Holmes_and_Watson

Fight

Wishing you all the best for your recovery OldNick. Probably for Whitey too. But I've not been able to read beyond "Twelve inch needles rammed up..." to know if it's serious or an acupuncture appointment gone badly wrong. 🙂 (Hope everything comes back clear, Whitey)

"When the officer tapped me on the shoulder, while I was facing the Park & Go machine, my natural, surprised, reaction was to swing round. It is unfortunate that this recreated the luggage swinging incident at the carousel, that had initially brought me to their attention. As a concerned citizen, I immediately looked to aid one of the 3 unconscious officers. This involved dropping said luggage. That it landed on the head of one of the officers, causing further injuries, is regrettable. I would have been happy to communicate the above to the first conscious official to arrive. The airport lockdown and armed response escalation prevented me from doing so. In closing, I would hope for the quick and full recovery of all the injured. Except those at the carousel who were selfish gits."

Rubble

The Glasgow fans know full well who calls the shots, so no surprise Tisdale's gone. But they are still wanting changes in the board, the Chairman having stepped down a while back this season. As for Nancy, loves a 3 at the back and, like Martin, brought in an innovative, project centred ethos. Both clubs, being the last ones the fans will put up with an innovative, project based ethos. Still, if Tonda continues to sink, don't be surprised if SR look at him.

Peretz Recruitment Checklist:- Does he have wrists? - Better than Baz Can he put a ball over the bar, either from being really tall or with jumping? - Better than Baz Can he anticipate a shot, when seeing the opposition pull their foot back to hit it? - Better than Baz Do none of his joint creak and threaten to collapse when diving? - Better than McCarthy Is he breathing? - Better than Long Ankerson can surely talk about improving this position, having got it about as low as possible? Well, maybe not considering who he is.

We set up to hope our defence was solid enough to absorb pressure, so we could catch them on one of our quick passing moves. The home side, like every side that face us, showed that they are sharper, stronger and with more tactical awareness than anything we have. The only defence that was caught out was ours, as they played it over our static back line. We have our SR possession system, although the world has moved on, and ours never fully convinced anyway. Every other club buys to be quick, strong, have awareness and purpose. When we lost under Martin, there was always the feeling that we played within ourselves because of the system. Passive, reactive with no other ideas. Capitulation by design. At least we got some late points back then, with our stronger squad. This is a combination of the worst of Martin and Selles, with the added cluelessness of Nate, Juric and Still. All run by SR who repeatedly put all the pieces in place for such outcomes. A shambles of a setup.

On balance, somewhat even. Both teams had spells, both had shots, and no one really troubled the keepers. We were quite happy to soak up pressure and look for breaks, as we do, for most of it. That gave the home side dominance from their early injury to around 32mins, before we started getting some space. Fellows got some very early joy down the right, but that vanished when we dropped back. Boro switching to a back 4 was too much for us. Azaz had a couple of efforts, Fellows put one well over and AA had a snap shot. Tonda keen to get THB forward at times. More in direct runs, than an extra body to control midfield. Quarshie popped up across the park with some good touches. His long throw in was, as Neil Maddison said, absolute rubbish. The game could go either way. We give Boro plenty of the ball in our final third. It's our usual balance of hoping they keep missing, and that we can break quickly.

Faced with freezing to death playing possession across the back, we get it forward briskly. 'Boro baffled at our sudden change, with their defence caught out handing a thermos about. They expect to win, and push forward, giving us space for a second. We fall off a cliff when Tonda starts making subs, but hold on for the win.

Still can't find a 'keeper - SR remix

Defeat

Keeps us up, or gets us up?

Metal

Or the next manager taking more of a liking to him. Wait it out on a big contract. Slightly different, if they go down and he loses 40% of his wage. Even then, quite high for us. More so, if we're staying in this division.

Fisher really stood out as the man moving the ball into our wealth of attacking riches, and controlling the game. Lovely to see, and Gabriel being so versatile and getting the goal.

Double

A tale of 2 fragile clubs. 6 out of 8 defeats for one of these 2 is the end for the manager. Just as Martin's lack of wins was the end for him. Yet, Celtic were miles better in that first half. The striker, Iheanacho, they brought in late is injured. From what I've seen of Kenny, he's incredibly wasteful. A finisher would have made all the difference to all those first half attacks. Rodgers left because of the lack on incoming quality. Nancy can look to how many chances they can create under him. Yet, as Rohl executed in the second half, over complicating things in Scottish domestic leagues can be counter productive. Martin O'Neil knew that when he came in and brought wins with the same squad. Rohl ditched a lot of pitching his system against Celtic's. Take off an attacker, win the midfield, support a flatter defence and trust in the physical attributes of your forwards. Physical strength is something Celtic have none of up front. Rangers were able to use it to go more direct in behind and use their extra midfielder to support. Celtic were pushed back with their iffy defence repeating blunders of the first half and now conceding goals. Nancy coming out with an equivalent to Martin's it's not the winning that counts isn't going to work there. Changing so much, without the squad in place to see it through, isn't going to work either. Despite that first half, there were chants against the board, and Nancy walked off down the tunnel alone. With the window open, and having not invested as many felt they should have, in the summer, there's pressure on the Celtic board. Rangers have had an uptick since they changed at the top, and are looking to recruit.

Unlike Martin, Rohl ditched a number of things from the first half. All level.

Rangers getting taken apart by Celtic in the Old Firm match. Only a goal in it, and Celtic are poor enough to have conceded a couple of chances. But they should have been out of sight. Interesting to see a 3 at the back Rohl team, assembled by Martin, get hammered when playing it out. Poor decision making and taking too much time against a team playing at a higher tempo. Although, nominally 4 at the back, Celtic are a 3 when supporting their wingers you are causing all sorts of problems. Remember the deliberate gaps we would leave at full back under Martin? Those are getting exploited. Celtic 3 on 1 from Rangers own corner was another flashback. A game showing how to pass through a team at pace, with a plan. One for Tonda to watch.

No problem. When you return, could you tell us what position he plays? - This post was sponsored by the ACME Football Gags Emporium.

"Hello Holmes! Hello Watson! We're certainly seeing more of you here, these days." "Since trousers made us realise the futility of supporting my club, our weekends have really opened up. Thanks trousers!"

It would be interesting to know if there was friction over picking Stewart for that third game. From Stoll's perspective, Stewart was his best option. He could say to SR that they were the ones that lumped him with Downs. Then left him with small strikers to get on the end of crosses. I'd have thought any medical team would have raised flags over the load on Stewart. If not in immediate fitness, then in consideration of his injury record and recent maximum playing time. From a club perspective their manager has possibly helped get one forward crocked again, while not wanting to play their new, keenly rated by someone in the club, asset.

There's one in France, where someone has drawn an auroch over it in disgust. 🙂

"No Rasmus. Those are rows and those are columns!."

Anxiety