ascender

I think signing him is a "no brainer" if he wants to come, even with concerns over his injury record.

Given the Patterson fee and the money that would have come in for Gerrard and his team's contracts, not to mention GVB was probably insisting on some money for players, it wouldn't be a surprise if we had something to spend in this window, particularly if the right sort of player came along. I could see us spending 7/8M on one player again if he fits our criteria and would improve the first team.

There's a few keepers at other clubs in the league who I think could be a decent #2, but none of them are better than McLaughlin IMO. That said, maybe McLaughlin will leave in the summer and I expect McGregor to retire from the #1 position in one way or another, so maybe we will be looking for two keepers?

If there's any truth in the Souttar stuff he'll be chased from Gorgie and will join us this month. I thought Lundstram looked good against Real Madri but got off to a slow start in competitive games, possibly because its a big adjustment to playing for Sheffield United. He's had a few mistakes, but also looked very good indeed at times, albeit inconsistent. Some people have slated him from the off and the last week or so has seen this amplified, presumably because we now know for reals, that he's on at least 35K a week. I don't think we should write him off by any means, although we've just got a new manager who has tweaked our system, so let's see what happens. We do have a few players out of contract in the summer and some who may retire or move on, so I think we need to be looking further ahead than the second half of this campaign.

I had a look this morning an up until his injuries, he played a decent amount of games every season and has done so far this season. The achilles issues have a fairly low risk of reoccurring if the player had a proper recovery phase and wasn't rushed back, so I'm not sure how much of a risk he actually is given the amount of games we play each year and the expected rotation because of it. He seems to have had actual injuries and recovered from them rather than being in and out with niggling injuries regularly if that makes sense? I still think he'd be a worthwhile signing all things considered. As others have said though, its frustrating with guys like Roofe, Helander etc.

Given this fee and the money for the management team, I'm going to guess that will give Gio some money to spend this window. I still think Gerrard (or another EPL team) will come in for Aribo or Kamara though but I hope nothing happens until the summer.

That’s a great bit of business for us and I wish him all the best in his future career. What are the chances of someone as good as him coming through the ranks at the same time as we have someone like Tav established in the team?

The defence looks a lot better, but also looks shaky as f*ck at times when doing simple things like defending from corners and clearing our lines. There was also way too much space down the flanks, particularly on Tav's side. All a work in progress though I'm sure.

It was interesting seeing how many really good chances we seemed to make from counter-attacks yesterday and on quite a few, the final ball/decision-made was the wrong one, so I wonder if this is something we've been working-on in training but isn't quite there yet.

So what do others think, is this us going back to last season's form & plan where we go a couple of goals up and then just look to control the game? We definitely look a lot more confident under GvB than we did under Gerrard, but if Hearts had scored, would we just have gone back up a gear and got another one? Or was today one of those crazy games where all bets are off and its just a bit manic so difficult to control?

That ball was surely out?? I love Hearts getting wound up by us taking our time over goal kicks. Welcome to every single match at Ibrox. Need to put this game to bed - either with a goal or tightening-up the midfield.

I know we've struggled against Hearts a bit and they'll be right up for it, but I hope we take the opportunity to come at them from the off and blow them away. Our momentum seems to be heading in that direction so I hope I'm not jinxing it, but if we get an early goal and that side plays to its full potential it could be a very good day.

I thought Goldson and Bassey had great games, but it was a great team performance.

Agree, Goldson was all over the place and I wondered if the result midweek and the performance of McGregor would maybe instil a bit of confidence in the defence as a whole as well as Goldson. The Livi goal was disappointing because of the initial cross and then the fact their man got free in the box. I'm really not sure Katic is the answer - the reputation of players like him seem to get better and better the longer they're out injured or away on loan. On the flip side, maybe a more limited centre half alongside someone who is more of a ball playing one might be a good combination? Still not convinced that's Katic though. I'm with @Rousseau, if someone like Mayo is considered good enough, we should be trying to find a way to bring him in to the first team, but maybe we missed our chance to do that last season when the league was sewn up so early.

What a leap from a standing start and the defender also had a hold of him.

I think the ref took a guess there, but the irony is that’s exactly how Livingston play much of their football. Long punt up the park, get a foul then try something from the set piece. Ref has been pish today.

Is there a worse pitch in Scotland? The ball doesn’t run at any pace on the ground and who knows where it will go after a bounce.

Glass half-empty me 😉

I thought we’d be 3 or 4 up by the break given how we played for much of that half. How slack are we at the back though? Goldson is having a shocker and sounds like the fans are getting on his back now too. Couple of really awful goals to lose. Borna should have stopped that cross coming in. And that pitch…..

Its hard not to over-analyse last night and say that the players looked happier and were much more positive and playing at a higher-tempo etc. I guess we need to give it a few more games to see if that continues. Very promising start though.

I thought Bassey was brilliant last night, really stepped-up and didn't look out of place at all.

McLaughlin will at least come for crosses and his distribution is much better than McGregor's, not to mention quicker at getting the ball back out to the outfield players. What he doesn't seem to have is that rare ability that elites have to make those absolutely top-drawer, "HTF did he get to that?" saves, but very few do. Very few clubs rotate keepers, even when they're the best team in their respective country. There's a reason for that. Given the mistakes we've been making, I've no idea why we've been rotating them this season.

Aribo or Arfield for me.

I saw that and immediately thought... "nah, surely not??" We are waiting for a non-British appointment to his team though aren't we?

Whilst McLaughlin isn't at that elite level where he regularly pulls-off world class saves, he's a very good top-level keeper who hasn't let us down. He's also much better and faster at distributing the ball than McGregor. I think its a bit of a catch 22 at the moment where not having a settled back line is affecting the keeper and the defenders. On top of that, there's something off with McGregor - it could be age, it could just be confidence, but its clearly not working for him, so I'd put McLaughlin back in there asap. I wouldn't be surprised if GVB's team finds a young-ish Dutch keeper by next season who will be our new number 1 along with a CB or two.