steviemay17

if this is a new Rooney contract I swear...

In a way I will find it funny if CD pulls an Eetu/Melamed and says he needs a few weeks to get up to speed

I'm not sure he's ever really been a striker, he's a pacey winger who can play either side, at least it gives defences something to think about

at least he's rapid

I'm sure he missed a proper sitter against Trakai, possibly in the second half to make it 2-2 Tanser still would've shat it in the return leg despite that

My abiding memory of Cummins was against Aberdeen when we lost 3-0 at home, it may also have been Stevie's first game back against us. He just couldn't get going at all, and it ended with Tommy Wright just yelling "Graham, please just fucking try and do something" it summed up his time towards the end

Looks like we're making a proper run at signing this Daniel Clearly guy from Dundalk, only 25 which is positive, although a former player of Gary Rowett so do have to wonder if we actually have any kind of scouting system etc. Right sided so maybe Efe would be off?

CD talking about getting Macca back into training, almost definitely a joke, but the fact that it made we think he might improve the team shows yet again how sh*te our strikers have been this season

I mean even when May, Middleton and Kane were available it wasn't like it was ever monsoon season in the final third unless we played Dundee but they are also a bad team so nothing to be relied upon. Can't wait for Eetu to play and score the winner in Kane's absence this weekend only to get dropped because CD doesn't feel he's become culturally immersed enough yet

The biggest problem is that we don't have any forward who's going to be a consistent goal-threat throughout the game, and that makes us too easy to play against Saturday was actually the kind of game where Chris Kane is valuable, he put himself about, tried to get us up the pitch and presses hard so that's all fine. The problem is we have nobody who's clever enough to move into the space he vacates. Spoony likes to drift inside and do his thing, he can cross and pick a pass, but he can't get beyond a defense or score goals from distance. MOH has always had the issue where he's not capable of making runs that bother a defense, he hangs wide and wants it to feet before trying to beat players before shooting or crossing, but the lack of goal threat again means teams can push us high knowing that nobody is going to get in behind. Eetu at least demonstrated that he'll try to score goals and has some kind of game intelligence - his turning of the defending before shooting, actually trying to pick out a teammate or a dangerous area in the box with his header rather was both pleasing and worrying - I still maintain we are the worst team in the league for actually taking care of the ball - too often it's just about trying to win a header and seeing where it goes rather than showing some kind of awareness to cause the defenders problems. The fact that Eetu looks like a big plus because he was simply trying to engineer a shooting chance or picking out a teammate shows how genuinely rotten our attacking play has been this season, and we still need someone with movement and attacking instincts in January to prevent a relegation battle, but anyone who can do that and press won't be available for us so I won't hold my breath.

out of interest what was said? I don't think I've ever interacted with the page but it appears I've been blocked for some reason

I more fear that we're headed towards 4-6-0 territory

aaaand that's Middleton injured too, wonderful

I would imagine the problem is more yet again, we've sucked any ounce of joy out of the club after an unprecedented achievement and are playing the worst football in the country. If I wasn't properly dedicated or die hard I wouldn't go either, I can also see that this close to xmas that any families who are hard up won't see this as a priority. It's a weird feeling to describe, I feel no sense of excitement or anticipation about this game at all, we are beyond tedious to watch

Given the increasingly desperate tone on the Twitter page about Semi Final tickets, I would say it's safe to assume that the numbers are much lower than hoped

I noticed against St Mirren that the lack of any threat in behind means teams can sit as high as they like against us, Neither Kane or May even pretends to run in behind, Middleton did once but that was it, so they were able to squeeze us really high. That led to the difference when midfielders had the ball, for as sh*te as Main is, he tried to run in behind, so our defence had to sit off a bit, it left a gap and their midfield had space to run into. When Crawford was getting the ball and trying to drive forward, he had his forward players in wide areas making no movement, and was immediately confronted with the St Mirren midfield and back three who were close in behind, so he had 3/4/5 players to take on to even create some space, while also having no outlet at all - I would guess that's the most obvious explanation for why the game worked out the way it did. St Mirren were able to play on the front foot and push us back because that's where the space was, but often the only option we had was to go backwards, which just led to eventual panicked clearances and failing to get up the pitch. We lack creativity, movement and attacking intent, so it's becoming easy to play against

