weebluedevil

Had to go with Defoe - his hat trick demanded it. However, there were Man of The Match performances all over the pitch..on any other day Jones, Davis or Jack would have picked it up, and the fact that Alfie didn’t get MoTM for those two exceptional goals just shows the level the whole team are playing at the moment.

Great video, wish it was longer though

This was 2003-2004 team pic.

I think Liverpool have shot themselves in the foot. I reckon we’d have done a deal for him if reasonable. Now they have an unhappy player that cannot move this window (unlikely at least) and his value can only decrease unless they send him out of loan again....but they won’t do that. Vicious cycle and unfortunately Kent - who has done himself and Liverpool proud - is paying the price. Just doesnt make make any sense.

I think sending players out to other premiership sides is the best course of action - whether they can afford to cover their wages is another thing. They may push the boat out for a Middleton or Hastie, but can’t see players coming back from a long injury spell being worth the risk e.g. Murphy and Dorrans. We know that Holt, Dorrans and Grezda don’t have a future - so if we can’t sell them, getting them out on loan to any club, anywhere could help get them get permanent moves, which is better than rotting on the fringes here. I think Murphy is finished with us tbh, we have better than him now - even at his best. Good luck to him though. Gerrard said aid he wanted a first team squad of 23 or 24. With the signing of Barker, I make it 25. It will be 24 once Hastie goes out on loan. I’m not including the following in the above: The players that need to leave permanently or on loan (5) Holt, Dorrans, Grezda, Dodoo, Murphy (although some would argue he still has a future) + Those already out on loan (3) Alnwick, Rossiter, Herrera Then there are the players that are out on loan that have a future with us: Robbie McCrorie, Ross McCrorie, Glen Middleton Thats not such a bad place to be in, with just the 4 or 5 that need to leave, thought it was worse.

Managed to catch it live this time - great show. Well done Ross, David, Ian!

Great game preview DMAA! I don’t think we’ve seen the strongest starting 11 yet and perhaps there won’t need to be one, which is a good thing. From that hat perspective you’re prediction could be spot on. However, I’m convinced the EL 3rd round is done and dusted and so could see the home leg as an opportunity to rest some players like Morelos, Arfield, Jones, Goodson, Katic, Tav even. The Hibs game on the other hand is a must win against a difficult side, so for me I’d be starting with, as close to, the 11 that started on Thursday, with Davies in for Kamara who’s a doubt.

He said Big buff!!!!! ?

Jack overall, but have to give it to Connor for saving our bacon!

If he’s not sold by Thursday, we’ll get him! Especially after our last two performances. Would assume it has to be a permanent signing - I think £5m would do it and financially structured to help us manage to seal the deal. C’mon King, Allen, Gerrard - let’s do this!

That’s his forte

i think we need to put aside our hatred for Hibs and see this as a great opportunity for Middleton to get some game time in a league that he needs to crack if he’s to have a future with us. Hekingbottom seems to be a good coach and Hibs have an attractive playing style unlike other teams like Killie. If he can push on with them this may be the best option, and he wouldn’t play against us. Could be a win/win.

So after what looked like a really promising pre-season, the last two games have been frustrating but we’ve come away unscathed. Both pitches were slow and/or sticky and that shouldn’t be an excuse but I think partly to blame. ‘Today could also have been about nerves - it seemed a very nervous display and I’m sure the players knew they needed to take the 3 points and that nothing else would be acceptable. Again, could have been why we didn’t see the flowing, fast and assured passing that we’ve seen in a few pre-season games now that the pressure is really on. To be honest, most areas need improvement. Defensively, we were caught asleep twice, luckily they only took one chance. However, thanks to Goodson and Katic’s efforts at the other end that we managed to scrape this one. Can’t underestimate the threat that both those guys bring at set pieces, so perhaps they have given themselves the chance to keep their starting slots for the time being at least. We dominated the middle mostly - Davis and Jack were fairly tidy (Jack probably MOTM, but further forward we had couldn’t find any telling passes beyond two yards and out wide (if you can call it that at Rugby Park) we lacked any creativity or meaningful delivery. I did think jones looked quite lively when he came on even if his final ball still doesn’t exist. We certainly miss Kent in games like this. I don’t recall Ojo doing very much, but Aribo is coming onto a game, getting himself into the right positions and attempting shots, hopefully he’ll have better luck next time. Fod didn’t have much much to do, but when called upon, he failed. With McGregor in goal, they wouldn’t have scored that goal IMO. Morelos did what he could with the scraps that were served to him and nearly pulled off a typical Morelos type goal. I don’t think Defoe would have fared any better today. So now that’s out of the way, I hope we settle down and just play the game we know we can - starting Thursday in Denmark. An away goal and not losing will be the key, let’s hope we have a decent performance to celebrate along with the result.

