RicoS321

Fucking Israel! Good group though.

Interesting you draw equivalence with the Nazi salute rather than the raised fist of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Weird, I'd say. As for the rest of your post, I just gave you examples, which were pertinent to the whole of football and not the sideshow of religion. Scottish football as a whole is built entirely on politics. Was Stewarty retaining the 11-1 voting system political? What about Hearts' attempt at not being relegated? Scottish football needs a strong Rangers? But the biggest thing that is political is the duopoly and, as stated, the idea that the betterment of two teams will be beneficial for the entire game. It perfectly mirrors the "wealth creators will just leave!!" bullshit that we're fed in other walks of life. If you have any interest in the betterment of the Scottish game, which you seem to, then you're political. That you shouldn't bring a Palestinian flag to a match is just a specific form of politics that is frowned upon, the rest is the game itself, from the size of the league, whether Celtic can fuck off to a training camp, how the finances are split and so on. All politics.

It looks a lot less of a yellow on the BBC coverage than it did watching originally on Red TV it has to be said. The fact that they were on the break, and he wraps his arms around the player suggests a yellow isn't unreasonable, but the player does step back into Ferguson too (something Ferguson does all the time). Given that Ferguson had 3 or 4 fouls after his initial yellow, I immediately expected the ref to book him. If it had have been the other way round, I think we'd have accused the ref of bottling it. To me, if you give the foul, you give the booking as it was to prevent a breakaway. I thought Ferguson looked a little off the pace at the weekend, and I think it showed in the way he approached that challenge (after a shocking pass fae Shay). He ran directly toward the back of Obika instead of aiming to get back in play and approach the player from the front. Ferguson is easily faster than Obika and could comfortably have got back in and faced him up, but it looked to me like he was either concerned by the breakaway (in which case he deserves the booking) or he was too tired to make the extra five yards to cut Obika off further up the park. In doing so, he allowed himself to be had in the way that he does to his opponents on a regular basis.

Football is completely political, what in the world makes you think it isn't? It's designed in capitalism's image with Scottish football illustrating that perfectly. The trickle down economics of Celtic's champions league cash, the blanket coverage of the scum on the national broadcaster and all mainstream media... I could go on. The inequality angle is just as much a feature of fitba as it is race/class/gender etc. If Scottish football isn't political for you then you're probably not doing it right (but given your opinions on Sevco's return to the top and the bought and paid for Tims, I'd say you are aware of that). No it isn't "by its nature" racist in itself. Just as feminism isn't sexist. It might be the wrong way to present an argument - that's certainly my opinion - but that's not the same thing.

Met him once, seemed a nice bloke. Good innings.

Or like being told to wear a poppy, or join in a minutes' silence on remembrance day. Of course it's political. Everything is political. Why wouldn't it be? If players and managers want to make a political statement then that's up to them. Fantastic to see them getting involved and having an opinion if you ask me. As long as there is an avenue for them to opt out, that's fine. Stand free is just a fucking song, sung when other English teams were singing it. It gained its political mythology sometime thereafter.

Perhaps slightly distorted by going down to ten men? Would be interesting to see those stats at 11 v 11. I'm surprised St Mirren are where they are though, they're streets ahead of Hamilton, county etc. They've actually got some decent players. I don't know if they've been suffering with a lot of injuries but they should be higher than they are, easily pushing utd for top six.

I disagree with your first point, as it takes the beginnings of the BLM movement and suggests that those reasons are its only purpose, which isn't the case. It's about structural racism, which is a problem in the UK as well as the US. Similarly the notion that because somebody pays for something absolves them of responsibility for their actions is quite a horrible, but widespread, belief. I'm of the opinion that taking the knee is a bit like clapping the NHS or occupy. It's a nice sentiment with no end product that will eventually, quietly, fizzle out with nothing changing. I don't think we're a mature enough society to be discussing these things without recourse to labelling a racist or a virtue signaller.

