Our midfield, not strong enough and certainly not creative enough, away from home.

Cumbernauld gers said:
I have said it before but i just dont get why we signed Ejaria. He offers nothing for 99% of the game. The game just passes by him and when he has the ball he is far to slow.

We need a number 10 creative player.
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I think thats slightly harsh, his goal sent us through to the Europa league but i agree there have been games where he has gone missing, he is young and still developing and we should not be relying on him week in week out.

He has shown he has real quality but getting it every week is the hard part just now.

I cant agree that 99% of the time he does nothing, he also slipped Morelos through for the penalty v Rapid, and that was a piece of skill nobody else in our team would have been capable of, he was excellent in that 2nd half.
 
Recoba's Miracle said:
I think thats slightly harsh, his goal sent us through to the Europa league but i agree there have been games where he has gone missing, he is young and still developing and we should not be relying on him week in week out.

He has shown he has real quality but getting it every week is the hard part just now.

I cant agree that 99% of the time he does nothing, he also slipped Morelos through for the penalty v Rapid, and that was a piece of skill nobody else in our team would have been capable of, he was excellent in that 2nd half.
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He goes missing for 95% of the game and produces great stuff for the other 5% mate.

He is a classic acadamy player, we have had several in recent years and he is just not good enough.

In a way he is typical modern day player with flashes of really good stuff but not much and some fans now lap it up. For some fans now its about the skills and who cares about the end product.
 
Paisleyprod said:
We have some decent players but a hardy sort that can play a bit but someone who takes no shit from ugly wee neds like today and that can bully opponents would be useful
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I thought that’s what Coulibaly was to be.
He isn’t of course.
I’m a wee bit alarmed with the drop in his standard of play.
 
Cumbernauld gers said:
I have said it before but i just dont get why we signed Ejaria. He offers nothing for 99% of the game. The game just passes by him and when he has the ball he is far to slow.

We need a number 10 creative player.
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Too harsh for me.
I wouldn’t be judging too much on yesterday or at Livingston either.
Has he been poor in Europe?
Many, many more positives than negatives.
 
Cumbernauld gers said:
He goes missing for 95% of the game and produces great stuff for the other 5% mate.

He is a classic acadamy player, we have had several in recent years and he is just not good enough.

In a way he is typical modern day player with flashes of really good stuff but not much and some fans now lap it up. For some fans now its about the skills and who cares about the end product.
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I dont care about skill with no end product mate, you cant take his goal away from him v Ufa which was crucial and he setup the penalty v Rapid,he is having much more impact in europe than he is in the league and that's down to having less time on the ball and dealing with very physical and direct players.

I would say away games in the spl are not really suited to Ejaria just now but at home and in europe he has made an impact so i cant agree im afraid.
 
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Cumbernauld gers said:
He goes missing for 95% of the game and produces great stuff for the other 5% mate.

He is a classic acadamy player, we have had several in recent years and he is just not good enough.

In a way he is typical modern day player with flashes of really good stuff but not much and some fans now lap it up. For some fans now its about the skills and who cares about the end product.
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Is this your view of him in every/most games?
If so, I’m definitely watching a different player.
 
tazzabear said:
Too harsh for me.
I wouldn’t be judging too much on yesterday or at Livingston either.
Has he been poor in Europe?
Many, many more positives than negatives.
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Not for me mate, and not judging on just yestersday game. His 2 main problems is trying to stay on his feet. And the fact he is far to slow.

To me he is a big downgrade on Windass and people know what i thought of him.
 
Cumbernauld gers said:
Not for me mate, and not judging on just yestersday game. His 2 main problems is trying to stay on his feet. And the fact he is far to slow.

To me he is a big downgrade on Windass and people know what i thought of him.[/QUOTE]
Now, that is going too far, way too far.
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Cumbernauld gers said:
He goes missing for 95% of the game and produces great stuff for the other 5% mate.

He is a classic acadamy player, we have had several in recent years and he is just not good enough.

In a way he is typical modern day player with flashes of really good stuff but not much and some fans now lap it up. For some fans now its about the skills and who cares about the end product.
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Some games he can contribute for 65%, others he's just filling space.

He is on loan with us to experience real game pressure and dynamics - We will probably see a better player after Christmas.
 
Yesterday showed to me what Arfield does for our team. The positions he picks up in the midfield gives us that extra space for Candeias, Kent and Ejaria.

We need ejaria to produce away from home what he produces at Ibrox.
 
Not for me, i was over the moon when Windass left.

But he would be much better and score alot more goals playing where Ejaria plays imo. Both are not good enough mate, but just comparing these 2 players.
 
Cumbernauld gers said:
Not for me, i was over the moon when Windass left.

