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Nosa on the bench. So excited about that lad. And Martin and McKay making on the pitch is great.

The post is here:

Only eight players - including two teammates and Josh McPake - in the Championship, L1 and L2 are out-wingering Lawless this season. Which is pretty special. Have a great night, Captain!

But the big thing - which he mentioned in the interview in the @DrawLoseOrDraw pod this week - is how well he’s creating in his limits minutes. He generates more xG for teammates per 100 passes than almost anyone else in my winger dataset.

He’s not had as many minutes as he’d want in the league, but he’s having a strong season - crossing and dribbling as well as 22/23, finding space and shooting at a consistent rate.

Tonight’s post ignores the fourteen gijillion ideas I’ve had this week, and instead gives a brief review of today’s hero: The Boy Lawless.

In which I explain at length and with supporting stats that Matt’s eyes don’t lie. And that 90s MLS had great hair game. And also a fun interview with Man Of The Hour, Stevie Lawless, on his way to wave a spreadsheet under Mark Wilson’s nose.

Thistle remain about 50 points clear in 2nd place, and St. Johnstone about 50 points ahead of us. The next two weeks will be very important. You can see the full graphic here:

At this point, I think that the ratings are still showing a bit of a hangover of pre-season expectations - similarly Arbroath are better in the league than their ratings. This may wash out eventually, but it's stuck around longer than I thought it would.

Ayr continue to be better in the Power Ratings than in the league, suggesting they might be able to kick on in the next few weeks. Ross County are also underperforming their Ratings rank.

Thistle dropped just over 8 ratings points after underperforming against Airdrie. St Johnstone also dropped a couple of points. Both teams remain the only ones who have maintained their pre-season rating, though Dunfermline are getting closer.

The latest Jagalytics Power Ratings are up. Only QP and Morton added any ratings points this week - everyone else underperformed expectations, and so lost at least a few points.

Anyway, enjoyed this interview. Go read.

This won’t always pay off, but the common purpose the football department have seems notable. In the business world, bad managers want to tell good employees what to do and how to do it. Good mangers only tell them one or the other. That’s what seems to be happening here.

More than once, we’ve had a poor performance (eg away at Raith Rovers), given the players a second chance (QP) and that’s paid off not just in performance, but convincing players their manager trusts them.

I also think there’s a big premium placed on trust in this regime - in Rae coaching specific players, in wingers to decide the best route in the final third, etc. Coach the players, then trust them.

Once again, the coaching features heavily: “Some of the chats I’ve had with Alex, some of the goals that I’ve scored have literally been through chats with Alex earlier on that week.” Great chat with Chalmers. Alex Rae such a big part of Wilson’s success.

Always love this sort of stat. In the Scottish championship, only three players get close - Akil Wright, Matthew Sheils and Thistle’s own brave Dan O’Reilly. All three just slightly below the tackles +interceptions count but above 40 on others

The Zoom era of DLD hasn’t been without its challenges, but let me tell you what an absolute thrill it was to wrap up tonight’s episode with roughly four seconds left on our meeting time. That’s what 300 episodes of experience gets you. They simply do not teach that.

Always a risk to post just before a game… still, I got to talk about planets and casinos.