RicoS321

He was notably quick off his line. Too quick on a couple of occasions, where he could have waited for the ball to come into his box, but good to see. Kicking was okay, nothing special, but didn't look afraid of the ball. Think he'll be a good goalie.

VAR missing was the absolute highlight tonight, getting home at some point before 23:00 always a bonus. Enjoyable enough game when we got going. Played some nice stuff at times, with Clarkson clearly being encouraged to try things, a lot of which don't come off, but hopefully fans will understand his role (I doubt it, I heard a lot of "stop deein that funcy shite" type shouts). The bench is a huge worry still, with nothing beyond Miovski. Morris was, and is, absolutely dogshit. He ruins the game because he doesn't know how to play it. He reacts to everything. Hopefully that's enough of his experiment. Sokler proving my point about Mackie, that was a classic Mackie performance tonight. Shinnie great, as was Clarkson. The fullbacks were fine and Rubi okay. Molloy very rash, and a worry. The idea behind Nilsen is a sound one, it's tactically great, but I don't think he's going to be good enough for the SPFL. Too slow and because of that, too many slack passes and being caught out of position. I like the way we're approaching it, but we're 4-5 players short, and that bench is honking.

Yep. Although I'm guessing that we'll be after a winger anyway, so we can just slot him in upon Morris getting found out again.

Maybe, but it doesn't seem that way. Leven didn't give the guys mentioned a look in when he was manager (obviously besuijen was away), so I think he'll have made it clear to Thelin. I'm not expecting him to have shifted all players on, but given the number of guys that aren't up to standard in that squad, I'd have expected to see things moving by now. We need at least a couple of those guys starting to be shifted out the door. It's just extra work having to deal with a large squad, and hassle a new manager doesn't need, he needs to be looking to build going forward rather than deal with yesterday's dross. A new manager can get maybe 5-10% extra out of a player by playing them in a different way, or other motivation, but he's not turning 5-6 guys who are nowhere near good enough into players. I really hope there is no expectation on him to be getting something out of these guys.

He was gash when he first arrived. Always a yard short of pace, meaning he couldn't get past any half decent defender. A decent touch and finisher, but a level below what we need (unless he's improved when he was away). Fans liked him because he was an exciting new player who joined in the January window as our only signing, and he got the benefit of the doubt for some time. He was always a technically decent, but average player. I can see why we signed him, but he'll likely never make it as there are too many parts to his game where he is just a level below.

I assume you'll be putting up the photo of your 8lb trout later?

Yep, I'd agree on that list. I'd maybe keep Duncan because he came through the youth and he's a top Don, but that would just be sentimentality. I'd probably add Gueye too. I agree that we should be giving him time to build a squad, but there also needs to be a bit of trust in the guys that are there already (Leven, specifically). Leven has seen enough of all of the guys that you mention to know that no manager is going to be turning all of them into world beaters overnight. I think Leven especially deserves a bit of trust and we should be speeding up the process to offload them. For me, that part is more important than the new signings. The longer it goes on without any of those guys shifted, the more it makes it seem that Thelin believes he can get something out of them, which is a little naive. We'll also have to add on top of that list, the 50% of duds that we pick up in this window. If we assume that Ambrose (just using him as an example) is pish then that's another guy we've got to waste time and minutes on to maintain some level of squad harmony.

I think McGrath is a great player, but he's not very good when he sits deeper in a two. Much better anywhere across the three in behind the striker. I'd have in the team every week, but because he doesn't have a lot of pace and doesn't hit the byline, we do need a player that we can switch him out with during games as a change of approach. That's probably one of the benefits of having a player like him in that forward three, is that you can completely change tactic just by switching him out. That didn't happen often last season due to the fact that anyone we might replace him with was gash.

I'm one of those traditionalists who prefers their wingers to be able to control and pass a ball, but what do I know. I missed yesterday's game, but it does seem like we're missing a spark for somewhere, so hopefully we're working on wingers in the window. Hopefully, also, McGrath as a sitting midfielder alongside Shinnie is not going to be a regular occurrence (save for injuries etc) this season too. The worst thing about Warnock coming in with zero knowledge of our squad was that we had to sit through the same mistakes and experiments that we'd previously watched with Robson. Another manager coming in with the "everyone deserves another chance" message is going to make for a fairly tedious season. There are a core of not very good players in our squad. We can afford one or two of them, but there needs to be a serious cull before the start of the season, lest we're left with a batch of pish again. I'd like to see us ship several players before I'm going to grudgingly accept a guy like Morris in and around the team every week.

Reardon?

I think we all know what happened when we went down the single thread route. An absolute embarrassment. A fresh start required, and fantastic to see the East Kilbride (?) game immortalised. Fans will look back at this one in decades to come and remember that it had its own thread. Also, I hope Miovski is on a plane to Italy, with £8M coming the other way, and staying as far away from the pitch as possible lest he gets injured. Big Gueye to start and slaughter these weegie minkers.

It's good for a one off, the food's tasty enough and the booze is booze. As long as you're nae supposed to be writing a report on the game, as it will largely pass you by I've found. If I'm not mistaken, the madri is for tables of folk, so if there's just a couple of you, then consider the legend's lounge for a pie and booze.

