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Scotland Players In Action


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2 hours ago, Kirk said:

Hes no a striker though thats the thing, he creates a lot and holds the ball up well, never has been an out and out scorer

Scotland doesn't do out and out strikers. We seem to dislike them, we go for hard worker instead which is why we are so successful 

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15 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

Scotland doesn't do out and out strikers. We seem to dislike them, we go for hard worker instead which is why we are so successful 

 

Yep and when it's failed for almost 20 years why would you change? If you don't succeed at first, or the next 10 times just try the same again....

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15 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

Scotland doesn't do out and out strikers. We seem to dislike them, we go for hard worker instead which is why we are so successful 

Yes sadly we can all see that but no manager ever can

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5 minutes ago, aaid said:

So where are the out and out Scottish strikers that all managers seem to be overlooking then?

Griffiths and Rhodes both score regularly. mccormack too. Plenty scoring a lot more goals than Fletcher. 

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18 hours ago, Kirk said:

Griffiths and Rhodes both score regularly. mccormack too. Plenty scoring a lot more goals than Fletcher. 

With the exception of McCormack against the Czech Republic, all three of them have been gash when playing for Scotland. 

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2 hours ago, aaid said:

With the exception of McCormack against the Czech Republic, all three of them have been gash when playing for Scotland. 

They have barley had a chance to be fair.

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35 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

Bit harsh on Rhodes

Why?  13 caps, 3 goals, two of which were in a friendly against Luxembourg.  It's hardly a stellar record.

Fair enough he's only started 3 matches but in 6 of his substitute appearances he got the last half hour or so which as a striker should be ample opportunity to make an impact, which he hasn't done.

Maybe he's just a flat track bully?  I guess if Boro go up we'll find out next season. 

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3 hours ago, aaid said:

With the exception of McCormack against the Czech Republic, all three of them have been gash when playing for Scotland. 

Fletcher has been gash too, to be fair (and I say that as someone who rates him).

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15 minutes ago, Parklife said:

Fletcher has been gash too, to be fair (and I say that as someone who rates him).

I'm not going to disagree with you on that point.  I have to say I've never been that keen on McCormack but was impressed with him in Prague, I'd like to see him given another run out in the upcoming friendlies.  Given the opposition, I don expect him to get too many chances to score but it will be good to see how he handles that.

While Fletcher may not be the most prolific striker, he does fit into our system, in which its primarily the role of a lone striker to act as a focal point and a link for the attacking three midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 formation. I thought he did particularly well in the home game against Poland. 

The problem with Rhodes and Griffiths is while they both score a lot of goals at SPFL and English Championship, neither has - to date - shown that they can do that at a higher level, which is what you need for International football.   That becomes a problem when it looks like they can't really fit into the system either.   I'm not saying they can't but neither has looked like they can so far, Griffiths looked like a little boy lost playing up front against Denmark. 

Kris Boyd was a much more prolific striker at club level than either Rhodes or Griffiths and he wasn't much cop at International level either. 

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12 minutes ago, aaid said:

I'm not going to disagree with you on that point.  I have to say I've never been that keen on McCormack but was impressed with him in Prague, I'd like to see him given another run out in the upcoming friendlies.  Given the opposition, I don expect him to get too many chances to score but it will be good to see how he handles that.

While Fletcher may not be the most prolific striker, he does fit into our system, in which its primarily the role of a lone striker to act as a focal point and a link for the attacking three midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 formation. I thought he did particularly well in the home game against Poland. 

The problem with Rhodes and Griffiths is while they both score a lot of goals at SPFL and English Championship, neither has - to date - shown that they can do that at a higher level, which is what you need for International football.   That becomes a problem when it looks like they can't really fit into the system either.   I'm not saying they can't but neither has looked like they can so far, Griffiths looked like a little boy lost playing up front against Denmark. 

Kris Boyd was a much more prolific striker at club level than either Rhodes or Griffiths and he wasn't much cop at International level either. 

Rhodes is fat, slow and has poor movement.  He has a decent record in the Championship but that is specific to that league. Absolutely no danger he'll get a decent run in the PL as a lone striker with a promoted club.  And there is no danger Boro will play two strikers to accommodate him if they get up.

