DC92

Some of the Daily Record headlines about Shankland made more sense than this.

I also watched the game on Tuesday and both teams were pretty rotten in the first half, though Dundee were pretty impressive after the break. Aberdeen played with a lot more intensity initially against us but ran out of steam and were ultimately well beaten. I would expect a hard game, particularly if we start as sluggishly as we have been recently.

Hearts aren't in for him according to Barry Anderson.

An unexpectedly philosophical turn for a discussion on a loan signing from the 18th-best team in League One. It seems reasonable enough on paper to me. I'd prefer we sign a striker, but that doesn't look likely.

I'd prefer it to be the season before all over again tbh.

I think we can all agree that this is definitely news.

I'd say there was no-one in the Alex Neil sweet spot (Scottish, available, decent track record, not as attractive as he was to Championship clubs) when we appointed a manager. If he's interested then that would seem the most sensible move.

We need a strong Aberdeen to take points off our rivals for third place.

No need to apologise. I don't think his comments from when we were in 5th place in December were a proclamation of 3rd, but thankfully he's mostly kept his mouth shut anyway. If Elixir reappears on here, then I'll be worried.

What "directors" were proclaiming that? Thankfully we're in a better position than we were at any stage last season, but to answer your question, definitely not St Mirren.

It really depends what "a few million" means. Obviously any money is welcome, but if it literally means a one-off investment of a few million, that doesn't necessarily make a huge difference unless it's spent very wisely. Hearts and Aberdeen have both benefitted from big cash bounties from Europe in the last couple of seasons and haven't really kicked on (to put it mildly in Aberdeen's case). I'm pretty sure those clubs have a bigger base income as well.

Hard to know what to make of the Fraser thing. Fair enough for Charlton to want the new manager to make the decision, but they're surely not going to have one by the time the window closes. I'm not sure we need to spunk significant cash on Dhanda just now regardless and I'd be surprised if Ross County are willing to let him go on the cheap. Also looking at Penrice on a pre-contract. Have to assume Cochrane will be off by the summer, if not earlier.

Dhanda has signed a pre-contract according to the Sun. Trying to get him this week.

If you take games against the top two out of the equation, Killie, St Mirren and Aberdeen all have a ceiling of 65 points, Dundee 67, and Hibs 63. Six wins will definitely do it. We'd probably get away with four and a couple of draws tbh, but I'd rather we just get it done and have the cigars out in March again.

From my experience over the last couple of decades and more, the team that finishes 3rd/best of the rest can usually be described as "average". We've had several top 3 finishes in that time, but aside from 97/98 and 05/06, I'm not sure any of our teams escape that description. The same is true of Aberdeen aside from a season or two when McInnes was at his peak. Average is the norm. If it wasn't for a horror run of injuries last season, we'd very likely be on course for a 3rd straight 3rd place, even allowing for Neilson losing the plot a year ago. That's at least a welcome level of relative consistency which we haven't had for ages.

Shankland only seems to score great goals now. His last 5 have all been ridiculous finishes. Am I deluded for thinking Gordon might have saved the "goal" yesterday and McGhee's in midweek? Clark is too close to his near post on both occasions imo.

It was 100% given for the Beni one. That's what Clancy was looking at on the screen.

Fortunate to be level at half-time. Probably should have won by more in the end. To go for a less obvious name, I thought Nieuwenhof was excellent in the second half. Hopefully that's him coming onto a game. If Dundee win their games in hand they'll only be 8 points behind. Hopefully the Dons can do us a favour in midweek.

That was handball, but I was convinced it wasn't going to be given because Forrest was offside in the build-up. Didn't see a replay of that.

We've been starting games poorly recently, but that really was fucking dreadful aside from a 5 minute spell. Midfield nonexistent. The only positive is we're somehow not losing.

Kingsley at CB in a four? Hmm.

That tactic worked quite well in the second half at Pittodrie last month. Hopefully we've got a better plan to combat it this time.

More or less the same, but they weren't in a worse position last season. They're 2 points worse off after 19 games and Hearts are 1 point better off after 22. I think if the same results played out this time we'd scrape it by the skin of our teeth on goal difference.

This is a massive game because, while a defeat isn't a disaster on paper, last season will start to play on people's minds. If we win, I really can't see anyone catching us. I can imagine there'll be a clamour to play a back 4 after the other night but I'm not sure either way. It feels like whenever we change formation we fix one issue while creating another, which probably isn't surprising. How is Lembikisa defensively in a 4 when we're not playing the whole game in the other team's half, for example? We don't need to overcommit in this game. That said, the back 3 hasn't looked nearly as solid with Halkett in for Rowles anyway. I'm guessing Baningime is out, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a back 4 with Cochrane pushed into midfield. That would give us the option to switch to a 3 without making subs, if we needed to.

We were minutes away from 6 points from 6 in Glasgow until VAR intervened at Ibrox, and Aberdeen were on course to take 6/6 against Rangers until the same thing happened to them at Pittodrie. The reality is Killie or anyone else winning 3 games against the OF in one season is the exception rather than the norm for obvious reasons.