CallumPar
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Posts posted by CallumPar
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I think in 2007 I was kind of excited to go down and play some new teams....little did I know...
We were Scottish cup finalists at the time, we had some big names in the squad and managerial maestro Stephen Kenny. There was a real arrogance/expectation that we would stroll the first division in the 07/08 season and come back to the top flight stronger. The club were so arrogant that we played a friendly v Man Utd in between the 1st and 2nd league games that season.
Relegation was disappointing at the time, but I don’t think anyone expected it to take us 4 seasons to return - even when we did return, it was a horrific return. We had a 6 game spell, where we won 5 just before being relegated and it seemed like Kenny’s team were starting to click, just a little too late to save us. A few months later we lost 5-0 to Hamilton, 3-0 to Stirling and 4-0 to Livi in consecutive games.
If someone told me in summer 2007, that we would register one top flight home win in the next 15 years, I wouldn’t have taken that seriously at all. Then again, if someone told me a year ago that St Johnstone would win the double, I wouldn’t have believed that.0 -
Even if that wasn't true, had Allan or Todd been forced off with an injury early on, not having a replacement on the bench is lunacy.
We had Pybus on the bench, to be fair. But Wilson is definitely better than all 3 who were in the squad.0 -
I see Whittaker has said that Iain Wilson was fully fit at the weekend despite not making your squad.
Seems a bit of a strange one.
Where did he say this? Absolutely mental decision from Whittaker and Shields. A fit Iain Wilson is our best midfielder by far.0 -
Could do with getting an update on Wilson and Lewis Martin''s current situation. Could be doing with Martin at LB instead of Edwards.
Wilson in particular, I’m keen to hear more. He seemed to be on his way back and then wasn’t named in the squad at the weekend. He’s a big player and we need him in our midfield, if we’re going to survive in the league this season. Lewis Martin, even if he returns, won’t be the same player. You can’t miss the amount of football he has over and perform at your best. He’s 25 (I think?) and has spent the majority of his 20s so far on the treatment table. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I feel like it’s incredibly unlikely he’ll be able to perform as well as he did in 19/20 again.
It’s a shame, I like the guy and thought he was excellent that season. He hasn’t trained in 18 months though, an injury of that timescale tends to result in other ‘minor’ setbacks once he’s back training (strains etc) and I just can’t see him being fully fit this season, never mind at his best.0 -
Apologies to everyone else on this thread for mentioning Comrie’s name. I forgot that Random Guy seems to have alerts set up for anyone mentioning him, so that he can come and talk about that poor game he had…
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Won’t be going to this. Even if we get a new manager, Inverness will win this. They’re a much better team right now and we’re without Kennedy and Gaspuitis. Means we’ll still have Connolly starting and I have no idea who we’ll play in Kennedy’s role. MacDonald maybe? Unless we put Dow back out wide (which wouldn’t really work in our favour) and either go 4-4-2 or add an extra midfielder.
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You're outlining minutes per goal here for Wighton and Todorov, but in both cases they are over extremely small sample sizes. Neither of them has ever hit double figures in a league season in their career and neither of them would really have finishing down as one of their main strengths. Todorov is a good, if somewhat limited, targetman, and Wighton is an excellent technical player. I thought the latter was one of the best players on the park when we played you earlier in the season, but he did all his best work outside the box.
I’d definitely agree regarding Wighton having other qualities and I get what you’re saying regarding both of their lack of appearances. But I’d still argue that they are both more proven as goal scorers at this level than O’Hara. They both scored 9 last season, when we only played 3/4 of a season. Barring one purple patch in 19/20, O’Hara hasn’t scored regularly. He had a purple patch of 8 goals in 8 games that year, but hasn’t produced that sort of form before that or since. I’d personally have him down as the least proven of the 3 strikers. However, I do believe that both Wighton and Todorov should be capable of a decent partnership with O’Hara - Wighton and O’Hara had a very good spell together late last season actually.
Todorov hasn’t impressed me as a target man. For someone his size, he gets bullied a lot and doesn’t have much strength. He seems to be better with his feet than his head, but he just hasn’t fitted in here regardless of the role he’s been asked to play. Hopefully the new manager can get the best out of him.
I’m a big fan of Wighton’s overall game. He reads the game better than most and is capable of some brilliance. However, he has been very out of form lately and needs some confidence.
