BARRIE MCKAY has been called up to the Scotland squad

[craig 5,199]

Looking at the first 5 fixtures:

 

Malta - A

Lithuania - H

Slovakia - A

England - A

Slovenia - H

 

Slovakia will be hard to break down, and will pose us problems defensively. A resurgent England under Big Sam will also be tough.

 

But to me we need a minimum of 10-11 points from those fixtures if we are to stand a chance of qualification. A good outcome would be four wins and a draw.

 

Suspect we'll be looking at about 8 or 9 though, and we'll be staring through the "glorious failure" looking glass once again.

 

I can see us getting as few as 5 or 6 points from those opening 5 games.

 

Can't see us getting anything from either Slovakia or England away. Should beat Malta, Lithuania you never know what you are getting and I can see Slovenia being tough too. That said, we could pull of 3 wins from those home games and, in all honesty, we should be disappointed if we don't.

[stewarty 1,878]

I can see us getting as few as 5 or 6 points from those opening 5 games.

 

Can't see us getting anything from either Slovakia or England away. Should beat Malta, Lithuania you never know what you are getting and I can see Slovenia being tough too. That said, we could pull of 3 wins from those home games and, in all honesty, we should be disappointed if we don't.

 

 

 

A colleague was bemoaning the Scottish attitude of "anything we get from that game is a bonus" (say against a big team, e.g. the Germany fixtures in the last campaign). Just look at the way Ireland went to Germany and Poland to get results that got them a play off place. It was exactly because they backed themselves to get the result that it happened. Luck would have played a part, as it always does, but we have to go out and believe we can get 12-13 points from those fixtures or pessimistic view of 5-6 points is sadly pretty likely.

[Oleg_Mcnoleg 50]

I can see us getting as few as 5 or 6 points from those opening 5 games.

 

Can't see us getting anything from either Slovakia or England away. Should beat Malta, Lithuania you never know what you are getting and I can see Slovenia being tough too. That said, we could pull of 3 wins from those home games and, in all honesty, we should be disappointed if we don't.

 

If we play as we did in the Euro qualifiers against Germany, Poland and the RoI, we might do OK. Not great , but OK. Georgia away-level of performance and we'll struggle to finish bottom! You could get a solid midfield from that squad, especially now that lump Brown doesn't need to be accommodated. But centre back and centre forward look very ordinary indeed. Pretty much playing for pride though, but I'd take that at the moment, tbh.

[craig 5,199]

A colleague was bemoaning the Scottish attitude of "anything we get from that game is a bonus" (say against a big team, e.g. the Germany fixtures in the last campaign). Just look at the way Ireland went to Germany and Poland to get results that got them a play off place. It was exactly because they backed themselves to get the result that it happened. Luck would have played a part, as it always does, but we have to go out and believe we can get 12-13 points from those fixtures or pessimistic view of 5-6 points is sadly pretty likely.

 

Whilst you are probably right - I care so little about the national team these days that I struggle to get even remotely optimistic about it.