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Use the link below for a short mediacast covering our past, present and future series.
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Summary
This is series 25: A preview of Scotland’s players for the 2024 Euro Cup.
This episode is part 1 of the players mediacast where we examine the candidates and their likelihood of being selected for the final squad. Closer to the cup, we will add part 2 and show which players actually were selected.
Links and times for teams discussed in this podcast:
Musical Introduction – 0:00
Spoken Introduction – 0:25
Section 1: Information on team – 1:32
– Comments on squad, recent games and formations, upcoming games
Section 2: Candidates
– Manager – 6:40
– Goalkeepers – 7:02
– Defenders – 12:12
– Midfielders – 26:56
– Forwards – 45:11
Section 3: Conclusion
– Closing notes – 50:24
– Review of starters – 51:10
– Review of injuries – 55:15
– Preview of part 2 – 58:55
[Music] it’s the international soccer preview we are soccer files Canada welcome to series 25 looking at the players of Euro [Music] [Applause] 2024 this episode is looking at the players of Scotland here we go hello and welcome again to the international soccer preview by soccer files Canada I’m Kevin and we continue uh series 25 on the groups and players of the 2024 Euro Cup this episode covers Scotland’s players this is actually part two of The Players media cast uh where we look at the Selections in part one we made a list of the candidates and introduced them and their likelihood of making the squad there’s a link to part one in the show notes and now that the final rosters have been released it’s time for us to look at who was selected so this media cast will be divided into three sections in section one we look over the list that we compiled in part one and see who made it and who didn’t in section two we summarize surprise selections or non- selections and we review the injuries and in section three we revisit the predictions of starters uh that we did in part one in light of the warm-up games uh to see if we would make any changes uh let’s begin then uh okay we go back to the list that we had I’m actually going to get rid of these uh highlights here um we will come back to those those were highlights from the uh predictions uh which we’ll do in section three here uh okay so for manager we have uh Steve Clark and uh there was no change to the manager situation so we will say he successfully made the squad uh let’s look at our goalkeepers we had a definite candidate in h Angus gun and he did make the squad H we had two likely candidates uh Xander Clark and uh Liam Kelly uh both of those uh made the squad and uh we had a possible candidate in Craig Gordon 41 year old Craig Gordon who uh had actually come back from injury and played in the March 2024 games there uh he was selected for the preliminary Squad but did not make the final Squad and um then we had a possible candidate Roby MCC not selected even for the uh uh preliminary Squad which uh by the way was a 28 or it started with a uh 30 man preliminary squad for uh Scotland I just want to check on that to make sure uh actually a 28 man preliminary Squad but some players did come and go uh because of injuries there H nevertheless H he didn’t make it and nor did John mclocklin or David Marshall who we had as uh uh off the squad uh okay uh so those are the three goalkeepers uh um we thought there might be four because they had brought some for to warm-up games but no just the three uh onto Central defense we had uh three definite candidates in Jack Henry uh Ryan porus and uh Kieran turny all three of those uh selected um we had um two likely candidates Liam Cooper and Scott McKenna both of those also select did and um we also had uh Grant Hanley as a POS candidate but a ringer uh kind of an injury uh doubt however he has been selected uh for the squad the other uh possible candidate was Harry sutor and uh he was not selected um we had a couple of players uh uh that seem to be off the squad Dean Gallagher and and Dominic ham neither of those selected uh as we expected uh okay over to left back and we had um Andrew Robertson uh the captain of the team who uh was a definite candidate and was selected and we had Greg Taylor a possible candidate and he too was selected but our possible but unlikely candidate uh Josh do was not selected uh on on the right side uh we had two players who were injury risks and uh doubts uh to various degrees uh anyway neither uh Nathan Patterson our definite candidate nor Aaron hickey our likely candidate uh were selected and those uh definite unlikely were on the basis of them being fit but we knew that the injuries uh were um a factor uh lowering their chances so uh big trouble for there on the side but they do have the possible candidate Anthony Rolston who was selected possible but unlikely Max Johnson and uh off the squad Steven odonnell neither of those were uh selected even for the preliminary Squad onto the Midfield and we look at defensive midfielders we had uh Jack Ryan as a possible candidate H even without the injury concern but uh there