, only 1 did 

I'd wager they wouldn't have if they were playing the Faroes.

[No_Problemo]

2 minutes ago, Merkland Red said:

Tierney often plays in a back three for Arsenal. He's on the left wing playing in Crosses to the right footed winger who now plays as a second striker.

Yes, and that’s why it works well against better teams. It’s open to debate -  however, I feel we can still use our better players in defence in a four doing that with more attacking players on the pitch to take advantage of that. 

[SouthLanarkshireWhite]

12 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

If we plan on playing the back five at the Euros we should use it in this game too.

The team should be as close to his planned XI for the Euros as possible given the lack of games between now and then.

That's right.

The Faroes are bound to line up and play exactly as Croatia and Czech Republic will. And as for England, sometimes it is just hard to spot the difference between them and The Faroes.

[Bing.McCrosby]

Just now, Baptiste Bourgeois said:

The joint top scoring teams in Serie A this season(by a long way) are Inter and Atalanta. Guess what formation they play?  

Atalanta are arguably the most gung-ho team in Europe. 98 goals in Serie A last season.

 

I'm sure Conte in particular would be interested in hearing from you. He's about to win his 5th league title playing formations 3 CB's but I'm sure your "3 centre-backs versus Crotone bad  to defensuv!! " will have him change his ways.

Were they playing in the world Cup qualifiers yesterday?

[G51]

Most teams that are dominant in possession actually play a back three these days.

Difference is they flex out one of the outside CB’s to adjust to a 2 at the back system when necessary.

[Bing.McCrosby]

Just now, G51 said:

Most teams that are dominant in possession actually play a back three these days.

Difference is they flex out one of the outside CB’s to adjust to a 2 at the back system when necessary.

Yet yesterday, England, Italy, Spain, France and Germany didn't.

[Aufc]

Is this your team for Faroes or your preferred Scotland XI in general? Coopers not in this squad. 

Ah I thought cooper was. Id go with that being my preferred scotland xi although we do need to find a new right back (paterson may or may not develop into this)