Kmcalpin

In effect, what you're suggesting is that AJ changes his preferred style of play.

Watching the TV highlights once again I noticed that St Johnstone had another free header early on from which they should have scored. That would have been 2-0 and game over. An interesting post from Al B on P & B. I, and others, have been questioning our new recruits. However, he suggests that they're not being asked to do what they and similar players were being asked to do last season. "Continuity" is a red herring. Thats a valid point. Are the instructions they're being given questionable? Food for thought.

I agree about Priestman but am not so sure about McGinn. He'll be a year older, missed pre season and has been out with a lengthy and serious injury. What McGinn will we see? Are we expecting too much of him?

I hope you can understand why many fans are brassed off and have run out of patience with AJ. He's a decent guy by all accounts and has moved his young family here to take up the manager's job. I get all of that, as there's a human side to this story. However, the future health of our club is at stake, and with it the careers of other employees. Can I ask you, if this run continues, how long would you wait before taking action? Would you give him the season for example?

If we can't manage a win on Saturday, then the Directors must bite the bullet and quickly. That would then give them a bit of breathing space during the international break to get the recruitment process moving. Maybe even a win by itself isn't enough, as Wellfan rightly points out elsewhere. A scrambled win would simply paper over the cracks and kick the can down the road.

Thats it for me. We have some decent players but they are poorly coached and organised. They are also low on confidence. You have to ask though what have Max Rogers and the coaching staff been doing?

A must win game for sure. If we don't achieve that then its taxi for Alf. A nice guy but sentiment can't be allowed to damage the club. Atmosphere will be very tense to say the least.

This. A very costly error of judgement.

Get in!!

Its not quite make or break but I agree its a must not lose game.

Alf is sticking to his guns.

My late father was at the game and got drenched. If I'm right, Hibs crushed us at Fir Park the week before and were rightly odds on favourites for the cup. Make of that what you will.

I think I'm right in saying that St Johnstone were 10th when he took over and expectations were very limited. They'd only picked up 4 points from 7 games.

Its a broad comment about footballers in general. It goes on.

A Dundee supporting friend says he was highly thought of at Dens Park. A very committed player, who would run through a brick wall for the team.

Apparently, if some players are carrying a knock they'll play through the pain barrier whilst others won't. I think it was either Steven Pressley or Tony Doherty who said that.

Often when things are not going well in a workplace, employees take more sick time off. Could that be an issue here? Not saying it is; just playing devil's advocate. Maybe if a player is 50/50 just now he'll be less motivated than if we were on a good run.

We're currently struggling to score goals and I think a major reason for that is our recruitment of strikers, which has been less than impressive even under JBA. Maybe its related to the way we play. Hendry, a permacrock, has never been a goalscorer, more of a facilitator. Thor looks to be the same type of player although he's never had a run of games. Palmer-Houlden again looks to be a facilitator rather than a goalscorer. Now this type of player is fine if you have others able to score from deeper positions but we currently don't. JT was scoring for fun early last season and covered up the cracks, but his goals have dried up. Now, you could justifiably attribute some of our goalscoring problems and form of our strikers down to lack of support from midfield and you'd be right. In fairness, goalscorers are hard to find and don't come cheap, but right now we don't even seem to have a 10 goal a season striker. A big questionmark hovers over our striker recruitment policy.

Yes it does. If we look at Thor, Palmer-Houlden and Hendry,for example, none are out and out goalscorers. More a Ryan Bowman type rather than a Louis Moult. Maybe the first 2 are looked upon more as projects. The last goalscorer type we signed was Ap Stam. I've assumed, maybe wrongly it has to be said, that our 3 current strikers were signed with a view to them creating chances for others.

Not sure about that. If rumours are circulating its not unreasonable to discuss them on this forum. Some details, of course, should be left out. Its important though to treat them as rumours and not facts. Alfred seems a decent sort and you do feel for him. We want him and the team to succeed. However, sometimes in life things don't work out. That is life. There is a whole range of opinions in our support, and its not unreasonable for supporters to express their emotions when things go badly wrong like losing 6 consecutive games. As long as we avoid abuse. Apathy is our enemy. Football is an emotional game.

Maybe but not by very much. If we continue on this very poor run when would you sack him? For the record, I'm in favour of giving him another 2 games, both winnable on paper. If we continue to show patience and the poor run continues, hitting 12th place in the process and a gap opens up to 11th place do we continue to do nothing? It may well be that our manager, whoever that may be, will want to do some business in the January window. Do we hold off until then? Even if we hold off taking action until December thats very tight, given our lengthy appointment process. leaving a new man little time to settle in. I doubt if our manager will have anything near a full squad at his disposal this season. On top of that, you have the fans to consider. If we continue on this abysmal run, the fans will vote with their feet. Sometimes mistakes get made in the appointment process; it happens. Its looking very likely that the club has made one.

I'd give him the next 2 games. Anything less than 4 points though and he should be relieved of his duties. As you say, a new manager would need a couple of months before the window opens. As it stands, we're in freefall.

Irrespective of what SOD did, he wasn't the reason we were beaten. We need to look at the bigger picture.

I had hoped we'd ditched that experiment. Last time he played there he was totally ineffective.

Certainly a few surprises there. If we're short of a right back McGhee has played there often enough, but he's in midfield.