der Berliner

At least he knows how to put crosses into the box, as opposed to our captain.

Nothing new here, but you know what is fundamentally wrong if Kamara appears on the left attacking side or is playing triangles at short distances with 3 Yahoos about ...

Morelos mindless, Tavernier?????, Goldson ... well well 🤮

Truth be told, apart from some perennial nerds like McGregor or Brown, I haven't looked at their team-sheet for the best part of the decade. You have to give it to Ange that he has collected a good enough team to beat the shyte out of nigh every Scottish team with his collection of foreigners from all over the planet. Still, IMHO, we shot ourselves in the foot time and again with Plan-A-tactics and playing people who simply do not deliver enough in the slot they are used in.

At every venue for large scale sports events over here in Germany, there is a thorough search for anything dangerous and potentially causing upset with supporters groups. First by stewards, next by police, if necessary. For the best part of 30odd years, and rightly so. Doesn't stop flares and pyro 100 %, but most is sorted out or will not be brought to the ground at all. Better safe than sorry, as they say. Obviously, if they do flag displays or the like, after a look or two, no-one would object to it over here, as you can see from numerous games and pics. Hence, no clue why Police Scotland stepped in here.

Would have gone with Jack ahead of Kamara, as the latter is prone to keep the ball too long (even against multiple opponents) and effectively brings nothing going forward. (He'll now have the game of his life, of course ... ) Everyone stepping out today needs to be really up for this from the off. If they all give 100 %, and we still get beaten, so be it. But no hiding and chicken-heads like we saw at the Scumhut. In the here and now, I'd be content with a point. Everything else is a bonus.

Events on my continental drift cam moved significantly faster than our official and unofficial transfer activities so far, but perhaps all will pick up some pace. I reckon that quite a bit is being done behind the scenes, how much of that will turn into deals remains to be seen. Might well be that we will add some loans with option to buy in January, not least since the contracts of quite a few players run out this summer. So regarding this Wolves chap, we have to remember that Helander and Souttar are still out (and no-one knows how long any of them will play if they are back, as they have not been playing for some time).

At Aberdeen, roundabout the 90th minute mark, I wrote this season off, with the best bet for silver being a cup or two. You never know how an OF game unfolds, but if we pick people who aren't up for it and aren't willing to run themselves into the ground, we are staring at certain defeat. We have enough players willing to give their all, Arfield, Jack, Sakala, Wright, Lundstram, Tillman, and Colak spring to mind. Others need to get out of their comfort zone first and produce from the word Go! IMHO, this season has been totally wrecked by injuries, both our strikeforce and central defense.

Even before his injury, good old Alfredo wasted 4 or 5 before actually scoring one goal, the rest of our strike-force wasn't contributing either and our title hopes went south. Matondo, being a winger by trade, is not expect to shoot any better than Kent, right? the lad makes good runs and gets in the right spaces. That's a start. Get him on against the Scum, he'll score the winner and be the next best superstar. 😜

Tillman .... hands done. Borna was good, Goldson and Davies as expected.

Good that we finally have two centre-halfs again, Borna back with two assists. Who knows which striker will be fit to play, I reckon Tillman, Lundstram and Jack are certs for Monday, Kent anyway. Can't say I am looking forward. We are far from clicking and the Scum is a totally different level than the dross we have faced of late ... and which we somehow managed to beat.

Wonder which game the BBC livetext guy watches ... "Motherwell's Kevin van Veen has the ball in the net. He looked a mile off, but it took a lengthy VAR check to confirm it."

A rumour!!!! OUT - Ryan Kent - Southampton - LINK

Regarding Sands, he got quite a bit of FLAK (and even more on FF), yet, we still have essentially a makeshift central defence. Davies looks a lot more assured, though he has lots more football under his belt than Sands, not least at centre-half. Anyway, while Sands doesn't look all too comfortable, in the second half Goldson had two or three of his "moments" and gave possession away badly deep in our half, two of which leading to long range efforts that whistled just past the post. Generally, before the 4 changes (kudos to Beale for that) and for some spells afterwards, we reverted back to that horrible passing out of defence, which led to no end of bother. Unless we have some anchor-man in deep midfield, someone who distributes the ball with some quality, we need to stop this hazardous passes and whip the ball up the park (or for touch in the opposition's half). SG and Gio never learned that, let's hope MB sees it.

May I send belated praise to Mr. Tillman for his artistry with the ball and cross that set up Arfield. 😎

And there are voices saying we need to get rid of the veterans. Truth be told, Davis and Arfield are both more fit and tenacious than quite a few others. The old Canadian warhorse dragged us out today and lessons need finally be learned.

No cohesion whatsoever ... pointlessly kicking the ball away, passing it to marked people, no-one takes responsibility ... hey ho.

Don't be silly. We only have 5 subs and can't use them before the 85th minute ...

Whatever role Kamara is playing tonight ... probably some shop-window appearance? Useless in the attacking third, lots of side-passes in the middle and at the back ... dunno. Essentially, we are a man down. Far too much fancy football without penetration, that slippery surface doesn't help either. Sakala ... you see the striker in there. If he can shoot, he will shoot.

4th out of 19 in my first ever prediction league ... might have put more thought into the earlier games 😒 Well done to the organizers 👍

Third place play-off: Saturday, December 17 Croatia - Morocco 2-1 (Fun-score: 4-2) Final: Sunday, December 18 Argentina - France 1-3 Joker (Fun-score: 2-3)

His shirt name is Beni 😜

Highlights from last night. The one thing that Sakala does is being direct and if he can, he shoots. Two guys in front of him, yet, he hammers it home past the keeper. I was truly amazed how many not-shot-willing people we had on and kept on the pitch for so long, even replacing the Zambian for Davis. Hibs were clearly at the ropes, yet we kept on passing the ball about the area and didn't try our luck. That last gasp volley from Hibs might have seen this night in a draw still ...

Much like Hagi. Oh I long for the moment that we see Tillman, Hagi and Lowry on the same pitch.

Given the rump team we played, we still dominated that lot, second half almost hands down. IF ONLY we'd play people willing to shoot rather than pass, we'd be in double figures. But good three points!