2022 Nations League - Group B1

[pineapple stu]

Hadn't realised how stuck they were in nets. Two guys pushing 40 (one of whom has just been released by his club) and two players from fairly meh SPL sides who've never been capped.

Celtic have Joe Hart in nets, but Rangers' keeper is Scottish - and is even older than the guys in the squad.

[tetsujin1979]

There's a good breakdown of the squad on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotla...l_team#Players
not a lot of goals in the side - McGinn is the only player in double figures, with 12
It's actually a young enough squad, average age is 26 and a half, with the two goalkeepers(39 and 37) skewing the average a little
Might be a little inexperienced too, average of only 22 caps, with Robertson(56 caps) and the two goalkeepers again(66 and 47) skewing things a little

[elatedscum]

It's a pretty good squad. They've been light on centre halves and keepers for an age (the two areas where we're probably strongest).

Personally, I think we'd probably have about 9 centre-halves that would get into their starting 11 (Egan, Duffy, Collins, Omobamidele, Clark, Manning, Lenihan, O'Shea, Dunne) and 5 keepers (Bazunu, Kelleher, Travers, Randolph, O'Leary)

Beyond that, they're pretty well set: Robertson is one of the best left backs in the world, Tierney (injured) is very good as well. You'd have Doherty ahead of Paterson at right full. Hard to imagine many of our midfield would get in ahead of the likes of McGinn, McTominay, Armstrong, Christie or Gilmour. If you were given the choice between Jason Knight and Billy Gilmour, both 2001 babies, you'd pick Gilmour. Up top, in the long run, Che Adams is a good championship striker and would probably be ahead of the likes of Robinson, Idah, Obafemi if you were picking a team tomorrow.

They don't really have any quality wingers but they get around that by playing a 5-4-1 with Robertson and Paterson as wing backs, and it also allows you to play Tierney and Robertson at the same time.

They've been pretty successful in the season. Unbeaten in the last 8, 6 competitive wins in a row, beating Denmark and Austria on the way. We're also unbeaten in 8 - but Scotland are a better side than everyone we've beaten in that spell:

Wins: Lithuania, Qatar, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg
Draws: Portugal, Serbia, Belgium, Azerbaijan
15:4 goals for, against

In my opinion, Portugal, Serbia and Belgium are better than anyone they've faced but you could argue it if you're a fan of Denmark or Poland.

Wins: Denmark, Austria, Israel, Moldova x2, Faroes
Draws: Austria, Poland
13:5 goals for, against

If I was guessing, I'd say a 0-0 or 1-1 draw is the most likely result but I'd still hope for a win

[pineapple stu]

In my opinion, Portugal, Serbia and Belgium are better than anyone they've faced but you could argue it if you're a fan of Denmark or Poland.

Certainly beating the Euro semifinalists who had won all nine group games before that, conceding just once, is a better result than our draws. I think you're being a tad harsh on Denmark there. They're a very good side.

But that won't directly matter once the players are on the pitch.

The usual groundless pre-match optimism is starting to creep in again for me, but let's take it one step at a time I guess. Armenia away first, and it'd be nice to get the "no wins in this competition" monkey off the back, while playing better than against Lithuania.

Is there a date set for our squad announcement? I know Scotland have a game a few days before us of course.

[elatedscum]

Certainly beating the Euro semifinalists who had won all nine group games before that, conceding just once, is a better result than our draws. I think you're being a tad harsh on Denmark there. They're a very good side.

It’s definitely a better result than our draws but… if we had to play a playoff to go to the World Cup next week and we could choose to face one of Belgium, Portugal, Serbia or Denmark, I’d take Denmark - that’s all I was saying.

Although Denmark were semi finalists, their run was pretty handy - lost 2 of 3 games in the groups, then faced Wales in the last 16, Czech Rep. in the quarters - there’s a dozen European teams you’d back to beat one of Russia and Finland and dispatch the Welsh and the Czechs.

Christian Eriksson’s situation was probably both the driving force behind the loss to Finland and subsequent galvanisation and overperformance thereafter.

[pineapple stu]

It’s definitely a better result than our draws but… if we had to play a playoff to go to the World Cup next week and we could choose to face one of Belgium, Portugal, Serbia or Denmark, I’d take Denmark - that’s all I was saying.

I'd probably go for Serbia tbh. A very good team, but knocked out by Scotland in the Euro playoffs and lost 3-0 to Denmark in a friendly in March. Not sure they're as clinical as Denmark either, as the 1-1 in Lansdowne suggested.

There's a dozen teams who might beat Wales for sure, but 4-0? Beat Austria 4-0 away and Israel 5-0 at home in qualifying too. And then they were very unlucky to lose against England in Wembley in the semis (very soft penalty)

I think I might take Portugal over Denmark too - another very good side but they don't come close to the sum of their parts.

Fortunately though we're not playing them, so this is all just a pleasant digression while we await the main event.

