RicoS321

The first ever loan signing to be made manager? I guess it's no worse than being beaten by amateurs.

In fairness, the coaching team is almost always coming in with the manager, and out too. Last season's coaching team was strange. There was a suggestion that they were compiled and employed by the club, in the same way that our recruitment team was (unaffiliated and unaffected by change in manager). However, when it came down to it, they were all punted with Glass. That seemed strange to me, and they were gone before Goodwin had a chance to assess them (Brown aside, who was a signed player). We went back to the model of signing a manager and coaches as a package with Goodwin, and there will be no reason to keep them (with us out of the cup, we won't need Samson as sub goalie either). Robson strikes me as extremely tactically naive, but I'd give it to him for the rest of the season, save us making another massive fuck up quite so soon. I actually don't care that much. Goodwin seemed like a good guy, a strong character with a lot of discipline. He threw that away almost immediately, and he couldn't back it up. I don't really like any of the players at the club aside from Johnny Hayes, which is what happens when you ditch every single player I suppose. I'm not remotely excited by the new manager or our band of foreigners.

I'm not actually sure we do have a lot of quality in the squad. When we say squad of course, we're not talking about the bench, who are all shite, and pretty much the entire defence is gash. The midfield is beginning to look a little average. Also the strikers lack any consistency and put in zero effort. Hayes worked hard when he came on though.

I haven't been able to make up my mind with him this season. He's just average. I think the fact that he plays every week is an issue. I'd have Shinnie on (I'm assuming he's being rested) for him. Duk has been honking and again not looking interested. He's a complete liability when not on it. No doubt Duncan (or the new lad) will get hooked for Miovski instead.

Good to see the new guy and Duncan both starting, with Duk through the middle. Not sure we need to be seeing Clarkson in a game like this, I'd rather Barron was given an opportunity. Hopefully Clarkson will be sitting alongside Ramadani, but I've got a suspicion he might be playing a 4-1-4-1 with Clarkson and Myslovič clogging up the area behind the striker. Whilst it's against lower opposition, I would like us to keep working at a particular formation to work on our consistency.

The fact that we were apparently interested and then it moved onto Hibs swiftly after, suggested to me that it was agent chat. Possibly not, but got that impression.

Might be available shortly.

VAR is incapable of adding anything of value to the game of football. Just like the BBC, showing us the Tims playing an obvious walkover.

Crosby and Nash coming onto BBC4 next.

Thon Lendl lad might be worth a look.

Either way, get him in until the end of the season.

Only if he came with a voice transplant.

I'm just going on the evidence. An experienced director of football would have had prior knowledge of going into a season with a dearth of centre backs and highlighted the associated risks. They would have intervened in the Considine situation and, at the very least, ensured it was handled correctly. Goodwin is learning on the job. As was Glass prior to him. It isn't clear who they are learning from and being guided by.

You're always going to get square pegs in round holes at a club our size, it's important to distinguish the enforced (Kennedy and McRorie) from the tactical (Duk and Hayes). The tactic of inverted wingers in the front three has proven not to work for us. The first thing that both Duk and Hayes did last night was go down the line. There was no benefit to either playing on their wrong foot. Weirdly, Coulson is more in need of the defensive support that Hayes offers than Kennedy, who holds his position. Hayes hasn't been an inverted winger in his entire career. That Goodwin, nor the player, know this is frustrating (McInnes tried it enough with zero success). In terms of Barron, he plays in the role that Ramadani occupies, or alongside him where Shinnie now is. There is no position for him otherwise. Neither of those two are getting dropped anytime soon (I'm still unsure about Ramadani), so he has to wait. For all the chat about recruitment data, we've only really got a few players with the potential to be an improvement to show for it. I think a lot is being glossed over because we've finally got the desired foreigners in, which for some reason seems to excite the fans more. Duk and Miovski have potential. That said, we should be looking for good first team players in the first instance, with the hope that one or two will go on to make us money. One or two windows isn't enough to judge though, and it's important that we feed the data back into the model so that we avoid Stewart and Morris type signings in future (Richardson I'm going to give a pass, because he has actual attributes that could be used if he didn't have the confidence of someone who's been locked in a cupboard). We've got enough players to work with for next season at least.

