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The ugly sisters continue to think they are among the great European teams and continue to waste ridiculous amounts of money on bang average players, that nobody else wants. They get found out every year in Europe when they play and reminded that in the Grand scheme of things they are two average at best teams in a euro diddy league, the SPFL would be such a better place without them.

Watching the socials it appears that Oscar and Jordan McGhee are both back in training which is good news. Was also good to hear Alfred talk about intensity and movement in and out of possession. Shows that he has at least identified the problem. Ive felt all season that we just havent been showing for the ball enough and our rotations have been poor. Also Im not sure we have been working as hard off the ball to win it higher up the pitch. Whether he can coach that into the players remains to be seen. I guess we will find out on Sunday!

It feels like he’s slow to react to almost every shot at or near him, while those hit directly at him too often seem to go straight through him. At least 2 or 3 of the goals we conceded across those four games came directly from these obvious weaknesses. Can we bring Gordon out of retirement?! Off-topic. Sorry.

Its hard to know whether this would be a good idea or not. Ive heard people that know say that Gunn is the better goalkeeper. Ive also heard the same people say that Bain is better with his feet. Given our experience last year, having a keeper thats good with their feet can certainly help with the system Poconogli wants to play. If Bain is better with his feet, can he really be much worse than Gunn at catching it? It always feels like Gunn is a second slow going down to everything and his poppadom wrists are difficult to ignore. That said, if teams keep cutting thru us like a knife thru butter, does it matter who we play in goals? Maybe Lennon could get a shot there? 😆😆😆

I'd give Bain a shot.

One of the other keepers Clarke developed over his long tenure when he switched up his team in all the friendlies to allow new faces to get experience. What do you mean he wasn't astute enough to do that?

Thats the problem......

Aye, appointment, but you knew that’s what “experiment” meant in this context. Pedantry over terminology when there’s an actual point being made is hardly much of a contribution.

Who would you have in goals after Gunn?

Dont think anyone not playing at least some minutes for their clubs is currently being selected? Was a big problem under Clarke. But Poconogli seems to be more inclined to pick those on form. Agreed that quality in certain areas is a concern. Particularly goalkeeper.

Watching Scotland is a tough gig - until Scottish football adapts or we can pick a full squad from other leagues who play football in modern ways I don’t see us progressing . add to that some players who don’t get a game for their club can’t be the answer We lack quality in several key areas which is a real issue - from keeper to defence to attack there’s gaps . re Lenon , he’s unfortunate to be a midfielder - one of the few areas I think we have some quality but if he progresses his time will come

You mean appointment? He's not an experiment 😂

I’m beginning to think Pocognoli is going to be a disastrous experiment. Lennon not getting any minutes, particularly last night when it was clear the central midfield had run out of steam after the same guys had played four consecutive games, is probably the least of our worries now as Scotland fans.

Fergusons performances in a Scotland shirt have certainly been a little underwhelming. However, he was one of the few who actually came out of the World Cup with any credit in the bank and was probably one of our better performers thru qualification. This camp he has been just ok. Id cut him some slack for the Switzerland game as he was forced to run around putting out fires. Last night though he was absolutely honking. Would Lennon be better playing the 6 currently? Certainly he has the composure on the ball and ability to find a pass. My concern would be whether he is ready for it physically and psycholgically. Id be a lot happier if he had nailed down a starting spot for Udinese and their fans were raving about him the way Bologna fans did with Ferguson. Im not sure he is quite there yet, but this camp will certainly have given Poconogli food for thought. Im not sold on the 3 at the back as I dont think it gets our best players all playing in their best positions. If he solves that, there might be more room for Lennon. Edit: Id add the proviso that we still have McTominay to come back.

Although not at his peak, I would persevere with McGinn, always capable of something. Ferguson, on the other hand , I dont see it, if he does find his man, its always square and he gives too many fouls away...I get he works hard, but just pretty average at most things. Ive not seen him play for his club so maybe hes different for them.

You need to look at how the other teams have changed tactics after playing us twice last season. They weren't going to sit about and let us pass it thru them all season. After February we were well sussed out by the other teams, on how to stop us playing. Even with all our good players and JBA . Results suffered a lot . It has carried on this year as well, we are playing same style but with a squad of lesser players. We now need new ideas to keep ahead of the game. Counteracting our opponents tactics and stopping daft mistakes.

When we were at our peak last season, late November through to February, we were absolutely brilliant to watch and it was always going to be nigh on impossible for us to replicate that, even if JBA had stayed for this season. But it wasn’t a vintage season in that we didn’t get close to winning silverware thanks to two dismal cup exits and we had that long winless run at the start and then tailed off quite a bit from March onwards with only the win at Ibrox as a major highlight during the latter stages. It was a really good season for us but it wasn’t brilliant, indeed we have had better (2nd place in 12/13, 3rd in 07/08, 95/96 were all better both result wise and football wise IMO). But this season is pretty flat and this current team and manager haven’t shown anything in the way of something to get enthusiastic about so far.

He was an absolute wee nyaff that night and even worse than that fat fozzy character. Every tackle he was up pestering the 4th official and was continually giving verbals to our bench and Jens. I saw him in a totally different light that night…. Horrible wee man vibes. I’m going into this game hoping for something but not really expecting anything. Not sure about anyone else but I’m pretty downbeat about the season so far and ahead. At risk of sounding overly dramatic, I just don’t see us ever having such a season as we did last year again. We were completely spoiled and it’s hard rewiring expectations

And we could have scored as well . McBurnie is not the answer. Don't know who is but it's no him. Lennon doing fine in the back ground the now.

They are. It doesn’t stop some people using the term rather than call Celtic and their fans out when they are the main problem though…

Truth.

I like the idea of the press, but it must be difficult to drill a bunch of random players to execute it with a week or two's training. And if you don't get it right 100% of the time you really expose yourself. And as we all know from our JBA experience, everyone has to be on it from front to back. No use if only half the team is pressing and the other half is zonal.

There is no Old Firm anymore. The Rangers are dead......

The Celtic fans should be moved into the POD, that seems the best way to resolve the "new seat" shambles and get some decent new ones at no cost to Motherwell, simples.