Full Scotland squad to face the Republic of Ireland is as follows: Goalkeepers: Douglas (Celtic), Gallacher (Dundee Utd), Sullivan (Tottenham). Defenders: Alexander (Preston), Anderson (Aberdeen), Caldwell (Newcastle), Dailly (West Ham), Malcolm (Rangers), Matteo (Leeds), Pressley (Hearts), Ross (Rangers). Midfield: Cameron (Wolves), Gemmill (Everton), McNamara (Celtic), Devlin (Birmingham), Ferguson (Rangers), Lambert (Celtic), Naysmith (Everton), Smith (Celtic). Forwards: Crawford (Dunfermline), Dobie (West Brom), Hutchison (West Ham), Kyle (Sunderland), McCann (Rangers), Miller (Wolves), Thompson (Rangers).
with the exception of ferguson and to a lesser extent douglas and matteo - it's a pretty poor team. mind you, they did beat us last time at lansdowne road.
The Scots have some good players, but they look weak at the back, the only player I know in that list is Matteo. I don't really rate their keeper Douglas that highly either, from what I've seen of him playing for Celtic.
my guess, considering their dearth in quality and recent run of bad results. Gallacher Ross(wb) Pressley, Dailly, Matteo, Naysmith (wb) Lambert, Ferguson, Cameron Dobie, Crawford Rab Douglas is struggling with an injury so might not recover in time. bertie vogts is desperate for an international scalp but it is more important for scotland not to loose, especially at home, so i think he'll defend in numbers. don hutchinson has only returned from a year out with cruciate ligament damage and can only get a game in the hammer's reserves. kevin kyle has also been named in the u-21 squad but i would imagine he would get a game at some stage - he could be a handful. lambert is arguably past it. kerr should opt to man-mark ferguson out of it (possibly with kilbane) and stiffle the creative and driving influence he brings.
Ferguson is a fantastic player, him and Matteo I rate highly but the rest shouldn't pose too much of a threat. Healy should play, because getting a chance to prove it away to Scotland would be an incentive that he'd absolutley love and it could have a huge impact on his club career, even if it he only breaks into the Celtic side to use it as a shop window.
Matteo has just announced his retirement from international football to help prolong his career.......topical to say the least.... he won't feature in the Scotland Ireland game next week.
That's a blow for Scotland to say the least, will only improve our chances of giving Kerr a fantastic opening match though.
Re: Re: Re: Scotland squad Well, Matteo wasn't exactly Scotland through and through, IIRC he only declared for them 2 years ago.
Is it hell, Matteo was a complete waste of space, utterly useless in a Scotland shirt. Ross being injured is more of a problem, possibly means Alexander will play the full game. But with Duff not being available for Ireland that balances out.
Robbie Keane, Mark Kennedy and Gary Kelly are out for us too (not to mention he who shall not be named!) Although we should have a good team out it will not be full strength.
You'd imagine that Keane and Duff would have only got 45 minutes and Kelly and Kennedy both would have been lucky to have featured at all, so it's not that bad a blow.