DMAA

Definitely. In my opinion we should be finding someone while we have the draw of a few games in the Champions League to offer, and still a chance of making the Europa. It isn’t going to happen though. The poor recruitment and mismanagement of the squad is my biggest gripe. We are terrible and recruiting creative players, our record is dire. It doesn’t seem to matter who is our manager, our lineups are invariably too defensive and lacking in flair and excitement (and relying on Kent for that proves my point). In terms of mismanagement of the squad, our failure to sell high and buy low is endemic. We have hung onto every player possible who brought us success in Europe in 2019. 9 out of 11 who played in the 1-0 win over Feyenoord started our last game, and all but Ojo are still involved regularly. Kent and Morelos were worth something and we turned away excellent bids for them. I believe people in the club overrating them the way many fans did is probably the blame for that. We’re now in a situation where if you look at our squad and ask where the next big sale comes from the answer is pretty much nowhere. Our starting 11 is possibly the oldest in the league. In contrast, Celtic took 2 transfer windows to assemble a squad that has several players who could realistically fetch big money at some point.

Kvaratskhelia stood out the second he touched the ball in highlights I watched before the game, his touch and control of the ball is what all wingers should aspire to. Although to be honest it’s not really something you can teach, you have it or you don’t. What I like about Napoli is that they don’t content themselves with 1 or 2 creative players the way we do (Kent 😑), something that frustrates the life out of me, they have loads of players who can dribble and create. Anyway I watched this video after the game, a joy to watch that player.

He came in and had a 55 style season where he massively overachieved by winning the league and became an instant hero. He didn’t build on it at all though, finished 4th and then 3rd and played rubbish football in the process. That’s why I was concerned when we went for him, his CV was mixed at best, he did not recruit well and went backwards. Two transfer windows in here and I’ve already lost trust in his ability to improve his squad, entering yet another season with Kent undroppable due to lack of competition was a huge mistake. With 12 months on his deal we should have been asking his agent to find a buyer.

What do we expect with the player selection? Where are the goals in that team, aside from Colak and Arfield at a stretch.

Utterly depressing. Gio is clueless with that starting 11 against Dundee United at home. Absolutely mind boggling. This season is going nowhere with him at the helm.

I look at that starting line up and I just think how has it come to this!

I don’t know, but I read their forums when we signed him and they were all talking about unfortunate off-field issues that have hampered his progress, and that he wouldn’t get in their team now anyway.

Some of Barisic’s crosses were brilliant. How he digs some of them them out I will never know, a rare ability.

Not with Davies, he struggled for game time at Sheffield United for this reason.

Has to be McGregor. Two penalty saves in the Chanpions League is incredible. He made other big saves too.

I’ve always said about Kent that I’d just prefer an inverted winger with more technique, who has close control when he comes inside and can one-twos, chipped through balls etc. We saw some great examples of that from Napoli last night, the Georgian’s player ball control was a joy to watch. But Jota has proved that there are guys out there within our range who have that skill set. That Georgian was picked up by Rubin Kazan for 500k too, so again good scouting goes a long way. Kent’s game for me has always been mostly about pace, causing chaos, work rate.

What I find is that when he runs inside he doesn’t have a plan and just runs into trouble. Ball control is an issue too, makes it easy to tackle him.

I was pleased with Morelos last night, and I’m not his number one fan. He showed desire and generally played well. Still missed chances that Colak might have scored and had some ropey passes though.

Kent, Kamara, Morelos and others are all proof that you should sell players when they are on a high.

It doesn’t say much for our recruitment that Kent is still virtually undroppable due to the fact that his competition is Scott Wright, a left back, Fashion Sakala and Matondo. Granted, Lawrence is injured, but we’ve needed more quality in the position for years.

Kent lost the ball countless times. Generally struggled with the level but found Barisic’s overlapping runs a few times.

For me, it was very positive generally up until those two subs. Gio needs to take the blame for that, an unnecessary roll of the dice.

I knew when we made those two attacking subs on ten men that we were just going to lose goals. We were doing well up until then.

What a man

Why the heck does he get a retake

That’s a sickener

It’s been a very positive first half. We’re lacking in quality when it comes to the final third as usual, but the team as a whole are playing well and making a game out of this. I’d be thinking about giving opportunities to Colak, Matondo or Fashion Jnr at some point early in this second half.

Two absolutely ridiculous free kicks given against us there. I like this ref but those were very bad decisions, the linesmen partly to blame maybe.

We’re desperately in need of a positive performance tonight.

Sorry yes so Knutsen wouldn’t apply, but Stankovic recently resigned so he is a freebie. I had a look at the Serbian league table in the years before and after his appointment and Red Star’s points tally jumped 20-30 and they started regularly scoring 100+ goals.