Backing the manager's plan for Chermiti

Fans want goals, but the manager seems content with a striker system that prizes pressing and movement. Chermiti's criticism misses the bigger tactical picture, in my view.

To be fair, it's easy to jump on a striker when the goals aren't flowing. But the manager's selections tell you something: if he wasn't happy with the front line, changes would be made. He hasn't dropped them or started Miovski, and that suggests a deliberate idea behind how the team should look and move.

There's more to the job than just scoring

Yes, we all want goals. Nobody's arguing that. But football isn't simply about one player lording it in the box anymore. Strikers are asked to press, to drag defenders out of position, to create space for teammates. If positioning or basic movement were the problem, you'd expect the manager to be working on that in training and to tinker with his selections. That hasn't happened in a way that suggests panic, which tells me the work on those details is ongoing.

Signings and style matter

Look at the recruitment choices. Bringing in Naderi rather than a classic poacher hints at an intention to play a certain way — mobile forwards, interchanging runs, pressing from the front. It doesn't mean the manager doesn't want goals; of course he does. But it does mean the role given to a striker can be different from the old-school number nine who simply lived off chances in the box.

Context and patience

We've only drawn six games since Chermiti started, one of which included him scoring twice against Celtic. In other matches we created chances that weren't taken. That happens even when you have prolific scorers. Remember, last season a striker getting 20-plus didn't stop us drawing games. The plan seems geared towards strikers provoking panic in defenders so others can pick up goals. Dessers got similar criticism, and now Chermiti faces the same comparisons to the Ally McCoist template — a mythical goalscorer that rarely exists in modern football.

Look, I want goals as much as anyone. But you can't fairly hang everything on a forward when the manager's set-up asks different things of him. If the manager wanted a traditional poacher leading the line every week, he'd play one. Until then, a bit of patience and a look at the bigger picture seems sensible.

Written by Angus1812: 14 May 2026