fizoxy

The players and manager call him JT, so did the previous managers. So my guess is that's what he wants to be called. I'm sure he'd have corrected them by now otherwise.

Only if the bid actually happened, and it was for the amount the papers said. Add to that that we brought in Osong and Hendry, I'm not sure we would have replaced him with anyone good. Maybe this is more an indictment on Osong, but we clearly missed AP in open play when he was subbed off. Osong reminded me of that guy Souness signed for Southampton. JT missed a sitter too, and Said has one of those running man style perimeter monitors on his ankles, which turn his feet into cement the second he crosses the 18 yard box. So our build up play is technically working, we just need a forward that can make half chances for themselves, and take the ones the midfield hand to him.

I'm starting to think that the reason I think Watt and Fadinger are so good is that I spend most of the game confusing them for eachother, even though they dont look alike in reality. This opens up many opportunities. Is one shite and the other great? are they both the same? Then throw slattery into the mix, and they're all better. Anyway, I'm going with Fadinger. Or Watt.

The Clyde game I think.

Longelo, Just, Fadinger, and Watt is some combination of signings for any transfer window. All 4 have made a good impact already, and I'm not sure we've seen the best of them yet. Said looks decent, but still hard to tell with him, and RCC is a known quantity (kind of) and at least on the face of it a decent coup. Hendry, Osong, and Priestman are too early to call, they've barely played an hour between them. The latter looks like a decent prospect, and possibly a succession plan for our first choice midfield. Hendry has been decent in our league before. Sule also looked to be a coup before the injury, with some pace and skill. Hopefully we see him back. McGhee may struggle to make an impact now that we've made a good few signings while he's been out, but still most of the season left to go, and we know there will be twists and turns. Overall this has been a positive window, with some real quality and less lottery tickets. To come into the last day woth just one need to fill, and getting it done, is pretty impressive, as the less we leave to the last minute, the better. The same goes for January, all going well, we want to be fine tuning at that stage, not bringing in numbers.

Mcghee played 30+ games for all but one of the last 8 seasons or so, going over 40 a few times. So I wouldn't describe him as a Callachan style crock. We signed the latter after him being out a whole season. We'll see how this season goes, but Mcghee will be up against it trying to get into the team having missed pre season.

The replay at the time showed there was clear contact on Ward, but to me it was pretty soft, the kind of stuff keepers have to deal with all the time. At worst it was a distraction, but he should still have caught it. As the manager said, had the ref blown for a foul, theres no way VAR would have overturned it.

Fadinger all day long, he's class.

I felt that we dealt with their physicality pretty well, and we have done the same against other teams so far this season. None of our players are scared to get stuck in, and we are very organized when pressing, The forward players/wingers track back well to prevent crosses, and our defenders don't get drawn into a game of headed tennis, instead, they knock it down to the nearest teammate, or bring it down themselves to play on the deck. That's not going to stop all chances, but we're definitely not getting battered. Today showed we can be effective against a low block, but we are vulnerable then the CBs get turned around, with mcginn often giving up early and appealing for an offside (when var will take care of that). A center back with a decent turn of pace would be a huge upgrade. Overall, it is impressive how our pre-JBA players have adapted. If anyone said last season that we'd be dominating posession and playing it out from the back relatively successfully, with SOD, McGin and Gordon in the back 4, they would have been laughed out of town.

There was a slight push on Ward, and JBA is right that if the ref had given it, VAR wouldn't have overturned it, but it was very soft. Keepers need to catch those regardless.

There's nothing about the formation that causes Ward to drop the ball at the feet of an opposition player unchallenged. We had the game won and he fucked it. Last week was pretty much the same, the tactics and lineup had us ahead in the latter stages of the game and the goalie couldn't hold on to the ball.

He was fine until he lied about fan abuse, and continued to tour the media with it, dragging our reputation just to deflect from him being shite.

The record posted yesterday that the window closes at 11pm. Wouldn't be surprised if they were wrong since their idea of journalism is guessing and searching forums, but finding definitive info on the correct time is proving difficult. Unless we don't sign a CB in the next few days, the only activity I see happening on deadline day is outgoings.

