DMAA

I had a feeling we would live to regret being so wasteful. A bizarre handball from Dessers. This is a bog standard team though and we should be putting them away tonight.

They’re not going to need much encouragement to go down are they

Happy enough with the selection tonight though. Jack brings a bit of control and balance that we wouldn’t have if we started someone like Dowell in there. And it’s great to see Danilo start.

All that money spent and yet in the most important position on the park, an ageing and unreliable Jack starts. I’m a Jack fan but he's declining and I'm concerned that we haven't recruited a more defence minded midfielder to support Raskin, especially for Europe.

Worth noting that Dessers’ stats from previous clubs showed that he doesn’t touch the ball much anyway. A bit of a Kris Boyd type of striker. Danilo obviously is different.

Not for the first time either. Happened a number of times when he was assistant.

I agree to an extent but I don’t think we have an answer to Calum McGregor. Our centre mids aren’t at that level.

Well the warning signs have been there all preseason. There are no excuses for that. Hot take - I think a quality centre mid would change this team more than a quality centre back.

My view is that we’ve already done that, and the rumours that we are in for Trusty or Panzo predate Balogun signing. Would like to be wrong, but I don’t think there are any signs that we are spending big money on a centre back without one leaving.

According to who? Ibrox noise? I didn't see a reliable source. Beale signed Balogun and has poured cold water on the idea of signed a centre back in recent weeks. And he's been open about the positions he wants to strengthen and never listed centre back as one of them.

It’s been a pretty much heretical opinion this pre-season, but I don’t think Beale is actually pursuing a centre back. There have been no signals and plenty that we aren’t. I think it's a case of wait and see if anyone comes in for Davies, but there's absolutely no sign of that either.

Unfortunately, we badly lack stability when he doesn’t play. The defence is far better protected when he plays. I think our defence has been hung out to dry a bit in preseason by the tactics and player selection in midfield. They’ve offered no protection to the defence.

I was a Lammers skeptic but he’s impressed

Well Ryan Jack has changed the game. Great cross from Yilmaz in the build up there. Looks a star that boy 😛

The goal is created by….Ryan Jack

Totally simplistic to blame Yilmaz alone. There was a man wide open in the 6 yard box. Maybe he should have been marked? There was a whole build up where our centre mid were invisible and they got the ball out to a man on the edge of our box with ease. There's a lot going wrong.

Bizarre for Tav to just stop playing there

Lammers showing some good skill

Not so much today

I think it would be a miracle if he was anywhere near good enough to play for us this season. Lots of posters on FF watched the B team regularly last season and all said he didn’t impress at all.

Sofascore notification popped up with the lineups and they have never been wrong before, and had Butland not in the squad, and I was panicking that the bust up rumour was true. Very relieved to see the lineup in the Rangers tweet! Very unfortunate to have Davies and Souttar out with a bug at this stage of preseason. Potentially a bit disastrous with crucial games coming up fast.

I don’t think Gio was playing anything remotely like Guardiola inspired football.

It looked to me to be switching between a diamond and a Christmas tree type set up, with Lammers behind Dessers but Sima switching between being high beside Dessers when we do have the ball but being in line with Lammers when we don’t have the ball. When we played the Christmas tree formation under Gerrard, we had Kamara/ Davis, Jack and Aribo in the 3. I’d say that’s a much more solid 3 with 2 traditional centre mids and 1 more attack minded. At the moment, we only have Raskin who is a traditional centre mid, with basically 3 attack minded midfielders in front of him. I don’t see the balance there at all, and it shows. One thing that is consistent in football is that defenders look terrible when they aren’t protected by the midfield. I think there is too much focus on personnel in defence and not enough on the system and the protection from the midfield.

I’ve always believed that friendlies do give you a pretty good idea of how the team is shaping up. It isn’t just a workout. Especially when you are testing out a whole new system. There should be signs that it is working.

Lundstram is just a distinctly average player and very boring to watch. I wish we could sell and replace.