Ticket sales are poor but not a massive surprise, Hampden's horrible to get to, Saturday night kick-off seemingly no good for the youth of today as failed to convince the kid brother to come along despite paying for his ticket. Tie that in to horribly uninspiring football where we'll just let Celtic have the ball, shut them out for 40 mins, lose 3-0 but give it the "oh but we started organised and it might have been different if we got to half time", then having to listen to their fans will be sh*te too. It's an impossible sell to casual fans and we've done nothing on the pitch "this season" to really complain, would be great if somehow win though

Can I interest you in a left-sided Clive Smith on loan every year as a compromise?

Even Rooney getting stuck in about the admin

I got excited when the first word looked like it could be Zander and then realised it's Booth probably the least exciting extension, would rather Devine was playing

That is legitimately the worst performance I've seen, in terms of effort, quality, attitude and coaching, it was all embarassing. All I ever hear in the media is how "well-drilled" we are but that's not true this season, what we can do is stick everyone back in the box and put bodies on the line - St Mirren are well-drilled as we saw today, they actually created openings and had a plan, we put Glenn Middleton up against three CB's and tried to hump long balls to him. I honestly wouldn't care at this point if CB was somehow poached by a team down-south, I've seen enough games this season to now confirm that he cannot coach up a team in a footballing sense, we're either set-pieces or getting lucky from mistakes, there is no plan with this team when they get the ball. How can any coach feel happy about a team that isn't set up to win a game? I guess that translates to the players as well because none of them look like they believe any attack is going to end in a goal, it's just wayward punts and hopeful crosses, yet we don't actually have any players in the box either. MOH is the definition of a passenger, he can't defend, he also looks to take any opportunity to not drive forward into the space he's given too, that experiment should be over. We've now seen two performances at McD this season which have shown us what a physical striker can be - Karamoko for LASK and Curtis Main today - Main isn't a good player, I wouldn't want him in our team, but he was still streets ahead of the waste of a shirt that is.... Chris Kane - he doesn't actually try to play football, there were two moments today when we had a good break on, and on both occasions he tried to work back and initiate contact to win a free kick rather than going forward into the space and trying to make something happen.He didn't try to affect the game, he didn't do anything good for the team, and he got sent off for having a stinking/entitled attitude and moaning at the ref twice (I think the first was also because of a foul but he was also striaght in the ref's face to make his mind up) Crawford at least tried, his performance reminded me of Spoony a few years back when he didn't hide and kept trying to get on the ball even though it probably hurt the team, but we could still be there tomorrow and I doubt we would create a chance, never mind score. Yes the weather was awful at the end but we were still embarassingly bad, and this season is currently being propped by by a cup run after beating two bad teams - We have a semi-final against a vulnerable Celtic team but we can't/won't try to put them under pressure and then it's going to be a grim few weeks. The Eetu situation just compounds it - he could give the ball away every time, hide when we have possession, lose every header, offer no goal threat yet if he stayed on for the full 90 then he would still offer more than Kane did, thank f*ck he's now suspended and hopefully someone else can show something

"Preston are sh*te and can only attract players from diddy teams who punch above their weight"

Yeah so not the most promising quotes in the world from CD here: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/st-johnstone/2703573/zander-clark-st-johnstone-callum-davidson-scotland/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Grieve seems to spend a fair amount of time on Twitter trying to promote some tactical/data technology services that he's involved with, anyone any idea if he's full-time with us?

I'm not sure why I'm not as fussed about McCart leaving as the other two, but might be a case of missing him more once he's gone. I really want Rooney to stay, mainly trying to talk myself into some kind of likelihood of it happening!