Georgia v Scotland - Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi - 6pm kick off UK time after another terrific hampden performance the 2nd part of this double header stands before us. the team is decimated with injuries and suspensions.... suspended mcculloch, o'connor injured anderson, hartley, caldwell, brown, hutton, mcgregor squad -- Goalkeepers Craig Gordon (Sunderland) David Marshall (Norwich City) Jamie Langfield (Aberdeen) Defenders Graham Alexander (Burnley) Christian Dailly (West Ham United) Graeme Murty (Reading) Jay McEveley (Derby County) Stephen McManus (Celtic) Gary Naysmith (Sheffield United) David Weir (Rangers) Midfield Darren Fletcher (Manchester United) Barry Ferguson (Rangers) Stephen Pearson (Derby County) Barry Robson (Dundee United) Gary Teale (Derby County) Forwards Craig Beattie (West Bromwich Albion) Kris Boyd (Rangers) James McFadden (Everton) Shaun Maloney (Aston Villa) Kenny Miller (Derby County) it's a big blow to lose both brown and hutton. our whole right side of the team which provided two of the goals in the victory over the ukraine. if fit, and there's no other reason for him to be drafted in if he isn't, fletcher should automatically come back into midfield. possible starting 11.... gordon alexander -- weir -- mcmanus -- naysmith fletcher -- ferguson -- dailly -- pearson mcfadden miller alexander seems like the logical replacement for hutton. the rest of the defence would stay the same. pearson did well when moved to the left flank and if dailly comes in to shore up the middle then fletcher could handle the right. this would give our full backs extra protection as both players in front would work back. if mcleish would prefer fletcher in the middle with ferguson then hopefully barry robson would be considered before teale for a wide bearth. the front two would stay the same. with mcfadden, fletcher and ferguson in the team we'd still have enough ability to create the chances required to beat georgia. if needed maloney, boyd and barry robson are ready to step up off the subs bench. opinions...?
I really get worried when I see the available midfield for this vital game in Tiflis! Brown, Hartley, O'Connor, McCulloch in the midfield + Caldwell & Hutton in the defence - that's a huge loss! I'd play Maloney for McCulloch on the left and Pearson behind Ferguson. What position did Steven play before he moved on the left after McCulloch's injury? And do you think that Dailly is good enough to replace Brown? PS: Please take a look at your guestbook, Fraser.
About the game: It's surely gonna be a tough one! The Georgians have a German manager with great experience (maybe it helps that he's a Scotland sympathizer and a few decent players I know from the Bundesliga (Kobiashvili, Iashvili, Ashvetia, Zkitishvili) - not to forget Kaladze from Milan. Are the Arweladze brothers still playing for them? Their weak point is their goalie Lomaja (who played 2nd German league last season and hasn't much practice at the moment cause he has no club).
pearson was playing in the middle with ferguson before mcculloch got injured. i thought that he got more involved in the game once he'd moved to the left. when he signed for celtic that was the position martin o'neill played him in most and i think it's his most natural position. dailly is nowhere near brown's level but he does a different kind of job. he'll cover the area between our centre backs and our midfield. personally i'd rather see robson playing as i think he's a good player but he's inexperienced in international terms. shota is playing for levante in spain but as far as i know he's now retired from international football. well i hope he has as it was his goal at hampden that caused us to have palpitations before beattie popped up with a last gasp winner. thanks for the guestbook pic. can't beat the magnificent number seven, although i picked lubo as i used to play midfield myself.
I know ... but I thought he might also be able to play in the defensive midfield with his physical strength. Btw: The Georgians are technically very decent, so you have to prevent them from playing their style. If you let them play, they can be very dangerous in my eyes. Especially Iashvili (KSC) and Kobiasvili (Schalke) can be real threats on a good day...
As always in The Group of Death, this game will not be easy by any srtetch of the imagination. It is a real blow that Hutton is out for this one, the white Cafu has been excellent in the CL and for Scotland this season and has quickly turned into one of our best players. I think Fraser's team is just about right. Despite our injuries, that's still a good team and Christain Dailly may not have Scott Brown's ability but he's experienced and if there's one man who will not let Scotland down, it's him. I'm confident that we're solid enough at the back now and we will still have enough going forward to be very dangerous. Georgia are a good team, they've been unlucky to be put in such a terrible group, I'm sure they could have a chance of, at least, having a go at qualifying if they were in one of the weaker groups. But we are more than a good team now and if we play to our best we will win this game, it's going to be a battle but I don't think there's any doubt that this team have the stomach for it now. I'm going to be fu<king sh1tting myself on Wednesday night.!!
you and millions of others. we'll all be bricking it together. good thing is though, the players won't be. this is a team confident in it's abilities and what it can achieve. not to say we'll be over confident, far from it. it's just refreshing to see the national team playing with the knowledge that they know themselves they're good enough to compete with the very best.