As I say, your analysis is generally very good and I wasn’t really criticising at all. Just trying to put forward a different perspective. In my opinion all of our strikers should be capable of scoring goals. I think just about every other position needs strengthening before the strikers - although, I wouldn’t be against adding more strength/depth to that position if the right player was available.0 -
The Pars' biggest issue is that they have rubbish goalkeepers, terrible full-backs, no good holding midfielders, a bunch of flaky and/or overrated attacking midfielders, and of their three main forwards two of them have never really been goalscorers and the one who has been is out of form.
What is this analysis based on? Speak to anyone who’s followed this division over the past few years and they would acknowledge that Comrie is one of the best right backs at this level. As others have said, I’ll give you Edwards. He seems to improve for a couple of games, then regress to being very very poor again. He’s done this regularly for 2 years now and hasn’t progressed much - if at all.
I’m also not sure which of our 3 strikers have never been goal scorers. I genuinely don’t have a clue which one you’re classing as a goal scorer and what 2 you say never have been. Wighton scored a goal every 154 minutes last season and finished joint second top scorer in the league - in 19/20 he did well for Arbroath before covid hit and scored a goal every 150 minutes in this league. Todorov scored the same number as Wighton last season and was also joint second top scorer in the league, with a goal every 170 mins - he managed a goal every 122 in 19/20. O’Hara was one goal behind the other 2 last season and scored a goal every 175 mins, having managed a goal every 213 at Alloa in 19/20.
Whoever the 2 are that you claim have never been goal scorers have demonstrated an incredible mins/goal ratio at this level over the last 2 seasons. You’re normally very good with your analysis, so I’m a bit surprised by that comment, but I really can’t agree with the suggestion that players averaging a goal every 2 games over the last 2 seasons aren’t goal scorers.
I agree with you regarding the keepers and defensive midfielders (Wilson is good, but never fit). Wingers are inconsistent - I assume these are the guys you class as attacking midfielders. On their day, they have proven to be great at this level. However, they’re very poor more often than they’re good. Dow was consistent in the last couple of seasons, but has been so far off the pace since his knee injury. Thomas and Kennedy are luxury players, who have flashes of brilliance, but can’t sustain that level of performance and we’re not in a position where we can have 2 luxury players on the park at the same time. So, again, I agree with that comment about them. Lack of any real quality on the bench/for cover is an issue in every position as well - particularly given the starters in some positions aren’t even nearly good enough. We have no subs that can change the game in our favour. No game winners.
For me though, the biggest problem is a lack of leadership on the park. There’s not one player I see as a leader, who spurs on his teammates, organises the team, takes control of the defence/midfield/wherever they play. We have a bunch of players crying out for a leader to guide them. The defence in particular needs an organiser - like Euan Murray was for us. He never shut up and was constantly leading the defence and organising them. I feel like it’s a leader we need as a defensive midfielder too. Paul Paton wasn’t the best technical player, but he kept our midfield organised and motivated. Constantly shouting instructions to his teammates. I’d like to see some leaders brought in, players who possess these qualities that can’t be taught in training. We’re far too quiet as a team, there’s no communication and that leads to huge gaps, nobody picking up runners, people not knowing what’s going on behind them etc.0 -
I certainly didn’t say you were unlucky to be where you are. You’ve been absolutely awful and clearly the worst side in the league so far. However, there are still 4 sides above you in easily catchable distance.
Surely a good manager moulds a group of 11 good individuals into a competent team at this level and certainly not one that goes 13 without a win. It’s hardly a stretch to say if you gave John Robertson (for example) this exact squad, as unbalanced as it may be, at the start of the season you may have mustered up 6 points more than you have under Grant/Shields/Whittaker. With that you would be 6th so you’re hardly marooned to the bottom despite your dreadful form.
A competent manager who can instil some confidence in the players (maybe by the plate-full) and get them organised it’s hard to imagine you not having enough to get to safety.
That’s without taking into account you will have a substantially bigger budget than every side around you at the bottom of the table in January to make some changes. Granted January is a difficult window and you may have to limp along till then but I would still be very surprised if Dunfermline were relegated if they get this managerial appointment correct.
Personally don’t really care if you stay up or don’t but I just think there’s enough for a new manager to work with that you’re clearly not doomed.
