[Link] Kris Commons

last night was worrying, I no its hard to come on and get into a game as a sub, but for the first time ever to me it looked like either his head, or his heart was just not in it, don't blame the guy either

 

Just back from injury mate, into a frantic game, I don't think heart nit being in it is the problem there.

 

I would rather have Commons over McGregor, but in all honesty, I don't want Commons playing as a winger. I would have preferred to see Forrest over them both, but I can understand why he didn't start. I wouldn't have started Commons last night, and he wouldn't be a first team pick in the current set up. If we were talking about someone like Lubo, I would perhaps want us to alter the system to suit him, because he was a quality player, and we could have built a team around him, but this is Commons, and he isn't at a level where we should be looking to change the formation to suit him, and for that reason, I think his time here could be coming to an end.

 

I think he'd do the job McGregor is but to a higher level. Forrest needs to show he can be counted on long term before he nails down a position for me but I agree that he should have started last night.

This formation doesn't need altered becaise of Commons, it needs altered because our personnel can't play it properly regardless of whose in the system. Bar a few good performances this season.

 

Doesn't fit in with Ronny's non-stop running, pressing game. Probably offered 18 months contract. Could make money with move down South. Last opportunity to make big money. Will be sad to see him go because you don't go from Top scorer to also ran overnight. I would play him in middle with Broony and Johansen. Let them run around and allow Commons to be our midfield General.

 

Hopefully Deila gets money to spend in January to bring in the players that do fit into the system. As I've said numerous times, the board will have known exactly how Deila wants the team to line up, and they have to be prepared to back him, something we didn't see in the summer. The thing is, there have been games this season where we have played really well, by your own admission, so surely that means that we can play the system, but we just aren't doing it consistently enough.

 

I think that can happen when you have better players on the pitch than any opposition you come up against domestically. When our players individually play well, we will play good. I still don't think the system suits them.

We're relying on brilliance rather than any sort of tactical competence in my opinion, whether that be Stokes creativity, Guidetti's finishing, Van Dijk and Denayers ability of Craig Gordon's imperious form.

It's all very individual rather than a solid system allowing our players to express themselves. If he wants this system he needs backed, in the meantime he should play to the strengths of the players at his disposal.

 

Right, say we played to our strengths we had available from the start of the season, as I seem recall you mentioning this very early into Deila's time in charge. How do we then know come January, or next summer, what players we need to then play the current system? We wouldn't have a clue if the current group could play in the system Deila wants to go with.

I say, stick to the formation we are playing at present until January, the one that has saw us top of the league with a game in hand, seen us through the Europa League group phase, and saw us through in both domestic cups. That will then have given the players 5 months roughly to try and adapt. If certain players are still struggling come January, then we can look to freshen things up, with players who can play in a formation Deila wants.

 

If he done it properly at the start then you would know, if you want to radically change a system you don't do it overnight, you test it out at certain times (similar to the back 3 experiment earlier on this season, in the last 30 minutes). I'm just not a fan lf square pegs in round holes.

I don't like managers who can't adapt their ideals to make the team better overall, there needs to be a balance there.

The position we are in looks good on paper, I'll give you that but can you honestly say you have confidence in this team to not concede goals, not concede silly chances, to be able to outscore our opponents at any level or be able to control a midfield?

I don't, on any count there. Those three things are the key to a succesfull side to me, I just don't see it at the moment.

 

Our position in SPFL and in the Cups says more about how poor Scottish football is at present than how well we're doing. January will be interesting because apart from (probably) seeing Commons leave, which will be a crying shame but that's life, we will need to buy in purely to cope with CL qualifiers in July. Come CL qualifiers, we will not have Virgil, JG (can't see him staying permanently), Denayer, possibly Gordon and Scepovic. There's every chance Tonev will be sent back as will Wakaso. So where does that leave us. January will give us a much better idea on both Ronny's way forward and what The Board think of him because we can't have another year of making do with what we've got.

