joewarkfanclub

Not having a dig here, genuinely, what team would you pick?

I think he is the best we have. He and Robinson didnt combine at all on Saturday and Robinson on his own doesnt really work either. Albeit he looks less poor on his own. Celtic will dominate midfield but we cant just surrender it to them or it will be a long afternoon. We will definitely need an out ball whether it be Sparrow, Maswanhise or Kaleta. For me Stama has the most game intelligence to support that. If Watt was anywhere near fit Id consider starting him up top as he can at least hold it up and win fouls. But it looks like we got the old Tony back, not the one Robbo whipped into shape.

I do wonder about this. It seems to me the players are grinding out results despite the system rather than because of it (Saturday excluded). I think on the whole recruitment has been decent and we are undoubtedly suffering because of the injuries to Paton, Slattery and Nicholson who would all improve our midfield. But as you have said previously, there was still time to address that in the window and we didnt. Our big problem last year was conceding soft goals and on the whole we have been much better on that front. As you have also said, however, a better defensive midfielder than Davor wouldnt hurt. I think SKs biggest problem is that he puts so much faith in senior players it then becomes very hard to drop them without upsetting the changing room. For me we just shouldnt be starting with Halliday and Davor in the same team. Neither have the legs or physicality to deal with what they are being asked, so you need to pick one and ask them to do less and put Miller back in his best position where he can actually dictate the pace and flow of the game to our advantage. I think if we are sticking with the same personnel we need to go 4-2-3-1 and get our pace and attacking options with Maswanhise and Tavares as wide players in the 3. But that would mean dropping one of the centre halves. If we are sticking with 3 at the back we definitely need to play Kaleta and either tell Wilson to get pushed right up or try Seddon in there. Up front its Stama all day long, although, I think Watt could do a better job holding play up than Robinson is able to (despite his lack of fitness). In short, we have the players to be playing better football than we are at the moment, the question is, would that necessarily transfer to better results?

It may be stating the obvious, but we are gonna have to do a whole let better than we did on Saturday if we are going to avoid a hammering. I see Stama was confirmed as a stomach bug on Saturday, so hopefully that will have passed and he will be fit to start. If he is we really need to leave him up by himself and put an extra player in midfield. Either Sparrow if he is fit, or Maswanhise to give us an out ball when we eventually do win it back. If we go the same again as Saturday it will just be wave after wave of Celtic attack and the inevitable 3 or 4 nil. SK has already said there isnt going to be a kneejerk reaction to Saturday so he isnt going to make wholesale changes (its just not his way), so the best I think we can hope for is Ox Balmer Gordon Casey SOD Wilson Davor Halliday Miller Sparrow /TJ Stama

Nil vote!

Poor game yesterday from 2 poor looking sides. Our defence was miles off it and you could see their goal coming a good bit before it actually did. The frustrating thing is you could see Dundee werent that brilliant, but they were still good enough to leave with the 3 points. We have had a decent start to the season, but if we are honest, results have papered over some of the cracks and that performance / result has been coming. I said before that, a bit like Alexander, SK would get away with the line up and performances as long as the results kept going in our favour. How he responds to yesterday might be pivotal in how long the fans stay with him this season. As others have said Robinson doesnt work in this system and he is either bereft of confidence or just not very good. He spends his whole time wrestling with defenders and losing, instead of trying to lay it off or running in behind. Our midfield is as dysfunctional as ever and until we address that its hard to see things improving. Im not as down on the manager as some. I still think he does a lot right but he really needs to address the elephant in the room instead of stubbornly continuing with a set up that everyone can see limits us. The big concern would be what is wrong with Sparrow and Stama. If they are both now also out for a period of time it further limits our ever decreasing options to change things. We could really do with Slattery, Paton or Nicholson making a speedier than anticipated recovery. 3 points yesterday would have afforded us some breathing space going into the next 2 games. Unfortunately we now have to take something unexpected, even just for confidence purposes going into the semi final.

No real surprises with the starting 11. No Sparrow is disappointing as it limits our options off the bench midfield wise. No mention of him being injured yesterday so maybe illness or a personal issue. Robinson needs to show something today. Hopefully being up against a former team is a motivating factor. The weather is actually pretty decent so hoping for an entertaining game!

I appreciate what you are saying, but my basis for the debate isnt my own personal opinion its the content of the VAR Review video. They talk about "deliberate" several times whilst explaining their decision and even say that Souttar moves his arm upwards in the direction of the ball. I totally accept that normally Souttars will be a yellow card and Caseys will be a red due to the circumstances. I think Collum muddys the water somewhat by trying to explain away why Souttar wasnt carded at all. If he is deemed to have moved his arm to the ball as they indicate, its hard to fathom why that isnt considered deliberate. And if deliberate IS a thing as the review seems to indicate it is, then I think Casey is harshly dealt with as the arm he moves upwards goes across his chest. The one that stops the ball going in the net is already out by his side as he throws himself into the block. Anyway, I dont think there needs to be any more time wasted on this. We have a game tomorrow!