As has been mentioned though, to finish 8th you generally need 40 points. That means we need 33 from our remaining 23 games. That’s a tough task for anyone at this level. To be comfortably safe (as you and others have mentioned), we’d need at least 50 points, which would mean 43 points from the remaining 23 games. Only 2 teams (Killie and Inverness) have bettered the ppg total that we would need for that, so far. It’s just not even a reasonable suggestion.
There is absolutely no chance that we will be comfortable at any point this season, due to what has happened and the squad that we have. That’s the point I quoted and questioned. I’m not arguing that literally any other manager could have got us more points than Grant did. I genuinely believe that they would. I just can’t agree with anyone who thinks, from where we are now, we will be comfortably safe. It’s very very unlikely we will finish above 9th and that is in no way comfortably safe, given it would result in a play off. That’s the reality of the situation.
At the risk of over-simplifying things, I feel the need to point out that being bottom of a 10 team league means that at least 4 teams above you are getting points each week. In the championship, those clubs near the bottom do pick up points and anyone can beat anyone. That makes climbing the league a lot tougher than you’re making out.1 -
I still think Dunfermline will be safe, there is enough about that squad to stay out of trouble reasonably comfortably by the end of the season
Can people please stop with this nonsense? 13 games into the season and we haven’t won a game - not through luck, but due to being horrendous at football. 11 good individuals don’t always make a good team. We have individual quality, nobody has questioned that. But it’s hard to see any style of play that would work for this ‘team’ the defence is suited to long balls. The strikers are not suited to long balls at all, our central midfield options are either not very good or unproven (in the case of Allan) at this level.
Our best creative players (Kennedy and Thomas) need us to play a quick attacking game, where they’re running at defenders. But we either punt it up the park or play a really slow passing game. Honestly, it’s hard to see a way that these players come together and find a way of playing that works right now. We have a group of decent individuals, not a team. It’s a recipe for disaster. Grant just signed anyone who he thought was good, with no idea how they would fit into any sort of formation/style of play.1 -
Saturday was strange. First half was ok, I thought. There were spells we looked quite good and you could see what they were trying to do and they did it well. Second half, particularly once we conceded the 2nd, was just awful. We fell apart and Morton deserved their win.
If that had been the first game of the season, under a new manager, I might not have been so negative based on the flashes of good play that we had. However, we’re desperate for a win and never looked like winning that game. The interim managers should have prioritised winning and set the players up for a battle, not trying to play pretty football and hoping for a result. 13th game of the season and we have no identity.
We have so many individuals that are good enough, but I don’t see any kind of system that would work as a team. Breen looked alright and should keep that position. He looked fairly good defensively and should get better as he plays more. But our defenders are not suited to playing it out from the back. We seemed to have a plan in place for certain runs to be made to free up certain players (both full backs, Todd and Dow) but the defenders still couldn’t spot any of these runs or any teammates in space. It was quite concerning. Connolly was dreadful, but I can’t see Vytas being better at that sort of thing. Allan and Todd looked ok, but if they don’t have defenders that can play it out from the back, they’re not really a partnership that will cope at this level. I thought it was the first time Todd looked like a fairly decent midfielder at this level. He deserved his goal.
A lot of things broke down once we got it to Dow/Thomas/Kennedy. Dow was awful, he just isn’t the player he was pre-injury. But we have zero cover/replacements for anyone in those roles, if we stick with the 4-2-3-1. Thomas and Kennedy looked lively, but kept choosing the wrong options (trying to beat 1 man too many, shooting rather than passing, passing to a man surrounded by defenders, rather than a man in space).
O’Hara was too static and we’d be better with someone who could come deep to help out and/or create space for Dow/Kennedy/Thomas to make that run in behind. Wighton seems off the pace though and Todorov just doesn’t fit into this team at all. Our goal came from the defenders being drawn to O’Hara and out of the centre of the box and Todd running into that space. But we didn’t see movement like that often enough. That’s not just coaching. Players in attacking roles should see that kind of space and make these runs without needing to be told. Likewise, O’Hara should notice that both CBs are following him and make runs into the channel or come deep more often, creating space in the box. Then he has to trust his teammates to make those runs.
Early in the season I’d probably be saying “they can work on that in training and it’ll get better”, but these guys have been given the task of trying to get a win/wins now, before a new manager is appointed. Wasting time trying to play pretty football and setting up a system/style that can take weeks to get right is not what’s required now. Setting up a team to win is all that matters now.2 -
Assuming Wilson’s injured again, given he wasn’t involved in the squad yesterday?
