weeyin

He came back to us after that, though. Then Arsenal recalled him when it looked like they needed a backup striker, but shifted him to Austria instead.

I like Spittal, but wouldn't start him ahead of Slattery, Watt, Fadinger or Just.

My favourite quote was when Iain Ferguson was talking about the Dundee Utd jinx of always losing in the final. "I don't believe in jinxes, but I hope it continues".

St Johnstone were a bit lucky when they won the double, but made the most of the weirdness of that entire season.

To be fair, there are complaints about paper based ticketing too (price of postage, lost in mail, having to collect from office, copies and fraud etc.) The biggest challenge is almost always the transition period between the old and the new technologies. That takes some expertise and additional support resources - neither of which appear to be in abundance at the SFA.

Not sure how much difference PPV makes to a crowd on a Wednesday night given how many fans are season ticket holders these days. Most overseas fans already have this included our MFC TV subscription, so not much benefit there, but I imagine a few Utd fans who can't travel will take advantage. I suppose the thought behind it is that it will be a net gain to the revenue, but it's unclear under what circumstances we can even offer PPV to UK based fans when other games are being played at the same time.

I assume you're not going to the game then, as that sounds like a waste of a ticket.

sJHHI- should Just Have Hit It

Cheers for that. Interesting to see Longelo has an xG of 2.55. Not bad for a defender.

Would love to see it reinstated. It wouldn't take long to eradicate that tactic.

They style we are playing is more about keeping possession and finding the right shot, rather than shooting on sight, so I'd expect it to be a little lower. As much as I hate some of the new stats, xG might be more interesting.

I think that was superseded by the red card for the "obvious goal scoring opportunity" and its various criteria. I can't remember the exact wording for the (relatively new) yellow card "tactical" foul, but it's something to do with stopping an attack rather than a goal. EDIT: found the IFAB Law 12 wording about the yellow card commits any other offence which interferes with or stops a promising attack

The club is saying there will be more Well fans at this semi "than there was 12 months ago for our last semi-final" - but, of course, no figures yet.

I'd love to see a rule change where instead of an automatic yellow, a straight red is given to players who "tactically" foul a breakaway player in the middle of the park. One of my pet hates that has crept more and more into the modern game.

I said before VAR was introduced, I thought it would be terrible. First, because of the interminable delays of the game, and second, because the same officials would still make poor, just different, decisions looking at video. It's actually been worse than I thought on both counts. There's no point saying it got one decision right and ignoring the 10 that it missed or got wrong. I'd like to see the stats, but my impression is that there has not been any reduction in the overall number of incorrect decisions since it arrived.

No rush, unless you're planning on going to Hampden on Wednesday.

That's a single data point. If you look at all the issues with VAR across every game since it was introduced, I'd say it was an overall negative - including plenty of times when it has cost us points. I enjoy watching lower league games in England and Scotland without VAR. Ref (and linesman) make a decision and everybody has to move on quickly, because the game moves on without delay. And if ref makes a controversial call, players and managers yell for a few seconds and again have to move on, because the game has moved on. Even better, when someone scores, ref has a quick glance to lineman and goal is immediately awarded. Simple.

VAR checks every goal scored regardless of what the linesman says. I don't have any issue with factual interpretations - my suggestion is the law needs to be changed to revert to the spirit of it. You could still either be on or off; just use different criteria. Actually, I'd prefer to ditch VAR, but if we are stuck with it, the laws need to adapt to keep up with the technology.

That's yet another weakness. The minimum number of required cameras is a joke. I'd also argue the offside rule isn't fit for purpose now VAR is being used. It was designed to prevent teams sticking a player in the box for 90 minutes and punting long balls to them. It wasn't intended to rule out goals when someone's big toe is half a centimetre ahead of the defenders's big toe. But that is a different discussion.

As good as our midfield can be, Slattery makes a big difference. Watt, Fadinger, Just and Slattery is a perfect balance,

He'll be injured by then anyway, so no sweat.

It doesn't just get into their heads, it's awful to play on and when you don't train on it every week can be difficult to adapt to. When the ball has strange bounces and passes get stuck, things that players do instinctively on grass need a little extra thought to adjust - and that slows things down. Killie's pitch is worse, and if you can bear to watch a game on there, you will often see players having to take 2 touches to control a bouncing ball that they would normally have tamed in their sleep. Plus, it's easy for teams to make it difficult for passing sides but making sure it's kept dry and sticky. The worst example of that I saw was at an Accies game where they literally watered the half Accies were attacking into at half time, and kept the other half dry. Can't get rid of it soon enough.

I'm no mathematician, but...

VAR 1 - 2 Motherwell' Take your pick...

Aye, I can see why he might have wanted to come back to play in the UK, but given Derby's recent troubles on and off the park, that always felt like a bad move. There must have been better options available from a footballing perspective.