ascender

Yes but Klos is still not fully fit

Exactly. So do we want him to play against Hibs and then Osasuna, or just go straight in against the Spanish side?

If we play like we did last night, then why not?

If McGregor did get involved when easily winning a home UEFA cup tie, then he deserves a right rollocking from the management staff today. He's tended not to get involved in the past and got on with the game, so its a strange one.

Or maybe he is that stupid after all.

It looks like there will be no appeal by us on behalf of McGregor as there's no clear footage of what happened. I find that hard to believe with all the cameras which must have been there, but as we only have 24 hours to appeal, its not looking likely.

So, given that Klos will be in between the sticks for the next UEFA match and depending on the punishment (for a "headbutt" remember) maybe the next two games, should Klos be brought in to the side to play in the SPL now? Or do we go in to the next UEFA tie with him having only played 15 minutes or so of first team football?

Without getting carried away, the UEFA cup is now our only chance of a trophy this season.

And still some Jambos think he's the best thing since sliced bread and can't understand why the rest of Scottish football are laughing their tits off over the whole thing.

Dear Monkeys,

 

Today I will not be showing your portrait to you. It is pointless. You are one step away from becoming human beings.

 

Go and carefully have a look at yourself in the mirror. Don't you see a human in it?

 

Stop fighting for the values which the ex-captain of Hearts was fighting for.

 

Education and truthful information - that should be your input to humankind.

 

Your leader Mowgli is not taking bananas any more, now he is taking money for lies and untruthful interpretation. However he is greedy and makes you collect rotten information from cesspits and poisons readers with it.

 

This is unworthy even of a monkey.

 

Today I will express my opinion in English about refereeing in order that your Mowgli will not make you tell lies.

 

To discuss whether referees take money or not is the same as discussing a woman who gives herself with no love.

 

Isn't it better to concentrate on the standard of their work instead of looking for reasons for their poor performance?

 

A woman cheats herself and nature if she gives herself without love. If a referee officiates a game based on his personal love, he commits a cynical crime, especially when the public has trusted him.

 

I respect those referees who take money from two stupid teams and then honestly officiates a game. They do not harm football in any way. Though it is bad, still everybody is equal for them. Perhaps that is the reason why football in Italy will never die despite all the scandals that continuously shake it.

 

I think that is much better than being the champions for 40 years while building up the same system for further 40 years.

 

Now it has become obvious to me why you, the Monkeys, were trying to ruin Hearts not only in the Championship, but in European competitions as well. I think it was not without your help that the 'frozen' referee from Russia was selected to officiate our match and that in the games against the Greek side we got three red cards.

 

It is not without your help that traitors were presented as heroes thus showing the road to children for betrayal.

 

You will always call teachers silly because unlike you they lead children along the correct path.

 

Protecting your values in that way just spoils not only football, but also a Scotsman's proud name.

 

I beg you Mowgli, take the monkeys back to the Safari Park!

Is Alan Gow the answer??

He might be. To be honest I've not seen enough of him to give an honest verdict, but he's certainly had a good season.

Bottom line is that we just need a quality centre forward to play alongside Boyd. Then we need to give the pair of them some time to get used to playing with each other. Boyd is an excellent finisher, but we need someone who can give the team more to compliment him.

Prso's first touch and general play was terrible last night, but to be fair he has been out recently.

I thought that Gavin Rae played well apart from a few loose balls which could have put us in trouble. He looked much more comfortable in centre midfield as opposed to out on the wing. Shame his effort from the corner didn't go in as I think a goal would mean a lot to him, especially if he moves on in the summer.

Davie Weir has made a big difference at the back, we look so much more solid and I thought Hutton had an excellent game. He finally seems to be improving. Thomson had a quiet but effective game, I hope he can stay fit and get a run in the side now.

We still look a bit unbalanced without a proper left winger, but Burke and Novo switching wings will do as a stop-gap. I just hope we can keep the momentum up and build on last night's performance.

It was really refreshing to see us taking our chances against a team for once. Too often we'd have struggled to win that sort of game, so its all encouraging IMO.

It was fantastic to see how they came out the blocks and just went for it from the off. I think there were 9 Scots starting last night as well which was nice to see.

It could easily have been double figures if we'd taken all our chances and it was a great atmosphere as well. Some of the defending by Tel Aviv was truly terrible though and they were lucky to get off so lightly.

If we can show that level of commitment and team spirit for the rest of the season then getting 2nd place should be a lot easier from here on it.

He scored, but didn't do too much else to be honest. I also thought his first touch was pretty poor tbh, but I still think that given some time and a regular partner up front, he can improve as a player.

How has Sebo been doing in the reserves btw?

I agree that he needs to be given a run, but its going to be tough for him no matter when he gets a chance as we're not exactly creating loads of chances at the moment. I'm hoping McCoist's influence starts to show soon.

