The End Of The Line - Players

[RedLichtie86]

Just now, Butters Scotch said:

Hanley isn't extremely slow at all, this is some sort of myth that has been branded around and people believe it. He's got a decent turn of pace for a man of his size. 

He may have a decent turn of pace but his acceleration to get to that pace is very slow. The goal that we conceded against Switzerland he was very slow to turn and run back. Can easily be exploited by moderately fast players

[Butters Scotch]

2 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Some of the shoots here are wild - Hendry, Porteous and McGregor particularly. To a lesser extent Hanley and Armstrong. We would have no centre halves left!

Why would we possibly phase out the first three!

Porto is fucking awful man that's why. The other two are good players for us though. 

[Butters Scotch]

3 minutes ago, RedLichtie86 said:

He may have a decent turn of pace but his acceleration to get to that pace is very slow. The goal that we conceded against Switzerland he was very slow to turn and run back. Can easily be exploited by moderately fast players

All our defenders are as slow if you want to put it that way, no way he should be singled out 

[No_Problemo]

2 minutes ago, Butters Scotch said:

Porto is fucking awful man that's why. The other two are good players for us though. 

Apart from being very good in qualifying… 

Not long turned twenty five and probably the most scope to improve of the current group. 

Regardless - who is replacing him that’s better? 

Edited June 24 by No_Problemo

[Butters Scotch]

Just now, No_Problemo said:

Apart from being very good in qualifying… 

Not long turned twenty five and probably the most scope to improve of the current group. 

He's had the odd decent game along with the rest of the defence.

Disagree, I think he's much of a muchness compared to the other CB's. Goes to ground far too easy, passing is abysmal (no finesse to it, just fired into teammates), always running the risk of getting bookings or red cards etc. 

[No_Problemo]

Just now, Butters Scotch said:

He's had the odd decent game along with the rest of the defence.

Disagree, I think he's much of a muchness compared to the other CB's. Goes to ground far too easy, passing is abysmal (no finesse to it, just fired into teammates), always running the risk of getting bookings or red cards etc. 

Yeah, I just meant given his age he has the most scope to improve. All our centre halves are relatively similar, so I wouldn’t be casting aside the youngest and least injury prone one. 

Still think his passing is good tbh, fires it to people sharply as opposed to the incredibly slow stuff of last night. 

[immcinto]

I can guarantee you that Clarke will play the same players, in the same positions until they retire. 

[Wee-Bey]

 

[SpoonTon]

The end of the line comes when younger players are actually good enough to replace the current players. And it's also important to have the experience around to help younger players. There's no point in dismissing players because of their age to take a chance on players that might or might not be good enough in the longer run. 

We've got some pretty tough games coming up in the Nations League. I wouldn't throw in younger players and have bigger changes right away. 

[itzdrk]

From the current squad, it should be the end of the road for 9 of them:

Zander Clark - Make space for younger goalkeeper

Ross McRorie - if he couldn't get any minutes for this tournament then he simply never will.  

Liam Cooper - Emergency defender, 32, bye. 

Greg Taylor - Emergency left back, Doig's turn

Stuart Armstrong - Time to move on from Armstrong. 

Lewis Morgan - Was only included as an emergency. 

James Forrest - Was only included as an emergency. 

Ryan Jack - Non contributor.  

Ché Adams - Time to move on.  

 

[Savage Henry]

Anyone over the age of about 31.   Which is a fair chunk of the squad.  

[true fan]

I am not familiar with Lewis Ferguson. What is his best position? Style? Who can he be compared to?

[J_Stewart]

Some absolutely sensational 'Football Manager brain' on display on this thread:

"Anyone over the age of 24 needs to be shipped out, preferably up against a wall and shot to death so they never come back, even in case of emergencies."

Robertson and McGinn mentioned, ffs 

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

We need to concern ourselves less by who needs to be on the way out, and more who needs to be on the way in.

None of the players we rely on heavily are of an age, or reducing in capability such that they need to be put out to pasture.

What is as clear as it ever has been, is that we’ve reached the limit of what a team can do without pace, trickery, or guile. 

Everyone else who plays 3 or 5atb has wingers who can run at centre halves and full backs. We’ve seen it in all 3 games, and saw it against Norway, Georgia and Spain.

We’ve focused so much on how to fit Tierney, McGinn, McTominay, Gilmour, and McGregor into the same team that we’ve ended up doing what England do - playing our strongest players at the expense of an effective tactical setup.

