Some of the recent articles, phone in, fans forums seem to have passed judgement on some of our recent signings.

Now we are only two games into this season, yes one defeat & one win, but some of our new signings are being written off after 180 mins (some of them didn’t even play the full 180 mins!!!).

The majority of the stick seems to be aimed at the forward players, as it seems to be the expectation that they would come in and score a hat-trick every game?

These players need time to adapt to a new style, new formation, new coach, new country, new teammates – this just doesn’t happen on the training park, you need competitive games for this to take place.

The first half on Wednesday was encouraging in terms of the front three, but this seemed to fall off in second half when Beale changed the shape of the team & had Lammers playing more of a ten. To get the best out of these players we do need a settled team & formation – yes there will be times when we need to be reactive to what’s happening on the park – but to get the best out of these front three of Lammers, Dessers and Danilo they will need time & support to allow them to thrive in their new roles.

Sima looks a bit lost but again he will need time to settle, got to remember this is a young man who in the past few years has moved from Prague, to Brighton, to France with Angers and now to Scotland. We seem to forget that football players are humans, just like you & me, if that was people moving about for work then there is always a settling in period that needs to be afforded.

From a midfield and defensive perspective, it’s hard to judge the new guys.
Dowell looks okay, nothing spectacular here, but he looks comfortable on the ball and is happy to drive forward with it.
Cifuentes looked impressive in his cameo role on Wednesday, but again he will need more game time to build up an understanding of his teammates, but if Wednesday is anything to go by then we will have a cracking player on our hands!! Word of warning, need to be careful with him as he’s technically halfway through a season, so there might be fatigue later on in the season.

In goal Butland looks solid, very vocal indeed and quick off his line – something that we have missed in the past few seasons.

Losing the first game of the season what not what we had hoped for, but there were definitely signs on Wednesday that things are starting to click.

Remember what happened across the city a few years back – loads of new players – lost first game against Hearts (when a certain John Souttar scored), got beaten in the first Old Firm Game – they went onto win the league.

The new players need our support, not moans and groans after two competitive games of football.
Judge them when they’ve played a high number of games.

I am old enough to remember a certain Ally McCoist getting roasted, being told he was a waste – hmmmmmm wonder what happened to him……