StAndrew7

Just on the last point, is it repeat offenders, or is it spread across the team? Not expecting an answer, just a general musing. Like, if I were to continually make mistakes week in, week out on a project I'm working on I'd be out on my erse after a couple of months, or at least taken off it/put under review. If you make the odd mistake over the course of a year or so, it's not quite the same thing. I agree on your change demand/requirement. Every single week there's an incorrect decision and it needs to be stopped and fixed, or at the very least improvement plans put in place that are announced publicly; e.g. better training regimes etc. I'm not looking for naming and shaming of individuals but just some demonstrable effort to improve things. I'm not sure of the answer; full time officials is one but that's increased cost for not necessarily increased quality. Perhaps gives you more sway over poor performances, demotions etc. but outside of that, I guess the biggest issue is the interpretation of the laws/reasons for its use that need to be absolutely black and white?

To play devil's advocate slightly here, would you not be absolutely raging if replays showed an opposition player was half a yard (or less) offside when they score the goal to stop us getting European football, or getting into a cup final knowing that VAR could have stopped it? There's quite a lot of focus on video assistants across sports right now; there's a big discussion in the NHL about inconsistencies between games in calls for interfering with the goaltender, miniscule offside decisions etc. There's chat about there being a time limit, or perhaps not being allowed to use slow-mo to make a revised call, as that's not something the on-ice officials have. Some of the delays have taken 4 or 5 minutes each with multiple reviews a game, which in hockey is mad. I agree it's not working. I think an awful lot of that is down to the (in)competency of the officials in Scotland. I do hope that there's training/case studies being written of all of the incorrect decisions which are being made and those are being used for training/to rectify them, or at the very least minimise the risk of them reoccurring.

Not for me, unless we're offloading Robinson (doubtful given his injury and age), Moses and Tavares. Also, if he's out of contract just PCA him. We need a (sizable/physical) defensive midfielder to shield the back three properly as a priority.

Not for me. Same thing.

Any chance of a Ctrl C + Ctrl V for those of us who don't subscribe or can be arsed employing a workaround? 😅

I think it's quite timely that the likes of McGinn, O'Donnell, Sparrow and Nicholson are returning to the fold. It's been good to see the latter three getting some game time under their belts, as you'd expect them all (including McGinn) to be required over the next run of games. When you consider that there's some signings we've yet to see kick a ball beyond the odd 20/30 minute cameo (Callachan and Johnny K) and Slattery who I think we'll be lucky to see start a game before March, having those four back fit again is crucial to load management. We have the early signs of a decent squad, especially when you think about how lacking we've been in the middle of the park up until now and have still managed to get to 25 points. Of those games, I reckon we can get some kind of result out of four of them; I'm writing off the OF and Aberdeen, although the latter perhaps not as readily as I might have a few weeks ago. I think seven to nine points is realistic; that would put us on low to mid 30s in total which I think is a very good position to be in by mid-January.

Aye, exactly this. I checked his goal stats from Aus and when he scored he was always playing with a combination of a ten, strike partner or wingers.

U ok M8? Pm me xoxox In all seriousness, though, totally agree. I'm absolutely not giving Kettlewell a pass based on two wins but it does feel like things might finally be coming together.

Same team as Saturday, please. Which shocks me, given my dislike for Halliday. 😂 Maswanhise definitely provides a bit more than Watt. I like them both but you can't argue with his performance yesterday and he and AP work well together. I think the important thing is to get as many people back towards full match fitness (or with the ability to play 30/45 in the tank) for the festive period. The likes of Sparrow, Nicholson etc. getting minutes is important for that but I wouldn't be rushing them back, even with Sparrow's goal yesterday. He's an ideal impact sub to come on with 20-30 to go and run at a tired back line.

I had completely forgotten about him.

Yeah, I absolutely agree; his game is far better suited to the continental style, imho. I'd actually be quite happy if he never played in England. The game there's too reliant on brick shithouse midfielders, rather than someone of Miller's stature and style. Ultimately it depends which club is buying him. Bologna paid (or are rumoured to have) paid about £3m for Ferguson. If a team like Atalanta, Juve, Bayern, Leverkusen or whomever wants him we'll get far more. If Liverpool and the others are looking at him, you can bet the other big boys in the top leagues are.

No reason it'll mean less money for us? The EPL has silly money I agree but most Serie-A/Bundesliga/French teams can afford to pay £8 million if that's the quoted number and they want Miller to play in their first team. It's down to what we value him at what we'll sell him for. If a club wants him to play in their first team, they should pay what we ask them for/we need to negotiate hard rather than just jumping at the first big bid that comes in. FWIW, I'd take £6 million from a European team with appearance, performance and sell on clauses, which I don't think we'd get from an EPL side as they're the ones likely to buy him from a "lesser" club in Europe for mega-bucks.

I'd heard Newcastle were in for him last month; seemingly he told them no then, but wouldn't be surprised to see them come back in. He definitely fits with Brighton's development model/pathway.

Ctrl C + Ctrl V from P&B: I tend to agree with folk who are a bit fed up with it all, really. There's just a general apathy for me right now. It feels like we'll be fine this season. Granted, after the last couple of years that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Am I happy we got to a semi-final and are in a better league position this December? Of course. Am I happy with the baffling tactical decisions and team selections, poor attacking play, the persistent isolation of a striker (whom we paid six figures for) and making similar defensive mistakes to last season? No. I've really got zero motivation to go to games; there's not a lot of excitement for me there because I know I'm going to be served up the same pish (both on the pitch and off of it). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Neither of those occasions will make me feel happy/delighted/like I enjoyed it, really. Someone reminded me that the Club is a business first and foremost and of course they're correct; but if I were a business and my product was as shite as what we offer on the park at times, I'd be a bit concerned. I don't want Kettlewell to get the sack but I equally don't particularly like him as a manger in his current guise. Yes, he's young, it's his second ever managerial position etc. and that's fine; but you'd expect given his own knowledge of that, he'd be willing to accept his mistakes and failings and learn from them, rather than constantly blaming referees and others for our defeats. Add in to all that his persisting with tactics and players in certain positions that (blatantly at points) just don't work. For such a "humble guy" he can't half go on like someone who's full of himself and his own ability/importance at times. I don't mind someone who's a bit more erudite and expressive (at times it's quite refreshing hearing stuff outside the usual cliches) but there's also the need for brevity (the irony of this point in a post this long is not lost on me), rather than just saying the same thing in four or five different ways. To be slightly more positive; it seems like the penny might be dropping with SK that Stama needs help from someone up top and it appears that it's clicking with Watt and also with Maswanhise before he mysteriously disappeared over the last few games (I wonder if he's come back with a niggle post international duty). With Nicholson, SOD and others returning to the team, there's definitely cause for some optimism moving forward but our run of fixtures until mid-January isn't easy.

I did wonder if Kaleta was carrying a niggle. If that's the case and SK is playing Tavares in front of Koutroumbis, you have to question whether or not the latter has the quality required?