But he would be much better and score alot more goals playing where Ejaria plays imo. Both are not good enough mate, but just comparing these 2 players.
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Ejaria is not playing in the same position as Windass, we dont play with a number 10 as such

We play one holding mid and 2 infront so the comparison for that role is completely flawed, when did you see Windass in the midfield tracking back and going into challenges ? or collecting the ball from the defence and turning and picking out a pass ? never is the answer because he stayed forward playing off the striker and thats not the role Ejaria plays.
 
Recoba's Miracle said:
Ejaria is not playing in the same position as Windass, we dont play with a number 10 as such

We play one holding mid and 2 infront so the comparison for that role is completely flawed, when did you see Windass in the midfield tracking back and going into challenges ? or collecting the ball from the defence and turning and picking out a pass ? never is the answer because he stayed forward playing off the striker and thats not the role Ejaria plays.
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As i said mate its just my view, both are not good enough for us.
 
Alot of our problems in away games are before the ball even reaches midfield. Yesterday Katic, Goldson and McGregor passing the ball around themselves until one either gave it away or put the other into trouble.

Every time they got closed down we got into trouble.

Every time Hamilton sat back one or other would miss the pass into midfield. Best case we played a ball forward that a midfielder was gathering on the stretch or running back to evade a challenge.

There was no out ball on Halliday's side and most "passes" to Tavernier resulted in him leaping to head the ball back from the touch line.

Seems like we're too consciously trying to keep posession and just letting the opponents re-group. At Ibrox McGregor kicks early and long from hand and we're contesting in their half before they re-group. CBs similarly set the move going much quicker - they rarely pass square amongst themselves. On the road we're just playing ourselves into trouble.
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
What do you put the Motherwell & Tims performances down to BHB ?
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Hi, the 1st half against 'well was an encouraging attacking performance. For some reason SG changed tactics in the 2nd half, where we tried to defend what we had and failed miserably.
At Scumdome I just put it down to SG's first OF game and he and an almoat brand new team will be the better for it.
 
barrheadbear said:
Hi, the 1st half against 'well was an encouraging attacking performance. For some reason SG changed tactics in the 2nd half, where we tried to defend what we had and failed miserably.
At Scumdome I just put it down to SG's first OF game and he and an almoat brand new team will be the better for it.
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Cheers mate. Fair comments. I’m just concerned that while I don’t disagree with you that an extra quality midfielder that brings something different from the others could be really useful to us.
 
We do lack someone with a real killer pass, but it isn’t holding us back.

We have great attributes in midfield, stamina, the players generally press well and are mobile – they have pace and get up the park and out but we lack a bit of savvy.

The player we need who would make a tangible difference would likely cost about 4 million plus though, so it makes some sense we don’t have them yet.

I don’t think our issues away from home have come about because of a lack of the player we supposedly lack though, this creative player is turning into a bit of a strawman on here and the easy to go to that’s pointed at whenever we encounter any kind of result or performance we don’t like, as things stand we have more than enough to have collected more points on the road than we have.

Our sleepy defending has cost us far more on the road than any lack of creativity.
 
Coulibaly is the biggest concern for me. Showing why his parent club loaned him out. Has the raw attributes but he didn’t seem to fancy it at all yesterday, nor in recent weeks. Not sure if there’s a mentality issue there but he’s not exerting himself or imposing on games. Total passenger yesterday.
 
Can we improve on the quality in our squad? Of course we can.
But please take 5 and think where we have come from in the last 12 months alone and even the young loanees are giving far more than some of the journeyman we have had in the past.
This is a longer term project and already we are ahead of the game in my view.
There will be some rocky times ahead and no coincidence that our worst performances are on those pish playing surfaces, midden game aside.
 
Superrangers said:
I said during the transfer window that we need a creative midfielder and a striker and nothing I have seen changes my mind.
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Agree, and my concern since then is that we may need to add a physical & pacy presence for certain games too, based upon Motherwell & Livi & even yesterday to an extent.
 
BSOI said:
Can we improve on the quality in our squad? Of course we can.
But please take 5 and think where we have come from in the last 12 months alone and even the young loanees are giving far more than some of the journeyman we have had in the past.
This is a longer term project and already we are ahead of the game in my view.
There will be some rocky times ahead and no coincidence that our worst performances are on those pish playing surfaces, midden game aside.
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This is fair BSOI. But I think the excellent progress has raised optimism & maybe that outside hope that we may be able to sneak 55 this year ?
I think there’s no harm in saying what we are all hoping for in the next window but it doesn’t mean that people don’t appreciate the massive progress under Steven & his team.
 
Too slow and ponderous when moving the ball, complete opposite to games at Ibrox, referees allowing the hammer throwers the freedom to constantly foul knowing 9 out 10 times they’ll get away with it doesn’t help.
 
Cumbernauld gers said:
He goes missing for 95% of the game and produces great stuff for the other 5% mate.

He is a classic acadamy player, we have had several in recent years and he is just not good enough.

In a way he is typical modern day player with flashes of really good stuff but not much and some fans now lap it up. For some fans now its about the skills and who cares about the end product.
Click to expand...

