ascender

This season has shown up the leaders of the SPL to be the bunch of bumbling and bungling buffoons that we all suspected we were. Its also a bit of a shame that their shortcomings were highlighted under such tragic circumstances.

If I was a chairman of an SPL club, I'd be moving for a vote of no confidence or resign from the SPL and just get a new body in place for next year, bigger league maybe and drop the split. Its a joke this top division.

Very, very well done

Its the full version of the one which was on at half time tonight, I meant to post it yesterday after my mate was raving about it.

Clicky

I thought he'd already signed for someone too. I guess not!

Lovenkrands played through the middle was a revelation at times. He really didn't look interested as a left winger though, but I'm guessing we've learned that lesson. I wonder if he will sign or if its just one of those constant rumours due to his Scottish connections? Does he not still own a house here or is going out with a Scottish girl or something?

I still think we'll regret it if we get rid of Boyd. Even if all he does is score against the "small/pish" SPL teams, considering we're struggling to beat some of those teams at the moment, I'd hold on to him an try to make better use of him.

It'll be part of the deal when we sell them Carlos

Lee Wallace from Hearts is mentioned in a couple of papers today.

Clicky

It is difficult to question WS' judgement when you look at the obvious improvements in the squad he's made. Much of that has been achieved by signing players he's worked with in the past and knows well.

Personally I don't care if we sign Miller If he gives 100% for the club and fits in to the system that WS is going to play, then so be it. That said, if you look at FF and the reaction every time his name is mentioned, its an eye-opener to say the least. But remember that many of these fans are the ones who threatened to burn their season tickets when Dailly was linked, only to be singing his praises after a few games. I guess we're a fickle bunch.

Signing Miller would suggest to me that Cousin is definitely on his way out, so would that be a fair swap?

Like I've said before, I don't think the problem is necessarily up front. The key to getting the most from our strikers, no matter which system we play, is signing some properly creative and attacking midfielders. In the SPL, any of our forwards should be more than capable of scoring 20+ goals a season if we get back to creating a lot of good chances for them.

Europe is another thing altogether, but unless we get serious money and can attract a very good, all-round striker to lead the line, we're going to have another season of playing to our strengths instead of attacking and flair play.

There's been some pictures from the funeral put up on the Tartan Army board, very moving and definitely puts many things in to perspective.

http://taboard.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=75819

12 months out? That's awful for him.

Do you want me to do the Aberdeen game? Should have some time tonight.

I'll promise not to moan too much in it...

I think Klasnic has signed for someone else unfortunately.

Quality in FM!! Always buy him for the Gers....

Sorted then!

So what's this Mark Reynolds guy like who we're being linked with this morning?

Apparently the story is rubbish according to the news this morning, but has it not been rumoured for well over a year now? No smoke without fire and all that. Although the other thing is that his agent is apparently friendly with the Inter chairman, so maybe its a case of 2+2 = 5.

Yes, its game over for the league IMO, barring a minor miracle.

All we can do is go out and win our game on Thursday and hope that the other mob mess up, but I really can't see it. Even if they're struggling, they'll no doubt get a 95th minute penalty or something.

Its a real shame how this season's ending after all the promise and expectation we had only a couple of weeks ago.

Regarding Owen, I'm surprised Man Yoo have never taken a gamble on him.

His current wage is 100k a week and would cost at least 10 million.

 

Any villages missing their idiot?

LOL!

Sorry, but that made me nearly spit my water out all over the keyboard.

Well done Alan

Do we not have any wide players in the reserves?

Maybe its more that WS is reluctant to change personnel when things clearly aren't working and we just stick with the same formation and the long ball game?

We saw earlier in the season that the 4-5-1 can be quite attacking depending on who you play in the wide midfield positions. While we've struggled with some injuries, I think we've remained overly defensive at times when we should have changed it. But that's easy to say with hindsight.

Well done everyone!

Quite a few people on here said Boyd would have a big part to play in the title run-in about 4 or 5 games ago. So far he's not, so I'm not sure if that'll change. And like I said in another thread, its a bit unfair to ask him to come in now and expect great things of him when he hasn't played much.

Its also interesting that a common argument against Boyd is that we've won nothing with him in the team since he joined us. And yet here we are with an uphill battle for the title having not played him much at all.

Don't get me wrong, I'd still start him, but I hope he doesn't become a scapegoat.

