International with Latvia he may be, but Kurakins, by this stage in the season, has demonstrated to us all that he is not the answer for us.
Most of the goals we have shipped this season have come from exactly the same area, the space which Kurakins is supposed to be marking. Too often he drifts down-field, and is then left exposed with a quick counterattack, when he is way out of position. Martin MUST see this from the sidelines, or the video replays on TV.
Without an early return for Devlin, we could re-shuffle our defence as has been suggested on other posts, but with all other SPL teams having sussed Kurakins out now, we will continue to leak goals in that area if we 'persevere' with him as our regular defender.
There are bound to be contractural cost involved with him, but, IMO, the board NEED to come up with a NEW proven signing to take us through to the end of the season.