The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Heid_The_Baw]

1 minute ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

Morton at home in the Challenge Cup. How are we going to be able to control the excitement for the next two months?

Bang on.  About time we were allowed to stick a reserve team out in this crap tourney.  
 

[CountryBumpkin]

25 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

Morton at home in the Challenge Cup. How are we going to be able to control the excitement for the next two months?

Moneyspinning...

We're due to play them in the league on the 24th of December too, how about we just merge both games into 1 winner takes all game. 3 points + progression up for grabs. If its a draw at 90 mins, points are shared and cup tie goes to ET or Pens. Saves everyone from needing two trips to watch this.

[Rovers_Lad]

1 hour ago, Jilted John said:

I’d have to agree with this. If you take Saturday’s game as a prime example of where our season has been. We lost by one goal… Conceding once  in an away game to a side higher up the table isn’t a huge issue, it’s the fact that we can’t score at the other end that’s the problem. We have plenty creativity in the side, we just can’t hold the ball up or finish when the ball is in the box.

With you on that.Quick glance at the league table and only Inverness have conceded more goals than us.Our GF is our issue

[CountryBumpkin]

45 minutes ago, Rovers_Lad said:

With you on that.Quick glance at the league table and only Inverness have conceded more goals than us.Our GF is our issue

I agree, we don't create a lot of good chances and we don't score the ones we take. None of our forward/midfield line have any sort of consistency right now. Its easy for us to blame the strikers but they're being fed scraps and rubbish at times. Connolly, Ross, Easton and Stanton have to all do better when we go forward to create good clear opportunities as much as Connell and Gullan do putting them away. 

[Ro Sham Bo]

A couple of really bad results in the making for us tonight. Looks like we'll be 8th come 9.30 tonight. 

 

[Michael W]

Big games coming up and those scores staying as they are will really add on the pressure. 

Need to start scoring some fucking goals. 

[CountryBumpkin]

9 hours ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

I'm basing that on 9 games a 1/4 , just means we play Arbroath twice in the 2nd 1/4 and dont face Cove again till the 3rd, the hypothetical scenario remains the same 

And looking at that table if Cove and Morten get a win tonight we're down to 8th, highly unlikely but could happen

Put some lottery numbers on this week aye? 

[renton]

22 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

A couple of really bad results in the making for us tonight. Looks like we'll be 8th come 9.30 tonight. 

 

It's a trap to fall in to getting depressed when other teams don't do you a favour.

End of the day, if we want to do anything we'll need to go and win some games of football. We've got the game in hand as well.

[SirJimmyofNic]

Hopefully Cove are tired on Sat, I'd rather be a point in front of them than 5 points behind

[Raith_Raver]

28 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

A couple of really bad results in the making for us tonight. Looks like we'll be 8th come 9.30 tonight. 

 

You'll be delighted.

Don't want to spoil your night but we have a game in hand at home to Cove, who we just beat with a weak team.

[Ro Sham Bo]

4 minutes ago, Raith_Raver said:

You'll be delighted.

Don't want to spoil your night but we have a game in hand at home to Cove, who we just beat with a weak team.

That's right, I forgot that Cove played their first team that day 

[Rovers_Lad]

Is our game in hand not Arbroath away?

[SirJimmyofNic]

2 minutes ago, Rovers_Lad said:

Is our game in hand not Arbroath away?

Yep

[Ro Sham Bo]

If I was the chairman I wouldn't exactly be encouraging the appointment of a new assistant manager until we see how the next 3 games go. 

[baillieinleeds]

14 hours ago, renton said:

It's a trap to fall in to getting depressed when other teams don't do you a favour.

End of the day, if we want to do anything we'll need to go and win some games of football. We've got the game in hand as well.

Unfortunately as it stands, we don’t even look like we can. The players Murray signed are awful. They just aren’t good enough. 5 defeats already. I can see us losing so much more if we don’t address these serious problems. Relying on Lang and Vaughan won’t solve it either. Ok it took Murray 3 seasons to shape up Airdrie as challengers. Unfortunately the Championship isn’t as forgiving as League 1. Maybe I was a little harsh that all of his signings are awful. Brown is the only one for me. All the teams in this league need to do is destroy us down the flanks as Millen and Dick are utterly rancid. Awaits the hate.

[baillieinleeds]

13 hours ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

If I was the chairman I wouldn't exactly be encouraging the appointment of a new assistant manager until we see how the next 3 games go. 

I want Berra.

 

 

 

as manager. 