Ignoring SK completely would be very funny, but you know he will still go to the papers saying he got abuse anyway. He must be so excited to have a game that's all about him (in his mind). Looking forward to us being back home, and by the sounds of it we will have a decent crowd. It will be interesting to see how the squad has shaped up by then, with RCC available and the likes of Mcghee and Gordon with another week of training under their belts. Outside of possibly the CBs I don't see us changing our starting lineup.

On Oxborough, I like him, but... Remember last season where he just dropped a cross in front of him for the Hearts player to tap in for the only goal of the game? He got very shaky after that, and if anyone is remembering him being commanding in the air, it's a distorted memory. I think he's a better shot stopper than Ward, and an all round better keeper, but not to the degree that we keepna clean sheet yesterday if he plays. Maybe he messes up a couple of passes that Ward wouldn't, who knows?

Commenting on players tweets is loser behavior.

I wouldn't be surprised of the likes of Robinson, Nicholson, and Stuperwvic do end up on loan, but it is unlikely to be before the winter window as they are all still a fair bit away from being ready, still doing injury rehab. By the time they have recovered from injury, they will have to alowly ramp up their training load, and it's going to take weeks to get anywhere close to match fitness, then they will have to fight for a place when there are multiple people in front of them in each position. Their best chance is if we have a run of injuries while the window is closed (which isn't that far fetched based on the last couple of seasons) but they're at a huge disadvantage from not having a pre season. On the numbers, there will definitely be some outgoings, both permanent and on loan, and there's no doubt that clubs will be sniffing around our squad come January, so I'm not too concerned about us being bloated for a few months. We're still dealing with the injury mess from last season, hopefully we have some more luck this season so that we can get our squad to a more manageable state.

Wouldn't be surprised, they need some experience in there. We do have a large squad, but a light first XI, so can see a few outgoings in the next couple of weeks, whether permanently or on loan. With McGhee and Johnny K due back, and Hendry joining, we are a little stronger, but I'd still expect 2-3 more incomings.

The club doesn't make player salaries public, and as far as I'm aware that info isn't itemized in accounts, so this is just made up, or pulled from Football Manager.

I thought that was a great signing at the time, but unfortunately he was one of the long list of players who were only good against us.

AP has 6 goals in 25 games for us, and 20 in 40 for his last team. To say there's little evidence of his ability to score is lazy and incorrect. He had 2 injuries last season, on top of literally moving from the other side of the world, at the same time his baby was born. It's well known that it takes players from other countries an extended time to settle. Never mind when the club changes manager twice and overhaul the style. In addition, he works his arse off, leads the line well, is solid on the ball, puts himself about, and frequently gets himself into good positions. All attributes that tend to buy players time, but for some reason AP isn't getting the benefit of that from some. JBA said that it will take time for the forward players to gel, which makes sense. No one knows for sure how it will play out for him, but there's no evidence to suggest we should cut bait on him when signing a goalscorer is proven to be one of the hardest things for a club to do, and our market is the likes of Callum Hendry. We just came off of losing two managers in a season and having to reshape a bloated and unbalanced squad that looked dead on its feet at the start if fhe yead, and we've managed to make a good start of it, so I don't think now is the time to nitpick on individuals.

It will be interesting to see how each team adjusts after the first game. It will be a good indication of JBAs tactical nous.

I think wimmer and JBAs philosophies are pretty much the same. High pressing, and controlling possession, altnough it looks like Wimmer is still playing a back 3 with his new team. As mentioned above, JBA had the opportunity to bring players in to suit the system (or benefit from the players that were already identified for that purpose, i.e. fadinger), so its hard to compare directly. I'm sure JBA would have made the same concessions that Wimmer did if he had joined last season. I didn't think wimmer was particularly bad with the media, but JBA is miles better in that regard. Both are pretty candid about what they want to do. It will be interesting to see how JBA handles interviews when he's up against it. I'm pretty sure if he gets asked another miller question next week he will two-foot someone.

Turnbull seems to be back on track, getting the full 90 today.

St Johnstone gobshites on commentary, going to listen to some music I think.