LA-Don

I suppose I’ll admit McLean did well after being moved much further forward against Killie hence that switch, plus Nwakali is to be needed in the next few weeks so why not get him in there. We paid ‘big’ money for May, he’ll start if fit.

I’ll be greedy, while people will take any kind of win, it’s the performances that concern me so much and our apparent inability to pass a ball. I’m hoping we can get back to knocking it around and looking like some sort of quality team rather than a bunch of duds hoofing it up the park. I’ll say 3-1 us, McKenna, McLean, May

Well, best result for us. Celtic will win the league, that’s a given, but as shit as we’ve been it’s still a fight in for second. Hope DM was watching. Both of the old firm are beatable and today highlighted their weaknesses. Then again, these weaknesses have been seen all season but DM apparently refuses to try to exploit them.

Very tough question, in my lifetime Black, Gilhaus, and Jess were three very good players, but I'd go with Frank McDougall and Charlie Nicholas!

Now 2-1 huns. Both teams are beatable with our players if we get the tactics right. FFS.

I think it’s interesting that GMS and Stewart were starting to find consistency/form and then we signed McGinn. Since that point we’ve juggled formation again and players have lost confidence and consistency. Delighted we have Niall but we need to give another player an extended run to find form. I’d drop Christie for Stewart. We lose Christie anyway so give Stewart the chance to find form in the deeper attacking mid/number 10 role. Pretty sure we can sign Stewart permanently if we want him so worth the change.

Well, I have coached teams for the last 23 years and have done all my badges/licenses, and while I don’t coach at the pro level, yet again our tactics are fucking awful. We get absolutely nothing from our center forward, Rooney or May, but in their defense, service is shocking. Long ball to chase or high ball to win against a taller and more physical defender. We usually get fuck all from that and got nothing today. Our tactics of getting it wide and attacking the line/wide also got us nothing today. We stuck with that tactic for 90 mins when a different approach was clearly needed. We got nothing from our attacking mid/number 10 today. Dropped too deep and left the forward all alone up top. No link or support play. Our subbing made very little difference. Subbing GMS and Stewart is like for like. We needed a tactical change as well as personnel change. McLean was shit when Ball went off, made him worse. Did he even touch the ball after that? Very clear our confidence is low and our manager doesn’t appear to know what to do...

I'm not twisting things. The quality of play of late has been god awful, whether we're looking for McGinn to dribble or us to pass as a team. We've been very much an ugly kick and chase team of late, home and away, as far as I have seen. I don't see how the field is a factor when we've played shitty home and away.

I see DM is in the press today complaining about our pitch. Why does that matter when your team doesn’t pass the fucking ball? We play so much kick ball long ball shite these days, not just at home, that if anything our opponents have been playing a better passing game and a better pitch helps opponents...

Your long ball point is, in my option, why May is failing. He spends most of the time chasing and getting fuck all out of it. Our build up play is terrible. Can’t really blame May for the awful play and/or awful tactics. He’s not getting or missing any chances.

Watched the game, thought they were the much better team in the second half. Even DM said he thought we were a bit fortunate to get a draw.

Horrible second half and I thought Killie were the better team. We go a goal up and have a chance to kick on but allow Killie to come back and dominate. Interesting that Shinnie was at left back and on a booking. Stick him in midfield we maybe win the game but he gets booked and misses a semi. What are our tactics/style of play? What are we meant to do when we have the ball? I see an awful lot of simply belt the ball forward and hope, or give it to McGinn or Christie and hope they do some magic. We are not good to watch these days at all. Feel very sorry for May and Rooney. Why is Rooney played wide, awful. And we play fetch with May, not fun. If I was either player I wouldn't be happy with what I'm appearing to be asked to do. An inspiring win was needed today but instead we're probably a little lucky to still be in the cup.

Is Harvie injured? Seem to recall he may have been. Good game to be given a chance? I'd expect us to be the more attacking team, home game etc, and given we've been gash the last two games and lost, I cannot see a midfield without Shinnie tomorrow. Woodman (makes no difference between him and Rogers in my opinion) Logan OConnor (although I'd rather see Arnie) McKenna Reynolds (although I'd rather see Harvie) Shinnie McLean GMS (although I'd like to see Stewart given a run out) Christie McGinn May

Well, you're certainly a glass is half full person. How exactly are we light years ahead with 10 of the first team squad leaving? Out of curiosity, how many of the current Rangers team would make our first 11? And as for speculating about their financial future and players they'll get, that's a completely different topic. I'm more concerned about our first team finances and who we'll get. Logan has been consistently shit for a long time with the occasional good game McKenna has been excellent this year but mistakes/a dip in form is inevitable and how will he handle that? He's still young potential in my eyes Devlin hasn't played and who knows what we're getting post injury We have no center mids GMS is hit or miss, more miss than hit Rooney is extremely limited May has done nothing for us (yet) and doesn't suit DMs style of play

Correct, they deserved to be but the level of play in the league certainly dropped and we benefitted. Or perhaps we over achieved and we’ll be back to bottom 6 again? Regardless, opponents are stronger and can DM keep us as a top 2 team and get us to cup finals. That’s the expectation many have.

I think fucked is a fair assessment based on what we have, DM's transfer history, and DM's coaching performance with improved domestic competition. We have 10 leaving and we need a left back, a central defender, possibly a right back. Shinnie is our only central midfielder, McGinn is solid, but GMS is hit and miss. Scott Wright appears to becoming as popular as Craig Storie. Do we have a forward we see as our legit number 9? I'd say we have 4 legit players. Lewis, McKenna, Shinnie, and McGinn. Who else is consistently good? You say 7 are easily replaceable or better, what if the 7 are Goodwillie, Maynard, Callum Morris, Josh Parker, Wes Burns, Ryan McLaughlin, and Jeff Monakana? And what if we get good offers for Lewis, McKenna, even Shinnie? While money helps, we've spent that on a lot of shit in recent memory. We've signed players that don't fit our system, and we've seen more long ball and defensive tactics this year. Ugg. Lastly, I have no faith in youth. We've had ONE (McKenna) come through since DM has been manager.

