RicoS321

I thought Miovski was one of our best players against St Johnstone. His movement was really good and he won nearly every header. Duk was the one off form (unsurprising given his travels during the week). It was noticeable that Hayes was the only one gambling on flick ons from Miovski. I don't think that was tactical, more that Duk wasn't get close to him when the ball was going long. I suspect that the reason Duk is with us is because of this. He offers little in terms of a partnership and so it ends up them both playing two separate games almost. I feel a bit sorry for Miovski really, as he tends to do most things as you'd expect, making really intelligent runs, then Duk turns up with some frustratingly stupid bit of play that ends in him losing the ball, before winning it back, nutmegging someone and then belting it in the top corner. It's like he's cheating. Watkins should definitely be getting more game time, but I think it would be harsh on Miovski this week. In terms of starting with the same team, it's exactly what we need at the moment in my opinion. Our squad isn't great, with Duncan and Watkins (probably Coulson, depending on which one turned up) the only two that would improve us during a game. We're limited in the shapes we can play with two strikers on the pitch. I think it's no coincidence that we've been much more solid since keeping Duk away from defending and going to a back three. It'll be interesting with Shinnie out though. We've been playing with Clarkson deep and Shinnie and Ramadani chasing everything down. I don't think Barron suits that at all, but I think he'll stick with it. I'd be tempted to play Ramadani and Barron holding with Clarkson in front. Even though Clarkson has been really good of late, I think he can play better further forward than Barron can playing left of a three, and I think that the latter is more of a detriment to the team as a whole. That, in my mind, is where we'll see if Robson is different to McInnes, rather than personnel selection.

Surprised he lasted as long as he did. Was always a bit of a lightweight.

Good result, made hard work of it in the end. Stupid challenge from Shinnie, although barely touched the guy, just didn't need to do it. One point off third is pretty ace though.

I'd get Duk off. Let his man run away from him several times already.

Would have Watkins on, we've gone flat a little. Perhaps Duncan too.

He's been traveling midweek, expect he'll be knackered. Hopefully get another goal and then get Watkins on.

Gus MacDonald! Get him signed. Might be an OG.

Injured apparently. Roos definitely number one though. Miovski making a fair meal of that like. Not sure it was even a foul. Considine apparently been struggling since returning from injury for them. Feel a bit sorry for him there.

As expected. Decent line up, just need to do the business in spite of the double jinx of manager of the month and contract extension.

Long grass probably saved a few injuries with their players launching themselves all over the shop. I wasn't aware that the grass had to be cut to a specific length to prevent them constantly kicking five yard passes out of play.

Good use of "initially". We really need him to be getting the job long term or we're screwed. If he came top in the interview process ahead of the other three candidates, then in my mind he should be offered the contract we'd have been looking to offer one of the others had they been the clear best candidate for the role. What we're effectively saying is that the other guys would have only been good enough to see us through until the summer. It's a gamble. I hope he does well.

Aye, that was an unbelievable performance. Robertson, McGregor, McTominay, Tierney just absolutely outstanding.

https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/directo/la-1/ Maybe try that with a VPN.

I ended up just signing up to viaplay for the two games, will cancel tomorrow, cause I couldn't find a decent one. You might get a link to a Spanish one maybe.

Bloody English

I guess we'll need a new driver with Sharp gone.

Honestly, I find the entire concept of nations fairly abstract, so for me it's really just a rule that's been drawn at an arbitrary point of granny, about as meaningful as a border drawn between the countries. I think we live in a fairly homogeneous globe these days, and what it means to be from anywhere is largely a construct. I enjoy watching Scotland and international fitba, and I always hope England lose, but that feeling is almost entirely specific to sport. It's not real in any meaningful sense. If we were bringing in rules about nationality, then I'd prefer to see one that said you had to have played in Scotland for at least 2 years. For some reason, Dykes feels Scottish to me, because he played up here for a while.

