rossco87

@WWTC already replied but simple table from https://sqaf.club/inswinging-vs-outswinging-corners/ analysing corners in the top 5 leagues in the 19/20 season It’s not exactly a huge advantage of goal % for in-swinging corners and I would speculate if you break it down further out-swinging will give more opportunities for knockdowns / headers back across goals.

This coupled with a lack of anyone centrally willing to just dribble with the ball into space. I get the whole “the ball will always move quicker than you” argument for passing but sometimes just bringing it out yourself means someone has to eventually commit to challenge the ball carrier and the opposition shape is effected. We are so shit at it though that at one point last night Sands decided to at least try and brought it forward 20 yards, no one moved for him so he had to make a sideways pass to Davis, who then gave it back to Sands, who then brought it forward another 10 yards and then had to pass it back to Davis as still no one was moving.

Got to admit I thought the same. Think it is a flaw in the rule (the whole influencing the game debate) that because the ball never reached him he isn’t “active” but him being there means the defender has to make the clearance.

I can’t decide whether it is utter desperation or he is seeing some masterplan that isn’t coming off but his management of the squad is utterly baffling and I suspect not helping the squad / player confidence. Couple of examples: - Yilmaz has been pretty much bombed out so far with limited opportunities in cup games and then brought in for tonight. I think most would prefer he got a run ahead of Borna but as far as I can recall he has never played with Kent and then is just expected to form a partnership with him tonight - we are obviously lacking in on the right wing and he doesn’t want to change formation to try and address it, but equally constantly chopping and changing who gets a game isn’t going to let someone get settled in and play their way in to a bit of form. I get he is limited but Scott Wright had a decent performance against Dundee, gets dropped for the game against Livi and then brought back in to start tonight and then subbed at half time for Sakala (who couldn’t get onto the pitch for months) - because of his discipline issues a few years ago we know Morelos is the type of player that needs a few games to get back up to speed and training and the odd 20 min cameo isn’t enough and isn’t going to work when we just bring him in for “big” games - if he thinks Sands can play the DM role and allow Lundstrum to get further forward then fine but why not try it in the league or cup instead of starting Davis (whose minutes should be getting managed anyway) - where has Kamara gone? I’m far from one of his fans but he has gone from being pretty much a regular at the start of the season to nowhere to be seen (even in the cup to keep his fitness up)

There is a bit of everything mixed in. We have been unlucky to draw Napoli who are one of the form teams in Europe. We also should have been lucky to have drawn Ajax on what appears to be a down season for them (in Europe at least) but put in an awful performance against them, didn’t really turn up at Anfield and then shat the bed at half time at Ibrox. I can reluctantly accept that for all we want to go toe-to-toe with every opponent, the teams we are playing against can afford better talent that can at times rip us apart. I can’t accept sloppy goals from players not tracking simple runs, a team that isn’t prepared to outrun their opponents and let a positive first half turn into a capitulation when some pressure was applied. Mostly I can’t accept meek management that doesn’t appear to have players fired up and ready to run through the opponents for them and bizarre selection / tactical decisions.

Fitness isn’t just an on / off thing. It takes months to build up (and subsequently lose). I think what we saw at the end of last season was that Gerrard overworked the players in terms of fitness (which led to the mid season tail-offs) and Gio puts much less emphasis on fitness work so the players had built up an incredible level of fitness in the preaseason / first half of the season and then were not being over loaded in terms of fitness for the second half. The number of games we had at the tail end of the season were enough to keep the high levels of fitness we had built up under Gerrard ticking over. We then had a summer off and a less intense preseason and the fitness levels have generally dropped. It is the same kind of concept as a sprinter training for the Olympics will have a two / three year plan working up to it to be in peak condition to run in the Olympics. If they don’t put the work in early enough they don’t have a good base level of fitness and if they cram all their training in at the end they can’t perform to their maximum as the body doesn’t have enough time to recover.

Just go Gio. That first half was pathetic, substitutions were bizarre and we weren’t good enough / have a style of play good enough to consistently break down 10 men. Given how the game went their GK was very underworked.

