JohnMc

Teams seem to have figured us out. Tav and Sterling barely got out our half all match, certainly significantly less than they were a few weeks ago. Other sides realise how important both full backs are to how we attack and have changed tactics to prevent it. We need to have a counter to that. I assume much more was expected of Cantwell and Lawrence last night, creative players capable of producing something that wins you a match. Both were poor, losing possession regularly and slowing us down instead of upping the tempo. Goldson's 'passing' was horrible last night and on Sunday. But, if there's no pass to midfield and no pass to the wings then it's either back to the keeper or across to Souter. Eventually though it goes long. His passing should be better, but the long balls shouldn't be needed in the first place. So many players seem to have lost form at the same time you do wonder if there's an issue we don't know about. A problem in the dressing room, a bug that's swept through the squad and drained players of energy. I'm grasping at straws here because I don't understand how the entire side, with the possible exception of Butland, can collectively lose form simultaneously. Everyone was rotten last night, defenders, midfielders, forwards and subs. Amazingly, despite the collapse, we can still win the league if we win all our games. I mean I don't think we will, anyone with eyes can see we're so far off it. It's massively frustrating, but I can see why Clement is talking things up and putting a gloss on things. He needs to work with the players he's got, throwing them under the bus at this stage won't help.

Robbie Fraser is 21 and has not been able to force his way into our first team under Gerrard, Gio, Beale or Clement. His contract is up next month and I think we can assume he'll be leaving the club.

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. I mean Ferdinand is unlikely to say appointing Beale was a mistake as that would reflect badly on him. But it does make you wonder if he started to believe his own hype and simply lost his way. We forget that when he first joined us we did well, he lifted the place, had us playing decent football and had a good January window. In the end he had to go, it wasn't working and I've no regrets over that.

Loved "Kd Lang lookalike". Applause.

It's hard to know which Dundee team to dislike more these days. I've been told on a number of occasions that Dundee is much sunnier and drier than 'the west coast', perhaps they're just not used to rain...

It's pouring in Glasgow, has been all morning and is forecast to continue for the rest of the day. It was similar last week in Lisbon, so not sure if it makes a big difference, but you'd hope it might favour us a bit.

Butland made some incredible stops, but his distribution was really poor at times, so not him. I thought Goldson was very good, but his OG excludes him from this, Soutar was steady and effective. Lawrence was excellent first half but faded in the second. Tav had one of his poorest matches in Europe I thought. Lundstrom was very good and then very bad at different points in the match. Some of his passing had me yelling at the TV. Diomande was excellent, but he came off before the end, as did Sterling who was also very good and Silva too, but both came off. So I've voted for Ridvan, who defended very well, got forward effectively, played every minute of the match and is making me eat my words about him with every passing game. Fair play to him.

The ref was kind to Benfica last night. The penalty aside if you look at where the freekick they scored their second was taken from, compared to where the foul was, that's poor refereeing. Di Maira simply can't play that cross from where the freekick was made and that shouldn't be a hard thing to enforce.

We'd McCausland in the starting 11 last night. He's been the exception rather than the rule though, and I'm still not convinced he'll 'make it'. His game will need to improve to keep his place after the summer I suspect. Our ability to move players who were exceptional in the their mid teens on to become first team players has been very disappointing for years now. We're not alone with that, few Scottish sides are good at it. There's more than one reason for that, but in my opinion none of the reasons for it are being addressed and so this will continue. You have to question whether the B Team experiment has worked. I'm not sure playing youngsters in the Lowland League, or now in varied friendlies, is working. I saw Lowry play in a B Team game a few seasons ago and he was so much better than that level, however as we all know his career has stalled and would any of us be surprised if he left for good in the summer? On Liverpool I think you're being generous calling a home tie against a side from a division below as 'high pressure'. While Liverpool wanted to win it's certainly not their priority this season. It's exactly the kind of game they'd introduce young players in. It seems like Liverpool have a decent crop emerging, but time will tell how many actually make it.

I don't think he's played for the B Team, he's only 15. B Team tends to be players 17 and over.

In fairness Arsenal have a better record of bringing their own players through to their first team than we do. I'm unaware of the lad and at 15 it's still anyone's guess if he'll ever make the grade so I'm not unhappy at the kind of money that's being reported. I remember how upset we were when Charlie Telfer left us for Dundee Utd.

I agree. Last season's Celtic side wouldn't have dropped the points they have this season. They were on 73 points at this stage last season, on 62 this season. Surprisingly we're on exactly the same points after 26 matches that we were last season, 64. There is an argument that this season's Rangers side isn't as strong as last season's side, certainly we've fewer striking options, our defence is pretty much the same but we've a better keeper. That shouldn't take away from what Clement has achieved results and performance wise though, he's taken a side lacking direction and, I'd say, ability, and turned them into a side much better than the sum of its parts.

The John Collins and Ray Houghton thing was interesting. I knew he wanted to sign Houghton but I didn't realise he'd agreed to it and then back out. I remember hearing Walter Smith say he'd wanted to sign Collins but again I didn't realise he'd agreed then back out.

We drew at home with Celtic, won every other league game. There would have been a riot if we'd sacked him after his first 9 games.

Devine had a nice assist for the Motherwell goal on Friday. I can't comment on his overall performance but Motherwell lost.