Livingston - all the threads merged

[LIVIFOREVER]

Sibbs  has had one thing after another with illness and injuries this season, he isn't being left out the team as such, he just hasn't been able to play, and even when he was being played earlier on, he wasn't fully recovered from covid. He's having a horrendous time of it, but not much Martindale can do about playing him, i'm sure he'll get a game again soon now he's back from his latest injury. With what he's went through i can see why he wasn't just thrown back into the team again. 

[ol1vercloff]

Anyone else get serious anxiety at the thought of Max getting injured and Maley having to come on in a Premiership game?    absolutely crazy that a bit of nepotism, and some other contributing factors, has got him a place on the bench at a (diddy) Premiership club 

[LIVIFOREVER]

1 hour ago, ol1vercloff said:

Anyone else get serious anxiety at the thought of Max getting injured and Maley having to come on in a Premiership game?    absolutely crazy that a bit of nepotism, and some other contributing factors, has got him a place on the bench at a (diddy) Premiership club 

Maley is a decent shot stopper, but more flappy at high balls than Robby McCrorie, could get away with him coming on as sub during a game, but pretty sure we'd get an emergency loan keeper in if it was an injury that put him out for more than one game.

[LogieLivi]

The issue with Sibbs is though we are totally overrun in midfield.
Holt and Pitts are first choice. No question.
For me sibbs should be the 3rd centre mid.

But Omeonga is there too and he didn't give up 3 or 4 grand a week to sit on the bench.

[LIVIFOREVER]

Competitions for places is what we're wanting right enough, players will need to up their game or lose their place. We could also have Obileye in that defensive midfield role, if Parkes and Fitzwater play well together against Sevco, QoTS fans said playing holding midfield was his best position for them.

Having 3 decent CB's also gives us the option of going with a back 3. Good headache for Martindale to have. 

Another one is choosing between Pittman and Shinnie, both are being played in that attacking CM, with Bailey on the right and Montano/Forrest, or even Penrice & Kabia going for the left attacking mid place.

Shinnie has good technical skill, but i think we really miss Pittman's energy and press, as well as him getting into good positions to score goals.

[thruthenight]

We're definitely overloaded with decent midfielders. Taking 2 from Holt/Omeonga/Sibbald for the deeper midfielders and one of Pitts/Shinnie for further forward seems to be working for us. Alternatively, Sibbald has shown he can play on the left pretty well. Shinnie, not so much.

I know Ayo was brought in to play DM, but I'm not sure he's going to get to play there this season unless we have a decent amount of injuries.

Keaghan will be away in the summer I suspect. I'm not convinced Hamilton will be away to Arbroath in Jan as I reckon he might be away permanently and if he does then I'm not sure he'll go to a part time team. Only way he goes to Arbroath is if it's a loan.

[LIVIFOREVER]

1 hour ago, thruthenight said:

We're definitely overloaded with decent midfielders. Taking 2 from Holt/Omeonga/Sibbald for the deeper midfielders and one of Pitts/Shinnie for further forward seems to be working for us. Alternatively, Sibbald has shown he can play on the left pretty well. Shinnie, not so much.

I know Ayo was brought in to play DM, but I'm not sure he's going to get to play there this season unless we have a decent amount of injuries.

Keaghan will be away in the summer I suspect. I'm not convinced Hamilton will be away to Arbroath in Jan as I reckon he might be away permanently and if he does then I'm not sure he'll go to a part time team. Only way he goes to Arbroath is if it's a loan.

Aye doesn't look like it. Livingston boss David Martindale believes Ayo Obileye can become 'best centre-back in the league' - Daily Record

Pity, i was looking forward to seeing how good he was at DM if that was his best position, because he's been pretty good playing as a CB. Doesn't look like we're going to get many goal out of him though, Parkes looks more of a goal threat at set pieces, and Fitzwater is quite good at getting onto loose balls and knock downs for the odd goal too.

[LIVIFOREVER]

Looks like the screwloosenizer has gone into hiding since we went on a 5 games undefeated run, pity he can't give an opinion when things are going well, the twat.

His favourite whipping boy Fitzwater (fizzywater) in particular has been doing well this season, a serving of humble pie is due from him there. And Holt has been outstanding too, which prob tipped him over the edge into an abyss.

Edited November 24, 2021 by LIVIFOREVER

[LogieLivi]

Looks like the screwloosenizer has gone into hiding since we went on a 5 games undefeated run, pity he can't give an opinion when things are going well, the twat.
His favourite whipping boy Fitzwater (fizzywater) in particular has been doing well this season, a serving of humble pie is due from him there. And Holt has been outstanding too, which prob tipped him over the edge into an abyss.

Tbh the more "they" get brought up on here, the more they get in your head and will therefore continue their usual pish patter.

Half the posts on Livi threads are now about that w****r. Unless they show their face again, stop talking about them.

[LiviLion]

19 minutes ago, LogieLivi said:

Tbh the more "they" get brought up on here, the more they get in your head and will therefore continue their usual pish patter.

Half the posts on Livi threads are now about that w****r. Unless they show their face again, stop talking about them.

This. The ignore function is a wonderful thing.

[ATLIS]

3 hours ago, thruthenight said:

We're definitely overloaded with decent midfielders. Taking 2 from Holt/Omeonga/Sibbald for the deeper midfielders and one of Pitts/Shinnie for further forward seems to be working for us. Alternatively, Sibbald has shown he can play on the left pretty well. Shinnie, not so much.

