Search Jackson Irvine on twitter, the fans out there are absolutely brutal in their judgements of him..

he was pretty average on the weekend playing RB, seems to be playing all over the place he much more suited as deep lying midfielder to break up the play similar to jedinak.

Hopefully with a better passing game.

Irvine has a ton of ability but is so far from being the finished article it's not funny.

So Karim Bellarabi, the 23 year-old German on loan this season from Bayer Leverkusen at Eintracht Braunschweig who is, like Kruse, a winger-striker just did this:

Very nice. Can we cap him?

You have to understand the Scottish football mindset though. They don't like technically gifted skillful players very much (they reckon it's for poofs). They prefer the brutish long ball game so that they're hating on Irvine gives me some hope the kid might actually have some talent.

Halloran injured, hopefully not too serious

http://www.rp-online.de/sport/fussball/fortuna/fortuna-duesseldorf-ben-halloran-muss-das-training-abbrechen-aid-1.4046257

Giannou seemed to play as number 10 behind a striker in 4231 on the weekend, well that's what the article says. The article has highlights but he only features once at 3:10 where he collects the ball, takes on a few players and eventually brought down by the captain who gets sent off (second yellow). Not involved in both goals, one was a free kick the other was a long ball.

Gotta say watching his run reminded me of some of Rogics late on in recent national team games, Giannou has a pretty slim chance of going to the World cup but is it just me or is it strange to have one 185+cm no.10 and we could have 2?

Unlike Rogic though I would say no.10 is not his first choice position (that would be no.9) and he plays across the front four, very interesting player imo.

Article with highlights: http://www.contra.gr/Soccer/Hellas/Superleague/25iagonistiki/paniwnios-pas-giannina.2646547.html

Article with quote (URL really long if copied as it uses greek letters which when posted here is reprasented by a combo of % and two letters/numbers): Here

You have a very A-league fanboi mindset on Scottish football.

Bellarabi is a more technical player from what I've seen though. Kruse, at least in Leverkusen so far, has been geared more to playing balls up to Kiessling than challenging his player from a position without speed.

Anyway it could be a nice competition between those two in Leverkusen next year unless Hertha or some other club snap Bellarabi up.

Bellarabi isn't that good. Can't defend at all and that moment was the best thing he's ever done.

Meanwhile our Frankfurt boys are both starting in Berlin. Good atmosphere and tough opponent.

Dundee United beat Motherwell 3-1 with good playing a full game. Motherwell's goal was a penalty given away by one of Dundee's forwards

Frustrating that Langerak probably won't play today against poor form Hamburg. Ryan is easily my WC keeper simply due to the fact that he plays.

Anyone know why Leckie was subbed at half-time?

He was on a yellow and things weren't going according to plan. Can't have it every week. No need to worry. Ruka was pretty quiet too.

Awesome, Thanks. I was worried he might have been injured

The Dundee-Motherwell replay is on satanta at the moment if the Wanderers-Perth game gets a bit too exciting.
See how Good is fairing in the SPL.

Nichols doesn't seem to be in Cherezo's squad for their ACL game. Is he included in their ACL squad? and has he been playing in pre-season games?

Also McGowan was on the bench for his teams 1-1 draw with Buriram United

Edited by moofa: 25/2/2014 09:50:36 PM

Not sure about Nichols, saw some pics of him training but not in pre-season matches.

I think McGowan should be alright as the season gets started, their new manager is Alexi Stival (Cuca) who has a very impressive CV. Wish our club owners could pay for up for these managers like the Chinese.

According to the AFC website Nichols is not even in the ACL squad. Which is funny because the only imports on that list is Forlan and their South Korean keeper.
The other internationals not in ACL squad is their 3rd choice keeper and a Serbian they just signed on loan from Hamburg until July.
So without counting their 3rd choice keeper they actually only have 4 internationals of which 2 are from AFC.

That's odd, must have got his paperwork through too late or something.

Highlights from Ryan's game on the weekend

[youtube]?v=vkYgB2phr1g[/youtube]

First goal not his fault and nothing he could really do, still his final position was very far out imo, the attacker put it in the near post so wherever ryan was he probably would have conceded but if the shot went to the centre of the goal Ryan would have looked a lot worse. Second is one I am not surprised seeing Ryan concede, comes out for a free kick and doesn't reach the ball. Has two good saves in there as well. One from a long free kick and one just after the third.

Edited by moofa: 26/2/2014 08:30:17 AM

Wilkinson played a full match in the ACL, Jeonbuk 3-0 Yokohama.

Played a solid game as well.

Wonder if he was left out of the Ecuador squad on purpose? Only really established himself in his side for about half a season. Either way I think he might be a better option than McGowan as a CB for the WC.

Jonas Salley played a full game for Guizhou as well, they lost 1-0

[youtube]Z4LnJn3MhUU[/youtube]

Alex Wilkinsons game

Good played a full match away to Hibs. That's 4 wins and 1 draw in 5 starts.

Davidson played a full match against heerenveen and lost 2-1 at home, whoscored gave him the highest rating from the team with 6 tackles. It looks like he needs to work on his passing a bit though.

http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/719698/Live/Netherlands-Eredivisie-2013-2014-Heracles-Heerenveen

Its because he is not really that good.