DMAA

30 minutes ago, les186 said:

Go for a strong team. This game is not a walkover. A strong team means players who have played together.

Well the gaffer has already said he’ll be giving guys chances and mixing it up. I would say Foderingham, Helander, Edmundson, Halliday, Docherty, Stewart and Jones will all be in contention for a start. I would guess there will be 5-6 changes and I think that’s appropriate. 

2 hours ago, ian1964 said:

 

All the more bizarre given they also were second last season and we’ll clear, 16 points. 

9 hours ago, pete said:

I agree with DMAA about his risk assessment and that is what should have urged Goldson to go to the player in front as he was the biggest risk at that moment.

I agree with that by the way, I said earlier he wasn’t alert enough when Katic moved to close down, Katic’s man was the biggest threat at that point. However as a defender myself you should always point at your man and make sure someone is moving over when you leave him, never just assume someone will leave their own man. I noticed Goldson had told Tav to cover the man at the back post just before this who was also a big threat. 

Anyway I don’t want to be misunderstood because I think Katic is a very important player in our team and rate him very highly. 

1 hour ago, Doc said:

Tierney - staying" is the one that cracks me up. How did that one work out?

To be fair I’d say it worked it pretty well for them. £25m (apparently) for a guy who only made 19 league starts last season due to a hip injury. Played a blinder if they got that. 

I think Aribo will be one of our best players this season. He’s an all round midfielder, great in possession, good in the final third and very good at regaining possession.

Interestingly although we play him on the left of the 3 I actually think he can look more menacing when on the right. When on the right he almost plays like an inside winger and looks like he can take his man on or play a one-two to get by him. I’d like to see more of him there. 

8 hours ago, craig said:

Yes, it was genuine.  Someone at Celtic got the sack over it.  Though the rumour is that it was Kennedy's hand holding it... a "low level staffer" was fired.

That can’t be right. Celtic would never cover up the truth...

30 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

Just a shade behind our squad value. https://www.transfermarkt.us/fc-midtjylland/startseite/verein/865

Transfermarkt is pretty meaningless, has Morelos at £2.7m and Aribo at £180k for example. 

57 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

Out of interest, does anyone know how much the Danes team cost to put together? squad value?

Don’t know about fees but it will be low, their wage bill is half the size of ours. They buy young prospects and sell them on. They make a lot of money from selling players. 

6 hours ago, pete said:

Sorry the only one I see here making the right decision is Katic. Katic has to go to him. If he stays with his player the attacking back can run in on goal. Goldson is standing watching instead of moving across. Tavernier is marking Goldson and could have taken Koby if Goldson made an effort to get to the other player. Kamara is a mile from his player. Davis is watching and Docherty had seen the man at the back post but is too late to get to him to play a part. Blaming Katic for this is a joke. If anybody has made a wrong lazy decision here it is Goldson.

No point in debating this to death @pete I think we will just see it differently. I played across the back four for several years at a low amateur level and your job in this situation is to risk assess and decide where the biggest goal threat is. There was no goal threat here until Katic suddenly leaves a man open inside the box, only the threat of a cross. He didn’t tell anyone to take his man before moving or anything. He ran to block a cross not a goal scoring opportunity. Whatever it is it isn’t “crazy” to see what happened like this I think it’s pretty reasonable and based on my own experience of playing in the position. And Flanagan made a mistake but his mistake only created a dangerous crossing opportunity but not a goalscoring one. It could have developed into one but his mistake didn’t directly cause the goal. 

12 minutes ago, Frankie said:

Like I say you can expect the same thing from Helander as he likes to defend very high up the pitch.  Perhaps he'll be less aggressive is areas closer to goal but I think Katic is playing with confidence and that's why he's so keen to close people down.

The Rugby Park mistake was an example of trying to win a ball high up the pitch and totally missing it but the two Midtjylland mistakes were basic poor decision making. The first one was worse because one of our players was already on the man with the ball and Katic left his man wide open to close down a player already covered. This second one came from the Flanagan mistake but it was a very poor decision to close down a man so wide whilst leaving his own man in the 6 yard box, inexplicable really. FWIW I think Goldson should have been a little more alert and moved over but he was preoccupied with man marking Kabba. It probably is confidence as you say but those lessons need to be learnt, don’t leave your man wide open in a goalscoring position! Especially when their midfielder is literally looking for a pass to play, don’t hand it to them!

19 minutes ago, Frankie said:

I think you're being unnecessarily harsh on Katic.

 

I'd agree one of his biggest flaws is his positioning however, in some ways, it's a strength as he's mobile enough to cover and that's when he's usually dragged out to help Goldson and/or whoever is playing at full back.  It doesn't help we're chopping and changing left-back as well.

I’m not saying Katic isn’t playing well, but it’s been four games in a row where he’s played well but then made a big mistake which has cost goals or created a good chance for the opposition. Of the three we conceded in this tie he was directly responsible for two and what is worrying is that it was the exact same thing, needlessly closing down the ball while leaving his man wide open in a goalscoring position. Goldson certainly saw it that way last night. The good thing is that he has the makings of a top player and the tactical side of the game is teachable, I just think in the meantime it’s important to get Helander fit to bed him in and hopefully allow us to concede fewer goals. He is 26 and an experienced centre back who wouldn’t make these kind of mistakes. 

