The Falkirk FC Thread

[S-Bairn]

4 minutes ago, DeeBairn said:

Well that's a judgment for a team looking for a manager to make. There's plenty of managers that are serial failures that manage to keep bouncing back time after time. Paul Lambert springs to mind. Doesn't matter how he is perceived by anyone other than the person sitting opposite him in the interview room. 

 

Every single one of us could despise the ground a Manger walks on, but if he sells himself to the chairman, that's it. 

Certainly true however I think to get the interview in the first place you would need to be highly thought of and if he makes an arse of this season I would doubt many clubs in our league would be seeking him out as the man to get them promoted or consolidate, Alloa would be the only exception I would think given it worked previously for both club and manager

[Guest Back Post Misses]

I've been critical of Hartley so far this season but I refuse to believe that he 'doesn't give a shit'. I think he knows that he's potentially 5 games away from the end of his professional managerial career and is just showing that pressure. I struggle to believe he doesn't care.

He cares alright he is just under pressure. I would be surprised if he doesn’t know the recruitment has been fucked up and it is going to cost him his job and maybe even our place in this division.

I see little way to sort this other than throwing more money at it. I wouldn’t think it will be Hartley that gets it though.

We are worse than this time last season and by a good margin too.

[Bigbri Bairn2]

The sad thing with our current signing strategy is that players don't know how the fans feel. Falkirkfc has almost always had a loyal support who want to see a team playing with passion and attacking. The new players are here to make money ( granted not a fortune) not to see our club return to the top tier. You saw the difference when Miller and Kerr played. They wanted Falkirk to win and celebrated when we did. OK it ended in tears. The club need players who play for the jersey. Will Vaulks did that and the fans loved it. The connection with fans is not there with the new team yet and all they hear is a lot of insults from the Main Stand. Hartley is also not a Falkirk man and his only focus is trying to be a success to get a bigger gig.

Look at Dobbie at QOS to see the difference

[brokeville]

Look at Dobbie at QOS to see the difference

Absolutely agree that’s there no passion at the club apart from most supporters.

[falkirkthebigclub]

With hindsight, it probably wasn't the greatest idea to base our scouting system, so heavily, around a football structure which throws grand-a-week contracts at players who can barely produce an audible fart in the direction of their opponent's goal. There is simply too much money in English football for us to compete, we were never going to uncover a team's worth of ballers from that source.

[DeeBairn]

13 minutes ago, S-Bairn said:

Certainly true however I think to get the interview in the first place you would need to be highly thought of and if he makes an arse of this season I would doubt many clubs in our league would be seeking him out as the man to get them promoted or consolidate, Alloa would be the only exception I would think given it worked previously for both club and manager

To be fair, we gave him a job despite being sacked by dundee and almost universally dislike by dundee fans at the end. 

 

The comment someone made about not finding good players down south is a bit off. The best two players we've had in recent seasons were both recruited from down south, Vaulks and Leahy. All the dross has been recruited up here. Not difficult to see why we looked south. 

[Shodwall cat]

10 minutes ago, DeeBairn said:

To be fair, we gave him a job despite being sacked by dundee and almost universally dislike by dundee fans at the end. 

 

The comment someone made about not finding good players down south is a bit off. The best two players we've had in recent seasons were both recruited from down south, Vaulks and Leahy. All the dross has been recruited up here. Not difficult to see why we looked south. 

I think the problem is  we're building a whole team virtually from down south.  Yes we've had some great players from down there but we've also had some real haddies.  We seem to have gone from one end of the spectrum under Houston where all our signings came from the central belt with little imagination to filling the team with players from down south we've never heard of.  I'd like to think there is a middle ground somewhere that we really should be aiming for with the majority being from up here with a few scouted from down south. 

[bridge of allan bairn]

The sad thing with our current signing strategy is that players don't know how the fans feel. Falkirkfc has almost always had a loyal support who want to see a team playing with passion and attacking. The new players are here to make money ( granted not a fortune) not to see our club return to the top tier. You saw the difference when Miller and Kerr played. They wanted Falkirk to win and celebrated when we did. OK it ended in tears. The club need players who play for the jersey. Will Vaulks did that and the fans loved it. The connection with fans is not there with the new team yet and all they hear is a lot of insults from the Main Stand. Hartley is also not a Falkirk man and his only focus is trying to be a success to get a bigger gig.

absolutely this. I've said the same recently. for the first time in years I feel no connection with the players possibly Muirhead aside. we had Sibbald Leahy Alston vaulks etc in recent years who you felt really want the club to do well and understood the way the fans wanted to see us play. actually I think Robson despite not getting a game is in the same mould

[DeeBairn]

10 minutes ago, Shodwall cat said:

I think the problem is  we're building a whole team virtually from down south.  Yes we've had some great players from down there but we've also had some real haddies.  We seem to have gone from one end of the spectrum under Houston where all our signings came from the central belt with little imagination to filling the team with players from down south we've never heard of.  I'd like to think there is a middle ground somewhere that we really should be aiming for with the majority being from up here with a few scouted from down south. 

