The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Wardy]

2 minutes ago, Ding Dang Doo said:

I have to say that today gave me the F E A R as Ian Brown would say. We had no commanding player and whilst we played ok football at times we got bullied for the actual game.

We are miles off this league right now and I've never felt as down about a season after today as I do right now


 

 

[Raith_Raver]

Just now, D'Jaffo said:

Is Poplatnik decent? Seems to be rumours we’ve spoken to him but could be nonsense.

Has the odd notable game, like the mickey mouse final but will never be a prolific scorer. Not good as the main striker.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

1 minute ago, D'Jaffo said:

Is Poplatnik decent? Seems to be rumours we’ve spoken to him but could be nonsense.

I wouldn't say nonsense, his English isn't good but it's better than some.

[SirJimmyofNic]

1 minute ago, D'Jaffo said:

Is Poplatnik decent? Seems to be rumours we’ve spoken to him but could be nonsense.

He's no too bad, has poor games, but in all honestly he never got the chance to often under McGlynn for whatever reason

[Dario Zanatta]

2 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Is Poplatnik decent? Seems to be rumours we’ve spoken to him but could be nonsense.

I absolutely loved my time at Ayr btw. A great club. Was a shame I never got to play in front of the fans. 

 

Best wishes,

 

Dario Z xxxx

[D'Jaffo]

Aye I thought he was bang average last season. I’m not overly keen on him and we’re desperate for someone to put at least one of the umpteen chances we create away.

[foreverarover]

The big problem Murray has, with the squad he's built, is that he can't fill gaps without creating others. He's playing his only (fit) natural holding midfielder in central defence, so now that makeshift defence doesn't have a proper protector in front of it. Bringing in Ngwenya means he can try a different shaped square peg in moving Dick across and letting Brown go into midfield, but I'm far from convinced by Liam Dick. He had a shot on the left of a three for the last 25 minutes or so this afternoon and looked less assured than a clearly shattered Nolan and the aforementioned Brown did. 
I agree with those saying that letting Musonda go was a huge error. I said at the time it was a gamble not worth taking (unlike Benedictus), and events since then have absolutely bolstered that argument. Ayr might have offered him more than we did, but you're not telling me that if we really wanted to keep him, we couldn't have made a suitable offer. He was let go. Murray at the time said something along the lines of "if you don't change, you can't improve", but if you do change, you can get a hell of a lot worse. Musonda was a perfect squad player for this level, able to cover a number of positions. In an incredibly scant market, the chances of getting an upgrade were slim and now look impossible. 
Nolan might turn out to be fine, but today he looked every bit like the kind of guy who was brought in to learn from Christophe Berra, not to be the only natural central defender in the squad. He's tall but he's not very well filled out, and he looked very limited with the ball at his feet. To give him credit, he at least seemed to recognise that, and did little more than picking simple sideways passes. He's not played a huge amount of football so hopefully he'll grow into a slightly more expansive passer, but right now we're relying on the guy to play every single minute of the rest of the season. It's neither fair nor realistic. 
Beyond that, though, there are issues that lie elsewhere. Murray has accumulated possibly the best pound-for-pound set of midfield individuals in the division, and has moulded them into a unit that is so much less than the sum of its parts. Stanton, as alluded to above, is a totally inadequate holding midfielder. He's not bringing anything to the table. He doesn't even look like an advanced midfielder who's been asked to play further back, where you'd maybe expect runs and passes that are too risky (a bit like Easton when he's dropped deep), instead with Stanton you just get a whole lot of very little. The guy probably has the highest passing percentage in the squad, because he just shuffles the ball about. There's no penetration or incision. At times, Scott Brown is drifting past him and trying to drill balls into the forwards, just to make things happen. 
Ahead of him, Connolly, Easton and Ross are all working hard enough (Connolly never stops, one of the few to take some credit from today) but it's oh so slow. The ball gets worked out to Ross on the wing. He gets closed down so he knocks it back to Liam Dick. Dick turns it inside to Easton who's dropped off. At this point the entire opposition midfield and defence have stacked up, so Easton sees his options are limited. Connolly peels off on the other flank so Easton sprays it out to him. He's closed down so he knocks it back to Ross Millen. Millen turns it inside to Easton who's dropped off. At this pont... And the cycle repeats until a pass or cross is eventually charged down. It's very predictable, and very easy to counter. And it leaves the striker(s) totally outnumbered and unreachable in the middle. 
With regards to the strikers, I think Connell might turn out to be a good partner for Gullan because he looks more inclined to play between the posts and hang on the shoulder of the last man, but I'm really starting to wonder what Gullan really adds. Again, he's a hard worker, but when he comes deep or goes wide to get involved, he's not as good at it as any of the midfield three, and he's not offering a goal threat if he's 40 yards away with his back turned. I said it on the match thread, but he needs to be kept closer to the goal. I'm sure it's frustrating for him never touching the ball, because of the midfield dynamic detailed above, but he's not helping himself or the team by dropping into his own half just to get involved. If Gullan can focus on playing in that between-the-lines role that Vaughan does so well, with Connell focusing on staying ahead of him, there could be potential there. God knows we need it. With one goal in four games we look every bit reminiscent of the worst (on the field) portions of last season. 
Also I got caught in traffic outside Dundee on the way up, and then caught by the Police road closure south of Aberdeen on the way home, so all in all, today can just get fucked.  