Only saw bits of the game, excellent result. My main takeaway is Ojo again. 2 assists and another goal. I’m going to continue my Ojo goal count and confirm that his total of 4 goals now puts him only two behind the full season total of the man he replaced Kent. And it’s the 15th of August ? Ojo has added goal threat to our team, he doesn’t play as a winger he plays as a forward and we badly needed that. And he’s by no means the finished article, he can be wasteful. But he’s finding the back of the net often enough despite that. 

Katic. This seems to be a recurring theme and I’m beginning to think we need Helander fit asap and Gerrard knew exactly what he was doing signing him. Ok Flanagan takes a lot of the blame for the goal conceded, slack pass that allowed them in behind him. But the inexperience and poor decision making involved in deciding to leave your man open in the 6 yard box while you go and attempt to block a cross from out wide,  an almost impossible task anyway, no wonder Goldson was furious. The “Katic is our best CB” myth needs to end, he’s a good player that we need to develop. Goldson is our best centre back and we need to get Helander in the team because Katic is making costly mistakes in every game right now. He gets off with a lot of them but he’s cost us several goals already this season. 

Missing this game yet again due to circumstances but I’ve just seen the goals and two fantastic secondary assists from Arfield, such an important player. I was impressed with the Morelos assists too, I feel like a season or two ago he’d have tried to go himself but he did well to find Ojo so we’ll. 

17 minutes ago, Bill said:

Unless we already know someone else is moving out?

Someone must be! Currently we have 7 first team players who can play in these 3 positions. Aribo, Davis, Jack and then Kamara as the first backup and Docherty the second backup. Halliday and Polster offer emergency cover only and primarily cover full back. I thought that was just right in terms of cover. If Andy King comes in where does he end up in the pecking order? Surely he doesn’t jump ahead of Kamara but how about Docherty? King is 30 and is currently on 38k and missed the second the second half of last season due to injury. I don’t get it. He can’t be fit enough to jump ahead of Docherty surely, but how much of his 38k wages are we paying if he’s 6th choice? Not sure how happy I am about him jumping Kamara or Docherty in the line. A lot of questions to be answered here. 

On the subject of the BBC, I couldn’t help but notice that in the live text when the penalty was given they said something like “handball given against Brown but it’s not clear if it was deliberate”. Watched the highlights and it was the most clear handball you’ll ever see. When would Rangers ever get the benefit of the doubt like that? Especially when it wasn’t even a debatable decision. Written by one of them last night is my guess. 

They should have set a reasonable price that a Championship club would actually pay, £3-5m. Rangers were surely never going to spend significant cash on him. 

35 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

If he is going out on loan I would prefer him to stay in the SPL at a side which has at least an outside chance of taking something from the yahoos in the odd game. Like Middleton to hibs.

Murphy, Hastie and even Dorrans wherever he is would strengthen other teams in the league. They certainly could do with strengthening! 

Liverpool bought into the hype and priced him out of a move. I’d have been shocked if someone had shelled out the kind of cash the press were quoting for him. 

3 hours ago, Tannochsidebear said:

The only negative I can find  - Flanagan was the undoubted (and yesterday the only) weak link, a total bombscare defensively and offers very little going forward. SG loves him somehow, but I dont see it and I predict he is going to cost us (again) just like he did last season, both in Europe and at home, if he continues to have the starting slot. 

I was a bit disappointed that we didn't go with Edmundson and Halliday to be honest (if Barisic is out of the picture). Home games where we are in possession and trying to build attacks don't suit Flanagan or Katic, they are both very basic and jittery on the ball. All they do is nervous sideways and backwards passes. It slows things down so much on the left. I have found Edmundson's abence from the team very confusing. And although Katic is peerless in a defensive dual, his general defensive play isn't brilliant, he's made big errors in every game recently so rotating him shouldn't be out of the question. Maybe after such a comfortbale win Gerrard will decide he can afford to rotate more players at a time than he'd normally risk.

On ‎11‎/‎08‎/‎2019 at 10:56, ian1964 said:

 

I had hoped he'd be fit by now and in the first team but it looks like it has been too big an ask. Reading between the lines I think he has to go on loan now or he has no chance. A loan to a team like Motherwell or Hamilton could do him wonders, somewhere where he can commute from home and settle in quickly and concentrate on starting games.

55 minutes ago, Bill said:

There wasn't really a failure yesterday but for overall influence on the game and rest of the team I go for Ryan Jack. It's no surprise that he's now one of the manager's permanent pillars that the rest of the team is founded on. Defending, critical tackles, ball winning, distribution, attempts on goal, work rate ... it was all there against Hibs. He seems to get better by the week.

I noticed in he pre-season training videos that alongside Docherty he is the fittest player in the team by a distance too. That is a huge advantage when playing centre mid. 

And by the way, if you are going to lose a goal the best way to lose it is to a moment of real quality from the opposition. There is no question that most of the goals we concede in the league are not, but that pass from Scott Allan was world class. He's the definition of a luxury player but I can only admire his passing and vision. I hope Davis has learned his lesson, he was tight to him and then he gave him 5 or 6 yards of space and time to go with it and that was all he needed.

I voted for Defoe because goals win games and he took all three very well. His all round play was brilliant as usual too and you can't underestimate how much he helps our attacks with his link up play and passing.

1 hour ago, Gaffer said:

 He just acts like a completely different player and I'm loving watching him.

Jack was getting slaughtered at times last season but the quality of player he's playing alongside is so much higher than last season, he must be loving it. Aribo and Davis are both class and he must be really enjoying playing with them. Sorry to the Candeias fanboys but I think it helps to have the movement of Ojo/Arfield in front of him too rather than a sideway pass to the right.