PerfICT

Assuming the rumours about injuries to Lopez and Tansey are correct, we have now lost a full team's worth of regulars (including subs) since this time last season! The current v absentee teams would line up something like this: Fon Williams Raven Devine Draper Tremarco Horner Polworth Vigurs Williams Christie Mutombo subs:Sutherland, Brown, Ferguson, Wedderburn vs Mckay Watkins Doran Vincent Roberts Ross Tansey Shinnie Warren Meekings Brill subs: Mackay (goalie), Lopez, Foran Who would your money be on???

There's no choice now - the boys may or may not be ready, but we literally have nobody else AT ALL. Grow a pair and get them in!

...I fully agree that what money was spent was wasted in the wrong areas and I wasn't really pointing the finger at the board. However, JH obviously has an axe to grind because he has openly indicated in the press that there was no more cash and he needed a striker. Now it appears that more cash has been made available, but IMO it is too late in the transfer window. In short, I don't know what planning there was (if any), but we are now a team full of very similar midfielders, with little invention, no cover at all at the back and no strikeres. Of course the injury list hasn't helped, but this car-crash was imminent since January and nothing appears to have been put in place to mitigate!

Looking from the outside, and with liitle information to go on, the concerning thing here is the apparent lack of planning, coupled with a perception that there has been a lot of quibbling between manager and chairman over available funds. Mckay was our only recognised striker in January and he left for a fee. This meant that there were at least 2 vacancies for strikers from then and funds should have been made available from the fee in order to get the whole thing moving at that point - there were plenty of punters coming to the end of contracts who were potential targets. I am not in the slightest bit surprised that JH is struggling to find any quality at this stage of the transfer window, now that money appears to have been found. The horse has bolted.

Well, if anybody had any lingering ambitions of us being top 6 this season, our home performances this season have indicated that we're in a relegation dogfight. First 15 min were OK, but we never got a hold of Morris and Crawford and we're are completely at a loss up front. Lopez actually had his best game on Sat, but he's still a long way short of what we need and he missed a sitter at a crucial time. I actually didn't realise that Tansey was playing until he was substituted and Draper had a shocker for the first goal. Christie took a battering and deserved better protection. Only pass marks were for Williams; Tremarco also payed well when he came on and Wedderburn also did OK, but has no pace. The only glimmer of hope is that Meekings comes back in and Draper can resume in the holdong role in midfield. Oh dear.

...I think we should concentrate on actually getting into the penalty area to start winning penalty kicks than worrying about who's going to take them!

Disappointed for Christie. Probably reading too much into it, but is there an off-field motive for not starting him? Presume Mutombo will be the lone striker, which makes sense

......that's what you get for our "supporters pulling the Celtic players doon in the box!"

.... tough re-introduction for Tremarco at Celtic Park!

Assuming no further injury woes, no players returning and no transfer activity: Fon Williams Raven Draper Devine Williams Polworth Tansey Horner Christie Vigurs Mutombo Subs: Esson, Sutherland, Ferguson, Brown, Wedderburn, Lopez If Vincent is back and fully fit, he might go in ahead of Horner or Polworth? Likewise, Meekings for Draper?

Totallly agree with Kingsmills. However, this story seems to be gathering pace: I never really get how fees are arrived at - my limited understanding of economics would suggest that value = "whatever somebody will pay". But it is slightly different in the case of a small club like ours, where value seems to = "whatever we can't refuse" (which appears to be not very much!) On that basis, I would not be the slightest bit surprised if he went for £500k or less. however, it might help if there are a few clubs in for him, particularly Barclays Prem clubs. The new TV deal down there means that a couple of million is loose change and could easily be gambled on a punt. Let's hope that there is some way that we can keep this talented football with us for another year AND still get market value for him when he moves on to better his career! Fingers crossed!

Was desperately hoping (for our sake) that we'd be able to hold onto Ryan for another year, during which we could extend his contract and then let him go for a substantial fee to the Barclays Prem. It sounds, however, like we might well lose him this window, which is going to hit us really hard unless some sort of deal is done with a loan back (either for Ryan himself for a year or for a proper striker). If this is going to happen, it is good news that there are a few clubs in the frame - that should force the price up to where it should be for a very talented lad.

Agree with you Ywingie. Top 3 are probably right too (even if in the wrong order). Personally I'd be happy with 9th just now!

