Tom061087

Just seen replay very poor goalkeeping. I think the final straw has been that Rodgers didn’t quite realise where the post was, possibly he was even looking to use the post for support but ended up colliding with his upper arm which has spun him round into the goal. I don’t think you can tell it’s over or not from the camera angles on sport scene. I think the collision with the post explains what’s happened but it’s no excuse, it’s a great example of why it’s so important for goalkeepers to be on the front foot and if in any doubt tip it round the goals

Tend to agree, I was actually quite enjoying seeing the different style of play and the players he was slowly managing to bring in to enact it. Some players, Findlay in particular seemed to benefit from him and has gone downhill since, interesting that he stood out when he gave interviews saying he was giving Alessios methods a shot. Can never really be sure what went on behind the scenes and whether it was fair on Alessio. Perhaps there would have been a mass departure of players in January or at the end of season. Looking at things now I doubt we would have been any worse off. anyway off topic a bit, yes you would certainly think Dyers days as manager are just about up.

Obviously an opinion based on tv pictures and mostly highlights - but there is a real trend for shockingly poor pieces of play from the team at the moment. Previously solid players getting beaten like schoolboys and rash and pointless tackles going in causing needless suspensions. Yes the players must take some responsibility as professionals but I think the manager has to answer to this as well when it is happening 2 or 3 times every week. He has to be able to help the players, set them up with a clear plan and get them in right frame of mind and that doesn’t let on like it’s happening. It’s hard to say having not seen many of the players in the flesh but think the squad is actually reasonable quality and that’s not the issue

I did notice that later in the day the website story was updated to make it a bit clearer that actually they had been pretty selective in terms of the stats presented on the Marr show. In particular picking out a few weeks instead of a long term average. Could also be said they used mentions on death certificate - as opposed to deaths with a test, or number of positives, or hospital admissions, or random prevalence surveys, or excess deaths (including care homes) all of which would make Scotland look slightly better. It’s not a competition though that’s for sure. Think NS made a mistake to try and highlight differences and walked right into a trap - although it must be hard not to take the bait sometimes

I’ve listened to radio Scotland for a long time and have noticed more and more recently that they seem to be trying to stir up headlines out of nothing it sounds like the true story is that this will be a disciplinary investigation which aims to establish if there is a case to answer

I’d go for Scott Robinson. Decent player I suppose and he proved that before coming to us and back at a decent level now but at the time just seemed a completely uninspiring signing.

I remember noticing that even when he was doing well overall he dropped a clanger just about every game, just like the one yesterday. At first he was getting away with them, to be fair often by recovering really well. The luck eventually ran out.

To me it seems obvious that a lot of grades would have to be downgraded or at least adjusted here, it certainly wouldn’t be fair to have pupils allocated whatever grade their school proposed as this would lead to a very subjective result which does not compare attainment fairly across the country. A lot of people don’t seem to grasp that awarding a much increased proportion of pupils an A downgrades the value of the qualification. To me from a purely statistical/practical point of view I understand why schools which have previously performed more poorly may have more extreme examples of results being downgraded, hopefully the appeals process will put things right for the number of pupils who will undoubtedly have been hard done by through this as those pupils who have always worked hard probably in the face of some adversity will be hardest done by through all of this debacle. I do wonder if it was a good idea to apparently tell pupils of their predicted grades long before the final result was confirmed?

Personally no issues with it at all and I get it. I did find it psychologically strange right enough to walk past the pub next door to the co op last night which was full of rowdy punters shouting over each other to have to put on a mask to go into the shop - obviously you can’t drink a pint with a mask and a grocery shop is somewhere everyone needs to go. It does play with your mind a bit though. I hear people complaining “why do we need to do it now” quite regularly, that doesn’t hold much water for me as we have actually been pretty strongly advised since 28th April to wear one - vast majority of us Chose not to. Also the USA comparisons are interesting - many of us probably watch with disbelief at some of what goes on but I was very surprised to learn they had around 65% wearing masks compared to about 25% here. as for compliance with the new law the levels have been well over 90% any time I have been in a supermarket since - compared to probably 10 or 20% Mac just a few days before. I think sturgeon has made quite a brave decision and so far it’s paid off and looks like it will make a difference. yes infections are low at the moment but I think it’s a pretty reasonable expectation this virus will come back in a significant way and this law is as much about getting us into good habits for the future as it is for the present day. It would be good if we could do something as a country to help those on lower incomes comply. Maybe some sort of scheme to be able to register to be sent out a regular supply. 70p on top of each trip to the shops is a lot to ask of some.

