DMAA

Worrall and Arfield have been immense. 

Goldson having a really poor game. Played Ekambi onside and Worrall and McGregor bailed him out. Not the first big mistake from Goldson. 

Worrall the pick of the defenders for me so far. Flanagan the weak point in the team but a number are guilty of giving away possession a lot. 

Good chance from great play from Arfield, Candeias and Morelos. Another wasted delivery from Tavernier there though. 

Poor start to be honest, so many slack passes. Very open though. 

Quite happy with that starting lineup. Should be solid with the two defensive mids and that will hopefully give us the platform to keep a clean sheet and nick a goal. 

7 hours ago, ian1964 said:

 

Sent by a Rangers supporting intern as a prank who was promptly dismissed. 

Rangers said they have camera proof that Collum didn’t see Candeias blowing kisses. If that is true then it’s not a matter of debate it’s a documented lie that this was the reason he carded him. 

I didn’t realise goading was a bookable offence but given it seems that it is we couldn’t complain about the second yellow if the ref had actually seen it. In reality he messed up and used that as an excuse afterwards. 

23 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

the muppets main talking points about Rangers win was how Morelos got booked again

True, I couldn't believe it. Why not talk about the impact he made when he came on? And no mention of him being an easy target for refs either.

The home form is great, although going by last season we've yet to face our biggest tests in Celtic and Hibs.

Have to say I agree with some of the comments about our play being generally pretty pedestrian. We really struggle to pass the ball about and keep possession. I was watching for a while and I couldn't find a period of even about 20 seconds where we kept the ball. Something wasn't right with the team and that's why most players didn't impress.

But the impact of Morelos coming on was quite something to watch. He is really starting to justify the hype.

What a day. The table has completely changed in one day and it’s now looking  very good for us. 

Furthermore the run of fixtures coming up has looked pretty formidable with Hearts, Aberdeen and a Hibs double header in the space of a month but incredibly their form has turned at just the right time for us.

No excuses now, what a huge month we have ahead!

Fantastic. Arfield is a great goal scorer, such an important player this season. 

I’ve noticed Liam Kelly has been outstanding for Livi this season and chick young commented on his performance on the radio. Can’t help but wonder why he wasn’t considered good enough to be a back up to McGregor, it must be costing us about £0.5m to have Wes as back up. Kelly is looking like a big prospect now. 

Thanks for the updates @Rousseau. Can’t watch the game and these updates are better than what’s available elsewhere. 

I know I might be biased but I feel so much more confident of our goal threat when I see Middleton in our starting lineup. 

1 minute ago, DMAA said:

Was Scott Brown booked for goading Diouf?

To be fair he actually was booked for this, I just checked.

9 minutes ago, Scott7 said:

I’m not quite sure of the sequence of the events but was there not a short time lapse between the alleged gesturing and the assault by Ferdinand? If Collum was offended by the gesturing why did he not card Candeias immediately? If he had done so

It's smoke and mirrors. Was Scott Brown booked for goading Diouf? Is it even in the rules that it's a bookable offence?

I think he just messed up when he booked both players after assuming Candeias must have been partly to blame.

A very confusing statement. The appeal was on the basis of mistaken identity, are they saying that it wasn’t mistaken identity so it can’t be overturned whether the yellow was legitimate or not? This was my understanding of the law until now, yellows can’t be appealed. 

And since when was goading opponents a bookable offence? I criticised Candeias for doing it, and although I can’t think of any examples just now I’ve never heard of a player being booked for that. 

3 hours ago, Gaffer said:

The manager and coaches felt he needed to vary his game more, rather than just going down the outside each time.  I mentioned in the Sunday match thread that they had Jamie Murphy and Steven Smith on RTV and it was a very good commentary team, along with Tom.  Jamie was able to give great insight on many things throughout the game, and one thing he spoke about was Middleton, and the drills the coaches are doing with him to help vary his play.  Jamie specifically mentioned his confidence to use his pace on the wing all the time was admirable but too easy to defend in many occasions.  He said he was pleased on Sunday to see the training pitch drills working out the way the coaches wanted them to in that game against Motherwell.

 

I felt he was right because that's the most I've seen Middleton vary his play and Well couldn't live with his pace and trickery.  I hope the boy continues to develop because he could be a really good player for us.  He's certainly direct and exciting.

Thanks for the info I hadn't heard that commentary.

There's no question that there needs to be an element of unpredictability in your play as a winger. But I think far too much credit is given to players like Kent who cut inside all the time as if that somehow makes them more dangerous. Motherwell were tripling up on Middleton for a reason, he's so fast they wanted to push him inside. 

The sting came right out of Grezda's game when he switched to the left too because all of a sudden he was running away from the fullback inside rather than running past him down the line, which was resulting in a pass to a centre midfielder in a non-threatening position rather than a cross to a striker in a threatening position. When I'm marking a winger who does that I feel very comfortable. Barrie McKay had the passing range and general technique to play the "wrong wing" role brilliantly at times, especially with Wallace overlapping. Without the overlapping fullback (when Flanagan plays) and without very good technique and passing it does little more than keep possession the vast majority of the time and doesn't result in any penetration whatsoever, which we saw a lot of for a spell there.

Great to hear they are working on drills to bring dynamism to the play on the wings though because Middleton will be impossible to mark with his pace when the team are giving him one-two options inside as well as down the line.

15 minutes ago, buster. said:

Middleton, who will celebrate his 19th birthday at the turn of the year, has a lot to his game and is showing signs of being able to perform at first team level.

 

A young and hungry wide player who can create and finish should be encouraged with enough gametime to continue his development and if he is the real deal, he'll make the first team spot his own, regardless of age. 

 

 

I’m seriously excited. His ability to score from outside the box with both feet reminds me of someone I was very glad to see age at Celtic, Kris Commons. His goals from midfield were priceless for them and I think the same will be true of Middleton, especially in the age of 1 up front. 

4 hours ago, craig said:

He gets the ball, head down

This simply isn’t true. His quick pass in the Villarreal game was a great example of his vision and quick thinking.

Another pass against Spartak showed again great vision and quick thinking and, most importantly, the passing range to execute it, and should have ended in another goal because it was a fantastic chance. 

I firmly believe the impression you and others have is due to most of what we’ve seen of him being the final stages of a games when he’s been asked to just take on his man. He’s shown at youth level he’s got loads of quality, not least a brilliant shot with both feet. 

5 hours ago, craig said:

For me, this part of a player's game should be a given.  It isn't hard to hit a ball into the box the way Middleton does

It’s just a fact that it isn’t a given though. Our corner taking has been really poor all season. Some players are specialists and the rest are inconsistent at best. 

There’s a good reason why Kent hasn’t been taking corners, his corners weren’t anywhere near good enough. Only a small percentage were decent. 

A proper set piece taker is worth a lot of points in a season in my opinion. How many times in recent seasons have we been chasing a goal and we can’t even put a ball in the opposition box?

Gerrard should think long and hard before removing a corner taking specialist from the starting lineup. 

1 hour ago, Frankie said:

He was poor for the first 30mins or so but you could see he was growing into the game and the goal he scored will do wonders for his confidence.  

 

He's actually not dissimilar to Jamie Murphy so he will bring that same extra dimension to our play.

It’s strange because it was the same against St Mirren. He was poor for most of that game but came closer than anyone to scoring with a great shot just before coming off. He looked like he’d finally got into it. The same yesterday, from about 55 minutes onwards he looked a totally different player. 

I thought we had much more joy through the middle too because we used the width of the pitch much better with Halliday and Middleton on the left.