Want at the game but what your saying of Nolan is pretty much MacKay that we released?

[foreverarover]

The 1 can remember because I listened to it an hour ago so I’ll briefly remember he said a CH from down south set to join but we had wait until they were back from pre season overseas, everything was agreed they got back from the pre season and the day before he was supposed come up to sign the player called it off because we play on Astro and he never wanted that
 
and he did go other another signing on why they never signed either but can’t remember what he said on that 1 

Did the player actually make any attempt to watch the multiple Raith TV matches when being considered as a transfer and notice is an artificial pitch. I smell shite.

[CALDERON]

8 minutes ago, foreverarover said:

2 hours ago, Against The Machine said:

The big problem Murray has, with the squad he's built, is that he can't fill gaps without creating others. He's playing his only (fit) natural holding midfielder in central defence, so now that makeshift defence doesn't have a proper protector in front of it. Bringing in Ngwenya means he can try a different shaped square peg in moving Dick across and letting Brown go into midfield, but I'm far from convinced by Liam Dick. He had a shot on the left of a three for the last 25 minutes or so this afternoon and looked less assured than a clearly shattered Nolan and the aforementioned Brown did. 
I agree with those saying that letting Musonda go was a huge error. I said at the time it was a gamble not worth taking (unlike Benedictus), and events since then have absolutely bolstered that argument. Ayr might have offered him more than we did, but you're not telling me that if we really wanted to keep him, we couldn't have made a suitable offer. He was let go. Murray at the time said something along the lines of "if you don't change, you can't improve", but if you do change, you can get a hell of a lot worse. Musonda was a perfect squad player for this level, able to cover a number of positions. In an incredibly scant market, the chances of getting an upgrade were slim and now look impossible. 
Nolan might turn out to be fine, but today he looked every bit like the kind of guy who was brought in to learn from Christophe Berra, not to be the only natural central defender in the squad. He's tall but he's not very well filled out, and he looked very limited with the ball at his feet. To give him credit, he at least seemed to recognise that, and did little more than picking simple sideways passes. He's not played a huge amount of football so hopefully he'll grow into a slightly more expansive passer, but right now we're relying on the guy to play every single minute of the rest of the season. It's neither fair nor realistic. 
Beyond that, though, there are issues that lie elsewhere. Murray has accumulated possibly the best pound-for-pound set of midfield individuals in the division, and has moulded them into a unit that is so much less than the sum of its parts. Stanton, as alluded to above, is a totally inadequate holding midfielder. He's not bringing anything to the table. He doesn't even look like an advanced midfielder who's been asked to play further back, where you'd maybe expect runs and passes that are too risky (a bit like Easton when he's dropped deep), instead with Stanton you just get a whole lot of very little. The guy probably has the highest passing percentage in the squad, because he just shuffles the ball about. There's no penetration or incision. At times, Scott Brown is drifting past him and trying to drill balls into the forwards, just to make things happen. 
Ahead of him, Connolly, Easton and Ross are all working hard enough (Connolly never stops, one of the few to take some credit from today) but it's oh so slow. The ball gets worked out to Ross on the wing. He gets closed down so he knocks it back to Liam Dick. Dick turns it inside to Easton who's dropped off. At this point the entire opposition midfield and defence have stacked up, so Easton sees his options are limited. Connolly peels off on the other flank so Easton sprays it out to him. He's closed down so he knocks it back to Ross Millen. Millen turns it inside to Easton who's dropped off. At this pont... And the cycle repeats until a pass or cross is eventually charged down. It's very predictable, and very easy to counter. And it leaves the striker(s) totally outnumbered and unreachable in the middle. 
With regards to the strikers, I think Connell might turn out to be a good partner for Gullan because he looks more inclined to play between the posts and hang on the shoulder of the last man, but I'm really starting to wonder what Gullan really adds. Again, he's a hard worker, but when he comes deep or goes wide to get involved, he's not as good at it as any of the midfield three, and he's not offering a goal threat if he's 40 yards away with his back turned. I said it on the match thread, but he needs to be kept closer to the goal. I'm sure it's frustrating for him never touching the ball, because of the midfield dynamic detailed above, but he's not helping himself or the team by dropping into his own half just to get involved. If Gullan can focus on playing in that between-the-lines role that Vaughan does so well, with Connell focusing on staying ahead of him, there could be potential there. God knows we need it. With one goal in four games we look every bit reminiscent of the worst (on the field) portions of last season. 
Also I got caught in traffic outside Dundee on the way up, and then caught by the Police road closure south of Aberdeen on the way home, so all in all, today can just get fucked.  

