forameus

Down with that sort of thing.

There's often a team that gets cut off early on, looks dead and buried, and then does not bad as the season goes on. Hearts, admittedly with their fifteen point penalty, looked rotten early on, then put on a pretty good display second half. Ross County looked down and out, and ended up finishing strongly. If we go down, I expect it won't be an absolute shitfest. We'll pick up points, and it'll be as close as it always is at the bottom. We have enough to stay up, but whether we will or not is up in the air at the moment.

I'm not really enamoured by the system, just I can see why it's considered our best one. We should always have a plan B, and a plan C even to back it up. Not convinced we have that, but then the only two times we've actually properly needed a plan B, I'm not sure it would've helped anyway. Ireland is probably the strongest case. We should have won that one. Georgia...well, I think whatever plan we changed to, it would've made no difference. Georgia played 100% to perfection, and showed exactly how a severely limited side should. They did us good and proper. Plan B, C, D, straight through to Z would've probably been useless against Germany (twice) and Poland. Plus I'd argue that plan A didn't do too badly there. You make a fair point about the goal tally. BUT, if you lump MacArthur in there, then our midfielders have scored all of our goals in competitive games this campaign, excluding the three own goals, and Fletcher's three (because he's pure shit ken). I also think discounting the own goals is slightly harsh. Maloney's against Ireland wasn't going in, but it's still creating danger. The Germany one was an extremely dangerous ball. I can't quite remember the Georgia one though. So with our midfielders contributing over half of our goals, and Fletcher with the remaining ones that weren't OGs, I don't think it's that bad. We don't score enough though, and we've always struggled with that. I wouldn't be anywhere near against small changes in THESYSTEM. 4-4-1-1 isn't a massive shift away like you say, although to be honest at times we already play that with one of the forward three staying up to support while the others drop back. Minor tweaks are fine.

Surely that blows Platini out of the running for FIFA by association? While it's good that they're doing something about clear criminal activity within FIFA, I have no faith that whoever ends up replacing them won't indulge in some more eventually.

Liability suggests he was actively hindering the team. For use in a sentence, see "James Forrest was a liability against Germany". Fletcher didn't have a good game against Georgia. But then again, and this is super important, everyone on the pitch was shit, nullified by a Georgia side that played their part perfectly. He did his job well enough against Germany, infinitely better than a few days earlier. If you can't see why he's the best option we've got, then you're not looking hard enough. So I'll say it again. WGS wants us to play a certain way. That way maximises the chances of our best players - our midfielders - having an impact on the game. It leaves two players to shield our relatively weak back 4, with three further forward as our main attacking input. Ahead of those 3, you sit a forward whose role it is to bring the three behind into the game. I know that doesn't fit into the 1980s version of a striker, but them's the breaks. It would be all well and good if we had some hot-shot striker who was banging them in at EPL level. Someone who wanted to get in behind at every opportunity and make runs. Oh no, wait, it wouldn't, because we don't really have the players to make use of that. If we had a creative playmaker who could pick out runs in behind, this hypothetical player would be great. I could even see Griffiths being useful in that role. But we don't have those players. We have Maloney, Naismith, Ritchie, Anya, Morrison etc. They're much better served by someone like Fletcher who can bring them into the game. Griffiths cannot do that, at least not as well as Fletcher. Rhodes cannot do that, and Griffiths is a lot more mobile than he is, despite Rhodes, IMO, being a better finisher. Chris Martin could do it with his physical presence, but hasn't so far. Surely that's not too hard to see, right? It's pretty basic stuff. And to close, I'd say that yes, I'd much rather point to "shreds of decent play" (you know, against the two best teams in our group) than just demand anyone but him. Because everyone knows what'll happen - the next guy that comes in will just get the same treatment when he fails to score 500 goals in qualifying.

And wit?

That's a magnificent mouser/beard combo right there. Even if we go down, at least we have a handsome team. #amoralandsexyvictory

I heard we signed Ryan Edwards. Can anyone confirm? I signed someone from the Australian Institute of Sport in FM, and he was class. That means he will definitely be class for us.

We've played some decent stuff in patches. Very small patches of course. Against Kilmarnock we had a very good half an hour, and same against Dundee. If you're talking overall, then no, not really.

I really need to get to more Clan games this year. Loved the few games I've been to as an alternative to the football.

Good point. I think it's a great thing that the group seems so settled and together, but every team does need a b*****d. St Mirren have Goodwin, Celtic have Brown, Rangers had Elbows, we've got...no-one really. Not that I'm advocating it, but is there anyone in our squad that you can think of that would get sent off for proper violent conduct? Osman could batter most, but he won't. I suppose Gary Fraser, if he can evoke the memories of the development squad and kicking seven shades out of a downed player.

To be fair to the first one, he does look like he could be considered "sad" at the event. Like someone off their face, having a great night, then told their significant other has been in a car-accident, but it's not too serious. That kind of sad. The third is a shining example of what makes this thread great. The poor guy in the suit, trying to be solemn while the face betrays him with a look of "ah did that" cheekiness. Cracking. EDIT: If Kingsley isn't involved the next time we have a minutes silence, I'll be most upset.

I got MGS on the Saturday before the Tuesday release date. I'd highly recommend ShopTo, consistently cheaper, and usually early.

See if Stevenson and Pogba are worth £3.5 million between them, can we not just sell them to these guys? Just listened to that. His Scottish side, Celtic, his ambition "to move to a bigger club", and touting Archie to go to better things too. Ooft Freddy, if you weren't so handsome...

How can our media handling seem so professional, yet so many other areas of the club seem so amateurish?

I can understand players getting banned despite having no knowledge when its being done by people employed by them to look after them, but to get spiked to the point where the guy got charged by police, completely unwittingly, and still get a 2 year ban is ridiculous. Livermore got nothing didn't he? I know he's had a shitty time of it with his kid dieing, but he still knowingly took it. Very, very harsh.

This shows a lot of what's wrong with game development these days. You're essentially paying £20 for the expectation that something might be available. I know Bethesda have a decent reputation, and you will get something for that, but just seems wrong that you're paying out before that.

Any amounts mentioned? Or is it just a "development fee", which would end up being tiny.

Cerny does look like he's wondering why he came here though. Wonderful goalkeeper, but some of the mistakes the players in front of him have made have left him rightly raging. I think we looked pretty dreadful with 2 up front, although I guess it'll take an understanding being built up between 9 and 99. We should not be playing that system long enough to build that up though IMO, just need to get players up quicker to support whoever is playing up front. That seems to be our biggest problem at the moment. We're just so ponderous.

Pogba seems to be getting praised for last night quite readily. Sure he won lots of headers, but most of them just got nutted into nothing areas. I know there's not much you can do when all you're getting are lumped balls forward in your general direction, but he hardly looked a world beater.

And then the other £299,950 (because let's face it, 50 quid would improve what we have) can go on the youth system.

Still, think positive guys, it's Falkirk in the Cup next! Because we always perform pure brilliantly in the League Cup. Hold me.

Enforcing a song only really seems necessary if we're playing in a half-full stadium. Does anyone really think we're going to need some cringey "official song" for the Poland or Germany games with a full house? As someone said earlier, the roar of the crowd will be enough.

Better suggestion than Paulo Nutini at least...jesus wept.