Manager Discusses Tactical Concerns Ahead of Sunday Match
Martin insists his squad is “fine” for Sunday, but the mood around his team is anything but settled.
The manager confirmed Auston Trusty will be absent as he returns home for a family bereavement, yet on the football side he cut a calm, almost stubbornly upbeat figure, despite dropped points and growing tactical noise from within his own dressing room.
Manager backs McGregor’s tactical concerns
The most striking moment came when Martin was told of Callum McGregor’s post‑match comments questioning the use of three centre-forwards across the front line.
“I have no idea what Callum McGregor said,” he replied initially, before the detail was put to him: Camilo Duran on one flank, Callum Osmand on the other, both essentially playing as strikers in wide roles.
Martin didn’t push back. He leaned into it.
“I’ve said this to you before, so I totally agree,” he admitted. Osmand, he reiterated, “is essentially a centre forward” who would probably thrive playing off a strong partner rather than leading the line alone. Duran, too, is “really a centre forward”.
No rebuke for his captain. No dressing down for speaking publicly. Instead, an acceptance that the front three is a work in progress and that players are still learning each other’s games.
“The players are getting to know each other, it’s as really simple as that,” he said. “I’m in total agreement with Callum.”
Searching for balance up front
If the tactical issue is obvious, the solution will not be instant. Martin was clear on that. Personnel will change, combinations will be tried, and some of the squad have barely featured.
“We’ll sort it out,” he said. “We seem to be doing okay domestically, trying to sort it out.”
Jordan Lotomba has yet to play. Young Joel van den Berg only trained with the group again on Friday. Between now and Christmas, Martin expects “everybody will be on the field of play” as he hunts for the right blend and the right positions.
Players being shunted around is nothing new to him.
“Players have played out of position before,” he pointed out, noting there were no complaints when Osmand came on against Benfica and “set us alight”.
The difference now is expectation. When you are top of the league, every misfire in the final third is dissected.
Wide options returning, slowly
The manager does not hide that injuries and fitness issues have limited his natural width. Jota is not fully ready, Yang is out, and the front line has been built around strikers doing a winger’s job.
He did, however, single out Hassan’s impact from the right in the second half of the last game.
“He is essentially, his best position is wide right, playing in and coming in,” Martin said. “I thought he did brilliantly for us going forward, really, really terrific. He caused them plenty of problems, he got balls in, he beat players on the other side.”
Yang’s imminent return adds another layer. “He starts back with us on Monday,” Martin confirmed, hopeful the winger can quickly rediscover the form he showed before his lay-off.
The message is clear: once the natural wide men are back, the front three will look more like a traditional attack and less like three central strikers squeezed into unfamiliar channels.
Top of the table, but “hanging in”
Strip away the tactical noise and the league table is blunt: Martin’s side sit four points clear after the first round of Premiership fixtures.
“Yeah, I think we’ve done fine,” he said. “We’re leading the league at this minute, a four point gap, which is nothing at all at this stage of the season.”
He knows how quickly that can change. “We retrieved that a couple of times last year, bigger leads than that there that we fought back from.”
Domestically, he is “really satisfied” with the team. Europe remains the itch he has yet to scratch properly. “We’re trying to get a result or two in European football, it would be nice,” he added, the understatement hinting at his frustration.
Asked what he wants from the second cycle of fixtures, he didn’t reach for grand targets.
“If it was at all possible to match that, I would be delighted. That’s improbable, but it’s something that we’d be aiming for.”
The four-point cushion could stretch to seven on Sunday. That prospect, though, does not seduce him.
“I wouldn’t look at it like that, seriously,” he said. The focus, in his eyes, is narrower: beat Falkirk, nothing more. “They themselves are after a bit of a stodgy start, they’re flying now at the moment. It’ll be a difficult game for us, but we’ve a chance to try and win the game if we can, and that’s what we’ll try and do.”
He summed up the broader picture with a line that sounded as much like a warning as a reassurance.
“So we need to hang in there, and at this minute I think we’re hanging in.”
Late arrivals and a manager on edge
Martin bristled slightly when the mood in the room turned towards the negatives.
“I come in here every single week and I’m most of the time pretty buoyed by things, and then by the time I finish out this meeting I’m not,” he said, half-joking, half-weary.
He pointed to the disrupted preparation: “A lot of lads here that we have didn’t even do pre-season with us. A number of players came in quite late on, so it will take time for us.”
Time is a luxury rarely afforded at the top end of the table. Results, so far, are buying him some.
Closed doors and an old grievance
Off the pitch, the decision to play the upcoming Scottish Cup tie at home behind closed doors has already stirred debate. Martin, though, is aligned with the club’s stance.
“Just the same as the club, I think the club made a statement on it, Iain’s told me so I would be in agreement with that.”
His wider view on the absence of away fans in the league’s biggest fixture has never changed. He believes the contest loses something vital when it becomes a home-only occasion.
“My thoughts have been that it’s a great, great fixture and therefore it’s the occasions added to by away fans being in the ground, that’s the point,” he said. Yet he accepts the direction of travel: “Well that looks as if that’s going to be the way, but you know that I’ve never felt that.”
Then came the pointed reference. Martin brought up a recent pitch invasion at Fleetwood, widely celebrated as an “iconic moment”.
It was no accident. It was a clear nod to the storm around the pitch invasion at the last game of the season, which brought heavy criticism and security scrutiny.
Does it still bother him?
“No it doesn’t irk me any more,” he replied. But he couldn’t resist adding: “What I did say at the end of the season was that I’m quite sure in my lifetime there will be another pitch invasion which will be taken in a different manner.”
On Sunday, his concern will not be the stands or the touchline. It will be the front three, the league lead, and whether this team that is “hanging in” can turn a fragile advantage into something more imposing before Christmas tightens its grip on the title race.