Want at the game but what your saying of Nolan is pretty much MacKay that we released?

Nolan looked absolutely fine.  He also signed 48 hours ago, probably not fair to judge him completely yet.  As much as people will want to. 

[foreverarover]

It's easy to place blame on those who aren't here anymore,  but I do think we are seeing the issues with the previous management teams use of funds/budget.  
Having a deluge of midfielders on the books, as well as you know who, won't leave a huge amount of money left for the outstanding positions.  I don't think any of us need to be intimately involved with the finances of the club to realise that.  Last season saw as much money thrown about by the Rovers as I've seen for some time, and we've got pretty much f**k all from it really.  
It's easy to lay the blame at the door of the manager for making signings late in the day etc, but I really do think we are being let down by the players already here.
That does, however, make the signing of Easton quite strange.  We simply did not need a player of his type in, its a strange use of what may be a limited available spend.
Whilst the defence is obviously a concern, I'm really fucking worried about the situation up top.  Gullan didn't get a huge amount of service today, but he really doesn't help himself.  Can't hold the ball up, wins nothing in the air, and is just not really threatening in the box at all.  That may not be his fault, it may not be what his game is, but nobody really knows the answer to that.  He's another very capable footballer who doesn't really do a great deal.  
Even if every single player from today improves, and plays to the best of their abilities,  we still won't score enough goals.
The team are too nice, I've thought that for a while, but there is a general lack of physicality there.  With 2 minutes to go the ball was being worked between centre half's whilst we were 45 yards from goal - there is no direct route on whatsoever.  I don't think set pieces have been that bad at all, there just isn't anything in the box.  Cove absolutely bullied us.
That's the real fear.  The area giving us the biggest problem is the hardest to fix.  But even when every injured player is back,  it's relying on the most injury prone player in Raith Rovers history to solve it.  As harsh as that sounds, it's a harsh truth.  The only obvious fix I can see is if a physically imposing 15 goal a season striker appears.
 

I'm sorry but I'll call you out. I'm yet to see a capable footballer in Gullan.

[Raith Against The Machine]

10 minutes ago, foreverarover said:

2 hours ago, Against The Machine said:

[Long, self-indulgent, reactionary match analysis]

Want at the game but what your saying of Nolan is pretty much MacKay that we released?

No, I wouldn't say so. Obviously it's incredibly early days, but I wasn't reminded of Dave McKay at any point during the game. He looked to me like a guy who hasn't played a lot of football recently, who's been dropped into a team where he doesn't know anyone, at incredibly short notice... which is what he is. 

