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Heart of Midlothian 2014-


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Looks like a physical midfielder who gets forward, which is something we could do with. Decent pedigree too.

I'm reasonably happy with our squad from midfield to front now. I don't think we really need another winger but if we sign Thomas and he's anywhere near the player that got a regular start for West Brom then we might be able to field two attacks that are pretty much as good as each other:

Djoum Pallardo

Nicholson Walker Thomas

Juanma

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Sow

Swanson El Hassnaoui King

Gomis Buaben

I don't even think we were particularly poor going forward on Sunday once we put players in their natural positions, but we were let down by some hopeless defending and a bizarre team selection. There were some mitigating circumstances with Pallardo and Augustyn having barely kicked a ball between them this season but we've got obvious problems at the back. I think the best thing we can do just now is to persist with what we've got, give the new players time to settle in, find our best combination at the back and try to find some consistency there. If we're still struggling by the end of the season then I'd look to bring in one or two solid defenders with experience of playing in Scotland or England.

Our squad is a work in progress and we came up against what is pretty much the finished article on Sunday. It's taken McInnes a couple of years in the Premiership to get Aberdeen to where they are, it would have been a brilliant achievement for us to get promoted and immediately be at the same level as Aberdeen. Even our shitey team took 7/9 points against them in his first season there.

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Neilson's selection antics on Sunday did bring back the horrible memory of Shady Specs McGlynn playing Ryan McGowan as an attacking midfielder.

Nae sure - If you want to beat us then the easiest way is to target Logan with a big striker and hoof the ball into his area (Farmers at Ibrox in the second half the other year being the prime example). It just didn't work for you, mainly because we now have the flexibility with Shinnie for him to go left back and give us 3 in the centre. This allowed Taylor to cover Logan when the ball was hoofed forward so you got nothing from it.

I expect Neilson wanted to put the big strikers on our fullbacks, win the knock downs for Sow to skin our big centre halfs. Second problem for you there is our big centre halfs are quicker than they seem, and pretty decent on the ground, so he got bugger all out of them there too.

Neilson tried something that has worked against us in the past ,we've just now got a way to deal with it.

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Nae sure - If you want to beat us then the easiest way is to target Logan with a big striker and hoof the ball into his area (Farmers at Ibrox in the second half the other year being the prime example). It just didn't work for you, mainly because we now have the flexibility with Shinnie for him to go left back and give us 3 in the centre. This allowed Taylor to cover Logan when the ball was hoofed forward so you got nothing from it.

I expect Neilson wanted to put the big strikers on our fullbacks, win the knock downs for Sow to skin our big centre halfs. Second problem for you there is our big centre halfs are quicker than they seem, and pretty decent on the ground, so he got bugger all out of them there too.

Neilson tried something that has worked against us in the past ,we've just now got a way to deal with it.

There was obviously some sort of tactical logic behind it but sometimes it's just better to trust our players to cause teams problems on their own merits in their actual positions. We did that in the second half and looked more threatening, although it was already too late. Juanma doesn't really contribute anything out wide aside from winning headers so if the tactic doesn't work he's basically useless.

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I'm not sure if it's been done before, but what about Sow just off Juanma? Sow seems to be at his best driving at defenders and committing them, while Juanma is strong and holds the ball up really well? Could potentially work really well, move Walker wide, see how that is for a game?

Maybe something like that, aye, but who knows - they both look like a pair of huffy b*****ds.

It might be best just to go with one of them - If Reilly plays, he has to play as the supporting striker, as he's lost out wide - he looked ok against Motherwell.

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When is the LC draw?

Hibs at home would be quite nice.

The draw for the quarter-finals of the Scottish League Cup will be made in the Media Centre East at Hampden Park on Monday September 28 at 2.30pm.

Read more at http://spfl.co.uk/news/article/league-cup-quarter-final-draw-details/#7B2BoprxzkagCOdB.99

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