 

Disagree in regards to trying it out every so often. We are trying to play something totally different to what we have in previous seasons, players need to get used to the system first and foremost. For that, it has to be tested over a sustained period of time in my opinion, so that everyone can familiarise themselves with it. I would say from the start of the season until January is a fair amount of time, and Deila should know who can, and who can't play the system. January is the time to rectify that, but he needs backed to do so, something I'm, even less confident about, than this team conceding goals.

The football so far hasn't been great, we all know that, but Deila has done the important thing so far I feel, and that is win the one off domestic games, otherwise, he would be under a lot more pressure. The league will take care of itself over the course of the season, I've no concerns about that. Results are all that matters at the minute, and we have been getting positive ones, the performance needs to improve, but that should come with time in my opinion, and when he has his own team. Everyone knew this was going to be a transitional season, and it's still very early days. There is no need to be pressing panic buttons just yet in my opinion.

 

The ideal time to do so is between January and the summer for me, our most important games are at the very start of the season. I see what you're saying but the be all and end all is to get into the Champions League for me. That's no time to be * about and getting players used to formations.

Always play to your strengths. It's the best way to go.

 

A half decent striker might well have seen us into the Champions League. Maybe a good thing, imagine going into the Group Stages with the strike force we had available to us, we would have been lucky to score at all in my opinion. We wouldn't have European football after Xmas either in my opinion. Right now, we are a Europa League level team, that's the harsh reality.

 

The harsh reality isn't that. We should have held on against Maribor to get through to the Champions League and the extra money it brings. If we can't hold onto a 1-1 aggregate win when we have a Slovenian team back at Parkhead I give up.

 

for a team at their level theyve done fairly well in the champions league to be fair. i could even see them taking 3rd place in that group

we underestimated them. we didnt have any right to beat them

 

I'm not denying that but I'm not having that it was beyond our level to beat them over two legs. We should have punished them away from home and our defending was too sloppy at home, while being lucklastre in attack.

 

i dont think anyone is saying that it was beyond our level. we have proved time and time again that we can beat anyone on our day. all i was saying is that we shouldnt assume that other teams arent capable of it either.

in some ways they are the 'celtic' of slovenia in terms of their level of success, their fan base and the way they identify themselves as a club. why wouldnt they be able to compete at a higher level and give bigger teams a tough game.

we didnt play well against them, im not denying that. but they should be given credit where its due for beating us. people were quite happy to give us credit for beating barcelona rather than say they shouldnt have lost to us

 

I think they won because we played bad, that's the difference, when we beat Barcelona I don't thinky they played bad, we had an incredible reselience and goalkeeping display.

Against Maribor it was all very meh, from both sides. They are a good team, there's no doubt about that but we let them off the hook.

That's Champions League level, Maribor are doing well in the Champions League, all things considered. If we are a level below Champions League then they are above our level. I don't agree with that, our aim every season should be group stage of Champions League.

 

Of course it's the harsh reality. We are a Europa League level team at the moment. As are Maribor to be fair. We still should have won the game at Parkhead, as I said earlier, a decent striker in our ranks, and we might well have progressed, as we had chances in the game, but we didn't take them. Same as away in Maribor, where a good striker might well have seen us put the tie to bed.

Do you honestly think we have a Champions League level team at the moment?

 

they played better than us and deserved to go through. thats all they had to do, play better than us. no one can say for certain that if we actually turned up on the night, they couldnt have upped their game. theyve done it against schalke and sporting...so why not

id say they were pretty resilient in both matches. didnt create much, granted...but they didnt have to. why take the risk

i wouldnt be able to say one way or another if maribor are above us or not. you are right in saying that we should be at the level of group stage in the champions league, but i dont think its right to say it should have been an expectation this year. WGS and NL failed to do it with arguably better squads playing a system closely enough resembling what we had been playing prior to their appointments. and id say bratislava are a worse team than maribor

people have jumped on ronny's back because he hasnt done it with a less capable squad and while trying to implement a new style on the team and he has even secured european football post-christmas. its ridiculous