AndyDD
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Posts posted by AndyDD
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19 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:
Yeah, on the face of it we're likely going in only one starting level player short (Hickey). Which is good. Look deeper though and problems aren't hard to find.
The one position we've lost a starter in we've also lost the usual deputy (Patterson). So we're down to a 3rd choice right back.
We've also lost one of our better midfield options off the bench (Ferguson) and may yet lose another in Armstrong.
And we've lost our 4th choice striker in Brown, though granted that's a minor point.
On top of that there are fitness concerns about at least 4 others who are currently IN the squad (Hanley, Cooper, Jack, Doak). Between them they've started NO games since the start of March. And less than half a dozen in 2024.
It could be worse but it also could have been a lot better.
Aye, this is unfortunate.
Losing Ferguson is a shame, a player who has had a brilliant season, but he's only had limited involvement in competitive games up to now and I'd honestly not have expected him to be used from the start in any game, nor do I think he'd be a sub we'd turn to in any attempt to change a game, based purely on how Clarke has used him thus far.
Definitely would like to have him and he'd make a contribution, but evidence thus far indicates it wouldn't necessarily have been huge.
I'm hoping that the players called up are only being included because they are expected to be fit, so whilst in an ideal world they'd have all been playing regularly the last few months, I'm not that concerned by it. As for Jacob Brown, yes, calling it a minor point is probably being polite.
Realistically speaking, the squad health is decent. More good news than bad.
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1 minute ago, Skyline Drifter said:
McKenna's last game is on Sunday v Nordsjaelland
Hendry's Al-Ettifaq still have two games left. One tomorrow and one on Monday. Hendry will be the last one finished with club football.
Righto.
Good thing we've plenty options at centre-back. No reason to assume either will get injured, I know.
If we do really go into this with just the one starter out, that's a decent return given the sheer weight of games, and the number of players contesting for serious prizes deep into their seasons.
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5 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:
Well obviously not just McGregor involved in the Scottish Cup Final. Potentially Ralston, Forrest, Taylor, Souttar and Jack also.
McTominay in the FA Cup Final
Hendry and McKenna both have another club game.
Plus........
This. It's Sunday
Ha yeah, I just don't think it's anywhere close to as bad if any of the other rangers or celtic players get an injury as it is if McGregor is ruled out. Forrest would be next in the 'please don't get hurt' stakes, but he'd be a ways back from McGregor who is a definite starter and pivotal to our chances of doing well.
It's also worth saying that Ralston, Jack and Souttar probably won't play at all on Saturday.
Didn't realise Hendry and McKenna's season's were still ongoing. When do they play, if you know? Is this weekend the last, or are they playing in the week?
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21 minutes ago, Caledonian1 said:
Cooper, Adams, Armstrong(unlikely to play) have the English Championship play-off - Sunday I think...or maybe Monday as its an English holiday then
Aw baws, didn't realise that.
Hopefully if Adams and/or Cooper does feature they come through okay.
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On 16/05/2024 at 14:42, AndyDD said:
Gunn, Gordon, Clark
Porteous, Hanley, Hendry, McKenna, Cooper, Souttar
Tierney
Robertson, Taylor, Ralston, McCrorie, Johnston
McGinn, McTominay, McGregor, Gilmour, McLean
Christie, Armstrong, Forrest
Adams, Dykes, ShanklandThat's my guess.
If it was what I wanted, it'd be much the same, but I'd have Fraser in and drop a CB (Souttar, I think) and I'd probably go with Doig over Taylor.
25. Nae bad.
Didnae see the inclusion of Jack or Doak coming. Excited by the later.
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A strong squad. Limited in some places, especially RWB, but we knew we were short in that area. As it stands, just one player (Hickey) out who'd be a stick on starter all being equal?
Not bad going.
11 Defenders makes you think there's a strong chance one of them ends up chopped along with the goalie (Kelly) but it could easily be Ryan Jack, too. If he takes all 11 defenders it wouldn't be some massive shock, but I believe there are question marks over Souttar's fitness. Hanley too, albeit less so, I think?
A lot to be excited about and the squad does look stronger than the last euros. A lot of these players are better now than they were then.
Hopefully that Frankenstein's monster diddy Lundstrum doesn't cut Mcgregor in half in the cup final. Everyone else are done for the domestic season, aren't they?
Aw, McTominay in the english final.
Merde.
No point playing him in that, Ten Hag. Listen to your moronic supporters on twitter, he's not utd class etc etc.
