DC92

Has anyone had to go Cat 1 or 2 yet?

We only lost 3 of our last 10 games that season. We just hardly ever won unless we were playing Rangers or Hibs. Anyway, I don't have to think about that now I get to watch Naisyball every week.

He's a mediocre Premiership keeper who makes mistakes from time to time, but I thought he seemed particularly nervy last night. The ball he dropped for no reason was bizarre and would've been the worst goal he's conceded for us by a considerable distance, maybe only rivalled by one at Rugby Park last season. Some people will point to the recent Scotland game, but he's rarely made howlers like that for us. That was likely another case where he knew he shouldn't really have been playing (lack of options notwithstanding). And responding to some other posts, he did make some good saves, but that was the instinctive stuff rather than decision-making/handling.

Aberdeen might be gash, but they do play Hearts at home this weekend. No result has ever been more assured prior to kick-off than their inevitable 2-0 win.

We are a dull, dull team this season. Always feels like game over whenever we go behind despite a reasonable start before that. Clark must have been spooked by the sight of Gordon on the bench. Not great. Still, other results couldn't have gone any better and we're getting close to having a full strength squad again for the first time in about 2 years, so that's nice.

It was already ticked, but cheers anyway! I stopped getting emails from them about 18 months ago. No idea why. Yeah, I saw similar on Twitter after I posted. It's all very likely moot for me as a 10-pointer anyway

I'm not reassured by that assurance given I didn't receive this afternoon's email.

We'll be under real pressure to get points against Hungary and Switzerland regardless of when we play them (unless we've already got 3 points v Germany). Playing the "easiest" game first can also put you under real pressure if you don't win what is likely to be a cagey match, and we'd have less winnable games to come (see Euro 2020). We can now play the first game with a bit of freedom knowing a defeat isn't a total disaster while Germany will be under huge pressure to perform and won't have played competitively together for ages. If we do get anything then there's some margin for error in the other two games.

I don't think it's s bad draw at all. I wouldn't fancy us to beat any of the Pot 1 teams, but getting Germany in the opening game might have been the best possible combination of team and fixture order. It'll be a brilliant occasion and a chance to catch them cold in their first competitive game for 18 months, even if they do improve (which they almost certainly will). Hungary are a good team but have probably punched above their weight in the last couple of years relative to the quality in their squad on paper. A lot of their more impressive results have come against the big teams so they're maybe the most likely to give Germany a bloody nose, but they have also wobbled at times against more mediocre teams. They drew away to Bulgaria, Lithuania and Montenegro in this last campaign, relying on late equalisers in two of them, and they lost home and away to Albania in the World Cup qualifiers. Romania or Albania would probably have been better for us but I'm glad we avoided improving Austria and Turkey teams. Switzerland was a bit of a sore one from Pot 4, but they're in that pot for a reason despite a fairly soft group this time and I'd say only the Path A or Path C winners would've been obviously better options. Basically it's a middle-of-the-road group and if we can't finish 3rd in it then we've no business being in the knockout rounds anyway.

It didn't even feel as if we were particularly good going forward for most of last season. We ran up the score a few times, but they were clinical performances rather than dominant attacking ones. I think the baffling Snodgrass tactic helped that to an extent by encouraging teams to press us high which left spaces for us to exploit. Now teams sit back and let us have the ball because they know Kent/Rowles/Baningime aren't going to hurt them. Ginnelly is also an obvious factor, but McKay is one people don't mention so much. He's a better player than Lowry and was still central to most of our good attacking play last season even if he wasn't as good as the year before. If our problem is breaking down deep defences then surely he's been a huge miss.

So, so dull. But we seem to be consistently getting results against the bottom 10 now. Played 9, won 7, drawn 1 and lost 1 in the matches not immediately after a European game. Feels like Naismith's success or failure will depend on whether those dreary single-goal wins start to turn into more impressive scorelines or dreary draws and defeats.

On last night's evidence, Brown is also behind Shankland in the "bringing others into play" role. He might have a bit of pace, but he was totally hopeless with his back to goal.

With Romania winning "away" to Israel and Switzerland dropping points at home to Kosovo, the former just need to avoid defeat at home to the latter to win the group. If that happens, Romania will be in pot 2 and Switzerland pot 4. Pot 3 is looking more and more appealing.

Belgium will almost certainly be in Pot 1, as long as they beat Azerbaijan at home. Austria will drop into Pot 2 or 3 depending on what we do tomorrow. These are the current projections:

If only we could be like Aberdeen and make a >£5m loss every year.

Pre-international break sackings are pretty common and this one also roughly coincides with the end of the first round of fixtures. Gone after we get gubbed 4-0 on Sunday imo.

Obviously I like Shankland as a player, but he's only likely to be useful against the dross in qualifying. Nisbet is similar. I don't see there being much use for either at the tournament proper. Stewart I've seen less of, but maybe he adds more of a chaos factor with his height and mobility? If he stays fit and keeps up his recent scoring rate he'd probably be my pick. Tommy Conway might be an outside bet if he keeps developing.

Their group was no easier than normal and they won it easily, scoring freely and playing some great football. They were well on top against Belgium until the penalty award and Spinazzola's injury but saw the game out fine. They had to dig in against Spain but ultimately they beat them the same way any team beats Spain. They were the better team for the majority against England in the final. They did make heavy weather of the Austria game but it's rare for a team to go through the whole tournament without the odd scare. In fact, it's hard to find many recent tournament winners who haven't gone through any (Brazil v Turkey 2002, Italy v Australia 2006, Spain v Switzerland/Chile/Paraguay 2010, Germany v Ghana/Algeria 2014, France v Australia/Denmark 2018, Argentina v Saudi/Australia 2022). Their win was much more alike the teams listed above than a Portugal team that didn't win a game until the semis or a Greece team that was built entirely on not conceding.

Nah. Italy were a really good watch at that tournament and scored some brilliant goals. Loved watching Spinazzola and Chiesa down the left in particular. They an out of steam a bit towards the end and had to rely on their defence more but it's a nonsense to say they shitfested it.

I think their underperformance under Martinez is way overblown tbh. They were excellent in 2018 and came up against an even better team in the semis. At Euro 2020 they skooshed their group, beat Portugal in the 2nd round and again narrowly lost to the eventual winners. They did underperform at the World Cup but the quality of the squad was definitely on the downturn by that point. Lukaku also missed about 4 sitters in that Croatia game.

Someone post the gif of him faceplanting.

Hutton's peak for us lasted from about September-November 2007 when he was genuinely brilliant. After that he was ok but not Hickey's current level.

Grant should be starting imo. Lowry has only played well off the bench so far.

We have scored 5 goals in 7 games and are 4th.