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Squad face Slovenia and Slovakia


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40 minutes ago, forameus said:

Think that's me getting pelters for that...I'll admit, was probably pretty harsh, and on looking at the highlights rather than at the game, his chances drew far better saves than it seemed at the time.  I don't think his movement off the ball was quite good enough, and he often hangs around in an offside position a little longer than necessary, but he worked very hard.  His dropping deep was often made to look worse by our midfield rarely getting beyond him, unfortunately for him.

And I didn't mention it, but we did defend very well.  Don't think Mulgrew put a foot wrong, and Berra's only real issues were a few hairy clearances going straight up in the air.  Short of looking a bit lost in Slovakia's decent first half period, we were rarely troubled.

I think that could be said for the majority of the team last night. A lot of our chances stemmed from us just looking for the overlap out wide and smashing it into the box, I've been blaming the central midfield for the slow build up but there wasn't much in front of them for them to be playing incisive passes to.

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Just watched the Slovak coaches interview after the game. When asked about mhak's two yellows, he laughs and says "there have been too many coincidences" since they arrived at Hampden, citing a conspiracy including their baggage being delayed :lol:

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Mhak actually thought quite quickly on his feet (or not on his feet) for his dive.  He thought Gordon would touch him, so went down.  When he didn't, he realised he'd fucked up and tried to get back to his feet.  You could tell in the close-up as he got his second yellow that he knew what he'd done.  That few seconds after before he starts his half-hearted appeal.

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Mhak actually thought quite quickly on his feet (or not on his feet) for his dive.  He thought Gordon would touch him, so went down.  When he didn't, he realised he'd fucked up and tried to get back to his feet.  You could tell in the close-up as he got his second yellow that he knew what he'd done.  That few seconds after before he starts his half-hearted appeal.

Can't imagine he'll be getting a warm welcome when he gets off the plane. Imagine the flight was fairly awkward for him too....
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I think the Daily Record reporter likes the number 7:  

Gordon 7/10 
Tierney 7/10 
Robertson 7/10 
Berra 7/10
Mulgrew 7/10 
Bannan 7/10 
Morrison 7/10 
Fletcher 7/10 
Forrest 7/10 
Phillips 7/10 
Griffiths 8/10 

Subs 

Martin 7/10
Anya 7/10 
McArthur 7/10  

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-match-reports/scotland-player-ratings-who-star-11295227

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Seeding the playoffs is shite. The group's are already seeded so the teams who finish in 2nd after that have all done so on merit. Seeding those teams after that is unnecessary and unfair but those were rules from the start so tough shit really.

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Fully agree with vT. Why shouldn't playoffs be seeded? Should we not seed the groups at the WC because everyone has got there on equal merit? 

Seeding rewards performance and allows for the large discrepancies between the top and bottom of individual pots (and conversely the small discrepancies between the top of one pot and the bottom of the pot directly above). 

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8 minutes ago, Virtual Insanity said:

Fully agree with vT. Why shouldn't playoffs be seeded? Should we not seed the groups at the WC because everyone has got there on equal merit? 

Seeding rewards performance and allows for the large discrepancies between the top and bottom of individual pots (and conversely the small discrepancies between the top of one pot and the bottom of the pot directly above). 

While I see the point of ensuring there are no discrepancies, it stinks of stacking the deck in favour of teams who already have the deck stacked in their favour. At the risk of sounding AMF, it reduces the likelihood of a diddy team getting a run and removes some of the "romance" from the event.

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I think seeding based on the world rankings is shit because the world rankings are utter, utter nonsense, but I've no issue with the playoffs being seeded in general. It's bad news for us obviously, but it's not unfair: if we make it we're going to be unseeded because we had rubbish results earlier in the campaign, so tough.

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Unfair would be what happened to Ireland where they literally shifted the goalposts.  We knew the playoffs would be seeded from day 1, and knew that if we were going to get to the World Cup, it was likely via said playoffs (and also that we'd likely be unseeded there).  It is what it is.  The saving grace of the World Rankings is that they're often so wild that you could get beatable teams like Wales and Northern Ireland as a seeded side when there's arguably better sides in the non-seeds (potentially)

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4 hours ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

We've made our own luck there.

I'm delighted we've manage to make it this far with it still in our own hands. The only things nagging at me from that game to consider for Sunday are:

a) James Forrest; not convinced he contributes enough to merit inclusion, got to be worth playing someone else in his position? Martin on for Forrest absolutely the right sub at the right time

and

b) Tierney didn't look comfortable at right back. Maybe Robertson RB, Tierney LB? Needs looking at imo

Other than that I've got trust in the players and Strachan, whatever he decides to do for Sunday. Can't believe I'm saying that but he/they have earned that much at least.

edit: Robert mhak (thanks, word filter!) is an absolute fanny and I love him

Totally agree a lot of our attacks were hindered by Tierneys inability to trust his right foot. Anya was far better in the short time he was on. For me Tierney LB Robertson Lm and Anya RB is the answer. On a side note thought Phillips was pretty crap tbh. The rest done well especially Bannan in the 2nd half. 

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A quick search reveals that seeding was used in 2005 too. Not exactly last minute.


I clearly remember it being introduced for the 2009 play offs after groups to protect France. I also remember Ireland going mad as it was not in rules pre qualification games. In fact a quick Internet search articulates this... so yes, last minute.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/republic-of-ireland/6320296/Shay-Given-blasts-Fifa-over-decision-to-seed-World-Cup-play-offs.html
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Juse seen Gordon got his 50th cap last night.  Would never have thought it would take him til 2017 to reach that had someone asked you a decade ago.

 

Also, Fletcher is on 78.  He'd be pushing for eventual entry into the 100 club you'd think had he not lost those 2 years

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When I saw the midfield for yesterdays game I thought "That stubborn little ginger c**t has sold the jerseys". Barry Bannan was the one I cringed at most come the team sheet but he was great for us yesterday, I was proven wrong.

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