Kmcalpin

I'd heard that Shankland was on £4k per week at Tannadice but hadn't heard about the signing on fee. Crazy money, which United can't afford.

Probably also some acquired tickets from season ticket holders & family members. Worth pointing out that our fans can take note of the seats and report them to the office afterwards.

I didn't make the game yesterday and so can't comment in detail. However, as someone posted on P & B perhaps we don't have the players to implement the manager's current system 4-3-3 system? Maybe the new lads will settle in and get fully match fit and that will change. Robbo has said that most of the forward players he's brought in "can play anywhere across the front 3" but I'm not sure exactly what that means. Jack of all trades master of none? We are short of an out and out striker and thats been apparent for some time. We also seem to be short of a solid defensive midfielder. Hopefully both deficiencies will be addressed before the window slams shut. They do need to be. Like others I was surprised at the line up, playing with 2 wingers, leaving the middle struggling. Did Robbo know beforehand that Hylton and Seedorf weren't 100% fit? If so, that was quite a risk to take. The bottom line is that he got the line up and tactics wrong on the day. I'm not saying he was responsible for the defeat, as I think we would have lost anyway, given individual errors and the fact that Celtic are a far better team. An interesting comment from Spiderpig above. Many fans were and are calling for us to ditch a more cautious style of football for more entertaining expansive football and I get that but sometimes I think you have to take the middle road. Maybe a significant number of our support went home happy yesterday having been entertained by 2 attacking teams but I'm sure an equally large number would have been p****d off at losing 5 goals.

Some in the POD Stand would have been complimentaries (players' relatives and friends).

Yes, its a fine balance. Our midfield will be crucial. It has to compete and get in Celtic's faces, thereby shielding our defence and certainly not defending too deeply. Not only that the wingers have to link up with the lone striker, to ensure he's not left isolated. Is Long suited to that role? We'll find out soon enough. I'm concerned that although Grimshaw has a good engine, he is suspect defensively. Its all to play for and we can get a result, but a few factors will need to go in our favour.

Either its a yellow card or it isn't. SFA should make its mind up.

Good post. In answer to your question, when the current system was first introduced, the then Compliance Officer said publicly that he would consider evidence from all sources; none would be excluded. I sent in 2 examples. The first showed footage of a St Johnstone defender punching one of our attackers off the ball at a corner kick. I received no acknowledgement and no action was taken. I then sent in a second one a few months later and again I received no acknowledgement and no action was taken. Anyone is free to send in evidence but it won't be accepted. In short, its trial by television highlight. So, its down to Television company staff which incidents are shown or excluded and which are highlighted.

In a word yes.

Unless each Compliance Officer works differently they do indeed work from highlights. The previous incumbent said publicly that his staff reviewed highlights footage at the start of the week following weekend games and flagged up potential cases for him to assess and perhaps action.

In isolation, yes. However I'm unfortunately confident that we, as fans, will see equally bad challenges/tackles/assaults this season, which the media won't choose to highlight or are ignored by the Compliance Officer. As Wellowell says above its all about consistency. For me the disclipinary system has been inconsistent for years now.

Its very much up to the media who decide what incidents to show and what ones to highlight. The whole system is farcical. We'll see if this decision sets a standard for the season......I'm not holding my breath.

I think the card colour can be changed but only if the referee admits to making a mistake in his report.

He got a special mention by the media pundits

On your first point ...fully agree. As for building a team to counter Livi...no. You'll also find Accies play the same way as might Ross County. I'm not suggesting for a minute that a highly focused desire to beat teams like Livingston and Accies should shape our team building and transfer business. You also have teams like Aberdeen and Hearts who have never been known for being shrinking violets. What I am suggesting is that a need to compete against all the teams in the Premiership should shape our squad building. Whilst we want to maintain consistency of team selection, I'm a great fan of horses for courses. Although we have a limited budget we should aim to have a well balanced squad capable of playing competitively against all other teams in the league. There are occasions when you may want, by default, to play open entertaining football but there are also occasions on which you might want to play more defensively or aggressively. The most successful teams can play virtually any way they need to. I don't doubt for a minute, that should they be minded to, top English Premier League clubs could come to Fir Park (probably beneath them right enough), to win by kicking hell out of us, knowing full well we couldn't match their hardman tactics. In short a squad should be built, in a balanced way, to try to compete with a range of different opponents.

