ascender

Why sign Aaron if he wasn't going to play him? The same could be said for Edu. I'd love to see Souness back as Chairman tbh. Sort the discipline of the club out from the top and stand up for us in the press. That would be a good start in my eyes. I think McCoist is being groomed to be manager, but given he's part of a failing managerial team, that doesn't fill me with confidence. Of course the other problem is that from what I've seen, I think we're on a seriously shaky financial peg.

For me its fairly simple what our problems are, but my biggest issue is the fact many of these have gone unanswered for 5 years or so. Lack of creativity in the midfield Lack of width Lack of tactical awareness on the touchline Lack of leadership on the park Playing players out of position rather than giving younger/reserve players a chance Seemingly untouchable players in the side who are immune to being dropped A complete lack of a scouting network What exactly does our youth setup do? Blatant mis-spending of transfer funds on players we don't need while overlooking key areas which need strengthened There is of course the other issue about the way our club is being run (in to the ground), but I don't see how the above aren't being dealt with as they're blindingly obvious. But most of that list is much more important to me rather than slagging off individual players tbh.

That's what I think too. Feel sorry for the lad, especially after Smith said he wouldn't play him out of position after signing him.

Its just another symptom of the way our club (and fans) is being run in to the ground by an owner who doesn't care anymore.

Who's being played out of position. Maybe that's Smith's approach? Maybe we'll see Aaron being given a run at centre half before the season is out?

Morning Gribz. I don't think Mendes should be a ball winner, he should be left to do the creative stuff, especially with Ferguson back as he always like to drop deep. So it was pretty depressing to see Mendes having to drop back to try and win the ball yesterday when Fergie failed to turn up again. Let's face it, nothing's going to change when Smith is in charge so why are we even bothering discussing things like giving younger players a chance or asking why Fergie walks straight back in to the team?

WS in not giving youth a chance shocker.

That's the problem though, we're incredibly inconsistent and while we've not been helped by some truly woeful refereeing decisions this season, the bottom line for me is that we should be good enough to beat most of these teams and the odd goal chopped off shouldn't even come in to it. Changed days I guess.

But he's hardly ever played against Celtic or in the CL/UEFA Cup Gribz, so how can he score?! I've never understood that argument about Boyd's performance in the so-called big games. Besides, we only play Celtic 4 times a year in the league, so that's an awful lot of games against "diddy" teams that we still need to win surely? Why have we not won the league recently? Apart from DM asset-stripping our club, we've simply not had good enough players or a good enough manager who is tactically aware. Take Boyd out of the team and we still wouldn't have won it. In fact we might even have ended last season with no trophies for example. I just don't understand how removing someone who will guarantee you 20-30 league goals each season will improve the team? Especially when we simply don't have anyone else weighing in with goals on a regular basis. Of course, some of that is down to the other problems caused by/related to our manager....

The only difference being that during those 76 "cardboard cutout" performances, he's scored 70 goals or something. But then those don't count unless they're against Celtic or in the CL and they're also the reason we've not been winning the league apparently. My head hurts now and I've not even started drinking yet.

Lol That was the famous (or should that be infamous?) OF performance where he ran around like a headless chicken, noised up the Celtic centre halves and was lucky not to be sent off. Sorry, but when that constitutes a good performance from one of our front-men, I think we're scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I don't think the league is over. If we win all our games left, we would win the league. But even before today, if we beat Celtic in the remaining league fixtures, I'd still see us dropping points against the lower teams in the league. So yes, I do think it is over Put youth in, but they'll be the first to get pelters from our fans if we continue to drop points. And I think with the distinct lack of on-the-field leadership in our team, now isn't the right time to do it. But I see the point and if it was a game of Football Manager, I'd definitely give youth a chance at the moment.

