Kmcalpin

Thats very true. Maybe lack of managerial continuity has led to them being extensions or another chance to prove themselves. The close season after we finished 2nd was the time to refresh the squad and we didn't do it. For years now the midfield and in particular the central midfield has needed major surgery but that never happened. Despite losing barrowloads of goals the defence was never cleared out. These failings are not peculiar to Mark McGhee who has only been here a few months.

The are numerous reasons for our present predicament, but for me the seeds of it were sown under previous managers. Some players, "stalwarts" like Hammell and Lasley should not have been awarded new contracts by Stuart McCall. When they re-signed their best days were clearly past them and the manager should have looked forward a further 2 years to anticipate how they would be performing in their mid 30s. Other players like Josh Law and Stephen McManus should not have been signed or awarded extended deals. Now thats 75% of our defence and 25% of our midfield. When Mark McGhee returned he had very little scope to bring in his own players. Since MMcG returned something clearly has gone wrong whether its low confidence, dressing room unrest, wrong tactics or whatever. I'm tempted to think that MMcG is doing a Jim Gannon and asking players to do things to which they are not suited or capable of carrying out. He denies this. Today's game at our level, like it or not, requires athletic fit players charging around the pitch in an organised fashion and positional awareness. The lack of these qualities is costing us big time. Our losses have been characterised by players not tracking attackers, not harrying and closing opponents down, lack of off the ball movement and lack of confidence. Its pitiful to watch Skippy jostling with huge defenders twice his size for balls played short or in the air with no colleague in sight to support him. Surely all these qualities are basics? Most of us are not asking for skillful or exciting football simply the boring essentials right now and the players just don't seem capable of delivering them.

I'm sorry but that midfield would get steamrollered. Neither McFadden nor Lasley have any pace. That said our options are limited. I think we have to go with Johnson, Gomis, Lasley and Cadden - even that formation will struggle.

For which position? Right back, left back or centre back?

I wouldn't go quite so far as to say that he is one of the main reasons for our poor form, no single player is, but you have a point. He is not a Premiership level player end of. In fairness to him though the likes of Hammell, Lasley and McManus are also playing very poorly. Pearson is going through a bad spell in no small part because of the role he's being asked to play. As far as Luke Watt is concerned, there must be a reason why he's not being given a chance.

I'd add to that the shocking service he is receiving. He's a player who likes to run at a defence so give him decent balls in front of him that he can run onto. Countless times yesterday he was given the ball while being tightly marked by two defenders. Irritatingly he was also given far too many passes a yard or so behind him. If we can sort that out he'll shine.

I wish we could drop more players for this one but we can't. Hopefully young Ben Hall will be back but that still leaves a weak defence, especially at full back. Other things being equal maybe give Luke Watt a run at right back? Chalmers is no better than Hammell. Midfield picks itself or should do, but the mix of Johnson, Cadden, Lasley and Gomis doesn't look right. Johnson has to play the full 90 minutes. Hopefully we'll resort to 4-4-2. It may be primordial in some folks' eyes but it is our best formation. We have to travel to Dundee with some fire and fight in our bellies and run for 90+ minutes. We have to protect Ripley at all costs, something we're remarkably poor at doing. We have to harry, hassle and annoy United and if we can do that a 0-0 draw isn't beyond us. Make no mistake all that will be a tall order on the basis of this season's form.

We were certainly diabolical today with few in the management team or on the park deserving much credit. When I heard the team at 2.00 I groaned - why on earth were we going 4-5-1 (or some similar formation) with a lone striker in the form of MacDonald. Its never worked before and it sure as hell didn't work today. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to work out the results - a lone isolated striker; and a very deep midfield. We wasted the first 45 minutes with this horrible formation, with hardly one effort on goal. As more than a few commented, the midfielders didn't seem to know what they were meant to be doing. Ainsworth and Cadden don't play well together and this was again borne out. why leave out our top scorer? The right change was made at half time but the players ensured that it didn't succeed. Ripley was the only player who received full pass marks from me. Cadden had a funny kind of game - overall not bad with some good runs but interspersed with some bad decision making and naive defending; but he's young and he'll learn. I exempt MacDonald, Moult and Johnson given that their service was abysmal. Thomas looked impressive when he came on but his final ball again let him down. The defence had an absolute shocker with Hammell in particular looking culpable at both goals, ably assisted by McManus. Law simply looks out of his depth at this level. Pearson had a poor game and Gomis looked erratic. Ainsworth didn't seem to know what he doing. Would Keith Lasley have made any difference? In short no. As an aside I've never seen us take so many poor corners. Killie worked far harder off the ball to close us down whilst we afforded them the time and space to entertain their fans. Their much criticised defence protected their keeper very well. Its hard to say where we go from here. Again it was our experienced players like McManus, Hammell, Pearson and Law who let us down.

