18/19 Pre-Season & CL Qualifiers | Page 8 | Vital Football

18/19 Pre-Season & CL Qualifiers

We actually dominated the game. Missed a few good chances and one moment of fuckery screwed this up.
 
We actually dominated the game. Missed a few good chances and one moment of fuckery screwed this up.

We always have at least one moment of fuckery.

Barely troubled their keeper all night and had no cutting edge.

Dembele missing yet another crucial game is becoming the norm. Great talent when fit and match sharp - but rarely manages to be either. French Eddie is still raw at this level. Griff is in the same boat as Moussa injury wise.

There is no excuse for us having to rely on Hendry and Ajer in these make or break games. None!
Sick of this Lawwell nickel-and-diming every fucking season
 
Agree, Tic. Fewrless forecast. We end up in the Europa League, which is financial stupidity on Lawwell's part after selling Armstrong for pounds 6 million. Rodgers leaves in frustration and Lennon is back for next season.
 
Rodgers has said he's not going anywhere and loves managing the club, I think it's fair to say he is still unhappy with how our transfer dealings have been going though. The fans are as well! I completely understand it's not easy and that it's about trying to get quality at the right price......but there comes a point where we need to strengthen the depth as well.

We lost to Hearts on Saturday, because we seem to REALLY struggle against physical, well organised teams that Craig Levein puts out. I mean they should have had Naismith sent off for kicking out at the injured Johnny Hayes but regardless of that we were not good enough to win the game. Rodgers made a number of changes to the team.
Simunovic, Kouassi, Griffiths, Sinclair and Hayes all came in to the team with Forrest, Ntcham, Ajer, Edouard and Rogic all on the bench.
Was Rodgers just resting key players ahead of the AEK Athens game on Tuesday night or was it a subtle message to the board that the strength in depth at the club isn't good enough for the SPFL????

Kouassi was poor but then what can you expect from a player who barely gets a game? Simunovic and Hendry couldn't deal with the big Hearts striker (Ajer or Boyata probably would have though) and Griffiths was just getting no service up front. Hayes didn't see much of the ball, Sinclair didn't do enough with it although I did see him attempt to run at players a little more. It looks like he's just lost his speed and it's draining his confidence because he can't go by players like he used to!

We need an injection of something to make everyone else raise their game. Things need freshened up and we need to learn how to play more direct and more physical!
 
Tonight's team (early kick-off):

Gordon
Lustig - Simunovic - Hendry - Tierney
Forrest - Brown - Ntcham - McGregor
Rogic
Griffiths

Subs: Bain, Dembele, Johnston, Kouassi, Sinclair, Gamboa, Hayes

Probably going to see this turn into a 3-4-2-1 when attacking.
 
Already 1-0 down! POOR POOR defending! Ntcham, McGregor and Tierney all switched off and didn't see the player moving towards the ball when the cross came in. Lustig shouldn't have allowed the cross to come in to begin with but regardless it should have been cleared or blocked!

Need at least 1 goal but probably 2!
 
We're creating a few chances, not out of this yet! Need to keep it tight at the back and not let them in again though!

Ntcham is playing too defensive for me tonight. This is the night and sort of game where we could have done with more of an Armstrong type to drive forward in midfield.
 
That should have been red! The AEK player pushing Scott Brown and almost puts his hands round his neck! VERY fortunate to only see yellow!
 
Simunovic had a really shaky start to this game but he's really starting to show the player we know he can be! Loving a sliding tackle tonight!
 
Oh FFS! Deep free-kick and we don't win the first header, the ball comes back over into the middle of the box and Lustig can't react to get his head on it and it's a free header in the box. Soft goal again!
 
McGregor with a good run and great cross into the box but nobody to get a toe on it other than the Athens player clearing it.

Then a Griffiths cross to Simunovic's diving header is well saved and out for a corner.

Dembele now on for Lustig. The corner almost falls to Demble but ends up with Rogic who tries to curl it with his left foot to the back post but it's not far over and wide.
 
GOAL! Sinclair with a header of all things! Great cross from Tierney after being slipped through by Dembele. Great goal! Might not be out of this yet!
 
Well that's it. All over. We lose 2-1 on the night, 3-2 on aggregate. A little unlucky but overall simply not good enough. We could learn a lot about how to defend in Europe from watching the way AEK play. Exceptionally well organised, hard working and determined. We on the other hand are disorganised, some are hard working but too many are not determined enough to go and win the balls and block it and get their bodies in the way.

This team needs investment. Strength in depth is required. We MUST now go out and get ourselves a decent CB. Hendry coped fairly well tonight but one mistake of not winning a header lead to a goal. He's getting better but really he's not quite there yet and we need someone who's ready now. I said earlier Simunovic started badly but he ended up having a really good game. An absolute rock at the back for us!
Unfortunately in many respects, Scott Brown is past it in Europe. He gets himself in and about when defending but from an attacking perspective he's a passenger, he slows us down! Ntcham wasn't particularly good tonight either. Forrest was isolated tonight and we didn't see the best of him, when he got help out on the right, he was able to make things happen but it wasn't happening often enough.
 
It's time for new signings! If that means we need to offload players first then it's up to the board the agents to move players on. There's plenty of dead wood we could clear out!

Ryan Chrsitie, Scott Allan, Marvin Compper, Dorus de Vries should all go. Boyata is going......it's just a matter of when. Calvin Miller can go out on loan now that Izaguirre is back, Kouassi needs to go out on loan, potentially Gamboa leaving too. Kundai Benyu appears to be nowhere these days, does he still have a future here? If not then lets just get rid of him now, otherwise let's get him out on loan!
I count 5 players leaving permanently, potentially 7 depending on Gamboa and Benyu. Then 2 out on loan. That's 9 departures in total. Hell I'd personally offload Sinclair if possible too and make it an even 10.

That also means we need to bring in 1 or 2 wingers, a couple of midfielders and at least 2 defenders, 1 of which at least would have to be a CB.
 
I couldn't be bothered starting a new thread for the Europa League qualifiers.

Boyata is apparently injured and hasn't even traveled with the squad, the same goes for Hendry and Edouard.

Tonight's likely team:

Gordon
Gamboa - Simunovic - Ajer - Tierney
Brown - Ntcham
Forrest - Rogic - McGregor
Dembele/Griffiths

Subs: Bain, Lustig, Sinclair, Dembele/Griffiths, Johnston, Kouassi, Izaguirre.
 
I was almost right with the team last night but Mikey Johnston started ahead of Rogic and it was more of a 4-1-4-1 to start with.

Brendan speaking after the game saying that the performance wasn't good enough....again. He said the same thing after the Partick Thistle game. He'll be getting very annoyed if he's saying the same thing after the game on Sunday!

We should have no problems putting this tie to bed next week at Paradise but there needs to be a big improvement in the way the team is playing because at the moment it's not good enough. Some new signings would go a long way to helping that but any we get won't be ready for a few weeks most likely.
 
Tonight's team to play Suduva:

Gordon
Lustig - Ajer - Boyata - Tierney
Ntcham - Brown - McGregor
Johnston - Griffiths - Sinclair

Subs: Bain, Izaguirre, Gamboa, Hayes, Forrest, Christie, Rogic
 
Jeez, our play in the final third is awful. Just awful This team has the talent to be hitting 4 and 5 goals against opposition like this and domestically, but it's torture watching us toiling away and doing the same things over and over again in open play. Other teams don't have to try too hard to foil our efforts. Fur fux sake mix it up Brendan!

Another brilliant fk from Griff.
 
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