Good thread. Look back to where we were. We were shite. McInnes has been lucky, that's a fact. He steadied our ship and, to his credit, established a team that consistently over the last few years has beaten the other shite in our league. That shite included everyone except Celtic for a few seasons. Nobody can argue that. DM's a likeable guy who established a feelgood factor. Now his coaching is being challenged and he's failing. The huns are back being decent, Lennon has Hibs doing well-ish, and even Levein has Hearts somewhat credible. This is the first real challenge to McInnes. How has he handled it? His tactics against Celtic have been shite and that has consistently given us nothing against them in the last 3 years (except the Scottish Cup final when we played reasonably well.....but still lost) Now we appear to see these tactics against the other 3 teams. Brutal to watch and minimal points this year against these guys. That's enough games to see coaching style, adjustments etc, and DM has clearly failed. The fact that he spouts shite after the Celtic game is relevant - same argument regardless of performance, what planet is he on? We're now going backwards and top 3 will be tough. Rangers will get stronger. Lennon will get Hibs going. The finger gets pointed straight at Milne - do you see what's happening here? Or is mediocre acceptable? We've been lucky the last few years but it's time for a change for sure. DM won't resign, Milne won't sack him, our only hope is someone comes in for him. But with us on an apparent downward spiral is his credibility and reputation going to take a hit? Summer will see O'Connor, Christie, Maynard, Arneson, Stewart, Nwakali, McLean, Rogers, Ball, and Woodman leave. That's 10 of the first team squad. We're fucked.

Only saw the second half and what a load of shite. We looked like a kick and run pub team. God awful to watch. As mentioned above, DM appears to have no clue how to play Celtic.

I think that McInnes is being found out now. He's a good guy and 'great to have in the dressing room' judging by what the players say. The guys in our team want to play for him. He's been lucky that he improved us when Rangers, Hibs, Hearts, and Dundee Utd, arguably our main competition, have been total shite. Now that they are stronger we're starting to see some god awful tactics, and consistently. Great guy, somewhat good recruiter, shite coach by the looks of things. When can we say his coaching won us a game? And I don't mean a super sub, I mean tactical changes. I don't get the dislike for Neil Lennon. I live so far away and rarely see Scottish media so not sure what I've missed about him. He's arrogant and says what he means, but from what I've seen at Celtic and Hibs he has some transfer appeal and can coach (particularly like his attitude to playing against Rangers and Celtic this year.) I do question whether Lennon would come here. Is Hibs his way of regaining a reputation to get a move down south? He didn't reject the Scotland rumors so is certainly not married to Hibs. We're a step up, financially for sure, but I wouldn't say team wise with the players we have potentially leaving - a complete squad overhaul is not out of the question. We have Lewis, McKenna, Shinnie, McGinn, and that's pretty much it. The rest could stay or go, I don't think anyone would be that bothered. Would you rather have Lennon or McIness overhauling the squad? Milne will never sack McInnes, he's made us 'not shite' which is good enough for Milne. Will a poor finish to this season mean DM is less appealing to future employers and approaches this summer?

It was defensive. By the looks of things we started with GMS at left wing back and McGinn ahead of him. Rooney was on the right and it seemed Christie was our more advanced player. Mcinnes does a great job at attracting players, I’ll give him that, but he’s a shite tactical coach. I’ll still defend mwakali, he was no more all over the field than Shinnie does, and no worse than anyone else. Except more disciplined than McLean and more mobile than O’Connor.

Captain today??? Why? Plenty of reasons why not.

Don’t agree about nwakali at all. Easy to blame him on his first start when he’s a young boy, those around him did him zero favors. Looked nervous first 5 mins but other than that worked hard and was tidy with the ball and comfortable on the ball. He had 2 fouls, both of which were intelligent play by the hibs player who slowed down/ran across him. There were plenty of times when he could have dove in and been rash but he stood up and got goalside, unlike mclean. He was no worse than McLean, and better than OConnor. Rico, we watched a different game. Everyone was all over the place, not fair to single out mwakali. At times I had no clue who was playing where other than McKenna. Were we a back 4? 5? What shape in midfield? McLean was shockingly bad in the second half. Disappeared for a good 20 mins after he should have been off at the time in a game we needed him. OConnor did zero in midfield, if anything was a third central defender so left us even more exposed in central midfield. Except when he appeared wide left at one point. It was tactics that killed us, we started with GMS and Logan as wing backs, Rooney wide right, no player forward. Hibs were not good, we were just shite.

Shocking performance from pretty much start to finish. Tactics were shite and team shape in the second half was terrible. DM maybe be a likeable guy who recruits well but tactically he’s awful. I’d take Lennon over that cnut. Expect the same against Celtic. Did we have any real scoring chances? McLean non existent in the second half. Why Maynard? Surely Stewart offers more?

And the fucking scapegoat is mwakali. Why the fuck isn’t McLean off, should have seen red anyway. Hasn’t touched the ball since the foul that should have had him punted. AOC in midfield will just make us worse, my sofa moves faster.

Fuck off, 2-0 now. Another game where it appears the managers tactics have fucked us. Looked like a 5-5-0 to start the game and the same defensive shite. We cannot sit back and absorb pressure, we’re not good enough defensively to play this way. When have these tactics worked? We could get fucking roasted here.