DMAA

In my opinion, poachers win leagues in Scotland, and they are underrated by our support, many of whom are fixated on strikers who can “rag doll” defences. I’m hoping Dessers can be that goalscorer. Or Colak. There are at least signs of encouragement with Dessers on that front, and more of a track record, although still some red flags in his stats (hopefully explained by playing for Cremonese). What I really like in Dessers’ stats is that he’s in the 92nd percentile for touches in the attacking penalty box, and the 90s for carries into the penalty area. And 93rd for goals to shots on target. Somehow he’s managed to be in the 3rd percentile for shots on target % though, which I’m hoping is explained by a tough season near the bottom of the league.

Lammers’ career bears no resemblance whatsoever to Laudrup’s though, let’s be honest. The 3 foreigner rule worked against Laudrup at AC Milan. But he played his part (in an team who scored 36 in 34 games) and ended that season with a Serie A winners medal and a Champions League winner.

They weren’t really though. 29 goals in 48 games and then 6 goals in 8 games when we signed him. He was very much on the up. He'd broken into the Croatia squad the year before and had 6 caps and 2 goals when we signed him. But I agree with your point that things can turn around when you move club.

That’s encouraging

Yeh, and for the avoidance of doubt (again), I’m not writing him off. I like technical players, and I like his technique on the ball. I'm hoping our trust in Beale is well placed. We could certainly do with more dribblers in the team. Kent has been our go-to for about 5 years and his dribbling success always hovered around 40%.

Well, where the goals return is poor you expect to see the creative stats make up for it. That’s not the case here, there are a myriad of creative stats that are very poor, some that are acceptable. Or you maybe look for signs that he’s been unlucky with goals, but it doesn’t look like he has been unlucky. In the 11th percentile for non-pen xG, also the 11th for shots on target % (the Dutch Kent), 7th percentile for miscontrols another one that stands out. He's clearly good at dribbling and tackling.

Well, his detailed stats are remarkably bad too. Not writing him off, but goals aren't the only red flag. https://fbref.com/en/players/c283ddef/scout/365_m1/Sam-Lammers-Scouting-Report

Much more than I’m comfortable with tbh, though I know that’s the way the market is. I’d have preferred to spend 6-7 on one striker than get two in the 3-4 range. Concern is you are in Matondo range which is so hard to get right, and you’d potentially get better value spending more. Celtic had to do this with a few of their successful signings like CCV and Jota. Of course, very hard to judge early in the window when you are seeing only the first few pieces of the jigsaw.

I’ve waited so long for this day.

As you say, hard to compare as they’ve played at opposite ends of the table, and I’m not clear on exactly what those stats are in terms of frequency vs success. More detailed stats would be good. Trusty looks the better player defensively, 99 for blocks is interesting compared to 17. If it’s just frequency then it doesn’t mean a huge amount. I remember for some reason it was an area Katic was rubbish in though, whereas Helander had great stats for it. That’s the kind of thing that is hard to notice with the naked eye but the stats tell a story.

Thanks, I’ve been missing these since Caskie has gone quiet on Twitter. Aerial duels is worrying for me. That's critical in Scotland. It's by far the biggest threat the diddy teams in our league carry, and they also play long ball. Going by the other duals stats, he seems a similar profile to Davies in that he doesn't enjoy duels, albeit he's hopefully more athletic and better on the ball. I said the same about Davies last summer based on the stats. I note this graph compares him to centre backs, and I think he's player left of a back 3 and left back on occasion which may explain why some of the attacking stats are so good.

That’s impressive. I reckon it's the olive oil in the Italian diet.

I’m unsure about Dessers too. Not a fan of spending millions on players with very limited scope to be sold on for more. I know some people hate it when you say that, but it’s just where we are as a club, generally the bigger money needs spent on young players and you can get better value in the bosman market for older players. Like Colak, he could well score plenty in a league like ours. Certainly looks to have ability. It’s wait and see for me with Dessers I suppose.

The fact that he finished the season backup to a 40 year old doesn’t really help to be honest. Yeh I’m aware that Rangers players play more minutes of course, but it still gives a good reference point. Ryan Jack had another season badly interrupted by injuries, he never really got a good run of starting games. Sands was away in January and didn’t play that much. I can absolutely see good technical ability in the videos so it could turn out a good signing, but for a few million I’m just skeptical.

Not impressed with Lammers. Lack of goals is one thing, but his inability to play games anywhere since Gerrard's first season here has alarm bells ringing in my head. If he had performed well at any of those clubs in the past 5 years he'd at least have played regularly. I understand the market we shop in, but do we need to take risks like this? By far his best season in terms of minutes alone was this season, which is good, but he played 200 minutes less than Ryan Jack, and only 250 minutes more than Sands, who left in January and wasn't a nailed on starter. And the other sign of that spell not going that well is his minutes trailing off as the season went on. He was playing in Serie A, so we can cut him a bit of slack, but Sampdoria were miles adrift at the bottom of the league so he wasn't playing for a good team. I'll probably get grief for being negative, but that's pretty much what I'm here for.

I think Beale coming in didn’t help him. Beale knew Morelos’ game inside out and how he fits into his system. If GVB had stayed, Colak would probably have returned to being first choice. As it happened, one injury ruined his season. For me, Colak is ideal as a number 2, because he’s a reliable goalscorer. I’ve defended Sakala because he’s here and out of the players available, he's often been one of the better options. His pace and goalscoring ability give us something different. But we absolutely need better than Sakala.

There’s still Colak too. I wouldn’t be opposed to one big signing up front, with a wide forward who can also play up front in emergencies (like they have with Abada). A young striker as 3rd choice would be better but I’m sure it’s practical for us.

Not a fan of spending money on Whittaker. I’d rather spend more money to buy a quality right forward.

It looks like smart business. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t offer anything like the threat Tav does going forward, but he’s strong defensively and potentially a very good option for center-back cover.

We earn more points for a win than Real Madrid, at least we have over the past 5 years. The points are based on how many teams are in Europe from your country. That’s why going from 4 to 5 teams in Europe has been bad for us. It has diluted our points further. Scotland’s current position in the rankings is unsustainable and we’ll slide down the rankings pretty quickly now.

Knowing our luck... "Jack tore both calves while doing sprints up sands dunes under Clarke's instruction and John Souttar ruptured his Achilles while trying to help him up. Both will now miss the full season."

It’s not a case of his contract being extended.

Incredible. I thought Bayern would be winning it comfortably again. A shame if Dortmund don’t because it’s good to see monopolies broken.

Playing in Kent’s position there. When was the last time Kent did that?

Have to say I enjoy Sakala scoring so many when he gets so much stick. A strange player, but he creates chances that most of our forwards don’t.