RicoS321

Shoulder to shoulder has never been a foul in football though, it doesn't matter if the player is in control of the ball or not. I think you'd struggle to make a case that it wasn't shoulder to shoulder.

I'd hate to see pens given for that. Good strong defensive shoulder. Could possibly argue that it wasn't perfectly shoulder to shoulder, but it was as near as. Thelin should be looking at that opportunity as evidence as to why Aouchiche shouldn't be starting, and especially not in a wide role. It's not getting much mention, but it was easily as good a chance as Lazetic's. He could have taken the ball on his chest instead of letting it through his body. Failing that he could have got his body in front of the Motherwell player and forced the penalty. To not get a shot off in that situation was criminal.

Nah, that's not a Trump thing. You can almost guarantee Trump himself hates that type of behaviour on a golf course. It'll be spoilt rich kids acting like dickheads most likely. They'll vote for whoever their parents donate to.

If you read the bottle, one of the symptoms is seeing Irish defenders on benches, who aren't actually there.

Agreed on Gyamfi, but he's probably better than MacKenzie was at his age. I don't think Palaversa was necessarily lazy, he just looked fucked. Again. He doesn't seem able to play 90 minutes. Topi coming on at wing back was fine, he works hard, and did so tonight. Bilalovic could easily have come on for Aouchiche though. With Jensen and Devlin behind him, he'd have been fine. I thought he looked half decent in the small amount of time we've seen him, but I'm willing to accept that it's not a huge sample. The current sample of Aouchiche isn't great though.

Feel sorry for the defence to be honest. Mitov has been good all season, and he makes a glaring error. I think he thought the guy was placing it in the far corner, but he seemed to mishit it and it caught Mitov out (after Palaversa being weak as hell again). Dorrington with a shite attempt on his wrong side. However, it was 89 minutes of lacking from the front three, with some really good opportunities being missed. It throws every ounce of pressure on the defence and they make errors. We had several good opportunities to get a goal, and we failed miserably, but it'll look like defensive errors that cost us, rather than attacking ones. The change of shape was fine, generally, and we coped with most things and won a lot of good possession on the press, but did nothing with it. Not our worst performance of the season by a long stretch. I don't think we can afford guys like Aouchiche in the team at the moment, he adds nothing. Perhaps when/if we're in better form he can come back in.

Dorrington on his wrong foot. Definite pen.

Lazetic on now, and still Aouchiche is on, despite missing a really good chance and giving away one at the other end. Bilalovic can't be trusted it seems.

Dorrington terrible on the left, every touch is to get it on his right, and his body shape all wrong. Given the circumstances, I'm not blaming Thelin for playing him there, just making the point.

Interesting changes. Devlin into centre back? Probably fine. I'd have Aouchiche off.

Looks like a 5-2-3, or 3-4-3. Interesting.

Cheers. Fawa got it. Pish fae Nisbet there, should be playing in Karlsson.

Pretty much this. Forgot the game was on, off to find a stream.

I did quote internet rumours, which I thought was synonymous for "shite", but I'll be more careful in future. They were actually second hand internet rumours too.

He's just easy to get the run on. Over five yards, he's just too slow for this league. In open play, that's usually okay, because he's got good awareness and positioning, which buys him the yards. On the ball, he's got good feet and drops the shoulder well, which means he doesn't usually get caught either (no more than anyone else). It's just these standing starts he struggles with. Whilst he's got size, he's not a centre half size, and in a one-on-one there's usually only one winner. The answer is fairly straightforward though, the coaching staff just need to make sure he's not marking anyone that is good at attacking corners. There are a limited number in each side, and we have players that are quicker than Nilsen that will cause more hassle to put the attacker off (not necessarily winning the headers). Nilsen almost never wins a header in either box, but he does sometimes get a good block in, it just isn't consistent enough. It's a coaching issue in my opinion, it should be obvious the regularity with which he loses his man. It's easy for pundits to say "he's got to be stronger" or similar, but if we're continually blaming the player then it becomes a coaching issue where they recognise his weakness and ensure he's marking the correct "type" of player. As far as I can tell, the guy that scores lots from corners was being marked by the guy who lets people score from corners.

We should have learned our lesson last season and kept Nilsen forward at corners, given how very, very bad he is at marking his man.

Good luck. I've been to Prague a few times on stag doos. Fairly certain I'm on their system.

I certainly think that the stats hide a lot, because we look nowhere near fifth place, but do look good enough to finish eighth. The stats will be inflated by the chances we created last night after we'd already thrown the game away for example, which weren't testament to our ability really. One thing in our favour, though, is that our defence probably isn't as bad as it seems. They are being put under a lot of pressure because of our failure at the other end. It's relentless for them, and there's that inevitability that we'll concede simply because we haven't scored. It's a psychological issue, and one that can be targeted, especially at set pieces. There's zero breathing space for them.

I'm struggling to see why we bought Nisbet. He doesn't fit Thelin's system at all, until you add in the second striker. I knew that when we signed him, so why the fuck did nobody at the club not know that? A director of football would have known that. If we've got stats like "touches per game", and to the extent that you can use that to measure a player's performance, surely we're looking at those and seeing that he had lots more touches when Gueye was in the side than when he wasn't? Or do we only use stats when we're signing European duds? Cowan, as insufferable as he is, did make a good point about Nisbet's lack of running the channels. He does stay very central, and must be a dream to mark.

He was very slow on numerous occasions, and he regularly loses his man at set pieces, and did so a couple of times tonight before the goals.

There were certainly rumours that he'd had enough and wants away. Internet though.

Clarkson hasn't played well there since his first season though. He's better than Aouchiche, but neither are suited to playing that role alongside Nisbet. Much as I think Yengi is shite, we should have been keeping Nisbet on the park with him to see if they could do anything together. We will not get anywhere with Nisbet without a second striker. Armstrong could perhaps perform the McGrath role quite well.

Scandalously, I'd say. Four years of not learning our lesson on giving a manager carte blanche (after saying that we were doing the exact opposite). It's a serious lesson in shite squad building.

This squad isn't the best

That did look like a change in system tonight. Nilsen did appear to be deeper than Polvara and Armstrong. Could just have been the angle on the telly. It did look suspiciously like a 4-1-4-1 though. Clarkson would have been perfect for the role that Nilsen played, but it'll now be the last and only time he tries it.