Tartan Blood

Looking at Wales, Austria and Ukraine, none of them are in their golden generation. Scotland, arguably, are. Scotland are on the ascendancy. We have some top class individuals, but also a close-knit team on form. On paper, we are the best out of the 4. I think they'd all be happy they've swerved the big guns. But if they underestimate us, we'll destroy them.

I do. Obviously everyone knows it doesn't reflect his abilities though. He is the one that tends to start moves, which he'll probably get a lot less credit for. I do think he is close to adding goals to his game as well. You can see he has it in the locker, he just hasn't found the net yet.

If Jack becomes a regular for Rangers again then you'd have to assume he'd take Lewis Ferguson's spot. Getting back in the first 11? I think the consensus at the moment is firmly in favour of keeping Gilmour and McGregor together. Next in line would almost certainly be a fit McTominay, especially with the amount of CBs we have at the moment. Then Premier League player, Kenny McLean, would be next. Jack might be 5th in the pecking order. Possibly 6th if Clarke was willing to drop McGinn deep again. (I'm not in favour of this) I think he is a great player, and it wasn't so long ago I'd have preferred him to McGregor, but a lot has changed in a year.

I think there is a good chance they would have made it anyway, but what I am certain of is that they were ready for international football far earlier than they otherwise would have. They have the awareness, in-game intelligence and confidence that usually takes years of senior football to develop. It's not a coincidence that a lot of Scottish internationalists are late bloomers. They need more time to develop before reaching their potential. But I also think the PSchools will raise the ceiling for every player that went there. It's also not a coincidence that the 2 teams that have supplied Scotland with a lot of internationalists are the two that had employed a similar model to the PSchools first - Dundee Utd & Celtic. It's well known how many Celtic developed players have been in the Scotland squad this decade, but you also have the likes of Souttar, Gauld, Russell, Armstrong, and a number of others that spent some time in Dundee Utd's youth set up.

I know, right?! The best highlights I've found is the 5min Sky Sports one. If anyone knows where to watch extended highlights, or even the whole game, I'd love to know.

Why did you quote me? I didn't say McTominay "should be benched". Personally, I'd have McTominay in the midfield alongside Gilmour, but I don't think it'll happen. Barring injuries, it'll be a midfield 3 of Gilmour, McGregor and McGinn. McTominay will be in defence. I don't think Clarke will drop him completely. If we had friendlies, I'd love to try out Gilmour, McTominay and Turnbull to get a possible glimpse of the future. The one downside to a lack of friendlies is it makes it harder to experiment.

I'm kind of torn when I hear the likes of McGinn being linked with big moves to top 6 teams. Although I think he is capable, what happens if he becomes a bench warmer? Being an integral part of an established premier league team is surely better than being a substitute. But he could end up being a regular for a bigger team, so who knows. Fraser is the one I'm always intrigued by. On form and fit, I genuinely would have him as one of our undroppable players. As you say, that was a while ago. Hopefully Newcastle's next manager will give him a run of games. If not, I'd prefer to see him leave, but I think he is too good for the championship. No doubt there will be some lower half EPL teams interested.

Did you look through all the games yourself? If so, that's commitment! Thanks! 38 should cover just about everyone except Robertson, who has 52 caps, I think. Don't worry, I won't make you go back through all his games.

It should be easy enough to do for the current squad, though. I'm sure there must be detailed stats somewhere. Club football has it down to minute details, I'm sure international will have it as well. Or, someone could watch all the goals the past decade and write it down. Any takers? You're right, for club football. The most creative players will be paired up with the best finishers. That doesn't necessarily happen with international football. Maloney, for example, was an incredibly creative talent, but he rarely had a supreme finisher to aim at. Chance creation would be a better reflection for Scotland, I think.

I do agree, assist stats can be massively misleading. Like, Fraser put in a wondeful cross for Burke against Cyprus who hit the post and it rebounded back to him before putting it in the net. In that scenario Fraser doesn't get the assist, but quite clearly created the goal. On the other hand, you could have someone make a 3 yard sideways pass and if that player goes on a mazy run and scores, it still counts as an assist. I'm sure plenty of McFadden's goals were like that. Winning penalties is another that I think should be counted as an assist. However, even with its flaws, it's still interesting to look at. Especially if you can see other stats, like chance creation, alongside it. I would never hold a lack of assists against Robbo, especially after the Euros.

Yeah, I checked out this site and it's definitely not up to date. It seems to only show tournament stats as well. So friendlies aren't included either.

I can't seem to find any decent sources for all time assists charts for Scotland. Maybe I'm just not very good at Google. We go on about goals and lack thereof often, but I'd be interested to know who has a lot of assists for Scotland. In the current set up and historically. For example, Robbo got an extra couple of assists versus Israel, but I don't actually know how many he has in total. If anyone has a decent source, or just wants to chime in, that would be great.