Halliday equaliser coming up!!!

Yeah I know. I was more meaning he’s been so focussed on going through the VAR “process” correctly he hasn’t stopped to think whether it was yellow. As @IpswichGer says above it is probably one of those that is very much at the whim of the ref, but thought on the basis he never booked the one in the first half and the second was probably worse (in my opinion) it probably should have been a second yellow.

Has the ref gotten so called up in VAR check he has forgotten it should be a yellow for the foul?!?

Can’t really comment on McKinnon as I haven’t seen him. Once he is back to fitness Lowry should be taking Kent’s place - he has been disinterested / out of form most of the season and it’s more likely than not he is leaving for free in the summer. McCann is a different type of player for me, we should 100% be trying to get him more game time over Davis / Arfield. Tillman could be our player - yes we would need to pay for him but the only way we find that out is if he gets a consistent game in his preferred position, which also happens to be a position we are particularly lacking in depth for with Lawrence out.

Or he is disillusioned with management at being dropped / punted out to right wing after a promising start. I know it sounds daft but he is one of those players who is actually quicker than he looks, which I think contributes to the perception he is lazy. He is far from perfect but given the relative lack of creativity we get from our midfield & wide areas I think we should be doing all we can to accommodate him. Similar to Hagi, he can be infuriatingly non existent in a game and then pop up with a moment of magic.

Personally I think we are now in “when” rather than “if” territory regarding his tenure. While on any given game the result is always more important than the performance, we have gone pretty much the entire season domestically relying on that mantra and doing just enough far too often and have been hanging on towards the end of games that really should have been more comfortable. That can happen to the best of teams that you have the off game that the finishing isn’t there / breaks don’t go your way but it is becoming a pattern for us. We has been unlucky with injuries, however I think his general philosophy hinders us and stops our most influential players to impact the game. Even our more comfortable wins have been more about grinding down the opposition than giving the opposition a drubbing. Most importantly I don’t think the players are buying into his tactics / style, his stubbornness in selection of certain players who aren’t performing and totally freezing others out for weeks and then bringing them back in for a game or two before dropping them again is having an impact on the overall harmony of the squad. I hope I am proven wrong and we go win every game left this season and win a treble and Gio forces all those who have doubted him to hold their hands up and say we got it wrong, but I can’t see it happening and see a more realistic long drawn out death where the section of the support getting more and more disgruntled seeing the same issues getting repeated grows and causes devisions within the support between those who’ve had enough and those who want to show loyalty. It depressingly reminds me of the end to McCoist’s reign, where many could see where it was heading but he was doing just enough to keep his job until it was apparent he wasn’t getting us promoted, by which point it was too late to save the season.

I would normally agree, but it his negativity and cautious tactics that have gotten him into the position. Given everything that has happened this season I think it is a case of “when” rather than “if” and that if he is going to change that it is going to take more than grinding out results.

Just don’t understand the philosophy and intention (much the same as all season), Gio needed to show us that he can get the team playing attacking football with some passion and flair, and more importantly he sees what we see in terms of players who have let us (and him) down. We will limp from turgid, uninspiring win week to week because the majority of the league are simply atrocious but with no direction or tangible development.

I get that there are lines that can’t be crossed in terms of what can be said but that apology was about as weak as our defending! There is no real reflection on the support they get from us and how they understand they have let us down, how they are determined to right that wrong and prove to us they are worthy of our backing. Instead the majority of it seems to be trying to reflect on how the players feel and their responsibility to each other: "We know what it takes and we know what we demand from each other and we will continue to do that." Sorry not fucking good enough. There were people there who have been supporting the club for decades home and away, some make genuine financial sacrifices to be there to support the players, others sacrifice time with family or other life commitments and prioritise going to support their team. That is who you should be recognising the demands of and striving to deliver for.

