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This was roughly my view until a couple of weeks ago. I'm now seeing a drop in fitness and ball skills compared to last season. Preseason was obviously a lot less successful than it was under Gerrard and that's partly the cause of the current on-field issues. That's got to fall at Gio's door. His tactics also seem part of the problem. Playing a right winger appears to restrict Tav's ability to get up and down, which has always been a major part of our play over the past few years. Is Tav injured? We don't know, but if he is then why is he taking penalties? If he's not then he's either being restricted by the formation or his approach, both of which Gio is responsible for. Lundstrum's reaction to losing the ball in the lead up to the first goal also suggests Gio doesn't have the squad fully behind him, and that'# difficult to recover from. There has been an overreaction from our support but many of the criticisms are justified.

Ross Wilson signings that I can think of, Hagi ,Kamberi, Bassey,McLaughlan ,Defoe ( though he signed on loan prior to Wilson , he signed a contract under Wilson ) ,Balogun , Simpson ,Roofe , Itten , Bacuna , Diallo , Sakala , Zungu ,Wright , Ofoborh ( giving this one a pass due to the boys health issue ), Lundstram , Sands ( loan with option ) ,Tillman (loan with option ) , Zukowski , Ramsey , Matondo , Colak , Yilmaz , Souttar , Lawrence , The other boy from Leicester that I can't remember his name , Helander , then there are loads at academy level . Realistically that's a horrendous list of failures imho . Forgot Ben Davies , plus the resigning of Macgregor , Davis and arfield , Goldson and Tav.

Free for season ticket holders? One can dream.... 😃

We should also have a dud of the day award

What we needed was Hagi hitting top form this season after being understudy to Aribo with Tilman coming in slowly as understudy. Hey ho

In the good section , there are at most 4 who would be considered first picks if all fit 🤔, the rest squad fillers . I agree about Roofe and Helander , also who signed Aribo

Sands, Tillman and Yilmaz aren't what I'd call cheap (that's if we buy the first two).

Probably pick up a few injuries

Indeed. In fact, I'd argue that the stop-gap 'win at all costs' type approach in previous years is skewing how good this window could turn out to be.

I feel there have been issues with recruitment, mostly in the squad building area but i do agree with you. Wilson was able to negotiate a massive deal for Bassey for example, lets be honest no one on here really thought we could get that kind of deal for him. Some on Rangers twitter were happy to punt him for 10 million. I think if Wilson was able to identify and communicate what has went wrong with the squad building (big squad, old players, high wage bill, players made of Styrofoam) then he could win back some support and build confidence from the fan base. At high level detail the changes to the recruitment team and explain how it will work moving forward and why that will fix it.

Wilson’s been here three years is it? isn’t that long enough? And isnt the DoF responsible for the appointment of the manager?

I’d include the DoF too in that. He has questions to answer over some of the signings we’ve made and also the ones we haven’t made

He's lost 2 leagues in a year. He did well in what you stated but #1 priority is always the League. Anyway, he is going nowhere. The board have accepted mediocrity and have a useful idiot in place so its either get behind him or stop watching the team. He should have been removed after Sunday and I will no longer blame him for anything from here on in.

If we pretend Gio has taken our great club to a european final in the last six months it will be much easier to support him, oh wait! we don't have to pretend 🙄 he did do that, and won the Scottish Cup last season, and got us into a Champions League we obviously had no right to get into with our squad of old men, young boys and more than a few injury prone players. Pep or Klopp could not have done much better with this broken squad imo. C'mon The Gers 🔴⚪🔵 WATP 🏆 GIO

Looks like we will just have to get behind him and the team for the time being Mon the gers

The Brigadoon Inn sits on the main drag at the western edge of Tranent but, the real Brigadoon moment occurs approaching the Big T from the opposite side of town. The tiny hamlet of Macmerry is real although, maybe a breeze from the Firth blew away the cloaking har? Foresters Park sits bang in the toon centre, floodlights shinning to welcome a visitor. The whole operation is best described as tidy. A retaining white rail envelopes the playing surface and, everything else is freshly painted maroon. The pitch is a fine surface, must be one of the best in the Lowland league? Eight quid for entry and the club shop sold refreshments, a selection of food and, clothing. The three girls behind the table were courteously helpful, only apologetic that the pies had been sold out before half time. I was told the attendance was just under nine hundred? I opted for a cup of Bovril(£1) and a fridge magnet(£3.50) because it contained Tranent's motto, 'Lie Forret'. I will instruct my Butler to attach it to the cabinet freezer amid the Vendee section. The Bovril was seriously good. Tranent have an Ultras section, a couple of dozen early teens banging a drum and flying several large flags proclaiming, 'the Big T Bois'. They bellowed an air with derogatory lyrics about Haddington. Ah, the insecurities; Tranent has both an Asda and an Aldi, I am sure Haddington sports a Waitrose. I met up with a couple of old Belters, known to the folks of this parish. One of those two, Ian is a fact totem - the Belters nickname emanates from an old primary source of employment in the town, a saddlers/tannery factory specialising in the manufacture of belts. It was heartening as older supporters stopped to reflect in the glow emanating from Ian - a hard working, free goal scoring centre for Tranent for a decade. The reaction to the other, Frankie was matter of fact. As praise was showered on Ian, I told a worthy, "the baldy cnut was once your Keeper". He looked at Frankie, hands sunk deep in his pockets and uttered, "aye, he looks as ready for action as he did then in the goalmouth". The game had a ton of goalmouth action, finished 2-2 but Rangers could have undeservedly nicked it with award of a last minute penalty. Zac(what is his porn name)Lovelace had the opportunity for a hat trick but the Tranent Keeper made a fine save. If any Gersnetters are contemplating a day at the Lowland league, Tranent is the very place.

