CallumPar

Worth remembering that you’ve just given a 2 year contract extension, to a manager that made McPake look like a tactical genius last season…

If you’d watched us over the last 2 months, you’d know a lot of it is McPake’s fault. The tactics aren’t working, but he’s sticking with them no matter what. He’s not changing things to try and get results. Even today, every change was like for like. We haven’t changed shape/tactics at all, despite the fact everyone has worked us out and knows how to beat us. The players clearly aren’t capable of what’s being asked of them. So why keep asking them to do it? Conceding for fun and can’t score goals, but it’ll be the same tactics next week.

Looks like it. Can’t work out if we’re 3-6-1, or if Comrie’s at wing back and O’Halloran’s partnering McCann up front. Either way, not sure it makes much sense with the new striker/Moffat on the bench. Would prefer Moffat and Summers behind McCann, if the new striker isn’t good enough to play - despite hearing all window that we would only bring in players ready to come in and make an impact.

I was all for changing the formation. But replacing Wighton with Paul Allan wasn’t what I had in mind 3-5-2 at home is a negative formation, what about a 3-6-1? We’ll only bring in players good enough to come in and make a difference. But we bring in a new striker and would rather play Paul Allan…

Fagan-Walcott not in the squad. That another CB injured? Comrie back and been thrown straight back into the starting lineup.

We need to start fast. Concede an early goal and we could be in for another hammering, I’m afraid. We’re a group of young, inexperienced players, who are undoubtedly low on confidence. We should be trying to get the ball forward and run at Queens Park. Take as much pressure off the defence as possible. If we continue trying to play it out from the back, we’re in trouble. We just don’t have the right players (or pitch) to do that. That’s a much bigger issue than the formation, in my opinion.

exactly this. I find it hard to believe that the back 3/5 is still the right system, with what we have available. Results/performances definitely suggest it’s not! So many players are ending up out of position and the formation (and playing it out from the back) requires a decent midfield - but the midfield is what we sacrifice to be able to play 3 at the back. It’s just stupidity.

If anyone’s interested, I’m happy to do a summary of my understanding of the accounts, once they’ve been released. Not professing to be an expert and the information we get is limited - the company disclose as little as they can within their accounts, which is completely normal and understandable. I will be doing a deep dive into what’s in there for myself anyway. Happy to share my point of view/highlight any interesting movements on here, if it’s something people would be interested in? Won’t bore everyone if nobody cares about my summary though By the way, last 2 years the accounts have been submitted Friday 17th Feb 2023 and Friday 18th Feb 2022. So it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re available end of next week/beginning of the week after.

We may do now. But I’m sure at the time Ross McArthur said we had stopped insuring players because the cost massively outweighed the benefit most years. Obviously though, years like this are exactly why we should continue to pay for insurance. I don’t know how it all works, but I’m praying we have insurance now. I could also be talking nonsense, but I’m sure I remember talk of medical bills for players like Joe Thomson being ridiculously high one year, resulting in us making a large financial loss.

Was that not put down to medical costs of surgeries etc? Imagine the losses we must be making, due to medical bills alone, this year…

Hopefully we can get this called off. We should cut the power cables for the floodlights or something. Really not looking forward to this one.

Yeah, there was. But the courier also reported (numerous times) that we were about to announce Wotherspoon in the summer. Until an extension is announced by the club, I wouldn’t take it as ‘official’. I would expect the football club to know when players are contracted to - regardless of what’s been rumoured/reported elsewhere. If the club are putting out articles saying he’s contracted to summer 2024, why should we believe the courier over them? I opened the article expecting confirmation of the extension and instead saw that we’re saying he’s out of contract this summer.

I don’t think the club ever confirmed it. Would also seem really stupid for us to put an article out, saying he’s only under contract until summer 2024, if he’s had an extension. Having said that, that’s about the quality of output I expect from our club.

Article up on club website confirming we turned down a 6 figure fee for Edwards. Also seems to confirm he’s out of contract in the summer though… not good business if his contract isn’t extended.

Got to concede I was wrong on this. I would have been one of those pointing out how wrong you were, I can tell you that without checking. But, he mixed things up a lot last season, to hold onto our good runs of form. Then he’s completely lost the plot this season and is sticking to his ways, regardless of performance/result. He’s so silent on the touchline too, despite us being outplayed every week.

I hadn’t seen that fifth goal until now. Seriously, why on earth are we still persisting with that playing it out from the back nonsense? We don’t have the right defenders for it and we definitely don’t have the keeper for it. Truly is mind boggling that someone who’s been in football as long as McPake can’t see that. 4-0 down and we give away another goal because we’re insisting on playing the same way regardless of performance/result. This isn’t academy football, results matter at this level. Embarrassing stuff.

Lose next week and we’re facing relegation playoffs at best. We’re also not out of Arbroath’s reach if McPake doesn’t change things soon. We’re just far too soft and easy to play against.

Yes, that’s an obvious difference from last season and that’s why results are so different. But you’ve completely ignored the question asked and answered a different one. That’s clearly not a reason for him not mixing things up, as he did last season. If anything, there should be even more reason to change it up based on who we’re playing, since we aren’t the big boys in this league. Every other manager at this level is coming up with a game plan, to try and beat who they’re up against. McPake came up with a game plan pre-season and has stuck with it for the full game, every single week, regardless of how (in)effective it is.