Well, for starters, he's hardly played against Celtic or in Europe. So the argument about him not doing it against the bigger sides could only mean the other top sides in the SPL surely? Our midfield is shite. Signing one quality player while playing other poor ones (or out of position ones) around him will not fix the problems we have. Thomson is another great example why giving youth a chance could backfire big time. Thomson has struggled to win over our support and there's still many who'd be happy to see the back of him, so I fear for a young lad coming in to our team at the moment.

You can't just bring Hemdani in though as we can't accomodate him without dropping "someone" by the look of things. I'm perplexed by Whittaker as he's shown some flashes of real skill with the ball at his feet, looking very naturally talented. But so far he's jut not been able to translate that in to a decent run of performances. Has he suffered from being played out of position, irregularly and then dropped?

Not sure. Its never been expanded on in the bits I've seen other than just saying "family", so I don't know who they're referring to.

The problem with putting guys like Aaron and Fleck in is will they handle the pressure? They are both young and our support aren't the most supportive at times if things aren't going our way, so maybe a couple of seasons out on loan would do them the world of good?

That just goes to show how flawed the original argument is then! Or are we talking about the big European sides? Who he hardly ever starts against anyway... I still think he's the least of our worries I'm also not quite sure how Mendes can be too good for us. If he was that good, then surely he'd take more games by the scruff of the neck and try to turn them around as I think he still disappears too easily when things aren't going our way.

Remember we did lose to St Mirren in between, so its not exactly been plain sailing!

Sorry mate, but I think he's now scored against all of the top 6 apart from Celtic, so that argument doesn't really work any more He had one clear cut chance and missed it. But who do we have in our squad who you'd have put money on to take that chance? Strikers miss chances unfortunately, even the best. Boyd isn't the best, but I think he's the best we have and he's proven that over the last 6 weeks or so. If we'd created more chances for him, I would put money on the fact he'd have scored today. Unfortunately WS still hasn't sorted out the lack of width or creativity in the team and until that changes it won't matter who we sign to play up front, they'll still struggle against the better teams we come up against.

I wouldn't call the 4-2 game a fluke because we played them off the park, but that was one result. All season we've been a mis-firing, inconsistent mess. We're second in the league, but we could have been much further down the table than that. I don't think we've really improved much since last season, but we're just doing enough to scrape through in a lot of matches where we should be good enough to put them beyond any doubt. IMHO results are definitely flattering us, much as they did last season where we rode our luck from the first game until the last.

He's been struggling with a thigh problem. Someone on FF saw him in their local last night (he was drinking juice before anyone says anything) and he said then that he wouldn't be playing today. The official site had him down as "should be fit" for the OF match, but the guy was right, he didn't play. Who knows. Its worryingly similar to the Cuellar situation and it has been mentioned as a footnote in a number of the reports that his family are still in France which I guess is planting the seeds for the old homesick routine. Its not really the point though. Bougherra should have decent cover, but unfortunately we've not replaced Weir yet, so we're short on decent centre halves thanks to the signings we made (or didn't make).

I think he had one clear-cut chance where he hit it straight at Boruc. He's not the best striker, but he will score goals if you create chances for him. He's improved a lot this season and one bad game shouldn't take away from that improvement imo. I've been one of those who've been saying for a while now that we have much bigger problems than him in our squad and I still think that's the case.

WS was definitely the man to steady the ship, but I think those of us who are old enough to remember his first time in charge, knew what was coming next. Poor tactical awareness, mis-spending funds, not giving youth a chance, playing players out of position etc etc. The fact is that DM has backed WS with a significant sum of money, so won't/can't punt him out the door. The other worrying thing for me is that if McCoist is a proper assistant manager, many of WS decisions reflect poorly on him too. But I'm assuming he's going to get the job next.

I just think its the same pattern as last season where we're riding our luck in many games and the results (when we win) are often hiding just how poor we are. Thomson's injury hasn't helped, but some of Smith's tactics and team selections remain as baffling as they ever were. Boyd did have a poor game today Gribz, but also had abysmal service.

If that story's true I'd bite their hand off too.