Kmcalpin

There's more to this than most, if not all of us know, and given your track record OTF, I don't doubt you're right. Good luck to DT as he appears to have done right by us. Seems a talented and decent lad. However, he's now an ex player and we need to move on asap. Money wise this will really help the club. I've no idea what the actual fee is but would be disappoined if it wasn't a minimum of £3m guaranteed cash with an add on for appearances and the like. A sell on clause as well please. If Cedric moves on that will also net us an additional fee.

Surely you recall the Girvan Lighthouse?

Our strikers haven't excelled so far but the service they have received has been abysmal. This isn't the time to judge them. If service to them improves and they still don't deliver then they will deserve criticism.

When do we play Celtic next?

I would sincerely hope not. We don't know of course what clauses are contained in DT's improved deal. I'd hope though that our default position would be the same fee as agreed last year. Not sure why the current economic crisis would would influence the fee. You could also take a different view i.e. the player is now older and slightly more experienced; he's now on a larger salary; and also he's had potential knee problems addressed so we're now looking for an increased fee.

Time will tell. Like him or not, O'Hara would replace Campbell as the box to box player. Polworth would replace Turnbull, as he did reasonably successfully for most of last season (I'm not saying he's of the same standard BTW). Donnelly is your defensive midfielder. Jamie Semple when fit would be the attacking back up and Dean Cornelius would be our defensive back up. I'd like to see the latter pair given their chance if developments permit. By no means certain, but it was always on the cards we'd lose one of Turnbull and Campbell, or indeed both, during the window.

A fair summing up. I'm not convinced that our players can play in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Just a thought. Maybe, just maybe, the team will play better without him. I got the feeling that everything had to go through him on Saturday. Perhaps the others will step up and play more as a team. Then again maybe not.

So would we have any say in the matter? What if Celtic was to offer say £2.0 million and we felt that an English club would better that next month could we say thanks but no thanks? It may not be a bad thing if he was to move on quickly (for the right price of course). For the best of reasons, his contribution to results this season has been limited and on Saturday's evidence, the team might play better without him, in that the others might play more as a team rather than trying to channel everything through him. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Presumably the club will receive a one off fee for for this game from Premier Sports?

We were playing 4-2-3-1 late last season and it wasn't successful. Maybe Robbo thought it was worth persevering with it but it just needed a bit of fine tuning personnel wise to make it work. Five games into the new season and its very plain that tweaking the personnel hasn't made the system work. He now needs a major rethink starting with Thursday evening. Not the best time to switch tactics granted.

Good post. We have pacy wingers so why not feed them early and let them run at the retreating/slightly disorganised defence? Our central build up is far too slow and deliberate......shades of the Ged Brannan days. By the time the wingers get the ball they are well covered by 2 defenders. Hylton has one asset, pace, and he's not being afforded the opportunity to use it. I have my doubts about White but he isn't being used correctly. We play frequent short balls to him, often in the air, when he's being closely policed by 2 defenders. There are no midfielders close enough to support him. It wouldn't make any difference if we deployed Watt or Long in that role as none of our strikers are suited to it. The crossing yesterday, with very few exceptions, was poor and gratefully gobbled up by defenders.

There's no doubt Robbo is under pressure but he's always managed to turn things around in our darkest hour so far. In such times, he's usually changed our set up and thats what is required now. The 4-2-3-1 set just isn't working especially against teams who sit in. I'm no tactician but this formation seems to be a modern fad. The problem we have is that we just don't have the players to play this way...echoes of Jim Gannon. Doing some reading up on it, a disadvantage of this formation is that its easy for the opposition to whip over crosses into the box, putting the central defence under pressure, unless the 2 full backs get out and to nullify opponents (which we don't do). The 3 midfielders behind the striker need to work closely together to create, which they are not doing. The formation also relies on a clinical striker - do we have one? Even playing to his strengths, this isn't Jordan White's game. Individual player's performances aside, Robbo needs to come up with a system, and quickly, that plays to the strengths of his squad. If we beat Glentoran, then Robbo still has a mountain to climb. As others have said, give him until the end of the first round of fixtures, equating to mid October to turn us around. So far we are not adrift at the bottom which is at least something in our favour.

Patience. Surely he knew he was being signed as a replacement for Turnbull? If things go according to plan DT will leave before the window closes in October or in January.

Almost certainly, you're right Iain. On paper we're a stronger side than last season, especially as David Turnbull is returning. Our striking options looked good on paper. Like most folk, I was optimistic before the first ball was kicked. However, something somewhere has gone wrong and badly wrong. We had a poor end to last season, our pre season was poor and our results so far this campaign have been shocking. Certainly injuries haven't helped. We are too predictable, and although we have pace in the side we aren't using it, opting instead for a more patient build through the middle. Comparisons with Stuart McCall's last season are alarming (Handsome Devil, Fir Park Corner). Has Robbo run out of ideas? Whatever the reason behind our poor form, we can't simply write off as being one of those things. He has some credit left in the bank for finishing 3rd last year and reaching 2 finals a few years ago but that is now evaporating quickly.

That formation would leave Lamie and O’Donnell brutally exposed.

Is there a null vote option Andy?

Spot on sir. Its all very well criticising our striker but if the midfield isn't creating chances there's little he can do. All too frequently White was outnumbered in the middle with no support. Turnbull looked comfortable in possession but created almost nothing. He is also playing too deep. It'll take him some weeks yet to regain his creativity. Seedorf and Lang might have done better if the central midfield had given them the ball earlier and allowed them to run at defenders. Our build, up was far too laboured, predicatble and slow.

We knew Accies would sit in and they did. Whats more they looked comfortable throughout. Fulton was busy but didn't really have to produce fantastic saves. Possession wise yes we should have won but Accies were the more dangerous. Its not all about quantity of possession; rather quality. When under pressure, Accies looked comfortable for the most part but when we were under pressure we looked shaky and rattled.

I think its telling Iain that despite all our possession, courtesy largely of Accies tactics, that they created 4 very good chances i.e. more than we did. Its not all about quantity of possession its about quality of possession, defending and finishing.

Mark O'Hara is playing out of position; he's not a defensive midfielder. Jordan White is suffering from very poor service and the defence is good for at least 1 if not more soft goals per game. We need to work far harder in preventing crosses in the first place.

Credit to Accies they were the better side and looked comfortable throughout. We couldn't match their work rate, competitiveness or organisation and they should have won far more comfortably having created the best 4 chances of the game, despite all our possession. We lost as a team and questions need to be asked not just of our strikers but also our midfield and defence.

We're terrible at the back.

Did anyone replace Jordan White?

Centre midfield has been ok, in possession, but lacked creativity in feeding White and the 2 wide men. They need to get the ball out wide that bit quicker and let Lang and Seedorf hit the by line. As things stand, the game could easily go either way.