edinburghhonestman

I just don't get Hopkin's comment about the players not listening. It's patently obvious they are, otherwise they wouldn't be aimlessly lumping the ball up the park.

Not going to happen, is it? It's shell it or nothing. Look how quickly the keeper was getting rid of it. Teams know their centre backs just need to win the ball and we then have nothing.

Anyone thinking we can give Hopkin the start of next season to assemble his own squad is misguided in my view. He's not going to completely start again so he has to get more out of the players who'll be staying - something he's shown he's woefully incapable of doing. We weren't doing well under Kerr and as a rookie manager he was struggling to turn it around but getting rid of him for Hopkin is looking like a big mistake. Comparing Kerr's 16 league games with Hopkin's 7 so far, we now collect fewer points per game, score fewer goals and concede more goals. The players might be a shower, but that's a failure in management, coaching and tactics.

In any other profession he'd have been on a performance improvement plan weeks ago.

Maybe - but I'd happily chip in through crowdfunding if that helps. He's as much, if not more, of an imposter as the players.

Ndaba looks like he's been struggling with an injury for about 30 minutes

The players are making mistakes, but tactically it's down to Hopkin. You can see by how quickly the keeper is looking to launch it, they've been told to get it forward as quickly as possible. That hasn't worked so far this season and it's not going to against O'Brien.

Somehow Hopkin has made us worse. Given the run we were on before Kerr left, that's some effort.

Bench looks fairly strong today so hoping we use it well rather than leaving it late as usual.

What bothers me is that even if Hopkin's preferred approach is hump and hope, he surely must be smart enough to realise we don't have the players to play like that? It's clear Baird et al have been told to keep shelling it but Moffat isn't going to win a ball in the air, and none of the other front players are close enough to win the second ball. I'm not giving up yet, but I'm worried both about whether we can scape 8th, but also about our prospects for next season given what I've seen so far. I'm not feeling confident Hopkin can assemble at better squad than Kerr appeared to have this season.

I was thinking we'd had a bit more fight about us and we're better organised since Hopkin came in but yesterday was a step back in my view. On a decent surface and against a centre half who was going to lap up a high ball but might be a bit slower over the ground, what did we do? Hoof it long to Moffat. Tactically naive.

To fair, though, he's doing a decent job. I've heard far worse this season.

If Ayr can get it over the top, Moffat looks like he's got Bronsky beat.

Alloa. I don't think they'll catch us, but I can see us catch Dundee.

I agree that the step up is too big at the moment, but it's certainly not ability that will hold him back. There are loads of less talented players in the top division. It's the other aspects of the game - decision making, consistency, workrate, tracking back etc. Based on what we've done over the past 4 games, I could see him benefiting from another year with us where he'd be challenged to work on all of these areas of his game.

Seven points out of twelve in the past four games all away from home seem to suggest that this squad, while perhaps not being as good as we'd hoped at the start of the season, is nowhere near as bad as the run of results was making it look. You start to wonder if we'd just been overcomplicating things as both White and Hopkin just appear of the face of it to have kept it very simple: - play players in their best position. Ndaba to centre half and two genuine full backs - get a bit of dig in midfield through Muirhead - concentrate on winning your head to head Getting those things right is going to give you a chance in every game.

Agreed. Gets my vote.

I'll not be watching either. After the way Hearts behaved in the summer they won't be getting my money.

From an Ayr perspective I thought that was pretty disciplined. Two clean sheets on the bounce, which is great. One loose pass aside, I thought Ndaba looked like he can play at a much higher level. I''d have brought McKenzie on earlier rather than Chalmers, as we needed someone to hold it up. We struggled to get a hold in the 2nd half as Moffat tired. As for the midfield, Murdoch looks a much better player with Muirhead alongside him. Definitely given the new manager something to build from.

He's been my player of the season so far. He's not faultless, but he's the one who looks like he's really giving it 100%. There are more talented players in the squad who play in fits and starts.

I'm not as convinced about McCowan as some on here. There's no doubt he has ability, but he's a frustrating player. Still some coaching needed for him to really fulfill his potential.

Definitely stronger looking in midfield. I suspect Houston isn't fit, though, so I'd put Muirhead to right back and Baird in central defence. I'm not sure Chalmers isn't a bit of a luxury so maybe Miller in there?

Totally agree. Murdoch is still working his way back from a year out and Chalmers is a bit of a luxury we can't afford at the moment. We need Muirhead or Miller or possibly Ndaba in there to start winning the ball so that all the forward thinking players we have get a chance to play.

I can't see that midfield 5 putting in a challenge. Murdoch might not have returned to his old form but he's got to be in ahead of Chalmers for me. I'd ideally like to see us find a way of getting one of Miller or Muirhead in to midfield without significantly upsetting the back four. It's likely to be heavy going, and I think both ball winning and keeping Adam quiet are key. Sinisalo Houston Baird Muirhead Ndaba McCowan Miller Murdoch Walsh Moffat Smith

It might be a decent enough squad, but we're not putting a decent team on the park. We can't afford the luxury of Smith, Walsh, McCowan and Chalmers in the same eleven as none of them could tackle a fish supper. We lack width as our 'wingers' tend to cut inside rather than beat a man, and we've lost the drive going forward that Houston and Harvie provided last season. Moving Muirhead to central defence has tightened us up a bit but we really need someone with his drive and ball winning in central midfield. We know next week that Arbroath will come and fight for every ball. You'd really expect an under pressure Kerr be making some changes to match up better than we did up there.