I agree, Broadfoot's foul throws were disgraceful and why not give Lowing a go at RB? The thing I like about KB is that at least he doesn't hide in games and keeps on trying. But he's in no shape or form a RB.

The striker thing is strange. I was a big fan of Boyd but grew to realise his limitations. Thing is, we don't have a complete, all-round striker or even a good target-man. So I'd have thought we would get more from matches by playing a combination of our forwards and in the SPL especially, stick Boyd in there so at least we have someone in the 6 yard box to take those sort of chances. Many times this season we've been chasing a game, finally get some good balls in to the box and there's no one near the goal to try and turn it in.

I think Broadfoot has genuinely done well at RB considering everything that's stacked against him. But when Hutton left, we often still played as if he was still in the side, which was just baffling as Broadfoot is simply nowhere hear as good as AH had become going forward.

I know some people will say that not buying a replacement for Hutton may cost us the title, but I think that if we'd put Whittaker at RB as soon as AH left and given him time to settle in to that role, that would have been a much better option than playing KB there.

Davie Weir went through a bit of a rough patch at one point and looked really tired. I thought we needed to drop him, but he came through that and along with Cuellar has been amazing and has held the team together at times. He's also a model professional and I've been impressed with his attitude both on and off the park. I think someone like that should be added to our coaching staff tbh, even if its just as a specific defensive coach to try and improve our other and younger CBs.

As for using the squad, there's been a strange sense of deja vu for me. Firstly, I know I'm not a professional footballer or manager and this is just my humble opinion. But at times this season there's been some really strange decisions which have just baffled me and I can't see any reason for them when there's been better alternatives available. On the other hand, we all knew what WS would bring to the club and while there's no doubt he's improved tactically since he was last here, some of his old foibles are still there for all to see. The biggest one being his reluctance to use certain players, to the point where he'll play others out of position or when they're knackered, rather than giving others a chance.

Sorry, but I genuinely think that guys like Buffel, Gow, Webster (if he's been fit) and Boyd, could do a job for us in the SPL against most of the other teams. The SPL is our bread and butter and while we've probably been surprised by how well we've done this season, for me, the league was there for the taking and we may throw it away because of a stubbornness to stick with negative tactics and not change some players around.

What sort of message does it send out to our other strikers when Cousin continues to feature in the first XI ahead of them, no matter how poorly he plays in the previous match or how he behaves on the park? Its another strange one for me which doesn't make any sense.

We have had some bad luck with injuries again, but part of the problem has been that when players are injured, because he's not given others a run-out, our options to replace them become more limited. And if Ferguson is playing yet another season while going "through the pain barrier" then surely we should be looking to replace him? Its the same excuse every season as to why he's only on form for half our games. Yes, he's got a certain talismanic quality, where we seem to play better with him in the side, but at many times this year, like recent years, he's been a passenger.

I'm not calling for WS to leave or anything like that, but I am concerned that we may have just handed the league to Celtic on a plate. I also don't understand why he's become the latest manager to ignore certain massive and obvious failings in our squad, like the lack of creativity in the middle of the park.

We've stumbled from one game to the next at times and struggled to beat some incredibly poor teams this year. Teams we should be taking 3 or 4 goals off, we've somehow flattered them and made them look good. And how we've let teams like Dundee United play football against us when we've had 2 or sometimes 3 defensive midfielders in our starting XI, I'll never know. Maybe attack is the best form of defence and we should have more faith that one holding midfielder is enough in the SPL.

In another thread, the PLG time was brought up and we were asked "can we not see the difference" between now and then. Of course we can. We have a much better defence and have been grinding out results at times. But in the other areas of the park, we've looked just as gutless, toothless and bereft of ideas as we did under the Frenchman. Playing continual high-balls in to the opponent's box only works when you have a target man. Unfortunately, Mark Hateley left some time ago and I think someone needs to point that out to WS.

So here we are, looking at another Helicopter Sunday, when in reality, we should have and could have, had the league tied up by now. I just hope that when we're chasing goals against St Mirren, if we bring in guys like Boyd and play Novo up front, they're not villified if they don't take all their chances. Because its not going to be our players fault if we suddenly change the system and ask people to come in and look the finished article when they haven't played much in the last couple of months.

usual back 4 (whittaker playing instead of papac)

middle 5 (daily, big lee, bazza, adam and novo)

cousin

 

First half it was all us, second half right after the start we ended up off the pace, they scored, we couldn't and as they say, the rest is history.

Cousin again

So how did we play today and who was playing for us?