ascender

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.

C'mon now,Lafferty is a '' YOUTH ''

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.

on another day WS would have taken 3 points from the game but our poor finishing , chopped off goal , penalty claim etc , and Celtic being the jammiest team ever went against us.

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....

And Boyd put in the famous Cardboard cutout performance for the 76th time

 

Dont want to compare and debate Sebo, but he did more in 1 game than Boyd has done!

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.

IIRC Sebo put in an OF performance than Boyd couldnt dream off!!!

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.

but we will never know if they can handle the pressure if we dont give them a try now, i think the league over now lets start bloodiing our decent youngers for next season. ideal time

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.

First paragraph - how mate?? Im talking about Celtic, Europe and maybe a few tougher SPL away games, or just doing it over a season! - never been done!

 

Yeah he is low down on our worries cos he is a capable squad player - we have far worse!!!

 

Mendes needs an intelligent couple of players - basically an ALbertz and Bergkamp Brain type! Thomson was clickin perfect!

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?

so was his family in france while he was playing for charlton? he's been in england for 2 years surely they aint still living in france?

 

kinda similar situation to cuellar i expect him to be sold

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?

Mike, there isnt a top 6 in scotland, it changes like socks every week/season!! The OF are streets ahead the others are a lottery! :cheers:

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.

Thats exactly it mate, we went from awesome at parkhead to shite today. Although we did dominate first half!!

 

Im just looking for contrasts mate :cheers:

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

2 vaild points Mike!

 

1st paragraph - Clear cut chance but fucked up!! not to mention his fumbles and he couldnt get NEAR the pace of the game!!! ANYONE could see that!!!

 

Yes he has improved against the shite teams in thr league - im the first to admit that - but it wont bring us the title home - bottom line. And yes we do have bigger problems in the team than him - broadfoot and adam and whittaker are a joke!

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.

The contrast between the games is in the fuckin title of the thread HAHA how can you disagree!!!! 4-2 at parkhead (awesome) to 0-1 at Ibrox (terrible).....please explain to me what you think is awesome to terrible....fuck me haha:fish:

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).

Ok il reply to this first!!

 

Regardless of service whenever he got the ball he totally duffed it!!! - thats not the blame of the service. I can recall 3 times in the game where he duffed it and thats after 7 beers!!!

Ive got the full 90 mins on again in a few hours and il watch again to see his performance!!

 

But he was rank pish IMO. He got 1 ball played to him in the 1st half inside the box and he couldnt even get his feet right - plum

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.

And it'll be our one and only chance of picking up �£2million for him. At that price I would bite Hulls hand off.

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

The situation was handled badly by both sides but particularly by Burley & Butcher who should both know better. They've been very unprofessional in all of this.

I just can't see it. But the worrying thing is that he is part of the management team and so must take responsibility if things are going badly just as when they're going well.

How did we attract guys like GVB in the first place? Actually, that's not the question is it? How did we identify guys like GVB in the first place? For a young player looking to have a stepping stone to the Premiership, we're still not a bad prospect. And assuming they're happy to stay here for 3 years or so before moving on, I don't have a problem with that either. So is it a case that we need to employ a highly respected European coach again (forgetting the fact we're skint for a moment) or does it still come back to our scouting network being non-existent?