We're more direct because the players in front aren't making the same runs. We barely made the quick pass to Cosgrove today, it was always at the end of a laboured left to right and back again passage, and the pass was generally awful. Similar to when Main was on. I mentioned last season (or two seasons ago?) when Wright had a few great games ahead of another injury that his movement was the best part of his game and offered so much more to the players around him than the tricks and pace. It's noticeable that Hedges has played almost exclusively wide since Cosgrove returned too, taking him away from the central partnership with Wright that was working so well. It's frustrating, McInnes does this so often. When Anderson was coming off the bench, you thought he could work well with Cosgrove, but he'd take Cosgrove off two minutes later for Main, allowing Anderson to work up a partnership with a fucking rugby player. Hedges and Wright regularly moved apart, similarly Hayes was always going to give Cosgrove his best chance with his runs down the line, as he did with Rooney, but he gets moved up front where he is ineffective. Then he changes it every three minutes thereafter. Our good performances came with a settled team and not too much dicking about during the game. Hayes, McLennan/Kennedy on their favoured foot wings, with Wright and Hedges close to Watkins was a great setup. Slot a fit Cosgrove into that and it should be an improvement because of Cosgrove's finishing, but he hasn't had that opportunity. He's been pap too, of course, and Watkins would be first choice at present if fit. But I think we'd still struggle to score, because we're not creating.

I'd have given both. They certainly weren't horrendous decisions. The penalty is the result of a shite rule, but it's very much the rule and the ref was right. Ferguson came tanking through the back of his man and my immediate thought was: I hope the ref lets him off the hook here. He didn't. I'd have been raging if one of their players stayed on the park with that shite challenge.

Cosgrove has been pap, but we haven't changed our style of play, we've simply lost the connection between Wright and Hedges that was generating a lot of our good play. Cosgrove's return has coincided with the injuries and covid fuck up, coupled with the fact he doesn't look close to being fit. Our style of play was equally as shite with Main and Edmondson on the park and would have been with Watkins. The problem, for me, is that McInnes just keeps dicking about with the up front combinations throughout the game as of we're fucking Brazil. Cosgrove hasn't had the same player alongside him for a single ten minute period since he returned. Hayes should have been on the wing to get the most out of Cosgrove, with Hedges close to Cosgrove dropping short and bringing him into play. Kennedy should have been on the bench behind McLennan. That said, we'd have won that game with eleven men.

Have we got any more subs? I'd take Main off.

I thought it was a yellow. Deliberate foul from behind when they were on the break. Soft, but a stupid challenge to put in. Main on now though, that'll help...

Logan on. Guessing Taylor not quite fit as he hasn't been terrible.

Top 5. Well done sir. 25 more to reach McKimmie. Impressive.

Looks like a 442. Or 451. Weird. Should beat them.

Much as I hate Johnson, I think the real reason we're ramming this through is just another form of English exceptionalist behaviour. We'll only be a few days before other countries, so I doubt we'll be guinea pigs as such. It's all about being able to say we were first. Childish, populist shite that you'd expect fae the yanks. I don't like the idea of a mandatory vaccine, but I understand it. Thing is, if I've already had covid (I haven't) do I still need to get it? If I were given the chance of getting the vaccine, or being infected with covid and two weeks isolation I'd take the latter given my age and health. I have no doubt that the vaccine will be safe, but I'd rather have my body work past it itself. I understand the logic in not doing that of course.

I like the 3-4-3. I'd be tempted to throw McLennan into the Wright role to see if he can do it. Give him a half to see if it works, then maybe switch with Kennedy. I could even see us playing a 3-5-2 with Hedges alongside Ferguson and Campbell and maybe Cosgrove and Edmondson. I think McInnes will go 4-4-2 with Main and Main up front. He's such a pacey dynamic player, it's like having two up front.

Nah, McInnes is holding out for the Celtic job. Just waiting to see if McGhee gets it first.

