Squad for Lithuania and Malta

[Poet of the Macabre]

Anyone that thought Brown was shite needs their head looked at. Covered for everyone else on numerous occasions. He's not much of an attacking threat but that's not his job. 

[Gordopolis]

Think Forrest gets a hard time off some. His pressing and work rate is excellent and is why he gets picked in big games. Tonight didn't suit him as he is limited technically and Malta sat in very deep.

Want to know what's happened to his pace though. He rarely bursts explosively past a player these days and that used to be his distinguishing attribute.

[Tartan Dave]

Just now, Gordopolis said:

Want to know what's happened to his pace though. He rarely bursts explosively past a player these days and that used to be his distinguishing attribute.

Could be down to a lack of confidence? Certainly tonight he was coming a lot more central than I'm used to seeing him but Phillips and Griffiths were interchanging positions also. 

[1320Lichtie]

Well that didn't happen

[Gordopolis]

Could be down to a lack of confidence? Certainly tonight he was coming a lot more central than I'm used to seeing him but Phillips and Griffiths were interchanging positions also. 

Yeah I wonder if it's been coached out of him. I.e. he's been advised not to rely wholly on his pace (early on in his career he was guilty of dipping his head and just blindly charging) but he has taken it too far?

[MarkoRaj]

Rashford just ran straight into the slovak players on the edge of his own box, then again he's an overrated wee c**t 

Nope

[Lyle Lanley]

Forrest has to be dropped for the next game, he offers f**k all to the team. 

[ravabelli]

6 hours ago, Tartan Dave said:

Think Forrest gets a hard time off some. His pressing and work rate is excellent and is why he gets picked in big games. Tonight didn't suit him as he is limited technically and Malta sat in very deep.

Anyone who's fit could work hard and press, that's not enough at this level, he's simply not good enough

[dogmc]

Anyone who's fit could work hard and press, that's not enough at this level, he's simply not good enough

Exactly we aren't in a position to carry a player especially one who has never offered an end product for us and who often leaves his full back exposed. There's plenty of better options who can perform for us

[LinkinFighter]

There's no point going on about, if he's fit Strachan will likely start him.

[Desp]

Middle of the second half. Receives the ball on the touchline, struggles to control the ball, before running straight out the pitch rather than running in a straight line.

James Forrest.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Middle of the second half. Receives the ball on the touchline, struggles to control the ball, before running straight out the pitch rather than running in a straight line.

James Forrest.

My favourite was when he actually beat his man, was going towards the byline, a couple of players to aim for in the box and he decided to cut it back to nobody.

[harry94]

I reckon Forrest isn't really as suited to games like that but can be effective against better teams in the group. He's one of these players who I think always seems to look much better when you're at the game and his influence on the game in terms of how he changes the team shape and flow of the game feels more apparent. To counter Malta, I'd have gone with a different sort of player there but I get why Strachan wanted to keep the team together and it's got the job done.

Ideally, Fraser is probably a better player and can offer more in that role but right now, Celtic are in really great form and familiarity is an important thing in international football. It's pretty easy to reduce the role to a simple 'turn and sprint' but we've had dozens of players who have failed to assert anything on the game and seen matches completely pass them by, despite playing at a decent level.

[professor challenger]

Competent enough and very professional.

Difficult game for us tactically as our team just isn't set up to play against one which sits so deep.      The reason you pass about at the back is to keep the ball and to draw the other team out.    It looks stupid and slightly negative when the other team are quite happy to just sit back and won't be drawn forward.

Think Phillips was trying just too hard and Armstrong was comfortably the best player on the park

[forameus]

Not the best comparison, but Burke's contribution to Scotland so far has been running down blind alleys.  And like harry94 said, we've had plenty of players who've done similar.

Still, he probably wasn't the best option last night, and remains to be seen whether he's the best option next month.  Phillips most definitely is though.

6 minutes ago, professor challenger said:

The reason you pass about at the back is to keep the ball and to draw the other team out.    It looks stupid and slightly negative when the other team are quite happy to just sit back and won't be drawn forward.

The complaints about this are one of my pet hates.  I totally get that there are times where a backwards or sideways pass isn't the right option, but, particularly at Firhill with the people around me, it seems that any pass like that is automatically negative and we'd be much better served playing it forward no matter what.  We were doing exactly what we needed to do when playing a side who didn't seem to show any interest in getting back into the game once we scored.  Playing it around the pitch was clearly trying to get them to come out slightly and leave space.  When a side doesn't want to do that though, it ends up looking like that.  

[Dunning1874]

Admittedly it was only Malta and we'll need to be far better against Slovakia and Slovenia, but I think it's telling that both Phillips and Forrest had poor games and we were still comfortable with those two offering very little.

Even with them doing nothing in possession they're still direct players who can run at a defence with pace, create space for Robertson and Tierney to get forward off the ball by occupying defenders and offer an easy pass for them. We didn't have that earlier in the campaign with the likes of Ritchie or Bannan as the concept of making a run outside a full back and trying to beat them for pace is alien to them, while all they want to do every time they get the ball is cut inside and we end up congested in the middle of the park.

Obviously you need to adjust your style based on the opposition at times, but we're clearly a far better team with more conventional, pacy wingers on the pitch. If Forrest or Phillips are dropped or unavailable for any reason, it should be another player in that mould replacing them in Fraser or Burke. Reverting to Ritchie, Bannan or Snodgrass will only see us become more pedestrian and struggle to break teams down.

[sergie's no1 fan]

Can't believe we scooshed both games without McGregor [emoji849].

[kenny131]

1 hour ago, dogmc said:

Exactly we aren't in a position to carry a player especially one who has never offered an end product for us and who often leaves his full back exposed. There's plenty of better options who can perform for us

Hopefully olly burke lights up the prem over the next month and he may get the nod he's playing wide right at West Brom going by his 5minute cameo debut. Other than that who else can fill that spot that has pace maybe fraser but not sure how quick he is,  having Carthorse out wide has been our downfall for years and at start of group.

[The OP]

47 minutes ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

Can't believe we scooshed both games without McGregor .
 

Think he's busy preparing for his tennis match against Federer. 

[AyrTroopMajor]

Came away from the stadium feeling a bit underwhelmed, having paid £45 for a ticket, I'd have liked a bit more urgency in that last 20 minutes rather than sideways and backward passes, but on reflection, it was all about the points. I'd much rather have a comfortable, verging on boring 2-0 win than the Levein vs Liechtenstein monstrosity.