DMAA

Embarrassingly defensive against an average side. What is going on?

I don’t think he’s the only one missing, only 13 players in then main photo.

There must be someone who saw them off at the airport. I would have thought that would have been picked up on by someone in the press by now though.

Well if my colleague’s source is right it sounds like he’s been given the chance of doing an Allan/Morgan but isn’t taking it.

An outside bet for a budget backup, Stephen Dobbie. He said a few weeks ago that the only club he'd join from QoS is Rangers. He's 36 but has scored 29 in 24 games this season. We'd certainly have been better advised to take him in at the beginning of the season as third choice striker instead of the silly gamble on Melman.

A colleague has said he's heard Celtic have had a bid for Shankland accepted, but he went down to speak to Swansea instead of meeting Rodgers. Given he's from Glasgow (and went to a non-denominational school) that suggests to me he's a Rangers fan. A Celtic fan would have met with Rodgers. It'll be interesting to see if we make a bid.

I think Middleton will definitely start. Lafferty isn’t a left winger and shouldn’t be played there. I agree he’ll go with Coulibaly over Ejaria because it’s an away game where we won’t expect to have as much possession. Centre back is an interesting one. I think it will be Worrall because I think McAuley’s will be used most when we are expecting a lot of high balls into the box, whereas in Europe you need more mobility. It will be great to have Arfield back and after a poor game against Dundee I really hope Grezda starts and finds his flow because I fully expect him to be one of the first names on the team sheet in the near future after he gets a chance to settle.

We all agree we need a creative player, but we absolutely need more aerial ability in our team, especially up front. We are hopeless from corners, it doesn’t matter how good the delivery is we almost never get a head on it, it’s pathetic. Same goes for the dozens of crosses and long balls we get in to Morelos and Lafferty. For me a good manager makes sure there are goals in the team from lots of different sources and in Scottish football headers from corners, free kicks and crosses is always going to be a big part of that. It doesn’t mean primitive football as Bayern, Atletico etc have shown.

Eaves aside, I think a striker with genuine aerial ability is common sense when you have crossers like Barisic, Middleton and Tavernier in the team. There’s no need to associate a tall striker with poor quality and style of football, Bayern have shown how to properly use a targetman for years.

Yes Dowell. Looks to me like the style of player people are wanting, and from a few clips on YouTube certainly looks like he has it in his locker. He seems to specialise in the defence splitting pass. I wouldn’t say Davis is that style of player. He’s apparently been playing holding midfield lately for Southampton too. If we sign Davis, even on loan, I hope someone will be leaving because we have too many centre mids.

The boy from Everton on a loan.

I said at the end of the last transfer window that the failure to recruit a striker who has genuine aerial ability was a major oversight because it was clear our style of play relied on crossing and that we had several very capable crossers in the squad. Both Morelos and Lafferty are average to poor in the air and 99% of our many many crosses go absolutely nowhere at the moment. So I hope if we scouted Eaves that he was one of many forwards we are looking at who are strong in that area because what a difference it would make to our squad.

I think that’s an excellent point. I thought Middleton kept receiving the ball at Aberdeen with his side of the pitch already crowded, whereas with Halliday on he was receiving it in space. Our strongest left side imo would be Murphy and Barisic. With an overlapping fullback with proper world class crossing, a right footed left winger is a good idea to run in and create space and Murphy has the quality and intelligence to make it really work. I think that’s why people are misguided to think that we’d get the best out of Barisic as a wing back. He’d have far more space behind a winger who pulls away the full back.

Good luck with that!

Oh dear, you’ll rarely see a less impressive CV from a Rangers transfer target. 6 foot 5 so maybe they’re just after someone with genuine aerial prowess (if the rumour is true).

A win would be worth €1.07m. Not to be scoffed at given the sorry state of our finances. Further to the the prize money it’s a statement to the rest of Scottish football that we are back, on the European stage doing what Aberdeen had 6-7 chances to do and failed miserably.

It seems as though there’s a clash between our formation and our style of play. We largely play long ball (especially away from home). But 4-5-1 is a short passing formation. We need to change one or the other, either change formation and have two up front so there’s more than one man to get on the end of a ball over the top, and someone to knock the ball on to. Or change style to passing the ball on the deck more and getting the striker to link up properly with the midfield rather than launching he ball to him and expecting him to be able to do something with it.

My thoughts exactly. Of course he’s not a Gough or a Ferguson, but he’s been very consistent and has been chosen by Gerrard. Re McGregor, a keeper shouldn’t be captain in my opinion, you need someone who is in a position to communicate with the whole team during the game, ideally a centre mid.

Agreed. Celtic have just thrashed a much better side than Dundee, we should be going there to attack and score plenty goals and send a message.

Not my preference as I’ve said previously. We should make more use of width and not less. And 3 centre backs is a waste against the team who’re bottom.

It’ll be really interesting to see how we set up. You could tell Gerrard was feeling the anger and frustration from the stands when he made two attacking subs by 52 minutes. I hope he fits in Middleton, Grezda and Candeias with one playing off the striker. An alternative more attacking set up would be to put Middleton up front tonform a big man-wee man partnership with Lafferty and Grezda playing on the left.

Yes, but Livingston was worse. We did actually create 2-3 chances. Morelos missed a sitter. Jack had a good chance too.

100%. It’s common sense we don’t need three centre mids doing the same thing in that kind of game.

I think Morelos is overrated and Lafferty underrated on here. Lafferty is much better at link up play, holding it up and keeping possession. I’m keen to see how he takes his chance.

I wasn’t recommending Stewart I said he wasn’t good enough either despite being far more effective than Jones