He didn't do anything wrong, and as I say, he wasn't trying things he couldn't accomplish. At times that meant he knocked headers out of play when he might've risked a teammate in midfield, but that kind of pragmatism is probably what's needed in his situation.

I'm keen to see how he gets on. My concern isn't so much about Nolan as an individual, it's about how much we already rely on him to be not only a solid Championship defender, but a leader.

[foreverarover]

The fact we still employ Goodwillie, some of the people who voted to sign him are still in positions of power at the club are the biggest issues we face. I miss the stability of mcglynn but not what his signing has brought to the club since January. Give Murray time and all that baggage away and I think he can progress us. Until then, we're going to struggle imo.

Since january... Keatings who played what, a couple of competitive games in a 2 year contract, Blaise Reilly Snow, we spunked money from day 1 last season.

[foreverarover]

No, I wouldn't say so. Obviously it's incredibly early days, but I wasn't reminded of Dave McKay at any point during the game. He looked to me like a guy who hasn't played a lot of football recently, who's been dropped into a team where he doesn't know anyone, at incredibly short notice... which is what he is. 
He didn't do anything wrong, and as I say, he wasn't trying things he couldn't accomplish. At times that meant he knocked headers out of play when he might've risked a teammate in midfield, but that kind of pragmatism is probably what's needed in his situation.
I'm keen to see how he gets on. My concern isn't so much about Nolan as an individual, it's about how much we already rely on him to be not only a solid Championship defender, but a leader.

So it's more a player who did the basics and made sure he wasn't at fault. Didn't know the qualities of the players around him to make different decisions. I excites me a younger player who has a prospect of being a player for several seasons.

[SirJimmyofNic]

Is everything alright behind the scene, are whats left of McGlynns signings not playing ball with the new manager or at least not likeing his style, how much impact did Berra suddenly packing it all in have on some players, albeit this kind of malaise at the club has been going on since November last year 

I wish I had the answers

[Rovers_Lad]

Result today is a disaster.We,re now a point worse off than last season at this time

[SirJimmyofNic]

2 minutes ago, Rovers_Lad said:

Result today is a disaster.We,re now a point worse off than last season at this time

Aye and a 2 goal deficit ........ shocking

[Kuma Power]

43 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Is Poplatnik decent? Seems to be rumours we’ve spoken to him but could be nonsense.

Just to add to what others have said above - Poplatnik was a bit of an odd one for us. As I saw it, first half of the season when he did play he was generous almost to a fault - 9 times out of 10 he'd be through on goal and try to pass and create an opportunity for someone else rather than shoot. Second half of the season he seemed to find a bit more confidence and went on a scoring run - although worth noting that in at least 3 games I can think of, he scored thanks to the opposition keeper making a howler. It's hard to know whether he'd started to find form at the Rovers and would have kicked on this season had we kept him, or if his goals in the latter part of the season were just a blip. 

[Been going too long]

1 hour ago, foreverarover said:

7 hours ago, Been going too long said:

Why is anyone surprised at this, can’t defend, 3 new players in there and one of them isn’t a defender. I might be boring I might prattle on but this is down to Murray , if we are too nice then sort it , it’s going to be a long season and we will tread water at best. I don’t care how many sound bites he comes out with or buzz words. Get them drilled on the training pitch 

It might not be Murray it might be the board of directors taking the piss out us all.

They are definitely culpable as well 

[raith1974]

4 hours ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

I don't think he's good enough for this level. But, if we ever play a league 1 team with no players again, he'll be just what we need. 

I disagree Easton has quality but needs the right players round him and give him a free role. He showed in the Peterhead game how to create space and scored 2 good goals. With Spencer and Brown behind him doing the donkey work he will be fine. The problem we have is trying to play Gullan, Connelly, Easton, Ross all in the same team as only Connelly is prepared to work hard to get the ball back. 

[raith1974]

Also maybe Raith TV can ask a direct question to IM about future transfers. If he says we are done then season will be very long, hopefully he would say he is still looking to recruit.