wellsince75

He was easily our best midfielder - got a game every week. Can't help but think he and GA don't see eye to eye. Must have suggested why don't we start passing to one another and got dropped.

This is why we have a good pitch - keep the ball of the grass

Chop , change , chop , change Don't play either of our left backs in left back position. Don't play Slattery who was our best midfield player first half of season. Hope we find a way to win.

When fit I Ojala was excellent. Similarly I'd have Slattery but no issues with the others. We have too many players - I'd be happy to reduce volume and have better quality.

No question that GA stopped the rot and got us back on a stable footing. Also quite incredible that we were ever 4th for a sustained period .. When I do take a step back I don't really see the long term direction/trajectory, that for me is the issue. What type of football we're trying to embed. We're set up to stop other teams, to work our socks off and to press - but then what ? Who's our best players and why do our better players get dropped for long periods ? (Slattery) Why renew contracts on players who have proven not be a starting 11 ? Overall I find it difficult to have warm feelings about the longer term GA plan.

Yorky - point well made about budget. My issue with GA is his attitude /no regrets about zero football, when we were winning and 4th it was easier to accept albeit still hard to watch or listen to him go on. GA has zero interest in the style of play, he doesn't care , as long as we get 3 points. (his words) Will be interesting to see if GA gets us top 6 with his approach, if he does fair enough.. Pretty much any decent mgr will have us +9th in the league, with occasional hot runs of top 6. I don't believe we have to approach this with a total lack of entertainment/style of play..

Entertainment and quality of play has been horrible under GA. easy to forgive and ignore when we’re winning as an ugly win is still a win. far tougher to accept when we lose .

strong team selection. Ojala & Slattery would both be in my starting 11 (if fit) but generally speaking a strong looking team.

A lot of the game was a hard watch - it could have been +4 -0 . Something like 20 shots on goal. hard not to loose our shit when we’re that bad

It frustrates me that we approach a game against Rangers the same way we do against any other club - we won't outplay them. We need to set ourselves up to get in their faces and defend much further up the pitch. There's bugger all need for 3 forwards - total waste. So easy for Rangers , they are a better team by a distance, it's poor game mgt to play into their strengths.

I've given up guessing on who's likely to line up - wouldn't have come up with this as our starting 11 but at least the we have defenders in their natural position . Like you say not holding out any expectation irrespective of line up

I'd be more than happy for him to stay, I'd rather he was second choice than Fox - who we could have let go and at least given PJ a bit of a chance should he need to replace Kelly. At 24 he might be better leaving though - plenty of championship clubs would snap him up - decent young keeper.

McGinley has signed a new contract. Very decent squad player . Not an automatic start , this for me has been an issue for years on left had side of defence. I personally dislike that we have a very large squad, mainly full of ok players, some who will get short runs of games before self destructing. Appreciate the need for continuity etc but hard to see how we'll move forward if we resign players who aren't auto starters.

Good deal for Morecombe , cash in the pocket + bring back a manager who has twice the win record than current manager

pretty underwhelming - at 34 years old is he ever going to be a realistic replacement for Kelly - would prefer to rely on a youngster for the back up. Was looking at our first team squad earlier - time to start trimming back - appreciate we do need 3 keepers but we have c10 defenders on our books and 8 midfield players - too many - too many mediocre pros gobbling up the wage bill

Im completely with you. For me Robinson falls into the same category as Mcall , McGhee (first time) in as much they had a decent spell where things went well but not able to really take the club forward in the long term, made too many poor signings and ran out of ideas. Short term able to a job but will run out of ideas and frankly won't go on to bigger or better things as are limited in their capability.

good observation - completely agree about the last 12 months. He ran out of ideas and really struggled, hence resigned. Had he left for a bigger job 12 months previous (NI job) he'd be hailed as one of the best gaffers we've ever had. He did well for us over the piece, a good guy who did in the main did good things , eventually ran out of ideas and out of decent signings.

completely with you on this. This has been an issue for a couple of years now. Im sure a 3 man midfield could work but not with our current blend - this for me is related to the front 3, the midfield should be able to seamless link with defence and attack - ours doesn't. That said, I believe O'Hara to be part of the solution not the problem, a box to box midfielder is something we need.

Sadly not (or maybe it’s a good thing) I always get legal stuff about some legislation changing

Im the same - it knows we're in Engurland - some crazy law/rules changed last year. I've not been able to do any PPV since (unless on mainstream sky/BT)

Im a fan of Ohara - he's hard working makes a difference - a mix of O'Hara/Goss/Slattery/Donnelly is a reasonable midfield - could go crazy and play all 4.

thats a brilliant question, not many have left in their prime and stayed north of the boarder - most have headed back down South. Perhaps Cadden who's taken an indirect route .

Feels like we're often the final nail in managers coffins. In the last few years feels like several gaffers have gone after losing to us. Following Aberdeen can't be much fun, every year need to be 4th or 3rd, without any better prospect. This season they could easily end up top 4 but lack of patience = another manager being booted out. At least we're more realistic about what we're likely to achieve.

happy with this pre match prediction. Safe bet for rest of season. Kelly man of match, player of month, player of the year. The only player assured a start each week.

welcome back folk for this weeks lucky dip, put the squad numbers in a bag and see what you can pull out. Id like to see a core of the team start most weeks if fit. Kelly, Ojala, Sol, S'OD , Slattery, Goss, Tierney VV are amongst our best players , give them time to get to play together and then rotate other depending on form.