'Scottish National Team' thread

[Walter Sobchak]

PREDICTION: Andy Robertson will go from strength to strength for Liverpool, and Paterson will join him in the Prem next season. The following year Souttar and McKenna will be excelling for top-end Championship teams.

Scotland will narrowly fail to make the play-offs with a back four of Tierney, Hendry, David Bates and Russell Martin.

Tragically realistic prediction.

[Del-icious]

Berra should've only been left out to include Souttar IMO.

They're one of the best partnerships in this league, if not the best and to include mulgrew and Martin over them is a bit of a kick in the teeth for both IMO.

[CritchSmile]

The fact that Russell Martin has pulled out and Berra wasn't brought in is radge

[Big Physical Acey]

Yeah, Mulgrew and Martin being there ahead of Souttar and Berra is an ABSALUTE FARSE.

[CritchSmile]

Quite like Mulgrew On the plus side, maybe Berra's omission is McLeish looking to fully remove hoofball and we'll play some nice stuff.

[Tim Sherwood]

Mulgrew has been good for blackburn. Got a few goals from CB aswell. Berra and mulgrew should be starting in the serious games.

Think its tempting to play funk and robertson at wing backs. But looking at the players who would join berra and mulgrew in a back three

[Johnny]

Mulgrew is playing in a pub league

Would folk have Walker in there anaw aye?

[Array]

Would folk have Walker in there anaw aye?

Uh-huh.







Somebody's got to get Funk's tea.

[CritchSmile]

We definitely can't play 4-4-2. Callum Paterson is a horrible right back according to a few pundits on here.

[Half Time Guest]

  this is why I can't be fucked half the time with the national side.  It's not about the best players at all, it's about the manager playing the same old faces and picking from the old firm once more.

Berra and Souttar form a terrific partnership at club level and part of the best defence in the country outside of Celtic, yet neither of them get a look in

No wonder Berra is pissed off.  From our point of view it's good as I'd rather he didn't play for them at all and kept himself fit for our games.  Same with Souttar but if he was to get a Scotland cap or two then it should increase his value when we do eventually cash in on him.

Forgetting the fact for a minute that the likes of Mulgrew, Hanley, Martin and all the other diddies are still getting picked, even just looking at the new faces it's a totally bizarre choice not to have Berra or Souttar.  The boy McKenna's been given the nod but only played 26 times for Aberdeen this season.  26 first team games in his entire career.  Played for an Ayr Utd side in the first division that got relegated last season.  Yet John Souttar has played more than 70 first team games for us (probably closer to 100 games in his career if you include his time at Dundee Utd) and doesn't get near it.  Jack Hendry played for the tims for two months and gets a call up.

Just get it all to fuck

[CritchSmile]

I'm not convinced Souttar is international level. Still young though.

Berra dug Strachan out of a hole recently though and should've been considered.

tbh, I'd rather see Scott McKenna and see what he's all about - or Liam Lindsey. I've seen Souttar enough to know he is not the answer to us qualifying for a major championship just yet. Even Jack Hendry - if Rodgers paid 1.5 million for him then he must see potential. Bhrendan has the knack of bringing on our Scottish talent too. Look at Tierney, McGregor and Forrest.

Mulgrew needs to get out of League 1 because he is a good player.

[Zizou]

None of the young players will be the answer to qualifying just yet.

You need to get them in and give them experience though. No point chucking Souttar in when he's 26 and needs 10 caps to get up to speed.

I'm not having it that Jack Hendry merits a call up more than Souttar.

[Half Time Guest]

Souttar deserves a chance.  He's only 21.

To be that age and a regular at centre half is pretty impressive, he's not a world beater yet but has come on massively since he first came and having Berra alongside him will only ever improve him.

Will he make it beyond Hearts?  Will he be capable of taking the country to the next level and getting Scotland to qualify?  Who knows, you might not think so but he still deserves a shout.  Put it this way, a boy who's played less than 30 top flight games his entire career at the same age vs. a guy who's performing in the best defence in the league and nearly 100 top flight games to his name?  There's only one winner there.  And it's not the boy who has played for the tims for the last two months either.

[CritchSmile]

None of the young players will be the answer to qualifying just yet.

