RicoS321

Don't know like, on this season's form (of his teammates) I could see him playing just behind the striker.

It's very noticeable how poor we've been defensively since his injury. We need him back. Fantastic professional. Glass oot, Consi in.

I have no issues with Patterson being in the squad, just that he shouldn't be in the starting lineup. He's done his development in the u21s and there should be some sort of route from there to the first team squad for purposes of experience. If we were covered for right backs then I'd ditch him, but we're not, with probably Shaun Rooney as the only one who could feel a bit hard done by. What reeks though is that he'll likely start against the Faroes. In that situation, we'll be using the national team as a development ground for a player not good enough to play for his team, and not yet ready for club football. In reality, it's difficult for Clarke as there is no doubt Patterson will be a good player in time and we have few other options. I notice Gilmour wasn't playing for Norwich the other day either, so he'd be pressed on making one rule for one and so on, even though it's obvious that Gilmour is class.

I'd say that was slightly less pish than recent weeks, we almost had the shape of an actual football team at points, in the final third. Incredibly harsh two yellows and at that point we needed the McInnes cautious sub that never came. Bates was poor today like. Lewis with a poor clearance on his wrong foot, but keepers do that all the time and the most basic rule of defending is to get into your line as quickly as possible. I mean it's drilled into players, but Bates was miles behind the others. You sprint out and retain your shape as soon as the ball leaves the keeper's foot, just as a striker should never be caught offside because they didn't get back in time. Bates also at fault for their second, and threw himself into loads of needless challenges. He just looked way off the pace. Lewis makes the wrong decision for the third, but he was always going to be second to that one and the only option of going through main was probably fairly risky - they got fucking lucky that main basically missed it. Another naive performance unfortunately.

Interesting possession stats. However, possession was never really an issue under McInnes either. We had huge spells of un-scored possession last season too, which was variously described as "dominating". However, like last season we don't look like scoring. I think if we were to look back at around this time last season there'd have been talk on this board about someone "about to take a hiding" from the dons. We were playing with a lot of invention but weren't finishing, with Watkins providing great all round play without the finishing. We're not looking like giving anyone a hiding at present despite our possession as we look utterly unthreatening. Sounds like Watkins won't make it today as you say (although I don't think that would ever excuse suggesting Samuels up front though!), so it'll likely be Ramirez getting another run out. Hopefully we'll see a bit more invention with Hedges back, but I think that we're so disjointed at times that he might struggle to work out his role. I think I'd like to see us take the Steve Clarke at Killie approach for a while. Simplify everything down to a few basic instructions per player in a recognisable shape (3-5-2 or 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1) that provides good cover. For example, Hayes and Hedges hitting the byline and firing it across with Ramirez making the front post on repeat. Playing it in the channels and pressing the opposition, that sort of jazz. Get us back to some sort of form and then build back in the more elaborate stuff from a position of confidence.

Harsh like. I'm not on for players being charged for such minor incidents on the field of play. Maybe they're making up for the fact that they couldn't get him on the grooming.

Next you'll be telling me that Trump's "art of the deal" is self congratulatory pish.

It's been disjointed and largely clueless performances. We're enforcing a shape that doesn't suit the players that play in that system (in a McGhee type fashion) and signing players who don't suit the system either. We are not more entertaining under Glass, despite what the club is pushing. There's nothing entertaining about an incoherent system that doesn't produce.

On the contrary, if I was forced at knife point to choose one of the big four to perform a review, I would choose Deloitte. Maybe not knife point, I'd probably risk getting out of that alive, but gunpoint then.

Interesting. That doesn't give the Hun lawyers much wiggle room. I'm guessing that they will say that their agreement with parks would have been put to the side if their cinch deal was agreed, but not the spfl one. Hypocrisy, but nothing illegal. It'll all come down to the production of their contract with parks. I'm guessing it'll have been made fairly watertight given it seems to everyone on planet earth that it has been done retrospectively. I don't think the spfl have much of a case unfortunately. It's fairly transparent what the Huns have done, but they take pride in that. Just another to add to the list.

I had a real nightmare trying to throw my QR code onto the pitch in disgust after the weekend's game like. Impossible to get rid of them.

And what about Coldstream? They any good?

Rooney missed his fair share of chances, but he got into great positions so regularly in games that he always made up for his misses in short order. He used his body better, had a better touch and may actually be quicker than Ramirez. Ramirez actually looks like the Rooney that left us rather than the one that joined. I'm not sure he's going to be good enough. If he doesn't make it, then we're looking at another window of failure in recruitment. A little too early to say of course, but current projections are that Bates is going to be good, Brown too, with the rest not really cutting it. It was really unacceptable not to have a recruitment head sorted before Glass arrived.

Aye, that was turgid stuff again. A system that's not working with signings that don't fit in it. Others picked out the culprits, but I'd add Ramirez and Samuels to that, who were gash. We desperately need someone to take on for Ramirez when he's playing shite, I assumed that would be Watkins, but I'm guessing Glass sees him as a slow winger before he dropped him today. McRorie also a fucking liability at the back, with Bates looking decent. Still nowhere near to knowing what out best eleven is yet.

It'll be nice to see Shinnie back up the road.

