Disaster Index: 3.4 Entry: Selection Pressure, Pre-October Window Cause: A player in club form sufficient to generate national-team speculation, arriving at the point where the manager's preferences and the public's preferences may not be identical. Category: Administrative / Emotional Evidence: Josh McPake's performances at Hearts have attracted sufficient attention that his absence from the Scotland squad is now a question the manager will be asked. The manager has not yet answered. The question is being asked anyway. Historical precedent: Scotland has a reliable mechanism by which a player's club form becomes a national conversation before it becomes a selection decision. The conversation frequently outlasts the form. Affected parties: The player, whose position is now public and requires management. The manager, whose next squad announcement will be read as a verdict. Supporters, who have identified a cause. Immediate outlook: The October window will resolve or extend the question. Until then, the speculation performs the function speculation always performs: it fills the space between fixtures with something that feels like progress.