SonicWill

Really didn’t like the performance. The pressing was awful - constantly going as individuals rather than a unit and, with the exception of Cantwell, nowhere near the required intensity when we did squeeze them. The space to get at Tav in particular was ridiculous and it was another Borna Backpost Masterclass for their goal. Plus such a cheap second goal to concede. Raskin was awful and the game passed Cifuentes by. Thankfully, Goldson, Souttar and Butland were on form. Im pleased for Matondo and hopefully this gives him confidence but fearing for next week. Zero cohesion and still no idea what we’re aiming for in terms of playing style. I’m a backer of Beale but tonight wasn’t a great one in terms of proving he knows where he’s taking us.

Absolutely zero excuse to not win this trophy now. Beale has to get this one under his belt.

I've promised myself I'm going to try and be more positive this season. Pro points: we won, another couple of goals for our strikers and Cifuentes and Butland looked good. Negative: Almost overnight, we're a disaster at defending long balls/corners/crosses into the box. The amount of times the ball is landing at an opponent's foot or there's ping-pong in the box is disgraceful. We need to be winning the ball in the air.

I was in the same situation as you. Got an email saying I had to move but then nothing further. My seat was greyed out today but others around it were available so tried to purchase the nearest to me and got the below-error when trying to checkout. Went into my uploads and it seems like my original seat is being processed for me. Would be nice if they let us know!

I actually like him playing in a deeper role. He's able to take the ball from deep and drive forward into space in a way that he wouldn't be able to do in the 10 position. It also fits in to his natural pressing game, and gives him more freedom to get around the pitch. If he comes deep to get the ball either an opposition player has to follow him, thus creating space, or Cantwell picks it up with freedom to push on.

A disgusting first half performance. Butland saving our arse and Cantwell looking like the only outfield player not suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. Much better required. I’m really worried about how tonight ends.

Brilliant today and his intervention on that Livi cross at 1-0 was as good as a goal. Also gives us a great dimension when he steps out of defence with the ball. There will always be injury concerns but he’s looking very much at home at our level. I think we’re approaching the point where we can call him a good signing.

Levels above everyone in terms of pace, pressing, willingness to drive the team forward and bravery on the ball. No more dropping him against awkward SPL teams because we need to be “tough to beat”. We achieve this by dominating them with our best players.

It’s going to be a process getting the performances right. We should have been out of sight at 3-0 tonight and then who knows, maybe the confidence is flowing and we get another couple. As it stands the tie is still very much alive and the second half wasn’t good. From the USG game one year ago today only three of the fifteen players that were involved in that match were on the pitch today, and they were all in the back four. We've undergone a huge change in personnel in the forward half of the pitch and it takes time to build chemistry. I’ll keep backing the team and manager and I trust them collectively to improve the performances over time. The main thing at the moment is picking up results.

Okay, the overall performance wasn’t great but I’m going to try and be balanced. We should have been 3-0 up and then the tie is likely dead and it’s a different game. There was a huge amount of sloppy passes, particularly in the final third or balls that would get us in behind. We’re not going to misplace these every game and we’ll be better at connecting with dangerous balls. The team just felt really tight tonight and probably a bit nervous after Saturday. Cantwell was very good and still looks our best player. He presses hard, looks for the ball and is always trying to push the tempo. Beale needs to learn from tonight and play him as our first choice CM. No more Killie experiments. Dessers opened his account and on another night Lammers has two. We also didn’t concede any chances from open play. It wasn’t a great result or performance but the sky isn’t falling. Give the team time. As long as we’re picking up results I trust us to be playing better as the weeks go by.

Unless Cantwell has picked up a knock or there’s been a minor discipline issue (ie timekeeping) then starting Lundstram over him is inexcusable. People will point to Wednesday being more important but we’ve finished the last two league seasons with an average points total of over 90 and won zero titles. A stupid loss or draw early in the season could genuinely make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. Especially after an underwhelming preseason we should be wanting to start with a bang, not playing silly buggers with rotation. Hopefully I eat my words and Beale has it spot on but even if we win it’s a hell of a risk to take.

Any positivity for Yilmaz seems to be solely based around him not being Barisic. I think he should be our starting left back but he’s not done anything to convince me he’s the long-term answer to the position. I’m open minded and willing to give him time but it’s do or die for him this season.

In amongst all the understandable negativity a positive word for Souttar. He won his individual battles, was aggressive and brought the ball out of defence well. I’ve been really impressed with him since he came back into the team at the end of last season and if he can stay for he’ll be a big player for us.

A false hard man who doesn’t realise that being brave in a football match involves showing for the ball in tight spaces and making difficult passes. Instead he puts in coward challenges in the last minute of a friendly to try and “show sum pashun”. If anyone bids a decent amount for him get him to fuck.

I’m so sick of Barisic I could throw up. No pace. No skill. No willingness to drive on. No ability to play incisive forward passes. Can’t defend the back post and is too narrow on long diagonals. All he has going for him is above average delivery from wide positions. A total one trick pony. I don’t even necessarily believe Ridvan is the answer but fuck me we need to at least ask the question. I can’t take another season watching that mentally-weak shitebag cost us goals.

92/93 and 93/94 is a hell of a one-two punch.

It’s a friendly and you can’t take much away from it but thought the new signings looked decent, with Sima likely being the pick of the bunch. I actually wasn’t in love with Lammers performance overall but he won the ball and got our goal so fair play. Raskin was excellent when he came on and Yfeko was good playing balls through the opposition. Lundstram again had all the turning speed of the Titanic trying to avoid the iceberg and I don’t care if he’s served the club well, Barisic needs to go. He’s an absolute liability against decent opposition.

Really looking forward to this. All the more special as my dad is a Newcastle fan and season ticket holder, so will be great to get to sit with him and watch our teams together. It's only been a couple of months but I've missed going to Ibrox so much. The Covid season really hammered home how much I love going to the games. It doesn't matter what shite is going on in your life, for 90 minutes you can escape it all and get caught up watching the team you love. Magic.

Just watched the new Michael Beale interview. The impression I got from that is that we're not looking at anyone else at CB. Wondering if I'm misinterpreting things or if others felt the same?

Really keen to see how he does, and it seems like he's a really sound guy. I also love the fact that there's a couple of clips floating around of him celebrating wildly in front of opposition fans. I like our players to have a bit of the bastard in them on the pitch. I initially had worries about pace, and I've seen that brought up a lot. I think it's worth watching the below-clip, though (it's timestamped so will start immediately). In short, he steals the ball from Sergino Dest, runs half the length of the pitch and manages to avoid being caught. The fact he's able to do this against Dest, a fairly pacy fullback, and whilst running with the ball, is impressive and puts my mind at ease.

Can someone give me some background - what makes this appointment so good? Is he particularly well-thought of?

I just got an offer in for my seat transfer today so they may still be working through those. Given that they hold the transfers for a week, it potentially means people might even be getting emails about new season tickets next Monday. CD3 to GR3 aisle seat. My knees are already thanking me for the extra legroom and not having to trek up Everest to get to my seat.

People forget that traders need access to DIXONS.

I thank him for his service but he's emblematic of the problems we've had over the past couple of years. He's passive, slows down our tempo and risk-averse. He also lacks courage in big games. The reason McGregor yelling "shitebag" at him probably annoyed so many of us is that we know it's true. Yilmaz isn't perfect and has clear holes in his game, but he plays on the front foot, keeps our tempo up and isn't afraid to be aggressive. That counts for a lot. Time to move Borna on.

Eh, not sure. Will need to see it in person. To be fair, I didn't love the last two season's home kits and they grew on me as time went on.