I doubt either Motherwell or St. Johnstone would play like they did against us throughout the whole campaign, if you look at it this way then similarly minded Partick fans must be wondering how on earth we managed to finish 3rd last year based on we were the worst team they played during last seasons campaign. You could say both teams St. Johnstone and Motherwell were poor when they played us, but you can't say how good or bad a team really is based on just one game you saw, especially this early in the season when teams are still finding their feet. And we are only 3 games into the domestic season, not 5. 1 goal in 5 not 3 to exaggerate your point I suspect. Some folks have no patience. So we consider European and Domestic seasons to be separate? Even if we do, 1 goal in 3 games is hardly stellar. I guess when Yogi said he was hoping for double figures, he meant the team as a whole. Well you don't win a point in the league for drawing with Astra do we now?. No 1 goal in 3 games isn't ideal either but we are only three games into the league and other teams are also struggling to score goals as well. There just needs to be a bit of patience and we have had a lot of disruption to the team with injuries. We still have a decent side and once these players come back it will get better and we can start climbing the table. Didn't win any points in those Scottish Cup games we won last season, but I'm still glad we won them. All these players can come back, but none of them is the regular goal scorer we need. It would be nice to have someone who can go on a bit a goalscoring spree, but first of all we need to create the opportunities which we aren't creating enough, this might just be down to the type or blend of team we currently have rather than on individuals, not much can be done about that though Vigurs has brought a bit more adventure when we go forward. But our goals should also be coming from others as well and we had a good spread of goals around the 1st team last season, almost everyone chipping in. But it must be hard for Lopez getting all this stick right at the start of his time here, I would have a little more patience with him. I think our problem does lie with our midfield and the way we play far far too cautious at times, but then it does work for us but maybe not with the way we are currently set up, so once we get players back we will see. Couldn't agree less. The midfield is bereft of ideas for the final ball because there is no movement in front of them! The role of a lone striker is to: (a) present a target to be hit, either for knock-downs or down the channels (b) provide a distraction for the defence to make a hole for the ball-carrying midfielder or another to charge into Lopez performs neither of these roles and the positions he takes up actually adds to the cluttrer in midfield. So (and this happened several times last night), when Christie gets a yard of space and lifts his head, there's no option ahead of him, so he ends up having to play it square. Compare this to Vigurs' ball to Mutombo in the last few minutes - he could play it because Mutombo called for it and made the run off the shoulder of the last defender (with the pace to get there first). Somebody mentioned this after the St J game, but I definitely felt it last night: after the first few minutes, the players seemed to sub-conciously avoid passing to Lopez. Whether that was because he was never in space or whether it was because they feared he would undo all their hard work is impossible to tell. For me, Lopez is a million miles form what we need and persevering with him would be a massive mistake.

.....So, we haven't signed a target man, but we do have a boy with pace on the bench in sutherlansd, so why not bring him on. It seems JH does recognise the problem, but refuses to respond to it.

We're essentially playing with 10 men in every game: a 4-5-0 formation. Lopez is truly clueless, with no pace, no positional sense, no touch and no effort. he's also poor in the air. Sutherland needs to be given the nod - I don't care if he's not ready:my granny would be better than our current number 9. Some good performances tonight: Williams, Raven, Devine, Fon Williams, Horner, Polworth, Mutumbo and Christie all had good spells. Vigurs definitely added something. However, all that effort for nought.....or nil.

...ah yes, but who will be there to receive it?!

In case anybody was in any doubt - here's the direct relationship between attendances and average wage using figs for 2013/14 season: I took Hearts out of the analysis for generating the correlation because their wages were unusually low that season for obvious reasons. Equally, Celtic fall above this calcualted line, but they have other income streams that allow them to spend more (e.g. Champs league). Given all the other factors that could be involved, it is amazing how tight this relationship is. We're right on the line and we know that the club just about breaks even at that level, so you might consider this to be the break-even line - those above it were probably spending beyond their means or using up a nest-egg, those below it were probably saving for a rainy day or uncertain of their future in the prem. I would be prepared to bet that RC and PT are now spending about the same as us, now that they have established themselves in the prem for a few years. Equally, Hearts will be in a more confident position now and will probably be nearer to Abdn in terms of wages.

Interesting. I'm not sure he's really what we need just now, but he certainly can play and his style of football will suit the ICT way under JH. However, he has had injury problems in the past and I just hope he doesn't upset the team spirit at the club. It's worth the signing just to upset our neighbours otb!

Given the news regarding Iain Vigurs and the apparent good showing from Calum Ferguson for the U20s, how about: Fon Williams Raven Draper Devine Williams Polworth Tansey Mutombo Christie Vigurs Ferguson I know Hughes has said the young lads are not yet ready, but neither is Lopez (will he ever be ready to be a No. 9?) so, needs must! It also Sou8nds like Sutherland had a decent impact when he came on against St J, so we could always go to 4-4-2 with Sutherland in for Mutombo.

Not according to Sneckboy's "Contract Situation" thread - only one year left. This is the point to extend his contract by a few years (as DUFC did for Ryan Gauld) in order to hike the pricetag. Who knows where we'll end up if we lose Christie at this moment in time!

Assuming no more injuries and nobody else back from injury (or new signings!), it has to be the starting 11 from the St J game - what choice is there?

Riordan?!! You've got to be kidding? JH is always on about togetherness and the spirit amongst the guys - why stick a bad apple in there? No question he's talented, but football is so much more than that.

The attacking plan you mention must have missed Lopez. He really was terrible today. Thought Polworth had a very good game, but in the end we certainly threw away two points ....was going by limited reports from bbc online. Sounds from those at the game that Lopez still doesn't have it! Delighted for Polworth! If Sutherland could be trusted up front instead of Lopez, we'd have 3 home-growns in the team.

Well done to the lads today. Always frustrating to lose a late equaliser, but a massive improvement on last week from a very depleted squad. Sounds like there was an attacking plan today, with Christie and Lopez in partnership. Hope for the Partick game!