Is it possible for a player to wear bubble wrap whilst training? It's a good offer, and hopefully we don't drag things out for too long. I had thought we might get £8M max, so £7M would be good. Obviously, it'd be better for Scottish football if we accepted a £2.5 offer from the Tims, but I think we should be selfish and look out for ourselves on this occasion.

I guess the issue is that he's a striker looking for minutes in a team that only plays one and have two others also needing minutes. Striker is a role that you need time on the park in order to build up some form, and that means starting games or coming on for 30-40 minutes. Thelin will want both Sokler and Ambrose to get those opportunities to see if they can do the business. From what I've seen of Bavidge, I don't think he's going to be that exceptional talent that can't be ignored, I think he'll be more like Bruce Anderson or someone of that ilk who'll need game time to bed himself in and incrementally improve. He might be better than Anderson, of course, but that's not clear yet, and I don't think he has outstanding pace that might have got him a place where other attributes wouldn't. He looks like a lot of young players who fit in that gap where they're physically stronger than the rest at their age level, but not quite ready for the first team.

Nah, very unfair. Mackie had far more than pace. He worked hard, harassed defenders, worked the channels, won headers, made space for others. Very much like, say, Sokler! His limitation was his touch and general technical ability - he just wasn't that great at football. Morris has none of those things, he's got a decent touch and can take a player on, he just has absolutely no heart and no belief. He doesn't back himself. He doesn't drive at players, he plays it past them, hesitates, then runs. He's just a bit of a coward. That could never be said about Mackie.

Get it up ye Kennedy.

Agreed. Thing is, he's nothing like Morris as a player, but he shares a lot of the same attributes as Sokler. Basically, he's neither as shite as Morris, nor does he play anything like him. There's some fairly major differences in terms of looks too.

#handsOffThelin

The whole 58 years pish is exactly that though. They've had one tournament, where they played all their games at Wembley and deployed some extremely dubious refs, which they won. It is a complete outlier, rather than something that should expect to be repeated. They make it sound like it's some inevitability, and that they've been hard done by. However, there's not a single tournament since their "victory" where they've been the best team, or even anywhere close to it. The last two tournaments weren't some hard luck story, rather they were a story of complete luck, where everything went right for them at the right times and they made the finals. They're about the level of the Netherlands, Portugal or Croatia of the last twenty years. There's probably a few teams in and around that level, and it varies from tournament to tournament. Seeding means that they're unlikely not to qualify for big tournaments, but once they get there that benefit fades a little and they struggle. They are not Germany, Spain, France, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, they are the level below that and would need a hell of a lot to go right in order to win a tournament. Of course, the Euros can lend itself to a team outside the top four winning it, as we've seen numerous times in the past. They'd still be massively punching above their weight if they did win though.

Morris is a fanny. For all his downsides, Mackie wasn't afraid of a tackle or an aerial challenge. When played through the middle, Mackie was a very serviceable player, he wasn't as bad as many make out, so I'm not comparing Sokler to him by way of criticism. What Sokler does best is movement for himself and for others, something that Mackie did well too (he was never really credited for the runs he'd make to make space for others - perhaps cause he didn't want the ball! - which showed a decent understanding of the role). He understands what to do as a striker, which is a useful asset. Duk, for example, doesn't have this, and many others too who play for themselves first rather than team first. The problem that Sokler has is that his first touch under pressure isn't generally great, and his link up play isn't there. Those are difficult to teach, and are certainly limiting factors. It's why Sokler played better alongside Miovski, and will probably always be better in a two rather than a lone striker. Like Mackie, he's not great with his back to goal (other than flicking it on), it's not his comfortable area. He likes to be on the run, on the shoulder of the defender, or pressing, with the ball always in front of him. Whilst he may or may not be better than Mackie (I'd say very likely), the point is that he's that type of player, with similar attributes. The second goal was indeed excellent movement, and it's an area in which he instinctively knows what to do. If we can get players in and around him this season to crete those opportunities, then he'll score plenty. I think that a large proportion of our passes into him (high or low) will return in short order though, and so we'll have to adapt as a team to accomodate that.

I'd say it was a relief, but it was never in doubt. The best team by a considerable distance.

That's mental. Sokler is nowhere near the player Miovski is. He's basically a slight improvement on Darren Mackie. He's got good movement, is fast and not afraid to put himself into a header, but his first touch is poor and doesn't offer much in the way of link up play. Mackie was a serviceable SPFL player, Sokler is probably slightly above that because he has a better eye for goal (I think). He's not Miovski though. That said, he may turn out to be good enough for what we need him to do, it'll be interesting. I have a feeling we might be chopping and changing between him and Ambrose until we settle on one.

Donal...... No, wait...

Miovski was excellent at taking the ball in last season (hold up play doesn't mean trapping balls punted over your head). You're not a reliable judge of his abilities however, given your strange attitude towards him. Sokler might be fine, his movement in the box is excellent, but he'll be not even in the same league as Miovski unless he develops physically.

He isn't good enough, and never has been? He's got nice feet and can finish, but he's not quick enough and lacks the physical side. He reminds me of Cammie Smith, a good technical footballer who's just a level below. Unless he's improved in ways that are difficult to improve since he's been away, I don't think he'll get many minutes this season. As for the pitch, I agree it was definitely a factor. Having the ball hold up like that is ridiculous and does the plastic pitch a disservice. Twenty minutes of sprinklers and it'd have been playing perfectly.