BrahimHemdani

I beg to differ (not about the title) but the reference is clear to me: Whether the OP was referring to Academy players or not (and I contend that it is clear that he was), Joseph "Joe" Dodoo (born 29 June 1995) is 21 years of age, and I doubt many folk would regard him as a youth, least of all Joseph Dodoo, a young man certainly, but a youth I think not.

You are certainly the eternal optimist, perhaps you should fly over for the team talks; if not our end of season dinner. Do you still contend that we are the second best team in Scotland?

I would have put Jordan Thompson in instead of Crooks if he had not been on loan; and I would be playing Ryan Hardie if he wasn't on loan.

If McCoist had given youth a chance when we were in the lower divisions, chances are we would be in much better shape now.

It's not semantics, GS, the OP referred to our academy youth players, you said one was playing, which one? The point is that we have signed some youth players on loan but we didn't have a youth on the pitch last night, loan or otherwise.

We're not better than that, that's the point. "We're not good enough"; agree with that. If there's no problems with Martin Waghorn, why isn't even getting off the bench? Got to try and look at that (MF) situation; hopefully means we are looking to sign someone in January. Why isn't any of these journalists willing to ask the obvious question about tactics?

Which one of our academy youths played last night?

I think you have highlighted a number of areas where the manager needs to improve. I'll comment on three for now: Most people agree that this is Warburton's biggest failing. It's clear that Plan A isn't working and as I wrote elsewhere it doesn't matter if the players don't fit the plan or the plan doesn't fit the players; bottom line is it's broken and needs fixed. Without Barton, Kranjcar or Rossiter, we just don't have anyone capable of making game changing passes from CMF; furthermore we are being outmanned and therefore overrun. To overcome this obvious weakness we should consider 4-4-2, which would be much more difficult to breakthrough and gives greater potential to build an attack. However, since the one area we where seem to have an excess of players is in forward positions, we could also try 4-2-3-1, utilising solid players like Windass and Crooks perhaps as the defensive mid 2 and McKay, Forrester and Miller/Dodoo behind Garner. The point is that we need to try different tactics because ours aren't working. When I read your the sport that came to mind was tennis and the player, of course Andy Murray. I don't claim to know anything about tennis but so far as I can see and understand in any match at the top level you need to be able to change your tactics in line with the opponent's strengths and weaknesses. It's clear to me that Andy has done exactly what you say "developing a much wider repertoire and using the right tactic when it’s appropriate and when you need to be creative, using all your repertoire to be unpredictable and therefore difficult to counter." We are totally predictable and that's a big part of the problem. I recall him saying something like "we need to keep open a path to the first team". Right now having lost Barton, Kranjcar and Rossiter, we are crying out for a CMF player. We have Jordan Thompson out on loan and Liam Burt in the ACADEMY U20s. Thompson looked the part when he got a few outings last season and by all accounts Burt is a star of the future; but we need some stars now. I also think we made a big mistake releasing Andy Murdoch who was at least as good as anything we have available at the moment. Ryan Hardie is a proven goalscorer albeit at a lower level, also out on loan when we are struggling to score goals. I would like to see journalists challenging Warburton on some of these issues, especially tactics; instead of the usual, what's your assessment of that performance, Mark. which only brings out the stock answers to which others have alluded. That's my contribution, hopefully others will take up the debate.

That's a fair criticism of my generalisation, Steve. Perhaps we could agree on "step up to challenging for Europe".

Contrary to popular belief, referees are human beings like the rest of us and make mistakes like the rest of us, including football players. If the refs made as many mistakes as football players, the game would indeed be a shambles. "The reason we are where we are is that we are not very good at football." Absolutely no argument on that.

Actually, I think we're pretty much in agreement here. part of stepping up to SPFL level must indeed be working harder than was necessary to win games at a lower level; and part is having the required skill. Do you genuinely believe that Tavernier, Kiernan, Windass, Crooks, Garner, have the necessary level of skill to play at SPFL level, never mind Europe if we get there?

I really don't see the point of this question, unless you are suggesting a conspiracy against us?

I know you didn't mean it quite as literally as it might have come across; no argument that we are rank, crap, dire etc. All teams receive questionable calls from time to time, that's football. If you're a good team and winning you take them in your stride; if you're a bad team and not winning they appear to assume more significance.

Why should we expect any favours from anyone?

I have no idea where you get that from; it is indeed paranoid. You make your own luck in football. If you put the ball in the back of the opponent's net (legitimately) more often than they do, you win, simples! We've only scored 7 goals and conceded 12 in 7 away games; ergo we've won 2 out of 7. Are the refs to blame for that; I think not.

It was offside no argument. Let's not forget Hearts were denied a blatant penalty. Bottom line is we were outplayed all over the park; claiming Dodoo's "goal" is clutching at straws.

Fair enough; I went on the BBC stats as I wasn't at the game, only saw it on TV.

That's not Plan B it's another version of Plan A. Plan B is 4-4-2.

They are mostly English League 1 and 2 players who have not been able to step up to SPFL level.

There are some on this forum who have argued that we are the second best team in Scotland; clearly this is not borne out by results.

4th is good enough for Rangers? Is this a wind up? After missing out on Europe when it was within our grasp in the Cup Final, it is imperative that we finish at least 3rd to be sure of starting the long road back to Europe next season. It will be a dogfight now for sure; but 4th is just not good enough for Rangers.

When he arrived he was told that they had already been found and arrested for impersonating football players.

We had one sent off - Senderos. Kiernan went off injured and was replaced by Forrester rather than Hill who was on the bench. At that point we were down 3-1 and were reduced to 10 men 3 minutes later when Senderos was sent off. The game was lost but rather than trying to avoid a humiliation by going 4-4-1 our manager decided to go 3-3-3 with Tavernier, Barton and Wallace at the back. IMHO Barton performed heroically as an auxiliary CB but could not prevent the final two goals.

Whether the players don't fit the system or the system doesn't fit the players, doesn't really matter; bottom line is it's broken and needs fixed. I think we are going to have to give up the fancy football at least till we get over the next two games and try to grind out results against Aberdeen and Hearts at Ibrox. To that end my feeling is that we should go 4-4-2. Tavernier must be dropped in favour of Hodson. If Hill is fit he should replace Wilson; I'm Kiernan's fiercest critic but Kiernan and Hill have been our best CB pairing. MF really is a problem. I don't think there is one man who would get in the team if we had a real choice. I would be tempted to drop Halliday AND Holt and go with something like O'Halloran, Windass (if fit) Crooks (though he showed nothing tonight, he needs some games) and McKay. Up front probably Garner and Dodoo are the best we can field at the moment. Tynecastle has always been a tough place to go but usually we give them something to think about. Tonight we were easily beaten by a very young Hearts team who were more eager than us, passed better than us, finished better than us and were coached better than us. It was an embarrassment. We had one shot on target in 90 minutes and that was a weak effort. If the manager won't change tactics or personnel, then he needs to consider his position.

But he could replace Tavernier with a defender e.g. Hodson.