[R.R.FC]

I don’t really think the overall squad is as strong as some seem to think and I am usually a bit of a happy clapper. I wouldn’t be considering sacking Murray until we’ve played at least 18 games, regardless of the next few results. People complain about us only winning 3 from our first 8 but it’s the same as McGlynn won in his last 19 and he had a much stronger squad. 

I’m not saying Murray has done a fantastic job or is beyond criticism by any means, I think the squad building has been poor this summer. It’s clearly been a difficult market and thankfully there are other teams who have faced the same issues as us but ultimately whether it be through budget cuts or poor recruitment, I would say our squad is quite a bit weaker than last season. This season, we are exactly where I think we should be looking at our squad, whereas last year the form seemed like a huge underperformance based on what we had.

Weirdly, it’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t be looking to remove Murray anytime soon, I don’t think another manager comes in and suddenly has this side winning most weeks with its clear deficiencies and these can’t be addressed until January. As I saw someone say before, you can’t midfield your way to success in this league, yes we are strong there but if you have defensive frailties and nothing up front you will find yourself continuing to lose out by ‘small margins’ in most games.

Results before the January window should be reviewed and if we are bottom of the league then let another manager have a go at fixing the problems with new players in January. However, if we are still in the 5th-7th range, Murray should get the window to continue to mould his own squad and given the benefit of the doubt over a tough summer market being a one off issue.

From last seasons squad we have lost:

Tumilty, Berra, Benedictus, McKay, Musonda, Mackie, Williamson, Zanatta, Poplatnik and Varian whilst having Spencer, Matthews, Lang and Vaughan missing for most of this season (admittedly 3 of those 4 were long term absences last season and we saw how the effected us). They have been replaced with:

Millen, O’Riordan, Nolan, Ngwenya, Brown, Easton, McBride and Connell.

There is nobody that can convince me the squad overall has been improved from last season, which was a side that finished the second half of the season with relegation form. We are stronger in central midfield but I would say weaker in every other position. We could probably name 2 midfields of different players that would be good Championship level but struggle to name one solid back 4 or any dangerous forward line, that’s the problem. The manager absolutely takes criticism for that but we’re stuck with what we have until January now (barring Frederiksen if he ever gets a work permit) and I actually think he is getting decent enough performances out of the hamstrung squad we have.

Edited October 5, 2022 by R.R.FC

[R.R.FC]

Can we also stop with the myth it took Murray 3 seasons to challenge with Airdrie? Last season was actually the furthest he finished behind 1st place in his 3 full seasons in charge. They were in the mix for promotion every season with a side that weren’t exactly league favourites when he took over.

Criticise his recruitment and time in charge of the Rovers if you wish, there’s enough to warrant it but I don’t understand the weird revisionism about his time as Airdrie manager.

[baillieinleeds]

18 minutes ago, R.R.FC said:

Can we also stop with the myth it took Murray 3 seasons to challenge with Airdrie? Last season was actually the furthest he finished behind 1st place in his 3 full seasons in charge. They were in the mix for promotion every season with a side that weren’t exactly league favourites when he took over.

Criticise his recruitment and time in charge of the Rovers if you wish, there’s enough to warrant it but I don’t understand the weird revisionism about his time as Airdrie manager.

Ok, I’ll go with. He’s way out of his depth in the Championship. His time in charge of St Mirren is proof he isn’t up to it. He had a decent squad at St Mirren too. I really hoped he learned his craft. It was Jack Ross that was the real brains in his one and only successful season. There I’ve said it. 

[Michael W]

I don't think there's much doubt the current squad is weaker than last season's squad. Look at the defence for example - one player remains from last season and you would get near unanimous agreement that he was the weakest starting player in last season's defence. Millen is a significant downgrade on Tumilty and we are also weaker at CB than we were too. 

We are still struggling to score goals and lack quality up front, which is not really new. Poplatnik was no world beater but scored a few, so until Vaughan is back we are currently weaker there also. You don't want to lump pressure on a new player, let alone one that's just joined having not kicked a ball for a few months, but we need big John to work out for us 

Midfield is the one area I think we are better. Easton, whilst inconsistent, is an upgrade on Zanatta. There's McBride in there as well, though I have reservations there. We've also added Brown as well. Plenty options, but if the forwards aren't putting the chances away, strong midfields won't have the desired impact. 

There's debate over how strong last season's squad really was in relative terms, because we had a season of extreme contrast. The first half we were title contenders, the second we were relegation fodder. You can point to things like Zanatta's purple patch in the first few months as contributory factors to the discrepancy, but were we just punching badly and reverted to type? Was the truth somewhere in the middle between the extremes demonstrated and our finish reflected the squad's strength? Unwelcome attention was of course heaped on the club but the rot had set in even before that. It no doubt prolonged the misery, though.