DMAA

Maybe being harsh, but I’d have liked a bit more awareness from Barisic there in terms of offside. He’s yards behind the rest of the defence.

He’s been poor, Matondo should be brought on, and should get a run of games.

He played his part, not a particularly large part. Scored 2 of our 10 goals in the 4 knockout games he played in, he was injured for the quarter final and semi final ties and we got there without him.

Morelos is paid far too much to be kept, we don’t get anything like value for money. He’s had pay rise after pay rise while his performance has declined. Colak will be on significantly less and has been a significant improvement. I’ve said for years a natural goalscorer scores for fun in this team, and we’ve finally got one starting and he is scoring for fun, despite the fact that we aren’t even creating much for him.

Exactly. A large portion of our fan base have incredibly low expectations. We should just be happy to be playing at stadiums like Anfield is the attitude of some. Not a Rangers attitude at all, there is a way to lose games that many of us wouldn’t complain about. We don’t have the ambition of clubs like Club Brugge, from the boardroom down to the fan base.

When the ball did come to him though he was wasteful or easily dispossessed. The midfield was poor but our front three were also definitely part of the problem, offered nothing.

Totally agree. We aren’t using the squad we’ve got. A front three of Matondo, Colak and Sakala could do some damage domestically, with Tillman centrally behind them and Lundstram and Jack centre mid. We aren’t using our players and when we do the positions and system is wrong (Tillman wide). Champions League is very tricky to get right but we showed no ambition until the 80th minute.

Matondo deserves far more game time than he’s getting.

So with 10 minutes to go we finally decide to set up in a way to actually play football why not jus make those changes a while ago? What did we have to lose? So frustrating. Matondo robbed of a good goal there. Should have been on for Kent ages ago.

Not at all, Lundstram has been very poor.

Davis was very poor when he let Diaz cut inside. He’s not the best defensively. I’d happily take Jack and Kamara on for both here. Barisic has been the worst defensively though, very poor the way he lets Salah cut inside every single time without a challenge.

Showing too much respect and not showing enough ambition. I’d take Barisic off for Yilmaz and Lundstram off for Kamara, as a minimum. We haven’t held onto the ball very well at all in the final third either, hopefully Colak and Matondo will get on at some point.

Leon King has been very good.

3 centre backs is a good idea but I’m unconvinced on some of the choices further forward.

And crucially, there’s a proper link to recruitment too. They buy players who will flourish in the system, and their recruitment is ambitious too.

On this point, I’ve just checked what RB Salzburg’s wage bill is apparently 15 million euros. I find that figure hard to believe, but it will still be significantly lower than ours and I have no doubt that they have better players, and loads of assets, and they are coping fine with the Champions League. We need to be more ambitious and starting following the example of clubs like that.

There should be decent money to spend next summer with all the contracts expiring. Because the other big reason to refresh the squad regularly is that it keeps the wage bill low. By holding onto guys and handing out new contracts we end up with a huge wage bill but with an ageing and demotivated squad. By selling regularly you are bringing in fresh players on low wages and selling before you hand out the big wage rises.

I kind of forgot about Kamara tbh. I’ve long felt he would fetch decent money but things haven’t been trending in that direction recently. Hagi’s injury has killed anything for now. Recapturing form will take time too. The China one was very early, that was his first season I think. The Lille one was the one that annoyed me, I remember posting on here about it. But we turned down £16.5m and they walked away. With Kent it was Leeds 2 years ago, the figures were never released although £10m was rumoured.

Definitely. In my opinion we should be finding someone while we have the draw of a few games in the Champions League to offer, and still a chance of making the Europa. It isn’t going to happen though. The poor recruitment and mismanagement of the squad is my biggest gripe. We are terrible and recruiting creative players, our record is dire. It doesn’t seem to matter who is our manager, our lineups are invariably too defensive and lacking in flair and excitement (and relying on Kent for that proves my point). In terms of mismanagement of the squad, our failure to sell high and buy low is endemic. We have hung onto every player possible who brought us success in Europe in 2019. 9 out of 11 who played in the 1-0 win over Feyenoord started our last game, and all but Ojo are still involved regularly. Kent and Morelos were worth something and we turned away excellent bids for them. I believe people in the club overrating them the way many fans did is probably the blame for that. We’re now in a situation where if you look at our squad and ask where the next big sale comes from the answer is pretty much nowhere. Our starting 11 is possibly the oldest in the league. In contrast, Celtic took 2 transfer windows to assemble a squad that has several players who could realistically fetch big money at some point.

Kvaratskhelia stood out the second he touched the ball in highlights I watched before the game, his touch and control of the ball is what all wingers should aspire to. Although to be honest it’s not really something you can teach, you have it or you don’t. What I like about Napoli is that they don’t content themselves with 1 or 2 creative players the way we do (Kent 😑), something that frustrates the life out of me, they have loads of players who can dribble and create. Anyway I watched this video after the game, a joy to watch that player.

He came in and had a 55 style season where he massively overachieved by winning the league and became an instant hero. He didn’t build on it at all though, finished 4th and then 3rd and played rubbish football in the process. That’s why I was concerned when we went for him, his CV was mixed at best, he did not recruit well and went backwards. Two transfer windows in here and I’ve already lost trust in his ability to improve his squad, entering yet another season with Kent undroppable due to lack of competition was a huge mistake. With 12 months on his deal we should have been asking his agent to find a buyer.

What do we expect with the player selection? Where are the goals in that team, aside from Colak and Arfield at a stretch.

Utterly depressing. Gio is clueless with that starting 11 against Dundee United at home. Absolutely mind boggling. This season is going nowhere with him at the helm.

I look at that starting line up and I just think how has it come to this!

I don’t know, but I read their forums when we signed him and they were all talking about unfortunate off-field issues that have hampered his progress, and that he wouldn’t get in their team now anyway.