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Gunn, Gordon, Clark
Porteous, Hanley, Hendry, McKenna, Cooper, Souttar
Tierney
Robertson, Taylor, Ralston, McCrorie, Johnston
McGinn, McTominay, McGregor, Gilmour, McLean
Christie, Armstrong, Forrest
Adams, Dykes, ShanklandThat's my guess.
If it was what I wanted, it'd be much the same, but I'd have Fraser in and drop a CB (Souttar, I think) and I'd probably go with Doig over Taylor.
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Ayr 1-1 Dunfermline
Dundee United 2-0 Partick
ICT 0-0 Morton
QP 2-3 Airdrie
Raith 3-0 Arbroath
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20 hours ago, Airdrie101 said:
Diamond checking in from the US. Will this be on Iplayer on Friday?
DiamondsTV Stream will be available to overseas viewers tomorrow, link at the bottom of the match preview
https://www.airdriefc.com/2324-news/240425/airdrieonians-vs-dundee-united
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13 hours ago, craigkillie said:
It's not similar at all if you have two extra defenders in the squad. McTominay started the Czech game in midfield so it's not as though he was being taken purely to play at the back.
Two strikes me as a pretty small difference, rather than being 'not similar at all'.
Shankland will replace Nisbet, but if he decides to replace, say, Turnbull and Fleck, with extra defenders, the difference is hardly seismic.
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29 minutes ago, craigkillie said:
Taking five wing-backs and seven centre backs is clearly ludicrous, especially when we only play with two wing-backs and three centre-backs and have others who can cover there in a fully blown injury crisis.Given that we took four wingbacks, Tierney, five centre backs and mctominay to the last one, I really don't see how it is, especially when you factor in the potential to give hickey extra cover.
It is similar to the last euros squad.
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It'll depend on what, if anything, Clarke wants to do differently from the last time. That he didn't use two defenders doesn't necessarily mean he thinks it was a mistake to take them. He regularly brings players to squads without giving them gametime. What they bring to the group and what he wants to do training wise will factor into his selection, along with how many differences he wants to make to how he fills his squad compared to last time, or if he felt that was more or les bang on.
He could depart significantly from the way he made up his squad last time, but he rarely seems to make significant departures. I'd expect it to be similar vis a vis number of defensive options, and 1 or 2 players either way is not a significant departure. Him going for extras this time as added cover given the circumstances around right back and Grant Hanley is plausible. I certainly don't think he'll take less than 10. He might, but that would be a departure from the norm.
Three right backs (Hickey and two covers), Tierney, two left backs (Robertson and one other) and six centre backs takes you to twelve without it being especially outrageous or ludicrous.
If he ends up taking Porteous, Hanley, Hendry, McKenna, Cooper and Souttar I don't imagine anyone stands back in astonishment, especially since there will be fitness doubts over Hanley and the fact that he seems to greatly value Cooper. One of those not making it is entirely possible, especially since Tierney is going to be playing but again, I'm not sure what forward or midfielder gets the space opened up by dropping one or more of those listed players. He might decide just to take two right backs, he might decide to use Tierney and Hickey as his back up leftbacks and not have any at all on the bench, but the defensive make up of the squad is unlikely to be far off that.
10 defenders plus McTominay last time , I don't see what's ludicrous or especially mental about suggesting he might take 11 plus an extra right back this time, all things considered.
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13 hours ago, craigkillie said:
We also had 4 goalkeepers in the last squad, but we won't be taking 4 to Germany with us. I think that was about avoiding having to "drop" someone prematurely if there ended up being injuries anyway.The last Euros squad only had 10 defenders in it out of 26 players, albeit McTominay also played centre-back at the tournament. There were 4 full-backs and 6 centre-backs (including Tierney). Even if you add an extra centre-back to account for McTominay, that's only taking you to 11.
Clarke is loyal to his core group of players, but there has always been a cut-off point for that loyalty, and players have eventually been dropped, including guys like Palmer being binned for the last tournament when he could obviously easily have been taken ahead of someone like Turnbull who was a new face to the squad.
Yeah I'm sure that's exactly why he took 4 goalkeepers.
10 the last euros plus McTominay, so clearly 12 defenders isn't some strange suggestion, nor would it be a significant departure from the last time. I think given that Hickey will be going in the circumstances that he is, additional cover at right back makes sense, and taking an extra actual right back over a centre mid like Jack who can cover there in a pinch is probably a better shout.
The extra spaces available could go to fringe midfielders or forwards, but I think it's marginally more likely he'll use them to add one (or two if we aren't counting McTominay) defender compared to last time to allow for cover at right-back and centre back.
