Predicting Sebastien Pocognoli’s first Scotland squad
Scotland manager Sebastien Pocognoli will name his first Scotland squad tomorrow. Many are expecting a new era of Scottish players in the squad after Steve Clarke’s departure. Scott McTominay and Lawrence Shankland will also be absent for this camp. Here’s a prediction to what the 26-man squad for the September internationals could look like. Goalkeepers: Angus Gunn, Liam Kelly, Jon McCracken- Goalkeepers were certainly the weak point of Scotland’s World Cup squad with none of the three playing regular football last season. Gunn is playing regular football once more in the MLS and seems an obvious pick to take Scotland’s #1 shirt. McCracken has been playing regularly for a Bradford side that find themselves third in League One after six games. Defenders: Colby Donovan, Nathan Patterson, Aaron Hickey, Andrew Robertson, Calvin Miller, Kieran Tierney, Luis Binks, Stephen Welsh, Jack Hendry, Scott McKenna, Luke Graham- Donovan can hold his head high despite Celtic’s loss to Rangers yesterday and seems a natural replacement for Anthony Ralston given both’s game time at Celtic this season. Miller is listed as a defender here and could be the perfect #2 to Andy Robertson at left wing-back, especially given his energy down the flank. Many are tipping Binks to be called up for the national team and given his involvement at Brondby this season, he could be a real leader at the back for Scotland. It’s also useful to have a left footed player in defence when using a back three, albeit this could be covered by Tierney, McKenna and Luke Graham too. Speaking of Luke Graham, he showed his class at Dundee last season and has been a regular for Stoke in England’s second tier so far. Stephen Welsh is another certainty for a call-up, Swansea are high up in the Championship table so far and Welsh has been a regular in defence for them. He was exceptional for Motherwell last season and deserved his call-up then, it seems inevitable he gets the Scotland cap he deserves. Midfielders: John McGinn, Lewis Ferguson, Ryan Christie, Billy Gilmour, Josh McPake, Lennon Miller, Josh Mulligan, Findlay Curtis: Josh McPake’s call-up seems certain after his start to life at Hearts. The only thing is, he doesn’t play with wingers, of course, if McPake was on the park, Calvin Miller, John McGinn and Findlay Curtis could be on the other flank. Lennon Miller was certainly deserving of a World Cup call-up and despite only being 20, we’re all familiar with what he’s capable of, given Scotland’s midfield options, his minutes may be limited in the Scotland team, but it’s certainly good for everyone to have him around. As for Mulligan, he’s got experience playing in front of a back three from his time at Hibs, and he’d bring a lot of energy to the midfield when called upon. Forwards: Robbie Ure, Kieron Bowie, Ché Adams, James Wilson: Scotland might now be passed names such as George Hirst and Lyndon Dykes in the same way it’s past Steve Clarke. Calling up Ure seems a no brainer given his form in Sweden which earned him a move to Sevilla. Kieron Bowie scored against Juventus yesterday and has adapted well in Italy so far whilst also offering a degree of physicality up front. James Wilson has been in great for Hearts so far this season, and Pocognoli has promoted a lot of youth in his career. Scotland could certainly do with this new look, exciting front line. Following Pocognoli’s squad announcement tomorrow, Scotland will face Slovenia away on the 26th September before a home time with Switzerland three days later. The camp will conclude with an away trip to North Macedonia before facing Slovenia again, this time at Hampden on October 6th. All of these fixtures will be a part of Scotland’s UEFA Nations League campaign, where they will compete in League B this time round.
