RicoS321

Speaking of our squad, we should really be looking at loaning our third keeper out. He seems to have been around the place for years.

We're not better off, other than financially (temporarily). I don't really see group stage European football as a good thing for Scottish football at all to be honest. You've got chairman with trigger fingers, teams trying to build large squads in single windows, and unearned money going to one or two teams in an attempt to create another financial gap to make our league even less competitive. It's just a really shit way of creating tournaments (league cup aside I suppose, whose purpose isn't money). Despite the good atmosphere, I didn't really enjoy last night, and it's a really shite feeling to be that team that wins the ridiculously lucrative runner up prize. I'm used to it being the scum getting knocked out of Europe 18 times a season, it's just weird when it's us. It's like those shitey "plate" rounds you used to get at tournaments as kids, where all the losers from the first round created a mirror tournament to the real thing. It's desperate stuff.

He has done that when chasing games this season, with Duncan shifting awkwardly into left back. The main reason we don't do that is because you need two very fit guys in midfield to pull it off, and we don't have that. A 4-2-3-1 would be the best setup in my opinion, but Duk proved an absolute liability out wide in a similar setup last season, and it's undoubted that Robson would try to shoehorn him in there. I think he'll persist with the 3-5-2 (or variation), and everything about the new big lad signing backs that up. If we got Baccus in, that would make me feel a bit better. As is stands, we're way too light in midfield to play 3-5-2.

Always good to put together first impressions for the new signings early doors. I'm assuming there'll be no further business, maybe one in (hopefully). Overall, we look weaker than last season and the best signings have been re-signings, so I'll not include them in this list. Doohan - amazing. Everything we need in a backup goalie McGarry - jury's out. Looked positionally and defensively poor last night and had to be taken off due to lack of fitness. Ran into trouble a couple of times with poor decision making. I'm going to say that he'll be okay but nothing great. Jensen - jury's out. Looked weak in the air, generally timid, good on the ball but prone to putting us in danger because of that. Looks like the centre of a three rather than left of a three. I don't think he'll make it in the SPFL unless we change the setup (either to a four, or play him in the centre of a three), he doesn't have the physical presence required. Rubezic - jury's out. Looked great against Livingston despite some dubious passing. He's clearly not a guy that can play in the centre of a three and needs the man in behind him to organise him. He's positionally suspect and is terrible with the ball but solid. I think he'll be fine in the SPFL if Robson plays him correctly, he's basically Ash Taylor, which we can work with. He'll struggle in Europe. Devlin - success. Obviously. A leader, an organiser and will throw himself into everything. He needs to be playing wingback or right back in a four. So far, the best of our signings. Dadia - fail. This season's "why has he never been given a chance?". Because he's pish. That's why. Williams - fail. If he's not good enough to get into that back line then he's not likely to be good enough. Plenty of rumours around his attitude, but we'll assume that's just him being a young lad, and Robson will sort him out. Probably one of the many wasted EPL loans. Although we may need him if Rubezic doesn't get his shite together soon. McGrath - jury's out. Technically good player with some nice touches and good use of the ball. Doesn't fit into our midfield at all, and doesn't appear to be any better than Barron in that he has less work rate. We'll get regularly overrun in midfield with him and Clarkson in there, especially in Europe, and Shinnie can't be doing forty games at full tilt to make up for them. I think he'll be fine if used correctly. I originally thought he might be able to do the number 8 thing like Ramadani, but last night dispelled that hope. I don't trust Robson not to persist with him out of position and he ends up being a scapegoat. Sokler - jury's out. Looks exactly like Miovski in every single way. But slightly shitter. Not getting enough minutes to get the required striker's sharpness. Plays on the shoulder and makes intelligent runs. I think he'll be okay and will score goals. Gueye - success. He's big, and we kick the ball high. He'll be amazing. Probably our best signing. Think that's everyone. This summer was always going to be difficult with such a massive turnover and with European football. As a squad, we're miles away from one that can finish third whilst playing every Thursday. Our fringe players aren't good enough to win against likes of St Mirren, Motherwell, Livi and Killie away. Without a change to the system (or another signing), we're going to struggle with the players we've got. Robson has to decide whether playing Duk into form is worthwhile, especially at the expense of the entire formation (it's why we play three at the back). I think Robson needs some assistance with tactics in the background, he's clearly fairly clueless about how to change things if he doesn't settle on a good strategy from the outset. Think it could be a long season, with top six being a difficult target. I expect we'll have signings ready to go in January that could be the difference like they were last season, so it'll be a season of two halves again.

Absolutely, but that doesn't excuse basic organisational errors and a complete inability to change them. Unless we get Baccus (or similar) in too, we simply don't have a midfield that fits the system that Robson wants to play, which he seems not to have noticed.

