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Tunisia and Tanzania drew 1-1 which sees both teams through while Nigeria win the group beating Uganda 3-1. Second set of games saw Senegal beat Benin 3-0 and DR Congo beat Botswana by same score line. Senegal win group on goal difference from DR Congo. Benin get one of best 3rd places.

If theres one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that we shouldn’t hire managers from Motherwell

If he has a great season at Motherwell then more likely he gets a bigger job than us though so you would have to question his judgement and ambition if he did come to us.

I share your enthusiasm. We are consistent. Consistently shite and have been for a year now. Maybe the odd good performance but even in wins, which doesn’t happen that much, we’re a dire watch. falkirk were much more appealing on the eye when they beat us at home, think that was the Devlin red game? we may sneak a point, maybe three, but it will be an awful watch.

Motherwell will never be a good/big job. He may even lose players in January. And he doesn’t have a budget. We’re a much more attractive option. Short term he has a good season at Motherwell maybe, long term we’re much more appealing. Do you have a reason not to want him other than leaving well for us in a position below well??

I absolutely would not want Askou. Because, if he even considered a move to Aberdeen, rather than back himself to chase down Hearts and the Old Firm when he's only eight, five and two points behind the three of them, then what the hell is wrong with him? Also, keep this going until the end of the season, and a bigger job than Aberdeen will be on the table for him.

Did he win a single free kick today? XD

New manager bounce and 3-4 January signings and 3rd, 4th at worst. cormack has given Thelin everything, 18 months, time money patience, it’s just not working out. There is absolutely nothing positive we can say about performance, a that’s been the case fo over a year for the most part. I don’t think there’s anyone saying to give him more time, how can you justify that? I also think this is the first time where there is a young talented manager in the league performing well on a fraction of our budget. For the first time in years I can say I want x manager asap. Guy is young creative, and has a team playing attractive football, no brainer.

Sorry @swaddon min, have too much to rant tonight to wait for the match thread to appear. Just how significant is the Falkirk game now? If we lose to Falkirk, they will leapfrog us and we'll fall to eighth. Since we'll be in January, that's sackable territory. A reminder of Dave Cormack's statement on 31 January 2024 when he sacked Barry Robson: "There is a talented squad of players at the Club which makes our current league position unacceptable." We were eighth, after three wins in 11. Robson's final game was a draw. Jim Goodwin was sacked on 28 January 2023 with the club in seventh, with two wins in 11. Stephen Glass made it all the way to 13 February, with the club in ninth, with four wins from 11 (two from nine). Unlike two of the above, Thelin is still in the Scottish Cup, and unlike all three has won a trophy within the last eight months. The sporting director's recent arrival also buys him time as he unlikely doesn't want a sacking on his record too soon. And, Thelin also hasn't had the January transfer window. So all these things to me would suggest even defeat at Falkirk wouldn't mean Thelin is in any immediate danger. However, fail to win on Saturday, and that would be three wins in his last 11 (four in 14). And a double header with Rangers is after that. Lose the cup game to Raith Rovers and you know what, that might be when the club did need to act to stave off angry fans. Jimmy, I don't want to read in two years about your first league title at some Scandinavian club where everyone is raving about your 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 hybrid. For the love of fuck, FOUR AT THE BACK ON SATURDAY!

They played some really nice football in the semi against St Mirren but still got pumped When did we all become football purists? Jimmy Calderwood would go through this league like a hot knife through butter

Motherwell seem to manage it fine.

Iron Maiden - Die with Your Boots On

Called it (Panda second guessing himself)

I feel like we’ve been trying to get 3 at the back to work since the late 90s.

One point from nine, and we didn't at any point tonight look better than Hibs despite the players they had missing. We're probably fortunate they weren't at full strength. Now we've got Falkirk away - lose and they leapfrog us, and they've had a free week to prepare. Rangers home and away - I don't see us getting anything at Ibrox if we play the same way we did tonight. And the Raith Rovers cup game, that's a season saving game because it's looking increasingly likely top five may in a month or two be realistically out of reach.

Just saw the Motherwell goals This playing it out from the back is working a treat. Every single week some team is making a complete arse of it

I think we could build around Kjarten and aouchiche in the middle, maybe add David Watson if we are lucky. Add another piece of quality in there. Problem is we have no wingers or center forward. I’m officially over sideways and backwards. We are a really poor watch and new signings under jimmy don’t do it for me. I haven’t seen enough from jimmy to think he can be successful here. Next.

Agree however 3 at the back needs ditched. Devlin is a quite brilliant right back, but he’s struggling in a back 3.

Lazetic is an absolute beast in FM26 though.

I don’t know where to start with that. So many poor players who cannot even do the basics. We move the ball so slowly we are never going to break teams down. Our defence always look like it has a mistake in it and midfield was run through so easily for first. Mitov needs dropped as mistakes are occurring every game now. No idea where Gyamfi was supposed to be playing. More I see of Lazetic less I like.

I feel we had better creativity in midfield with McGrath, Clarkson and Palaversa. Now we have a midfield of headless chickens. And Armstrong needs dropped.

Not sure what our formation was at the end, it looked like a 4-1-4-1, but it appeared Devlin was one of the attacking midfielders, Keskinen was a very attack minded left back, and Milanovic, Aouchiche and Bilalovic all had free roles which caused Hibs some distress, but also meant three players went (and missed) the same cutback because no-one really knew where to be. Lazetic gets worse by the game. Too busy wrestling with defenders and trying to win cheap free-kicks. One example: Chance towards the end of the first half, Karlsson is the only one on his toes trying to be an option, Lazetic stays stationary. Very little hunger from him, which likely explains why he has so few in his career.

Can the 3 year project start the first time we ever spoke to jimmy? get the Motherwell boy in asap, and I’d act soon before someone else snaps him up.

We're keeping him. Forever.

It's not just the three year project shite though, it's that the previous three managers have been fucking awful too (I'm not including the trauma of Warnock), and nobody wants another sacking and another search for a new guy. Tonight is definitely on Thelin though. Why Armstrong wasn't off at the same time as Kjartansson, I've nae idea. We needed something to stem the flow of the game, and a double sub would have given them something to think about. Also, the coaching is going wrong on the back three somewhere. Devlin is screaming for help getting back in on Youan, but Milne sits right in the middle rather than come across. He should be reading that one-two and helping out his other defender. Hanley would have up the other end. The reason it's a coaching thing is because even I mentioned this issue before the game, where the back three seem to hold their positions when one goes up, and we constantly lose goals to it. It's on Milne really, but he's a young lad who could have that positioning coached into him. Obviously, there is no mitigating the second. Normally the part of Mitov's game that is reliable. Jensen should have booted him harder. Anyway, a very poor second half. Hopefully he'll start to throw caution to the wind from now on and just play the team that finished from the start every week.