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20 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:
If Hickey's fit you don't need "A N Other" left back. If Robertson is unavailable Hickey would switch wings and if he's unavailable Tierney would step out of central. No reason to take Taylor, Doig or anyone else. Of course that goalpost moves if Hickey doesn't make it or indeed if the squad size is moved to 26 as now appears likely.
Yeah, I'm working on the assumption that it will be 26.
Okay, you don't need another left back, but I think it makes logical sense to have a direct replacement that could go into left back should Robertson need to be subbed off at any point, whilst also allowing yourself to keep your defence otherwise unchanged, as opposed to having to add a new CB to push Tierney out to left-back, or another right back to allow you to switch Hickey over, or changing formation. You might want to keep everything else as is, and taking another left back in the squad means you can if you like.
Hickey is presumably more likely than in normal circumstances to pull up during a game, or need replacing during a game, so having extra cover for that position seems sensible to me.
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We had 11 defenders in the last squad, out of 25, for 2 games.
26 spaces to fill for the euros squad, and I doubt we're going top heavy with strikers.
McGinn, McTominay, McGregor, Gilmour, McLean, Christie, Armstrong, Fraser or maybe Brown, Adams, Dykes, Shankland.
I'm not sure who, if anyone, goes along on top of those names as additional midfielders or strikers, meaning the rest is going to be defenders and goalies.
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With Tierney in the squad, you really only need Robertson and A N Other left back. Doig seems the sensible choice there ahead of Taylor, on the basis that he looks to be playing a decent number of games in Serie A and at 21 is more likely to feature in euro and world cup campaigns of the future so, if taking someone to be the spare, may as well go with the future. Taylor is probably who Clarke will opt for, though, I know.
Right back is trickier, because whilst Hickey will have had 8 months or so of training, it will be a gradual build up of training and he won't have played in so long, meaning I think you want to bring 2 other options there to cover. Assuming for the moment Patterson doesn't make it back in time, McCrorie and Ralston the other two?
I'm operating admittedly on the assumption that we go with 6 CBs, Tierney, 2 LBs, 3 RBs(including Hickey). Could drop a CB for a 3rd LB. Could drop a CM for 3rd LB, instead, if you wanted to (I'm expecting we take 5 centre mids though, rather than 6).
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Airdrieonians 2-1 Dundee United
Arbroath 0-1 QP
Dunfermline 1-1 ICT
Morton 0-2 Raith
Partick Thistle 2-0 Ayr
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Admittedly I've not put much thought into the issue and I also accept that it's wildly, ridiculously unlikely to ever happen, but I'd be for a top 2 promoted, bottom 2 relegated scenario, with a home and away playoff between 3rd bottom and 3rd top.
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ICT 1-1 Raith
Arbroath 1-1 Morton
Dundee United 3-0 Ayr
Dunfermline 1-0 Queen's Park
Partick 1-2 Airdrie
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Morton 1-3 Dundee Utd
Airdrie 1-0 Dunfermline
Ayr 2-0 Arbroath
QP 1-0 ICT
Raith 2-2 Partick
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If they'd just delayed kickoff against rangers until later on that same day (assuming the Dundee official who said it would be fine to play later that afternoon was right) then it wouldnae really matter, would it? They'd be able to play this game in the coming week if Dens isn't playable on Saturday.
Of course, we just had a midweek there during which the Dundee v rangers fixture could have easily been played, too. That would have also taken the pressure off any potential rescheduling of this fixture.
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Airdrie 2-0 Morton
Dunfermline 2-2 Partick
ICT 0-0 Arbroath
QP 0-2 Dundee Utd
Raith 1-1 Ayr
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Replicate the first half from Friday and we'll create enough chances to be a few goals up by the break; Northern Ireland won't be able to live with that.
Then we can start giving some minutes to other squad members if we like. On that basis, minimal changes to the starting line-up, try and be more clinical than Friday (even though the number of chances created ought to be a lot higher), get them sworded relatively early and use the squad accordingly for the second half/last half hour.
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Ayr 0-2 Airdrie
Arbroath 1-1 Dunfermline
Dundee United 1-1 Raith Rovers
Morton 0-1 Queen's Park
Partick Thistle 3-1 ICT
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SCOTLAND EUROS PREDICTION GAME
in Tartan Army Ramblings
Posted · Edited by AndyDD
Germany 1-1 Scotland (Purely on the basis that this was the score for my brother and I's first Scotland game, so it'd be fitting to mirror it when we're both at a tournament together)
Scotland 1-0 Switzerland
Scotland 2-2 Hungary