Strikers coming through

[Bing.McCrosby]

1 minute ago, Aufc said:

 

Gauld wont make the squad.

I suspect there wont be many surprises in the squad. Turnbull looks like he may be making a late run. Gilmour is clearly a talented player but he is not really playing so the euros will come too soon for him.

Dykes and mcburnie will be the options. The only decision will be between shankland, nisbit and griffiths. I cant see him taking 4 strikers.
 

 

I really hope McBurnie isn't one of the options. When he was first choice playing every wk for Sheffield utd he was absolutely crap for us. Also looked completely uninterested.

Now he's in and out of the Sheffield utd team, and his form is awful. So I cant imagine him putting in any good performances for us.

I'd literally take any of the other options over him.

[woof!]

4 hours ago, Aufc said:

Gauld wont make the squad.

Gauld is playing at a higher level than the SPFL and is playing extremely well. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by woof!

[Marshmallo]

4 minutes ago, woof! said:

Gauld is playing at a higher level than the SPFL

When was the last time a Portuguese team beat a Scottish team in European competition?

[Rodhull]

11 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

When was the last time a Portuguese team beat a Scottish team in European competition?

Sporting beat Aberdeen this season.

[Marshmallo]

10 minutes ago, Rodhull said:

Sporting beat Aberdeen this season.

Hibs beat Aberdeen at the weekend.

Gie the young lad Nisbet a chance imo

[Rodhull]

1 minute ago, Marshmallo said:

Hibs beat Aberdeen at the weekend.

Gie the young lad Nisbet a chance imo

I think most teams have beaten Aberdeen at some point this season.

[Aufc]

Gauld is playing at a higher level than the SPFL and is playing extremely well. 

Perhaps. However

- The people he is competing against for a place in the squad almost all play in the English premier league.
- he has never been in the squad so not sure why he would suddenly get a place in the squad after playing a few games
- his team are bottom of the league. Hardly a ringing endorsement
- id say the Portuguese league is probably a similar standard to spl. Few teams who are clearly better than everyone else and then much of a muchness after that

Have you watched him much in portugal? Cant say i have.

[Gordopolis]

5 hours ago, craigkillie said:

 

Griffiths is still featuring for Celtic in most games - in the last 7 weeks he's made 7 starts and 2 sub appearances. Apart from the two where he was self-isolating, he's only missed one game - that was against Killie last week.

Despite not having played much football before the last triple header, Griffiths still made by far the biggest contribution of any striker apart from Dykes. He scored his penalty in Belgrade, and looked the most likely to score in Slovakia after coming off the bench. Despite his limited minutes he's also still scored more goals Shankland this season (and McBurnie, though he's obviously playing in a different league).

Heading into that England game in 2017, he didn't start a single game from January to April, and then only started the final 6 matches of the season. He only had a single sub appearance in each of January, February, March and April, which suggests that he was fit and still training, a similar situation to now.

Given that his role is almost entirely going to be as an impact sub, I'd much rather have him in the squad than someone like Shankland, Burke or Nisbet.

 

Being involved for Celtic isn't really a ringing endorsement at the moment, and 5 mins off the bench like last night is hardly being involved at all - just feels like he's edging backwards after Neil Lennon's recent blast at him. My main problem is with how cumbersome he looks. That last minute chance he had in Israel in November showed just how far off it he was. 

I agree with your analysis of the triple header though, but it does really just put him level with McBurnie or a finger's-width ahead as "the least shit of the other shit strikers". 

Hoping Neil Lennon's latest criticism of him will work, but more and more I'm seeing a guy who was, in mid 2017, on the edge of being a continental level striker, but has spent the last 3 years in the doldrums, out of football with only flashes of his old self in the patchy spells when he's been back in.

 

[ewan14]

2 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

When was the last time a Portuguese team beat a Scottish team in European competition?

I think their national team is rather useful 

[ewan14]

IMHO Tony Watt might come into consideration. I feel he is as useful as Nisbet and Shankland

[HoBNob]

It's ridiculous that McBurnie is guaranteed a spot, let's be honest here, while he's in the Premiership just now he won't be by the time the Euros start, and he's not getting back into the league because he's been a horrendous flop. 3 goals in the last calendar year ffs! It's not even the case where Dykes isn't setting the championship on fire we can at least say he suits the way Scotland play and generally does well for us, McBurnie has looked absolutely dreadful for Scotland pretty much every game.

 

He shouldn't even be in contention, let alone guaranteed a spot, this time next year when he's struggling for gametime and goals in the Championship he won't be in the squad, it's ridiculous. 

I'd genuinely far rather have Burke, he's been performing the Dykes role for United. 

 

Dykes, Burke, Griffiths and Nisbet. Cheers. 

 

[Gordopolis]

Just watched the Serbia game back again and pretty blown away by how dominant Dykes was for us. For that alone I'd say he is a bit of a Scotland cult hero already.

But...
Is anyone else concerned by his relatively low-key impact at QPR? 4 pens and 1 goal from open play in 25 games isn't brilliant - Fletcher or Martin would have been derided for a record like that. Added to that there was the Israel game where it just didn't really work for him and we were quite toothless.

