RicoS321

Fuck sake, there goes plan A-1

Weird for the British national broadcaster. Hope it doesn't detract from the Scottish championship coverage, which I will continue to watch.

Russell Martout more like.

Aye, I'd call that plan A and plan A.5

I don't know about Bilalovic as I haven't seen him play, but there isn't significant difference in the approach of Milanovic, Keskinen and Morris cutting in and not something anyone would class as plan B. Plan B usually involves switching system, which really only happens to a minor degree when Morris comes on (on the right). If you started with Keskinen on the left for example, and replaced with Morris on the left, you wouldn't see any change in approach from our players or there's. It's basically fresh legs. Just as plan B wouldn't refer to replacing Aouchiche with Boyd, or Palaversa with Nilsen.

Good news if so. Hopefully we're just being dicks by not playing him until he signs a four year extension. He's a good footballer who is versatile and comfortable on both feet. Missing a yard of pace and running power.

Not really. Replacing Keskinen cutting in with Morris doing so isn't really a change of plan. Morris hitting the byline is pretty much our plan B. We were probably hoping for something a bit more. Sokler offers something different up front, but he's probably better in a two. I suspect Lazetic will be providing the same as is expected of Yengi and was last season of Nisbet. Put it this way, I wouldn't be expecting much of I saw either replace one another during a game. Just different grade of quality. Gueye allowed us to change things up last season, as did Duk for his season. Sokler does offer the option of a two I guess.

There's an entire cemetery of bodies just next to the ground that could do a similar job. Lazetic, Sokler and Yengi is enough. Unless there's a chance of getting Nisbet in a week or so. At least he's certain to do a job. We've already got a few projects.

Is it too late for Thursday's game? Or are we allowed to sign up until the day?

Aye, seemed nice. He has a lot of good attributes, he could be a really good defender in a few years time. Better than Ash Taylor maybe.

I was going to suggest McKenna, but couldn't be arsed checking. He did indeed sign until 2023, in 2018. Can't think of anyone else though. Think Besuijen was 4.5 years from memory.

Hibs through. Looked decent.

Hoilett, Bowie and Mulligan looking decent for Hibs. The latter two should have been on our radar.

Hibsing taken to new levels

Five years gives him plenty of time to go through the journey from shite, to pity, to works hard, to we always knew he'd be good, to injured before leaving for a pittance with six months left on his deal.

Based on the price of children's football strips, I'm guessing that the brand is Adidas?

Pittodrie is the best ground in the world, and anybody who says otherwise can go and fuck themselves. Is what Cormack should say next time he's interviewed on sportsound.

It's an interesting subject. In terms of a player's character, that is of little use if the player isn't up to it anyway. A good example would be Nilsen at the weekend. A guy who clearly has desire and nastiness, who after he was done at around 60 minutes, resorted to taking it out on the opposition and was lucky not to be red carded. At 2-0 down at Fir park, he's just as likely to get sent off as drag us back into the game. Will data about athleticism, shots etc trump character? Maybe in some cases. Yengi maybe has decent stats (I don't know), but he's clearly a player devoid of confidence who looks like he might struggle to turn that around. Confidence doesn't necessarily transport well either - the big fish in a small pond effect. I guess scouting is just a difficult job, whether you're watching or at a PC. McInnes watched Miles fucking Storey, Calvin Zola and Greg Tansey. You have to be able to translate those one or two glimpses of a player into how he'll fit into your team in your league. I guess, used properly, what data and videos should allow you to do is get a picture of a player over a whole season or more, and it should allow you quantity (more players scouted). Success is so difficult to measure either way, though. We should be aiming at a 60% return in the transfer market. I don't think there's much evidence to suggest that data - in our case - has either guaranteed that, or improved on it. It may have returned us larger fees for players, but probably not, I think the overall market was increasing in terms of fees paid anyway. The biggest factor for me, should be the independence of the scouting department from the management team, and maybe data helps with that. We seem to be ceding control back to the manager increasingly. I'd love to hear how the club actually measures its success. It's basically impossible, because you can measure the players you signed, but I suspect nobody is measuring the players that we missed. Anyway, I think your overall point is one of feeling if I'm not mistaken. It feels shite. Similar to the foreign players thing I guess. And the boring players and their boring interviews. And identifying as a selling club. It feels a little soulless. Football has transitioned to the domain of the professional managerial class. Total control from the office. A world of Tony fucking Blooms. For all his faults, at least Cormack is a fitba fan. I let myself get bought into it too, of course, it's difficult to resist. It's a mirror of the world. AI scouts are on their way. Owned by the big clubs and rented out to their franchisees.

Or he could bang in three goals in his next two games, but also have sex with Alex Neil's wife. There are several routes to him being made available.

I'm assuming the suggestions labelled him as "former Rangers star"?

I guess there's a couple there that you've assigned to roles that they may not be best for. Molloy should be where Milne is, meaning we have three right centre backs. But aye, left back seems about right, assuming the other two come in this week. We're short of a box to box midfielder. Mainly because Palaversa doesn't seem up to it, which is very strange as he has all the attributes for the role. He just can't last 60 minutes (apart from the cup final, weirdly).

"Heart of Midlothian are considering recalling 20-year-old Adam Forrester from his loan to St Johnstone after Christian Borchgrevink was ruled out for a number of weeks with a thigh injury, leaving the Premiership club short at right-back. (Edinburgh Evening News)" Looks like the link up is working well!

Hayes? Jesus. He never shirked a challenge. That was his only tackle of the game, it was never a foul, but he never went up for a header despite being over six feet. He's a big lad who could use it better than he's shown in his short time. Would make a big difference to his game if he can develop that, especially in this league. His positioning defensively was poor too, but that will come with training, and he won't play against better opponents often. There's some promise there, but it'll need work. He could be like Hedges, who thrived when he learned that he had the strength and athleticism required. Very similar players. I think he'll be a good signing. Forgot to mention that Polvara was once again better than those that went off. He has to be starting soon. I noticed today that his touch wasn't as good as normal, almost like he was trying too hard. The sub appearances are doing him no good, and will start to impact negatively. His game time doesn't seem to be being well managed, perhaps there's off field issues we're not party to.

Oh well, wasn't the worst. Very similar to last season's run, with some nice football without doing anything of note. Aouchiche probably the best of the new lads, although unfortunately looked better when he dropped deeper! For the most part we were well organised, and Milne did well on the left (thank fuck Thelin listens to me). Dorrington was poor, Jensen decent. Keskinen worked hard, but with zero threat. Milanovic drifted out of it and showed little strength to match his size. Yengi looked frightened and it's probably the earliest I've ever moved into pity mode for a player. I'd say we're worse off than last season, and need a box to box midfielder and a striker.

That was my first thought. My second thought was that he took Devlin on at right back last week and moved Jensen left. Hope it's the former. Four right footed defenders is an abomination. I think I'd be requesting a move if I was Molloy.