RicoS321

Aye, it'll be interesting. Not sure how I'd set up for this one. We had a fantastic run of games where we scored 14 goals, but we seem to be trying to keep all our attacking players happy which is creating a lot of imbalance in the side. McGinn and Christie seem to be nullifying each other, and we're not getting the best out of either May or Rooney because we're either trying to play them both at once or neither are getting an extended run. I think we need to get back to basics and get our players sticking to their positions and showing a bit of formational discipline. Keep Rooney/May high up the park and McGinn/Christie tight to their wings and then gradually re-introduce the free roles that Christie and McGinn (and to an extent, McLean) have been adopting of late.

Do you think he was maybe faking it?

Could really be doing with Lewis and Devlin available for the semi like. Lewis can go in goals and we'll take Woodman on in the 119th minute as our penalty specialist. Devlin so that we can at least have the option of O'Connor in midfield. Otherwise we'll be looking at Arnie and perhaps Ball at right back. We could be doing with a young fullback coming through like.

Sounds about right. Dodds: "this could end up 0-0 after penalties". Sounds pretty tense.

Me and you it seems. Wild.

I've just bought an 10M telescopic driver for the two club rule.

In the same interview he says that our aim is to win the cup. He's definitely not talking the game down. Bit of balance wouldn't go amiss. We're on a poor run of form, but the hysterical reaction to everything a manager says when we're on one of these runs is a little over the top. Listen to his comments if you get a chance, they're positive and set us a target of winning the cup.

He's doing what every manager in the entire world of football does. No current manager in the game would ever say that his team are facing a "season-defining"; "must-win"; "insert cliched fitba pish here" game. You must have noticed that by now?

I'm not suggesting that's what you said. You're suggesting Murty is a better manager based on his bargain transfers. He has not "brought in quality at a (relatively) cheap price", he's brought in players that are significantly above our budget because he has a significantly higher budget.

You're deluded if you think we could have afforded Murphy, Goss and Martin (or even any one of the three) in January. We might have sneaked one with a huge amount of goodwill and wages being paid for us, but not with a hun offer on the table - we'd have been outbid in a shot. Jack will probably have doubled his wages going there in the summer too. They're at least three times our budget. Guys like Windass, Tavernier Candeis and even Morelos (despite his sitter-missing) are good - well paid - players that needed semi-competent coaching and organising. Murty has done absolutely zero to show that he's in the same league as Deek in terms of organising and running a club (hence why they needed Jimmy Nic). He's an assistant that's landed on his feet in terms of timing. Deeks tactics have been poor but that doesn't make Murty a genius. He's (Murty) got a massive amount of room for error.

That's an interesting squad like. The strikers are the main worry for me. Not much proven among that lot, but it'll be interesting to see Ryan Christie play as the main man.....

In the latest Scotland squad. Top work McLeish, hugely deserved. Definitely the only dons player deserving at the minute.

Always assumed he'd be one of those. Although often these things don't come out until post-death.

What has El Salvador ever done to you?

It's a similar situation to previous seasons with McGinn (instead of Christie). McInnes will stick with these guys for the entire match, or a large part of it, despite having a poor game. It's the old "but he's got the capability to produce something from nowhere" school of thought. It's true in part, however it ignores the multiple game streaks of poor form (McGinn early last season, Christie recently) where they have played several 90 minutes without producing and also playing badly in general. He doesn't have to drop them, just take them off early when it's clear that they're not performing. Ball was defending better and using the ball better and so he should have stayed on the pitch. Christie should have been hooked at half time for GMS or whoever (the choices aren't great) and given the replacement a good run at it.

We played pretty much the same formation as we have in every other game over the last few years. When McGinn, Christie, May and Rooney play as badly as they did today then we're on a hiding to nothing. With GMS and Stewart the massively underperforming replacements too, we've got serious personnel issues. I'm assuming Wright is dead also?

