joewarkfanclub

How do you know he didnt try and get a centre mid? Quite possible he couldnt find one that was good enough that was willing to come. Not sure I would have signed Tavares with Maswanhise already in the building. But he isnt the worst option to have to bring on if you need to change things.

Plenty of scope for changes to freshen things up with an eye on Sunday. I presume Halliday plays the semi final so I would rest him as I dont think his legs will manage 3 tough games in a week. Id pair Davor and Miller and put Sparrow in alongside for legs. He was very good yesterday and is young enough to handle it. Id bring Koutroumbis in and keep SOD Balmer Casey. Blaney is an option but wouldnt be my favoured one. Id start Stama to give him more minutes but sub him again after 60 to protect him for the final. The final call is whether we play Seddon and push Wilson up into midfield or persever with Robinson? Personally Id give Seddon a run out and keep Robinson as the Stama replacement. Ox SOD Balmer Casey Johnny K Seddon Miller Davor Sparrow Wilson Stama

I should probably qualify my last post. Im not saying I dont care about the game and we shouldnt try to get something from it. I dont think we are sending the youth team up to play it and resting everyone. But there will be enough enforced changes and we have enough squad players to rotate a fair few of them. Tell some players that there are semi final places up for grabs. Go take one.

Sorry, but Im 55 years old and we have been in 5 cup finals in that time. Sunday is a chance to get to another one. The League Cup is also one of only 2 competitions we will ever have a realistic chance of winning. So Sunday is the bigger game for me by a country mile. Not saying the extra money isnt welcome, particularly after the summer we had, but we all go to the football for the memories. Cup semis and finals provide pretty big ones. Also, Aberdeen might just surprise us and give us a punchers chance in the final!

Kaleta, Sparrow and Stama were all excellent, but voted for Miller on the basis that some of his passing is ridiculously good......

Thought the first half was very good but you have to put your chances away against Celtic otherwise its gonna come back to bite you. McCowan got the break of the ball for his goal with the ricochet, but it was poor defending from us after that as we backed off and let him hit it, instead of closing him down. Second half we started well enough but the second goal kills us. Not sure about the substitutions. Ultimately everyone got on, just not sure I would have put them on in that order. Stama is a huge upgrade on Robinson. Sparrow provided great energy and Kaleta was impressive going forward until he got injured. Some of Lennon Millers passes were ridiculously good. Unfortunately we never capitalised. Not a surprise to lose the game. Celtic are a much better team than us, with infinitely greater resources. Wednesday could be tough with Gordon and probably Kaleta both out. But saw enough today to feel positively about the semi final on Sunday......

Good to see SK reads the board 😆 Super impressed that he is going for it by playing Marvin and moving SOD in one. That will give us more of a threat going forward and he should have the legs to deal with Maeda better. McGregor out is also a bonus. Lets get intae thum!

Good man! 😍

I presume you just go to the turnstyle as normal and scan your card. I havent made any arrangements to do anything different.....

Those games dont seem that long ago to me. Obviously a sign Im getting old! 😆😆😆

He played very well. Hearts look like a different team under the new guy. Watch out for them starting to climb the league table.

Id take that......

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......