Only player in contention for me was Conor Ripley.

Yes, he'll be missed. The game badly needs huge characters like him to create a bit of atmosphere. In a playing sense it'll be neither here nor there.

Yes, I think it has to be 4-4-2. Midfield as usual will raise questions for us. I'd like to see Pearson play in an attacking role, which he is best suited to. Gomis would play in the defensive role so that leaves Cadden, Ainsworth, Johnson and Lasley vying for the other 2 places. I'd probably start with Johnson as Cadden and Ainsworth are both right sided. Decisions decisions!

Just noticed that a woman who smashed a plastic tumbler into a man's face (he required 4 stitches just above his eye) was given a £250 fine and ordered to pay £250 compensation. Just like referee's decisions our sentencing policy is totally inconsistent. A custodial sentence in this case would have been fully justified.

Yes, according to the media everyone loves Partick Thistle.

Not quite sure where this came from. He publicly acknowledged errors in the Ross County game. I don't recall Ian Baraclough, Stuart McCall or Craig Brown acknowledging their errors.

How far back should we go? 3 years? Maybe 5 years? What about 20 years? Times have moved on so should the BBC.

No problem with him leaving us for more cash but allegedly he or his agent tried to hoodwink the fans by saying that he wanted to stay but the club wouldn't talk to him when in actual fact he wouldn't speak to the club about a new offer.

Interesting article on the BBC Scotland website about artificial pitches. It says that our pitch has been criticised in recent years. Whilst that might be true although, not in the recent past, they could and should have used a better and more up to date example - Fir Hill for example. Our pitch is reckoned to be one of the best around just now. A bit unfair and lazy journalism I'd say.

I'll be neither up nor down - he didn't leave us in the best of ways.

There's not been a lot wrong with MacDonald's performances when he's played in the correct position ( as one half of a twin attack) and given the right service ie not balls 8 feet in the air. To see Moult and Macdonald at their best we'll need to see a supportive and creative midfield. I'm confident that if they're given the right ammunition they'll do the business.

I recall when Ian St John was in charge, he placed great emphasis on fitness and stamina. He was quoted as saying that when a player became tired the first thing to suffer was his skill.

I would doubt it. The more some fans know the more they want to know. Fan ownership will serve to increase this phenomenon. Other fans like Al B feel threatened by information overload and that has to be dealt with.

I don't know about that Jim - thats precisely what Las hasn't been doing these past few seasons. Not just him of course but all our central midfielders. They retreat into our box tortoise like when the going gets tough. For the past few years opponents have had free rein to take pot shots from the edge of the box and just beyond. The law of probability says that eventually some will find their target.

Spot on Andy. The Police will have vetted the kick off time, ticketing arrangements, segregation, number of stewards, location of stewards, behaviour of stewards et al. As you say they take a keen interest in arrangements beforehand but if the s**t hits the fan afterwards, they're nowhere to be seen. Police Scotland really is in a mess but I digress. I've yet to see the full report and the club's response to it.

Presumably the SPFL are also under that mistaken impression. Has anyone actually seen the full SPFL report yet?

I'd be tempted to drop Law but the only other realistic alternative to him is Luke Watt, who for some reason hasn't seen first team action under MMcG. Kennedy is a makeshift right back at best. Right back is a problem in my view. Again the question of midfield balance comes up. If you swap Ainsworth for Johnson where does that Cadden who is right sided and favours playing wide? Decisions decisions!