OrlandoDon

The way things are looking hopefully we sell him in the Xmas window and sign the desperately needed Rama replacement.

I don’t think it’s anything to do with teklic. I don’t think we became a poor defensive team and a long ball team because we didn’t sign him. Many questions around tactics or lack of, more than one transfer. Yes, we really miss Rama but it’s bigger than that, plus I don’t think teklic was a Rama type player anyway. my concern is that the squad has been clearly built for 3-5-2 and specific players. Plan b with a formation and personnel change is seriously flawed. I’ll take it a step further and question whether we should be relying on players like morris, polvara, and Duncan to make significant impact, yet they are being required to do so. lastly, what’s the deal with Macdonald? Back on the bench yesterday. He didn’t become shit over night but surely needs games to get up to speed and help build defensive cohesion. Or is there something else??

Haven’t seen much but this game and others it’s way too much long ball and relying significantly on duk who is a different player from the spring. Creating very little.

I just don’t see how we can stray from a 3-5-2. We don’t have a single right midfielder and are very limited on the left. The whole window was based on 3-5-2 and we signed defenders and two wing backs. think we’ll see the Dane, Macdonald, and Jensen today, devlin and mcgarry as wing backs. Really curious to what he does with that Rama hole, think he’s trying to make McGrath the replacement, time will tell. lastly, Robson is a high pressure work rate guy, that clearly isn’t Vinny. 1-1, miovski.

I think it’s so we can sell him next summer. He had a very good spell here with Charleston on loan and MLS teams will pay for him.

Honestly think this result may benefit us. All the over reaction to nearly qualifying and our run / record has people thinking we’re better than we are. Yesterday showed that. Think the humbling experience is good prep for the remaining 3 fixtures, we have to get our tactics spot on and players need to be grounded and at their best. No mistakes. We’re a blue collar hard working team with limitations, including our manager who may have god his tactics wrong yesterday. I think this is a good opportunity to reflect and take stock rather than our unrealistic feelings of going to Spain to beat them 5-0.

Interesting reading today that Harvey Barnes may consider switching nationality and be open to playing for Scotland. Scottish grandparents apparently. Was in The Sun online so not sure of accuracy or truth, but easy to want to play for us based on our recent success. The way the article is written makes me unsure of this, being snubbed by England so he’ll play for us. I know it’s idealistic but I’d rather players choose to play for us based on us, not based on being ignored by England.

So you are assuming we’ll lose and dent the confidence. What if we draw or win? We’re on an excellent run, why not approach these games with confidence, they are friendlies too so we have nothing to lose. I sense the chemistry in the squad is terrific, and they have the mentality to go at England at hampden, who knows what happens in Spain and France, it’s all part of our evolution. Good squad can still get better.

You make my point. Preseason quite often we look world beaters, beat up on some euro pish in early rounds, or win every game in the group stage in the league cup, then come back down to earth with a thud. If we want to succeed at a higher level you have to play at a higher level, win and lose. The unbeaten run means nothing if we cannot compete at a higher level at the main tournament. You have to plan in advance and improve along the way. These are necessary games in the journey. Getting confidence is one thing, but we’re ready for the next level. We don’t just go to make up numbers, we want to compete. And that takes learning from mistakes and losing a game or two as well. That’s how to get better.

Love the boys work rate, very technical player too. Wasted with the shackles on. He’s a forward converted to a midfielder and as an attacking mid for Scotland you see what he’s all about. Want him to do a john mcginn and be the man at villa, palace, brentford, even Brighton or the likes. Think he’s shown what he can do, just needs to get away from man utd.

Your think it’s purely money? I don’t at all!! Our form is the best (one of) in Europe, unbeaten in a qualifier in 2 years, plus a bunch of stats I’m too lazy to remember from hearing during the game. What’s the next step, beat the big boys. How do you do that? Play the big boys. Friendlies against Luxembourg or Austria even don’t benefit, meaningless, we have to play some big guns to improve. We’re playing the best local team at home so no real travel, then we’re in Spain so play their neighbor, guess it could have been Portugal but no real travel inconvenience going to France either. For us to be better we have to play better against better teams, it’s the only option and makes perfect sense. If we are to advance out of the group in a major tournament we need to be used to playing these teams, we’re beating the next tier and lower, it’s the most natural and smart thing to do.

Wasn’t one of the reasons we were so keen to get shinnie was because Barron and Rama didn’t work? I just don’t think Barron is mobile, athletics, and physical enough.

Pretty sure you know the answer to your own question, and given the window has just closed I don’t see us moving on from a 3-5-2 just yet. We went all in on the transfer market playing 3-5-2 and signed for that formation. I think over the next two weeks Robson will try to determine who our back 3 is - i’d say it’s Jensen-Macdonald and one other, but other than that, I think the team picks itself in robson’s eyes, and he’s got two weeks to work with the majority of the squad. roos x - Macdonald Jensen devlin clarkson shinnie mcgarry mcgrath miovski duk I don’t think we have the squad to play a 4 at the back, we don’t have a strong enough midfield, one of the reasons we’re the 3 at the back. We don’t have two strong central players, and have no right mid. id like us to see where the new boy fits in. If gartenmann can play right wing back move devlin to center mid, or vice versa if gartenmann can play mid (unlikely, never seen that said anywhere. ) with gartenmann or ruby on the right of the three I’d like to see devlin or or dadia at center mid and right wing back, don’t care which is where, but from what we’ve seen of late we’re a mess in midfield and something needs to change. The strength and athleticism of Rama and mccrorie helped us, I think we try to replicate that. Or dadia was said to be a right back/wing back/center mid, and given what we’ve witnessed the last few weeks doesn’t hurt to try him. Given how shit Morris is, surely we give dadia some minutes. it’s bad squad construction, I feel we can’t play more than one of Barron clarkson McGrath, and polvara. I also think we went 3-5-2 to accommodate duk, we’re a little fucked if he doesn't find form. I think sokler is miovski’s back up and needs to be played in that role when he plays. Given where gueye played yesterday, no clue what type of players he is…??