Personally I think they deserve barrowloads of criticism. For me I’m struggling to think of any statement made by the leader of the government where he has got the tone broadly correct, other than possibly the lockdown announcement on 23rd March. This one was admittedly a crucial one but even that was ruined by the fact that in the days before he had been stating he was hoping to see his mother, rambling in jovial fashion about lack of social distancing in the briefings and even is comment about “many of us will lose loved ones before our time” I thought was ill judged in many ways and no doubt encouraged the feeling so many people seem to have that it is no risk to them so why bother. since then the whole thing has just been a complete shambles, patronising nonsense being spouted at every opportunity that seems to me to show nothing more than contempt for the UK public. Random lockdown relaxations announced every day which I am sure are calculated to serve a double purpose of distracting from the bad news while also making it very hard to pin blame on anyone or anything in particular if things go wrong. the Cummings story - he is a clever guy and I don’t believe for a minute he thought a story about going for a drive to test eyesight was going to wash. I can only conclude that whole episode was managed in a way designed to distract from something else. Unfortunately a bit like the Trump administration they have so far proven to actually be very good at manipulating the media in a way that wins them votes. This tragic situation may just be enough to show both of these dangerous governments up for what they are, but what a huge price to pay.

I’ve seen the claim that WM government hamstrung what was a relatively strong testing regime in Scotland but is there actually any evidence of this? I ask as someone who would normally trust the Scottish government to do a much better job than the current Johnson one but if this is true, It’s pretty disappointing that more is not made of this in the media - in fact if anything the media tends to portray Scotland as lagging behind. The whole 100,000 target seems to me to be a publicity stunt - both the target itself which seems to have been purely a number and the way it was achieved. Every day they have just expanded eligibility to the point that more or less anyone can request a test and I am sure there are 1000s who requested one with very little justification. Counting 40,000 tests that have been sent out that day is scandalous. Also read that the proportion of tests involiving the same person being tested twice in a day has shot up over the last week which again sounds suspicious. I’m not an expert but surely there is very little substance in wildly aiming for a huge volume of tests. throughout the whole thing the criticism and vitriol aimed at the Scottish Government and Sturgeon in particular from public and media amazes me, in my opinion she takes such a strong position, speaks so clearly and has such a remarkable grasp of the detail I think she is a million miles ahead of anyone fronting the UK government. My only theory is that her honesty means that people don’t like what she has to say in comparison to the over confident, positive waffle coming from the likes of Boris Johnson. Sturgeon just cannot win. Announce anything slightly different to or before WM and she is political point scoring. Fail to respond immediately with an equivalent offer after the UK government announce some kind of payment out of the blue and she is behind the curve. personally all the other arguments aside I’m thoroughly convinced that we would have seen a much better managed crisis had the Scottish government been fully in charge, that said Unfortunately it really wouldn’t be difficult.

The UK government messaging throughout this crisis has been extremely ambiguous at times in my opinion even on Thursday I was utterly shocked to hear Boris suggest he “hoped to see his mother on Sunday” in response to a question. That answer has probably directly contributed to 1000s if people deciding they will visit their mothers today. Now he is claiming that he meant a Skype call! anyway all that withstanding the message that we all need to limit social contact is very very clear. It’s absolutely shocking to see so many people, even on the first day of these restrictions, seemingly almost completely ignoring them. We have all been given a bit of freedom to go out for a walk with households as long as we are sensible about it. For me this is going to make an absolutely huge difference over the coming months. My young kids will get through this almost happily if they can do this. Unfortunately if what I saw yesterday continues with people acting more or less as normal and stories of hoardes of people taking day trips as if it’s a public holiday then that small bit of freedom will soon be taken away. a really striking thing is how many people seem to be thinking about the risk in terms of what it means for themselves, when that really isn’t the point in most cases.

Listened to a lee mcculloch interview the other day was interesting that he said he didn’t want the managers job when he took it (didn’t say why), but gave in to Bowie’s persistence in trying to appoint him. Didn’t work out too well either and doesn’t seem a great way to appoint the right manager. Obviously Clarke worked out well however that came about, and Dyer has shown a bit of progress but is struggling for results at the moment

Currently has made more saves and has the highest save % of any keeper in the league. Also faced the highest number of shots which could indicate a few things I suppose. admittedly His distribution is very poor at times. Certainly can look awkward but I’m not sure he is half as bad as made out

The media certainly are being a bit hysterical at times but the conspiracy theories that this isn’t a major threat / government trying to distract attention etc have to be wide of the mark. All across the world countries are taking this very seriously presumably because this is an unknown virus with no vaccination or treatment bringing huge risk to health but even if it only means a couple of weeks off work for most, a massive impact on the economy. i think the point of the handshake ban may be missed a bit too. Banning handshakes between players at football matches will have minimal direct impact, but we are all now talking about whether we should be shaking hands etc day to day aren’t we?

