Your view on why we didn't win the league?

My view;
Our defence (most notably McGregor) having absolute brainfarts and throwing away points.

Corrupt referee’s assisted by shitbag/intimidated refs (Madden& Beaton).

The filth scoring a crazy amount of last minute winners (honestly thought I was back in the 87/88 season at some points.
 
All goes back to Malmo for me. I think not getting past that tie pulled the rug out from under both the management and playing staff.

A bit of focus and application was lost which manifested itself in shipping daft goals and dropping daft points. That Jan / Early Feb spell fcuked us. Too many eyes were off the ball after SGs departure.

The focus and application on really came back once we got pay Dortmund and the squad realised we were on a proper European run.
 
Loads of wee things which all combine. But fundamentally we had the chance to stop the scum and go on and win the league when we played them at Ibrox in April. And we fucked it.

We’ve assembled a very good squad who have shown appetite and resilience at times, especially in Europe. But we still have that softness about us at other times. I think the doing we took at the leaning tower of paedos was still in the players heads against them at Ibrox and we gave them too much respect. Win that game then the fact is we would have won the league.
 
We did again what we are prone to do, feck up our return from Winter break. 7 pts dropped in 3 games allowed scum to go top, and our confidence shot to pieces.

Our dreadful transfer activity in January also played a big part in the final few months as injuries took their toll and Ramsey and Diallo were deemed either not fit enough or good enough to play their part.
 
The keepers clangers
The winter break being moved, the filth needed for injuries it so got it
Poor Jan window, needed players that actually went into team.
All OF games not putting them to the sword when we were always the better team.
 
Failure to beat fanny teams even when we had the game in the bag. Giving away far too many soft easy goals to opposition who didn't have to work hard for goals.
 
AriseSirWalter said:
The players got to EL final, took penalties to stop us winning it, so the quality is there. We were much better placed going into the season than our rivals. So what cost us the league in your opinion?

Normally a run to European final or a change in management would be enough in itself to stop you winning the league but I don't think either of these are the issue this season.

In terms of managerial change, I think someone posted the stats and they were broadly similar for Gio and Gerrard. GvB hit the ground running and we didn't lose too many points, if any, due to managerial change IMO. Same for European run, can't point to us just running out of steam because of all the games like we did in 2008. Maybe the draws away to DU and home to Motherwell after Dortmund games could be attributed to Europe? So what does it boil down to?

There are two things that I keep coming back to, I think we as a club/players were complacent - daft dropped points (Motherwell, Hearts, Aberdeen at home at the beginning of the season, Aberdeen, Ross County away in Jan, and then the two mentioned above. Motherwell one was a sickener being two up at home but that was 3 days after putting Dortmund out).

Another 'issue' is I think our style of play is optimised for Europe rather than Scotland and something we need to think about, we have a good structure and rarely lose daft goals of previous seasons but that structure comes at a cost of attacking 'flair', it's not always easy for us to break down teams that come and sit and we rely on a lot of set pieces. Europe was no fluke, our structure gave us control in Europe that no Scottish team has had in my lifetime but it maybe means we're not as good at breaking teams down.

I think it's more than just better individuals, if Kent or Aribo were in another team which had more space and less defensive duties they would tear it up. Aribo prior to going away from African cup for example, Gio started with a more expansive structure and seemed spoked by results in Jan.

It's really difficult when you go from teams having a go at you midweek to others sitting on 18 yard line on Sunday but it's a problem we're going to have to address if we want to continue to do well in Europe.
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The Tim's got more points than us.........end of.

Nah in all honesty, the fact we fecked up away to Ross County in the 3-3 game and at home to Motherwell when we were 2-0 up and missing multiple chances, really pisses me off. We should have beaten Utd away also when we drew 1-1 when we totally dominated. There are 6 points thrown away right there. Not to mention losing a last minute goal in a 1-1 draw v Hearts and scandalous refereeing by Clancy in the 1-1 draw away to the Sheep and things soon add up.

The Tim's certainly got their act together after a bad start, but it really pisses me off that they're not actually that good.
 
They lost 3 in first 6 games then went 32 games undefeated. Thats sort of form that wins titles and we didn't lay a glove on them in that time losing home and away to them.

Those two games cost us title. Going 1-0 up and losing was criminal.
 
