DMAA

Worrall the pick of the defenders for me so far. Flanagan the weak point in the team but a number are guilty of giving away possession a lot.

Good chance from great play from Arfield, Candeias and Morelos. Another wasted delivery from Tavernier there though.

Poor start to be honest, so many slack passes. Very open though.

Quite happy with that starting lineup. Should be solid with the two defensive mids and that will hopefully give us the platform to keep a clean sheet and nick a goal.

Sent by a Rangers supporting intern as a prank who was promptly dismissed.

Rangers said they have camera proof that Collum didn’t see Candeias blowing kisses. If that is true then it’s not a matter of debate it’s a documented lie that this was the reason he carded him. I didn’t realise goading was a bookable offence but given it seems that it is we couldn’t complain about the second yellow if the ref had actually seen it. In reality he messed up and used that as an excuse afterwards.

True, I couldn't believe it. Why not talk about the impact he made when he came on? And no mention of him being an easy target for refs either.

The home form is great, although going by last season we've yet to face our biggest tests in Celtic and Hibs. Have to say I agree with some of the comments about our play being generally pretty pedestrian. We really struggle to pass the ball about and keep possession. I was watching for a while and I couldn't find a period of even about 20 seconds where we kept the ball. Something wasn't right with the team and that's why most players didn't impress. But the impact of Morelos coming on was quite something to watch. He is really starting to justify the hype.

What a day. The table has completely changed in one day and it’s now looking very good for us. Furthermore the run of fixtures coming up has looked pretty formidable with Hearts, Aberdeen and a Hibs double header in the space of a month but incredibly their form has turned at just the right time for us. No excuses now, what a huge month we have ahead!

Fantastic. Arfield is a great goal scorer, such an important player this season.

I’ve noticed Liam Kelly has been outstanding for Livi this season and chick young commented on his performance on the radio. Can’t help but wonder why he wasn’t considered good enough to be a back up to McGregor, it must be costing us about £0.5m to have Wes as back up. Kelly is looking like a big prospect now.

Thanks for the updates @Rousseau. Can’t watch the game and these updates are better than what’s available elsewhere.

I know I might be biased but I feel so much more confident of our goal threat when I see Middleton in our starting lineup.

To be fair he actually was booked for this, I just checked.

It's smoke and mirrors. Was Scott Brown booked for goading Diouf? Is it even in the rules that it's a bookable offence? I think he just messed up when he booked both players after assuming Candeias must have been partly to blame.

A very confusing statement. The appeal was on the basis of mistaken identity, are they saying that it wasn’t mistaken identity so it can’t be overturned whether the yellow was legitimate or not? This was my understanding of the law until now, yellows can’t be appealed. And since when was goading opponents a bookable offence? I criticised Candeias for doing it, and although I can’t think of any examples just now I’ve never heard of a player being booked for that.

Thanks for the info I hadn't heard that commentary. There's no question that there needs to be an element of unpredictability in your play as a winger. But I think far too much credit is given to players like Kent who cut inside all the time as if that somehow makes them more dangerous. Motherwell were tripling up on Middleton for a reason, he's so fast they wanted to push him inside. The sting came right out of Grezda's game when he switched to the left too because all of a sudden he was running away from the fullback inside rather than running past him down the line, which was resulting in a pass to a centre midfielder in a non-threatening position rather than a cross to a striker in a threatening position. When I'm marking a winger who does that I feel very comfortable. Barrie McKay had the passing range and general technique to play the "wrong wing" role brilliantly at times, especially with Wallace overlapping. Without the overlapping fullback (when Flanagan plays) and without very good technique and passing it does little more than keep possession the vast majority of the time and doesn't result in any penetration whatsoever, which we saw a lot of for a spell there. Great to hear they are working on drills to bring dynamism to the play on the wings though because Middleton will be impossible to mark with his pace when the team are giving him one-two options inside as well as down the line.

I’m seriously excited. His ability to score from outside the box with both feet reminds me of someone I was very glad to see age at Celtic, Kris Commons. His goals from midfield were priceless for them and I think the same will be true of Middleton, especially in the age of 1 up front.

This simply isn’t true. His quick pass in the Villarreal game was a great example of his vision and quick thinking. Another pass against Spartak showed again great vision and quick thinking and, most importantly, the passing range to execute it, and should have ended in another goal because it was a fantastic chance. I firmly believe the impression you and others have is due to most of what we’ve seen of him being the final stages of a games when he’s been asked to just take on his man. He’s shown at youth level he’s got loads of quality, not least a brilliant shot with both feet.

It’s just a fact that it isn’t a given though. Our corner taking has been really poor all season. Some players are specialists and the rest are inconsistent at best. There’s a good reason why Kent hasn’t been taking corners, his corners weren’t anywhere near good enough. Only a small percentage were decent.

A proper set piece taker is worth a lot of points in a season in my opinion. How many times in recent seasons have we been chasing a goal and we can’t even put a ball in the opposition box? Gerrard should think long and hard before removing a corner taking specialist from the starting lineup.

It’s strange because it was the same against St Mirren. He was poor for most of that game but came closer than anyone to scoring with a great shot just before coming off. He looked like he’d finally got into it. The same yesterday, from about 55 minutes onwards he looked a totally different player.

I thought we had much more joy through the middle too because we used the width of the pitch much better with Halliday and Middleton on the left.

So many positives to take from that game. Have to say say I was glad to hear Kent and Candeias were unavailable because I was desperate for Middleton and Grezda to get a chance and they showed they have real end product in their game. When you only have one striker it’s vitally important to have goals in your midfield and those two have a very good goal scoring record, albeit it not yet at this level. Arfield deserves a mention too. We really missed him when he was out. He finishes like Van Nistelrooy and tackles like Roy Keane. Really hope we see some rotation on the wings going forward, we have a strong squad.

Certainly too early to say he could play centre forward imo. If he did it would probably have to be alongside a target man. But the early signs have definitely been that he’s a reliable finisher.