weeyin

Health and Safety gone mad.

We can just ban you. That's easy.

It's not a complicated problem. Stop doing it.

Maybe it's his clone that's interested.

I meant I hadn't heard of us making players train in their own when they fall out with the club or other non-playing reasons.

It’s not something I have ever heard of us do before. I suppose it could happen, but just doesn’t seem our style.

That’s usually disciplinary issues. In this case it sounds more like specialized rehab.

Eythor would seem to fit into the style Alfred likes to play, with lots of crosses into the box. I’m happy to see him get a chance when he’s fit. If it doesn’t work then we can look for our plan B in January.

I imagine we expect 3 or 4 times return on that investment too. I agree, however, that we are likely to lose one or two more before the window.

Elijah Just was wee too, but he worked out OK.

They weren't allowed to do that for Conference League games, but you might get your wish Friday morning.

The authorities often get things wrong, but allowing teams to prepare and give them the best opportunity to compete and win in their play-off rounds is not one of them. You don't have to go too far back in time to see your thoughts about our performance against Stenhousemuir.

He wasn't in the squad last week, so I thought maybe he was injured. He had worked his way back into first team contention last season after yet another injury spell. I'd be worried he'd not be able to stay fit in the high press, high tempo game we want to play now. That's what finished him off at Celtic - losing his place through injury when they played a similar style, and never managing to reclaim it.

To say Vogt has shown nothing is just confirmation bias kicking in. He started the passage of play that ended with Priestman's penalty. He may or may not be good for us, but he's coming from an entirely different league and has an entirely different background from Hodge or Lowry. Not to mention Lowry has come back home, and Hodge has just moved up the road - and the local language is native to both. It's not as straightforward changing countries and having to operate in your 2nd or 3rd language. However, I'm long past being surprised when fans write off new players after a couple of league appearances. Once we have a settled team and played our first full round of fixtures we'll have a better idea about all the signings.

If we ever manage to get everyone fit, I think we have done a good job in recruiting the new defence.

I read an interesting article recently about how big number 9s playing through the middle have almost disappeared from the top levels of the game. Most modern coaches have forward (and attacking midfield) players who rotate in and out of attacking positions. I suppose that leads to different models for youngsters too who don't have senior pros to copy. Haaland is probably the exception.

Arsene Wenger was one of the managers who introduced this approach into English football. His philosophy was a good big player was better than a good small player. When you are a team like Arsenal (or Freiburg) you have a deeper pool of options to choose from, so you can apply your sports science and gym work to players who have the raw physical attributes. Gone are the days when you were either a wee tricky dribbler or a big thug of a defender. Now you can be a big thug of a ball player.

I don't get this need for defenders to tug shirts, wrap arms or grab shoulders. Every single one of them a foul by the strict letter of the law and dependent on the competence of the ref to decide which ones are penalised. Very soft award that would never have happened if he had taken the advice he was no doubt given as a 7 or 8 year old to keep his hands down.

Top quality team. Soft penalties. Soft red cards. Last minute goals. A tough introduction to European Football proper. Take your pick...

There is no reason any professional defender should be pulling a player in the box. We can argue all we like about how soft it was, but there's no pen if he keeps his hands down. Naive.

No attempt to play the ball in a DOGSO situation. It was very soft, but also very stupid from Moorman. Keep. Your. Hands. Down.

I'm starting to think last year's losing Europa Cup finalists are quite good.

Joke came back to bit me. Just discovered the game is on my ESPN+ subscription.

Happy to report they sent me a voucher code for the English language broadcast just after we scored.