I know Ayo was brought in to play DM, but I'm not sure he's going to get to play there this season unless we have a decent amount of injuries.

Keaghan will be away in the summer I suspect. I'm not convinced Hamilton will be away to Arbroath in Jan as I reckon he might be away permanently and if he does then I'm not sure he'll go to a part time team. Only way he goes to Arbroath is if it's a loan.

Not much chance he goes permanently as we'd be due a big chunk of cash. We'd be due training compensation for about 6 years, at least somewhere in the range of 100-200k and no one will pay that for them, nor will we let him go free. It may work in our favour to use him in a deal for another player that requires compensation like Jamie Hamilton or Andy Winter from Hamilton if they're refusing new deals however Hamilton would likely be due 300-500k for them so it's probably impossible. 

As long as we offer him an improved deal (at least £1 wage increase) then any club has to pay us compensation as he's under 23. He's 21 now, 22 in June. I can see us giving him a 2 year deal to take him to 24 with a one year extension. He's still young so can develop yet, but right now he doesn't suit our style at all. He doesn't have the mobility required to succeed in our system despite being a great finisher. He's essentially a poacher in a team that requires a pressing forward as a vital point of the team. It'd be the same reason someone like Charlie Adam/Dorrans etc would utterly fail in our system. 
 

21 hours ago, LogieLivi said:

The issue with Sibbs is though we are totally overrun in midfield.
Holt and Pitts are first choice. No question.
For me sibbs should be the 3rd centre mid.

But Omeonga is there too and he didn't give up 3 or 4 grand a week to sit on the bench.

A good point made worse by the fact it was about 12k a week he gave up  
 

[LIVIFOREVER]

Livi v Ross County in the Scottish cup, would've preferred a lower league club but at least it's at home.

[EdinburghLivi]

4 minutes ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

Livi v Ross County in the Scottish cup, would've preferred a lower league club but at least it's at home.

We will lose, it's the Scottish Cup.

[LIVIFOREVER]

5 minutes ago, EdinburghLivi said:

We will lose, it's the Scottish Cup.

Still to play Raith so we'll win against County, then Raith at home in the next round, before losing the next game, prob Sevco.

[ATLIS]

The club needs to take some kind of action. Martindale has to go, if it needs to be upstairs to DoF then fair enough but his inexperience as a manager is killing us. Shocking tactics and constant long ball.

Long ball would be fine if we were getting results but we're fully in a relegation battle now, this squad doesn't look like it has the heart to fight it. We'll never get crowds up if we're playing a boring and eye-bleeding style of football. 

Maybe going down might be a good thing in regards to the youth academy and the likes of Jack Hamilton getting experience but right now it's a horrifying prospect. 

[East Calder Lion]

Agree Martindale has gone past his sell by date.  We need a clear out.

Not sure about Hamilton though, he demonstrated yesterday just how slow he is when the Aberdeen defender ran twice as fast to easily rob Hamilton of the ball.

[Cptn Hooch]

I think a bit of perspective is needed here. What do people expect from a team with the lowest budget in the league? Looking at the tables for the 1st of December in the last 2 seasons we're only 2 points worse off than we were then and we've played a game less this season. Yes last night was horrendous but every team has horrendous games. Celtic fans weren't calling for Postecoglu's head when we beat them 1-0 which was a terrible result for them. Yes there were questions asked and yes there should rightly be questions asked of Martindale, his coaching team and the players after last night.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Cptn Hooch

[ATLIS]

5 hours ago, Cptn Hooch said:

I think a bit of perspective is needed here. What do people expect from a team with the lowest budget in the league? Looking at the tables for the 1st of December in the last 2 seasons we're only 2 points worse off than we were then and we've played a game less this season. Yes last night was horrendous but every team has horrendous games. Celtic fans weren't calling for Postecoglu's head when we beat them 1-0 which was a terrible result for them. Yes there were questions asked and yes there should rightly be questions asked of Martindale, his coaching team and the players after last night.

I think that argument can also benefit from a bit of perspective too. Regardless of budget we have a team that should be nowhere near the bottom. Last season we went on a 14 game unbeaten run, will that happen again?

Celtic fans had the benefit of watching good football even if they didn't win. They dominated the game and didn't hoof the ball every time they had it. Can you honestly say paying £22+ every week is worth it to watch this team and this style of football? I'm questioning the sanity in it lately, sat at St Mirren (despite the late equaliser) regretting paying actual money to see the shite we serve up weekly. 

For me, the product on offer by Martindale is shocking, we're not getting results beyond a small run of a few positive results. He's far far too negative and sets up to try not to lose when we're perfectly capable of taking the game to Aberdeen/St Mirren etc. His managerial inexperience is painful at times. 

I really like DM and appreciate everything he's done for the club but that team has no heart. I want to see Martindale stay at the club as long as possible but he's desperately needing to be moved into a more hands off playing position like Director of Football where he can oversee operations but not have an influence on tactics etc. 

[ATLIS]

Also worth noting that being where we were last season was what got Holt to walk. Being in the same position as last season isn't a good thing.

[Cptn Hooch]

For the guys calling for Martindale to go....who do we replace him with? Realistically