RicoS321

Aye, not a terrible lineup. Lazetic seems like he might be a Robinson type of player, and perhaps he fancies Olusanya off the bench too. 3-5-2 is basically our only option at the moment. Given that our wingers are absolutely pap, it's a no brainer. It's a very young back five though. Edit: hopefully Geiger has worked his arse off in his free week, and Robinson inspires him a little. He could either be close to being a good player or just pish, it's all down to work rate and fitness.

Agreed. Very much so.

Is it two? Is it a trick question? I genuinely don't know or care, which I expect is the position of most.

The interesting thing about the Robinson appointment is that he's not the type of guy you get in as a stop gap to inspire a poorly performing team to see out a season. He takes time to get his preferred team on the park and implement his ethic. I don't see a huge uptick in results between now and the end of the season, and I think it'll be beyond January by the time he's had a chance to rejuvenate the squad. Hopefully he'll be given the time to do so. I think there's a slight window to make this team harder to beat and squeeze some points out of them, but not much else. I assumed that's what Leven would do, but his selections have been scattergun at best. I hope Robinson just goes full pragmatism and makes us a stuffy side, in the hope that guys like Cameron, Nisbet and perhaps Armstrong (Keskinen at a real push) can sneak us goals at the top end. There isn't a lot of room for error with this squad though, one bad selection and we lose a game.

Not everything is black and white though - Paul Lawrie sits near me at the fitba.

I think that misunderstands golf. Most golfers are liberal types. The ones that enforce the dress code rules are the Nouveau riche. The guys that have just "made it" and are keen to throw their new found power around. Those that have already made it know that they're not at risk from the new lackey, he does their bidding for them. In other words, golf is just a mirror of the way everything is run (including football). Trump is just the vulgar face that isn't meant to show itself. That he might be drawing the failed system towards its logical conclusion a little bit quicker than the "professional" type is largely irrelevant, it was always heading that way and it was always going to do so with a very heavy hit. He won't last, but the material reality of the situation most certainly will. It's what happens when you design a system that doesn't align with physics.

I wasn't suggesting you would vote for Newsom or otherwise, just pointing out to those criticising (correctly) people for voting Trump, that it has to be couched to a large degree with the alternatives. I'm not fighting anyone's corner. I'm directly addressing you, and your rudeness as I see it. Responding to someone's perceived lack of empathy with what - ironically - appears to be bullying should be pointed out, which is what I was doing.

I think this is what it'll be too. Personally, I'd prefer Nilsen in midfield, with Geiger punted, and Morrison in the back three, where he wasn't quite the liability he was in a four. I'd probably have Jensen over Lobban too, as I think Lobban was poor against Dunfermline.

I don't think that's fair, or an accurate reading of what was written. Just rudeness, and lacking in empathy. And arrogant as fuck, of course, assuming that you know more about a person's own experience than they do. Even if you assume that a small part of the post was embellished, it would be weird to assume it wasn't in some way informed by the rest of the it. In my opinion, Trump is a vulgar child who has the cognitive abilities of his predecessor, and should be stood down because of that. Voting for Gavin Newsom (or Vance, or whoever) as your answer? Isn't that equally as deluded?

Your loyalty lies with the online message board, not some employer. When you get fired for calling tom English an ineloquent writer, this will be the first place you come.

Would have been nice just to get him on a two year deal so that there's less to pay off. The biggest problem that he'll face is the lack of time he'll get. A foreign "exciting" manager would have got more time. The squad is extremely poor, and once again we'll be looking at 10+ players to come in, with a view to six being starters. That's an extremely tall order for any manager, nevermind one that's coming in with a reputation for playing shite fitba, who will almost certainly be forced to play shite fitba regardless because of the atrocious squad he's inherited.

No we don't. Get him straight on the training pitch.

Every workplace needs one of those. If he gets the order right more than 70% of the time, then keep.

You have no idea what role Leven performs at the club normally, do you?

Aye, seems reasonable. It's a real shame that a separate entity hadn't been created to collect DNA money, that polled its funds and bought shares to collectively press the club in how it was being run. That'd have been a far better way to support the club in my opinion.

I think Doc was only really a case of calling in a favour from a guy known to the club to see us through until the end of the season. He'd have expected to last until then, but it won't have been guaranteed (he might get his short contract paid off, or he might offer to hang around for a couple of weeks to see the transition through. I'd expect Leven to return to his old role as you would in any other job, unless Robinson has someone he specifically wants for that position.

Welcome aboard Mr Robinson. He doesn't fit the strategy at all, but I think it's important to recognise that he was actually on our original shortlist back when we started looking, and was possibly the preference of at least one of those responsible for hiring, so it's not a completely wild appointment. It's a pragmatic appointment at least. We could easily have gone down the route of inexperienced or high risk foreigner for the sake of foreigner route that when weighed up would be much worse than Robinson. It's not like he doesn't tick any boxes at all. If Lutz is in any way a good sporting director, and not just an ego, then he'll definitely be able to work with Robinson. Just as he would have been able to work with the fourth or fifth foreigner on his list despite whatever flaws they brought. As long as we're clear about responsibilities from the outset, we should be fine. I actually think the worst thing would be if Lutz leaves. We've decided on a model that requires a sporting director. That means Lutz would have to be replaced. Once again we'd be getting a sporting director in after appointing a manager. Which would be taking shambolic to its peak.

That would be hilarious. Imagine the meltdown that would cause?

As the middle east representative? That'd be extreme banter from the US lads. Extremist, even.

I wouldn't either. It also wouldn't be implausible that Robinson was on the shortlist and that after Lutz's preferred candidates didn't come to fruition, Robinson's knowledge of Scottish fitba saw him ahead of a few foreigners that maybe Lutz wasn't as keen on. In terms of overall risk, Robinson is reasonably low, a bit like signing a player from another Scottish side in that regard. Maybe he's being pragmatic.

Fit's this?

We've been playing two forwards quite a lot under Leven. It only helps if you play a suitable midfield. I quite like Fraser as a player. Every player is taught to be a diving cheat, hence Cameron having his head in his hands against the Tims for forgetting to throw himself to the ground.

Yep, neither are good footballers, but we've had much worse footballers than both in the past that have been good when well managed. Steve Clarke was excellent at keeping instructions simple for players when he was at Killie. It would be very easy for a team to play to both Richardson's and Philips' strengths without having to worry about their weaknesses too much. Richardson was very, very clearly nervy as fuck with us, the fitba was a hot tattie. But instead of playing to his strengths, we asked him to try and play the ball out and take it under pressure and played him alongside a weak defence. We could easily have eased him into first team football, asking him just to chip it down the line, run fast to the byline and kick it sideways, on repeat until he built some form of confidence. Exactly what Thelin did with Morris for example. Phillips could have been told to do the high press and win headers and second balls, and be relentless, with five yard passes only. I'd say he is a better option than an at least four of our midfielders this season. Edit: I'm absolutely not saying that we should sign either of them! Just that we could have made the best out of them whilst they were here.

You do wonder if Leven has made it clear that he's unhappy at the length of time he's had to be caretaker and asked to be removed from the role. He had a fairly serious health scare last time he was in the role and I wonder if he's thinking that the club are taking the piss asking him to be in it for so long again.

O'Hara would have been an excellent signing two years ago, but he's very much on the way down. I thought Philips was a decent enough player to have in the squad. Not a great footballer, but athletic and strong, and a good option off the bench to try and disrupt and get in folks faces when trying to play fitba has failed. Similarly, Richardson had all the attributes to be a serviceable SPFL fullback, sticking to a few limited instructions.