Martin Addresses Front-Three Debate Ahead of Falkirk Match
Martin will take his side into Sunday’s match insisting things are “fine” on the surface, but the undercurrent around his attacking set‑up refuses to quieten.
The manager confirmed his squad is largely in good shape, with one notable absence. Auston Trusty will miss the game as he returns home for what Martin described as “a celebration of his father’s life.” The tone was respectful, brief, and then it was straight back to football.
Front-Three Question That Won’t Go Away
The real heat arrived when Callum McGregor’s post‑match comments were put to him. The captain had questioned the balance of the front three, highlighting the use of Camilo Duran and Callum Osmand in wide roles despite both being natural centre forwards.
Martin didn’t bristle. He didn’t dodge it either.
“I’ve said this to you before, so I totally agree,” he replied, leaning into the criticism rather than pushing it away.
He reiterated what he has stated previously: Osmand is “essentially a centre forward,” better suited to playing off a strong partner than leading the line alone, and Duran is also, in his eyes, a central striker. The experiment of using three forwards across the front line is still exactly that — an experiment.
“The players are getting to know each other, it’s as really simple as that,” he said. No grand tactical reveal. Just a manager acknowledging that the pieces don’t yet fit perfectly.
The question, then, is how long he persists with it.
Solutions Coming — Or Just More Options?
Asked whether the fix is simply a matter of personnel, Martin kept it clipped: “We’ll sort it out, we seem to be doing okay domestically, trying to sort it out.”
He has options he has barely touched. Jordan Lotomba has yet to feature. Young Joel van den Berg only trained again on Friday. Martin made it clear the next stretch up to Christmas will be used to give almost everyone game time and to “establish the right positions as much as possible.”
Players out of position? For him, it’s nothing new.
He pointed to Osmand’s impact off the bench in the Benfica game, when the youngster “set us alight” from a role that was hardly textbook. That cameo, in Martin’s mind, underlines that systems are one thing, but match‑changing quality can bend the shape.
Wide Options Still Not at Full Tilt
The imbalance out wide hasn’t been helped by injuries. Jota is still not fully fit, Yang remains out, and that has forced Martin into improvisation.
He singled out Hassan’s second‑half display in the last outing as a rare glimpse of natural width.
“Hassan came on and I think that in the second half, 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.”
Hassan stretched the game, beat players, and delivered balls into the box — exactly what the current, striker‑heavy front three has often lacked.
Yang, who was in strong form before his lay‑off, returns to training on Monday. The manager will assess him before the international break, knowing that a genuine winger on either flank could transform the look of his attack.
Top of the League, But No Time for Back‑Slapping
Strip away the tactical debate and the table offers a blunt counterpoint. One full round of Premiership fixtures is in the books and Martin’s side sit top, four points clear.
“Yeah, I think we’ve done fine, we’re leading the league at this minute, a four point gap, which is nothing at all at this stage of the season,” he said.
He reminded everyone that last season they clawed back “bigger leads than that” more than once. The message: don’t get carried away, in either direction.
Asked what he wants from the second round of games, he didn’t pretend to be modest.
“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 prospect of stretching the lead to seven points on Sunday was put to him as a positive spin. He smiled, but didn’t bite.
“Well I don’t know, 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‑exasperated. “Don’t try and throw a lot of divides in at the end of the day, we’re doing fine.”
‘We Need to Hang In There’
Behind the humour lies a clear message: this is still a team in transition. Several players didn’t complete pre‑season with the club, many arrived late, and the cohesion he wants will take time.
“So we need to hang in there, and at this minute I think we’re hanging in,” he said.
That phrase — “hanging in” — doesn’t sound like a manager basking in a four‑point cushion. It sounds like one who knows tougher tests are coming, not least in Europe, where he admitted they are still chasing “a result or two.”
Domestically, though, he is “really satisfied with the team.” The table backs him up, even if the performances still invite scrutiny.
Falkirk Next, Not the Title Race
Talk of going seven clear was quickly shut down. Martin is not interested in title‑race arithmetic in October.
“I wouldn’t look at it like that, seriously,” he said. Falkirk, he warned, have turned a “stodgy start” into a strong run and are “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.”
No sweeping statements. Just another job, another three points to chase.
Closed Doors and a Fixture Diminished
Off the pitch, the decision to stage the Scottish Cup tie at home behind closed doors was confirmed this week. Martin didn’t seek to distance himself from the club’s stance.
“Just the same as the club,” he said. “I think the club made a statement on it, Iain’s told me so I would be in agreement with that.”
The broader question about away fans at the marquee fixture — Celtic at Ibrox, Rangers at Celtic Park — drew a more reflective answer. He recognises what’s coming: a future in which visiting supporters are frozen out entirely.
“Well that looks as if that’s going to be the way,” he admitted, before restating his long‑held view that the occasion is “added to by away fans being in the ground.”
It was a gentle defence of a spectacle he believes is being diluted.
The Pitch Invasion That Still Lingers
Then came a pointed aside. Martin referenced a recent pitch invasion at Fleetwood, widely lauded as an “iconic moment in the game.”
It was no coincidence. It was a deliberate callback to the chaotic scenes on the final day of last season, when a pitch invasion in his own match drew a very different reaction.
Does it still irritate him?
“No it doesn’t irk me any more,” he said, before adding the line that betrayed the memory hasn’t fully faded. “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.”
The words hung in the air. A manager top of the league, debating his front three, fending off questions about style and structure — and still quietly keeping score on how his team, and his club, are judged.
Sunday brings Falkirk, another chance to stretch the lead, another test of a front line still searching for its most natural shape. The points are there for them, if they can turn “hanging in” into something more convincing.
