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DMAA

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Everything posted by DMAA

  1. 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.
  2. To be fair he actually was booked for this, I just checked.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. Gerrard's statement was a statement of fact too. I saw statistics the other day showing the one area Katic way outperforms Worrall is in the air. Worrall's stats were better in most other areas. This is the impression I had too, I thought Katic was a collossus at the back vs UFA at Ibrox.
  15. Well it's like a stress test. The only way to test the strength of a thing is to gradually increase the stress tests. In other words, there is no way to know how strong the defence is and how well drilled it is until is fails against higher quality opposition. I think our defence looked strong and well coached initially and was found out as the opposition got stronger. However you could take encouragement from the fact that - except the Motherwell experiment - we've only conceded more than once this season away to Villarreal and Spartak. And in both games our set up was attacking and we also scored goals freely.
  16. In Europe, the level of opposition has gradually increased so you'd expect the defence to perform less well. In the league there isn't a clear goals conceded trend. The only time we've conceded more than one was the second game of the season against Motherwell who are one of the weaker teams in the league.
  17. He's very readily criticised on here for poor defending and I did explain clearly why I didn't think he was at fault here. I agree Coulibaly is more culpable. He was miles away from where he should have been as the anchor man.
  18. Agree with that. However if the centre midfielders had been tighter on by far Spartak's most dangerous player he wouldn't have been sucked in at all. I think the previous point mitigates it for Middleton because he's given a decision to make whether to stay on a full back who hasn't made a run yet or close down Spartak's best player who is in acres of space and weighing up a pass. I also still think the man has been fairly passed on to Flanagan who isn't marking anyone and is in the left back position. If he's been left with 2 men to mark the points stands. Definitely. I'm just defending Middleton because I think he gets a hard time on here in that the slightest perceived defensive lapse is picked up on, despite the fact Candeias is the only winger in history I've seen defend to those standards. Modern winger's are far more used to being treated as left or right forwards and not man markers in a traditional 4-4-2.
  19. And by the way even if Middleton had chosen to man-mark rather than close down Popov I think he'd have passed him on to Flanagan because Flanagan's man had gone inside and Flanagan had in fact passed him on. He was in the left back position but hadn't quite got in line. The lack of anticipation was definitely more of an issue.
  20. I've re-watched it and I stand by Flanagan being more culpable. The full back had been passed on to Flanagan and it's clear he was aware of it, however despite the fact that the full back was running at full pace Flanagan remained flat footed and the inevitable through ball was played through and he had already lost 5 yards. Poor anticipation of the play as much as poor positioning. Middleton could have man-marked the full back but tried to close down Popov who was in acres of space and had loads of time to pick the pass. Have to say surely a centre midfielder should have been on Popov and not allowed him to play that pass in the first place. If Popov had been marked Middleton wouldn't have ran in to close him down, and more crucially the pass would never have been played.
  21. Perhaps so, I'll have to watch it again. My initial reaction watching it, and as a full back myself, was why are you so out of line with your defence and so central. Full back's 101 is don't leave a gaping hole on your side of the defence and pass men on if they leave your zone.
  22. I don't think Coulibaly justified his inclusion over Jack. Jack gives us a defensive steel and positional discipline in that anchor role and is also our most reliable centre midfielder in possession.
  23. I haven't watched the goals conceded over, however you can't blame the attacking left winger for not tracking that full back. Flanagan was out of position and out of line with the back line. For me the full back should not get sucked in like that and leave a big gap for the opposition full back to exploit. We have defensive midfielders for a reason and if the opposition winger moves inside you (as a full back) tell the defensive midfielder he's in your zone now, I'm staying in my position so that the defence keeps it's shape.
  24. I’m going to go against the grain on the central defence and say I don’t think a little bit of rotation is or should be a problem. We’ve got 3/4 good central defenders and with a heavy fixture schedule none of them should be frozen out. There are problems with the defensive coaching by the looks of things because we are leaking unnecessary goals.
  25. Ian, absolutely agree there one or two well over the top comments and a couple of unnecessarily negative ones but it’s not at all true that there were loads of “moany” comments through the game, the vast majority of the comments were fair.
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