was an injury doubt um that uh probably low his likelihood but he was selected Ryan Jack and then Ross mcra also a surprise we had him a seemingly off the squad um but he was uh selected for the final Squad in the central Midfield we have uh Scott mccom and Billy Gilmore uh both of those def difficult uh definite candidates and both were selected um our likely candidate to Callum McGregor uh was selected uh um posable but unlikely Elliot Anderson a couple of reasons why uh he was unlikely both uh back injury was a concern and whether he was um going to commit himself to uh Scotland uh rather than England he’s eligible for both and uh that remains up in the air he was not selected for the squad so we do know he hasn’t committed himself to Scotland uh and then two players who were um off the squad David turn and John Fleck uh neither uh were they selected on to right Midfield and um right midfielders a bit of a surprise here we have James Forest who we had a seemingly off the squad uh being selected in the left attacking end of the field we had three definite candidates Ryan chrisy Stuart Armstrong and Kenny mlan and all three of them uh were select elected for the squad um seemingly off the squad Ryan Fraser uh was not selected and we do have a new candidate here uh it is Lewis Morgan um Lewis Morgan a uh coded as a left Winger and brought into the squad uh on the right side we had uh John mcin as a definite candidate uh he was the only one on the right attacking side and he was selected uh onto um uh sorry that shouldn’t be fors attacking midfielders uh there we had uh Lewis Ferguson who was an injury doubt and uh he was not selected for the squad we had him as a likely candidate so a bit of a loss there and um among the forward uh probably the biggest news of of all uh we had Lyndon dkes as a definite candidate with no uh injury tag on him but um it turns out he is injured and was not selected for the final Squad uh just the preliminary Squad there and uh he withdrew uh due to that injury uh that left us with our three possible candidates only at the possible level and uh Chay Adams and Lawrence shankland were selected uh but Jacob Brown was not we also had the possible but unlikely Kevin NE Nisbet H who was not selected but we do have a new candidate here uh too and it is uh Tommy Conway uh Tommy Conway so we’ll give a little biographical information on them in the next section but that is uh the selections for the team and um we move on uh and we’ll talk about um a review of the surprises here so um where am I in my list okay let’s go to uh notable non selections and we have uh Lyndon Dykes uh probably the biggest surprise because we didn’t have him uh uh keyed as an injury doubt uh so lyen Dykes uh oops Lyon Dykes not selected for the Squad uh just for the preliminary Squad surprise inclusions Grant Hanley had been injured for um uh large chunks of the season um but he uh he had recovered um not really a surprise because we we thought he uh might return to the team uh if he was fit but anyway H good to have him he hadn’t been there uh uh for most of the period that we looked at uh Ross MCC is a defensive midfielder who we had as a um off the team candidate but he was selected and then uh so we’ll give a little more information on him because we didn’t talk about them uh much Ross mccy uh has no caps for the national team he’s 26 years old and he plays for Bristol City uh in England was with Aberdine before that so um yes just brought up to the Squad uh here he’s actually kind of been around uh for a while because he appeared in October uh 2020 um but he hadn’t uh uh been on called up since um uh 2020 so uh coming back after a long time uh James Forest is with Celtic in Scotland since 2010 he was with Scotland from 2011 to 221 well that’ll be longer now with 38 caps and five goals and he was part of Euro 2020 but he hadn’t appeared for the national team since then but now um but uh now he is uh called up again for a tournament uh our two new players uh Morgan Lewis uh is 27 years old he actually got a couple of caps back in 2018 and then played in a warm-up game for his third cap H Morgan Lewis is with Scotland since uh 2018 then I was going to say his Club his Club is New York Red Bulls uh in USA and he was with into Miami before that and SK and and Celtic prior to that so uh Lewis Morgan a left Winger called up also Tommy Conway uh he is 21 years old he hadn’t played for the national team but did uh play in one of the warm-up games and he’s with Bristol City uh in England also just like Ross mccy and um uh he yes uh Tommy Conway then uh getting the call up uh an update on injuries then so we have H recovered from injury is Grant Hanley and he is um uh he is uh joining the team I’ll keep his name in green to show that and uh Ryan Jack he was an injury doubt but uh uh was recovered enough to be selected for the team however we have a number of players dropped due to injury two right backs uh Nathan Patterson and Aaron hickey so we’re gonna H take a look at the uh warm-up games to see how they handled that problem uh we also have left midfielder Stuart Armstrong uh I