weeyin

I agree, but it's a strange quirk of the modern game that full backs don't need to be able to defend. The focus seems to be how well they can bomb up and down the wing. As an ex-left back who was never allowed to cross the half way line, it never seemed a good thing to me.

Exactly.

Not sure how the ownership model affects our defending, but the years we have been relegated we had a different ownership model and spent more money on transfer fees.

Only at Ibrox though. It's not surprising the other half of the OF think we roll over at Ibrox. There's no evidence to suggest otherwise.

When McHugh plays like that it's also a given. He was lucky not to get a straight red in the Livi game, but that only delayed his inevitable walk.

I don't know about that. In the past 20 years our appalling capitulations at Ibrox have been completely unrelated to our form against other teams.

QFT.

"Best chance ever" Copyright - every game at Ibrox since 1998.

I agree we should be happy to get in about them. Regarding the defence, though - that was their experiment with a back 3, and failed spectacularly. It won't be as fragile this time, but with Bigi and Turnbull hopefully in the mix we have some guile in the midfield that can open them up.

Any quotes? (I'm not falling for reading that publication)

I missed him saying that - any quotes?

I was never under any illusions that Bowman was a goal scorer. He was a starter (and deserved his place) because he worked well with Moult, and Moult was scoring the goals. He worked well with Main for a while too, but while Main isn't scoring there was never any chance of Bowman filling that gap. At the very least Main needs to be rested until he finds his form. Arguably, they could both be dropped, but we don't have any other tested combination, so our options are limited there.

He was just paraphrasing a much older quote from a famous statistician about statistics being like a bikini. "What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital"

That makes absolutely no sense except for the precise scenario where we were a goal up and Dundee score with the last kick of the ball.

Conor Sammon scores the winner and lifts his shirt to reveal a white poppy while celebrating by tossing a couple of Euros into a bowler hat.

In the modern game, being comfortable with the ball at your feet, and good distribution are just as important for keepers as the actual goalkeeping part. Carson certainly has those attributes. Given that nobody ever came in for Randolph at his Motherwell peak, however, I have no idea if Carson will get his move. The goalkeeping market seems pretty weird these days - especially down south.

Main hasn't stopped running, but he has noticeably stopped getting himself into scoring positions - and that is also a confidence thing. Strikers will often focus on other parts of their game when they lack scoring form, but that doesn't always help them get back amongst the goals. The great ones are happy to keep shooting until they start scoring again, and not worry about what they screw up. But those guys are few and far between.

Aye, that's why he keeps talking about what a great player he is. Our recent track record is to extend the contracts of the youngsters around the middle of the season and I expect we'll be doing that with Turnbull soon.

Maybe, but it's another couple of examples of Robinson putting youngsters into the first team. (And Hall did play in the U20s for a couple of seasons when he joined us at 16 years old).

Or he could be the be Louis Moult and need a run of consecutive starts before he finds form. (And Fletcher would never have scored the goal Johnson scored against Rangers). Regardless, he has scored the same number of league goals this season as Bowman and Main combined. We need some kind of change up front. Strikers reach a point where persisting with them during a dry spell does them more harm than good. I think Main is close to that point. I imagine he'll still start next week, but during the international break they need to put him in a field with a set of goalposts and just let him keep shooting at an empty net.

Doubt it. He needed a second op. Be amazed if we see him this season and just hope it's not a career ender.

Defence hasn't been great mostly down to individual errors rather than any terrible tactics. We have lacked pace at times when Dunne has been out, but overall not terrible. The Bowman/Maon combo hasn't presented any significant goal threat since the start of the season. I don't expect a ton of goals from Bowman; his role is obviously the grafter - something that worked well when he had Moult beside him. Main is obviously lacking confidence and I think could do with a game or two in the reserves just to get his Mojo back. No doubt he is a hard worker and good off the ball, but we need someone that is scoring and, right now, that's not him. Hopefully one good game will turn his season, but if not, he might end up doing a Fisher - a guy that could score goals, but whose bad run finished his chances at Fir Park.

Nursing a injury from the St Johnstone game, apparently - unrelated to the one that kept him out the previous games.

The MFC TV commentators were joking that even though we have an actual Spaniard in the squad, as far as footballing attributes are concerned, Turnbull is the most Spanish player at Fir Park.

I haven't quite worked out what his position has been the past couple of games. Nominally right back, but has been so advanced most of the time it's been more of an attacking midfielder. Maybe we have invented a new position - False 2. It has certainly worked.