What constitutes clear and obvious? Why is it clear and obvious when Celtic got a penalty, but not when Rangers got a penalty? What is the actual point of VAR full stop? Are there enough clear and obvious errors to merit it? How many clear and obvious errors have referees made for or against us this season? Was Ojo's "contact" against the hun enough to be a penalty, or just part of normal play? Was Considine's arm on the shoulder something that could have been proven to have occurred at every single corner in the game? It's a ridiculously flawed product (and it is a product, let's be clear). It simply moves the point at which the decision becomes contentious from referee to video. For the number of decisions it "solves" it really isn't worth it. The entire concept is, and always has been, flawed. In my opinion, the only decisions that VAR should be making are those that are offside and thus can be proven with absolute certainty. If the techonology can't do that quick enough, as is currently the case, then it shouldn't be used. See goalline technology for a working example. It's simply impossible to change VAR for offside to what is clear and obvious, because again you are simply moving the point at which the decision becomes contentious. Anyone suggesting that offside - on its own - needs to be changed to being clear and obvious simply hasn't thought through how that process would occurr, and the point at which offside comes into play. Any through ball where the player is playing the line falls into the category of "requiring investigation". At the point of investigation, you can only say "yes, it was offside" or "no, it wasn't offside" - there is simply no grey area with offside. You can't say, "well, it's only his arm that is offside", or "only his leg" or whatever, without introducing some sort of consistent measure - e.g. "if there's daylight" or some pish - at which point that will become the new target for complaint. I don't understand why people don't get it with VAR. It will never work, and the decisions for which it does work are so infrequent as to make little difference in the overall scheme of things that it can never be worthwhile. All it does is move the point of contention from the ref to the video panel. That's all it would ever do. Why did you choose to highlight point X, but not point Y? You've highlighted point X, but in slow motion it is always going to look worse. You've highlighted point Y, but you've still got it wrong because you don't understand the game. Who are these people? And so on. Spend the money on getting better support and training to refs as well as building a bit of respect for them alongside transparency over their decisions. Or just accept that bad reffing is part of the entertainment of our sport, as it always has been, and that a fake set of refs behind a telly completely devalues that. Fuck VAR, in short.

Aye, that was the highlights reel that was doing the rounds when he signed. Mostly from a single u21 game, so probably not indicative of much. I agree about wing back as a suitable position. I think it's difficult, as Logan hasn't done that much wrong, McLennan has played well at right wing back and Kennedy has worked hard whilst not being that great. To be honest, as soon as it turned out he was average he was always on a hiding to nothing. The price was so far out of our normal range, he was going to have to be good to get the squad behind him. In any workplace, if some overpaid superstar turns up to do the job that you already do, but worse it gets frustrating. He's the fitba equivalent of Serco coming in to fuck up the test and trace for the NHS.

I disagree, his opening game for us was one of the worst performances I've seen. It was horrendous. I don't know if you were at the game, you had to be there to appreciate it as a lot of it probably didn't make the cameras. It was like watching a child, he'd wonder away from his position, stand a metre away from his teammate for no apparent reason, treat the ball like a hot tattie firing it at McGeouch to get rid of it etc. It was head in hands stuff. The only saving grace was that it wasn't possible to get any worse. And it didn't. He wasn't completely shite against the Huns in the opening game of this season. However, he also wasn't better than Logan and that is the benchmark. With Logan getting poorer there was a great opportunity there for Hernandez. Unfortunately, other players being shite doesn't make Hernandez any better. With moving to a back three and playing some excellent football this season, keeping out of the team was completely justified. McLennan had some good performances in the right wing back role and merited his place, and Kennedy had a couple of good performances before injury too. that said, I think the right wing back role is a less riskier position to try him out for a few 30 minute stretches here and there if we're comfortable in games, so hopefully we'll see him get some game time soon. He certainly wasn't the person to risk bringing on against St Mirren, and Hoban was the right call, who did fine at right back.

