joewarkfanclub

I think our problem yesterday was that the players needed to make any fist of the game cant play 2 games in 3 days at the moment. That being the case you prioritise one of them, and that has to be Rangers at home. I expect us to be more competitive on Sunday, albeit the result isnt a given as they also have better players than us. I agree with your general point though, that we need a more combative midfield if we want to surrender possession and defend our box adequately.

Maybe you should try some....😉

My prediction is as likely as any of the others and based on just about as much.....

I predict SK is abducted by aliens. Stevie Frail steps in and goes gung ho playing a 3-2-5 formation and we win 5-2. It is the way.

Not sure about that line up. But as Im not going Im happy to write this one off if we can take 3 points on Sunday! Of course every chance SK is a genius and I have no actual clue what Im talking about!

I think God is a pretty poor manager. Leaves his team to do as they please and then wonders whats gone wrong when they fuck it up. Personally, I wouldnt give him another transfer window!

The 1976 Scottish Cup Semi Final takes some beating. Kipre's red card in the 2017 League Cup Final is up there. But the worst refereeing decision Ive ever seen is the free kick against Alan Hutton in the Scotland v Italy game at Hampden in Nov 2007. If only Faddys hammys woulda stretched far enough it might not have been an issue!

We dont have enough referees for that. But a spell in the lower leagues to contemplate the circumstances and learn from his mistake wouldnt go amiss. Hopefully he will return better from the experience.

Merry Xmas Grizzly and all my fellow Steelmen / women / those who dont wish to be gendered! Not going to Parkhead so would prefer 3 points at home to Rangers on the 29th as a present! Im sure we can all drink to that! 🥃🥃🥃

Well that would seem to be a demotion. So maybe some action WAS taken, even if they wont say so publicly.

I could understand that logic if they played as a two. How does that work when Gordon plays in between them? Isnt he supposed to be the glue that holds things together?

With respect, no one said we would be a better team without him. He is our best player by a country mile. But we arent getting the best of him, mainly due to injuries in the squad, but also because we havent had a settled frontline or midfield. SK also had him playing an advanced role earlier in the season out of necessity. Thankfully thats now behind us. There is no doubting his quality and you can see that in his passing and dead balls. But there is no doubt he would excel even more if he had a fully functioning frontline in front of him.

I kinda agree with this. Ive not enjoyed watching Miller the same way I enjoyed watching Turnbull, albeit Miller probably has a higher ceiling now. I think its due to the circumstances you describe. Turnbull was the right player at the right time. With Miller, we can see he is a generational talent and needs to play. But I dont think we have got the best out of him or the team. Its why I hope we are able to keep him to the summer. With the players that are going to become available between now and end of season, I think he will be able to showcase his talents more fully.

Ive been quite perplexed by Hearts this season. Both Spittal and Dhanda were some of the top performers in the league last season and they didnt seem to have any plan as to how they were going to use them. Critchley looks like he is starting to get his head around what he has in the dressing room. Hopefully he hasnt quite got it worked out by 2nd January!

Apparently it was a pretty decent strike as well. Looks like he might be finding his feet at last.

The problem was that his first substitution was a negative one by bringing on Davor for Halliday. That shows you are looking to hold what you have and gives McInnes carte blanche with his attacking substitutions. Sparrow for Paton was fine. But the other sub shoulda been Maswanhise so McInnes had to keep an eye on the back door. This isnt hindsight either, as me and my mate both said the same at the time when we could see the direction of travel. Its one of my big bug bears with SK (who I still wholeheartedly support) but he need to learn from his mistakes, and in game management is still a big minus for me at the moment.

Precisely why I feel he needs to be braver and allow us to go play. I could understand it earlier in the season when we had injuries. But we have attacking options now. We should use them.

Hard to argue with this. But a lot of that is on the managers. Players play under instruction and you only need to look at the difference of our performance last Saturday and this week to see the players can play far more attractive attacking football if they are allowed. Its like us playing 3 at the back. It can actually work pretty well if you allow the wing backs to press up the park. If you tell them to sit it totally removes your ability to attack effectively. Unfortunately the risk attached to playing expansive football is too much for most managers in our league, so most prefer to shithouse games the way we have been doing. If both managers do it you get the "spectacle" that was Friday night. Hoping SK can be braver going forward. I know what I prefer to watch.

Its a real shame seeing whats happening to his career. Had really high hopes for him, particularly in a Scotland context as it was clear he wouldnt be with us for long. I always wonder whether players with poor injury records is down to genetics or whether playing a lot of football from an early age is actually bad for the body?

Not sure I agree that you cant play attacking football if you cant afford technical players. With that argument, on our budget, SK would be fully entitled to play negative football all the time. I think the frustration for a lot of our fans is that we have had glimpses of more expansive attacking football when we get our better players in their right positions and let them play. Of course that all depends on how the opposition sets up and how they effect your gameplan. Last night was a good example of that. I didnt disagree with the starting 11 last night because we know what kind of game you are getting against a McInnes team. My beef with SK this week is that once again his subs were reactive instead of pro-active. At 1-0 we should have been trying to change it up and reinforce our lead rather than just waiting and hoping Killie wouldnt score. Halliday and Paton were always going to tire. We should have got on the front foot at that point and gave them something to think about at the back rather than giving them free reign to change their attacking options. Davor was such a negative substitution and he was one of those involved in the lead up to Polworths goal. I wouldnt have started Maswanhise. But he should have been on at 60 minutes.

You can be tactically astute and still employ negative tactics. Not all managers have the first part. The second part is just a choice.

Thankfully I have to take my daughter to the airport in Edinburgh so this will be over before I know the score! Probably the best result possible for me.

Didnt think anyone had a brilkiant game tonight. Not for 90 minutes anyway. Maswanhise lit it up at the end but was only on a short time. Seddon was playing very well until he got injured and was our best player up to that point. He was very cross when he had to go off as if he felt he had been targetted by the Killie players. Had a right go at a couple of them. I went for Miller as I felt he sttod up to the physical test offered to him. He is starting to turn from a boy into a man.

I have to say I have no complaints re VAR from last night. 2 big decisions, the red card and the penalty claim, and imho they get them both right. They send the ref to the monitor to reverse the red card (not their fault he doesnt) and I dont think there is much Gordon can do with the handball as its blasted right at him (probably woulda been given last season). Last nights problem was an officious referee out of his depth.

Not too bothered about the quality of the performance as games against McInnes teams usually end up in a shitfest. He is a very tactically astute manager and once again he set his team up to counter our line up and it worked. The fact that we managed to sneak a goal and looked reasonably solid defending it until half time was pleasing. But we were always going to run out of legs and the subs needed to be the correct ones. Ultimately SK got it wrong again by waiting too long and trying to hold what we had. The first 2 subs should have been Sparrow and Maswanhise for Halliday and Paton. Had we done that and pushed Killie back, their goal maybe doesnt happen. The fact that we then get the red card and look better with 10 men is proof in point. The last 10/15 minutes were actually quite exciting. As for the referee? Probably one of the worst in the league. His handling of the game was terrible. Letting Killie away with some pretty roughouse tactics and then blowing for silly inocuous fouls elsewhere. To give a red card to Casey when he lets his frustration boil over just encapsulated how poorly he was reading the game. To get the chance to overturn such a poor decision and then stick with it in an effort to show you are a strong referee shows a lot about his character. Overall a point was about right, and feels ok given the circumstances surrounding the red card, but it shoulda been 3. The manager needs to be braver with his selections and substitutions in key moments.