Kmcalpin

He's an honest trier I'll give you that, but he's definitely shaded this year and even when Carroll has played Grimshaw has been our first choice right back, a point made originally by OTF. Despite my early reservations, Carroll has looked decent when he's played but neither he nor Grimshaw are good defenders. When they play, more often than not avoidable pressure is put on the central defenders and goalie. We do not have a decent right back nor back up left back.

With one more home game to go before the first round of fixtures is complete, we've now shipped more goals at home, 10, than any other team in the league and we're in 3rd place. Yes, we have deficiencies up front such as the lack of an out and out striker, but I think our main weakness lies in our defence. Sunday's game in Glasgow will also prove a severe but interesting test. Tellingly , all our goals against at home have been conceded to other top 6 sides. We've recorded clean sheets against bottom 6 opponents. Its not all down to the back 5 though. Defence does start further up the pitch. Our central midfield seems to lack confidence and sits too deep and perhaps doesn't put in enough effort off the ball in closing players down. Saturday's 3rd goal illlustrates this well. Aberdeen take a throw in deep inside our half with our midfield sitting very deep. No-one covers at the throw in and the Aberdeen lad can move inside unhindered and fire off a shot on target without a tackle. Our wingers don't protect the full backs. Our full backs sit far too deep and infield making it easy for opponents to get to the by line or fire in crosses. Whilst our centre defenders aren't world class they're not too bad, or at least Gallagher isn't. I'm not sure we have the right partner for him though. The above mentioned weaknesses makes life difficult for the centre defenders and Gillespie. They're left exposed to runners and crosses, avoidable corners and shots coming in. Now our defensive frailty could also be due in part to tactics i.e. getting caught on the break. Our defence does seems to be short of top 6 standard. Its concerning too that many of our defensive weaknesses have been apparent in games against bottonm 6 teams but fortunately their attacks haven't been good enough to punish us. Overall we've done well this season so far to reach 3rd place so thats the overall context of my post, but there is undoubtedly scope to improve our defence considerably.

We'll be in a good position to really judge our progress after the first round of fixtures is complete i.e. after the Kilmarnock game. The Livingston game will also be a useful barometer.

That will be more of a realistic test of our standing than yesterday's game Iain, given respective budgets. I've not seen a lot of Killie in the last couple of years but they give me the impression of being a hard working, organised, robust and solid side, but without much flair. Probably a very different team to us.

Part of our problem is lack of experience in the team. Young players like Campbell and Maguire tend to be inconsistent. For all his faults, we missed Hartley yesterday, when he went off, as there was no-one able and willing to take charge and organise the team. We had a midfield that sat too deep and looked intimidated by Aberdeen, 2 full backs that were posted missing for most of the game and two centre backs, whilst they played well as individuals, didn't play as a unit. I did feel sorry for Gillespie, Mugabe and Gallagher though as they had no protection from the centre midfield nor the full backs. Whatever else we need, we do need more character/bottle/leadership on the pitch.

Interestingly I didn't think that our defence was much worse today than it has been during our winning run. We made the same mistakes i.e. leaving the flanks exposed, letting opponents run at our central defence and fire off shots and gifting opposing strikers room and space in our box. The difference is that a better calibre of team than we've played of late punished us for those same mistakes.

When Aberdeen took the field I knew what kind of game it would be, as they're the biggest side physically we've met this season. We started brightly for the first few minutes culminating in the penalty (I've not seen it on replay yet). Scott's weak effort galvanised the Dons and shook us. Would we have won had he scored it? Difficult to say but I think not. Our problems were compounded when Hartley was forced off and Aberdeen took advantage of us being a man short to capitalise on a defensive error. Questions need to be asked about the delay in bringing Mugabe on. After that the Dons sat back in depth and comfortably prevented us from playing, preferring to hit us on the break which they did effectively. By contrast we looked totally devoid of ideas, unable to breach their midfield never mind defence. After the break they grew in confidence and scored 2 more from defensive errors and looked totally comfortable. We did mount some attacks in the latter stages but failed to trouble Lewis. If I recall rightly, we had 2 efforts on target all day including the failed penalty and one cleared off the line? Well before time up we looked a beaten and disheartened side. over the piece we deserved to lose and truth be told should have lost a few more goals. Aberdeen bullied and outmuscled us and we simply didn't compete. Our off the ball play was woeful and disorganised. By comparison, Aberdeen chased and harried all day and refused to give us time or space anywhere on the pitch, they didn't want to. We were devoid of any sort of plan, disorganised at the back, and in midfield, and toothless up front. A real off day when we were really naive. Still, Gallagher and Mugabe played reasonably well and Gillespie was blameless. We simply weren't solid enough and gifted Aberdeen 3 soft, but well taken, goals. That was always my fear going into this game. I didn't get overly enthusiastic about our winning streak and I'm not overly worried about today. We've now played 3 games against other top six sides at Fir Park and lost the lot. That tell us something. On that evidence, we're not a top 4 side, but not a bottom 4 side either. A long way to go but I suspect we'll finish somewhere between 5th and 8th. A bad day at the office today but I think it has showed, once again, that we badly need a right back, deputy left back (assuming Carroll is ok), a defensive midfielder (Sloth?) and an out and out striker in the Cosgrove mould. Little point, like today, in playing 2 wingers if they have no one to cross to.

I beg to differ. He's come back jaded before from international duty and it has affected his performances. Other teams "protect" their young players from burn out or whatever, so why shouldn't we? The fact that today's game was against Aberdeen is neither here nor there. I know you'll not agree so we should just agree to differ over this.

Absolutely. We should have done an Aaron Hickey/Hearts and withdrawn him from the international games. The fact that we didn't cost us. Hopefully we've learnt our lesson but I'm not convinced. We've taken one for the international squad.

Gallagher for me. Mugabe also had a decent game. They and Gillespie were let down badly by 2 off form full backs and a completely ineffective midfield.

This is exactly the kind of game we tend to blow. However we should take each game on its own. First and foremost we need to be solid with no mistakes. Anything over and above that is a bonus.

Absolutely. Since the early 1960s thats certainly true.

Unless he signs an extended deal, Celtic might offer us £1m+ next summer, on the basis he'll have one year left on his deal and he's had a major injury/still to prove he's fully regained his form.

A fair summing up. Win, lose or draw, our players will know they've been in a game come Saturday evening. We're due some refereeing favours after the last 2 or 3 games, but very rarely get them against Aberdeen.

Spot on.