DMAA

I’m optimistic on Sands. I’ve long thought Davis, while very good on the ball, doesn’t provide enough protection to the defence as our DM at 37 years old. He’s not known for aggression, tackling or obviously mobility (particularly important for counter attacks). That has to be caveated with the fact that we conceded 13 goals in the league last season, but we were often wide open in Europe and this season we leaked goals domestically too when Davis was playing. 
 

I’ve looked at a number of videos of Sands and looked at his stats too and he looks like he would provide very good protection of the defence. His defensive duels numbers are very good, both in the air and on the ground. His interception numbers are very good too, something Davis is good at.

On the ball he is quite limited, levels below Davis really. Technically I would say he is fine but not great for a DM. But he seems to be good at forward passing (short passing) despite that, his forward passing numbers are very good. That could be because he’s been playing for the best team in his league though. So I think he would be quite a traditional defensive midfielder who would shore us up and improve our goals conceded and we have needed that kind of player imo, but maybe not be ideal against a parked bus at Ibrox. 

10 hours ago, compo said:

Might be worth looking at Boyle from Hibs before someone else gets him 

I’d leave him to Celtic. It’s good news if they splurge anything like £3m on him. 

Someone on FF saying they’ve spoken to someone close to Souttar and he’s likely going to go down south because the offers are much better than ours. 

50 minutes ago, CammyF said:

Positive update. Doekhi would be an excellent signing, Souttar would be good depending on a couple of things. Olsen I just can’t see happening, signing a player like that from Serie A isn’t cheap. I would have thought there were better value options out there. 

1 hour ago, Bluedell said:

Lundstrom has suffered from the change in formation under Gio. He can't play as an attacking midfielder. That's just not his game. 

 

I'd look on him as being cover for Kamara as the sitting midfielder, and he could do a reasonable job, but now that Sands has joined it seems as if he's fallen down the packing order, unless the club are looking at selling Kamara.

By all accounts Lundstram was a centre midfielder at Sheffield United, and actually the defensive side of his game was weak. Their defensive midfielder was Sander Berge. The detailed stats I saw showed very poor defensive stats but fairly impressive attacking stats, broadly similar to someone like Arfield. His highlights reel backs that up, all about doing an Arfield and arriving late in the box and getting goals. 
 

It seems to me that he has lost his engine at a young age and has had to become a sitting midfielder before his time, but he’s just not that good at the defensive side of that position because it’s never been his game.

I’m keen to see Sands in there who seems to be the opposite, a reader of the game, strong defensively and an athlete. 

Championship competition pushes Souttar’s wage up and that’s the only concern I have. It’s risky on a moderate wage, very on a high wage. 
 

With regards to Lundstram, a decent player who can contribute but he wasn’t coming here for anything other than a very good wage and I don’t know why he was given that. I raised that concern before he signed, I’m not joining a pile on. A reliable admin on FF said it has been a major sticking point in the Goldson negotiations, who apparently has the same agent. 

I think we can do better than Olsen tbh. He doesn’t offer good value for money coming from Serie A and I don’t think he’s as good as has been made out either. 

19 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

 

I think Ross Wilson has taken Goldson too literally here when he said we were lacking hunger. 

2 hours ago, CammyF said:

That’s a very positive update. The Sands one is interesting. It’s impossible to tell from YouTube if he’s any good tbh. Talk of beating competition from Bundesliga doesn’t quite square with a loan with option to buy for me. 

3 hours ago, Rousseau said:

Joey Veerman has signed for PSV. 

The dream is over. I think they’ll make a good profit on him. 

Very skeptical of the Morelos report. Some interest maybe but £20m is not happening.  January is a sellers market though and the best time to get good money from desperate English clubs. 

It’s a no brainer, well done to Wilson for negotiating the deal. 
 

Excited to see what we can do in this window now. 

10 minutes ago, CammyF said:

1st half we had a decent penalty shout when Kent was tripped in box

Replays showed it was Kent who stood on the United player’s heel

That’s a bare bones Dundee United team, no excuses not to hammer them. 
 

18 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

When we're doing poorly, most think 'no one's going to buy these donkeys; Just punt them!'

 

When we're doing well, most are saying 'Oh--we can't lose this player; he's too good'.  

 

I'm in the middle: I never think players lose as much value as it seems after poor runs of form; and I don't think players are too good to be sold. 

 

I'm quite comfortable that our DoF will keep a level head -- although I do think we've missed certain opportunities to sell in the recent past (e.g. Morelos). 

Totally agree. We should be investing in our recruitment and trusting them to improve us. Occasionally you get irreplaceable, one off talents who you want to keep as long as possible (Laudrup, Larsson for them), but I don’t think we have that kind of player. 

5 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I'm like a broken record, but selling players is what we have to do if we want to be financially sustainable.  

And we aren’t in the situation we were in a month ago with Gerrard where our assets were depreciating at an alarming rate. 

It’s great to see so many players transformed, long may it last. Morelos looks much improved, his assist for Kent was impressive where he would maybe have just had a pot shot at goal in the past. 

Fantastic. A gift for Morelos but good anticipation to be in the right place. 

It won't get cancelled

It’s sad that in the 22 years since we last played Dortmund a gulf has grown between the sides as football has become all about the top clubs in the top countries and money has completely taken over. We played Dortmund four times in the late 90s. Two 2-2 draws in 96 and a 2-0 win each in 99. Very close games with Bayern in 99 too. Changed days now though. 

41 minutes ago, Bill said:

Recall Itten, sell Morelos, job done. 

 

Sakala, Itten, Roofe = plenty of firepower to win the league

18 months till his contract expires and I don’t see him renewing, I would hope that we are very open to selling Morelos. 
 

But I would hope that that we are looking for a new striker too because Roofe will inevitably miss a lot of games and I’m not convinced Sakala and Itten are reliable enough in front of goal. I would love a poacher who can be relied on to consistently score goals, we are wasteful in front of goal and Celtic have better goal-scorers in their front line in my opinion.  

4 hours ago, Tannochsidebear said:

Not sure what people saw in Goldson

Made a lot of big tackes and blocks. He saved Bassey with an excellent last ditch tackle if I recall.

It’s easy to get carried away with Gio’s impact after only a few games and forget that Gerrard worked miracles up until this season, but there’s little doubt that Gio has improved us significantly in the short term at least. I really hope he can keep it up, so many positives to take from his first 3 weeks in charge. 

Great goal. A bit of class from Kent in the lobbed pass to Kamara, Kamara cool as usual to turn his man and pick out the man in space. I’m a believer in momentum so I hope we can keep this up and get the win.