Ha, here we go. Square peg round hole. I also thought that yesterday too, move devlin into center mid alongside shinnie. Didn’t think Barron was bad yesterday, we just miss Rama’s drive, physicality, and effort, and devlin may be our best option. That’s not Barron, polvara, McGrath, or clarkson. It’s one of these four plus shinnie and a.n. Other. The downside to moving devlin is who do you play at right wing back. Means morris plays unfortunately. Highlights our bizarre summer window, we needed a Rama replacement and someone better than morris to back up devlin. I honestly prefer Richardson over morris.

So what’s the deal with Rhys Williams???

And not unfair to say we could/should have won the first leg.

Interesting comments. I actually think that Jensen is decent, small sample size but I’m ok there. Mcgarry too. Think devlin was poor today because of their left winger and his pace, I don’t think devlin wanted to bomb on knowing ruby would and did struggle behind him. Without the right wing back going forward we have nothing on the right, and it showed. Agree on the morris comments, he looked ok for 5 mins but I don’t think it’s unfair to say that you get 5 decent minutes per game from morris. Plus I’m sure he was given the freedom to go forward that devlin didn’t in the first half. we’ll get killed in midfield unless we sign an out of contract free agent. We have zero physical presence. Shinnie works, clarkson flair, but neither is a physical presence. Rama brought physicality and a presence. I just cannot believe for a Scottish league team we are going with this type of midfield. blew my mind that we play gueye , signed for a different look up top, wide left. Not what I expected at all. worrying day. I can accept struggling against a different look in Europe, but to see that against a bottom of the league hibs, not good.

And as mentioned the other night, we do look disorganized and are finishing with a front 3 but all are center forwards, two out of position trying to give us width. No right mid option other than Morris or Devlin....worrying.

Well, I defended us big time after Thursday, but bar the first few mins of each half we've been awful today. Problem I see is drive in center mid. Rama a big miss and we have few workhorses in there willing to drive us forward, and minimal quality center mid depth.

Nobody mentioning the ;passing on Macdonald, picked out the front row of multiple stands pretty well. Give him the benefit of being rusty. Agreed, it can only get better, need a different look up top. As long as its not Morris.

I can only assume the thinking is play duk back to march sharpness and hope he scores rather than bench him and dent the confidence? Barron for clarkson I understand, fair enough. Good to see Macdonald in there. Hopefully we’re three up after an hour and give sokler and gueye 30 mins!

I think he’s looked better than Taylor, plus is younger, way better upside. Ruby has joined an unsettled team, I think he’s got real potential. As I said before, and I think you agreed, way too much has been asked of him and he’s made mistakes. When he arrived he was meant to simply be a big loon who’d mark his man and wins the ball. He’s had more possession than he probably wants, plus as acknowledged, for the penalty it was late in the game, he was exposed, and he dove in on a very good player looking for his hat trick. He was highly regarded before his injury and I think he’s one we see selling on for a few quid in a few years. my question now is who is our preferred 3 at the back? I’m assuming Jensen on the left but the other two? I certainly want us to develop the two we own, plus I think Macdonald is the older head/leader and middle player, but I don’t see the loaners coming here to sit on the bench. Do any of the 5 play holding mid/Rama’s position?? I also mentioned before, I certainly hope there’s nothing more to macdonald’s injury and maybe we simply rushed him back a little early??

Problem we have is we also have to develop chemistry so need players playing together. We also have the international break so most of the players who have played every minute, clarkson shinnie devlin ruby will get a little break/rest. Robson also commented about duk re confidence and being careful with him so I suspect he won’t get dropped, but I think sokler deserves his chance. roos ruby Macdonald jensen devlin clarkson shinnie mcgarry mcgrath sokler miovski 3-1 us, miovski sokler McGrath

Yup. 23 yr old who had a serious knee injury that put him out for a year too. I think he’ll play the pollock role well, but currently asked to be the leader in the middle with an out of position right back next to him, plus no consistency on the other side, arguably it’s been mostly an out of position left back, and missing our main holding mid to protect him. Interested to see how our defense plays out once everyone is fit.

Honestly, had we signed Baccus I’d have been somewhat happy with the window. Very few loan players has to surely please many. It’s also one window, don’t expect all our problems solved at once. Willing to give the group a chance. we’re married to 3-5-2 hence the approach to the window, pretty much to cater to duk. Don’t like that but is what it is. Width comes from the wing backs, not a fan but again is what it is. pollock and scales weren’t ours, Stewart pish. Seen enough from ruby to suggest he’ll be a decent squad player and do ok alongside a solid Macdonald. Think a lot has been asked of him the last month. Jensen is an internationalist and a decent background, high hopes. devlin is a good replacement at rob/rwb for mccrorie. No clue of gartenmann. Not sure what Williams offers. We were weak on the left last year, aging Hayes, inconsistent loaner coulson, average McKenzie. Heard enough to suggest Mcgarry, another internationalist, is an upgrade. Happy with the signing of McGrath, gives us creativity and flair in there. However, I totally feel with three at the back it should be clarkson or McGrath with two workers in a central 3. If we’d kept Rama we’re good there. gueye and Sokler give us options up top, we’re not going to run miovski and duk to death like last year. Plus gueye give us a clear different approach. big concerns with a lightweight midfield. Rama not replaced and shinnie will get suspended. Gets worse if shinnie gets injured. Hoping that or Dadia is the plan and gives us the engine/bite we’re presently lacking.