What? My whole post was about the fact he won’t change the tactics/game plan. You’ve then quoted me and acted as if I’ve said something totally different? Not sure what I’m missing here. Obviously not too many changes that could have been made to personnel, given the squad we have available. Which is why I focused on tactics/recruitment issues. There are so many other options available, in terms of tactics. We have a lot of players capable of playing in a number of positions, but McPake is too stupid/stubborn to actually try something different. Our pitch is a tattie field, and McPake kept asking them to play it out from the back, despite the fact the defenders couldn’t control or pass the ball. It’s absolutely mental that he couldn’t see that was an issue. Hamilton should have started at CB though, as he’s the organiser/leader that’s been there - particularly with Fisher unavailable. The boys from Cardiff looked lost out there. When Wighton had to come off, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to switch the shape of the team, instead, he brought on a 5’2 winger to play up front beside McCann and didn’t change anything tactically.

I’m not saying McPake needs to be sacked right now. But he really needs to sort it out and stop being so stubborn with his awful system that everyone else in the league has worked out. It just doesn’t work. It’s been happening for months now. But today just seems to show he’s really out his depth. At 0-0, it was clear our tactics were ineffective. Other than the enforced change (where he put Moffat up front and left our new striker on the bench), he didn’t make any changes until it was far too late and we were 3-0 down. Even then, he didn’t change the team’s shape or game plan and just expected some sort of miracle. You can’t defend that. If that’s not being enforced on him by the board, then he’s so far out of his depth it’s unreal. If it is enforced by the board, he needs to stand up to them and/or walk to make his point. We changed shape/tactics a lot last season, when things were going well. Now that we’re struggling, he’s refusing to change anything, and basically failing to make any attempt to turn this form around. I can’t understand that and would love to know why. It genuinely makes no sense that we’ve been sticking with this failing shape/tactics for so long. Even Peter Grant abandoned his back 5 after about 4/5 league games. How’s McPake somehow ended up being more arrogant/stubborn than him? That stubbornness/arrogance isn’t down to the injury issues. Thats just a convenient excuse. Anyone that thinks this run of form is all down to injuries needs to open their eyes. Everyone we come up against has a really similar plan. Put pressure on us trying to play it out from the back and we’ll give you the ball. Have attacking players occupy the space between the wing backs and the back 3 and you’ll have us all over the place defensively. Have a midfielder or full back run into our box and nobody will pick him up. Put every cross/set piece on top of Mehmet and he’ll panic/flap. Hit a shot at Mehmet and he’ll palm it back into the 6 yard box. It’s basic stuff that we’re getting undone with every week and we don’t seem to have changed anything or done anything to fix the issues that are constantly being exploited. Some of that’s on the players, but we have a team of inexperienced boys, getting hung out to dry, because we can’t/won’t recruit experienced players to help them. There’s a reason experienced players demand more money and I can’t believe we don’t see the value they would add to the team. Regarding recruitment, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… our chief scout can’t be doing his job properly, when he’s taking our first team warm-ups and sitting in our dugout every single match day. Surely he should be away scouting potential signings? I would have thought that was really obvious.

Can’t disagree with any of that. Spot on.

I don’t know why McPake was so willing to mix things up last year, but has no desire/intentions to change a system that isn’t working, when we’ve been absolutely terrible and everyone is finding us easy to play against. Hard to know what’s going on. Are the board trying to force a system/identity on the team, or has McPake just not got the fight/desire to fix a team on a poor run? Seems mental that a manager will mix things up to extend an unbeaten/wining run, but will stick with the same stupid tactics every week when the team’s struggling. Either way, it needs sorted. It’s feeling like we’re back to the Grant/Hughes era, where the manager is too stubborn to try and change things to get results. League table doesn’t look good and the longer we keep McPake and this failing system, the more likely we are to go down. I couldn’t care less about that fair play nonsense we announced. I’m a football fan and I want to see my team win games. I’d rather win ugly, than lose/draw trying to play ‘pretty’ football. We’re in the Scottish championship ffs. Also, we’ll never develop youngsters if we’re chucking them in like that and hanging them out to dry. Thats a massive flaw in this business model/signing policy. Players just won’t develop if we don’t have experienced pros on the park/training with them, to help them out. We also need to be able to rest guys, or give them time out the team, when they’re struggling. All we’re doing right now is destroying any confidence the young players might have had. Anyway, I’m away to enjoy my Saturday evening.

Yeah, I really don’t want to take anything away from Morton. They were very good and thoroughly deserved the comprehensive win. But we were shambolic. I’m fed up of seeing us set up/play the exact same way every week. The opposition know exactly what we’ll do and have a plan to beat us.

This is exactly right. He would mix it up, to hold onto a winning/unbeaten run, but won’t change it to try and get a result when we can’t win. 4-0 down, being played off the park and he hasn’t changed the system at all to try and fix it. He’s been found out the last few months and doesn’t even seem to care enough to try and sort it out. Even Peter Grant switched to a back 4 after 6/7 games. I don’t think McPake has any intention to change it.

Are we accepting McPake’s a fraud now? Same system/tactics every week. Doesn’t matter how we play, who we’re against or what players we have available. Exact same game plan. Makes it so easy for teams to prepare to play us and we’re seeing teams have an effective plan to beat us every week now. Pathetic. When Grant and Hughes were doing this, they were (rightly) getting slated for it.