Feels a bit like we're hoping for lightning in a jar whenever Dykes plays up top for us - seriously hope not, but the stats indicate otherwise [emoji53]

[Aufc]

It's ridiculous that McBurnie is guaranteed a spot, let's be honest here, while he's in the Premiership just now he won't be by the time the Euros start, and he's not getting back into the league because he's been a horrendous flop. 3 goals in the last calendar year ffs! It's not even the case where Dykes isn't setting the championship on fire we can at least say he suits the way Scotland play and generally does well for us, McBurnie has looked absolutely dreadful for Scotland pretty much every game.
 
He shouldn't even be in contention, let alone guaranteed a spot, this time next year when he's struggling for gametime and goals in the Championship he won't be in the squad, it's ridiculous. 
I'd genuinely far rather have Burke, he's been performing the Dykes role for United. 
 
Dykes, Burke, Griffiths and Nisbet. Cheers. 
 

Burke is rotten. Mcburnie as well.

[RandomGuy.]

6 hours ago, Gordopolis said:

Just watched the Serbia game back again and pretty blown away by how dominant Dykes was for us. For that alone I'd say he is a bit of a Scotland cult hero already.

But...
Is anyone else concerned by his relatively low-key impact at QPR? 4 pens and 1 goal from open play in 25 games isn't brilliant - Fletcher or Martin would have been derided for a record like that. Added to that there was the Israel game where it just didn't really work for him and we were quite toothless.

Feels a bit like we're hoping for lightning in a jar whenever Dykes plays up top for us - seriously hope not, but the stats indicate otherwise

Tbf it's not unknown for some strikers to be better at International level than club level.

[Aufc]

He is playing for one of the weaker teams in the championship.

Also, Dykes doesnt really need to be a 20-30 goal a season striker to maintain his place in the team. He just needs to hold the ball up for our better players to play off him. He brings the likes of fraser and mcginn into play with it. The tactics may well develop and become more attacking but, at the moment, clarke is obviously going for the “hard to beat” way and this means dykes should always play

[Gordopolis]

He is playing for one of the weaker teams in the championship.

Also, Dykes doesnt really need to be a 20-30 goal a season striker to maintain his place in the team. He just needs to hold the ball up for our better players to play off him. He brings the likes of fraser and mcginn into play with it. The tactics may well develop and become more attacking but, at the moment, clarke is obviously going for the “hard to beat” way and this means dykes should always play

Not disagreeing with any of that. Just worried we're hoping for Serbia style performances from him regularly, and that he's not quite up to producing that regularly.

[Bing.McCrosby]

46 minutes ago, Aufc said:

He is playing for one of the weaker teams in the championship.

Also, Dykes doesnt really need to be a 20-30 goal a season striker to maintain his place in the team. He just needs to hold the ball up for our better players to play off him. He brings the likes of fraser and mcginn into play with it. The tactics may well develop and become more attacking but, at the moment, clarke is obviously going for the “hard to beat” way and this means dykes should always play

 

Just now, Gordopolis said:

47 minutes ago, Aufc said:

He is playing for one of the weaker teams in the championship.

Also, Dykes doesnt really need to be a 20-30 goal a season striker to maintain his place in the team. He just needs to hold the ball up for our better players to play off him. He brings the likes of fraser and mcginn into play with it. The tactics may well develop and become more attacking but, at the moment, clarke is obviously going for the “hard to beat” way and this means dykes should always play

Not disagreeing with any of that. Just worried we're hoping for Serbia style performances from him regularly, and that he's not quite up to producing that regularly.

Yeah that's all true.

But we were hoping and expecting him to be doing a bit better for QPR, let's be honest.

With numbers like that he will be struggling to get in their team next season.

Most of us were expecting him to be a regular scorer after his excellent scotland performances. Even win himself a better move. 

[woof!]

2 minutes ago, BingMcCrosby said:

 

Yeah that's all true.

But we were hoping and expecting him to be doing a bit better for QPR, let's be honest.

With numbers like that he will be struggling to get in their team next season.

Most of us were expecting him to be a regular scorer after his excellent scotland performances. Even win himself a better move. 

If he’d gone to Rangers he’d probably be on about 20 goals by now and everybody would think we’ve struck gold. He’s probably better off where he is though, playing against better defenders and gradually improving his game. 

[Gordopolis]

I haven't seen much of QPR this season, so I don't have a good feel for whether Dykes is performing well and doing a 'Serbia' most weeks (i.e. not scoring but being dominant up front and helping others to score), or if he's struggling. QPR's results would suggest that they are hardly a smoothly functioning unit, so it feels like the latter.
Anyone here seen him regularly this season to clarify?

[charger29]

I haven't seen much of QPR this season, so I don't have a good feel for whether Dykes is performing well and doing a 'Serbia' most weeks (i.e. not scoring but being dominant up front and helping others to score), or if he's struggling. QPR's results would suggest that they are hardly a smoothly functioning unit, so it feels like the latter.
Anyone here seen him regularly this season to clarify?

QPR fans seem to think he's shite judging by their forums.
He is a target man first and foremost. His stats in the championship show that with his aerials fought/won numbers. Expecting a load of goals from him will leave us all disappointed imo.
Having said that international football is such a small sample size that you can turn up for a handful of games each year and become a legend.
Did he even have a lot of chances in his games for us? I feel like he had maybe 3-4 chances and scored two of them. Obviously unsustainable numbers.