should say Nathan Patterson was a definite candidate Aaron hickey a likely candidate Stuart Armstrong was a definite candidate and um his hamstring injury apparently preventing his selection and we had attacking midfielder Lewis Ferguson as a likely candidate uh who uh uh also had a ligament injury we knew he wouldn’t be back uh and Lynden Dykes finally added to the list um put on the preliminary Squad I’m sure in hopes of his recovery but uh but not there uh okay and um yes uh Grant Hanley and Jack Ryan were uh just possible candidates uh there all right let’s uh go back over our predicted starters list and see if we have any uh any uh changes so Steve Clark of course we predicted but uh in this section I’ll talk about the the warm-up games a combination um of reg starters and uh some of the bench players or uh new players uh given field time here uh particularly forward uh shankland was given uh two starts in the H absence of dkes uh so we will uh look at that again when we get to forwards for goalkeepers we had a predicted Angus gun H in the warm-up games he started one of them um and uh Zan Clark started the other one that did throw a bit of a curveball to us because we had uh thought Liam Kelly was going to be the first backup keeper H but Xander Clark starting one of those warm-up games uh puts a bit of Doubt into that nevertheless we’re still confident that Angus gun uh will be the starting goalkeeper uh in central defense we had predicted uh well the formation of a three-man defense and actually H in the two warm-up games they had one Twan defense and one three-man defense so uh but I still think they’ll go with a three-man defense H we had predicted um what had been basically happening all along Jack Henry and middle uh Kieran TIY on the left and Ryan porus on the right however uh Grant Handley started both of those games um uh both of those games so now uh we think he’s res assuming his position he had that before he was out injured uh for most of the period so uh we’re going to we’re going to uh remove Jack Henry as our predicted starter and uh insert Grant Hanley uh there as the starter left back position H nothing has changed there we predicted Andrew Robertson and is still confident about that he started both warm-up games uh the right back position we were very anxious to see uh how they would manage this and um uh given Patterson and hickey’s absence well in the first game it was Defensive midfielder Ross MCC uh on that side and in the uh second game right back Anthony Rolston um however we’re not confident enough to say that that’s what they’ll go with in the cup so we’re still not able to predict a uh a starter in the right back position okay moving upfield to uh midfielders the situation there had been uh Momin Gilmore and McGregor basically rotating starts uh we had nominated uh mcom and Gilmore uh as starters are two definite candidates what uh ended up happening was uh M momy uh did not uh appear on the field in the warmup I think he wasn’t even on the bench for the first one and he was just on the bench for the second one nevertheless uh we remain confident that he will be a starter Gilmore started both games there uh one alongside mlan uh who we have as a left attacker and uh one alongside McGregor uh so uh we will uh keep with Gilmore uh on that one um for left attacking uh players um uh we thought uh uh we thought we had highlighted Ryan Christie and green and afterwards I thought maybe we should have put him in Blue uh as a bit doubtful because I wasn’t fully confident he’d be a starter anyway he did start both of the warmup games but he started on the right side so a little strange going on with the attacking end of the pitch you’ll hear the second half of that uh soon uh but maybe I will uh claim to be clever and uh keep Ryan Christie as a uh as a confident uh or a starter that we’re confident in and um uh over on the right side uh we had John mcin H he started one of the games but as a left attacker and the other game was started by right midfielder uh Forest uh Forest who was uh a surprise selection so maybe they were giving him uh just a little field time uh there so really the only surprising part is that uh chrisy and mcin uh switched sides uh Forest who’s the right midfielder also playing on the left so uh it’s a bit OD that they didn’t start on the kind of designated sides uh okay up to the uh forward line um well we had predicted uh no we hadn’t been confident enough in lynen dikes H to predict him again on reflection I probably would have put him in blue as a uh as maybe the most likely starter uh but we are taken by surprise that Lawrence Shanklin got both starts in the warm-up games uh we we probably thought Shay Adams was the most likely backup and perhaps he is and they’re just giving Lawrence shankland some f time so we’re not really sure what it means that Shanklin started both though it could mean that he he is uh being eyed as a starter in the tournament anyway that brings us to the end we would like to thank Mike KAC Mak out music and pixer Bay for the wonderful background music called Dance 9s accompanying this media cast [Music]
