Israel v Scotland - a good time to take control of the NL group!

0762 · 14-10-2018, 21:39

IMO wrong choice of manager and tonight's 1-3 loss v 10 changes Portugal piles even more pressure on Ecky although the performance was reasonable in the 1st hour of this friendly international match. After that, some quality Portuguese substitutions and some dreadful Scot defending contributed to another duff result for Ecky. Lose v Albania next month and the "knives will be out"!

hibeejim21 · 15-10-2018, 00:26

Better formation the night and as a result we did ok first 30 mins but portugal created all the best chances and deserved tp win. Our defending was absolutely rotten. I never thought i'd be longing for the return of berra and chico mulgrew at CB but thats where we are right now.

We need results v albania (a) and israel (h) If we don't get them eck can GTF.

1Wattie · 15-10-2018, 22:20

McLeish is not a great choice of manager for our International team primarily because having been an Aberdeen player and former Rangers manager he will never be accepted by Celtic or their fans. Gordon Strachan met a similar fate, even although he guided Celtic to the last 16 of the Champions League, he was never taken into the "Celtic family" Two players who under Alex Ferguson heaped numerous defeats on the old firm in the 80`s. and are still looked down upon.
The big trouble the SFA have is finding a manager everybody will co operate with to help build and improve the Scotland team. I doubt if any such man exists.

0762 · (This post was last modified: 16-10-2018, 00:05 by 0762.)

I'd love to swap McLeish for Jurgen Klopp just for 3 consecutive Scotland international matches! My reason? Just to prove the point that McLeish is nothing special as a manager and an inspiring, dynamic guy like Klopp would no doubt get the best out of the players we have at the moment! It's clearly a "pipe dream" but I just don't see Ecky coming out of this crisis very well. He had a chance to impose a strong Scotland "marker" in Israel on this NL group and failed miserably. Albania will define his 2nd term with Scotland and I'm not "holding my breath" in anticipation! I just hope my "gut feeling" is wrong in this case and maybe Lady Luck will favour Scotland a wee bit.

0762 · 17-10-2018, 12:03

McLeish now pondering whether to recall Steven Fletcher for this crucial "double header". Is this the solution to Scotland "turning the corner"? Perhaps we should just go "Italian", ensure no loss in Albania and look forward to a "cup final" v Israel at Hampden Park!?

**St Charles Owl** · 17-10-2018, 19:47

Fletcher has done ok this season for us but he isn't exactly banging in the goals!!! His hold up play is good and he works hard, maybe that can be useful to you but I can't imagine he is the answer, nor is he the future!! One player who has been on great form this season is Barry Bannan, I know he has been in the squad before but he is high up the performance points league in the Championship and should be good enough to at least make the squad.

0762 · 18-10-2018, 14:19

I think Bannan is another past player who we had high hopes for but it never quite happened for him. Now a new generation of younger players hopefully being developed to "fly the flag" for Scotland.

hibeejim21 · 18-10-2018, 18:32

Yeah, i always quite liked bannan. I don't think its worked out quite as well as i thought it would for him when i first saw him coming through.

International football just seems to bypass him completely.

**St Charles Owl** · 18-10-2018, 19:42

(18-10-2018, 18:32)hibeejim21 Wrote: Yeah, i always quite liked bannan. I don't think its worked out quite as well as i thought it would for him when i first saw him coming through.

International football just seems to bypass him completely.

Maybe, we have seen it before with players that perform well for their clubs week in, week out butt don't seem to be able to hit that form when they play for their country. Only thing with Bannan is last season when he was in the Scotland squad, his form for us wasn't great either and he was either carrying an injury or just coming back from one for most of the season. This season he appears to be fully fit and is turning in key performances week after week for us, I can't help but think he would be an asset to the squad on the form he is showing. He is still only 28, so he is what is usually considered the prime of his career.