Martin's Squad Update: Tactical Insights and Upcoming Challenges

Martin insists his squad is “fine” for Sunday, but there was a more human note before any talk of tactics or title races. Auston Trusty will be absent, the manager explaining the defender is heading home for “a celebration of his father's life.” Football pauses for that. The rest must get on with the job.

And the job, as Martin sees it, has not changed despite dropped points.

“Our aim every single time, try and win the games if we can,” he said. “We dropped a couple of points and we're trying to retrieve them if we can.”

No grand reset. No crisis language. Just a quiet acknowledgement that a slip has been made and needs correcting.

McGregor’s tactical challenge – and a manager who agrees

The most pointed questions came not about Falkirk, but from within his own dressing room. Callum McGregor’s post-match comments about the front three – and Cameron Carter‑Vickers’ remarks before the international break – have sparked debate over whether senior players are publicly questioning the current set‑up.

Martin did not flinch.

“I have no idea what Callum McGregor said,” he began, before the question was put to him in detail: McGregor believes the front three, with Camilo Duran on one side and Callum Osmand on the other, essentially asks three centre-forwards to operate as wingers. It can work in moments, McGregor suggested, but not as a long‑term strategy.

Martin’s response was striking in its simplicity.

“I've said this to you before, so I totally agree,” he replied. “I totally agree that Callum Osmand is actually really a centre forward… he probably would play off somebody strong alongside him, I'm not so sure that he could lead the line on his own.

“And that Camilo Duran is really a centre forward, so the players are getting to know each other, it's as really simple as that there, so I'm in total agreement with Callum.”

No rebuke. No attempt to dress it up. Just an open admission that the wide roles currently belong to players whose instincts drag them towards the middle of the pitch.

Asked if the solution was purely a matter of personnel, he kept it brief: “We'll sort it out, we seem to be doing okay domestically, trying to sort it out.”

Options, patience and players out of position

Behind that understatement sits a squad still in flux. Some have barely kicked a ball.

“Players are playing, there's a few players that haven't had a chance,” Martin said. “Jordan Lotomba hasn't had a chance yet to play. There'll be moments, absolutely. There'll be people in the squad, young Joel van den Berg, again he's just trained today.”

Between now and Christmas, he expects everyone to see the pitch. Only then, he suggests, can he truly nail down roles and combinations.

“Over the course of the next number of weeks between now and Christmas, I think everybody will be on the field of play and then it's a matter of establishing the right positions as much as possible.

“Players have played out of position before, I don't know whether it was a big issue when young Osmand came on in the Benfica game and set us alight.”

That Benfica cameo still lingers in his mind. It is his reminder that a player out of his textbook position can still change a game in an instant.

Missing wingers and a timely boost

The lack of natural wide players has clearly shaped recent selections. Jota is not fully fit. Yang is out. The manager is operating without the type of wide options he would choose in an ideal world.

Yet he pointed to one bright spot.

“Personally speaking, I think that 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. He caused them plenty of problems, he got balls in, he beat players on the other side.”

When Yang returns, the picture changes again.

“When Yang comes back of course he'll add something to us, because he was in great form before that. He starts back with us on Monday, we'll see how he is before the beginning of the international break.”

The implication is clear: the front three that has drawn criticism may not be the front three for much longer.

Top of the league, but no complacency

One full round of Premiership fixtures is in the books. Martin’s assessment is measured, not triumphant.

“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. “We retrieved that a couple of times last year, bigger leads than that there that we fought back from.

“Domestically we're doing fine, we're trying to get a result or two in European football, it would be nice, but overall I'm really satisfied with the team.”

Asked what he wants from the second round of games, he set the bar high but realistic.

“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 numbers are simple: four points clear now, the chance to stretch that to seven on Sunday. The question was put to him: it’s not all bad, is it?

“Well I don't know,” he said with a wry edge. “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.

“Don't try and throw a lot of divides in at the end of the day, we're doing fine.”

He circled back to a theme he has repeated for weeks: time.

“Absolutely, so when we get the players who, 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.

“So we need to hang in there, and at this minute I think we're hanging in.”

Falkirk next – no talk of gaps

The chance to go seven clear early in the campaign holds obvious appeal outside the dressing room. Inside it, Martin is not entertaining that angle.

“I wouldn't look at it like that, seriously,” he said. “We're playing against Falkirk, 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.”

No projections. No title talk. Just Falkirk.

Closed doors and the Old Firm question

Off the pitch, the decision to stage a Scottish Cup tie at home behind closed doors has stirred its own debate. Martin aligned himself 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.”

That led naturally to the wider issue: has the fixture between Celtic and Rangers now reached a stage where no away fans is simply the future?

“Well that looks as if that's going to be the way, but you know that I've never felt that,” he replied. “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 then reached back to the end of last season, but through a different lens. A pitch invasion at Fleetwood was recently hailed as an “iconic moment”. Martin could not resist the comparison.

“Oh by the way, I noticed there was a pitch invasion there at Fleetwood, did you see it? It was considered an iconic moment in the game.”

The reference to his own experience was obvious.

Asked if that still irks him, he shook it off.

“No it doesn't irk me any more, but 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 is not invasions, statements or narratives. It is a front three still finding itself, a squad still bedding in, and a league lead that can grow or shrink in the space of 90 minutes.