SIRB_72

They no doubt had a couple of levels to step up but at no point did they really should that outwith the two back to back tankings they gave to us. Even at that we were a fucking shambles at hampden and then parkhead

I know, I know. We're just so limited in centre mid and centre half and we risk being completely over run playing two of Kent, Sakala, Matondo or Wright we will get stretched. Despite his age I still trust Arfield in a game like this compared to Tillman. Such a fucking shambles in general!

I don't think it really matters what we do the result is inevitable. Sounds so defeatist but just go walternaccio and trying to literally keep the zero and go man for man. McGregor, Tav, Sands, King, Davies, Barisic, Davis, Lundstram, Arfield, Kent & Colak Some of these match ups are scary but its a simple message and will keep players honest. Tav v Kvaratshkelia, King v Oshimen and Davies picking up the runs of Lazano/Politano inside and Sands as the cover. I'd much rather King just have a man and stick with him cause any time against decent opponents zonally he looks lost. Davies is the smartest defender so will be better at picking up inside runs from the right and following Lazano/Politano. In midfield just match up 3 for 3 with Davis picking up Zeilinski, Lundstram sitting on top of Lobotka and Arfield will be able to match the energy or Ndombele/Anguissa for a certain point. Mario Rui seems a bit more attacking than Di Lorenzo so I'd try and keep him honest by having Kent on our right side. Di Lorenzo will get forward at times so we'll have Barisic out there to counter that. Going forward our outlets are Borna, Kent and Colak and you go quite direct to beat their press and hopefully settle down from there. Otherwise we can hope for is Napoli switching off because they're through

I agree with the point of your post but just on rodgers second season when they were getting slapped about by PSG, Bayern and eventually Zenit I would say it effected their domestic form. The only issue is we were stunningly complacent and fannying about with Pedro and Murty. celtic only scored 82 points (7 less than our tally last season) picking up 10 draws, 4 defeats and winning the league by 9 points and 12 ahead of us. Amazingly we only scored 3 less points than then against the rest but completely shat the bed against them. Sorry, I know you were making a completely valid point but 17/18 still pisses me off

I actually thought Aribo played his best and most consistent stuff off the right for us. Would never class him a right winger though as he'd come in side with Tav giving us the width.

See when Eck had quality players from the turn of the year 2002 until May 2003 we were excellent as well!

That's true and the Ukranian league also had to cut some teams from the league. Usually a 16 team league went to a 14 team league. Despite that it was still richly deserved and Shakhtar were still a good side. In europe, Shakhtar reached the last 16 of the CL and the semi finals of the EL when Dynamo won the league. Maybe that had something to do with it but Dynamo were doing well in Europe to. Dynamo were just consistent. In 14/15 they won the league with 2.58 ppg. In Shakhtar's 5 in a row before they only managed that twice. In 15/16 Dynamo had a ppg of 2.69 which Shakhtar never managed in the 5 title seasons before.

I don't think anyone is in a rush to get Neilson or Robinson Rebrov or someone like Pedro Martins are a lot less of a risk than Gio was because of their track record and style of play. Pedro was just a fucking stupid appointment that made no sense. The Dynamo/Shaktar dynamic in Ukraine is extremely similar to the dynamic we and celtic have in Scotland. Foreign isn't always a huge risk if it is thought out and can be justified. Dyche has done a fantastic job up Burnley and has shown he can win a league to with a budget that probably wasnt the biggest in the Championship either.

I don't mind Dyche at all but you do know we play in a backwater? It's not just winning trophies. It's taking historically rich clubs (especially Dynamo) and bringing back pride and success domestically and abroad that they've been starved of so long.

It really would be embarressing woukdn't it? It'd be like poaching a manager from like Japan or something...

Also the mexican system is so fucked up because it's the play-offs. Pretty sure his team finished like 7th or 8th in the proper league campaign

His contract ends in the summer with Al Ain

He has a fantastic track record with Dynamo Kiev and Ferencvaros domestically and in Europe. With Dynamo, before last season, he was the only manager to win them any titles (two in a row) since 2009. In the league his win rate was 82% with both seasons combined and lost 1 game in 52. In his first full season he also took Dynamo to the QF of the Europa League and were level on aggregate before a sending off away to Fiorentina. In his second season he took Dynamo to the L16 in the CL getting knocked out by Man City. All this in a league that is arguably stronger than our own, in effectively a two horse and smashed the competition by winning consitently along with doing extremely well in Europe. From what I can tell it was with what he was given as well. In his three seasons with Ferencvaros there he won the league by 13 points, 13 points again and then 20 points. Similar to his time at Dynamo, Ferencvaros had won one league title in 15 years before his arrival. in Europe he was extremely impressive, like Gerrard. In his first season they were out of Europe before he joined, in his second they missed on the CL after losing to Dinamo Zagreb but got Ferencvaros to their first European group stage in 15 years. In his third and final season we know what he did do to a certain team but more importantly got Ferencvaros to the CL group stages for the first time in their history. In between Dynamo and Ferencvaros he took a spell in Saudi Arabia, presumably for the pay day, and has now taken a job in the UAE, no doubt for the same reasons. However, his pedigree domestically and in Europe is too good to ignore. I also suspect due to his 4/5 years in England he has a decent grasp of the language along with how British football works. He also plays a high pressing game and his teams are fit as well, something we're lacking just now.

