der Berliner

I want a defender to defend. Everything else is a bonus, but his job remains the same. If that job is not up to scratch, he will be questioned, be it Tav, or Borna, or your prime target Ridvan. Which is ridiculous, IMHO, saying his not up for it because he is injured. Tav's better because he played through most of the dross we've been served then? Ach well. I can't see Clement changing the formation or some players ... so we can but hope that those given the jersey will pull us through.

How many goals conceded was Tav in these last 10 days? I have no problem if he was meant to be our right winger, or midfielder, but I like defenders defending. He will be one of the greatest ever right-backs of this club, rule the stats for decades to come. All fine and well. His goals tally without penalties will would make any right winger proud, likewise his assists. Now go And check how many trophies he has won in his 9 years with the club. 3 major ones. Just to get grounded a little. Many people got hooked, drawn, and quartered by playing similar football as Tav, but failing to clock up penalty goals or assists - more often than not his letters of indulgence. I saw you advocating the sale of Ridvan above. He's one of the brightest sparks of late, yet you want him shifted? I am rather content to agree to disagree with you about both Tav and Ridvan.

Remember that they stumbled during the 55 season too. While we did our part fairly well, they fell apart after the turn of the year like we did under SG et al a few times. IMHO, our main problem remains a) converting chances created and b) conceding far too many goals compared to the chances the opposition creates. It has been our downfall since the return to the top flight, and we stubbornly resist changing the tactics that lead to this, as well as keep playing players who are not up for this. Said it before and say it again: when fit, Souttar and Balogun are our best defenders at the club. Mainly because they can defend, see danger in advance, and do the simply things. Goldson and Tav switch off far too regularly in when it comes to their defensive duties. If we like to play the WINGback game, we essentially need one DM to cover the area vacated. Instead, we de facto play two (Sunday it was Dowell and Lundstram), yet both wander out of position far too regularly (like yesterday) and time and again, we are rolled over in a quick counter-attack. You obviously want the DMs/CMs/whatever you call them to bolster the attack, yet Lundstram was harmless in that role (again), so should have stayed back. Dowell tried, but has yet to cope with the robust defensive style we face - same with Lawrence, more often than not. Our midfield was effectively a man or two down - again. That left all driving in the hands of our centre-halfs (again), or the invention of a Cantwell, who was chasing people all over the place. Silva got no service and hooking him was truly shocking, like it was in the OF game. Get Sterling on for Dowell, make it a 3-at-the-back, Lundstram (for lack of options) in front of them and let the other 6 attack like there is no tomorrow. At least 2 strikers with those. It was Ross County, it will be Dundee ... all packed defences and anti-football, and we continue to chisel at that wall instead of using the sledgehammer we have ready. You see Cantwell, Ridvan, Silva, Raskin, even Wright, all players "thinking forward". That should be the way ahead. The current crew has far too many people not of that ilk, spraying passes backwards or sideways, running five yards before releasing the ball 8and thus telegraphing their intent), even if the clock is ticking down. Thank's for the contribution so far. But we need to move on.

Any striker - which is the norm at every other club - could have taken any of Tav's penalties. In any case, no matter the credit he has, every game requires that he shows up and if he doesn't, critique will come his way. What did he do today bar converting a penalty that didn't mean anything?

It's games like these where you utilize the squad and probably try something different. It was going to be a fight, so Wright, Sterling, McCausland could have been a choice. Likewise, 4-2-3-1 again didn't really work, and we even subbed Silva again for naught, who was given no service whatsoever. He could easily have kept his place. There was no creativity chap in the middle who played e.g. the Davis role, whatever Dowell tried, it didn't work. And our defenders keep playing triangles at the back with Lundstram will give me nightmares for years to come ... even when time was ticking out. the main point of bother is that we have seen this time and time again .... please Philllipe, wield the axe.

To think we gave Goldson another long contract last summer ...

The odd assist aand penalty papered over many a mediocre performance like today. Simple fact.

Tavernier's letter of indulgence for another sub-standard performance ...

