ascender

That was horrendous.... What exactly is Gio's plan and why is he so damn negative?? With the World Cup break coming up I'm starting to think we need to admit this isn't working and make the change sooner rather than later so whoever comes-in has time to work with the players and hopefully do a bit of dealing during the window. Just feels like we're delaying the inevitable.

Christ almighty McGregor...

I just don't understand in what world McGregor, Kent or Borna start today. Baffling.

How on earth is Kent still on? McGregor? Who saw that coming... And why oh why can none of our midfielders just shoot first time when we're in a good position.

That's some run and finish!

Its weird that we're back to the Kent & Barisic overlap as our only apparent tactic.

High balls for Matondo? Give me strength...

He's started brightly today again, but no real end product. And part of the issue is that if he does play well against Motherwell, he'll start again next week and its all forgotten. He's not looked like a 7M player in what, 12/18 months really? Apart from the odd performance here and there, he's been very poo. But we stick with him... Same script today, we start with a lot of possession, a high pace, positive attitude but with nothing to show for it after 30 minutes.

King's distribution looks good and it was great to see Davies clearing a ball from the near post following a cross as that's something we have had problems with. Not really created many chances so far despite all the possession. Is McGregor getting booed by the Motherwell fans?

Davies looks like he could be a good buy based on the very limited time I've seen of him. Ridvan made total sense given his age and promise. But I've kind of lost patience with Borna too. We all know he's a confidence player, but how many second chances does one guy get? To me he's part of the underlying issue where we have such short memories now that we have a moan about a player not being good enough, they seem to improve for a bit but they soon regress and we have a moan again. Repeat. Matondo - why didn't he start on the left last night after the promise he showed at Anfield? He couldn't have been any worse than Kent. Colak looks like a bargain. I agree 100% that no matter how much we'd have spent, the best we could have hoped for was a lucky draw which put us in with a chance of finishing 3rd, but last night was humiliating and some of those players had clearly given up and couldn't even be bothered running at points. We've proven ourselves to be an excellent European team at Europa League level, but didn't even show that last night from about when we conceded the soft equaliser. Injuries is a good point, but playing devil's advocate... injuries and a lack of depth in some positions or alternative systems to play to minimise impact of injuries cost us the Europa league final IMO. Like with Borna, we have a false dawn with Ryan Jack every single year. Unlucky with Lawrence, but we then signed Souttar as well as keeping Helander. I think Souttar is a good player and was worth the risk... if we'd managed to move Helander on.

When was the last time Kent looked like one of our better players? I can't remember a MOTM performance from him or even a few games in a row where he's looked like one of our star players. He's either not as good as we suspected or has just been here too long and needs a new challenge (because of various different things).

Couldn't face posting last night when I got back from the game. Bloody hell... Other than the total collapse, and I might be the only one who sees it like this, but other than #55, I'm still seeing many of the same issues which have existed since Gerrard came in. Obviously Gerrard oversaw a significant rebuild, but from then, until he left, there were issues which went unresolved and some are still there under Gio. And BTW, I'll forever be grateful for SG for delivering title 55, but with every passing match, his reputation as this perfect manager seems to be growing and growing. Let's not forget just how few trophies he won with us and the fact he left after a rubbish start to the season where he seemed unable to shake our players from some deep-seated lack of motivation and "can't be arsed". Some of these have been compounded by players ageing, not being replaced and some strange transfer oversights as well. But last night, it was like another "greatest hits" of these. McGregor's terrible distribution and being rooted to his line. Full backs' not tracking back and/or midfielders not dropping back to cover for them. Borna looked like he gave up on at least two occasions which resulted in a goal. Full backs who can get forward, but aren't necessarily great at the defensive side. Important in a modern day game or not? Its still costing us. Inability to defend set pieces, corners in particular. Certain players who seem to shit the bed in the really big games. Certain players seem to be undroppable - regardless of form; confidence. Balance in midfield has been an issue for as long as I can remember. I don't think Gio knows what system he wants us to play from game to game. He seems to rely on trial and error too much, sometimes with players being played out of position. Change the starting lineup, but system remains the same or not setup to play to the strength of those who've come in. Do we have a "plan b"? Why so slow and ponderous in some games, particularly in the league. We're also slow off the pitch when it comes to contracts - Kent and Morelos in to their last 8 months now? A presumably big contract for Goldson who is the most resilient player I've seen in a long time and great on his day, but at times is still very one-footed and prone to making poor decisions. Why so slow to make substitutions and react to what's going on? Some players, some of our most experienced players, seem unable to do the basics right. Especially in the bigger games. We still seem to be the unluckiest club around with injuries. See also going in to a Europa League final without a fit striker. See also, Ryan Jack. I love the guy, but how many times are we going to just keep persisting with him when every single season goes the same way? We also now look really unfit. So can't blame the injuries on over-training or the high-tempo system we play We still don't have a system where we can play two different, complimentary strikers occasionally. We still seem to have a midfield full of players who are too similar in their style of play and defensive leanings. Why are we still signing players for the squad when we now appear to have players coming through the ranks who are up to the job? Our transfer policy seems to have been poor at best. For a while, you could see that the quality of players we were signing was improving, but it seemed to plateau. Whether that's down to Ross Wilson, the management teams (who have gone on the record to say they're happy with the squad) or financial realities, we still seem to have ended up with a bloated, ageing squad with some players well past their best days. Some of the first team should have gone after 55. They should absolutely have gone after last season. So in short ?), that's why I was so pi$$ed-off last night, because its the same story I've seen play out time and time again for the last 3 or 4 years now.

I’ve seen at least three threads this evening calling the Aberdeen statement out for the flawed bull*hit it is.

Yeah, it would be different if we’re playing well, but its hard to be that excited about them dropping points when we look so clueless.

Just back… Jesus… I predicted a long season last week and I wasn’t wrong. Something needs to change. Unfortunately I really think its the manager, even this early in the season.

Match sharpness would be the only reason I can think of - you saw how fast Napoli were and how they ran at defenders, that would have been a recipe for disaster. We've been incredibly unlucky with injuries again, but I'd have also been tempted to have started with King instead of Sands alongside Goldson as Sands has struggled there.

I'm expecting a very long season.... Bottom of CL group; 2nd in the league and we'll hopefully win one or two of the cups.

Fucks sake...

What a pair of saves! Why was there a retake though, was it for encroachment (if so, WTF?) or for McGregor's movement at the first one?

Its great to see the fight and passion tonight, much better than I thought we'd be and we have had a few half chances too. That free kick against Lundstram was a shocker though.

Of course Alfie gets booked for leaving a high boot in…..

Wtf, have we gone back in time with that lineup?!

Of course King knows exactly what he's doing. He's doing it for his own best interests, but playing to the room and also taking advantage of the open goal the board have given him.

That's what we do though isn't it? All we need now is some "Judean Peoples Front" action with multiple fan groups making their own statements and it will be just like the good old days.

The league isn’t over, but its not far from being over. What have we honestly got to lose by giving guys like McCann and Lowry a chance at the price of dropping some of the serial under-performers. I guess it might need a tactical change which Gio might just not be willing to do? Or even be able to do? We’ve all had concerns about our one-note, one-pace performances against a lot of teams in the league, so if I hadn’t just seen that match tonight, I might have been convinced he’s a genius in Europe but can’t work out the Scottish game. Now I don’t really know what to think of him. From what I’ve seen on social media, there’s going to be two groups trying to shout the loudest about who’s to blame. The board, or Gio. I think they’re both to blame for how we’ve ended up here.