chimney

As many have said above, the team selection & formation was definitely wrong at Tannadice, but Murray clearly thought pre match it was the right one and we are saying that with hindsight. However, more worrying are: 1. A blind man could see it wasn’t working after 15-20 minutes and he did nothing to change it, either with shape or personnel. When after an hour he eventually did make a change (other than for the first half injury) it was swap the front 2 when that was never going to work as the core problem was the team was incapable of winning any ball in midfield to get service to them. 2. His comments afterwards that apart from a 15 minute spell it was a very even game (which in some ways is more worrying) fools nobody apart from himself and stinks of denial. Hopefully, his team selection against Ayr will prove this wrong!

Solid if not sparkling team performance today. What a save by big Kev at start of second half & Stanton was a standout again. What a difference Matthews makes when playing in that sole midfield holding role, his awareness & positioning when not in possession, along with his ball winning ability make him head & shoulders above others who try and fill that role. Others might offer more in moments with possession but the overall team definitely benefits from the wider control he brings. Finally a special mention to Lewis Vaughan who ran his socks off today, might not have scored but his general play up front set the tone for those behind him.

WTF, someone gives you a job

No, not to me. With Brown & Byrne we never control a game, or give ourselves a solid platform to build from, their lack of passing range means we just lump the ball forward with far to much frequency and the game becomes back and forward, where early season we won the odds and now we are losing the odds. Matthews can control a game with his passing as was seen albeit far too briefly against Inverness but the platform was there to give the attacking players better possession of the ball rather than fighting for scraps all the time. I think if you asked the actual forward players you would get a similar response as to who they would prefer as their teammate. But in the end there is no right answer only opinions.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but can’t agree with that. Matthews passing range is miles better than Brown and he doesn’t hide like Brown does when opportunity arises to get the ball off the defence. Byrne has qualities no doubt but is so slow and now teams have figured that out the number of mistakes he is making that are punished over recent weeks is alarming. If he is not better Matthews definitely offers different attributes which the team are crying out for at the moment with B&B don’t have

What an utter shambles. No midfield throughout the whole game that took any semblance of control and just punted it long. The manager must be blind to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results as this one in central midfield just doesn’t work as teams are now wise to it and just over the top of us through the middle. Turner & Rudden the players brought in were brutal and overall that team tonight showed no dig or desire and are so so soft. Clearly as has been mentioned before, the lack of work on actual tactics during the week is coming back to bite hard.

Can’t believe you even have Byrne in the conversation, he has been brutal for the last 4 or 5 weeks. Players just run by him for fun and offers no protection to the defence. He is so slow, and as for his marking and challenge for their 3rd goal yesterday that was just an utter embarrassment.

We are never going to win the league playing like this, as good fortune eventually runs out. Last 3 home games we have been 2-0 up in 2 of them well into 2nd half and 2-1 up against 10 men in the other. We have lost 8 (EIGHT yes EIGHT!) goals from these positions of strength! Murray said in his Ayr post match that he needed to learn how to see games out, and he clearly hasn’t bothered! This one man midfield just doesn’t allow the team to control the game at any point, and worse when we are winning as the opposition has then nothing to lose, they simply run through the heart of us. Scott Brown was tactically inept today as was Byrne against Ayr, but it is Murray that needs to take responsibility and give them some help. He put McGill on today but why not do it earlier and give Brown some support or put Matthews on to get control. It’s not in question that it is all very entertaining, but so is winning!

That system of 4-1-3-2 is never going to work in the Championship with these players available. A defence trying to get to know each other protected by Stanton who is never a holding midfielder is a recipe for disaster. Sure the 5 in front of that are good at times going forward but out of possession (which is more than half the game!!) are brutal, weak and far to easily bullied. Injured players coming back will help enormously but surely a more robust system must be deployed until then. Even moving Brown into a holding two and putting Dick at centre back would be better than that today.

Hearing from Livi that Ben Williamson (Rangers on loan last season at Arbroath & this season at Livi) is on his way to Starks Park in January.

Yes please

Pretty boy middle class socialist views don’t cut it with me, but hey ho Killie next week so let’s move on & upwards

What are your Bank Account details, so I can remove 650,000 peso’s - no checks (cheques) required, honest guv

If you listen to JMcG pre match carefully (including importantly what he doesn’t say) it is fallacious to suggest anything other than it is going to be the same team that started the Ayr game…….but time will tell

Agree with Matthews & Tait being our standouts today, they completely ran the midfield. Also thought Varian was very good, he gave O’Brien (who is normally very good against us) an absolute doing & bullied him throughout. Was interested before the game to see what all the talk about Nouble was about, still waiting as he was totally anonymous.