No, thank you.

Former player at Arsenal and assistant to Pep Guardiola at City would've been enough to negate whatever was in the minus column though.

It's not horrendous. Good: Hagi, Bassey, McLaughlin, Defoe, Balogun, Itten, Sakala, Wright, Lundstram, Sands, Tillman, Matondo, Colak, Yilmaz, Lawrence. Bad: Kamberi, Simpson, Diallo, Zungu, Ramsey, Zukowski (homesickness, but a good young player, with potential so I wouldn't say it was a bad move). Roofe and Helander are good players, but with their injuries they're not great signings. We can't get players of their quality. I wouldn't say they were bad, though. Itten didn't work out, but I think he's a good player with potential. He's scoring for fun for the champions of Switzerland just now. I don't think we used him properly. (Bacuna - I'm still convinced this was done for a quick flip, which did make us money.) Like I've said, it's not egregiously bad.

Staggering from a multi car pile up and being offered an aspirin.

Which ‘young cheap players with potential’ ?

I don’t think the signings have been fine. That’s a big part of the problem. Too many are injured or can’t get in the starting XI.

Your points are irrefutable. There has been a drop in fitness, ball skills and attitude. For me squad depth (what ceptic have over us) could be causing these problems. Our better players (whom are few) are having to work harder to make up or our decimated squad. Transfers (ceptic have spent way more supporting ange) have not been a great help either. If Gio had been supported in equal measure to ange I would be happy to see him replaced, but I cannot jump on the "Gio Out" bandwagon until I feel like he has had a fair crack of the whip. Whether or not the squad is fully behind him we don't know.

I would say also, I feel like this last window is better with regards to squad building: Young, cheap players with potential. Whereas previously, it was more stop-gap; as if it was a 'just win the title, at all costs'-type approach, which is not sustainable.

It's still too early to judge Ross Wilson. A DoF has to be judged on a longer term than a window or two. It's not been egregiously bad. The signings have not quite worked, but for me, that's because of GvB's inability to use them properly. It's the appointment of GvB itself that is most disappointing, and that's 100% the fault of Ross Wilson.

That feels like throwing in the towel.

Why not, they did it with Murty and Pedro.

So, I guess the board are just going to hang in there and hope for the best. Tomorrow night is going to be interesting...

I think Tillman struggles to last the full 90, which is why rarely stays on the pitch beyond 70 minutes.

Gotta go with Tilman...not even close IMHO. Like a diamond in a pile of dogshit...his glitter was subdued.

Thanks for all the downloads. Been a massive response. Really appreciate it

Went for Tillman - only player who looked capable of creating anything. Was surprised when he was subbed

Fair point

at one point yesterday, the camera panned to Ceri Bowley and he looked absolutely petrified, think it might have actually been before the game started....

Whenever we're playing poorly and the camera shows our bench, they don't seem very sure about what to do. There's an air of acceptance about it.

Celtic have their wingers wide but they run from very wide positions towards the centre when there is a cross about to come from the other side, and it leads to them being in loads of space every time. I think it was their second goal yesterday that was a textbook example of this. Abada has done it to us a few times too. It’s so simple but it’s an effective tactic that has been drilled into them, compare and contrast to our wide forwards.

The % of our aimless crosses that have no outcome must be huge, suggesting that you’re right about our attacking configuration ... or that incessantly looking for crosses with the current configuration is a complete waste of time.

These stats also highlight a criticism I have of GvB, which I've posted before. Our wingers tend to stay wide, which is not a problem in itself. But we need to adjust the team to suit. If you play with wide wingers, you need your #8s to play further forward in the half-space, and they provide the goal-threat in the box. We play with one #10, who doesn't get into the box. Or, you play with inside-forwards in the half-space - like Jota and Abada et al. - with FBs providing the width. We're in-between. If Kent is being asked to stay wide and punt aimless crosses into the box, or lay it off for Barisic to punt aimless crosses into the box, a la horseshoe, then... Ugh. It's no surprise that he had "better" numbers when he played as a #10 under SG. Still not great numbers, but "better".

I can't believe the mockery around a wee stat simply because it doesn't align with your opinion. I'm the same; I think Kent is rubbish. Kent can create lots of chances and still be rubbish, though. To me, it suggests the chances he's creating are of very poor quality. The fact that he's been involved in 39 chances but only has 4 assists is testament to that. He has scored 1 from an xG of 1.5. An xG of 1.5 for a winger is truly poor, and he's still under-performing that!

This demonstrates the true brilliance of our players. They can appear to be completely rubbish while, in fact, being completely brilliant. I'm going to stop watching the matches and just start reading statistics instead.