I'd hope he would leave if he doesn't get it. There'd be little benefit to him, personally, staying if he has ambition to be a manager. Unless for family reasons or whatever. If he's not manager, I couldn't care less if we keep him or not. The lad Jess is on gardening leave of approximately £1M per year. We need to be looking lower than that. It's probably about double what we should be paying if we're going to be a sustainable team working within its wages to turnover ratio. I don't believe the incremental gain you get from paying a manager significantly more are worth the offset hit you'd need to take on the playing budget (£500K would be two good players). I think it's fairly clear that playing personnel is the biggest driver of success on the pitch. Looking for a manager is no different to a player and we'll be looking in the same sort of places as we do for players, trying to identify managers who have done well at smaller clubs and are looking for a stepping stone. I'm assuming that's why we're struggling to find one. Robson until the end of the season is a nonsense, unless we're hoping he fails. Any manager looking at a team with twelve players leaving is going to be either desperate or stupid. If Robson does reasonably well getting us fourth or fifth and maybe European football then that in itself is probably already a barrier difficult to overcome next season with the turnover required.

Or any of the ones in the senior squad? That'd be fair enough, but we couldn't really complain that Zander Clarke was in goals and Lawrence Shankland up front and Jack permanently in instead of McTominay. I think we'd be looking at a Scotland team significantly lower ranked than the one we've got now. Definitely no Euros qualification last time round and we'd likely be two tiers below in the Nations' League too.

Is that the place where they're eradicating the rats? Maybe get them to head to Govan if successful.

It's literally in the club's strategy, and it's fairly clear that Cormack was keen on it, and from their opening interviews on joining both Glass and Goodwin had bought in. It's a fairly nebulous concept, but the whole "passing out from the back" seemed to be a synonym for entertaining and that went on throughout both Glass and Goodwin's tenures despite very clear evidence that teams were just stepping up and pressing us higher. All of Glass' reign was defined by possession football with little or no penetration and no attempt to switch it up. That changed slightly with Goodwin, who wasn't afraid to punt it forward when necessary, but otherwise it was the same 83 passes, waiting for the opponent to gain their shape before giving it away again. I don't believe that the two of them were just that bad at management that they couldn't see what was happening, and that the players they deployed were incapable of doing what was asked. I could be wrong, but the evidence suggests that they were trying to play to a pre-defined model. Certainly for Goodwin, not a model he'd tried anywhere previously. What Robson has added isn't rocket science, he's simply playing the way McInnes, Nielsen, Lennon, Clarke etc all have done succesfully in the SPFL. To any objective viewer, Glass and Goodwin (and McInnes in his final year or so, when he had Hedges, Watkins and Wright in an attacking lineup he'd never have previously considered) were avoiding the obvious setup that would have returned more points for something else. I don't think that there's any other explanation for taking guys like Gallagher, Bates, Stewart and so on, so far out of their comfort zone for such a sustained period. It was like a form of torture.

So you think we should cap them immediately? In reality I haven't the foggiest, as I haven't heard any of them speak about it, although for some reason I had it in my head that Fiorini was quite into playing for Scotland due to his granny or something. Think Mebude came through the Hun youth too, and maybe sees his upbringing as Scottish (he looked pish the last time I saw him anyway)? Slicker is a goalie, so should be eligible to play when Gordon retires in 15 years' time. No idea how Mullen qualifies, or the first thing about him. I'm fairly comfortable with Adams, Dykes, Gunn, McTominay and Brown in the senior team, and by the time any of these lads make it at least one of those will have been ditched. The rule is set in stone and I think it's unlikely we're going to start hunting grannies in any great number under Clarke. Four or five of the squad not being born here is fine. If they tried changing the rules to allow us to take other British players, it would become more of an issue, but you know where you stand with the granny rule. I'd prefer all Scotland players to have played in Scotland if we were going fully militant.

Should it be hyphenated? I wasn't sure, and the hyphen was too far away. You're barking up the wrong tree for dog puns I'm afraid, I'm far too serious for that.

Too many of the players in the team, or too many of them with the funny sounding names that you googled? I think most of have been around since at least the under nineteens if not long before. Which players, specifically, do you take issue with?

I believe there's going to be a minute's silence in the twenty second minute for Hayden Coulson's missing dog.