came away from the campaign feeling disappointed but having slept on it...waking up pretty optimistic! We have a young squad who are going to be much stronger for having been at the comp, and we don't need wholesale changes for the next load of qualifiers! Hopefully we can discover a superstar striker and a new goalie over the next couple of years and I think we would be looking pretty good. Can't help but think that a fit and firing Leigh Griffiths would have made the difference......his implosion last season couldn't have come at a worse time for club and country! Onwards and upwards...back to supporting whoever England are playing!
We have a group of players that are currently playing at a high level that we can build the next 4 years around: Robertson, Tierney, McGinn, McTominay.
We've then got the younger players coming through that look like they can provide us with some much needed quality: Gilmour, Patterson, Turnbull.
The big positions we could really do with some serious quality coming through are Goalkeeper, Centre back and Striker. We have decent options there just now but Dykes/Adams are nothing more then big hard working guys. They might help get us to tournaments, but once we are there, we need someone with that x-factor and next level ability to win a game for us on their own. We've not had that for a very long time.
I'm concerned about the goalie situation. All 3 goalies we had at this tournament are ageing and average. Really hoping for a quality one to come through soon. Liam Kelly and Zander Clark have both been mentioned but probably need to improve to be at that level.
As for centre backs, Hanley certainly looked the best I've ever seen him in a Scotland shirt at this tournament, but we had to play a left back and centre mid either side of him. We need some quality in that position too.
If players like McGinn and Armstrong were playing behind Adams then we might have done ok.
Ideal team at the moment (for me) is Gilmour and Mcgregor playing centre midfield with Armstrong and McGinn in free roles behind Adams.
I think Nisbet is the more natural goal scorer then either of the two. As someone says LG if fit, would have scored at least a couple of those chances. But my tangerine coloured bins' still say that Shankland should have been in that squad. His link up play and ability to carve a chance out of nothing is far better than Dykes or Adams; accepting he like Griffiths was not firing on all cylinders at time of selection but no less so than some of the other picks.
Another point is that whilst I applaud the introduction of the younger players, not before time. Gilmour is getting all the plaudits and possibly rightly so; but he is no Modric or a younger Pandev and I believe Scotland have always lacked that inventiveness, possibly aside from Baxter; who was possibly classed as an entertainer but surely borne out of 'technical ability.'
At this stage it's maybe worth remembering how we qualified. By the skin of our teeth - third chance with dependance on a missed penalty.
Scotland did ok, not great, truth is before tournament most people thought we had to get something out first game, pos a win, and after 52 mins we were staring into abyss. Decent performance v England and Croatia stuttering in first few games got our hopes up, but real Croatia turned up and we were poor/outclassed.
Unlucky with injuries to tierney and gilmour, but our finishing, at key moments in games killed any chances we had.