fizoxy

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.

He's getting a game for Cardiff, so seems unlikely

Or it's a myth?

We could spend it all on the playing budget and still not get close to the likes of Hearts, Hibs, and Aberdeen in spending (and at least one of them is a basket case each season despite that). That doesn't mean we can't speculate a little with modest fees like we have been doing lately, but it is unlikely that we will be able to pluck the best player from another Scottish club (i.e. Ronan Hale), so I don't see our model changing. I also don't expect a one time fee like this to change our wage structure, which should be based on our more predictable income streams. I'd go with investing in making the club sustainable, finding ways to cut our recurring costs, and continue to invest in the youth system, which is our best chance of significant transfer income. Clubs around us are improving their training facilities, so we should be looking at that.

These thing take time, and there's always a lot of moving parts in deals like this, it isn't Football Manager. Standing our ground and getting what we're due isn't being greedy. There seems to be multiple clubs interested, which gives us leverage.

And the best they could do was hold us to 0-0 at home.

Id be surprised if we didnt bring in another midfielder. Halliday will be absolutely fine in that midfield, but we need some more cover/competition. We were rumored to be interested in dean McMaster from airdrie (one of their fans posted on P&B). I'd agree that another striker and a defender on top of that are needed. Two strikers would be nice.