Aberdeen League Cup Hero Reveals He Gave His Side a Passionate Post-Match Speech
Marius Muller revealed his gave his teammates a passionate speech following their win against Kilmarnock on penalties. Marius Muller was the hero of the night, saving three penalties in the shoot-out as well as making multiple key stops to get Aberdeen’s Hampden dreams alive. Aberdeen lead after 52 minutes through Kevin Nisbet but soon after, Dan Happe would be shown red which led to Neil McCann’s men equalising as the game went all the way to a penalty shoot-out. The former Wolfsburg keeper interrupted Robinson’s post match speech and gave a very passionate speech of his own. After looking on social media, the 33-year-old noticed pressure was building on Robinson and claimed it was “very hard” as the Aberdeen boss has done some “amazing work” with the club. Muller said: “The last week was not good for us, we had a tough week. “We had fight and worked hard and this feels good, as it does every time you win a game. “I am very happy for the boys and very happy for the gaffer because he does amazing work for us. “Sometimes it is very hard to read things and I saw some things on social media. “It is part of the game and part of the business but I read it and see in training how much effort everyone puts in. “I am just happy we showed another face. “He (Robinson) started and then to be fair I interrupted his speech because for me it very special to say thank you to the guys. “I was happy and wanted to speak to the guys. “For me it was special to say thank you to them. “The gaffer said afterwards it was amazing, my speech. “So hopefully we go on from this.” Kevin Nisbet, of course had the Dons level soon into the second period but that all collapsed as Dan Happe was shown red for last man which John-Jules netted following the free-kick into the box. Muller said: “It was a tough situation for Dan (Happe) as he had to make a foul after a mistake happened. “I enjoyed so much how the boys worked, ran and fought. It was just mental. “We have to take the self-confidence out of the 60 minutes we fought with 10 men. “To do it with 10 men over this time – as we had big, big chances in extra-time. “We work so hard from Monday to Friday but when you don’t bring it onto the pitch on Saturday you are not happy with this. “I am happy that we brought it against Kilmarnock. “There is not much time as the next game is on Tuesday (Motherwell away) so we have to prepare very well, recover very well and go on.” Muller made up for the poor start in the shoot-out which Nesta Guinness-Walker missed first but the Dons keeper made things up saving three crucial penalties. Muller said: “I said to my goalkeeper coach (Craig Hinchliffe) I go after my feeling and luckily I was right three times. “In life you learn and maybe I have learned for the future in penalty shootouts to always go with my feeling.” Aberdeen were originally meant to face Rangers in the league at Ibrox but this game will now be postponed as the Dons will still play Rangers, but at Hampden in the Premier Sports Cup Semi-Final in which Hearts will take on Hibernian in the other fixture.
“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot” – Brian Graham on County’s defeat to Hibs.
Brian Graham believes County can take positives from Saturday’s defeat to Hibernian, but admitted that they shot themselves in the foot. He stated: “I just think when you’re on a football pitch it does not matter the football score you’ve got to keep going, you’ve got to have the belief that you can try and get back into it, it wasn’t to be today, we’ve been great up until this point, bitterly disappointed, when you’re playing against a good side, who are as fit as they are, as athletic as they are, as quick as they are, you cannot gift them goals, i feel as if we’ve shot ourselves in the foot today (Saturday). The striker added: “The manager said after the game that we didn’t make it a cup tie because of the manor we ship the goals in the first-half, we then changed shape second-half, listen we take the positives out of that we don’t concede another goal but we did want to give our fans something to cheer, we wanted that goal, but at this level you can’t make silly mistakes because you get punished and that’s what’s happened today (Saturday), David Gray’s going down the road happy, they’ve got themself into the semi-final, but for us, we regroup very quickly, we’ve got a massive game come Tuesday night, but yes it’s a bitterly disappointing afternoon, but it won’t define our season. Graham on the learnings that County can take going forward: “Of course there is, listen it doesn’t matter what age you are, if you are at my end of the footballing career, or these younger boys who are just starting their football career, everyday is a learning day, we’ll go over the game and we’ll pick out where we can get better, we know the manor we lost the goals was very, very cheaply and that’s what’s probably hurting right now and it will over the course of the night, but we’ve got to put it to bed very quickly, as i said, that game on Tuesday night, the game in hand we’ve got in the league, where we’ve got three points to go and join Hamilton so we need to make sure we go and win that game against Queen of the South, Graham added: “Going back to today’s (Saturday’s) game, if you look at the stats, i don’t think there’s much in the game and that’s probably the annoying part, from our side, where there’s not a lot in the game, the game was kind of going back and forward, but when they’ve got that quality, whereas we’re getting the ball in the final third, we’re making that wrong decision, you’re taking that extra touch, you’re no getting by these guys with that, the athleticism they’ve got, the power they’ve got, you need to touch and play and that’s a learning curve for the younger players that are in the squad because if they want to get aspirations to go to that level, then they’ll need to take a lot from the game today, because everyday is about learning and developing, these guys are playing at the top level for a reason. Brian Graham has enjoyed a stellar career and at thirty-eight years old the striker is still keen to create more footballing memories. Graham stated: Probably last season with Falkirk when we lost to Dunfermline that was probably the bitter blow because you’re at Hampden, you’re at a semi-final, you’re probably favorites to get to the final, that was probably the bitter blow, that was my last hope of getting to the national final, but listen I’ve been lucky over the course of my career, I’ve won the League Cup, I’ve played in the Scottish Cup Final, so, I’ve been very lucky, some people don’t get to experience the joys that I’ve had in football and i want to continue having more, it doesn’t matter that I’m thirty-eight, i still really enjoy coming to work, i show enthusiasm every day and when you’ve got these younger boys round about you, they give you that buzz and belief to keep going, we have a laugh about it everyday.”