DMAA

Dont think we need Lundstram and Jack together for this game.

Nothing wrong with the tweet. That kind if thing is just normal with footballers these days. More important is that he is serious about working hard. Big few months ahead for him.

I think it’s fair to say that he can improve his stamina though. This is his first season of real football so maybe it’s to be expected.

The Goldson-Davies partnership was always going to end the chaos at the back. Our record with and without Goldson: Without 8 games, 1 clean sheet, 8 conceded, 4 wins Since return 8 games, 5 clean sheets, 6 conceded, 7 wins If you limit it to the Goldson-Davies partership that comes down to 4 conceded in 7, and 2 of those were to Celtic. Edit: Just checked pre Goldson injury and they were partnered 3 times in the league and got 3 clean sheets. I forgot cup games too, that adds 1 clean sheet in 2 games.

Amazing to see Kamara finding his 20-21 form under Beale. I think something just wasn’t working in Gio’s system, and it’s maybe taken a bit of time for Beale to correct it. If he can continue like that he’ll be like a new signing.

Well, the excitement is officially back! Suddenly we have an entertaining team, packed with creativity and flair. Slowly but surely, the bench is starting to look stronger too. Jack, Colak, Cantwell and Lowry on the bench last night. Raskin, Roofe, Hagi, Lawrence, Souttar/Helander and Yilmaz are all to be added to that. A run of three reasonably straightforward games now to bed in Raskin and Cantwell and to iron out the creases before the 26th!

Aerial attack is the route every team in this league except Celtic take against us. They try to win set pieces and then just get it in the box. Aerial ability is very important, it’s our main vulnerability domestically by a mile.

I agree with that. We are poor in the air and Raskin, Yilmaz and Cantwell coming in will actually make it worse.

From memory, I think Barisic caught form at that time. He’s also top for assists this season and doing well in a range of stats. Yilmaz impressed me though and I think he’ll improve us when he starts playing.

The stats I’ve seen on Sands as a DM are not promising. I do wonder if they erroneously included his games at centre back though, which would heavily skew the stats. But they basically showed that he is good defensively but has extremely low contribution creatively.

On this point, you could argue that the signings of Lundstram, Davies, Lawrence and Colak all improved the starting 11. But they are all in their late twenties with no real sell-on value. Raskin is the first signing of its kind arguably since Aribo potentially. Straight into the 11 and very young, with high sell-on potential. Yilmaz will hopefully be similar, and Tillman!

We've added two players who improve the starting 11 (hopefully). That is something we haven't done much in recent years, and especially not with players who have their best years ahead of them. As things stand now, Goalkeeper is the main priority for the summer. And the uncertainty around Kent and Morelos will determine what the next priority is. We still lack goalscorers behind the striker and that's hopefully something that we can address in the summer.

She isn’t trans.

That concludes a very good transfer window in my book. Two strong, long term signings made in January. Not often you can say that! With players returning from injury too, we hopefully have a better second half the season ahead of us.

Great idea though. It’s a win-win, great option for fans and good for the club.

I think it’s all been too quiet for a bit move to come out of nowhere. Loans out are all I expect except Raskin. Would like to be wrong.

Raskin replaces Davis Cantwell and Tillman replace Arfield I’m fairly certain of those. Jack hasn’t been replaced and will renew for a year on a reduced wage I think. I think the funds available will be used in the summer for priority positions like goalkeeper, centre forward, centre back and possibly right-forward (Whittaker or similar). All those positions are now higher priority than centre mid so renewing Jack for a year will be seen as a sensible move.

My thoughts exactly. The fact a bosman wasn’t signed prior to signing proves to me that he wasn’t interested in waiting till the summer.

“Allegedly” doing some heavy lifting there. We don’t know the details and circumstances of the deal. For a start, it assumes a man who was frozen out of his team for months was willing to wait till the summer. I would bet he that a move in January was non-negotiable for him. There would have been plenty interest from other clubs. Empire on FF also said they wanted double what we eventually agreed for him. I’m just glad to have a very good player in the door. Edit: Just seen the last line of your last post!

I see Cantwell’s future as the furthest forward of the 3 centre mids. He could create a lot there without having to be a regular goalscorer. The front three all need to be regular goalscorers, which is why I hope Kent moves on. He’ll never be that player.

Celtic would have blown them off the map today. We’re lacking quality in the final third and it’s the difference. Hopefully Cantwell will go some way to resolving that problem, but we need Colak back in the team.

Hopefully Standard see sense. £2m and a % of a future sale is not reasonable if we have agreed a bosman. From a fans perspective, I really hope we get this squad strengthened for the second half of the season though. Beale can’t keep up this form with the current guys.

I’ve had a look at their coefficient performance. They are in 4th, well clear of France and with no signs of that changing. Germany have a good lead over them but they’ve been neck and neck the past few seasons (presumably with Dortmund falling away). On another note, the Serie A is one of the most entertaintaining leagues in Europe in terms of unpredictability. Most others are dominated by a small number of teams.

Their fans would lose the plot if they agreed to anything under £4m with us. The Rangers surcharge.

I saw this thread on Twitter. Basically we have the worst goalkeeping performance in the league, which isn’t much of a surprise. But I was shocked that have faced less xG than Celtic. The area Celtic are massively outperforming us is chance creation and/or forward quality. Their xG is far higher than ours, which again is not surprising at all. They are also far more clinical with their chances. For the first time I remember we are actually 3 goals ahead of our xG, but I’ve had a look at our stats and of course it is purely down to Colak, who is miles ahead of his xG. Morelos is par for the course as usual. Arfield the only other player scoring significantly more than he should for the chances he gets (Celtic have 6 players doing that).