Leigh Griffiths

To be honest flying to Tel Aviv right now seems a little bit crazy. The daft thing is we allow UEFA to dictate who we play based on "rankings".
Something like this we should be fielding an under 23 side.
Griff needs to still get over this injury, which no doubt affected his training. Certain things like that are normal, but the pundits miss important parts out.
What Griff needs is a combination of rest and training. Not flying in to play somewhere where the big debate over the last week has been whether snipers have the right or not to shoot kids for encroaching.
Even the BBC want to hint at the backroom staff having a go at Griff. Don't care. It's simply not in our best interests for folks to take the flight for 15 minutes of football when you can play football anywhere.
I don't think we should have pondered to this competition, when we have so many club games. But then we've a bunch of idiots running things, who want the old divide back. Get a polar opposite from Gordon Strachan? Seems a bit strange.
Grant, McFadden are hardly managerial contenders.
McLeish looks pished as a fart anytime i've seen him doing punditry and meanwhile wee Maloney goes to Belgium.
Look around and we've no shortage of managers. So why such an obvious bluenose?

 

Maybe Griff is snubbing a manager who snubbed him rather than snubbing Scotland?

 

On the internet now liking tweets about McLeish, sorry but I know we are supposed to hate the SFA/Tartan Army/McLeish etc etc but Griffiths attitude stinks.

You wouldn't see McGregor and Forrest, who have had a rough deal at international level, dingy the managers calls and then pull out the next squad citing focusing on fitness.

From on the bench eating tea cakes, to public put downs by Rodgers, his attitude is all wrong. A proper pro would of turned up and worked his socks off, and prove the * McLeish wrong.

Take McLeish, the SFA, national team out of the equation - it's all unprofessional as *.

 

I'm not happy with this. How can he say he is Scotland's number 1 if he cannot be * to show it. I get the feeling they will just tell him to go * himself now.
This is our best chance to go to a Euros. Players should be trying their balls off.

 

Is it really that difficult for McLeish to come out and say Griffiths is number 1 striker?

McLeish always hated wee Griff and if you want to win you need to recognize your best players. Wee Griff's die hard Scotland, i just get the feeling McLeish is only in it for the cash.

 

I'm not too bothered if he's in a huff with hun face or not,his not playing for the national team is a good thing for the club.

 

Griff has been treated unprofessionally by both the alcho and now apparently his staff.

The alkie threw griff up on his own against arguably the best side in the world... savaged him for it... and then publically declared he would be replaced as no 1.

Imagine ANY club manager pulling that on a striker... nevermind a no1 striker.

Obviously griff has * it as far as the high road is concerned but respect is earned. Griff has worked hard for his respect in a scotland shirt. Alkie * it tactically and blamed it on griff... then hung him out to dry.

 

Why should he have to come out and say that?

 

I'll be curious to see if Alkie McFuckwit chucks the Scotland job again once all the fans have cleared off his EBT Robbery.
Personally I want the criminal sacked ASAP and all the Celtic bhoys to tell him to go * himself and stay fit for the only team that matters. Also just look how biggoted the SFA are to us...so kill 2 birds with one big GTF...and don't get me started on the Betfred Cup scandal, the holders should be the ones that play at the Humpdome no other option considered.
#StopThe10

 

and then he drops him after the Belgium game. Total joke.

 

I'm no fan of McLeish but I wish Rodgers had a pop at him at HT in Salzburg. Up top on his own or not, he should be working alot harder than he currently is. I don't think Griffiths comes out well in this at all and his attitude at club level leaves a lot to be desired, never mind for Scotland. I get the feeling he thinks that as long as he ties a scarf or pats someone on the head he is untouchable amongst the fans. Taking liberties imo. Needs to grow up.

 

Agreed,The alkie * played most of the Celtic squad in a friendly to get pumped by Belgium,then plays his sevco buddies in the easier home qualifying game,sleekit rat *.

Glad Griffs has * off,hope the rest of the Celtic players do the same....* the Scotland games,until the buckfast king has left.

 

McLeish went nuts at griff against Belgium....he was playing up front on his own against the second best national team in world football. McLeish can go * himself.

