wokinginashearerwonderland

No doubt a bit of tongue in cheek in your post but in all seriousness, a few folk have been touting Leven and I think his very brief spell in charge when Robson left has clouded people's views. He was in charge for just 11 games after Warnock left when the season had basically petered out anyway and there was nothing to play for. Have to remember that he has been a main part of both Robson and Thelin's reigns as manager.

I thought that game was absolutely horrendous last night. Liverpool getting a lot of praise from Neville and Keane in the Sky Studio but my god, I was barely awake by the end. If was basically 90 minutes of Van Dijk and Kerkez passing it back and forth between them. If you are into stats, Liverpool had an XG of 0.36. They made 509 passes and only 150 went forward. Arsenal made 459 passes, 108 went forward. That kind of stuff will get the game stopped. Wenger's Arsenal team of Vieira, Pires, Henry and the like would have ran over any of those two teams last night.

^^^^^^This, absolutely. Dealing with corner kicks is primary school stuff. Again, all the new age laptop boffins will try to convince you that you need some set piece coach with a PhD in fitba tactics. Jist heed the ba awa. Nay difficult.

I get the theory but it's a mighty restrictive policy and also makes life easier for your rivals. Does that mean you play the same system and same way in a European tie against Barcelona where you will have little of the ball as you would in a league cup tie versus Dumbarton just because that's your philosophy? Can we not have a six foot six striker that we go long to when we play against a small side or have a couple of nippy wingers that we can chuck on and play a different way when we play a side with a couple of slow full backs? There is no need to be so rigid in the thinking, football changes season to season. The club philosophy thing is modern day buzz word shite that chairman seem to churn out in the same way that they fire managers who win but don't have a nice playing style and a year later they find their club fighting relegation. You are spot it, it absolutely is and there are numerous examples of it not working. It is normally a manager ending up with a player he does not want who has been forced on him. At the level we are at it really should not be that difficult. We should only need 3 or 4 new players in a transfer window, a manager with a decent eye for a player could easily deal with that. I am not suggesting the manager is involved in negotiating transfer fees or wages but he could easily be the one picking the players he wants in his squad if they are guys that are known to him.

Loots talks a great game but the whole director of football new age crap worries me and the bloke might as well just manage the team himself. You only have to look down the road at Amorim's last press conference to see what will probably happen. The new manager ain't got any say as to how the team is going to play, ain't got no say on which players are in his squad but if he loses then he gets fired. Great gig. It's like cutting off Luke Littler's right hand and asking him to just crack on.

I will bow to your greater knowledge of these things BigAl but it was a jesty comment suggesting someone looked a bit gay, nothing else. I am surprised you felt the need to take it down yet are ok with the endless use of sectarian phrases like hun bastard and tim cunt or what some might call racist language such as english prick elsewhere on the site

One of those players I wish I had been alive to have seen. From what I’ve heard people like Clough and O’Neill say about him, Robertson was something special. To earn 28 caps in that era, he must have been decent. I’m guessing he would have been someone that would walk into the current national side (along with the ten Grant Hanleys obviously).

Do or die in my view tonight. This match will define the Clarke era, we will either play the match of our lives or go out with a whimper. I don't see us winning two play off ties against sides like Wales, Sweden, Ireland or the rest. I think this is the best chance. A night for experience, leave Doak on the bench and bring him on with 30 left if we need a goal. But we need to be aggressive as fuck, I'd let the players watch the first leg of our play off against Holland when McFadden scored because we scared the shite out of Holland with our approach that day albeit we got humped in the second leg. A night for quick direct fitba and get Dykes smashing the life out of their defence. I'd go: Gordon Hickey Souttar Hanley Tierney Robertson McGinn Ferguson Christie McTominay Dykes

It is a good excuse but no reason why Cormack needs to wait until the sporting director is appointed before firing and re-hiring. If you know who you want as your manager, just go out and get him. You do not need to advertise it in the P&J and do a dozen interviews. People make it sound like it is a complicated process but it really should not be. If you look dan sarf at clubs like Everton and Spurs (far bigger clubs than ours), they just quickly identified who they wanted and went and got them. Jimmy seems like a nice bloke but he needs to exit. It is getting laughable and he is also speaking in absolute riddles in the post match interviews now, a classic trait when a manager is under severe pressure. Another drubbing incoming tonight at Rugby Park. We will be bullied off the park by Killie.

I mean, 5 years as sporting director of St Louis City. He is just basically the German, Carlos Bocanegra.

Two weeks off then two games in five days. Poor lads need a holiday.

Fascinating story actually. There are a couple of videos online about it. I think there were a couple of players that would have been banned from their last Highland League game that season had it been played as originally scheduled for the Saturday. They brought the game forward a few days so those players could play and after a lot of debate the league that year was voided. Awfully controversial at the time.

I don’t think we should offer them more than about a couple of million for them to take him off our hands

That sounds awfully simplistic Rico to suggest the reason we made Greece look like Brazil was down to Hanley playing as a left sided centre half and it would have been a totally different game with McKenna in there instead. If you watch Liverpool, Robertson plays next to Van Dijk all the time, who is right footed but their whole team approach is just totally different. There are hundreds of examples of successful sides with two right sided centre halves, I really don’t see that as too big a deal. The ability (or lack of it) in our players to keep the ball and string more than two passes together was much more to blame on Wednesday. Our best keeper of the ball in Gilmour being on the bench did not help.