barcelonabear

Playing professionally doesn't necessarily mean you will be a better manager than someone who hasn't played pro or at a high level, Mourinho, Villas Boas, Rodgers, etc show that. If he's watched Fleck train for 5 years and didn't notice that in the game and a half he played earlier this month that he was the most composed member of our midfield then his 30 years of experience at a high level, though I'd argue not 'Football's top level' don't think we can really call Scotland that in the era McCoist played, count for nothing.

What about a chant of 'We all dream of a team of Davie Weirs' when he's on the pitch to say his goodbye. Sure it might be a slow team, but it'd be a team of winners!

If there was any interest in our side from Maynard surely we should be trying to get him on a pre-contract. That way if Jela stays until the summer we get a decent striker for free, and if Jela goes we are in a better position to bargain the price Bristol City want down.

Why is it hilarious? There's threads on this board suggesting that the bad mouthing of the SPL, relating to Jelavic being on the 10 transfer targets to avoid list, is ridiculous yet an article lauding a player plying their trade here is mocked. Or is the hilarity due to the player in question? Forest is a smashing player and is comfortably the best natural winger in the league, he's been a revelation for Celtic this season, and highlights the numerous deficiencies in our own young wide man Gregg Wylde. Harry Redknapp is already talked Forest up and I'd be surprised if more Premiership clubs aren't monitoring him. Now I know Wylde was tracked by Bolton last year, but I'd be surprised if they maintained a strong interest when he has shown more regression than progression this year. If Wylde had any sense about him he'd study Forests' game and try to work on his own technique to adopt a similar one. If we had Forest we wouldn't be feeling the loss of Naisy as much as we are.

It will say everything about our current scouting department if we are not at least monitoring him, considering the Evening Times is reporting that his contract is up at the end of the season.

Yeah but we signed Bedoya from the Swedish League for £300k when we could have waited and got him on a Bosman, though we would have missed out on his impact on the team so far. Almost as comical a transfer as the Filip Sebo one team auction.

He was shite during his loan spell with St. Mirren, I'd rather have a one legged Lee McCulloch play out wide than him.

:McGregor: :McMillan: :Whittaker: :Davis: :Edu: :Aluko: :Lafferty: :Jelavic: Subs :Alexander: :Bartley: :Wylde: :Bendiksen: :Healy:

The £3 million + Dorrans & Odemwingie sounds like a better deal, though not as good as holding out for Morrison & Brunt to be chucked in as well. I don't really see West Brom being that interested though as they tend to play with 1 up front and have Long & Odemwingie for that role. A £9 million deal is a bit much for a 2nd/3rd choice striker for a club like them.

Spot on. Too many times we see good young players not given the opportunity with the club, even if they perform well when they come into the team for a game. McMillan is 23 and has been given 1 game per season for the last 3 seasons with us. Unless Ally starts giving him a game he'd be mad to sign a 3 year deal. If he goes it'll be our loss and I wouldn't bear any grudge against him for putting his football first.

Goram; Cuellar, Moore, Weir, Robertson; Laudrup, Gascoigne, McCall, Albertz; Durie, Naismith

It wasn't as simple as cancelling it. Many clubs couldn't afford to keep a reserve team going due to the extra cost of having more players and staff on the wage bill, travel, ground staff to maintain the pitches. There's no doubt that it's unfortunate that young players now don't have a chance of regular football, however that could be solved by setting up links with a lower league club and loaning out youngsters to give them some proper first team experience.

Jim's still the Goalkeeping Coach though he did have some time off for knee surgery and Alan Main covered for him. Can't remember if that was at the end of last season or the beginning of this one though.

One up front and 5 in midfield needn't be a problem. It's a formation that most of the big teams play a variation of at the moment. I'd be happy if on Saturday we saw a midfield of Edu in front of the back 4 with Ortiz, Davis and McKay in a three in front and Fleck playing off Jelavic (similar to the way Killie set up their midfield by spreading the midfield across 3 phases of the pitch). It eliminates the necessity of playing long balls up to Jelavic and then nobody being close enough to him for him to knock it to. The players in the middle can provide width when needed, whilst the full backs can also do this. It's a formation that gave us problems on Sunday so why wouldn't it work to our advantage, and it also allows for us to have strong changes on the bench if we need to resort to plan B as Aluko or Lafferty could come on to change the game. But there's very little chance of us seeing something as progressive as this, as it's too much of a stretch from the norm and we don't seem to like change or new ideas as a club since the Le Guen experiment didn't work out as was hoped.

