Pull My Strings

You missed about 20 seconds of play, tbf.

This is a nice post. It'll never catch on.

Well, certainly after they went behind. Which is probably the reason rather than any conscious change of approach.

Does sound rather unlikely.

Agree with the chap suggesting that it was for Cudjoe going off rather than Middleton coming on but it was unnecessary. On the positives, cracking freekick from Moult, Gallagher back in imperious form and a nice shake up of the squad. Thought Thomson did well and looks very promising. Not sure he'll end up as a full back but he didn't look out of place, which is pretty impressive for a guy making his first start at that age and in a new position. His corners were excellent.

Quite right. Although, I think that was at least partially to do with his working relationship with Thompson.

Was it not 8 changes? Wild anyway. Goal and a man down after about 5 minutes and it went downhill after that.

Of the 6 or so guys who have played up front, either through the middle or out wide, this season, I think Grieve's the only one who hasn't made any sort of contribution at all. He might come good but he's not shown anything which suggests that he should be starting games. Classic "something's wrong, change something" reasoning.

Hopefully someone decent this time. Nae offence, Alex.

Odd choice for a non-taker, if so. I'd have punted the c**t as soon as he asked for that squad number.

Micky Mellon would get football stopped. Nothing to commend him whatsoever beyond getting the players to run around a lot. Another year of Mellon and I'd have found something else to do with my Saturday afternoons.

To me, Grimshaw's a decent/good Championship level full back with delusions of being a midfielder. If he's a midfielder then he's sub-Tillson level. Freeman on form is probably as good as Grimshaw, or better, but it's been years since Freeman's been on form. A move will hopefully help him get over the PTSD.

Nah, not for me. Results under Neilson, when we won the division aren't much different than we've had this season under Goodwin. Neilson also had the benefit of Shankland scoring a million goals and the football was incredibly boring. We walked the division that season because everyone else was rancid. As things stand, United have had three managers in my lifetime who could be considered unqualified/ virtually unqualified successes: McLean, Levein and Houston. The rest have ranged from dreadful to merely disappointing. The point isn't that you might end up with a dud but rather that almost every appointment will be considered a dud eventually. There's no rush. This dud has us top of the league which places him alongside Neilson and ahead of every other manager we've had in this division. Not convinced Neilson was an odious c**t either. He was a bit of a personality vacuum and a bit of a snake but he's mostly inoffensive, imo. If you start with "odious c**t" for someone like Neilson, where do you go from there?

Fuck, I'd forgotten all about Fox. *shudder*. Those calling for Goodwin's head would do well to remember Liam Fox (and McKinnon, Laszlo, Mellon, Courts and Ross; Neilson wasn't much cop either).

I vividly remember one occasion when he definitely had the ball in his possession. Edit: I see our Dee friend has already highlighted that incident.

Yeah, don't think we had a title race at all on our last visit. First three seasons our title ambitions were dead by the end of January (iirc) and the final season we were miles ahead from early on.

Worse than Mark Birighiti?

Ach, steady on. On the final point, I think he does genuinely try to get into position to receive the ball, he just has no idea where he should be or what to with it if he gets it.

I'd be happy with that. My fear is that Goodwin goes with the "safe" option of Tillson who, to his credit, will win the ball back fairly often after he gives it away. My preference would be someone who just doesn't give it away quite so much in the first place.

I'd stick Glass back in there but think he's fallen out of favour, failing which Wotherspoon could do a good job, I think. Goodwin will bring in Tillson.

It's not a sign of honesty to blame everyone else for your own failure and then jump ship before being pushed. Quite the opposite.

Interesting recruitment strategy from the Saudi lads, pairing one of the most prolific strikers of modern times with the worst goalkeeper in history.

It’s rare for our centre halves to have to chase back this season. More about having to compete with the big, ugly Championship centre forwards in a physical battle. Last guy we had on loan in that position lasted about 150 minutes before being hooked and never seen again.

Albert tells lies on the internet, if you can believe such a thing.

Needs work.