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What have you lot done to Kennedy? He was decent for us last season and I was disappointed he went to you rather than us this season.
Todorov and Wighton were joint second top scorers in the division last season. O’Hara was only one behind them. Thomas was very good at this level last season. But somehow, none of them have performed as well as they should. It’s not just Kennedy, it’s pretty much everyone that has regressed under the Grant regime - and the other 2 members of his coaching staff are now in charge of the team (hopefully not for too long).0 -
Don’t see much swinging or missing from vT on this one, to be honest.
You’d have to be a special kind of stupid to take posts like that one seriously…0 -
Alternatively...
I'm very surprised at that today. Oliver doing his turn up against Dunfermline routine and somehow Connolly not getting sent off for making a save for the penalty. Also thought we should have had a pen in the first half.
Dunfermline will be in a bit of bother now you feel without an inspired appointment.
No idea why Madden didn’t send Connolly off. As blatant as red cards get, having given the penalty. Wasn’t sure about the first half incident, but definitely see them given quite often.
A few easy/obvious yellows missed for players pulling back Thomas/Kennedy, after they’d got past them. Ref was poor overall, but didn’t influence the result.
We’re in deep trouble and it’s definitely time for us to panic/worry. Morton weren’t good at all, but were more than worthy of their win. They had a plan and were well organised.0 -
Ross McArthur stepping down at the end of the season. Sounds like it’s because of abuse/attacks, which is a terrible shame. He made mistakes in his tenure, particularly the appointment of Grant, but nobody can deny that he always had the best interests of the club at heart and everything he did, was with the best intentions of the club at heart. Disgusting that he is stepping down for reasons like this. Hopefully we can find a decent replacement, who can help the club to improve in all aspects.
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Pybus gets stuck in and does a lot of running. But he’s not a great footballer. He gives away needless fouls because his tackling/defending isn’t great. He gives the ball away a lot because his passing/decision making isn’t great. But we have fans that will always rave about him, simply because he runs around a lot. There really isn’t anything other than running around that he does well. Even then, it’s not like his running makes him one of those players that’s always in the right place. He often loses his man when defending and has no idea where he’s going when we have the ball.
He’s not a bad player to have, in the sense that he’ll chase everything down and put pressure on opponents. But he’s also just not that good. That energy probably made him look better than other midfield options with Grant’s mental tactics/instructions, but we need better than Pybus if we want to do well in this league. He’d do well next year though, if we get relegated and he stays with us.0 -
There’s nothing inherently wrong with playing a back 3 but you need to have the right players to utilise it effectively.
No system would have worked under Grant because he was totally incompetent.
Agree with this. Grant’s instructions meant that a back 3 was a disaster. The main issue was that he asked the wing backs to bomb forward whenever we had the ball and didn’t have anybody covering for them. So they were up in line with the strikers and when we lost the ball, the RCB and LCB had to play both RB/LB and CB. Basically becoming responsible for 2 opponents. As soon as one of them were beaten, we ended up ridiculously short and opponents would be odds on to score. It got even worse when he started asking Comrie to overlap MacDonald, leaving us with 2 men back. This is why every championship team very quickly started targeting the wings when they had the ball. It drew people out of position and meant we were all over the place and panicking as soon as we lost the ball.
The wing backs bombing forward was also an issue because our build up play was slow. This meant that they would push forward and then stand and wait for the ball to get forward, with their backs to goal. Instead of waiting for someone to play a ball that they could run onto and run at the opposition with a bit of momentum. Their first touch had to be backwards, which killed all attacking momentum, as full backs would be pressuring them right away and they’d have to pass it back.
Our midfield was also not suited for that system at all. There wasn’t enough movement/energy. We didn’t have that player always wanting the ball. We didn’t have the midfielder going box to box, defending and creating. They also should have worked out themselves that they had to cover for the wing backs when they went forward. That should have been really basic understanding of the game for the midfielders. These things are required for that kind of system, otherwise you have huge weaknesses in that system.
Grant didn’t actually understand football. He knew what he wanted to do, but didn’t actually have a plan for how it worked, what everyone’s roles were in that team etc. It was really poor management that meant that system was a total disaster.0 -
Who’s in the middle of those 3? If it’s Dow I wouldn’t argue with that.
Also, who’s scoring the fifth?
