Kmcalpin

On today's evidence Kennedy is not a right back. Steve Hammell had a poor game riddled with bad decision making. Felt sorry for Louis Moult - he worked his socks off but had little service and he missed Pearo's support. Cadden is a strange one. He seems to be a box to box attacking midfielder in the Pearo mould but the problem was that Pearo was also playingthough through necessity in an unfamiliar holding role. Cadden showed pomise but he needs the right midfield set up around him. For next Saturday surely Louis Laing should start in a defensive holding role to allow Pearo to revert to his normal role. Full backs remain a problem. Not convinced of Chalmers at all. We were the better footballing side today but credit to County they were the better overall side. Not great to watch but they are very efficient, hard working, and streetwise. A bit like St Johnstone and ICT. Incidentally, I counted 2 handballs today not unlike Keith Lasley's recent penalty against Accies and neither foul was given.

We need a replacement for Grimshaw and fast. Today's midfield was unbalanced and I can now understand a bit clearer McGhee's dilemma last week. He might not know the solution, in terms of the current squad, but he'll have a better understanding now of what isn't the solution.

He admitted he got it wrong against Accies a week or two back Greg.

As far as Marvin Johnson' is concerned potential predators will not just be assessing his form to date although that is important. They will be assessing his character and talent. They will be asking whether their coaching staff can take a player with great potential and move him up a level or two, comfortable in the knowledge that their coaching, medical, management facilities are far better than ours.

Well, if they're not, and they may not be, all they have to do is deny it publicly - but then again that might mean nothing.

Its interesting that Mark McGhee has said neither Louis Laing nor Jack Leitch has done enough to convince him that they're challenging for a starting slot.

Any time I've seen him play for United he's dived all over the penalty box - not a trait we want to encourage at Fir Park.

Absolutely. An easy bid to reject.

Agreed, but we have to find buyers first.

Willie Collum is the referee. Be prepared for some controversial game changing decisions.

He was released by Hearts, as he was considered to be too small (the same reason Dom Thomas left Parkhead). Incidentally how many young players do we release because they are too small - I'd guess very very few or none, as we can't afford to. As far as Faddy is concerned I think he first signed on when he was very young like 11/12/13.

I think Stevie Hammell was picked up and then rejected by Leeds United before he came to us.

Very true - let the others do the work and provide the energy and he'll provide some quality.

What do you mean by "our academy"? If you look at Dundee United for example, much probably most of their top young players didn't come through their much vaunted academy either. Players like Souttar, Spittal, Gauld, and Robertson were predated from other clubs when they were in their mid / late teens. I'd like to find out where Hamilton sourced their youngsters. Did players like Crawford, Gordon, Hendrie, Devlin etc all sign up when they 11 years of age? Most of us agree that our youth system hasn't delivered as much as it should have done. As the Captain has said, we've fallen down in developing talent in their late teens. However, is it also true that we are simply not picking up the brightest young talents? Its easier to bring through a young lad if he's got great potential than if he's got reasonable potential. I don't want us to fall into the media inspired Hibs syndrome as I used to call it. young player + Hibs = great young player. Is it possible that Mark McGhee and / or Stephen Craigan / Steve Robinson simply don't rate our current crop of youngsters or that they are simply not good enough? I like to see us bring through our own young talent but it has to be real talent. Our youth system went downhill after John Park left us for Hibs. He was the guy who picked up Faddy and Pearo.

You can probably add Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United to that list.

What we have to remember is that the current crop of youngsters were recruited some years ago, probably during the reign of Stuart McCall, Craig Brown or earlier. The success or otherwise of our current set up won't become clear for a few years yet. Mark McGhee is on record as saying that good prospects should be getting blooded at the age of 17/18/19.

This. Lawless was very much an exception and I'd struggle to name many other young lads who we discarded and then went on to success elsewhere. In his case I wonder if his off the field problems contributed to his release. I'm all for giving young lads an opportunity but they have to have talent and character. Looking at other Premiership clubs most give one or two youngsters a chance but very few play more than the odd one in their first teams. A manager may look at the youngsters he has on his books and knows for sure, well almost sure, that none are ready to step up and so he may go out and sign someone, who may or may be a success. Its akin to placing a risky bet as opposed to betting on a nohoper (at that point in time).

Agree with most of that, but the available evidence suggests that Leitch won't feature. If we go down this route, then I'd expect Laing or Cadden to step into the breach. It would be great though to bring in a new central midfielder before the game. What the management team will also be weighing up is the midfield mix - assuming Lasley, Pearo and Johnson start what kind of player do we want to play alongside them?

Although I'm not saying its true in this instant Greg, its not as absurd a suggestion as you might think. We've had examples of managers deliberately keeping the same 11 on the field for the second 45 after having lost a barrowload in the first half just to make the players suffer; managers who "rest" players in games at in Ibrox and Parkhead. I've known quite a few managers in my time (not in football admittedly) who were more than happy for obstinate staff to make mistakes just to prove a point. Its called management and there is more than one way to skin a cat. Another tool is vicious compliance, which I've used myself when a colleague simply wouldn't listen. Football managers are infamous for employing all kinds of tricks and stunts.

I did wonder about his reasons for the team selection.Mark McGhee is an intelligent man and knows football inside out - so why make seemingly bizarre and disastrous decisions and stick with them?

Not that long ago we seemed to have a plethora of right backs, not that most of them were much good. Now we seem to have one, if the management team's decision to play Stevie Hammell is anything to go by.

We can but only on the very rare occasions on which we are the stronger team and are on top.

I quote an excellent post from Crosshillwell on another thread. "Spare a little thought for the fact that despite McCall and Barraclough in charge, the latter of which had more resources than any other manager since McLeish and who had signed many players, we have not replaced an aging Lasley in the middle of the park. Effectively, since McGee was last in charge we haven't looked at any long term replacement or adequate cover in the middle of the park. " Bad decisions yesterday aside, Mark McGhee was left a very poor "central midfield" hand by both McCall and Baraclough. Our engine room has been the weakest part of the team for a good few years now and very little has been done to address it. We all know Keith Lasley is getting on and needs a replacement and it beggars belief that this situation has been allowed to continue unaddressed. If it wasn't a priority before it sure as hell is now.

The back 4 should revert to its normal set up agreed. If we play two in the middle though they'll take us with a bit to spare as they are a powerful, fit team who work very hard off the ball to close opponents down. The big question for me is who else we play in the middle. Is it too much to ask for that we sign a Grimshaw replacement before Saturday? As things stand I think Laing would be the most likely answer to our problem.