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I would really like to see Fletcher and Rhodes play together in one of the friendlies, but doubt it will happen. Fletcher could come deeper for his link up play and Rhodes would do well off his flick ons. Rhodes is very good at finding good angles to receive the ball for a shot at goal. Hope he gets games in the EPL next season.

Fletcher only has the one goal against lower league opposition but as stated above he is making goals and is being praised by Batshuiyi his striking partner, who has 16 in 35 games.. Marseille have pulled clear of relegation worries and have the French Cup Final against PSG on Saturday May 21. Will be able to watch that - 8pm ko. Interested to see how he does against a top class team.

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1 hour ago, aaid said:

Why?  13 caps, 3 goals, two of which were in a friendly against Luxembourg.  It's hardly a stellar record.

Fair enough he's only started 3 matches but in 6 of his substitute appearances he got the last half hour or so which as a striker should be ample opportunity to make an impact, which he hasn't done.

Maybe he's just a flat track bully?  I guess if Boro go up we'll find out next season. 

Compare that to Fletchers record who is first pick and starts every game.

How many would Rhodes have scored had he started both games v Gibraltar? Probably something similar. Fletchers record is worse when you remove the two Gibraltar 'friendlies'

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1 minute ago, ProudScot said:

Compare that to Fletchers record who is first pick and starts every game.

How many would Rhodes have scored had he started both games v Gibraltar? Probably something similar. Fletchers record is worse when you remove the two Gibraltar 'friendlies'

I refer you to my later post about how Fletcher can - and does - play within our system and Rhodes and Griffiths don't look like they can.

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I am impressed with how Rhodes has played over the last few weeks - had a chance to watch a couple of games and thought he was MOTM in the 2-2 away to Birmingham. Held the ball up well, closed down defenders, and was generally better than I thought he was at that part of his game. Technically up front on his own but Ramirez, Downing and Adomah all got forward plenty with him.

I get the reason we play the way we do and I know why Strachan likes Fletcher, but Rhodes is such a goal threat. If his all round game is improving I just hope he can prove it at the higher level next season. Would be great if he developed well enough to give Strachan enough in the link up stuff to make it worth playing with 2 up.

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It was a good few years ago but i can recall McCormack having a very good game at Hampden against Iceland, pretty sure he scored the winner in a 2-1 victory. Was impressed with him then but he has never really been given many opportunities in a Scotland shirt since then. Most would probably agree that Strachan should try something/someone different for the upcoming friendlies/campaign but what/who that is the bigger question. He did have a degree of success in the recent 2 friendlies by changing things around, though how we managed to win both of those games is beyond me.

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2 hours ago, Bannannan said:

I'd like us to go 4.4.2 in the friendlies.Even Aguero cant play on his own as was seen tonight.Atletico do it,Leicester do it. Worth a try surely.

Ireland do it too.

We don't because our defenders aren't good enough. Losing a 3rd central midfielder would overrun them. We could never hold out under the pressure Atletico, Leicester and even Ireland do.

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6 hours ago, Dave78 said:

Ireland do it too.

We don't because our defenders aren't good enough. Losing a 3rd central midfielder would overrun them. We could never hold out under the pressure Atletico, Leicester and even Ireland do.

Exactly and add to that that our better players and where we have most options are in midfield. 

I can't understand why people who advocate 4-4-2 with the players Strachan has available don't see that. 

We're weak up front and in central defence.  I know, let's play a system that exposes our centre halves and replaces a good attacking midfielder with a poor striker.  

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If we'd went 442 in the last campaign with Scott Brown in the middle we'd have been out of the running way before the Poland game at Hampden. He arguably cost us a place top 3 finish as he was constantly wandering out of position.

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10 hours ago, Bannannan said:

I'd like us to go 4.4.2 in the friendlies.Even Aguero cant play on his own as was seen tonight.Atletico do it,Leicester do it. Worth a try surely.

Yeah, you are spot on, Aguero is a failure playing up front on his own, never achieved anything.....

I know what we should do, we should all base our footballing opinions on one specific game of football. That sounds a good idea.

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