Scot1

£8-£12 million would be a bargain for Gilmour. I’m sure the Italians would push him 10 yards up the pitch and play him where he’s meant to be played. Saw Nathan Patterson on the Everton pre-season training videos, he’s fit and he’s bulked up, hopefully has a good season ahead. Dykes and Morrison both got minutes in the 2nd half today for QPR against Tottenham.

I’d argue that the Hungarians were working on similar ideas earlier than the Dutch. The Hungarians had a team that was arguably the best team to never win the World Cup, arguably the best international team, period. Coaches and managers that changed ideas about football formations, strategies, philosophies well before the Dutch. They also handed England their biggest international defeat.

Thought Kane was lucky to stay on the pitch.

Best team won, congratulations Spain.

I think Spain will win it, but it is getting beyond a joke, how the Draws in the last number of tournaments have all been so favourable to them.

I try to keep an eye on QPR, because of Dykes. They’re a club that is still struggling because of the season they overspent while in the Premier League. And they are also still inhibited by their stadium, Loftus Road is an old stadium in the middle of house, so there’s not much they can do with it. They have recently built new training facilities and an academy. They have a couple of decent centre halfs, if fit. Their 1st choice centre halfs do tend to pick up injuries over the season. They’ve got a decent side. I like their manager, and he’s did well since joining the club. If you look at their form since he took over, I think it’s top half of the table form, perhaps even play offs, I can’t remember exactly. But hopefully the manager sees something he likes in Morrison and improves him.

It’s all about opinions. Ramsay had major problems with injury and getting fit last season, I think that played a big part in why he never played at Preston, rather than his ability. But he has potential to be an excellent right back. None of our right backs are experienced, Hickey being the most experienced out of them all, and he’s still young and obviously not played 100’s of games at the top level yet. And to be honest I believe his best position is as a defensive/ holding midfielder rather than as a full back. Ashby went from West Ham to Newcastle, out on loan to Swansea, started the season well, got injured and out for the rest of the season. Patterson had a mixed season at Everton, in and out of the team, good, bad and indifferent performances. Again, I think his biggest problem is his decision making, which in large part is lack of experience. He’s not played a lot of games at any level for a 22 year old, he’s not, in my opinion, played enough games to iron out the mistakes in his game, ie Cruyff turns on the edge of his own 18 yard box etc. But I believe there’s definitely a player in there. We need these players to push on, to start playing regularly, get more experience and give us options at right back. Obviously that’s going to take time, a couple of seasons. Again, this is all about opinions. The reason I think getting Hickey into midfield is so important, other than I do think it’s his best and his natural position, is because we don’t have a defensive/ holding midfielder, not 1. Gilmour and MacGregor are deep sitting playmakers, they aren’t defensive players, they aren’t defensive minded at all. If Hickey is moved to central midfield and is successful there as a defensive / holding midfielder, it then gives us options. We can then play various combinations in midfield etc to suit the opposition, ie horses for courses type thing. But I think ideally we should be looking at transitioning to a 4/3/3 as our default system and then possibly to a 4/2/3/1 (4/5/1) against harder opposition, tricky away games etc. So if I were Clarke I’d be looking at shifting our midfield to something like this in a 4/3/3 Gilmour McTominay/Ferguson Hickey That then allows us to play a front 3 of McGinn. Stewart. Doak In a 4/2/3/1 Id like to see Christie. Hickey sitting behind McGinn. Gilmour Doak but there’s options Hickey. Gilmour sitting behind McGinn. Ferguson Doak And other possibilities. That’s the kind of thinking I’d be looking at trying to implement over the next year or two. And it’s something along these lines that I believe will get the best out of these players / squad.

Surely you’d think he would come out and admit that the performances in Germany weren’t good enough and take some responsibility for it. Perhaps an apology is the wrong “phrase”, but an admission that he got it wrong.

So you are saying that the manager should be unaccountable for the teams performance?

It’s not the first time either, he did the same after our weak performances against Ukraine and Rep Ireland

It’s also about entertainment, it’s about paying hard earned cash to be served up shit.

I think he’s best given a free role where he can drop deep and pick up the ball, at times, or drift into space higher up the pitch and orchestrate attacks.

Maybe I’m a little old fashioned but I think a lot of managers would give the fans an apology after the performances we gave.

Off on a tangent, it’ll be interesting to see how Brightons new manager plays Gilmour. Hopefully he’ll play him higher up the pitch, which is where I think you get the best from him.

If we have options at right-back ie Patterson, Ashby and Calvin Ramsay are fit and playing regularly. I’d like to see Hickey tried as a defensive/holding midfielder. Or Ramsay is another possibility. I know Leon King was also sometimes playing a holding midfield role with the u21’s.