[Stuttgart88]

Not sure they're as clinical as Denmark either, as the 1-1 in Lansdowne suggested.

Anything to downplay Bazunu's performance!

[pineapple stu]

In fairness, I've said before that was a top performance. But Serbia's finishing was also wasteful in that game. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive.

[elatedscum]

Squad announcement at 1pm. Don’t expect many surprises but there’s usually one ala Sykes last time round. Picked 28 - hard to imagine going higher than that, although I would have liked to included Sykes, McNamara, Keane and maybe an LOI player like Byrne or Mandriou

Kelleher
Bazunu
Travers

Coleman
Christie (could easily be McNamara here, 50/50 shout)

Duffy
Egan
Collins
O’Shea
Manning
Lenihan (could easily be Dunne)

McClean
Stevens

Cullen
Hendrick
Molumby
Browne

Knight
Ronan
McGrath (I’d expect Sykes here)

Ogbene
Robinson
Connolly (can’t see Connolly called up, Hourihane probably will be in the squad)

Parrott
Obafemi
Hogan
S Long (I’d expect Will Keane selected over Shane Long)

[ColourfulPeanut]

Thinking about the squad, we're desperately short in centre midfield. I think these 4 games in 10 days will expose it when we have to rotate.

If the 21s didn't have such crucial games, I'd nearly call up Killkenny and Coventry.

[JR89]

Thinking about the squad, we're desperately short in centre midfield. I think these 4 games in 10 days will expose it when we have to rotate.

If the 21s didn't have such crucial games, I'd nearly call up Killkenny and Coventry.

Well the U21s play two games the Fri and Mon of the June weekend. Good chance their campaign could be over before they even get to play Italy and we've only played the one game in June. You'd think then lads would be moved up to train with the seniors once qualification for the U21s is gone.

[Eirambler]

Certainly beating the Euro semifinalists who had won all nine group games before that, conceding just once, is a better result than our draws. I think you're being a tad harsh on Denmark there. They're a very good side.

But that won't directly matter once the players are on the pitch.

The usual groundless pre-match optimism is starting to creep in again for me, but let's take it one step at a time I guess. Armenia away first, and it'd be nice to get the "no wins in this competition" monkey off the back, while playing better than against Lithuania.

Is there a date set for our squad announcement? I know Scotland have a game a few days before us of course.

Probably worth bearing in mind though that Denmark were already home and hosed for qualification before that game which probably impacted on their performance a bit.

[pineapple stu]

True. Flip side of course is that maybe they really wanted to end on ten wins out of ten. Not many teams go through qualification with a 100% record

[SkStu]

Ukraine looking fairly handy...

[Insidetherock]

Aye, whats our best hope?

Beat Wales next week, go mad on the ****, and turn up to Dublin half cut

or

lose to Wales and face Ireland on a massive downer?

Reckon a few of the Scots might clock off after this if they lose too

[pineapple stu]

Aye, whats our best hope?

Bit of extra time here would do nicely.

[SkStu]

Aye, whats our best hope?

Beat Wales next week, go mad on the ****, and turn up to Dublin half cut

or

lose to Wales and face Ireland on a massive downer?

Reckon a few of the Scots might clock off after this if they lose too

I can hear the excuses already if we win

"Ah sure look, they were obviously coasting after they made it to Qatar, the Ireland game meant nothing to them"
"Ah sure look, they gave their all against Wales and came up short and had nothing left. Massive downer. It wasnt the real Ukraine"
"Ah sure look, Scotland just showed up for the playoff, it was straight to holiday mode after that went pear shaped"

[paul_oshea]

I think that result suits us the best. Robertson looked exhausted there at the end. Feel for the Scots but the better team won, Wales will see what they need to do and be confident now

[paul_oshea]

I can hear the excuses already if we win

"Ah sure look, they were obviously coasting after they made it to Qatar, the Ireland game meant nothing to them"
"Ah sure look, they gave their all against Wales and came up short and had nothing left. Massive downer. It wasnt the real Ukraine"
"Ah sure look, Scotland just showed up for the playoff, it was straight to holiday mode after that went pear shaped"

And what excuse will you have? Ah sur look we started with a load of young lads, ah sur look at the stats we had loads of possession, ah sure on another day that one off the crossbar, ah sure look Kenny's had a very difficult time of it with squads first time he's only had a full bill of health so needs time, ah sure didn't the new lad show well(new lad not heard of again in 3 years, ah sur those lines werr crooked but there was just enough hair on yer man's legs

[SkStu]

And what excuse will you have? Ah sur look we started with a load of young lads, ah sur look at the stats we had loads of possession, ah sure on another day that one off the crossbar, ah sure look Kenny's had a very difficult time of it with squads first time he's only had a full bill of health so needs time, ah sure didn't the new lad show well(new lad not heard of again in 3 years, ah sur those lines werr crooked but there was just enough hair on yer man's legs

At least 4 of those are in my back pocket.