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Totally agree @compo I think we’ve lacked an expert at the killer through ball for some time, especially in the attacking midfield positions.

That is surprising, he has been a promising player. He was speaking of being open to a loan move only 5 days ago so maybe it’s a trial with a view to moving on loan. He’s already featured for them in a friendly.

If we do look to bring someone in there. We are already overloaded with players in the position. Arfield, Ojo, Jones, Hastie, Stewart, Murphy. Could even add Docherty and Middleton to that list. You’re talking 6 players players for two positions. If Murphy gets fit he could be a big player. You feel like a broken record saying that with the players we’ve had in the last couple of years at this club but surely he can do it. In terms of the question of another signing in general, it is surely dependent on outgoings. Shifting Dorrans and Grezda would free up a huge amount of wage money.

The 4-3-2-1 shape is something like this Tav - Goldson - Helander - Barisic Jack - Davis - Aribo Arfield - Jones Defoe You still hear journalists saying “Arfield played well when he was moved wide” but when Gerrard was asked this at the end of last season in a press conference he immediately interjected “Arfield hasn’t been playing wide”.

I did watch them on RTV but maybe wasn’t paying attention to shape. I do think adaptability is a strength but the 4-3-2-1 has served us so well it’s seems madness not to use it when we start our league campaign. It makes better use of the abilities of Defoe, Arfield and Tavernier in particular. In fact it transforms the first two. Arfield is wasted in centre midfield and we don’t know how to use Defoe in a 4-3-3 he just looks isolated.

Fair comments. It’s early days in assessing Ojo in particular because we haven’t seen him before. He looks a natural winger to me though. Jones does shoot from distance so I take that point but he’s very much a natural winger for me too. The “wingers” who do best centrally are the ones with good vision and passing (these are huge for assists), Barrie McKay style and probably Murphy too. Jones doesn’t come into the bracket for me at all and my first impression of Ojo is that it’s not a strength of his but hopefully he’s got it in his locker.

I haven’t seen every game admittedly, which games? Certainly against Blackburn there were were 4-3-2-1 even despite having Jones and Ojo starting who would prefer the 4-3-3

As I’ve said before the position Candeias played no longer exists, part of the reason for moving him on I’m sure. In the 4-3-2-1 the 2 don’t play wide they play narrow, the formation is nicknamed the “Christmas Tree” for a reason. Of course Arfield is more natural at this than the likes of Jones, Ojo and Hastie who tend to drift wide from a central starting position, but as far as the right wing is confirmed Tavernier has it largely to himself and will take responsibility for crosses from the right. In my opinion this formation doesn’t actually suit Jones, Ojo and Hastie but we signed two of them before we switched formation. Murphy, Stewart and Docherty are options who are more comfortable playing centrally.

That wasn’t what I was getting at

That’s because Kent doesn’t do assists but he’s great at “creating space for others” if you’re interested in that? (ducks and runs)

The fact it’s a club who finished second in the second tier in Turkey who has signed him says it all. We all love him but I said at the beginning of last season that we didn’t have enough quality in the final 3rd and it was clear as day before we were even half way that that was the case and that it would probably cost us the league. Good luck to him in this next stage of his career.

What exactly is it costing us?

A very tricky tie, not least because their season starts 3-4 weeks ahead of ours. Midtjylland were only a point behind Copenhagen going into the Championship Round of the league but totally fell away at that point and finished 11 points behind but well clear of 3rd. A real test but we should come through.

In all honesty I am a bit concerned that we haven’t signed a marquee player in the Arfield position behind the striker. Yesterday was a friendly but we had Jones and Ojo in these positions but they are clearly not in Arfield’s league playing centrally, they are wingers to trade and it shows (same for Hastie and Kent). I like Murphy and Stewart in that position but both seem a bit unfit and Gerrard seems to have a strong preference for the fittest players in his squad.

I’m a huge fan of all things Defoe. I think he’s the perfect modern striker, a fantastic player and looks 5-10 years younger than he is on the pitch.

If all goes well here I would expect him to maybe sign for a year or two. At that age is it really worth uprooting one more time? I don’t think so, he came here to achieve something big even in the last years of his career.

Haha, no I meant the 4-3-3 wide positions Kent and Candeias played last season, so I was including Candeias’s wide play in the comment. With regards to the more central positions I think (on limited evidence admittedly) that Ojo can adapt to playing centrally a bit better than Kent did and will start alongside Arfield, but I think Stewart will be a great option in there. He has good vision, passing, dribbling and goalscoring ability. Docherty looks like he’ll be fighting for games in there too as well as the 3 positions behind.

When I say attacking midfielder I’m including the wing forward positions. As regards to playing through the middle though we’ll have to agree to disagree because I think Jones is very much a winger.

Yeh I wasn’t trying trying to nitpick because I agree with that comment, I’d just rather use someone other than Jones as the example because I think he’ll be a backup, maybe an impact sub

That’s the kind of club you want linked to him

In terms of ability (when signed at least) I’d say very similar imo. However Jones has a good attitude and determination to succeed so I think he’ll do fine as a squad player. Being a fan buys you time from the stands too.

I’m going to stand up for Candeias here. Candeias’s assists are real assists, normally a quality pass or cross. Jones is a very similar player to Kent and the assists Transfermarkt give them are not real assists in my eyes. Jones is credited with 4 “assists”. 2 were dives for penalties, 1 was a parried shot, 1 was a shot which was going wide and a defender deflected it in. All are fine but the word “assist” is, well, generous. Looking at his 4 goals doesn’t help much either. A mishit cross against Motherwell, a penalty against Hearts, a decent long shot against us but easily McGregor’s lowest point of the season, and an open goal against St Mirren. As much I believe we had to move on from Candeias he’s a much better attacking midfielder than Jones. It’s understandable that there is hype over a new signing but Jones is an average attacking mid. He’s all about pace, “directness” and going down easily to win free kicks and penalties.

I do think our fans are overestimating Jones. Doesn’t suit our formation and is a less good version of Kent who I didn’t even like. Like Kent he’s good at winning free kicks, goes down easily.

We are not directly replacing either Kent or Candeias because we no longer play with wide forwards, we have changed formation to 4-3-2-1. In terms of the starting 11 you could say they have effectively been replaced by a centre mid and an attacking centre mid, let’s just say Aribo and Ojo. Combined with the benefits of the formation to the team as a whole it’s an upgrade and a pretty big one. As @Rousseau has said we no longer need Candeias’ defensive abilities because we no longer even play a wide forward, we have an extra man in the “middle” and defensive cover is provided from there. The formation is brilliant for Barisic and Tavernier who are turned effectively into wingbacks with loads more space.

I love these guys. Loads of great articles packed with stats. It helps when they vindicate my opinion on Kent, for all the hype he hardly ever put a chance on a plate for our strikers.