Maybe in future we shouldn't just think we have the league wrapped up. Too many were thinking it was just us going to be having a lap of honour before winning the league.

Twice in my lifetime that's happened. First one was the second season with souness in charge and the next, when going for 10 in a row. Nothings certain in football. Wonder how many at the start of the season thought we'd lose the league, but at the same time reach a European final? Not very many and if they did, please give me your tips for next season.
 
A lot of reasons really.

Gio making some horrible mistakes tactically after January

Players getting too confident after 55, or not caring as much about the league any more.

Silly player mistakes

Motherwell and Ross County

Celtic having an amazing run of form out of nowhere
 
Garbage defending when we were ahead in games.
Really as simple as that.

You are NEVER going to win every single game in a season.
Tims won the league with 93 points and that's about right.

For us I would say the defeat and draw at Tannadice were the kind of results that can happen in a season and not the end of the world. Same with the 1-1 at Pittodrie in January.

Old Firm games can always go either way and a win and draw at Parkhead is not disastrous even if the performances and goals lost were really quite poor. Losing to them at Ibrox is annoying but not a massively shocking result. It happens.

So I think that's 15 dropped points that are not exactly "acceptable" but how often are we racking up 99 points in a season?

We finished on 89.

Ross County away. Disgraceful defending. Should have gotten all 3 points. 91 points.

Motherwell at home. TWICE! Horrible defending costing us a 1 goal and then a 2 goal lead. 95 points.

Aberdeen at Ibrox. Ridiculous defensive calamity allows them to go 1-0 up and slack marking makes it 2-0. That should have been another easy win. 97 points.

Hearts at Ibrox. Shocking defending at the end. Should have had all 3 points. 99 points.

That's 10 dropped points that had nothing to do with tactics.
Nothing to do with weakness up front.
Nothing to do with unsatisfactory transfer windows.
Nothing to do with the change of manager.
Just pretty shocking individual errors that cost us points in games we should have won easily.

Even if you just looked at Motherwell (2-2 game), Ross County away and Hearts at home, where defensive blunders objectively cost us the points due to the timing of those blunders, winning those 3 would have us winning the league with 95 points.
 
In my opinion there are a lot of reasons of our doing.

We were sloppy to begin the season under Gerrard. We lost at Tannadice and then had a run of conceding first but more often than not getting away with it. But there were signs we had slips in us.

After the change in manager we had bad dropped points especially Motherwell and Ross County. We also failed to win any of the derbies in the league after Gerrard left.

Key injuries and the europa run on top of it too.

Basically in my opinion we had a lot of what could go wrong actually go wrong.
 
Those draws with Motherwell, Aberdeen and Ross County all around the same was the point I knew it wasn't happening. There were maybe 2 or 3 too many draws and persevering with Shagger for one final season was probably one of the reasons those wins turned into draws.
 
Motherwell at Ibrox twice dropping a total of 4 points ...
We also gave the corrupt officials a chance to influence some of our games ....
The players and management can sort out what went wrong against the likes of Motherwell but the board must and I presume , are , working behind the scenes to drain the swamp #sfa and #spfl.....
 
Loyalty to one or two who are just past it now.
We really should be moving on and not handing out contracts to bench warmers when the collective Money could fund a starter.
 
I think there was a disconnect between the defence and McGregor which led to mistakes.
Because of this, we dropped stupid unnecessary points and Celtic didn’t.
 
It’s not entirely his fault although ultimately 2 mistakes at Ross county away, Motherwell,Celtic and hearts at Ibrox cost us 9 points , a mixture of gios refusal to drop him and his inability to hold his hand up and let McLaughlin step in led to us losing a comfortable lead in the league
 
Lots of differing contributory factors mentioned here however the reality is there will always be off days, bad results and form slumps, invincible seasons most certainly aren't the norm.

Remember Septic finished only 4 points above us despite our all of our shortcomings already spoken about.

The truth of the matter is that "Honest Refereeing Mistakes" caused us to lose vital points and them to gain some, causing a conservative estimated ten point swing.

No more evidence required, your Honour, I close my case, this season with honest refs and VAR we would’ve won the league despite being nowhere near as good as the previous year.
 
Inconsistencies against the "smaller"team's in the league.

Injuries throughout the squad.

Some REALLY bad refereeing.

