craig

Is he the cancer of the dressing room that people believed he was ?

And they reckon he may never play for the club again. Seems Fergie might be that cancer that people believed he was

Fergie stripped of captaincy !

I say the manager - I reckon he has left

Have had to tune-in to Radio scotland online now !

Have they sold him ?

Spot on my man !! The deadwood needs to start at the top - the best New Year gift DM can give us is to say he is leaving and has a buyer and that Bain is leaving with him !

If that is true then those same players are nothing more than hypocrites. Respect works both ways - maybe Le Guen hadn/t'hasn't earned it yet but anyone, and I mean anyone, tell me just what those players have done to earn ANYONE'S respect ??? Nothing. They can bitch and moan about respect all they like when they are providing performances and results on the pitch but not a moment before. If true then those senior players are hypocrites who need to realise that the people they need to satisfy most is the paying customer (fans) as well as the management.

Or a 3-4-1-2 with him being the "1" ?

Also wouldn't be cup-tied for the UEFA

Disagree. Just because he came from Man U doesn't make him any better - he was no better than average for us.

Agreed, remember being in the Broomloan when he scored all 4 against Motherwell. One of the goals..... ball came to him about 8 yards out, crowded area, spins on the proverbial 6 pence a couple of times and in less than a yard had beat 3 players before firing an unstoppable shot home. Was there with a friend who was a season ticket holder at Old Trafford - he said we would only be a stepping stone for Mols as he would get snapped up by a BIG EPL team - and he WAS that good. That injury, like Durrant's, lost the game a potentially world-class player.

Pete, your system is based on having someone cover in behind the CB's and that doesn't happen unless you play a sweeper, in my opinion. When the strikers play further apart (as your first system shows) you have 2 defenders on one striker - eg, the left centre forward is effectively playing between the CB and RB - both CB and RB mark that player - CB should win aerial balls and RB can cover the knockdowns or space in behind if the ball drops over the top. In your system at the bottom that is NOT what I would suggest - you are trying to make it look like the 2 full-backs are sweepers. Your second system is working on having a sweeper and we don't play with a sweeper. However, it is close to what I suggest happens in a flat back four IF you put Hemdani back in there - the full-backs pull across (tighten or narrow the pitch) to assist and pick up loose balls. Also, I am not sure that the strikers play with one central striker and one striker playing on one side of him as that makes the strikers unbalanced, you would effectively have one playing centrally and one playing on the right (or left) which means up front they would be very unbalanced - unless you are using a striker who has a free role, in which case your using Hemdani effectively as a sweeper would work because the central striker would be picked up by Svensson whilst the free role striker could be zonal marked by the full-backs. It is all about opinions and you and I obviously disagree, amicably I would hope

I have no problem agreeing to disagree Pete Touch, in my opinion, CAN be re-learned as it is a physical attribute. Positioning is something which CAN'T be taught as it is a mental attribute.

Pete, the CB's always should be picking up the 2 forwards in a 4-4-2 - the two full-backs should be tightening (i.e. getting closer to their respective CB) to provide cover - this then requires the midfielders to close down the opposition midfielders - and it means your CB's are not one-on-one as they have cover from each full-back. I also disagree that a CB should be covering all defenders - that for me would be tactical suicide as he is being asked to basically cover 4 positions (if you include his own as CB)

I disagree with your analogy about not being able to be taught holding the ball up Pete. Touch is definitely something which can be taught even when a player is in the twilightof his career IF he is willing to be coached and taught new ways. I would actually say that the bigger skill which can't be taught is the almost telepathic knack of being in the right place at the right time to score a goal - McCoist had it and Boyd seems to have it in abundance too. I think Boyd has the one thing that can't be taught and has time on his side to be taught the thing that can be. I think his hold up play is dreadful right now but can improve - however, having a striker that just instintively knows where to be and when is something that cannot be coached but that is the thing Boyd does have.

I think what this comes down to is should Hemdani be allowed to not be good in the air - in my opinion when our back 4 consists of Smith, Hemdani, Svensson and Hutton the only one that could consistently win aerial battles is Svensson (and even then he isn't too convincing) - one out of 4 in the SPL where oftentimes the ball is played long and in the air simply isn't enough. Mike is right in my opinion - if Hemdani is told "you are shit in the air so leave that to Svensson" then Svensson ends up covering two CB positions whilst Hemdani would have to move around to cover the position Svensson just left - and this looks to me like it creates more problems than it solves if up against decent opposition. It SHOULD be the case that Hemdani is a stop-gap back there - here is hoping PLG can find that aerially dominant CB who can pass the ball and read the game perfectly - we can but hope right ?

lucky f$!@#! !!

