weeyin

Apart from his tackling, passing and closing down space what has he ever done for us? He's the only midfielder that looks like he knows what he's doing. Once he had 6 months first team action under his belt he'll be undroppable.

It was always going to be a struggle to rebuild the midfield when Wee Al left the club, and we still haven't found the right blend. He did the work of two men in there and was usually on hand to clean up any mistakes.

My biggest issue with the defence is lack of consistency in personnel. Whether by circumstance or design, I'm not sure now often we've fielded the same starters in 2 consecutive games. Having that consistency and understanding as a unit is vital, and until we are able to establish a settled back line, we'll struggle to keep clean sheets.

From Gretna 2008's website:

I like Mugabi, but even when O'Donnell is just average, he offers a width and crossing ability the Mugabi doesn't. The last thing we need is less width.

Thing is, if Adams and Dykes are out, the list of Scottish strikers has me at seventh.

Kircaldy?

If we can keep it to a one goal deficit until half time we might be able to change things up in the second half. I'm not really surprised at the moment, though, as Celtic aren't nearly as bad as some like to think, and they were able to bring back 5 additional players to the squad over the international break. We need to get out of the habit of slow starts, though.

"I know - let's stand off their player and see if he can score from there"

If you don't have access to MFC TV then it looks like there's a link on hesgoal.com

TBH, I'm not sure tomorrow's Ross Count vs St Mirren game will be as high quality as last week's UEFA Nations League semis - both of which were world class entertainment.

Depends on your generation, I suppose, but as someone who grew up watching Scotland play in the 1974 finals and many more after that, I like to see Scotland do well. There used to be nothing better than a full crowd at Hampden for a qualifier, and our home record was excellent. When the team was doing well, there was the same kind of buzz across the country that there is across Motherwell when we are on a good cup run. The start of our downfall was the Bosman era. Combined with things like S-Form signings being abandoned, clubs just started bringing in lots of cheap alternatives from overseas and paid little attention to development of home grown players. When Scotland were doing well, we always had a sprinkling of world class players who were playing regularly in the top European competitions. Then we went through a couple of decades where we didn't produce one. We have a stronger squad now, but when the rot sets in, it's difficult to turn around. At least when the rot sets in at a club, a new manager can bring in different players and work with them on a daily basis to change things - and even then success rates aren't high. When the rot sets in at international level, a new manager doesn't have the luxury of a different pool of players, and a lot of the better ones don't want to play because of the damage it does to their prospects. The Bosman impact has slowly reduced the past few years and its no surprise that we are starting to see a better level of home grown talent. We actually have international class footballers in the team again, including guys like Robertson who have won the Champions League. Steve Clarke was never going to turn us into a free flowing clone of the Spanish national team, but he always had a good chance of changing the mentality of the players and finding a way to make us difficult to beat. Same as he did at Kilmarnock. It's taken a while, because the international team setup was rotten to the core, but he gets nothing but my admiration for taking the players that we had to the Euros. I agree we only played one decent game out of our three, but it's a learning experience. Euros are a step up, and it's a whole new experience trying to get out a of group. This isn't like the club competitions where if you get knocked out a Champions League qualifier you get into the Europa Cup with multiple chances. Scotland have had better teams with better players and had better results and still not managed to get out of their group. (In 1974 we were the first team ever in the World Cup to go undefeated and not make it out of the group stages). So I'm delighted we have an international team that is at least competitive again. Even more important is that players want to get selected again, and that has a knock on effect at club level. Liam Kelly said one of the reasons he came back to Fir Park was the hope of international recognition, so even if fans don't care as much about that, it was to our benefit as a club. Of course, the domestic game is the bread and butter, and even after some classic nights at Hampden you often hear "back to to real games on Saturday" - but when you have a competitive international side, it can be an entertaining distraction. My biggest complaint is the international breaks in the league campaign, but those would happen regardless of how well or poorly the Scotland team is performing.

First known use, according to my online dictionary, was 1974. I don't read much into these stats as it's a tiny sample size. Need a much bigger data set before any significant conclusions can be drawn.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't a severance package to tide him over until the next window.

Given how many players we have 1 booking away from a suspension (including O'Donnell) Clarke might be trying to make sure he has players available for the Moldova game too. You only need to yellows to miss a game in these groups.

I'm old enough to remember when the chat on here was that Lawless was an example of a player we shouldn't have released. Having said that - he has spent 9 years playing in the top Scottish League, which is a decent career that many players we released would have been happy with. I'm not surprised we punted him he left by mutual consent after his recent shenanigans.

The official site said only 150 left first thing Tuesday morning, so they might all be gone by now. I see live streaming is available for those that miss out.

Given his record, I'm always happy to give Clarke the benefit of the doubt with his formations and tactics - even when it comes to O'Donnell vs Patterson. Playing McTominay in back 3, however, is a head-scratcher. He's tried a few times to squeeze him in there and apart from 1 game, he's always been the weak link - even more in a 3 vs a 4.

I don't even think he lost focus or interest. The entire team was floundering for most of that season and his form dropped about the same as the rest - apart from maybe Polworth, who chucked it sooner.

Good job from Patterson there to keep the ball alive instead of clearing it, leading up to that goal. (Did I mention he was poor at defending?)

Patterson didn't make an appearance at Dens and wasn't exactly stellar in the Hibs game. Clarke usually tweaks his formation with specific game plans in mind, however, and I'd guess he is expecting to be on the front foot for this one. In which case Patterson makes sense as he is good going forward - not so good defensively.

It's back to the old story - particularly for keepers - do you want to play games or do you want to earn more cash. Randolph did the same when he left regular first team football at Middlesbrough to rejoin West Ham as a backup.

Ironic given the Tommy Coyne avatar, as I remember him getting even better a his international career progressed and after his participation in the World Cup finals.

I didn't realize you were from Aberdeen.

I'll cheer him if he does the same fullback trick he pulled in his last European tie.