Maybe changeover in management, affecting the team's momentum at a crucial time.
 
A combination of factors.

I think, that for some of these players, 55 was their "Everest".

Once 55 was done, it was job done (psychologically). Nothing else to prove!

A change of management may, or may not, have been a hindrance - we'll never know.

Individual errors from players.

Some shocking decisions from officials.

Injuries to key players
 
The lack of Hagi & Roofe who took us from also rans to champions the season before. We lacked game winners
 
The fixture changes at new year didn’t help us. We were on a great run and couldn’t see either Aberdeen or smeltic taking anything off us.
Then, after the winter break we looked awful. Drew up at Aberdeen and then the terrible draw against Ross County. It killed our momentum and lifted theirs.
Then, when we got a wee sniff with them drawing at Hibs we contrived to throw away a 2 goal league to Motherwell.
 
By far the biggest factor was the standard of refereeing.

A lot of the previous posts refer to player mistakes but if we and them had been refereed the same the results would have been different.

The second was the moving the Old Firm game in January allowing players to get fit and new players come in. There was no medical or rational reason to make the move other than to benefit one rancid club.
 
I would also add Morelos playing and going away with Columbia when injured never helped, ending his season prematurely

He only played once against celtic all season, the one league win, we adapted to play without him in Europe but he is the only player we had who could bully the Celtic defence, hold the ball up and get out against them.

He plays 4 out of 4 instead of only the one, we get more than 4 points against them and that is the swing in points. A fully fit Morelos in the game at Ibrox in April and the momentum swings again.
 
SSR said:
Moving the game v Them played a big part.. they were down to the bare bones if played on original date !!
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Yes, the cheating, aided and abetted by our governing bodies played a very significant role. This should never be forgotten. It would simply never happen anywhere else.
 
Lots of things.

- Terrible preseason
- Manager was unhappy and you could see it
- Walter passed and we played the game like the next night, I can see why we would but we shouldn't have
- Manager left
- New manager, came in got that bounce but some of the stuff that had been happening was starting to appear before the winter break
- Allowing the winter break to happen early
- Terrible January signings, 3 and not one made a good impact
- Individual errors (McGregor, Goldson, Big Bassey had one)
- Players so off form (Borna being the major one)
- Injuries and long term to key players (Hagi, Helander, Ramsey, Roofe, Morelos, Borna (on and off))
- Some appalling refereeing decisions against us and in favour of Celtic since January, which I would now call into question as cheating. Especially after the revelation about Cinch ready to sue if we win the league.
- Aribo losing form after January

It was just a messy season, which had some major highs and some terrible lows.
 
derbybear said:
By far the biggest factor was the standard of refereeing.

A lot of the previous posts refer to player mistakes but if we and them had been refereed the same the results would have been different.

The second was the moving the Old Firm game in January allowing players to get fit and new players come in. There was no medical or rational reason to make the move other than to benefit one rancid club.
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Kyogo done his hamstring 15 mins in on Boxing Day. They had Joey Dawson playing up front, they were running on empty. Their form was ropey, in the previous 9 games they had 2 0-0 draws and 4 single goal victories.

their starting 11 in their 2 games before the break was moved were

V ST Johnstone - Barkas Welsh Starfelt, Vickers Juranovic Bitton McCarthy Rogic Scales Abada Kyogo

V St Mirren - Bain Ralston Welsh Vickers Scales Rogic Bitton McGregor Abada Johnston Moffat.

When the rescheduled game was played we never had Morelos, Hagi or Patterson who would have been available first time round

Their starting 11 for the rearranged date was

Hart Juranovic Vickers Starfelt Taylor O’Riley McGregor Hatate Abada Giakoumakis Jota

those in bold weren’t making the original game neither was 2 of their subs Maeda or Forrest
 
Several reason

1. McGregor dropping the ball 3x that cost us points (hearts Ibrox , county away scum Ibrox) - only one on us
2. lack of var
3. Fixtures moved, killed our momentum gave them chance to regroup
4. Rule change of the subs half way through season, allowed them to bring players off and have less injuries compared to first half season, we would managed on fine , they would not if 3 rule still applied
5. Alfie only playing against them once all season

Each one of those things represent a minimum of 4 points swing in their favour or hindered us 4 points possibly more if break it down

Only 1 was of our own doing
 
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