Yep, he's going to need a miracle to turn it around from here. I don't think he was a bad appointment, there was everything to suggest that he should have been able to step up again after Alloa and St Mirren. Really, that's exactly what we're searching for in a manager and have been since our inception. A manager that can do an above average job based on their budget. The odds that we'll get someone that is the next Ferguson are extremely high. Anyone who stands out is almost always already out of our budget, and more often than not they can't replicate their form elsewhere regardless, as so much depends on the conditions. As Panda mentions, the tactics at times have been horrendous and the changes in-game likewise. That alone is enough to seal his fate. However, it's important to acknowledge the conditions that both him and Glass have had to work in, in order that the next appointment is given time and support. We have been playing catch up since McInnes was disallowed from signing players, and then Glass given a lucky dip on transfers. Having to sign eleven players means that we were always going to be going into this season with a heavily imbalanced team with zero depth in some areas. With the pressure on to play attacking football, it's unsurprising that Goodwin prioritised that area of the pitch, and I don't think that we were hugely oversubscribed either (as we can see with the bench last night). We simply couldn't sign anymore players in the summer without it leading to disaster or just recruitment guess work. January being a difficult window to deal in means that we're limited on targeting preferred areas, with the risk of signing someone for the sake of it rather than a well-scouted signing available in the summer. We need to keep going with the squad building and keep building the recruitment process for the next manager (or Goodwin). The decision to ditch Considine was always going to backfire, and Panda correctly identifies Bates too in my opinion - a guy that was played continuously out of position for his entire time with us should have been ripe for a new-manager-turnaround. Having Considine would have made our defensive problems infinitely easier, and it was such a no brainer. Had we a proper director of football, Goodwin's approach to binning the entire team would have been more vociferously questioned, perhaps blocked.

The money doesn't come into it. No manager replaces an entire team successfully, regardless of money. Look at our bench versus hearts and it's abundantly clear that we don't have a squad (nor was it possible to have one). Goodwin needs to be judged on his tactics, substitutions etc. and he's failing, and that is extremely worrying. However, it is extremely difficult to legislate for some of the defending tonight too. Hearts scored four goals by just hitting it towards our defence and waiting for mistakes.

The main attribute is that he's not Ross McRorie. He was like this playing in a back four last season too, just basic errors, and it completely upsets the balance. Stewart generally knows where to be in relation to an attacker. He is actually a defender, I suppose.

Jesus, that took a turn for the worst. Hearts haven't even been good. Goals 2-4 just honking defending. Scales for the pen and then both him and McRorie for that last one. How the fuck does Coulson let fucking Smith walk past him for the second? Duk, once again, is a fucking liability out wide. He's not interested, just like at the weekend. Not even remotely up for it. Clarkson doing what's asked, probably Kennedy too.

Spoke to soon

Mine is working. Decent game, we're playing well. Their goal a bit of a fluke against the run of play.

Kennedy at fullback and either Hayes or Duk on the right wing in a 4-2-3-1 then. Not a bad side, only Roos injured.

We're safe.

As tlg says, think one of the injuries is Roos, which would be fine, with Lewis being comparable. Two of the things apparent in the last couple of months is that if we're playing a back four, then we need the two sitting in front, and Barron is terrible played further forward*. That hasn't been clear to you, with that selection obviously!!! If Clarkson is unavailable then it has to be Besuijen or the new guy instead. Agree that Kennedy at right back is probably the safest option. We should stick with 4-2-3-1, which has given us the best and most organised shape so far this season. Hayes on the left, Duncan on the right for me. Keep Watkins on the bench to bring on if/when Miovski runs out of ideas/steam. *Barron is poor at taking the ball with his back to goal, much better coming forward with it (McGregor at the Tims would be a good comparison). Clarkson is more complete in that regard, and Besuijen is good with his back to goal, but unreliable as a midfielder.

I normally don't bother with tickets, I just turn up and they let me straight in.