Dundee v Celtic Wednesday 22nd @ 19.45

Sign Billy McKay immediately!

 

always goes up *

 

You don't like seeing us try and promote youth players? Got to be the only guy in the world that doesn't like one of their youngsters getting a chance.

 

Highlights from last night on BBC Alba at 10PM tonight

 

Yes it is, in my opinion. How many top teams in European football play with 2 out and out strikers? The one striker gets isolated if the 3 players behind him don't support well enough. Which was exactly what we seen earlier in the season when the players were struggling to play to the system. I wouldn't say our striker has looked isolated since our form picked up though, would you? Of course there are times in games where I wouldn't mind seeing us change to play 2 strikers if things simply weren't working, but I'm happy with our current formation, and it's the one I want to see at the beginning of games.

 

I am in favour of the 4231 for the most part as well. I wouldnt worry about the top teams in europe either, a key point is that they usually have a world class central striker, which we do not. And they are not playing against SPL blanket defenses.

Football is about tactics. Sometimes it would suit us better to have Stokes feeding either Griff or Gudetti. Ronny has even mentioned the fact that 2 would be better at times. It is what it is. In some games 2 strikers linking up would suit us better. We have not scored enough goals this season and part of the reason i think is tactical but im glad to see that the manager can see this as well. The next job is fixing it. If our team can play more than 1 formation comfortably then it is only better for us.

 

I think the striker has been isolated all season, there's been more support to him than earlier this season but they still are. I don't know it's a tactical thing but we just don't get enough men in the box.

In the SPFL 2 strikers up top is better, no doubt in my mind for me but Ronny's trying to get a formation we play regardless of opposition, I can see the merits in that as well tbh.

 

We have scored 16 more goals than the next team closest to us in the league, and conceded 11 fewer. That was us not starting the season great either due to the players still adapting to a new formation. The amount of chances we wasted earlier in the season as well was incredible. I remember saying for near enough 2 months that someone was going to take a real hammering from us, as we were creating umpteen chances, and it never really happened. So I wouldn't say our lack of goals was down to tactics, I would say it was down to the players not being clinical enough.

 

Yes we were not clinical enough at times this season and this does have to be taken into account.

As for the tactical side of things then at times this season I think we would have benefited from having an extra body in the middle. Our full backs would still provide width but the extra link striker could have helped us in games where we were dominating possession but finding it hard to break down the defence.

This is because of the way some teams set up against us domestically. The talk of selling Stokes is wrong. If we do it will be a mistake. Even if he does not start every game wide left then he is still useful in our squad because he can play there but more importantly because he offers us something differnet from a tactical point of view. Nobody in Scotland feeds a no9 better than Stokes.