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Scotland Vs Northern Ireland


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17 minutes ago, stressball said:

I’d like to see Shankland and Ferguson start If I’m being honest.

Theres plenty of time between now and Germany so it would be nice for some new faces to get proper run outs.

Yeah I'd agree with this. I think Shankland is our best striker, could be an important game for him to make his case.

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20 minutes ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Well there was most definitely a notable drop off in quality when they came off the bench in numbers on Friday.

I’m not saying Armstrong couldn’t replace Christie or Adams couldn’t replace Shankland for example. 

I’m saying that with the current injuries I believe the starting XI on Friday was our strongest and if we replace say 5 of them, we will undoubtedly have a weaker team. 

If we do that and say win 2-0, what will we learn from that? I’d rather the lads from Friday went out and put right what they did wrong on that night. 

As you've explained yourself, the players who started on Friday did little wrong. 

That said, I think we need to start with the strongest team and try to get a win and some momentum going.

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2 hours ago, Burattino Di Calzini said:

It's only a friendly, and while it feels like the ideal opportunity to try something different, given our recent form we really need to win I think.

The time to try something different is not three games and three months away from the biggest occasion in Scottish international history since the '98 World Cup. 

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I don't think much will be learned from this game regardless what we do, who plays or what happens during it. It'll be equivalent to playing Cyprus.

We won't play this level of opponent competitively this year, the type of game it will be where we dominate the game in terms of possession. In terms of Euro-2024 it's filler. Assuming we win there's always the caveat that it's only Northern Ireland. This game is for the fans, a win and potentially giving some players a chance to gain more international experience. That's it.

Edited by 2426255
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I think we gain far more from having our first-choice players (or as many of them as possible) get a decent win under their belts and arrest the slide, rather than give more fringe players a chance to beat a side they should be beating anyway.

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7 minutes ago, forameus said:

I think we gain far more from having our first-choice players (or as many of them as possible) get a decent win under their belts and arrest the slide, rather than give more fringe players a chance to beat a side they should be beating anyway.

Agreed.  The only changes from the side that started could be Christie for Ferguson, a Shankland for another striker (if SC not feeling generous).  Otherwise, I don't see much benefit in changing things.

Ferguson for Christie might not exactly be like-for-like, but Gilmour is obviously streets ahead of everyone else available in his position, and otherwise Ferguson would have to replace McTominay or McGinn.  Personally, I'd give McGinn some rest from the start, but then we're probably changing things for the sake of it and I don't believe SC would do it.

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I think it’ll be as close to a first choice team as possible. Theres really no such thing as a true friendly in the international game as you’re playing for ranking points which govern your World Cup seeding (they really should just be called international test match or something) and in any case, six games without a win is already less than ideal before a major tournament.

 

 

 

Gunn

 

Porteous-Hendry-Tierney

 

Patterson-Gilmour-McLean-Robertson

 

McTominay-McGinn

 

Adams

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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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Might be in the minority but I am hoping we've got some changes starting tonight. The first 11 has generally done great when it's mattered - but we need to be able to rely on more than that in tournament football to keep things fresh. 

I'd be tempted to look beyond Tierney tonight. There's no way he's playing 3 / 4 games in a short space of time in the summer. We need a viable plan B. 

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2 hours ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Well there was most definitely a notable drop off in quality when they came off the bench in numbers on Friday.

I’m not saying Armstrong couldn’t replace Christie or Adams couldn’t replace Shankland for example. 

I’m saying that with the current injuries I believe the starting XI on Friday was our strongest and if we replace say 5 of them, we will undoubtedly have a weaker team. 

If we do that and say win 2-0, what will we learn from that? I’d rather the lads from Friday went out and put right what they did wrong on that night. 


The issue was with who went off rather than who came on.

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I’m a tad worried about the notion that this game will be a ‘shooty in’ event for Scotland. I too have an increased confidence in Scotland but Norn Ireland have recently beaten Denmark and in their last game drew, away, with Romania. Scotland should be confident of a win but it’s by no means guaranteed.

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46 minutes ago, AndyDD said:

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. 

I think like this all the time, and it never happens.  Since we qualified for Euro 2020, I've been convinced that we'd run up a score on someone eventually.  We do create quite a number of chances against just about everyone - even Spain at home Dykes missed a 1v1, Christie ran through the middle and toed it just wide, and McGinn hit the bar.

If the stars align, we could score 4/5/6 against just about anyone.

It'll never happen, but it's a nice thought.

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53 minutes ago, shizzlemanizzle said:

Am I the only person looking forward to this game? Scotland games are few and far between and I look forward to them all. Some more than others but I love a Scotland game.

I’m not a big fan of friendlies but I’ll be watching on TV. I’ll make an exception for the game against Finland in June as that’ll be the send off to the Euros for the team. 

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