Yeah, I’d play Dow in the middle of a 3 in behind a striker. Would help us by adding an extra man in the middle of the park (which we’ve been needing) and I’m not convinced Dow has the pace to be a winger anymore, but he’s still a very useful and clever player. I’m sure that’s where he was playing just before he got his injury last season - could be wrong though.
Forgot to add another scorer - was originally going to say Dom hat trick. So I’ll just say O’Hara will come off the bench and score. For what it’s worth, I do actually expect a tight game, but am dead serious about us playing that system. I think it gets rid of that temptation to punt it long all the time/skip the midfield and should help our creative players play to their potential. Can’t double up on all 3 of Dow, Thomas and Kennedy at the same time.0 -
5-0 Pars. Dom Thomas with 2, Wighton and Kennedy with 1 each. We’ll set up like we did in February when we hammered Raith at East End - 4-2-3-1 with Wilson in midfield. Kennedy, Dow and Thomas in behind Wighton. Players will be asked/allowed to play to their strengths, rather than being asked to change their game completely.
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Remember when going to EEP used to be a laugh?
Last time I felt happy at EEP was when we went 3-0 up against St Mirren, top of the league, looking good for a title challenge whilst the whole NW chants “Yer still fucking shite, still fucking shite, still fucking shiteeeee” and “What a shite hairdo, what a shite hairdo, what a shite hairdooooo” at Gavin Reilly.
17/18 was probably our last enjoyable season. However, I’d argue we’ve had good/enjoyable games since.
2-0 win at home to United, just before lockdown, springs to mind. I was definitely happy that day and enjoyed the game/atmosphere. There was a game the same season, where we hammered Partick at East End - think it was 5-1. Game was decent, but atmosphere wasn’t great. The issue was though, we rarely performed like that and would put in really uninspiring displays most weeks. This meant that the stadium hasn’t been particularly busy, as people have lost interest. Which certainly impacts atmosphere and the fan experience at the game.
Of course, our start to this season has seen actual attendances (those in the stadium on the day) be alarmingly low. I hope that people turn up on Saturday and get behind the interim management team and the players. This is a big game and a win will take us off bottom - and potentially make the job slightly more appealing for any prospective new manager.
As a club, I’d like to see us do more to encourage people to return/start coming to East End. There seems to be zero marketing being done at East End just now. Hopefully when we appoint a new manager, and/or over the festive period, we can run some sort of promotion (u18s tickets for £1, buy one get one half price, ST holders bring a mate for £5 or something) to try and boost crowds and draw people to East End on a Saturday. Right now, charging £20 per head and not having any incentives at all isn’t going to have many people thinking of giving it a go/returning.2 -
It's going to be so good, hopefully he appreciates he got longer than pretty much any manager would expect to get to turn it round bus is suspect he won't be very pragmatic.
He always seemed to say he couldn’t ask for any more from the board, players or fans. So it’ll be interesting to see who he does try to blame, now that he’s not trying to save his job anymore. A third of the season played and he didn’t win a league game, despite saying himself that we wanted to win the league.
Will he acknowledge that his signings have been so poor? The less of ‘his’ players we have on the park, the better we have played. That’s how mental his recruitment was.
Will he acknowledge that his 3-4-3/3-4-1-2/3-5-2 was a mistake and one that he stuck with too long?
Players obviously aren’t blameless, but it’s up to the manager to get the best out of his players. Comrie, Thomas, Dow, Kennedy, Todorov, O’Hara and Wighton have all proven themselves to be more than capable at this level. But he’s played them out of position, played tactics that don’t suit any of them, asked them to do unfamiliar things. That has to be on him. He must have had to prepare to play against almost every player currently at the club last season, and he doesn’t seem to know what they can/can’t do.
In the summer, we advertised a job for an opposition analyst. Was this ever filled? If so, what on earth do they do? Our preparation has been horrific and it seriously doesn’t look like we’ve looked at opponents at all, prior to playing the game against them.0 -
Its quite possible that he's making it up, I mean how mad would the board be to say they are having a robust recruitment process only to then go and "head hunt". He may as well tweet "pay attention to me".
Also he must know that the club are aware considering board members follow him
He doesn’t seem to be very bright, does he? Think his dad maybe needs to have a word with him - although, as you’ve said, he looks old enough to know better.0 -
He is the son of one of our directors
Do you know this for a fact? If so, this is really poor. I was hoping that what I had been told was wrong.0
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