Those were just off the top of my head. There are umpteen more examples. Cummings and Beattie both played for the old firm, and that's generally enough to get some buzz surrounding them. But all the other names mentioned were, at various points, hyped as the next big thing. My original point was, there have been dozens of strikers to come through that underachieved for Scotland (and their clubs) for myriad reasons. Right now, the well seems to have dried up completely. Thank God for Dykes, Adams and Nisbet.

You've mentioned 5 of the players afflicted with the curse. Fletcher especially should have double the caps he does. As should McCormack. I never quite knew what to think of Boyd. He was prolific everywhere he went, but there was just something missing. Very few managers trusted him in big games. 7 goals in 7 starts for Scotland. (I think 8 or 9 more sub appearances on top of that) Throw in names like Goodwillie, Watt, Cummings, Beattie, McBurnie and you can see just how many failed to live up to their potential. Kenny Miller and Steven Naismith are the only 2 that I would say became proper servants to the national team this millenium. There should be more.

I did think of Turnbull, but it was, what, 3 years ago he won YPOTY? So not quite as recent as Patterson and Gilmour. But I do agree, he is a supreme talent, and if it weren't for McGinn being undroppable he might have had a handful of caps by now. Regarding Gilmour and Patterson, it probably was inevitable they'd make it, but would they have made it so early? The in-game intelligence and maturity that comes with experience has clearly been trained into them. So when they were chucked in the deep end, they already knew how to swim.

It's partly that they aren't good enough, but, also, the ones that would have been good enough have massive egos, or attitude problems, or something else. Maybe a bit more sport pyschology would help. The 2 best youth players of recent years have come from the performance schools. That's not a coincidence. The schools should either be expanded, or the practices implemented by all clubs.

I was thinking the same thing. And none of them emerged until 23/24 either. We are very lucky to have those 3, when we might have still been persevering with McBurnie. Would we have even been at the Euros had we not uncovered Dykes? Who knows.

It honestly feels like we are cursed. We either have zero coming through, or the ones that do come through have some sort of issue that affects their availability or development. Probably the only striker we've had consistently available with seemingly no issues was Kenny Miller. Almost all others had bad injuries, attitude problems, court cases, disinterest, etc etc. I could name at least 10 promising strikers the past 2 decades that amounted to very little for one reason or another. Fingers crossed Dykes, Adams and Nisbet have broken the curse and continue to do well.

Ah God dammit haha. Obviously I meant McGinniesta, not a second Gil Bilmour. Looks like Clarke agrees with me. It'll be great to see if how McTominay and Gilmour gel tonight.

Interesting that you see McGregor as undroppable. That's testament to how far he has come the past 6 months. He's a man possessed these days. Good on him for re-finding his mojo. However, I still wouldn't put him in the same bracket as the other 7. McTominay is a top tier central midfielder. On paper, he should be undroppable, but I understand why some don't think he is. I'd be rotating between McTominay and McGregor depending on the opposition. Tonight might be a good game to see how a midfield 3 of McTominay, Gilmour and Gilmour get on together.

Just the same as usual. Robertson and Tierney will swap duties throughout. But Hanley and our Centre-mids will be sweeping up most attacks anyway. Especially if he goes with a midfield 3 of McTominay, Gilmour and McGregor. I wouldn't worry about the defensive side. It's are we able to attack enough, is the question.

You might be right. Though, if I remember correctly, Tierney was a bit out of form at that time and maybe lacking confidence. That could be why. If I were playing Christie, I'd get him on the right, rather than the left, since Tierney and Robertson will be rampaging down that side anyway. I'm utterly torn on what team and formation I'd play tonight. As much as I want to be loyal to the Israel heroes, we also have to look at our talent in the squad and utilise them.

I don't think it would restrict the attacks, more like compliment them. We all know that Tierney will virtually be a midfielder in this game anyway, as will Patterson and Robertson. So, if we did go for the same team as Israel with Hanley in for Adams as the only change, I wouldn't be too concerned.

Not only is our current squad vastly superior, there are probably a dozen guys right now that can't even get in our squad that would have been first 11 players back then e.g Gauld, Watt, Hickey etc It was very soon after this that the likes of Fletcher, McFadden, Miller, Maloney, Hutton and the Hibs golden generation emerged. But even at our peak in 2007(?) the squad didn't have the depth it does now. I'd happily argue our current squad is the best this millennium, and is pretty close to being better than the 1998 squad, if it isn't already.

He was literally playing right back for England's u21s tonight. I think this discussion can be parked until such times he does a James Morrison and changes his mind. I'm fully on board with dual nationalities and accept that waters are a bit muddier these days when it comes to choosing allegiances, but, at least for now, I think we should discuss other eligibles. Patterson and Ramsay will be our next Robbo/Tierney anyway, so we don't need him.