Perry or Bocanegra?

[Stimpy 0]

Perry would be my start because of his performance on Saturday and the fact that Beconegra hasn't much time to adjust to his new surroundings.

 

My biggest worry though, is Jig walking back into the side and making us slower in everything we do.

[craig 5,199]

I agree to an extent Craig, but I wasn't at all happy that we were playing both Edu & Jig in midfield in Maribor, especially when Jig had been out injuired and I seriously doubted that he was fully fit to start at all never mind in scorching heat. We ended up depleted in the central midfield area with neither Ness or Hutton making the bench and that's maybe why Jig was played? I'm almost certain that Bedoya could have played a similar role alongside Davis as to what Naismith played on Sunday at Firpark. Even if he had been on the bench, Ally would have had the option to throw him on as a direct replacement for Naismith instead of what he did do.

 

McCoist threw Lafferty on as a replacement to Naismith though. And Lafferty can be effective there. There is absolutely no evidence that Bedoya would have been better suited.

 

I stand by my comments though Zaps.... and you in essence prove them. Whilst I wasnt happy at both Jig & Edu playing CM the fact remains that it is their natural position. Therefore, we had more midfielders than we had CB's. In fact, we werent depleted just at CB but across the back in general - we only really had Broadfoot, Goian, Perry, Wallace available at the back. Including Bocanegra we had 5 defenders to fill 4 positions.

 

Excluding both Bocanegra & Bedoya, we had : In midfield we had Davis, Naismith, Edu, McCulloch, Ortiz, Wylde & Fleck (as well as Lafferty, at a push, filling in the LM slot). So we had 7 midfielders for 4, possibly 5 positions. But we only had 4 defenders to fill 4 positions (5 if you include McMillan who was completely untested). I know Ness was injured, but I dont think Hutton was, I think he was just left out of the squad (could be wrong). If that is the case then it only strengthens the case for utilising Bocanegra rather than Bedoya.

 

I think McCoist absolutely did the right thing in using Bocanegra first - when he looked at the players available to him it is fairly clear that we were significantly lacking in numbers defensively, whilst being "OK" for midfielders.

 

He also has to think about the squad and not just the starting XI - putting Bedoya in the squad instead of Bocanegra would have been playing russian roulette with the defence in the event that someone got injured.

 

So when you look at what McCoist had available to him I would be astounded if many people would disagree that our greater need was at CB rather than midfield.

[Zappa 0]

Craig, when counting what we had available for across the back line you haven't counted the fact that Ortiz played at full back for his previous club. Being a hard worker who's assured on the ball with good vision and passing ability it would be hard to argue against the fact that Ortiz could easily be used in one of the full back positions if we are ever short of numbers at the back and need to do a shuffle.

 

It all really depends on how you look at it.

[craig 5,199]

Even if you include Ortiz we werew still shorter on defenders than we were on midfielders. Would you really want to play Ortiz at full back when he hasnt been signed for that position ?

 

Maybe we should go the whole hog and also include McCulloch & Edu as defenders too seeing as they have played there in the past.

 

The reality is that when you look at player's natural positions, with what McCoist had available, taking Bocanegra STILL made more sense than Bedoya.

[Gazza_8 233]

'Zaps' lol

[djbroxybear 0]

Perry has done no wrong he has been solid when required i would play him against Maribor, i don't think this team is any better than Motherwell and it will give him some european experience. But i do see Ally bringing in Bocanegra for him.

[calscot 0]

Being a bit of a pedant here cal, but Motherwell are UEFA ranked 175 having gained 6.353 coefficient points in the past 5 seasons while NK Maribor are UEFA ranked 226 having gained 4.349 coefficient points over the same period. I know that this doesn't mean Motherwell are a better team than Maribor, but it's still interesting to consider. We really shouldn't have been beaten over in Slovenia and we should definitely be beating this Slovenian team at Ibrox and progressing in the competition tomorrow night.

 

http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/index.html

 

Fair enough but didn't Maribor spank Hibs last season?

[Zappa 0]

Fair enough but didn't Maribor spank Hibs last season?

 

Hibs were absolutely rank rotten last season. I think they probably lost at home to every single team in the league or near enough anyway. 2 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses in their first 11 SPL games and during that period they were also put out of the league cup by Killie. Their form didn't improve at all until February when 5 straight wins in a month might just have saved them from possible relegation, but by that time they were also pumped out of the Scottish Cup by Ayr United in a tie which they had the chance to win at Easter Road before it went to a replay in Ayr. They recorded 10 wins, 7 draws and 21 losses in the SPL finishing on a grand total of 37 points.