Rousseau

Nice goal! It's not often you see a diving header.

Delete! He's anonymous.

See, I don't think we were outnumbered in midfield. Yes, they had McGregor wide, but he always came inside. We had a narrow 4-3-3, so we weren't outnumbered per se. It was individual mistakes, and our midfield pushing up and not covering those runners in behind -- McGregor gets the chance because we fluff our clearance, but our midfield is nowhere to be seen. So, IMO, we weren't outnumber per se, it was just our execution of it left too much space. It was really poor. We were a bit more passive too, which is strange, because most teams that execute a good press do well against them.

Any good manager -- even a crap one, i.e. Murty -- can see that Windass would "wipe the floor with" Cummings.

He did indeed make his mark in a front two; I'm all for it, but I have little confidence in Murty having the tactical nous to implement such a strategy. Cummings actually played in a 5-3-2 / 3-5-2 at Hibs. They had a structure behind to make it work. Our experiments with 4-4-2 have been poor. It works, clearly -- Atletico Madrid play it all the time to great success, but they play a certain way to make it work. We've not got a manager to make it work at the moment. IMO. I'd keep Cummings around, but we'll need to proper manager to utilise him properly.

I don't think we're good enough to play with two...!

Is that Clarke ruled out now?

They probably said the same thing when he first arrived in England, just as it was levelled at Guardiola last season too. I'm not sure I like agreeing with SBS but what's so special about Scottish football? It's rubbish. You're probably right about the wages -- I can dream, though!

I wonder if Wenger would consider a few years at Rangers before he retires?

F*cking typical. We just need to do it the hard way.

I never proffered Cathro as the next Ranges manager. (I would like him as an assistant or coach, or youth coach, though.) Although, I do think a "laptop manager" need not be ruled out because of some draconian view on what it takes to be a manager (I'm not suggesting you hold this view), as it need not be a gamble, or at least not more so than any other appointment, if due diligence is carried out.

I wonder where Wenger's next step is? Would he take a few years at Rangers?

It's used as a pejorative term here for those young coaches that have no real playing experience -- like Cathro. However, it's actually used positively in Germany for those same young coaches, a few of which are doing remarkable things.

Perhaps it is too soon for Vieira, but he has done his apprenticeship, or started it at least, and Arsenal have been slowly switching to a DoF model, which Vieira has experience of. Maybe in the future.

I'm quite happy with this -- although they don't provide any details. The mock-ups doing the rounds on Twitter look quite nice.

Just because he's screwed it up recently doesn't mean it's not. When he came in he brought in a basic set-up, based on getting the most out of the players at his disposal; he's not good enough to bring anything more -- he's not even very good at that, other than that wee spell in December (?).

I think you've swung your hammer and missed the target altogether! Murty is not a "laptop manager"; his philosophy is as far removed as it's possible to be, as he doesn't actually have a philosophy. His football is basic, and is actually based on man-management. The 4-2-3-1 formation is old hat. IMO, he does change his approaches for certain games, but doesn't have the depth of understanding to implement it; He's tried 2-3 different formations, and a couple of different approaches. He's using the set-up to suit the players. They can't play anything other than 4-2-3-1/4-4-2, and Murty -- even if he does tinker (not much, granted) -- doesn't have the depth of understanding to implement it. He was appointed out of necessity, but only because there was no one else. If they're using Murty to experiment with a "laptop coach", then the Board have no idea what it is.

Yes, Vieira has done his apprenticeship in the MLS -- for Man City-owned NY City, ironically -- so he looks to be the most obvious option.

I disagree. He is slow as stop, though...

I'd actually like to see this (5-2-3 / 3-4-2-1): Morelos/Cummings Murphy - Windass/Candeias Goss - Docherty John - (AN Other) - Alves - McCrorie - Tavernier Foderingham

McCrorie actually provides an enormous amount of versatility: He can play RCB (in a back-three), CB (in a back-four), and DM -- and even RB at times, I think? He allows us to switch from a back-three to back-four mid-game.

Every CH needs protection from the midfield. (A sweeper technically plays behind the CH.) Every back-four has that problem nowadays (high full-backs); they get their protection from midfield, a DM. All of our midfield push forward too often and fail to intercept passes, meaning opponents have a free run at our defence (see Dundee). The best CH in the world would have issues in that situation. I'd love to see a back-three. In Germany you have the 3-4-1-2 or 3-4-2-1, depending on whether you want a two strikers or two wingers. (Full-backs can play higher or deeper as required.) I think I'd prefer for us to use our two wingers, as they are our better performers.