All the predictions with McCrorie in goals and Devine and Yilmaz leave us exposed with an inexperienced back line. Despite his performance I suspect Gio will keep McGregor in goals for his experience and probably Borna also. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop Lundstrum into the back line (not that I agree with it)

Two main factors now coming fully in to focus: 1 - lack of actual quality players in the league and a lack of talented coaches / tacticians leading teams. Scottish academies have produced some decent talents recently but they are out the league before properly establishing themselves in the league 2 - lack of and poor use of finances. This is why the Sky deal is so disastrous for the Scottish game. We are now miles behind teams from comparably sized leagues / countries in terms of revenue never mind looking at England / Germany / Spain / Italy. We need to have an honest conversation and a radical shakeup of professional football in this country but too many are only interested in protecting their own interests (ourselves included) which ultimately will only hold the game back.

My heart says no one involved in that fiasco last night should be near the team on Sunday, my head says that we don’t have a deep enough squad to do that and that the best thing is to go back out and get a win and move on. If we aren’t going to sack him Gio needs to highlight those on the pitch that he believes are consistently letting him down and remove the from the squad, however I believe he has a blind spot for certain players and his assessment differs wildly from the support. Motherwell will fancy this one and there is a real chance we could slip up, but I am predicting we will slip back into the turgid, cautious football as Gio tries to reassert “protecting the zero” and we win 2-1.

I can’t remember which poster, but someone previously brought up Dave Vos stepping up from number 2. It might be a non starter as he is too tainted with the current regime both with the support and the players, however there are interviews with him in which he describes his philosophy as much more attacking and “typically” Dutch, so I doubt very much he is totally agreeing with how Gio is setting the team up and he hadn’t previously worked with Gio so not entirely sure he was 100% a Gio appointment. Also the board will probably see it as an added bonus that he is already at the club so no need for compensation.

I fear we are in long, slow death territory now. The general mood within the fan base has shifted and while we will probably rebound domestically those that have turned against him aren’t going to forget last night. My fear is we will return to churning out turgid, narrow wins domestically and the mood will fester as the support will see us not moving forward / improving as a team, however the board will see us as still in the title race. It has strong parallels with the latter stages of Ally’s stint as manager, where the majority of the support knew he wasn’t good enough to take us to where we needed to be but he was doing enough for the board to justify sticking with him until it became catastrophic.

That was fucking horrific 45 minutes of football. They are a very good side, and some of Salah’s play when he came on was outstanding, however we folded so badly it is really concerning. We had given ourselves a platform to build on and from management to players collectively shat the bed. I want Gio gone now. He didn’t recognise the game was getting away from us and react. They have obviously figured us out at half time and were much more aggressive and switched on to the constant long balls over the top and we didn’t change and when we did we spent so long fannying around the subs weren’t ready when had a goal kick and we concede the 4th before they could come on. Even the subs when they came on were mostly the wrong ones. Davis for Jack was the wrong substitution. Arfield’s legs had clearly gone after 60 min. Barisic was utterly pathetic but we kept our £5M left back on the bench. Colak struggled against their centre backs yet we didn’t get anyone close to him to offer support. Kent started the 1st half like the player we knew 2 seasons ago and then went back into hiding. A complete clusterfuck all round, but two decent domestic results are going to be allowed to paper over the cracks for now and probably until it is too late and the league is gone.

We would have been better dropping one of the front 3 into midfield and pulling the other in closer to Morelos. He didn’t have a good game but was totally isolated up there with no one to link up with. If we had started with pace out wide as an outball then fine, but Tillman isn’t a Lacey winger and Kent has forgotten he is meant to be one. Would have been far better to sacrifice the wings, increase our chance of the ball sticking up front and have an extra man in midfield

Was just about to post the same. I had been putting it down to some really shitty luck but seems to be a trend growing now. Probably just a case of 2+2=37 but with the lack of detail we give out on injuries these days hard to tell if there is a trend originating from our training / fitness work or we are just in an unlucky spell.

The way he went down if we had properly enforced concussion protocols they would have been in some bother for letting him carry on… or he is just a cheating prick who should be being pulled up for feigning injury!