Stonewaller in the modern game, yes. He's not in control of the football, he just kicks it and throws himself over the leg of the guy. It's as bullshit as the handballs that are given every week. There was very clearly contact, but football is a contact sport. Duk isn't impeded, because to be impeded you have to actually be going somewhere, with the intent to play football. Duk went solely into that situation to try and win a penalty. The ref was right there and saw what happened and chose not to give it. He saw the contact, hence why he didn't book the player, he just deemed it not worthy of a penalty. In my opinion he was completely correct. You take that incident out of context with VAR and television replays and you end up with a penalty. That's how he game works now. It's pathetic, and it's a shite and cowardly way to win a penalty, which was typical of Duk's overall performance tonight.

Wouldn't mind a trip to Luhansk. Better than pittodrie tonight.

That was a fucking disaster from start to finish. Rijeka was the last time I remember such a disorganised mess at pittodrie, and that was against a much better side and down to ten men. Gaping holes all over the pitch tonight and a manager incapable of changing it. Rubezic cannot play centre of a three, he's a garbage footballer, the Serbian Ash Taylor. That should be obvious to anyone, and if he hadn't got it into his head before tonight, after five minutes it was lasered into everyone's retinas (apart from Robson it seems). Jensen was a downgrade on McKenzie. If MacDonald wasn't fit, then move Jensen infield and have McKenzie on the left, get Devlin where he belongs and fire Morris into Jupiter. Those basic organisational changes just might have made a difference, however the midfield was way off it. You can't play Clarkson deep with McGrath in the team, and it's likely you can't play both of them at the same time at all, unless chasing the game or up against poor opposition. Shinnie was playing the part of three men in there at times. We're wedded to the 3-5-2, or variation of it, because we need to play Duk and Miovski. But Duk has been absolutely gash all season and is constantly losing the ball in our half. Just drop him and then you've got the option of multiple new setups. The guy was honking tonight and didn't put in the work at all (Miovski gets pass marks for his huge effort, despite his miss). His penalty dive was just typical of the anti football shite that plagues the modern game. Makes no attempt to take control of the ball, just simply touch it before the defender and throw yourself at him, safe in the knowledge that slow motion var will pick up "contact". The ref saw exactly what happened in real time in the context of the incident (as I did from very close up) and made the right call. Tell the guy to get up and play on. The problem is that folk will say that it justifies his inclusion, but he was an absolute liability who happened to get a lucky pen tonight. If that had been Hibs or someone tonight, we'd have lost. They were half decent, but we made them look far better. Robson is nowhere near getting his best eleven, and some of the new signings appear dubious at best (to be expected). He's decided on a system but has signed players that don't really fit it.

This time last season I'd have happily see him moved on. Hopefully it's his thing to start seasons slow!

Just saw the hacken lads hanging around the Union terrace gardens. Looked like they were ready for the conference in my opinion.

Unfortunately you can't play a team from your own country. I don't really care who we get. Money is such a distortion in the game these days, I don't really see the glamour in facing your English, Italian and the like sides. Burnley was good a few years back because they never really seemed a manufactured product of premiershipism. I'm far from convinced that Roma could hack it on a cold Thursday night in the north east, so I'd reluctantly take them, although I'd probably prefer Atalanta. We went toe to toe with Villarreal in the Darren Mackie testimonial, so I expect we'd beat them too, maybe by three or four. I've been to Rennes I think, so we should beat them too. In short, anything less than sixteen points from the six games should see Robson removed from his role.

The prize funds in all competitions essentially go to the nation's FA* to be split between the teams in those tournaments. If the Huns had made the champions league they'd have got half (or maybe less than half for not being the automatic qualifier - I assume there must be some form of inherent bias added in for the biggest teams as always) of that tournament's pot. Now that the Huns are in Europa, it's probably more lucrative for us to be in the conference despite its lesser pot (assuming hearts don't turn their game around, and villa don't die prior to their game). I expect Dave has picked himself in the lineup tonight just to be sure. *I have always assumed that it goes to the FA, which would make sense given the split. The goal should be for that unearned money to be intercepted at that point and be evenly distributed amongst the clubs.

That Hun own goal is a work of art. Does this mean that they steal 50% of our well deserved Euro cash if we win tomorrow?

He did apologise, but it wasn't the end of it. I think the initial reaction was probably justified, the apology good enough. What's happened since is now the thing, it's beyond my fathoming. I guess that making these stories bigger than they actually are is now a financial decision. There is a minority of people who actually care about this individual incident to the extreme level to which it's now being covered, but I expect most don't really care. Then again, there was a story on the BBC yesterday about Elton John being absolutely fine, so fuck knows what makes headlines these days.

