eez-eh

Hopkin just doesn’t do midfielders does he?

If that was his logic then Liam Palmer would have been the obvious choice. It’s not a huge deal but it’s a tad baffling all the same. Would be nice to call up a replacement for Fraser, but I’ve absolutely no idea who that could be.

It’s not as if 4-5-1/4-2-3-1 with Tierney at right back worked under Strachan, of course.

Iceland back to being shite confirmed I see.

Christie would be a more natural fit but I’m still annoyed at him being pish yesterday.

Just because the line up shows him out wide doesn’t mean he’d be playing as a winger. Robertson would provide the width on that side. Fraser is the only winger in the squad so you need someone else to play on the other side. It’s not a hill I’m willing to die on but it solves the right back problem.

I’m sure waiting until the game had started before doing this wasn’t intentional at all.

I think this is the issue. It does work for some teams, Chelsea have done well with it for example, but they have exceptional midfielders. We don’t have a proper shithouse who won’t give the opposition a minutes peace and is willing to stick the boot in. McGinn comes closest to that but for whatever reason we can’t get a tune out of him when he plays deeper like he does for Villa. We have a lot of tidy, ball-playing midfielders, plus McTominay as a box-to-box option, but it isn’t enough out of possession. I still think 5 at the back can have its uses but as we’ve seen since the Serbia game it isn’t working for us right now. We sit too deep and ask the midfield to do too much. Going for a back 4 with Tierney at right back has got to be worth another try than persisting with this pish.

There’s an easy way to avoid playing O’Donnell or Patterson. Gordon Tierney - Hanley - Cooper - Robertson Gilmour - McGregor Fraser - McGinn - Turnbull Adams

In Moldova. If you’d read my post properly you would have noted the words “at home”. Aside from Wales who I’ve already pointed out, when did we last fail to beat a bottom seed team at home?

Feel free to explain if you get some time away from turning up to football games an hour early.

Moldova are among the diddiest of diddy teams. We occasionally get held to a draw against rubbish teams like Macedonia or Lithuania but Moldova are on a different level.

I’d be willing to bet that around half of his caps for us have been in midfield.

McTominay has rarely played well for us in midfield because he’s usually instructed to sit in front of the defence, which isn’t his best role. “Offensive”

Goal difference comes before head to head.

You’re happy with making defensive subs in the second half to see out a 1-0 win against Moldova? When our position could quite easily come down to goal difference?

Rubbish. How often do we fail to beat the bottom seeds at home? Wales is the only one I can remember.

Needing goals and he brings on McGregor and McLean. Anything less than a draw in Austria then the negative clown can f**k off.

Has Christie done anything?

I’d have given Tierney a rest and ditched the back 3/5, but no complaints with the rest of it.

Against Andorra no less. … in a friendly. … after they trailed them 1-0. On a non-football note, Kenny looks like he still cuts his own hair post-lockdown.

I was about to post about Ireland having 0 points after playing Luxembourg and Azerbaijan at home. Shame.

That last paragraph doesn’t make any sense.

There’s yer dinner.

This And these, of course