If not Rebrov my second choice would be Pedro Martins who was obviously linked with Wolves Another manager who had an excellent record with a club similar to us and in a league similar to ours in Olympiakos. Joined the club the season after finishing 13 points behind PAOK. Failed to win anything in the first season despite an 80% win record and getting to the EL last 32 knocking out AC Milan head to head in the groups. Went onto win the next three leagues by 18, 26 and 19 points with a win percentage of 77% x2 and 69%. The win percentage was always higher in the first 26 games and would then drop off in Greeks version of the split when the league would already be secured. For example in his final season 21/22 their win rate was 80% in the first 26 games but then dropped down to 69% post play-off. Domestically he only won the greek cup once in four attempts which isn't too great. In Europe in season 19/20 they qualified for the CL and finished 3rd in a group with Tottenham, Bayern and Red Star. In the EL they got to the last 16 knocking Arsenal out in the L32. In 20/21 they again got to the CL finishing 3rd in a group with Man City, Porto and Marseille and got to the EL last 16 this time getting knocked out by Arsenal. In 21/22 they did lose on penalties to Ludogorets in the CL QF but got to the L32 of the EL losing to Atalanta after getting through a group with Frankfurt, Fenerbahce and Antwerp. He also had a good track record in Portugal before joining Olympiakos with Maritimo, Rio Ave and Victoria Guimaraes. He got Maritimo to the EL group stage for the first time in their history and finished 3rd in a group with Newcastle, Bordeaux and Club Brugge. With Rio Ave he qualified them for the EL group stages but left for Victoria before competing in them. With Victoria he took them to a 4th place finish equalling their highest points tally in club history, runner up in the national cup and knocked out of their EL group that contained RB Salzburg, Marseille and Konyaspor. His Olympiakos team played a high pressing 4-2-3-1 with plenty of movement and creation. Clearly matching how our squad has been built with elements it's needing worked on.

Well the thing is he has won a league. You have to have some sort attacking intent during games or throughout a season to be successful in a 46 game campaign. I think you're right, just working within his clubs limitations, surprised nobody in the EPL snapped him up sooner.

He certainly wouldnt be my first choise but I actually really like Sean Dyche and the job he did at Burnley was fantastic. His football isn't exactly easy on the eye but there is a structure and everyone is coached well and knows their role in attack and defence. There's a hell of a lot worse than Sean Dyche out there.

I actually think it's part of the clubs DNA. This thing of being loyal to managers and we've only had so many in 150 years. It's part of the DNA that has to be gone with though especially if we want to be running with this DoF/Sporting Director type model. As you say we really need to be more proactive with these types of things and look at similar sized clubs in "smaller leagues" around Europe and how they handle this. I think of clubs like Porto, Benfica, Red Star etc.

Serhiy Rebrov for me still. His record domestically and in Europe with both Dynamo Kiev and Ferencvaros is superb, in fact pretty much flawless out with his final year with Dynamo. Manages a high pressing structured game and has his teams extremely fit. Most of what was the good bits about the previous management team with trophies to back it up.

Can we forfeit?

Only manager I can think of was McLeish in 04/05. After 11 games we were 4 points off and then we beat them twice in November and kicked on. However that squad was also full of character and we were playing with a lot more structure with the likes of Khizanishvili, Bob Malcom, Chris Burke, Hamed Namouchi and Marvin Andrews.

I think the majority think that we may be able to do better than both Gio or Gerrard.

Simply not good enough today and up there with Hamilton that result. Plenty of times with Gio I've actually seen what he's trying to do game in a game and I actually appreaciate he's willing to change his team or approach depending on the opponent. However today, as with Motherwell and the second half, in particular, against Dundee there was no plan and no structure just like the structure fell on it's arse once Goldson went off against Liverpool. Tav has clearly lost a step or is injured and cant go one for one like he could a few months ago. Instead of accomadating and have him come inside we leave him out wide one on one with Arfield inside. I know Livi went down to 10 but there's no surprise we started to get a bit of joy with Sakala out right as he can go one on one. Instead we bring on Matondo who will always come inside on the right leaving us too narrow on that side. It's wee stupid things like this that are really pissing me off and that's just an example. Midfield makes no sense, we're using the likes of Davis and Jack as an 8. Weirdly enough the most balance we have is down the left but even then it's accomodating someone who is working his notice. Also going for the chuck all the strikers on routine is utter bollocks and indicates the lack of a plan tbh. Just as bad putting the centre half up top at the end.

Now please!

Aye I suppose it's really just a combination of both. Ultimately we didnt win enough games over the 38. Only reason I think the celtic results are more relevant is because Gio's record against the rest matches postecoglu's, Gio has picked up 1 point less. Compare that with the 6 points extra celtic picked up against Gio. Also looking at the league table and results a similar theme is present.

His record shows against the SPFL dross that he can handle that element pretty well despite the poor football so I have no fears in regards to that. I wouldn't be surprised if we won 8 or 9 of our next 9 league matches. The issue is domestically is these celtic games. From where I see it that's what cost us the league last year. Start picking points up in those games and we'll be lifting league titles. The issue is that its so long away I don't see much justification for not backing him, especially domestically as we've only dropped points outwith celtic when we had 9 men on the park. The first wrongly sent off.