I agree Koprivec is well off the standard required - probably a decent keeper but is undoubtedly very rusty at the moment and seems indecisive and an inch or two (or more!) from making what should be routine saves. However I’m not at all convinced Branescu is as bad as made out. He has a clumsy manner which I don’t think inspires confidence and has made a few mistakes. But look at the stats against his peers in the premiership - he has the highest number of saves, the second highest save % (after Forster) and is 5th for clean sheets. That doesn’t tell the full story but it does suggest he makes a strong contribution to points tally’s. From what I’ve seen he is fairly solid with handling too, maybe a bit hesitant at crosses but I think keepers are probably trained that way these days as it may be seen as lower risk to stay on your line. One thing I do think he is very poor at is distribution, his kicking is terrible and he has had a few dodgy throw outs - this is one area Koprivec beats him hands down.

Alessio had a terrible start, seems the players mostly didn’t take to him, the board don’t seem to have been too supportive, the media and fan consensus seemed to be against him from the off, he clearly struggled with the language, one of his assistants obviously didn’t agree with his approach (but may well have been professional and stuck to the party line). He also was only able to sign a couple of players to enhance the team (who the blame lies with for that I don’t know). yet he still put together a solid run of results, and outstanding defensive record and if it wasn’t for what was genuinely an extremely unlucky run of defensive injuries and suspensions in October, right at the time of crunch matches against Motherwell and Aberdeen was not far away at all from having us in a strong 3rd place. not sure I buy into the theory that all the other teams were rubbish back then and would have improved, yes some teams would but some would fall away too. the general consensus now certainly seems that Alessio was a “poor fit” but with the results he achieved despite all the adversity I have to wonder if Scottish football as a whole should try and learn from people like Alessio instead of being so quick to dismiss? It may be boring working under him but looking at the National team record then don’t we have to look at trying different approaches? all that said I don’t know any of the ins and outs of what happened but in terms of results achieved in the circumstances the more I think about it the more I think there has to have been some real ability there.

Terrible marking for the 1st, the second ODonnell spots and tracks Kennedy’s run but slows down at crucial moment when he had every chance to nick the loose ball away otherwise, the penalty is one of the daftest things I have seen a professional player do -Killie and Dicker’s reaction tells you what you that, and the 4th it’s as if it’s one of those where Johnson has got an idea in his head of what could go wrong and then inadvertently acted it out pretty disappointing to score 3 against an Aberdeen side and still end up losing the game. Aberdeen seem to be a real bogey team and nearly always find a way to beat us. have to say as well if Branescu had let in the Brophy free kick he would be absolutely slaughtered, not to take anything away from Brophy though as he hit it well enough.

I don’t think that analysis is far wrong, I’d only disagree that dicker should have been sent off as I’m not sure it was simulation

That really was poor goalkeeping, created the goal scoring chance for them which Del Fabro had otherwise dealt with well

Would have been a great save if he had got to it, disappointing thing is not even managing to dive for it and give himself a chance. Seems to have a habit of that. those saying just raise left arm are a few feet wide of the mark!

I can’t believe what is happening here. Those inside the club must realise how low morale is and how can they possibly think that this signing is a good idea. Surely it also just sends out the message player power is king. It seems incredible what Alessio achieved given the poor start and the obvious complete lack of respect for what he was doing.

If we do that do we end up with the same debate over whether a players foot is milimetres over the thicker line? Suppose that if it’s a mm over a thicker line you can be more confident it was definitely offside after taking account of the margin of error in judging when the ball was played forward.

The stats on water used to grow nuts amaze me, I didn’t believe it when I read them there but a quick google shows they seem to be right. however I wasn’t talking about nuts but the foods grown to feed animals which could be eaten directly by humans instead. Without being an expert on the subject I think it’s pretty much accepted that worldwide meat consumption needs to reduce significantly to have any chance of a sustainable future. theres no doubt a lot of products being produced to meet the vegan b vegetarian demand must also have its own very large carbon footprint. anyway as many have said buying local produce wherever possible has to have a major benefit.

The offside rule seems to be throwing up the most controversy with VAR, however for me as offside is a black and white rule then you have to expect that some decisions may seem a bit ridiculous and come down to a few mm. If the system is capable of measuring to that accuracy then I think it should be applied in that way. You can’t start saying “it was only a few mm so it should count” as then the decision making really does become inconsistent. You could change the rule so a player has to be at least 10mm beyond the 2nd last player for example, but this would just lead to the same debate on the 10mm line. You could specify the body part eg has to be a foot but not sure this would make any difference either. without VAR you got plenty goals incorrectly allowed to stand and quite a view incorrectly ruled out too. the only issue I have is the time it takes for the replay to be reviewed and communicated to the referee, this toys with emotions and breaks up the game for players and spectators. Not sure technology is likely to improve on this.