Gribz

One thing thats certain is Lafferty MUST play and he must play thru the middle.

Seems we stopped this after the half way point in the season yet there is enough there to show we should actually have wrapped the league up by now.

But then actually scoring 4 hasnt been the most noticeably thing this season by us!!! That is where the problem lies. Im pretty sure Celtic wont cuff their opposition as they arent a good side, the problem lies with us (or WS) being negative. Realistically I think we can get 4 on Saturday but we need to come out the blocks flying and do it for 90 mins.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8042344.stm So this 3rd party bloke still owns him!! So why were West Ham fined and what were Sheff Utd crying about if Man Utd can have him contributing to winning the title!?? Sheff U case wasnt about registration it was about a 3rd party owning him yet i cant see any difference with his move to Man U. Bizarre situation!

Id say we need to win by 4 goals on saturday. That puts us 2 clear and i cant see them winning at hibs by more than 2, i think they may even only get a narrow 1 goal win there. Then its onto Tannadice and the Hertz will go to parkhead to spoil the party.

Depends. If he wins a double then he has done a job this season. If he leaves then who would be the replacement? If we were to take a good manager then id want WS to step down but if it was McCoist to step into the job then id rather WS stay.

Id plan on going for 6 aswell John. Ok its tricky to score 6 but the aim should be to get as much as possible. If we win by 4 then we'd take that. Its all about how we set up from the start. I wouldnt go with Gav's 4-4-2, I think we need at least 3 upfront. Id even be tempted with a 4-2-4. Edu and Davis just sit then allow Lafferty, Novo, Miller and Boyd / Velicka to run at them.

4-4-2? 4-3-3? 3-5-2? 3-3-4? 3-4-3? 4-2-4?

Walters 'safety first' approach came back to bite his back side last night in a huge way. In a match that was an obvious must win he decided to go with a forward pairing who arent the most mobile to bother defenders plus a more solid looking flat midfield with no width. Whilst the players do have to take a share of the blame for a poor 1st half showing, WS must take blame for the selection. However WS was quick enough to realise this as soon as the half time whistle went he was the first up the tunnel - its just a shame it took a Hibs goal to wake him up. I dont want to be over critical as we are still on our best run of form this season and are still in with an almost 50/50 shout of the title. But this weekend there can be nothing else on the agenda apart from a convincing win at Ibrox. So that means WS has to make huge selection decisions. He will have a dilemma of who to play on the left and who to play upfront along with the decision of what formation to go with. I'll leave the team selections to the match preview thread.

Forgetting the goal difference I wonder who has the better fixtures. Id like to remain the optimist and say I think we do. 1) Home games - Id say Hearts are a better outfit than Aberdeen. Aberdeen have an absolute terrible record at Ibrox and havent won in the last 2 decades whilst Hearts have proved they can win and draw in Glasgow. Id fancy Rangers to score more against Aberdeen than Celtic will against Hearts. 2) Away games - Hibs away is always as tough an away fixture you can get in the SPL for both OF teams. As they proved last night they can get a draw against us so there is no reason why they wont do it against Celtic. Im sure Riordan would like to berry one past them for his treatment by Strachan. Utd away is unfortunatly a boggie ground for us but thats always been under normal circumstances. If we go into the last game and take care of our own business then the gap between the OF and the rest will show. Put Lafferty, Miller and Novo (all with pace) up against Lee Wilkie (statue) and we should run rings round them.

You have to look at the positives. Celtic have still got to beat a decent Hearts team who will be up for spoiling there chances. If we take the game to Utd like we did against Hibs in the 2nd half then I expect to beat Utd. However, Hibs just might do us a turn this weekend!!

As you say we are playing at Ibrox so there is no excuse for WS to name anything other than an attack minded 4-3-3 with the players 'up for it'. Last nights 2nd half performance showed we can get the ball down and attack teams - i think we had 75% of the play on the 2nd half - yet at Ibrox id fancy us to get a good few against any team in the SPL.

I am baffled why he has been selected at LM recently ahead of others who have been available all season. His 2nd game since coming back he was terrible. Agree with Gav, if he is here next season then great but only as a LB.