This. If you want a bunch of people to come in and confirm the exact outcome you wanted then these guys will do just that, lending their "credibility". They'll have nothing to add to the game. I suppose it's important to remember that football isn't a democracy (bit like the rest of the UK!) and that the actual purpose and integrity of the game isn't open for discussion. This review is purely looking at money generation.

12/3.

I've not seen a more complete player this century. He's fantastic. I can't see a way that he won't go to the top. Apparently Everton are switching interest from Patterson because of price, but I doubt that. Ramsay is just better (currently). £10M in January with a loan for the remainder of the season sounds reasonable.

The governments of all countries stop people taking drugs all the time, that's kind of one of their jobs. If they deem that there is a risk to people's own safety from taking ivermectin then they would be right to try and prevent it. More likely though is that they are concerned that it will replace vaccination as the popular choice. Unfortunately, ivermectin doesn't reduce infections and spread of covid and so concern around the ability to control the virus in Australia would be fairly genuine, as they're still administering lockdowns due to their previous success. The question for the government is if ivermectin is more efficacious than vaccination and certainly prior to the delta variant that was very much the case. They need something successful enough that they can promise no more lockdowns - they need a cure. The very political nature of the pandemic requires to be seen to be ended, which is pretty much what's happening in the UK. What that shouldn't mean is ruling out the use of ivermectin as a supplement to vaccine treatment, which I suspect we will see (and probably have seen) in the UK as the virus becomes endemic - if it passes the various trials with a high degree of success. I think the deliberate spread of misinformation about ivermectin being a cow wormer or whatever by various media outlets is equally as problematic as vaccine misinformation, as it may be something that is required in the near future. Ivermectin isn't a replacement for vaccination though, in the same way as vitamin D isn't. Vaccination is really the only good option (of the two) for reducing harm to the community over the individual, so I can completely see why a government would be very wary of people expressing their rights to self medicate and treating the pandemic as a personal problem.

I'm guessing there's only so much you can do. It's not like Ramirez should be learning anything new. Even the best professionals snatch at things and are affected by confidence and the general performance of the team. More worryingly, we appeared to get another member of the coaching team red carded yesterday. We seem to have had a lot of run ins, it's not exactly setting a great example. That could be down to unfamiliarity with the refs or whatever, but you expect the coaching staff to be more professional and to be able to remain cool when perhaps the players can't.

When you set up with 4 centre midfielders, you'd hope to have a lot of possession in fairness. Unlike you, I don't see what Glass is trying to do, I really don't think it's obvious in terms of the signings he's made, nor the positions he's playing players in. I didn't see yesterday's game, but the BBC had us playing a 4-3-3 which fits in with the approach in previous games. To be so devoid of pace in that setup makes zero sense, and it doesn't surprise me that our good ball players were able to hold onto possession without many clear cut chances. The whole Ojo experiment has been taken far enough, despite his improvement from last season, it's still a position that doesn't suit him. With the midfield three all desperate to play the "I can confidently take the short ball from our defenders" role, there's very little transition between midfield and attack (which would likely be fine if one of the forward three had pace). Then in attack you've got another central midfielder on one side where a winger should be and then we've signed Watkins who doesn't really fit the winger bill either but needs to play there because we've signed him and his striking partner on long deals. You've highlighted the problems at the back, the biggest of which for me is that we've got four right sided centre halves. Where you see a project that is improving, I see one that needs to be arrested before it slides backwards. There was a period before the turn of the year last year where the goals had dried up, but we were still dominating possession and creating good opportunities. We didn't change things, and our rigid, imbalanced squad meant we could change a few faces, but not the style or the outcome. Once teams realised we weren't that good, the chances then began to dry up and we ended up correctly sacking the manager. I hope we give Glass plenty of time to turn it around, but I think he'll struggle unless he changes course. I think his signings have served to give us a massively bloated squad of very similar senior players which will make it difficult to implement change. I think we've got a lot riding on Hedges' return (I've a feeling Samuels might turn out to be a dud) and hopefully that'll see us through to January when the priority has to be to offload players.

Wrong cheek?

It's who isn't on the bench that's as much a concern. Senior players not stripped due to injury or otherwise include Kennedy, Devlin, Hedges, Samuels, McGeouch, Considine and McGinn. That's a fucking ridiculous state of affairs, what a giant squad. McLennan and Campbell can't really be described as young prospects anymore.

Either way, a solid 4 centre midfielders with zero width. I'm guessing he'll play the sort of weird 4-3-3 type thing where he plays Ojo and Watkins wide(ish) with the very central three in behind. To be honest, it's massive shoe horning, there isn't room for Longstaff, Ferguson, Brown and Ojo on a fitba pitch. Unless we're playing across it?

Wouldn't be surprised to see a back three. To be honest, that'd bring out the best in McRorie in my opinion. I still think that McKenzie is our best replacement for Considine in left of a three, but would imagine he'll want to fit in all the signings and also not fuck off McRorie. Similarly in midfield, we are likely to witness the shoe horning of Ferguson, Brown and Longstaff again. Also, if Watkins is playing we need Ojo to drop out. We've got a seriously imbalanced squad. I expected the opposite post McInnes. Hopefully the new recruitment man sorts this out.