I only saw the last 20 minutes, but it was amazing to see how accurate, fast and controlled the Milan passing was, even just when they were playing it across their back 4. Didn't really seem to be breaking sweat, but I'm not sure how the rest of the game went.

Coverage was awful with McPherson and Walker providing pretty dire commentary over loads and loads of shots of the crowd for some reason.

They were talking about him on The Game podcast and it looks like Bellamy is a bit of a nightmare off the pitch, always has been, always will. Some managers overlook that because of his talent on the pitch, but it looks like he just can't help himself and always steps over the line.

I'd seen this mentioned recently on FF and I have to say I didn't have a clue what it meant, but people liked to refer to it without actually explaining it. Now I've found out and done a bit of reading about it, I don't think bringing it up paints us in a very good light and its kind of a distasteful subject to be scoring points on.

Each to their own though.

Its not a false dilema - it is reality, it is what we face year in, year out until we realise that players like Boyd, Adam, Hutton, Burke et al just won't win us the league - not matter how many goals Boyd scores.

 

Cammy F

Players like Boyd will win you the league because they score a lot of goals. As for the rest, you need a balance between workmanlike players and then a few of those really talented & special "big game" players you talk about. I think in terms of their contribution to Gers so far, its unfair to lump Boyd in with those other names though Cammy.

I'm kind of confused by the direction this thread is going. Why is the weight suddenly on Boyd's shoulders only in the so called big games? He's a very young goal scorer who more than pulls his weight over the course of a season. Comparing him to Wallace and McCoist is grossly unfair as they were both extremely experienced players before they hit their respective peaks of form with us.

Yes, PLG dropped him, but even he reinstated him as no-one else was scoring regularly. Our problem hasn't been in the "big" games, its been against nearly every other average side in the SPL tbh.

We need a big striker to play alongside him - Hateley, Sutton, Hartson mould IMO to get the best out of him. As well as scoring regularly, Boyd could play off them and also pick up scraps in the box.

Considering how awfully negative we've been over the last few years, I think its a miracle how many goals Boyd has scored recently. If we subtracted his goals from our league position, surely we'd be in deep trouble? He's certainly the most composed and direct finisher we have, so I think he's invaluable.

Since McCoist left we've never replaced him with a natural goalscorer. And while Boyd has a lot to learn, he's incredibly young, so I genuinely don't understand all of the criticism he gets.

I know we were spoiled in the 9IAR years with attacking options, but for 5 or 6 years now we've looked like we have no imagination in the final third of the pitch. We also don't have the players to play a high ball game if we need to get back in a game. Until we sort one or both of those situations out, I think we'll continue to struggle.

Miller and Boyd are totally different sorts of strikers though. As for this thing about Boyd not scoring in big games, I don't think its anything strange, its just that we're not good enough to create a lot of chances against better opposition at the moment.

I guess the simple answer is................to SELL HIM

I think there were a few people advocating that last season. That we should take the money and sign someone better....

I've been getting hassle at work about this since last week. I can't believe there's still some fans doing it and I have to say, if we can't self-police ourselves on simple things like this, we can't complain when the authorities come down on us.

I have to admit that I didn't know he was a striker as opposed to a left winger until we started playing him there and suddenly it all made sense.

He'd have been scoring even more if he'd been around in the team years ago.

We've had a shocking lack of creativity from our midfield for some time now, so I really hope WS signs one or two attacking midfielders who can actually produce an end result from their play.

Who knows. Maybe the management are telling him to play as a traditional poacher, hang around in the box and let others around him chase lost causes and drop out wide, deep etc. Or maybe he is lazy and managers just put up with that as he'll give them goals in return. I don't know if that's the case though as it'll just lead to other players resenting him and also him getting away with murder.

He is young but I'm sure he'll improve with McCoist being at Ibrox now. I really hope we sign a decent striker to play alongside him though.

I don't think the guy is fat btw, but him and Adam look like they are carrying a wee bit extra considering they're professional sportsmen. Just around the face in particular. I could be totally wrong, but looking at how they play and the effort they put in, I think they'd be helping themselves massively if they did lose a few more pounds.

Unless there's serious investment which gives us funds to buy players who are significantly better, then there's no quick fix to this. Under Smith I'm hoping that he steadies the ship and assembles a team which can mount a challenge to Celtic next season and at the very least make sure we get 2nd place comfortably. While we've been standing still, other SPL clubs have closed the gap on us.

We've got the basis of a good young squad, but that squad needs to be supplemented with a few experienced players and one or two special players who will cost more, probably come from Europe, but who can turn games for us. Given that the wage budget is now well under control, if we had the money to buy a couple of this type of players, we are now in a position to pay them without killing our finances. Of course, we'd have to persuade them to come to Scotland as well.

I think the way to get the most out of Boyd will be to get a Hateley-like figure alongside him. And possibly for Boyd to lose half a stone.

Is this the same Russian who was mentioned during the summer I wonder?