Not sure of McLeish's thinking on a number of things last night. Our side did not even look like a good team on paper, never mind grass.
A couple of games ago it looked like we had the makings of a decent defence with Mulgrew, Hendry and McKenna with McKenna even named as captain. Why then leave McKenna and Hendry on the bench?
And surely he should be starting with Forrest and Armstrong and get McDonald out of that team.
Up front Griffiths is clearly our best hope of getting a goal yet he is sitting at home.
Looked like Strachan was not far off getting it right towards the end of his spell as manager where the basis of the team was made up of dhim players, now it is just a shambles again.
Strachan was playing Tierney at right back in order to shoehorn him in. I would agree mind you, but I also see the strengths of a back 3 when played correctly and I think it's something that will come more prevalent in the international (then club) scene in the coming years). Tierney and Robertson should be kept apart in that system though (Tierney in the centre) as they nullify each other by occupying similar spaces. They were both gash last night, and I'm not sure if Robertson is that good as a wing back as he doesn't actually take people on particularly well (he overlaps, which he's fantastic at). He didn't get any crosses in last night.
MacDonald was our best midfielder last night. I don't really like him, I think he's too slow, but Forrest has 22 of the shittest Scotland caps in history (last night no exception) without scoring and Armstrong has made 5 sub appearances this season. Neither are an adequate replacement (we should be kidnapping McArthur and forcing him to play). Last night's team would have been fine if we'd played the back 3 correctly. I don't think McLeish got it right, and he didn't change to a back 4 until Souttar (who was also pish) got red carded.
That said, we had 7 SPFL players on the pitch last night and no players who aren't playing regularly for their team. Chris Martin has been consigned to history, Hanley been put down and so has every other no-mark championship wank who ever played 3 seconds for Reading or some shite and had an English granny. We're giving young players an opportunity too (McKenna wouldn't have been near a Strachan squad). He's not got it right, and far from it, but he does seem to have addressed a lot of the things that supporters took issue with under every manager this century (including McLeish). I want this team to succeed as I think we're doing things the right way. Hopefully McLeish will be given the chance and that'll happen.
I think the handling of the Griffiths thing was poor and that can't happen again. He's been average this season, so hopefully the rest will give him the boot up the arse for the next set of matches (not before then...).