You need to get them in and give them experience though. No point chucking Souttar in when he's 26 and needs 10 caps to get up to speed.

I'm not having it that Jack Hendry merits a call up more than Souttar.

He doesn't "merit" it, but by your assertion that we should bring people in purely for experience, then we should pick the ones with the greatest potential. It's a subjective call as to whether Souttar or Hendry has more potential. Celtic dropped 1.5 million on Hendry. They didn't bid for Souttar, nor did they even try and sign him up when he was available for buttons from Dundee Utd.

If this boy can develop as quickly as the other young Celtic boys have under the Bhrendan regime, then we'll be lucky (as much as domestically I want him to be shite for Celtic).

[2MatoFish]

Souttar deserves a chance.  He's only 21.

To be that age and a regular at centre half is pretty impressive, he's not a world beater yet but has come on massively since he first came and having Berra alongside him will only ever improve him.

Will he make it beyond Hearts?  Will he be capable of taking the country to the next level and getting Scotland to qualify?  Who knows, you might not think so but he still deserves a shout.  Put it this way, a boy who's played less than 30 top flight games his entire career at the same age vs. a guy who's performing in the best defence in the league and nearly 100 top flight games to his name?  There's only one winner there.  And it's not the boy who has played for the tims for the last two months either.

Souttar is nearly 18 months younger

(and just because i've already pulled up his wiki, he's got 126 top flight games between us and Utd)

[CritchSmile]

Souttar deserves a chance.  He's only 21.

To be that age and a regular at centre half is pretty impressive, he's not a world beater yet but has come on massively since he first came and having Berra alongside him will only ever improve him.

Will he make it beyond Hearts?  Will he be capable of taking the country to the next level and getting Scotland to qualify?  Who knows, you might not think so but he still deserves a shout.  Put it this way, a boy who's played less than 30 top flight games his entire career at the same age vs. a guy who's performing in the best defence in the league and nearly 100 top flight games to his name?  There's only one winner there.  And it's not the boy who has played for the tims for the last two months either.

Hendry is a different argument (as I've tried to outline) and right now Souttar 'on merit' should be in before Hendry, but I'd have Scott McKenna in before Souttar on merit.

[Half Time Guest]

Forget Hendry for a second because I don't agree with that at all.  Just because Rodgers signed him and supposedly sees potential in him doesn't mean he's going to be a star.  Souttar is getting touted for top end Championship sides and some clubs chucking us millions for him so that argument is flawed.

But on the subject of McKenna, what merit does he have?  Half a season playing for Aberdeen in the top flight?  A full season playing for a shit Ayr United side who got relegated?

Souttar's merit is evident.  As 2na has kindly provided the stats above, he's got 126 first team top flight games to his name, he's playing alongside the best defender in the country.  He's playing in the best defence in the country.  He's playing in a majorly overworked defence as well (if we had a midfield worthy of the name they wouldn't be tested so much!)  Other than "seeing what he's about" what is the argument for McKenna?

Anyway it's academic as the Scotland manager is a ring piece who quite clearly is demonstrating his favouritism already when it comes to picking his squad.  It's been evident since I was a kid and Neil McCann didn't go to France 98

[CritchSmile]

I don't rate Souttar as highly as you, I'm afraid.

If I had to choose, I'd probably swap Souttar for McKenna at Hearts.

A lot of Souttar's first team games were him proving inconsistency. In fact a lot of those games were him being removed from centre half into midfield or back on the bench as a sub at United. I'm glad he's got better and on his way to realising some of his potential though.

[Zizou]

I'm not against Souttar, Hendry and McKenna getting a shot. It's pointless playing cunts like Martin in these friendlies, we know what they do. But when Souttar is left out seemingly due to the selection of Hendry purely because of the club he plays for then we have an issue and it suggests not a lot has changed since the Strachan days.

If we are talking on merit between those three then surely it has to be Souttar. He has just been an integral part of a defence that just broke a club record for Hearts and he has far more game time than the two others.

As said earlier, it is an absolute nap David Bates gets a look in before him.

[CritchSmile]

On merit it's

McKenna
Lindsay
Berra
Mulgrew/Souttar
Martin
Hendry

imo.

On potential it's

Lindsay
McKenna
Souttar/Hendry