weeyin

"Good going forward, appalling at defending" seems to be the requirements for full backs in the modern game. I've never quite understood it myself, but even the elite teams seem to favour it.

I don't think Moult would have been as productive without him this season. But as I said, if we have to bring in a new striker in Jan, we need to find the right combination again.

So you'd drop someone who is a good foil for our top goalscorer? I agree if we bring in a new striker we'll need to see who is their best striking partner. Playing one up top has never worked for us, and I don't see that changing.

So we're dropping Bowman?

Nobody had a clue who Moult was when we brought him in. All we need to do is the same again. (This scouting lark is a doddle).

You want EPL level refs, pay EPL level wages. Of course, given the standard there in recent times, all that means is you get more expensive mistakes. Plenty of howlers in that league this season.

The big benefit of selling Moult (rather than losing him on a pre-contract) is we can negotiate add-ons. So even if he was sold for what we payed for him (50k, I think was the figure), the add-ons could pull in a tidy sum.

Plummer plays centre back too, so if he is to play, a straight swap would cause minimal disruption. Or Dunne could move there and Hammell come in on the left. I'm not convinced Bowman / Fisher would work, but not unconvinced either.

Apart from the obvious concern of losing Moult, we haven't really had much of a chance to work out the best formation of our other attackers. At least we have some options, though.

I agree with that. I'd rather we paid a living wage to everyone rather then minimum wage.

That is a thing of beauty.

The thing is, it doesn't matter who knows what if there is an error. That's what "error" means. Last year, my company made an administrative error in reporting tax for employees in our Connecticut office but lived in New York. The mistake was made by a 3rd party payroll company whose entire job consists of paying people and managing deductions. It took them 8 months to fix.

They should just have kept it closed until it's completely finished (which is 2018, apparently)

He's probably about the best they can afford.

In his latest interview Robinson says they already have January targets lined up - partly to freshen the squad and partly to replace anyone that leaves. He didn't mention Moult specifically, but I think that was being implied.

Pretty sure it would have ben Levein (as Director of Football) that was responsible for most of those signings. He's just pretending they're not his fault.

I didn't see anybody, including me, say we "need" Celtic. Just that it would be mental to want less money than already receive. Far too many OF fans in the boards around the cou ntry to see them kicked out of our league. If they do ever leave, it will be of their own volition. And as nice as that would be, there's not many would want them.

The only thing worse than having to tolerate the OF in our league would be having the OF in our league and not benefitting financially. So let Celtic generate as much revenue for us as possible please, or kick the pair of them out to join another league.

Wouldn't be as much fun if we didn't have pantomime villains. It's just some entertainment, though. To distract us from the real villains leading us up shit creek.

The media requires no manipulation. The majority of the media depends on fans of the OF for their readership and financial wellbeing. They need to manufacture controversy and clicks to keep them coming back. Even more so in this age of manufactured outrage on social media. Rodgers is also in CYA mode after some embarrassing results in the Champions League. "Oh look over there" is his basic strategy to deflect his own fans from turning on him for a few feeble efforts. That whole environment is toxic. I remember Davie Hay when he was managing us as being open, friendly and very entertaining in his interviews. After a couple of months in the Celtic hotseat he turned into a miserable bugger, sniping away at everyone. When he moved on, he was all sweetness and light again.

Who cares? Managers roll out the same old spiel very week to pander to their own fans (and employer). I fast forward through post-match interviews so often, I've almost lost track of who even manages some teams, never mind what they are saying.

3 games against this mob in 6 days takes it's toll. We have a deeper squad than last season, but nothing like as deep as Celtic. We took 4pts from 9 against the top 2 teams which isn't terrible. I think today he wanted to try and give a 3rd different look, but we just don't have that many options. A win next week will get us back on track.

Aye, much better defence after he came on.

I'd be delighted with any points from this game, but don't mind if we lose this and win at Tynecastle next week.

He was also right about far too much focus on refs detracting from a couple of good performances from the team. Time to start looking forward to this one and see if we can get more points. 4 from Aberdeen away and Celtic at home is better than I had hope for.