A good point. We've yet to see what Sloth can do of course and the new players will need time to settle in. My definition of a physical player is one who can win more 50/50 challenges than he loses; can shrug off heavy tackles whilst still retaining the ball, and is decent in the air. Its not about being dirty or being a 6'3" hammer thrower. I'm sure that all of the teams who finished in the top 6 last year would outmuscle Livingston. That said, you do need a balance in midfield and not all need to be hard hatchet men. David Turnbull, skilled though he is, can hold his own physically for example. If you can outmuscle the Livingston's of the world then you can dictate the nature of the game; if you can't then they will call the shots.

In other words we have to have players capable of winning 50/50 challenges against teams like Livingston and Accies on their plastic pitches. Of course we have to have a mix of players also to retain possession and create. If we can't compete there then we have to rely on hoofball but we don't have the players for that. It all gets back to Robbo's earning the right to play. If we can't compete in central midfield then that puts the defence under a lot of pressure and leaves the striker isolated. If the opposition choose to play physically on these pitchess how do we compete or avoid getting involved or pickig up injuries?

Overall a decent result and a clean sheet on an abomination of pitch. More teams than us will struggle against Livingston on their pitch. Its a game we could well have lost in the past. Perhaps our tactics and line up weren't suited to the conditions and as a few commentators have implied as it wasn't the venue for fast open wing play. Sometimes you need to engage in the footballing equivalent of hand to hand combat but we don't seem to have the squad to do that on these plastic pitches. In short, admirable though our intentions were, it wasn't a day for exciting football. Our young management duo will have learnt from their errors. Early days of course but nothing that happened today changed my opinion that we're short of an out and out "number 9" striker with some physical presence. Hopefully we'll see one coming in shortly. I'm also not sure that our central midfield is right. Maybe a fully fit Sloth will improve matters and I'm still not convinced Donnelly is the man for the defensive midfield role. All in all an acceptable start result wise.

That was always going to be a danger. We've seen this before. We need to instill some fight and solidity at half time. Livvy are being allowed to play the game as they want. Sounds as though midfield isn't performing the basics.

Yes while a win would be great a draw would represent a decent result. Livingston topped their League Cup group with 11 points so will be no pushovers. A very tough game in prospect. My fear is lack of firepower and an exposed defence, but I hope I'm wrong. Solidity and reliablity will be every bit as important as flair and skill. We're more than capable of taking something from this match but whether we do so is another matter.

They shouldn't have to Andy. To save any hassle, they should open them up as soon as the stadium itself opens. They don't need to open up vast areas. How often do we see large sections of a stand at an away ground cordoned off and our travelling support hemmed/sardined/penned into a very restricted area causing unnecessary hassle. How often have we seen this at Hamilton and Livingston, for example, where we've seen fans arguing/pleading with slow acting stewards to open up other areas? At Fir Park, supports other than those of the gruseome twosome are typically given a generous area in which to sit - why can't other clubs do the same? A pet grouse of mine.

Exactly. It was a sham consultation along the same lines as the proposed Edinburgh Congestion Charge of a few years ago i.e. you ask Group A if they are happy for Group B to pay more. Of course they'll say yes.

Did the Accies directors seek feedback from our fans? If so I missed it.

That makes sense, so long as we're not sardined in as usual.

So, irrespective of the crowd, we're being restricted to Section L, gates 11 and 12. Couldn't they allocate a little bit more seating?

If everyone is fit (apart from Cole), that would be my team.