Players like Morgan, and hopefully soon enough, Doak, are our equivalent of what everyone else plays with. Perhaps we only play with one, with McTominay or McGinn a much slower version on the other side, but we’ll always struggle when playing one-dimensional football in third gear.

Our strikers aren’t remotely good enough in the current arrangement, but frankly speaking, Lewandowski or Kane wouldn’t have helped this week since we created F all in the last third. 

[DukDukGoose]

I expect to get heavily red dotted for this but f**k it.

I feel we suffer from the same issues as England. We try to shoe horn all of our best players in to a line up and then it gets sussed or we're scrambling about trying to push square pegs in to round holes when there's an injury.

Look at all the countries who go deep in these tournaments. They're built around a team that fits the system, rather than finding a system to fit the team.

Folk were calling for Shankland all tournament. Brilliant player in a Hearts team that is built around him. He's going to struggle playing the role Clarke expects of his striker.

I'm not suggesting Simon Murray should be playing for Scotland, but the way we're set up suits a player with his skillset. You're not expected to score, you're there to do the donkey work for the other players. Instead we'll force finishers or attacking midfielders in to the role. It's obviously an exaggerated comparison but France were miles better with Giroud as foil for Mbappe rather than Benzema.

I just want to see a coach come in with a clear sense of how to play, then pick the players to play it rather than deciding Robertson, Tierney, Hickey, McGinn, Gilmour, McTominay and McGregor need to play before you've considered how you're going to do it.

[DukDukGoose]

8 minutes ago, HuttonDressedAsLahm said:

We need to concern ourselves less by who needs to be on the way out, and more who needs to be on the way in.

None of the players we rely on heavily are of an age, or reducing in capability such that they need to be put out to pasture.

What is as clear as it ever has been, is that we’ve reached the limit of what a team can do without pace, trickery, or guile. 

Everyone else who plays 3 or 5atb has wingers who can run at centre halves and full backs. We’ve seen it in all 3 games, and saw it against Norway, Georgia and Spain.

We’ve focused so much on how to fit Tierney, McGinn, McTominay, Gilmour, and McGregor into the same team that we’ve ended up doing what England do - playing our strongest players at the expense of an effective tactical setup.

Players like Morgan, and hopefully soon enough, Doak, are our equivalent of what everyone else plays with. Perhaps we only play with one, with McTominay or McGinn a much slower version on the other side, but we’ll always struggle when playing one-dimensional football in third gear.

Our strikers aren’t remotely good enough in the current arrangement, but frankly speaking, Lewandowski or Kane wouldn’t have helped this week since we created F all in the last third. 

FFS, didn't see this before I posted.

[Venti]

17 minutes ago, true fan said:

I am not familiar with Lewis Ferguson. What is his best position? Style? Who can he be compared to?

Think of Zidane, but better.

[JS_FFC]

Cooper, Jack, McLean and Craig Gordon should all either announce their retirement or be de facto retired by being left out going forward.

 

Callum McGregor should still be involved but I don’t think he’s a starter for us anymore. Just a squad player now.

 

Also, anything we get from the perma-crocked Tierney going forward should be seen as a bonus, and as an absolute minimum we need to stop building our system around fitting him in. When he’s not there, which is at least half of the time, we play much better in a back four shape.

 

Robertson still has 1-2 more campaigns left imo. Stuart Armstrong and Grant Hanley are older in age but can still provide something.

 

Guys like Forrest were only in the squad through necessity this time anyway.

 

In general I think we should build the squad around a core of Robertson, Gilmour, McTominay and McGinn supplemented by a group of guys playing in the top European leagues or at very top clubs in lesser leagues (i.e., the old firm guys, McKenna, Hendry etc).

 

In general we should be looking to minimise the number of guys from the English championship or from non-OF Scottish clubs, although I concede that the likes of Gunn, Adams and Dykes will remain involved through necessity.

[Tartan Dave]

It should be the end of the line for the John McGinn song for at least 3 years. He can stay, however 

[forameus]

13 minutes ago, J_Stewart said:

Some absolutely sensational 'Football Manager brain' on display on this thread:

"Anyone over the age of 24 needs to be shipped out, preferably up against a wall and shot to death so they never come back, even in case of emergencies."

Robertson and McGinn mentioned, ffs 

I'd just sort my player search by PA and bring in the highest ones.  It's just so easy.

Although it is quite easy really.   You just pick the best available options you have in all the positions you want to play with consideration as to how they'll play together.  Unfortunately, a lot of those "best" options are not very good.