... from Italy and France, too. All French & Italians will be Georgia fans on Wednesday! Have a nice day/evening.
I'm hoping for: _____________Gordon Dailly______Weir___McManus___Naysmith ____Fletcher___Ferguson___Pearson McFadden___________________Maloney _______________Miller Perhaps with Faddy beside Miller and Maloney on the right. But fortune favours the brave and we must attack. I'd be disapointed if Dailly started in midfield with Maloney dropping out, but I'll trust McLeish's judgement...as long as Teale doesn't start...
latest odds from william hill for the winner of group B is... Italy : 10-11 Scotland : 13-8 France : 7-2
Have to agree, would rather see Maloney in there as we need someone who can create chances also his free kicks could pose a problem for a keeper that isn't very active atm.
i would like to see scottish morton's team as well with maloney included but mcleish is happy to use alexander as he's never let him down and is the logical replacement at right back for hutton. dailly came in and did a job at the weekend. i'm not a fan of dailly but he's there for a purpose and for an away game i think he suits the fixture. i just hope, as many have said, that gary teale doesn't see any pitch time. if fletcher plays in the middle i'd hope that maloney or barry robson would be called upon to take the other wide position.
If Italy fail to qualify, Scotland is my team for the Euro's. My mother is from Perth and I have lots of family ties in Scotland. I've only been following football for about 18 years but this is easily the strongest I've ever seen Scottish football become. I like the good defense and hard working midfield play; if the Scots can stick to what their good at and qualify out of this hellhole group, who knows? Maybe they go into the Euro's and pull of a Greece
i would agree but bookies do tend to get more things right than wrong when it comes to making up odds. hopefully they're wrong with this one..
Well not to take anything away from Scotland who have been terrific throughout this qualifying campaign, but technically it is a more realistic assumption that the defending world champions and #2 ranked team in the world would be labeled as the favorites for this match. They also take into consideration that Italy did win 2-0 our first matchup in this qualifying campaign. I have the feeling though we're all gonna be for a very close and tight match on November 17th though. Should be a good one!
A few pre-match articles: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/ http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1651022007 http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1651032007 http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1650182007 Good night.
It's at Hampden, though, last time the sides met there it was a draw and Scotland have won every game there during qualification. I agree with the odds, as it happens, but the 2-0 win in Italy's only half the story.
Not even 1 posting the whole day? Ok, I understand you are just too nervous... Good luck for the match! Bonne nuit.
the 17yr old keeper georgi makaridze will definitely start for them in goal tonight. i don't know if that's a blessing or not after seeing the howler the former no.1 keeper made for pirlo's free kick against italy. it looks like fabio grosso's comments have got a lot of our players backs up and given extra impetus, (not that we needed any) to prove him wrong. another point worth mentioning is that barry ferguson, kenny miller and gary naysmith are all a yellow card away from missing the italy match. we could live with naysmith missing out but ferguson would be a big blow. miller is in good form at the minute and his movement up front causes problems, plus he's good for a goal at hampden in a lot of games so he'd be a blow as well. hopefully they come through without any bookings.
I'm getting very nervous about this one now. Some people are saying we don't need to win, which mathmatically is true. However we need to keep as many permatations open as possible. If we win this and France drop 2 points we go through with the Italy result being irrellevant. No I can't see France losing to Lithuainia, but the Ukraine is a different matter.
agreed. we also need to win as it will keep our momentum going right up to the italy match. i just hope that ferguson and miller avoid bookings as i'd hate for either, especially ferguson, to miss out on the italy match. the main match is the next one you face. being georgia. get through this and then we can think about the world champions.
According to the BBC we are playing... -------------------- Miller ------------ McFadden Pearson - Ferguson - Fletcher - Maloney Naysmith - McManus - Weir - Alexander ---------------- Gordon http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7032632.stm Hopefully Maloney will push up to make a 4-3-3 like SM's system.
looks good to me. i added dailly in my formation as i thought that mcleish would have went with him considering it's an away fixture and fletcher could have been utilised on the right of midfield. but i ain't complaining however a fletcher/ferguson combo in the middle of the pitch is certainly a more appealing prospect and thankfully, there's no sign of teale..