Slovenia v Scotland

[andoplzcumbak]

I read in the Times today that we had the oldest average age squad in Europe or maybe the world in international football!
Not necessarily a bad thing but it does tell a story.

[kigoretrout]

I have had a problem with Strachan ever since he ballsed up the qualifying for the Euros. I loved him as a player but comes over as one odd individual. Happy that he has gone and hoping to get someone in that ditches some of the old hangers on that Strachan plays just coz he is mates with them and he thinks they're good guys.

[Don_Corleone]

Players shouldn't be getting picked just because they play in England, but we shouldn't be ditching players just because they play in England either and a lot of what you've written here is suggesting we do exactly that.

Just take three examples. Darren Fletcher is probably too old to continue for much longer, but he was one of our best players in the last game and shouldn't be getting singled out as dross after that in my opinion. Martin is at worst a good option to have on the bench, which should be abundantly clear after the two wins against Slovakia/Slovenia where him coming on helped change the game. Phillips played poorly in the last two games, but is on precisely 7 caps at present and is only 26 so the idea he's "had his chance and failed" is reactionary stuff at best.

Our pool of players is limited enough as it is without arbitrarily culling a load of our better options just to satisfy some bloodlust to get rid of those who play in England.

Martin and Philips aren't even Scottish. If they were better players they'd be holding out to get a game for England - only reason they want to play for us is that they're not good enough for England and they fancy playing international football. That's guaranteed to disillusion some fans. I'd rather see Stevie May in the Scotland squad than Chris Martin and I'd rather have Ryan Christie than Philips. Even if they're not better players they're actually Scottish and I'll buy into the national team a whole lot more than I presently do.

Also, I've nothing massively against Darren Fletcher - he's been a decent player and seems like a good guy - he's had his chance though - I can't think of many games where he's really made much of an impact for Scotland with the exception of 1 or 2 when he first broke into the team. It's time for change. Same players will give you same results.