Just watched the highlights from yesterday. A lot of stoppages there. Overall, the game didn't benefit from VAR. The linesman flagged for their disallowed first, correctly, so VAR adds nothing. The linesman - I think - doesn't flag for their second offside goal which VAR disallowed, but given that it was about a minute between that and the ball going in, I don't think the game benefits from VAR intervening - we should have just defended better. Neither pen was worth the hassle, neither being deliberate. Arguably, Gogic's was "worse" in that his forearm was further from his body, but it's being used as momentum for the block and his hand isn't raised way in the air. The on-field decisions to play on would have been fine a few years ago, and would still be to this day for me. Finally, the double touch decision perfectly highlights why VAR doesn't work. You'd need a lot of physics and maths to get a definitive answer on whether the ball touches his standing foot. In my opinion, there is not a single replay or still that can definitively show the ball hitting the standing foot (I haven't seen all shots). It appears that the spin of the ball is the defining factor for some. I can see the justification for that, but the question is: is it possible for that spin to have been generated by the player? Given that he slips and contacts the ball in a strange way, I think it probably is possible to catch the ball with a rising foot and generate a weird top-spin. The bottom line is that it's impossible for VAR to intervene there, despite the suggestion on Sportsound and Sportscene that it should have. I think the guys in the VAR room probably made the right call in saying that there was no clear and obvious error, or simply that they had nae fuckin idea. I think VAR is generally fairly speculative the majority of the time too. I think that yesterday's game is very eloquent proof of its shiteness, and that is that it hasn't improved the game. Incidentally, we'll now get 20 seconds of a two minute's highlight package showing a referee waiting for a VAR call, as if it's some sort of exciting spectacle that has greatly enhanced the viewing experience.

With Lee greeting in the background? You're right, that would make for great viewing. To be honest, that is likely to be us now. I'm not convinced Robson will get much time if we continue to struggle. Hibs will be expected to challenge for third place and the money that comes with it. As will Aberdeen and Hearts. Failure to finish in third will have consequences. That's what they've all bought in to. Wouldn't be surprised if Hibs promote from within like us and Hearts have.

I wasn't being serious. However, he's got a job for the foreseeable with Killie, and I don't think he'll feel that Hibs is worth the hassle. Johnson must be nearly their longest serving manager this century. Edit: he's not even close, but there's only a few that have reached a hundred games (and those that do have usually had a helping hand with being in the championship when they got the job). They've had 16 managers this century.

McInnes is too big for a job like Hibs.

Because our squad lacks any real depth currently, so the guys that played a large part on Thursday would probably be the guys we'd normally take in for the Sunday game. We've also still to find out if guys like mcgarry, Sokler and McGrath are any good, whilst they still need to get up to fitness. It's always the same at this time of the season, but especially the last few years when we've had such a massive turnover of players. We should be expecting at least three of the new signings to be poor, but it'll take a while to get that knowledge. Today's result is fine in the scheme of things. Need a home game to get us going. Preferably not against a team that's just lost a dud manager.

I'm guessing fitness levels are still being worked on with the new lads, which is to be expected. Great to see MacDonald, potentially, getting the ninety though. Makes a huge difference in the middle.

Miovski was past him and could have got a shot in. It was a deliberate pull back and would be a yellow most weeks. I agree that the player makes a meal of it. There were a couple of times prior when Rubezic was in a similar position and he let the player go, which is what their defender should have done here. Great to see Miovski taking them on though, he should do more of that.

The biggest problem with Sokler is that it's difficult to tell the difference between him and Miovski. The club have either got to stop playing them together or force one of them into a drastic haircut. Miovski was here first, so it really should be Sokler that takes the punishment.

Into its second season and VAR still an absolute abomination. Last night was a disgrace, with all goals ruined by shitey checks (of nothing). Miovski's especially, even the player looked like he'd stopped caring when the decision was finally made. However, maybe it's time to separate the handball rule from the VAR issues. We know that the rule was changed explicitly for VAR's implementation, so it's still to blame. The rule itself is a disgrace though, and we can use McKenzie's apparent handball last night as evidence (among many others). That pathetic decision is the equivalent of having a player dive to win a penalty against you. McKenzie has no idea that Rubezic is missing his header and no chance to get his arm out the way (he wasn't even looking at the ball). Upon hitting (glancing) his arm, there is zero advantage to him, and zero disadvantage to the opponent. There are numerous examples where this is the case, and now anytime the ball is in the box, dickheads are screaming "handball", hoping to win this shite lottery. Instead of taking in a rule that prevents cheating, this rule endorses it. By cheating, I mean unsporting behaviour. It's just a shite way to win or draw any game. It's knowing you've won by diving or getting a goal when you're ten yards offside (no longer a thing). What strikes me as strange is that nobody is talking about it. Everyone talks about it in the past tense "well you just can't have your hand out in the modern game". As if we, the people who watch, play, pundit the sport are completely incapable of influencing those that make the rules. They should be raging about it and asking for a return to the previous rule. This one has very obviously failed, by introducing an unsporting result to the game. The previous rule, where the referee decided on intention, was significantly better and less prone to unsporting decision. Just take it back. It's bizarre that the supposed experts in our game aren't kicking up a real fuss about this. It's anti-sport bollocks. It'd be interesting to see what VAR would be like if it wasn't tainted by the shite handball rule change that accompanied it (still shite on last night's viewing!).

What sort of thread title is this? Who are St Mirren away to? Mods? Delete thread and start again.

Even if he is, McKenzie was very good last night. Defensively very strong, and once MacDonald provided the balance, he began to get forward a little. He gets zero marks off for the penalty, which is just a failed change to the rules that nobody seems to accept. One shite cross field pass in the second too (which Morris neither went for, or tracked back after), but otherwise solid.