Champs League v Seville build up and match thread

[frank the tank]

The frustrating thing is that I don't think we are that far away from being a very good team.

Basically if we were to buy a top class goalie, 2 good center backs and a right back, a specialist defensive midfielder - plus add Keita - then I think we are only a top striker away from being a very good team.

[Irishnev]

The frustrating thing is that I don't think we are that far away from being a very good team.

Basically if we were to buy a top class goalie, 2 good center backs and a right back, a specialist defensive midfielder - plus add Keita - then I think we are only a top striker away from being a very good team.

So 5 players + Keita then - not that far away.....eh

[frank the tank]

maybe one or two for the bench then too.....

[frank the tank]

Lee Dixon looks like where's wally with his stupid ****in glasses....

Roy Keane just slated us saying that we will win sweet **** all.......he's probably right but hopefully he will look like an idiot in 9 months time!!!

[labourRed]

It's nights like this when having a proper DM would help immensely. We don't have one in the squad since Lucas left.

It definitely would help but it wouldn't paper over the issue that the defence needs an overhaul. They're muck individually and as a result, collectively.

[Red_Polo]

It definitely would help but it wouldn't paper over the issue that the defence needs an overhaul. They're muck individually and as a result, collectively.

True enough. The window is closed though and a lot of our defensive woes could be fixed by having a better drilled unit with the same players. The frustration for me is we've failed to fix either the personnel or the system.

[Fosterbloke]

Yeah Robertson has to be in ahead of Moreno. Once again Moreno involved in the 2 goals conceded . Him beside Lovren is car crash stuff.

How was Moreno to blame for the first goal?

[Leyton388]

Typical and the story of our season.

[Fosterbloke]

Yeah we should have won and it would have been so different had we scored the penalty. But we didn't and these things can give the opposition hope. We've seen greater teams **** up so let's be happy we got our first point in the CL and go from there.

Maribor and Shaktar should be ****ting their pants at the prospect of facing Mane, Firmino, Coutinho and Salah.

[Fosterbloke]

I think Robertson deserves a run in the team. MotM on debut, best player for Scotland during the last 2 internationals (yes, yes) and much less erratic than Moreno. Offers the same going forward and less rash defensively.

Also. Not sure why Mane was subbed off? He's our best player by absolutely miles at the moment.

He's not playing for another two weeks so might as well use him to the end.

[Fosterbloke]

Went to the Echo site... Don't read the comments, so many ****wits posting there.

No wonder I don't like talking about football outside this forum.

[brightred]

Clyne is rubbish, another Rodgers mistake

Bull****, probably our best defender.

[brightred]

Although, that's not saying much!

[breffniboy]

Last year's refrain was "if only we'd strengthened in January" and now, as was entirely predictable after a window where we were careless, inept and blind to the elephant to the room, we can replace that with "if only we sorted our defence in the summer".

We knew before the window it would be extreme folly to not address the defensive frailties, we worried during the window about the bizarre possibility of having no plan B and now here we are after the window in September, already resigning ourselves to a another season as the entertaining also-rans on the fringes because of it. We seem to keep clinging to the vain hope that things will improve somehow but in fact our defensive brittleness must now be seen as ingrained, systemic and - most galling of all - permanent, due to a combination of error-prone personnel and a manager that is either incapable of coaching these things away on the training field or delusional about the current defenders being fit for purpose (even temporarily but who could have any faith that January will change anything?), or a combination of both.

The ineptitude is shocking both on and off the field for a club of this stature. We've wilfully, deliberately and, in full and certain knowledge of the consequences, gone into our biggest season for years utterly hobbled by a problem that a five-year-old can identify, yet we ignored it. It's appalling, it really is and already, for me, the die is cast and the pattern is set for this season too. We're once more aiming for fourth and anything else is a bonus.

[labourRed]

Last year's refrain was "if only we'd strengthened in January" and now, as was entirely predictable after a window where we were careless, inept and blind to the elephant to the room, we can replace that with "if only we sorted our defence in the summer".

We knew before the window it would be extreme folly to not address the defensive frailties, we worried during the window about the bizarre possibility of having no plan B and now here we are after the window in September, already resigning ourselves to a another season as the entertaining also-rans on the fringes because of it. We seem to keep clinging to the vain hope that things will improve somehow but in fact our defensive brittleness must now be seen as ingrained, systemic and - most galling of all - permanent, due to a combination of error-prone personnel and a manager that is either incapable of coaching these things away on the training field or delusional about the current defenders being fit for purpose (even temporarily but who could have any faith that January will change anything?), or a combination of both.

The ineptitude is shocking both on and off the field for a club of this stature. We've wilfully, deliberately and, in full and certain knowledge of the consequences, gone into our biggest season for years utterly hobbled by a problem that a five-year-old can identify, yet we ignored it. It's appalling, it really is and already, for me, the die is cast and the pattern is set for this season too. We're once more aiming for fourth and anything else is a bonus.

Sadly agree with a lot of this. We're probably now the Arsenal of a few years ago. Entertaining (on our day) but with inadequacies that are obvious but not solved by recruiting the right player meaning 4th is the best we can hope for again.