Absolutely! A different team altogether in the 2nd half and they came out with the urgency that should be shown in every game. Hibs were hanging on by the thread and it was down to pure unluck we didnt score more. If we play for 90 mins against Aberdeen like we did in the 2nd half, 4-3-3 with a full Ibrox behind the team I can see at least 3-0. Id start with Miller, Lafferty and Novo upfront. That will cause the sheep defence all sorts of problems.

Im not so sure lads, we are level on points and Im sure we can get a better result than them at the weekend. Celtic might get 3 points at Hibs but i cant see them winning by more than 1 goal. We are capable of beating aberdeen 3-0. That would level it up. we MUST come out the blocks flying and play for 90 mins like this game determines where the title goes. We cant let aberdeen get a sniff of the ball. Id play 4-3-3 in this one from the start.

Alexander - See above Whittaker - Disagree, i think he is better at LB. His problem is he tries to beat 1 man too many. But is decent going forward. Weir - See above Bougherra - See above Dailly - An auto boo boy for the fans. He isnt a RB. Davis - Paralised by playing right wing especially away from home. Mendes - Much better in the 2nd half and better playing in a trio as the forward man. Edu - See Above Smith - Shouldnt be near the first pick for LM. Aaron, Beasley and Novo should all be ahead of him. Weak link! Boyd - Awful Velicka - Awful Subs: Lafferty - Changed the game a bit. Should have started Novo - Effective and got in great positions but couldnt finish his supper at times. Should have started.

Ferguson WAS our best midfield but isnt now. The problem with him was he also WAS the midfield and didnt allow others in the game sometimes. Since going out the team we have 3 midfielders again. Harsh on Mendes though, he wasnt that bad. He was involved more 2nd half when we switched to 4-3-3 and just had a bit of difficulty picking a final ball out in a packed Hibs defence. Ive said for months we should play 4-3-3 with Mendes, Edu and Davis in the centre then Pedro will get on the ball and be creative.

Some positivity is we have just came off the back of a 6 or 7 winning streak and last night was a tricky game and we got a draw. Last season we would have lost that game. Its still on our own hands, all we need to do is overturn a goal difference if it comes down to points. We MUST come out on saturday and batter Aberdeen with the same attack minded line up as the 2nd half last night. Hindsight showed what 4-3-3 can do and on another day we would have scored 5.

It is inconclusive to me from the TV angle but it couldnt have been closer. If the full ball has to be over then only a tiny fraction didnt cross the line. But agreed with the rest, the first half performance was dire and i was asleep most of it. 2nd half we were different, and the XI that played was the exact XI i put on as my starting line up in the preview thread. I knew that XI would be far more attacking. The 2nd half performance was as good as ive seen us for a while except the end product.

What happened here? Fleck was stripped and ready to come on for Daily but it didnt happen??? Surely he had to be thrown on as another attacking option! Isnt this about the 3rd time we have waited 10 mins for a sub, but on this occasion it didnt happen??

Are you an expert on this Ian?? Am i the only 1 who doesnt think Boyd will score?? Even though his game has picked up he seems to be playing slightly deeper. It all depends who he plays upfront with IMO.

Levein is bugging me more week by week. Its ok for players to chase refs and swear non stop using the F word constantly but a Ref says 'Shut up' to a manager and he is close to getting punched!!! Levein is a clown of the highest order and its sweet we will win the title on his patch

With all these retro tops coming back i wonder if we will see retro shorts aswell - i.e. the struggle to go past your butt cheeks in length

Sounds like the perfect day out to me if you could get the game on the pub. Try The Queens, its between the underground station and the stadium. If not try The Green Man (remember your on Green St not due to the colour green). Its about a 10 min walk from the ground on Plashet Grove but has TV's for games on the telly. Im sure your burds old man will know where that is. Duke of Edinburgh - Turn left out of the underground station and walk away from the ground. The Boleyn - Corner of Green St and Barking Rd, will be the busiest before the game. Just call them up and ask if they have Setanta

Its S Smith at LM i worry about more that Dailly at RB. Smith was poor a few weeks ago against Hibs. Having Edu fit is a boost 1) He has been playing well and 2) it keeps McCulloch out of that role.