RicoS321

Tims lose in Europe again. 95th minute goal too. Excellent.

John's loon?

No Elliott Anderson? Disappointing.

I think that there are still question marks over his ability to play wing back - in a three - against opposition that sit in. However, he's more than proved that he's good enough in a squad to work as left back in a four or five, and he can even provide cover for Jensen if/when he's unavailable. That's absolutely invaluable over the course of a season, and I'd expect to see him get at least 20 games by the end of it. His limitations are clear, as are his strengths, so it should be easy to work around those. It's clear that Polvara also has squad stengths too that we can make something of. Keeping things simple and playing to the players' strengths is key for us with the volume of games we've got, and I think Robson is perhaps beginning to see that. Thursday will be what it is, the squad test will be the subsequent stuffy games against lower opposition in the league that come after. Gartenmann coming in has really taken the guesswork out of the defensive setup, and - dare I say it - Morris getting injured has been a blessing in that we're not dicking about trying to shoehorn him in unnecessarily (I'm sure he can play a role when he returns, it's just that I felt that Robson was trying to play him into being a footballer).

I was just being facetious. I see the Scales thing as a failure on our part. Right from the minute he joined in fact. We got rid of Considine on the promise of a signing that all the fans would be excited about, and we got a rough-around-the-edges loanee from the Tims. We had an entire window to iron out a deal with them that would ensure we had an agreement to buy in place, but we didn't get one and we didn't walk away. Instead, we played a transformational role in his development before being dicked around for another window. Much as I despise the Huns, and us getting Huns, the loan of McRorie with pre-agreed fee was a significantly better way to do business - and probably the only acceptable way to business with a rival in our league. With Scales doing well, and Christie before him, it's probably now seen as a viable route for up and coming young Celtic players. I'm not convinced that's a good thing for us.

Fantastic. I don't remember the last time we got a manager fired (that wasn't our own).

Robson for king.

Yep, he's much better in the two than Clarkson.

I disagree with this

Hopefully Anthony Stewart left him the recipe for nailing a Hun in the last minute of the ninety. It'd have been so perfect had the cheating SFA not insisted on extra time instead of the replay Stewart had planned for when he went careering into the challenge. That won't be an issue in a league match, and there's a strong chance that Wright will have taken to the field by that point too.

As agreed, could we keep all league cup correspondence to one thread. Can't go glory hunting with separate threads just because we made it to a quarter final.

Shite time, as always. Oh well.

Hibs. Take that like.

Good win. Some good performances and an all round comfortable victory..... until Rubezic decided to Rubezic. Really bad defending, completely inexcusable. It was backs to the wall from that point, and it's very difficult to change from cruising to then trying to hold onto the ball for dear life. We got there though. Shinnie motm. Good setup and plenty of changes to keep things fresh, which was good to see. Rubezic is a problem though, we really can't afford that type of error in games. I don't think MacDonald is a like for like replacement and is probably too similar to the two next to him. I'm assuming Williams is just pish? Oh well, get stuck into the Hun.

Aye, maybe leave Rubezic on the bus.

Sokler!!!! Lovely goal. Game was starting to get scrappy, they'd thrown on the subs and we had literally just changed back to the 3-5-2. Hampden bound.

Think it's a 4-3-3, with Hayes on the right, Duk on the left.

Seem to have changed the setup a bit in the last few minutes. Difficult to see what to. Almost like a 4-4-2, but Duk out wide.

What a change of pace from Duk.

What a hit. Hold on while I find the comments questioning Shinnie's technical abilities.

Why is Helsinki important? I don't disagree about the Hun, but our European games are basically a free hit against teams that are probably better than us. I'd say that staying in the race for third is as important than the cash for a win in Europe.

That'd be great news. For me, he's the equivalent of someone like Jack (better passer) or Ferguson. I think he'll get to a level above us, but it'll take a hundred games or so. I'm not ridiculously partisan, but I don't see a better place than pittodrie for him to get those games. A move sideways to Hearts or Hibs would be pointless, a move to Huns or Tims would see him benched or loaned to a lower club than us. A move down south would be a physical challenge that, in my opinion, he's not ready for (a high end championship team wouldn't take a punt on him without loaning out to someone worse than us). Of course, there may be family reasons for wanting to move, or maybe he just fancies a trip somewhere abroad or something. He's not owe us anything, he'll have watched us ruthlessly ditch many a player on his way through the system and he'll know that he'd have been treated similarly if he was gash. If him and his agent are looking out for him properly, then from a footballing perspective it's difficult to see a better option than here.

1-2 to the Jambo scum. Would probably take them or Livingston at Hampden in the semi.

They can, and I agree with the overall point. However, they can't manage two games a week for half a season with European travel too, and we'll likely see injuries if we try to. It's probably always a question of identifying the positions that do less running (centre backs, fullbacks in a flat five like we played against Frankfurt and perhaps might against the Hun and the number ten are probably the lightest load) and the positions where the cover is not a huge drop off in level (or a well protected position). It'll also be a case of perhaps restricting minutes too. I'd say Hayes could come in tomorrow with a view to playing McKenzie at the weekend. Controversially, I think we could take Duncan in for McGrath with little drop off too (I really think he'll suit playing behind the strikers). Clarkson for Duncan if things aren't going well at halftime. If things are going well then look to swap Polvara for Barron and Sokler for Miovski on sixty minutes, with Gueye for Duk a bit later (to give Sokler the chance to play with Duk). I'd say that Clarkson, McGrath, Hayes are probably players that you want to be cautious with and that our squad allows us to be. I think the rest of the squad are too big a drop off to risk in a cup game.

I'd have thought that would be less reason to have a soft spot, given the merger debacle. Or was it just the Thistle fans that were against that?