Im not debating that Souttar should have got a red card. They are clear in the video that the cases are different because of the position of the goalkeeper. Casey denies a clear goalscoring opportunity. Souttar does not (according ro the panel). But they then go on to debate punishment and whether the appropriate one was applied. Punishment for Souttars act being deliberate is yellow. Punishment for Caseys act being deliberate is red. Where I have the problem is that they deem Caseys action deliberate and Souttars not. For me, the actions are very similar. Both should have the appropriate colour of card or neither should. So while I welcome the transparency and the discussion surrounding decisions, I still think consistency is an issue. The videos ARE a huge improvement on where we were before though, so well done to Collum for that.

Stopping the goal in itself only determined whether the punishment was yellow or red. The reasons they gave for implementing the punishment was whether it was deliberate or not. They talked about "natural positions" and "movement" etc. They determined that Caseys WAS deliberate and Souttars wasnt. Despite both motions being very similar. Not saying one is right and one is wrong. But if Caseys is a red then Souttars is a yellow. If Souttars isnt punishable (because it isnt deliberate) then neither should Caseys. The discussion in the video is informative. I just disnt find the decisions consistent in those cases.

Not sure what some folks are expecting of the club / manager re squad depth. Particularly when they are being criticised in certain quarters for having a bloated squad once everyone is fit again? We have perfectly ample coverage at the back for all eventualities. Yes there will be a drop off in standard the further down the pecking order we have to go, but thats true of any club. My only concern so far this season has been midfield. But we are getting by there and could change it up by introducing Sparrow from the start or pushing Ewen Wilson into midfield with Seddon at the back.

Just watched the whole VAR review. Not sure I agree with all the positions they have taken, but it is quite refreshing and informative. Certainly listening to the lines of communication between the officials and VAR Room lends confidence that they are all a lot more switched on than they appear during a game. Still not sure about the 2 penalties though. Casey 100% handball and 100% penalty but their reason for the red card still doesnt sit right with me. Particularly when you listening to their resoning for it and compare to Souttars. The only difference is the position of the keeper. Anyhoo. At least we are getting explanations now and can understand the logic, even if we dont always agree.

Certainly from my vantage point in the East stand, I was convinced in real time it struck their players hand first as I was shouting for a penalty before Lennon tucked it away and I immediately shut up! I agree, its by no way a clear and obvious error......

Great news. Is that all our saleable assets tied up? Be nice to get Miller on an extra year extension. But that will fepend very much on the goodwill of the player and his family.

Bad news for McGinn. He was having a pretty good season. Its amazing though how many times things happen when SK has a big decision to make. Of course he could opt to tuck SOD in one and play Kaleta at RWB, but I think Balmer, Gordon, Casey looks a formidable back line. Our set piece threat is becoming ridiculous!

Loved his interview after the game. "Its every boys dream to play for their country. And I lived my dream tonight" Class! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Aaron Chapman? 😆😆😆

There is no doubt at the moment that Ox appears to be an upgrade on Kelly. Taking pressure off the defence by coming for cross balls is a huge benefit. His shot stopping has been pretty decent as well. But one of the things that seems to go unoticed or at least not mentioned is his distribution. I dont recall him kicking the ball out of the park once this season.

That stat doesnt by itself make him the worst keeper in the league. I accept it doesnt make good reading and Im not sad he has moved on. But you have to also look at the defence each keeper played behind. Our overall defensive record last year was honking. Yes, Kelly had a part to play in that, but it wasnt all him.

Not sure it was a dig. But its hard for it to not sound that way when you just talk openly about the changes and the difference thats been made. I thought he handled it as diplomatically as he could. No personal references to anyone not have accepted the invitation etc.

You might have been away bud. It was extensively trailed. They are both now on 1 year rolling contracts. Consensus was that was good for the club as we never get into a position again where we are having to pay 3 managers at the same time.

More evidence that Fir Park is a good place to come if you want to play for your country! Long may it continue!

I certainly prefer going into it off a run of wins than defeats! 😆😆😆 That and its another 2 weeks closer to players returning to fitness and getting the likes of Watt up to speed! I think we are in a good place.

The big difference this season is we arent shipping loads of goals. The only times we have lost more than 1 goal in a game were against Rangers and Aberdeen and those were the 2 games we have lost. Even then we were unlucky not to equalise late in both of those. If you only need to score once in a game to get some sort of positive result, you give yourself a much better chance of doing so. If you are having to score 2 or 3 it makes it much more difficult. Still be nice to get some midfielders back though and add a bit more creativity for our forward players to feed off!

Best not to piss Celtic off right now as well. We can do that in the final! 😉