Picked getting the opportunity to represent his nation at a major tournament at the time when the Aussies had the odds stacked against them gaining entry into the World Cup. I'm sure when he was a youngster growing up this was his dream, so because he wanted to fulfil his dream we forget about everything he gave us during his time with the club? We just focus on the fact that 1 player was made the scapegoat for us going out of Europe in the qualifying rounds?

Fuck right off! Makes Broadfoot look like the player he thinks he is.

Naismith played that role a few times this season so it's not like there's not an opportunity to play him in the hole. Ally just seems reluctant to do it. When Ness is fit we could do a lot worse than play a similar formation to Killie. Having Ness sitting in front of the back four and orchestrating our attacks. Edu in the centre of the park playing a pressing role across the midfield with Davis and McKay either side, able to drive forward and also offer some support on the wings. Fleck in behind Jelavic linking up the play. With the full backs offering width, and the occasional cross - our wide players aren't great at crossing, and Jelavic is better with the ball at his feet than attacking in the hair (a la Hateley) - it's not as if we need a constant crossing threat. It would also allow us to introduce Lafferty and go to 2 up front in games where we need a plan B. The constant generic 4-4-2 with midfielders out of position, or the generic 4-5-1 without playing between the lines and too many midfielders cluttering up the middle of the park as they don't seem to have set roles has been threatening to undermine us all season. It's unsurprising we've become unstuck in the last couple of games. There's threads saying we lack creative players. We don't necessarily lack them, it's just apart from when we've had true creative geniuses over the past 15-20 years like Laudrup and Gascoigne, we've struggled to utilise them or give them an opportunity. The boy Shinnie was never given a chance, and fair enough ICT are a smaller club but as Butcher says he has all the attributes to be a top player, all he was lacking was the confidence. Confidence comes from getting games, so when you see players under performing and yet opportunities are still not forthcoming it's completely understandable that our young players look elsewhere.

Playing one up front IS negative when you play without players close to the striker. However, as is the way with most big clubs across Europe, playing a trequarista (no 10) off of the striker with 2 attacking wide players supporting is not negative. It's what we should be playing.

Yeah obviously! Bender is a fantastic player, though to be fair to them Dortmund have a fair few at the moment. Would be wonderful to see us adopting Dortmunds style of football, good balance of attacking and defensive play that I think we'd be well suited to. Only question mark would be over our fitness levels being up to the amount of pressing.

He's a pressing midfielder. His best attribute is his athleticism and due to this I think he could be suited to playing a similar role to the one Sven Bender plays for Dortmund. Pressing the opposition all across the middle of the park to allow the more creative players to drift into space for quick breaks.

I doubt it. The Killie fans amongst my mates are delighted with the style of football they've begun to play under first Mixu and then Kenny. With the cost cutting involved Killie probably don't forecast finishing in the top 6 so they'll probably earn as much trying to play good football and getting more fans through the gate than they will from their league position just now. Unless of course they go down, though I don't see that happening.

Maybe that's the problem. Butcher stated that all Shinnie lacked was the confidence in his ability, something we don't seem to be instilling in enough of our youngsters. For every Barry Ferguson there seems to be a number of youngsters with the potential to be first team stars who we don't seem to be able to develop properly. We could have been doing with getting someone like Arthur Numan involved in the youth coaching, a guy with a real technical pedigree, not short of confidence, and knows what it takes to make it in this country.

Trophies don't get handed out in November. The league will be decided in May, let's not make the mistake in becoming too much like them with their gloating over the past 3 seasons which has came back to haunt them. Rangers Football Club is about being dignified, so let's quit the 'league's over' talk until it's actually in the bag.

Numans intelligence on the pitch was second to none. Our full backs should watch his variety of passing as the ball inbetween the full back and central defender is murder to deal with. Too bad we don't see this kind of thing enough at Ibrox, though our passing has improved this season. Still if we were passing it along the back line like that today there'd be too many fans screaming for a long punt up the park.

I still think Ortiz could be a useful player for us, but only when Ally comes to the realisation that he is not, and has never been, a right winger. He's got a good eye for a pass and can break up play (from his days playing right back/wing back for Almeria). Could be an alternative for central mid in the games when we throw in McCulloch, especially if we need someone who can do some running (he might not be fast, but he's not as cumbersome as Jig). If we play Whittaker further up the park there's also the hope that he could re-ignite his goalscoring, which again would go some way to offsetting Naismith loss.