Good post, I’d agree with much of what you said - but I didn’t think the number 10 role was the biggest problem to address - only because I don’t think there’s a quality number 10 that exists for the money we’d have to spend on one. I think what we’ve done, which will help, is have adequate cover for all positions. I personally don’t feel we have a stronger 1st XI though, certainly not without Kent and Candeias. Murphy is done IMO, and was never better than either of those two. I’ll be very surprised if and when Murphy gets a starting place he’s able to keep it. Successful teams are built from back to front and I think we’re in a good place with strong competition for each position at the back, we’ll improve our defensive stats - that to me is where we improve our points tally. DMs are also looking good, totally agree with you - we have also improved there, I’m only worried about who to leave out between Jack, Davies and Kamara - a nice problem to have. Attacking midfield again some great options, but we’ve got to shoot more from distance so I hope Ojo can provide that as I think we’ll still lack in that dept. Up front it’s game on between Morelos and Defoe. SG has rotated them fairly in pre-season but expect Morelos to start more often and expect him to continue banging them in. I’d go so far as to say he should also take the penalties. I don’t see him leaving this season, so I’d hope his goal tally is as high as possible come end of season, anything to boost his valuation when the time comes for us to sell. I think he’ll also cut out the crap this season which will be helpful. Consistency is what we need and I think we’ll improve and see some longer winning runs. I think Aberdeen will be stronger as well as Hibs. Killie will regress (hope I’m not jinxing tomorrow) and I’m not sure about Hearts yet. Overall, I just don’t think we’re Going to do 55 this year - I hope I’m wrong obviously - but think we’ll win one cup and get to the group stages of the EL - perhaps even to the knockout stages. There will be marked progress again but will that be enough for the fans to stay behind the manager or more pertinently, the board?

Are RTV showing the game tomorrow night, or is it just on Premier?

Just managed to listen now, great as usual. Well done!

I’m struggling to understand the issue they think fans have with the recent court decision. If they think they only need to be reassured that they’ll still be able to purchase this seasons replica kits then they have massively underestimated the fans concerns. I just hope they have a plan b, because it sounds like they have gambled on the £1m penalty being the worst case scenario. I actually don’t care that much if I’m buying merchandise from SD or Elite or whomever else, as long as the club is getting the best deal. I would prefer it not to be SD obviously, but I’d rather that and the club didn’t have to pay penalties of £1m (or possibly much more + legal costs). I think they need to engage the fans on this. If SD is the best deal on the table (or equal best) the fans would not boycott them...and perhaps the club think we would....or am I wide of the mark?

3

I would love for Defoe to score against them this weekend, maybe even more so than Alfredo. Defoe doesn’t deserve to be dropped and I’d really like to see him have a full 70-80 mins to see if we can continue the momentum and success our new shape has brought. There’s still doubt ( from many) about Defoe’s ability to replace Alfie if he does go and I would like him to prove once and for all that he (and our tighter forward line) works. With Gerrard not giving anything away in the press conference, I suspect he’ll stick with Defoe and bring on Alfie with 20 mins to go.

And the goal chopped off for offside that was onside....yes the referee did have an influence - it should have been 3-0. I also disagree that 2nd penalty was not. It surely was, the way games are reffed means you have to go down and exaggerate the incident to get anything! Should Katic be ashamed as per Thomson, McInnes have said? No chance, he was doing his job. I don’t recall the same levied at Brown when Morelos and Kent caught him with their handbags, that resulted in a combined 6 game ban.

Dire second half, we stopped doing the things we did well in the first half. We should have lost that in the end, crazy defending. What was Candeias thinking about, he should have been covering Tav with nobody with 3 yards of Kamberi, it was criminal. What was with Candeias after he scored, didn't want anyone celebrating with him? Did look like Tav was having go at him for it. We have to beat Aberdeen next week or its just unthinkable.

Odds on

That’s football mate. It’s a funny old game, and to be honest it wouldn’t exist if it was predictable. Gotta love it for that.

It’s vitally important and whilst we have the chance to get through to the KO stage, I’d say it’s a priority (or equally as important I should say). It puts us in the spotlight, brings much needed money, attracts better players and gives our team critical experience - so we need to keep it going. Of course I would pick winning 55 this season over a continued run in Europe, but if I had to pick actually wining the Europa League over 55 this season, I would go with Europe. We will win the league again - and soon hopefully - but a European trophy comes around every hundred or so years. Anwway enjoy your day, I hope we put on a performance for you, win, lose or draw.

Read into what you may, but I’m a fan of VAR and if we over contributed to the funding of it, I wouldn’t complain. I would think it would benefit us more than most since we create the most chances, have the most decisions going against us than for us. It would perhaps have lost us 2 points vs Hearts, but would have netted out in our favor, points wise, this season considering the incorrect disallowed goals and sendings off we’ve had. Don't want to tempt fate, but if we win on Thursday we’ll get a first taste of it in the knock out stages, I believe. I also think it’s quite exciting/entertaining and enjoyed how it worked during the WC.