 

Does not surprise me if big stuttering Jake went through Griff in a friendly..

Griff has been torturing these orange * for year's now. It's clearly taken it's toll on him..

Wish all our player's pulled out from playing for this cheating organisation, cheating Hun * of a manager and cheating scum *'s riddled throughout the side..

 

Mcleish is a big hun * who hates Griffiths like all bitter, jealous Rangers fans do. Its personal.

 

Delighted at this. * that mob. We need him firing for the next run of fixtures.

 

Wouldnt blame any of our other players doing the same.Mcleish is slowly dropping them out of the starting 11 anyway.Let him play his hun players,we dont need the grief.

 

We all know how this plays out ,fail to qualify blame the celtic players for choosing not to play for fitness reasons .

 

Leigh Griffiths has been in the game a long time. Everyone knows he's "scored goals everywhere he goes". Right from the get go until now he's been prolific.
At international he's played a surprisingly low amount of games for Scotland. He's sat out whole seasons on the bench for Scotland and for long periods of his career, been overlooked by the national team.
It's made even stranger because he's always been "Scotland daft".
Quite how it took until 2016 to get regular game time for Scotland is anyone's guess.
So this isn't just born out of frustration of just the latest round of weirdness in the battle to get Griffiths starting games for Scotland.
2017 he's our top goalscorer for the euro qualifiers. Four goals and three assists in six games.
Doesn't make the squad for the next five games. Starting with The Netherlands, at home, Griffiths doesn't make the squad.
Instead McLeish opts for Matt Phillips and Matt Phillips plays the whole ninety minutes.
Forrest and McGregor get hooked, Christie and MacLean stay on for the whole game.
Subs brought on were Mulgrew and Cummings. Even gave Ryan Fraser a game off the bench.
Scotland only lost by one goal.
One big change was putting Ryan Jack up against Memphis Depay.
On the players who sat it out, but made it all the way to the bench, it's Callum Paterson and Graeme Shinnie.
The thing a lot of these players have in common is they've all had the whole ripped out them by Celtic over the years, and it's maybe not been the right mix. But 1-0 against Holland is ok.
Then Costa Rica at home we're beaten 0-1. McLeish this time opts McBurnie up front and when he gets subbed McLeish doesn't have a recognized striker on the bench to play.
Hungary away he plays Forrest whole game and guess what, Scotland win.
Costa Rica away, guess who played, Matt Phillips. Did he score, of course not. We got pumped 2-0.

So Matt Phillips was always willing to go and play these international friendlies in south america. That's why he got favoritism.

Mexico it's McBurnie who gets the nod. His replacement, Lewis Morgan has not by this point played in the SPFL.
So no recognized striker on the bench again.

Then we get to the last of the "friendlies". Belgium at home. This time he's picked Griffiths from the start, and his strike partner isn't McBurnie, or Phillips. It's Callum McGregor. Again, no recognized striker on the bench either.

So their's actually a far worse pattern emerging, McLeish doesn't pick or like to pick strikers and he's never been able to find the right combinations.

Half time you can get an idea for what's happened. Griffiths got subbed and the golden boy Steven Naismith comes on. He's not even a striker. McGregor gets subbed for Johnny Russell. So again no strikers.

That's the common theme here, go out and play with four wingers and no strikers.

Albania at home you end up with Russell and Naismith up front. Griffiths gets the last twenty minutes.

It's fairly patronizing for someone like Griffiths who's 28 and played every week since 2009, only gets 19 games for Scotland. You're lucky if he's started half those games.

103 goals for Celtic and 45 assists in 199 games. That should be enough to play for Scotland and have about 50 appearances.

So why is someone who's played 199 games for Celtic not in and around the captaincy of the national team?
Why does he get moved down to the bench and others don't? Does McLeish really think Naismith and Russell can take us to a World Cup?

Griff hit a purple patch under Strachan and they've treated him a bit like an outsider since McLeish and the other geniuses took over. 20 minutes off the bench and you're playing someone from MLS football?

Ahh that's right, no strikers in the squad. Sounds like a winger's picking the team doesn't it.