bleedingums

He wasn’t offside so couldn’t interfere. Seen it in numerous angles now. It’s corruption.

UEFA’s apology letter to the SFA is going to make it all better though, am I right lads?

It’s still in our hands. Could also be done and dusted before the friendly next week. That was utter w**k from the officials but we didn’t help ourselves by just trying to sit in the whole time. This spain team are no where near as good as the England team we played last month. We could have totally taken the game to them again but didn’t, until we were a goal down. Feel for Hickey. He was very good tonight and one slip has selt the jersies.

Bit more composure on the ball needed but otherwise, ok. Cannae be doing with the long balls straight back to them

Poor Ryan even made a GIF for today…

Agree with this. Gauld’s window was probably right after his stint in Portugal but he went to MLS. It sounded like Sporting treated him like shit so can’t really blame him for taking the money option after that. Covid came along and made it impossible for call ups during that period and now Clarke’s squad is pretty much set and as you say, his priority will be more players like Doak and others his age.. It’s fair enough.

presenting opinions as facts:

Murder She Wr-oak

Doak has been added to Liverpool’s europa squad. If he gets minutes there and in the cups, maybe a few league cameos, then get him in the squad next month. Anderson can be kiboshed until November when one cap will commit him to Scotland. Even if he plays both games in October he could still flyt, so I’d just wait until November and see if he’s actually keen. Other than that, I’d imagine it’ll be the same squad.

England gave us a lesson tonight. Good. Learn from it. I’d imagine France might too. We’ll still more than likely qualify, but if we want this team to get to the next level we need to cut out this deer in the headlights shite. That’s the Euros, World Cup playoff and now this where that’s happened. Biggest disappointment was that some of our key players of recent times were the ones looking the most spooked. England are a better team, played very well and there’s no denying that Bellingham is fucking class, but no one can convince me that we couldn’t have made more of a game of that. They’re laughing at you lads, fucking digest that and let’s see what you’re made of.

Speak for yourself….

He’s feeling the need to resort to mind games. Rattled IMO……

The thing that gives me hope is that there are several very good prospects on the horizon. In the previous 20-odd years we’d be talking about 1, maybe 2 young players that had a high ceiling. We’re now consistently talking about many more than that almost every year. The u21s and u19s have several recognisable players that are already establishing themselves in first teams. Some of them won’t make it to the level that we’re hoping, of course, but the chances of a few getting there are much higher when there’s a bigger pool. IMO that’s the result of the performance schools and other club schools that have also improved. For the last 2/3 years, the squad has improved each year by a combination of adding higher quality players and the current squad members themselves also improving.

And taking scissors to Southgate’s ASOS loyalty card

McTominay is a Law unto himself…..

This feels like that scene in the Matrix where Agent Smith says that humans rejected utopia so they deliberately made the matrix shit. I’m seeing that we’re cruising this, but my brain isn’t accepting it!

Player i most want to see coming on now is Ferguson. Has been brilliant in Italy but unfortunate that that part of our team is stacked.

Clean sheet, no yellows and no injuries please

Yep, totally running the show. I’d imagine there’ll still be a fair amount of rotation once their games start piling up (europa league, cups etc), but he seems to be setting himself up as one of the first names in their first 11. He seems to be putting himself about more and more physically, too, which is a great sign.

I think that’s a decent move for him. Although, just seeing that Luke Shaw will be out for an extended period. Wee cheeky sabotage bid from Man Utd incoming?

In an attempt to drag this back on topic..! I agree that Hickey is better defensively than he is in attack, but that could end up being less of an issue if Clarke puts Doak in at some point, further up that flank.

He was really excellent today. Made one of the March goals with a great ball over the top to Enciso, loads of nice forward passes and was also pretty good defensively. Played the whole ~100mins as well - at this rate he’ll have as many minutes as last season before the international break…..! Brighton will still be looking for a Caicedo replacement - someone who revels in ball winning etc, but Billy has really put his hand up for that second spot in the pivot.

Started and has had a brilliant first half for Brighton.

Has made the bench again today. Hopefully manages some minutes.

There’s this thing that happens on this board, and in particular when it comes to this subject of upcoming players, where people will mistake ‘realism’ or ‘pragmatism’ for pessimism and then paint themselves and their realism as making them cleverer than the other posters. Doak has clearly done enough for at least a call up to the squad. He featured in every pre-season match for Liverpool, scored and has now been kept with the first team squad and put in as a sub for one of the best players in the world when his team needed a goal. His manager obviously rates him. Added to that, after every game he plays the Liverpool fans are raving about him, so it’s not just tartan army desperation. All that being said, I won’t be majorly disappointed if he’s not called up in the upcoming window. Scotland have been playing really well. I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t make a squad this season, though. In fact, best possible scenario could be that we beat Cyprus, get the qualification in the bag and then that gives Clarke an opportunity to look at a couple of players.