People had concerns after Partick, Tranmere, the defending against Arsenal, the lack of creativity and goals during pre-season. You weren’t allowed to talk about the Tranmere defeat as it was only a friendly - minutes in the legs, yet the Real Madrid win was massive.
Malmö home and away bar a 35 minute spell was garbage, Dundee United at Tannadice was turgid. Alashkert home and away was no where near good enough, we rattled a poor second tier side. Ross County away was fine, we played well in spells but the tempo dropped and our defending at times was weak.
We don’t look fit, players are miles off it. There is no tempo or urgency about our play. Our distribution is too slow, slack and sloppy. Mistakes across the back four, too much chopping and changing. A staleness about the team.
Start of a massive new season and we were still paying for what happened last season (Slavia in Europe - suspensions). Pre-season was unorganised, European Championships and Copa hasn’t helped, neither have injuries. There are contract issues hanging over a couple of players and a number of them are ageing and out of contract next summer.
There is a lack of money across Europe in the transfer market, we haven’t been able to cash in on any of our players and if you think this summer and start to the season hasn’t been up to much - wait until next summer should we fail to win the league and claim that Champions League group stages place. McGregor, McLaughlin, Goldson, Balogun, Arfield and Davis all out of contract.