The only reason we've got a large squad is because the signings were so shite, we had to go out and buy more. You can accept the odd error, like Ojo, but guys like Main just make you lose all faith. I've said before that recruitment should be removed from McInnes and I'd still go with that (despite Hernandez). That said, with guys like McRorie, Watkins and Hayes we've filled in some of the gaps making summer a bit easier. With Devlin, Taylor, Logan, McGinn, Main and Ojo all likely moving on in the summer, that gives us a bit of breathing space. We've got about 3 or 4 windows worth of damage to repair so it'll be a slow one. No more Main, Wilson, tansey, storey types is key. An Ojo or a Forrester is to be expected in each window and that's fine.

I think that's a little disrespectful to St Mirren though. Despite their poor league position, they actually looked a fairly competent side when we played them up here earlier in the season and we were still finding our feet a little. They didn't look crap last night either. If anything we brought them down to our level. I mentioned it last night, but I'm not sure how you would have adapted tactics to suit last night? We changed to a four at half time, but with that midfield and Main up front we were always going to be in a battle. I can't think of a single formation that would have got anything out of that. In terms of our depth of squad, I think it is still fairly reasonable. But in any team you're going to have big players who you struggle to replace. Ferguson, McRorie and Wright fall into that category for me, and with an unfit Cosgrove so does Watkins. We've got a good first 16, which I think is acceptable. We can afford one of Ferguson or McRorie missing, with McGeouch stepping in, but not both. Campbell would be fine learning the game in a three too. Wright, under normal circumstances, should be coverable by McGinn or Watkins and so on. The question is, do we want to build a squad that has the depth for these unusual situations? I'd argue that we shouldn't. As we've seen, by building that squad depth, it inevitably means that players are not match sharp when required. We just don't need Ojo for example, or Hernandez, or Main, or Edmondson (his signing was fine as we started the season with two out) as they are always going to be lacking in fitness when called upon. We often talk about square pegs in round holes, but look at the second half last night, we had everyone playing in a position they should be comfortable in (Hoban at right back, but he's actually good at fitba so it's fine). I'd far rather see a tighter squad and actually playing square pegs in round holes and sometimes accepting that we just have too many injuries. For example, we could have had Hoban in midfield last night and Ojo could have been in space. If we get to the stage where we think that Main is the answer then (in normal circumstances) move Ferguson, or McLennan, or a lamppost up there instead. Obviously the youngsters have a part to play here, but I think the loan system probably allows them a better experience than sitting on our bench, so that should take priority even if it leaves us short on occasion. I sort of agree about Joe, but a captain just shouldn't make that much difference. Guys like Hayes, Hoban, Considine etc don't need a captain to inspire them or shout at them and of any of them are good enough to be a captain then they'll have assumed that role anyway through talking and shouting throughout the game. I think captain is largely ceremonial these days. A source of pride.

It's getting bad when your keeper throws one in rather than watch another 30 minutes. Pass marks, maybe, to Hayes. Being very generous though. It was ninety minutes of absolute shite. I'd probably give shittest man of the match to Ojo. I remember in one of the European games against the shitter teams seeing Ojo step forward beyond the player he was marking when the opposition had possession more than once in the game and it was such an amateur piece of football I assumed he was just totally unfit as it was effectively pre season. He did it several times after. It's such a basic thing, putting your body the right side to defend your goal, but again for their second tonight he drifts forward leaving the simple path to goal for their player. It's weird, just like he doesn't want to be there. Thing is, he looks like he can play football, I can see why he was signed, but he's just so reactive, late to every single ball and late to make the obvious pass. Thankfully we were able to take on seasoned professionals like Curtis Main. Edmondson has to go home in January, because if he's behind Main in even the dinner queue at the canteen then he's too shit to play professional football. We just looked really unfit tonight and with so many missing or just returning from injury, maybe it was the case. Kennedy, Campbell, Cosgrove, McGinn, Leigh so far off the pace of the game they could have still been at Cormack park.