Kmcalpin

Its interesting that Mark McGhee has said neither Louis Laing nor Jack Leitch has done enough to convince him that they're challenging for a starting slot.

Any time I've seen him play for United he's dived all over the penalty box - not a trait we want to encourage at Fir Park.

Absolutely. An easy bid to reject.

Agreed, but we have to find buyers first.

Willie Collum is the referee. Be prepared for some controversial game changing decisions.

He was released by Hearts, as he was considered to be too small (the same reason Dom Thomas left Parkhead). Incidentally how many young players do we release because they are too small - I'd guess very very few or none, as we can't afford to. As far as Faddy is concerned I think he first signed on when he was very young like 11/12/13.

I think Stevie Hammell was picked up and then rejected by Leeds United before he came to us.

Very true - let the others do the work and provide the energy and he'll provide some quality.

What do you mean by "our academy"? If you look at Dundee United for example, much probably most of their top young players didn't come through their much vaunted academy either. Players like Souttar, Spittal, Gauld, and Robertson were predated from other clubs when they were in their mid / late teens. I'd like to find out where Hamilton sourced their youngsters. Did players like Crawford, Gordon, Hendrie, Devlin etc all sign up when they 11 years of age? Most of us agree that our youth system hasn't delivered as much as it should have done. As the Captain has said, we've fallen down in developing talent in their late teens. However, is it also true that we are simply not picking up the brightest young talents? Its easier to bring through a young lad if he's got great potential than if he's got reasonable potential. I don't want us to fall into the media inspired Hibs syndrome as I used to call it. young player + Hibs = great young player. Is it possible that Mark McGhee and / or Stephen Craigan / Steve Robinson simply don't rate our current crop of youngsters or that they are simply not good enough? I like to see us bring through our own young talent but it has to be real talent. Our youth system went downhill after John Park left us for Hibs. He was the guy who picked up Faddy and Pearo.

You can probably add Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United to that list.

What we have to remember is that the current crop of youngsters were recruited some years ago, probably during the reign of Stuart McCall, Craig Brown or earlier. The success or otherwise of our current set up won't become clear for a few years yet. Mark McGhee is on record as saying that good prospects should be getting blooded at the age of 17/18/19.

This. Lawless was very much an exception and I'd struggle to name many other young lads who we discarded and then went on to success elsewhere. In his case I wonder if his off the field problems contributed to his release. I'm all for giving young lads an opportunity but they have to have talent and character. Looking at other Premiership clubs most give one or two youngsters a chance but very few play more than the odd one in their first teams. A manager may look at the youngsters he has on his books and knows for sure, well almost sure, that none are ready to step up and so he may go out and sign someone, who may or may be a success. Its akin to placing a risky bet as opposed to betting on a nohoper (at that point in time).

Agree with most of that, but the available evidence suggests that Leitch won't feature. If we go down this route, then I'd expect Laing or Cadden to step into the breach. It would be great though to bring in a new central midfielder before the game. What the management team will also be weighing up is the midfield mix - assuming Lasley, Pearo and Johnson start what kind of player do we want to play alongside them?

Although I'm not saying its true in this instant Greg, its not as absurd a suggestion as you might think. We've had examples of managers deliberately keeping the same 11 on the field for the second 45 after having lost a barrowload in the first half just to make the players suffer; managers who "rest" players in games at in Ibrox and Parkhead. I've known quite a few managers in my time (not in football admittedly) who were more than happy for obstinate staff to make mistakes just to prove a point. Its called management and there is more than one way to skin a cat. Another tool is vicious compliance, which I've used myself when a colleague simply wouldn't listen. Football managers are infamous for employing all kinds of tricks and stunts.

I did wonder about his reasons for the team selection.Mark McGhee is an intelligent man and knows football inside out - so why make seemingly bizarre and disastrous decisions and stick with them?

Not that long ago we seemed to have a plethora of right backs, not that most of them were much good. Now we seem to have one, if the management team's decision to play Stevie Hammell is anything to go by.

We can but only on the very rare occasions on which we are the stronger team and are on top.

I quote an excellent post from Crosshillwell on another thread. "Spare a little thought for the fact that despite McCall and Barraclough in charge, the latter of which had more resources than any other manager since McLeish and who had signed many players, we have not replaced an aging Lasley in the middle of the park. Effectively, since McGee was last in charge we haven't looked at any long term replacement or adequate cover in the middle of the park. " Bad decisions yesterday aside, Mark McGhee was left a very poor "central midfield" hand by both McCall and Baraclough. Our engine room has been the weakest part of the team for a good few years now and very little has been done to address it. We all know Keith Lasley is getting on and needs a replacement and it beggars belief that this situation has been allowed to continue unaddressed. If it wasn't a priority before it sure as hell is now.

The back 4 should revert to its normal set up agreed. If we play two in the middle though they'll take us with a bit to spare as they are a powerful, fit team who work very hard off the ball to close opponents down. The big question for me is who else we play in the middle. Is it too much to ask for that we sign a Grimshaw replacement before Saturday? As things stand I think Laing would be the most likely answer to our problem.

The boss's decision is final agreed but surely a senior pro has a duty to offer advice, in a respectful way. I had a good few bosses who told me that what they say went but expected me to offer constructive suggestions. For example, if a boss asked a joiner to fix a burst pipe most joiners would feel duty bound to point out that that wasn't their area of expertise.

It might do. I suspect Leitch and Reid are almost certainly away. Watt has appeared on the bench once or twice lately so who knows. Kennedy has had one bad game and paid the penalty for that. There are also others like Law and Chalmers whose days may be numbered.

As far as the young players like Cadden and Leitch are concerned, he will have his own views but you have to think he'll have consulted Stephen Craigan who knows them far better than he does. I think its unlikely in the extreme that Craigan was pushing strongly for their inclusion and he was overruled. As far as Stevie Hammell is concerned surely the player himself will have said something like "I'm really not comfortable at all in that position gaffer". If he didn't then questions have to be asked. If he did and was still overruled then again questions have to be asked. As I wrote earlier Greg, I doubt if he's seen Law play in midfield or Hammell at right back in real action . Playing those positions on the training pitch is a world away from an actual game. Almost certainly he's been given that advice by Stephen Robinson or someone else on the coaching staff. If so he will have learned a valuable lesson about whose judgement he can rely upon. As manager, he must take responsibility, even if the mistakes are made by others on the management/coaching staff. At the Society meeting back in November, only 2 months ago, McGhee stated that he still had a lot to learn about the club and players. He was carrying on the tactics/decisions/policies already in place and was only changing things if he thought the situation merited it or he felt very strongly about something. NB. Hearts supporting mate says thats the best they have played this season - I wonder why.

Good post. Watching his players week in week out he must have arrived at that conclusion for a reason.

I'm not overly bothered if our manager jumps up and down and starts roaring and bawling at players; in fact I'd rather they didn't. Mark McGhee has said himself he's not that kind of manager. I'd far rather they kept cool and calm and focused on how the team played, learnt lessons and remained cold and calculating. He is perfectly well aware that the central midfield needs strengthened and said as much last year. Its also sobering that we lost 3 goals against Accies when both Grimshaw and Lasley played. For some years now our midfield simply hasn't been right defensively and its high time that was rectified.

I'm not sure that it was. I think it was WeeYin who said we ought to play with 3 central midfielders and he was right. We should have kept the defence as was and played Laing in the middle along with Cadden or perhaps even Reid. That set up would have given the defence much more protection.