Millers Tache

Absolutely agree there. I think Miller just lost all confidence when Brewster came in. He was playing some decent stuff, then all of a sudden, the man who kicked him out of his last team, friend of his current boss and rival for his shirt appears and he's benched as soon as he arrives. No wonder he's looked lost for the past 8 months, IMO.

You inferring JC can go then Millers Tache? I wouldn't go that far, Drew. He's certainly not a bad manager. I think he could be better, but i know i wouldn't be manning the exits to have a demo against him. However, it would be interesting to see what someone else would do with our current squad... If only Mark McGhee was still available...

I dunno, by and large i think the players who have come in have been ones who have done well at other SPL clubs and have all been potentially good signings. There have been some that i would class as absolute howlers (Langfield, Soutar, Byrne, Dung, Dempsey...) who should never be near a first team shirt. But, based on what players have done for other teams, he's signed some quality as well. It's just a shame his tactics are so negative and fails to play to any of their strengths...

Strange that word of JC's contract being up before the end of the season was largely what the papers were talking about a couple of weeks ago, now suddenly he's on some made up Chick Young shortlist for a better paid/arguably higher profile job... Anyway, regarding JC's contract, can someone tell me the answer to this: after the Queen's Park game, he signed a new deal. At the time, i was certain it was a 3 year deal. Why would his contract be up at the end of this season?

Indeed we shall. Remember when Zander scored with his cock against Rangers? I thought that now a couple of years down the line, his cock would have played about 100 further first team games. I even hoped his cock might be on the verge of the Scotland set-up. As it is his cock seems to have stagnated and developed a dubious attitude. It's terrible when a cock fails to live up to it's early promise. I know. Ask Mrs Tache...

Drewsome, I admire your optimism and can only hope that it'll happen. However, I'd rather see.... Jackie Mac to Seve. Out wide to DeVisscher on the wing. DeVisscher beats one, beats two, gets to the by-line, cuts it back....nice step over at the front post from Lovell.....Mackie from 10 yards out.... GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLL. But, I'm not fussy, I'd settle for either scenario!! I think you're more likely to have ...Mackie swings and misses at the near post...Lovell taps in the rebound at the far...

Why is it all of us (who know nothing about football, if you believe every single manager who's ever been criticised by the fans) can see how to use Lovell, but the man in charge of making the team play cannot?

He can grow up all he wants, Drew, but as soon as he expressed a desire to leave AFC, he as good as walked out as far as i was concerned.

I would never have dared. However, i did hear it said that one of our number invited Mr Miller himself to touch his bum.

I think Rocastle was maybe tempted by the fact we were paying stupid money to the likes of Brian O'Neill and thought, "I'll have some of that..." Great player in his day though. As for Hreidarsson, did Aitken not decide he'd never make it, and punted him after one reserve game. Think he's been sold on for about £13 million over his career since that day...

Thing is, Soutar's not really made any howlers on the scale of dropping the ball on his defender's head, missing a back pass etc etc to warrant being dropped. Most of the goals we've let in have come from Considine doing something stupid in a totally inappropriate area of the pitch. Anyway, i don't want to see that cunt Langfield back in our team. He wants to play for r*ng*rs. Fuck him.

I wouldn't go that far myself, but i do think that given a proper run of games to get used to each other's style of play in a match situation (after all, how much can they learn of each other in training when they're each forever worried about the prospect of Derek Young kneeling down behind him, as Mackie pushes him over in comedy fashion) they could be really rather good indeed. As it is, Calderwood seems to favour the idea of rotating on a match by match basis, thus removing any hope our potential partnerships have of forming any sort of understanding.

Purely guessing here, but was Bisconti not a trialist? Or did Ebbe nab him on a Bosman having known about him on the sly? Andreas Mayer was a trialist, i know that. But he had one leg longer than the other, which eventually explained his desire to run round in circles in the centre of the park and i'm not sure that'd qualify him as being "good".

Whisper it, but aren't left back and centre back the nearly fit again "next Jaap Stam", Richy Byrne's positions...? Also, re Touzani, has Jimmy not seen the teams we could get in the Yoofa draw? If we can even get a goal against most of them, it'll be a good achievement. Why sign Touzani for 2 years when he;s going to get 2 games max...

couldnt agree more. but prepare for the "mackie is or topscorer brigade" to give you pelters Balls to them. I daresay if any of us got into decent positions we could score 13 goals in a season against the Motherwells, St Mirrens and Dunfermlines of this world. Let Lovell play up front and play to his strengths, and he'd easily surpass that.

Tend to agree with you BB, i don't think you need to have a little and large double act up front, but if you don't then you have to play proper passing football, keeping it on the deck and getting it into feet. However, our players don't seem intelligent enough to remember this, going by the Hearts game (the one where we've not played a wee man/big man front two).

IMO Mackie and Lovell are far too similar, and with our defenders' penchant for the "long pass" (hoof) up to the front men, they'll always look terrible together. Smith never gets to the byline and puts a cross in because he's completely right footed and is always played on the left. I'm not certain, but i think JDV's also a right winger, so i'd like to see us get a proper left footer in to play wide left. I also think that Miller is underrated, and was finding some form until brewster came along. Goals aren't everything in a striker, and his link up play was providing us with something that we hadn't had in a long time.

Started? No. But, having seen the last few years of "action", i would argue that football might have stopped when the SPL was created.......

And here was me trusting my weekend Red Final. Sure it said Lovell was 5th of all time with 47 or so goals, with Mackie 7th on 42... Ah well, my bad.

Lovell needs the ball into his feet, or else he's next to useless. He's the 5th top SPL goalscorer of all time, and he got most of those playing for a Dundee team that played the ball through for him to run onto or for him to control with his feet. We hoof it skywards for him to head on too many times. If we are to play proper football, he should be in there every time.

Miller and Lovell. Big man to hold up the ball and a goal scorer for him to feed it to. Players you can mix the service to, high balls to Miller, low ones to Lovell's feet (that's an important one. He's pish in the air, Jimmy...). Brewster as first choice sub on account of his legs' inability to last a full 90 these days.

Been a while alright. I think the last player we had like Phil McGuire was ... Phil McGuire. Sure was. And he was more than enough, thank you very much. We've got enough rash, unpredictable centre backs in Diamond and Considine.

Oh yes, Brewster was absolutely fucked by the time he went off. By the by, surely Mackie (as the young, pacy player) should be doing all the chasing about, closing down and tracking back that Brewster did..? I think Miller came on at the point where we were tiring generally, and just not having as much of the ball as we had. I really believe he should be starting games ahead of Brewster, as he does win the ball and hold it up well. He's just slower than melting ice, and that's a huge problem when you play on the break the way we do.

Best performance he's turned in since signing for us. Still doesn't have the legs to be starting games, though. He's fit, but he's fit for a 40 year old. Thought Diamond (again), Seve, Hart and Soutar ( ) had good games as well. Mackie is awful, however, and Jamie Smith just cannot play wide left. His one trick is to stop, check back onto his right foot and hold up play, and that's just no good to anyone. Get him on the right, Barry into the middle, and - if he must play at all - Clark on the left.