What a load of nonsense, honestly mate.

*sees username* ah okay...
 
Battlefield Bear said:
Coulibaly was anonymous today, Ejaria is a bit ponderous sometimes and Rossiter looked like a young lad who hadn't played much football recently.

We'll play better than today, for sure. The fact we won without our midfield really firing is a source of comfort rather than consternation.
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Coulibaly wasn't up to his pre injury form, if that returns we don't need to worry.

Our midfield man for man is a good midfield IMO. Not one that will get bullied, just a poor day at the office for me.
 
tazzabear said:
I thought that’s what Coulibaly was to be.
He isn’t of course.
I’m a wee bit alarmed with the drop in his standard of play.
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Player returning from injury, it will come. His pre injury form was absolutely outstanding and I think even fully fit it would have been difficult to maintain.
 
In terms of guile and effort I can't fault our midfield. We have good bite and dig and players who I believe can do a lot of the midfield work.

Where we really lack I feel is genuine quality on the ball/decision making in the final third. Most of arfields goals have been chances he couldn't miss, but outside of that his final ball or effort on goal haven't led to much. I single him out as for me he has seemed the most involved in attacking play (which is also a positive which deserves credit). He has also to his credit produced some moments of attacking passing that has been good.

I should reiterate I really rate the majority of work our midfield produce. I just think to win trophies you need goals and direct assists from midfield and at present we don't look like getting many from any of the midfield 3 combinations.
 
Think the ability is there, we need to show more courage on the ball. Ejaria takes the ball too deep, push up 10/20 yds and a bit of skill could produce the killer pass or a foul just outside the box or a pen.

Arfield probably the best at breaking into the box.

Forward passes from CHs need to be much better, otherwise we're just tossing the ball away
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
Cheers mate. Fair comments. I’m just concerned that while I don’t disagree with you that an extra quality midfielder that brings something different from the others could be really useful to us.
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Hey, I would not say No to a quality central midfielder, like a Barry Ferguson to pull the strings, in fact I'd bite your hand off - it is the missing piece in the jigsaw of this new build team.
 
Yeah we do need a creative midfielder. Dorrans seems to never not be injured and a lot of the midfielders we have (Jack, Rossiter, Coulibaly, McCrorie are more defensive) - Ejaria only on loan as well and young.

Not easy to buy in that window though.
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
I’ll probably get shit for this but we really need to upgrade our midfield.
A lot of good players but not ONE great player in midfield.
I’d like both a creator & a box to box midfielder in January.
When Arfield is injured or off form we only create from the wide areas.
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I'm prepared to be shot but we need a Lego eater.
 
Bornagain said:
I'm prepared to be shot but we need a Lego eater.
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Being serious, I don't agree.

Lego is a really limited player. He never produces anything that is even remotely constructive. Runs around like a kitten chasing a ping pong ball on a tiled kitchen floor.

I think we really need a much more dynamic type of midfielder. Someone who will drive towards the opponents penalty box, or thread a pass through, or spray the ball side to side on the pitch to open up packed defences. I honestly don't think we need a Mongo type.
 
Bornagain said:
I'm prepared to be shot but we need a Lego eater.
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No offence mate,but we really don't- a Rogic yes but the last thing we need is the LE.

Goalscoring and chance creating midfielders are usually the most expensive and hard to come by,and given the ridiculous amount of players Mark Allen,SG and the staff had to get in the summer past it's no surprise that's where we are short really.
 
IMHO we need more guile & innovation in mid-field - just as mentioned in many posts above

We've shown we can be tenacious & not get bullied the way we used to -
We've shown how a hard working mid-field can succeed against opponents that gave us trouble last season

What we haven't got - is that last part of the overall mid-field 'package'.
We need to be able to deliver that defence splitting pass - the one that cleverly picks the lock of a packed & resolute defence -

We need to play through mid-field in a way that upsets opponents positional play - tests their organisation - forcing them to commit to zones that can make them unbalanced -

When we achieve that at the moment - we're often doing it the hard way - when someone with the ability & vision could do it with a well timed pass or by a clever run -
(A bit simplistic I know - but still relevant IMHO)

Obviously it would be very difficult to acquire an RDB equivalent right now - & much as I'd like our existing players to improve & develop these skills - in reality that won't happen overnight

It remains to be seen who will stay or leave or loanees return - but I expect SG will have this type of player on his wish list when any incomings are planned
 
cav said:
No offence mate,but we really don't- a Rogic yes but the last thing we need is the LE.

Goalscoring and chance creating midfielders are usually the most expensive and hard to come by,and given the ridiculous amount of players Mark Allen,SG and the staff had to get in the summer past it's no surprise that's where we are short really.
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Theres a bigger picture. You need a dictator before a "rogic" can create. Brown dictates play and that allows their creative players freedom. We probably do need somebody more creative yeah. However, who's our dictator? Who's giving our new creative player their freedom?
 
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