I simply assume that he assumed that his veterans keep their levels and the new additions will gain vital game time against low-key opposition ... ... and now he's a good picture of what needs to happen in the summer.

How these guys manage to play triangles at the centre-circle will forever be a mystery to me.

As soon as I wrote that, I had that gut feeling that we will manage to blow this. Can we simply replace our complete defence bar Souttar? If they can't handle the likes of Ross time and again, they are just past it.

A wise Gersnetter once wrote: Work beats quality if quality does not work.

One more game where we managed to adapt to the playing style of the opposition better than playing what we are capable of. As soon as Goldson and Souttar are start "running" the game, you know something is wrong. I would expect Lundstram and Dowell are there for the creativity from the deep areas, but all they do is giving the ball back to the CHs. Borna is anonymous, as is Tav. Silva has hardly seen the ball, Sima, Cantwell and Dessers trying. Clement needs to kick some butts, this drop in performance levels simply can't happen time and again.

Has the game started yet? I'm asking for a friend ...

Right, I'm ready for an uneventful hammering of the Stags with no fuss whatsoever. Who's with me?

You have to give it to this vile climate change. Sneaks into Dens Park and wrecks the surface, but leaves the dump 300 yards away untouched ...

This season, Saarbrücken (3rd tier) had a superb run in the German Cup (they eliminated Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt (holders), and Mönchengladbach), only that their ground is essentially a Dens Park copy. They had to postpone games a few times, including the semi finals vs Kaiserslautern, while others became a swamp battle. Had the last game, which was also on the brink, been called off, they'd have lost their home tie and the game had gone to Kaiserslautern, i.e. being moved there. The game went ahead and despite being another rain battle, Kaiserslautern eased past them. That's German cup rules though ... Hope you can watch this video of their game against Borussia Mönchengladbach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjUIxxbRqY4

Anyone actually saw any foul on Silva a few mins before he got the penalty at roughly the same spot? I'm pretty sure it looked like he was bundled over (Iberian style) and waited for a replay that never came.

As I said yesterday, we need our forward-thinking aggressive players back and playing consistently, i.e. Cantwell, Sima, Ridvan, alongside Dessers and Silva. I'd put Sterling alongside Diomande too, as both like a pressing game and can play the ball too.

SPFL Highlights of the game. Never saw the first goal before that and wonder how the ball ended up where it did. Tav hammered the ball at Maeda and it made a bee-line in the corner. Never seen somesuch ever before. If you watch the following sequences, our captain was all over the place. Not that most of our other defenders were much better. In such circumstances, with 2 DMs (who were equally all over the place) you wonder why we did not switch to 3 at the back. We never saw a slow motion of the first foul on Silva, just ahead of him winning the penalty. Not during the game, not in the highlights. That foul by Lawrence before our VARed goal, Beaton was 3 meters away and deemed it a typical Scottish challenge. Remember when Maeda wrecked Cantwell, and it was neither a penalty, nor a foul, nor VARed. One decision was correct (Lawrence did foul him), the other blatantly not (Maeda clearly wrecked Cantwell). Scottish refereeing consistency at work ...

Today all was fine. The last OFs were abysmal ...

Get these people who played most of the second half fit, and we're looking good. Matondo's right foot is a treasure.

The point is that he shouldn't have been thrown into this in the first place. Play Sterling there, put Balogun on left-back, so we can go 3 at the back if Tavernier moves forward.

IMHO, Diomande and Lawrence shouldn't have started this. Both are not up for this, dunno whether Lawrence even touched the ball, Diomande far too erratic. Our DMs are all over the place, the Scum has little trouble covering our front players. Goldson shouldn't be on the pitch if Balogun is on the bench these days. He might be good enough for Killie or Hibs games, but if faced with quality ... There's but one pass mark first half, Butland. Dessers hasn't seen the ball often enough for a verdict. The Scum did well to hack all enthusiasm out of Wright, but he as well hasn't seen the ball.

They could well be 4-0 up with no complaints. We simply haven't started playing, the defence is back to bad old habits and the front line gets no balls and service.