2-0 the Arabs Good result if it stays that way !

I'm not sure it is though - it is too easy to say that the team is playing better because Boyd is out - Boyd's absence coincided with a change in formation - there is no saying that there is a correlation between the performances and Boyd being out - it just as easily, and probably more likely, is due to the change in formation. The only time we will be able to tell is if, and when, PLG uses a 4-4-2 with Boyd in the line-up and we start to drop performance-wise again. If Boyd was playing in a 4-4-2 there is no saying that we wouldn't have beaten Hibs 5-0 with Boyd getting 2 or beaten Celtic 3-1 with Boyd getting 2..... we won't know whether Boyd has a positive or negative impact until such time as he plays in the altered 4-4-2 formation.

So Hearts last season were a "lower SPL" team ?? Nonsense buts. You need to get with the times and realise that the rest of the SPL (at least 2 or 3 teams) are catching up to us. I am a big supporter of Clement but there is no way you can say he is more of a skill player than Brown or Thomson and in the same breath say that he will improve and be a great player for us - if you are going to give him that benefit of the doubt then the same has to be said of Brown and Thomson as they are young guys too and could develop. I actually disagree anyway about Clement being more of a skill player - Clement breaks play up, harries, hassles, wins tackles and passes it off - Brown is definitely more of a "skill" player than Clement. Gavin Rae and Steven Thomson are NOT, in my opinion, prime examples - they were never highlight players at their previous clubs - using them as examples isn't a fair comparison - though we will likely never know as I dont see Brown and Thompson coming to us. If you want to use comparisons though - then lets ask if anyone would have been annoyed had Rae or Thompson signed for Celtic.... I wouldn't think there would be too many Bears disappointed to see either sign for Celtic - however, I would be pretty sure there would be a lot of bears not happy at seeing Brown and Thomson (the former more so) sign for Celtic - and that is usually a sign of how much of an impact we think the players can make.

Brown and Thomson are better than average players, no doubt about it. And they aren't really playing with a "lower team in the SPL" - come the end of the season I see Hibs being 3rd - hardly makes them a team in the lower SPL - also they have probably played, at times, better football than ANY team in Scotland. Clement has talent for sure - however, he still has to improve which is an argument that could be levelled at Brown and Thomson so I dont believe you can, at this stage of their development, suggest one will be better than the others. Also, you are showing your lack of research about Clement being younger - of all the 3 players mentioned (Clement, Brown, Thomson) - Clement is actually the OLDEST of the 3 - Brown is almost a full year younger than Clement.

I went to Easter Road for the 1st game of the season when Hibs played the Sheep (long story but basically wanted to get to an SPL game whilst home) and Brown played anything BUT the holding midfield role. They played with 5 across the middle that day with Michael Stewart playing the holding role - Brown played right mid and attacking mid - held the ball up really well, pacy, held opponents off, good eye - I could go on. But the one thing he WASN'T that day was holding mid. I caveat this by saying that is the only time I have seen him play this season

Willie McKay is a shark - money grabbing bastard ! I particularly like his "Hibs knocked back the chance for both players to sign improved deals" comments ? Why should Hibs NOT knock them back. Those same players less than 6 months ago were happy with the contract they were given, the time to complain was BEFORE they signed on the dotted line. It really pisses me off reading about these guys who sign contracts and the ink is barely dry before they are hunting for more cash. In this case though I blame McKay !

I think the last sentence meant look at how many ex-Celtic players are on the show as opposed to ex-Rangers. I wouldn't mind this if they were even-handed with their reporting, but they generally aren't. In this respect there has been a definite shift because 10-15 yrs ago you would ALWAYS have one ex-Ger and one ex-Celt to ensure it was even - these days they don't care about looking balanced. Who did Celtic have missing ? Genuine question ackbar as I don't live in the UK these days. Did they not only have one CB missing ? As for the abuse, don't worry about it ackbar, it is mostly in jest !