I watched it all on iPlayer one night. Bit of a pile of pish, but reasonably entertaining nevertheless. Not really my usual watching due to the annoyingly stupid decisions of the main characters rendering things too unrealistic in these horror type things.

If, and it's a big if, we did get through, I'd love to see a well organised boycott of this shite. Fucking ridiculous time to be playing in fucking weegie land.

Aye, I'd agree with that. He has some decent qualities that we can definitely utilise - a decent touch and good movement. It's just he's doing a lot of it in the wrong areas of the pitch. I don't think we should have paid the money we did for him, or sign him at all as I thought that his peak period was at St Johnstone and he had shown little of replicating it. He worked really hard to set the standard he did there, and I think we were on a hiding to nothing getting that from him here. That said, he's still got a lot of good attributes and we can definitely get a lot of goals from him played correctly. I also don't buy that he doesn't fit our system. If we choose, we can easily ask him to play the Rooney role - he's definitely capable as his 20 odd goals in a season at Saints was testament to. The problem just now is that we're trying to shoe horn him and Rooney into our system of one striker and that will never work (apart from against hibs that time...). It means that we've always got one of the two playing out of their natural role, because we never actually play with the two close together up front (we did for a bit yesterday, but then Killie just spread their defence and that forced Rooney back). Also, has anyone noticed how much worse a player Christie is with McGinn in the side? Christie was only okay for us in his initial period and he's back to that level again. I don't know if it's cause McGinn constantly comes inside, but it does seem to affect Christie who is forced further back at times as they both want to play the free role. It's noticeable.

Fuck, that was awful. And cold. Shinnie, McLean and McKenna a'rite, the rest atrocious. Rooney out wide is criminal, and punting it to May just a waste. Anyway, both teams were horse and we're still in the cup. Until next Tuesday, anyway.

Apparently supposed to be back in training some time in March, so more likely April when we see him. Could really do with him for the post-split fixtures.

^^^This. The charlatan should have been telt to get to fuck in January. Pointless sub on so many occasions. Zero benefit to us.

Surely the joke is the opposite? The martyrs risking themselves (I ken, there's zero risk in the NE at the moment) to get to their meaningless jobs? Our absolute certainty in the importance of the work we do that a couple of days will make a massive difference. We've attached such a god-like status to work that taking a few days off is deemed ridiculous, almost treasonous. Yet most of us probably sit in bull-shite jobs that could go tomorrow with little effect on the way the world moves. We should be encouraging folk to take the time off, spend it with kids or whatever when the weather is fun (for the kids of course...) rather than sitting through hours of frightened traffic all heading in the same direction. Fuck work, sna's ace. Edit: that wisnae a direct response to you DD

Thank god he's a fit and proper person though, otherwise the huns could have been in the shite.

Nah, it was far more nuanced than that min.... Basically, I think he should be getting a 50% return on good (or good enough) players and it's unfair to expect anything more. Up until this season I thought he'd just about got there. My issue has always been the glaring errors when signing players that he should know are not good enough, such as Tansey, Maynard, Goodwillie, Storey etc. These are easy mistakes to cut out. If we exclude those - which you obviously wouldn't - then he's still doing okay, with the massive caveat and generosity of counting May and GMS as decent signings. I think they both could prove good (not amazing, but first team regulars). They aren't value for money at the moment and I think they are the difference between us having/not a good season. Still plenty of time for them to turn that round. I've also said that we should cut him a bit of slack in January because it's difficult to get season-changing signings without sinking a fortune (or trading insolvently like the huns). Overall, I'm pretty apprehensive about letting him out with the kitty in the summer again, but far better clubs than us have managers who don't have the ultimate/only say in these things and I think that is a strategy that should work for us. McInnes identifies areas where he needs players and the recruitment team identify the best targets and a consensus is reached with the manager (rather than McInnes arbitrarily deciding he likes the look o thon Tansey). Lennon's Celtic days had this approach, and they were reasonably successful at picking up good players.