I'd like to think if we can get a stable 11 worked out, that will help a ton. Once that is done, we can start working on a blend of tactics for different situations. But first and foremost we need to get the team winning and the players on the same wavelength. That needs a single formation to be settled on with the same players most of the time. Only once that happens and we get everyone on the same wavelength will we know for sure who is a duffer and who is good. 

[DeeBairn]

49 minutes ago, Bigbri Bairn2 said:

The sad thing with our current signing strategy is that players don't know how the fans feel. Falkirkfc has almost always had a loyal support who want to see a team playing with passion and attacking. The new players are here to make money ( granted not a fortune) not to see our club return to the top tier. You saw the difference when Miller and Kerr played. They wanted Falkirk to win and celebrated when we did. OK it ended in tears. The club need players who play for the jersey. Will Vaulks did that and the fans loved it. The connection with fans is not there with the new team yet and all they hear is a lot of insults from the Main Stand. Hartley is also not a Falkirk man and his only focus is trying to be a success to get a bigger gig.

Never going to be a connection with the fans if all they hear is the fans abusing them every week. If we had done that consistently to Vaulks when he was finding his feet he wouldn't still be regarding us as fondly as he does. 

[Bigbrbairn]

Just thought and wish I had the technical ability to find quotes to prove this
Mid Summer
We are bringing in a full new team of young players who will need time to get used to each other and know how the opposition play. Patience

Two Games into the season
All the players are shite send some back and as for Hartley jacket and shoogily peg appear to be the current view

[8MileBU]

So I've noticed. I'd settle for somewhere with a moderate chance of food poisoning and a zero chance of halloumi.

Is there still a wee van down at the retail park?

 

There’s a wee van at the retail park or a Greggs, Bayne’s or McDs on the High St Street and that’s about it. There’s a Subway and Mexican place just off the High Street too.

 

There’s a few wee cafes scattered about up the town as well. Tea Jenny’s and Pots are both nice, but they’re the only ones I’ve been to.

[DeeBairn]

3 minutes ago, Bigbrbairn said:

Just thought and wish I had the technical ability to find quotes to prove this
Mid Summer
We are bringing in a full new team of young players who will need time to get used to each other and know how the opposition play. Patience

Two Games into the season
All the players are shite send some back and as for Hartley jacket and shoogily peg appear to be the current view

I'm grouchy enough to remember Lambie and Bannon. People need to wind it in a bit. 

[Ranaldo Bairn]

1 hour ago, PipoIsABairn said:

Didn't TOE get an assist for our first goal? Looked like him in the highlights.

I think to be fair he did, but I admit to being distracted and missing the goal at the game. Even if he did, he did absolutely zero the other 89 minutes.

[Shodwall cat]

13 minutes ago, Bigbrbairn said:

Just thought and wish I had the technical ability to find quotes to prove this
Mid Summer
We are bringing in a full new team of young players who will need time to get used to each other and know how the opposition play. Patience

Two Games into the season
All the players are shite send some back and as for Hartley jacket and shoogily peg appear to be the current view

Problem for me is that we have seen virtually no improvement in the side since pre season started . That and the constant chopping and changing players here there and everywhere has made the issue even worse.  A formation and team selection should've been worked on from day one with the odd tweak here or there being needed.  Players should've been signed to fit in the required formation and positions. Here we are  how many games into the season and we're now looking at playing 3 at the back perhaps. That should've been sorted out weeks ago . The fact that we seem to have signed a pile of players with no idea what their best positions or formations are and we're still trying to find a team and formation that fits after the season has started is shambolic if you ask me.

Edited August 15, 2018 by Shodwall cat

[Harry Kinnear]

The more games that pass without getting points on the board the more these young players and Hartley will feel the pressure from the fans.

Hartley needs to settle on a formation and work with it. The fact he doesn't seem to know how/who he wants to play is a concern and has to have an affect on the players.

The QOS game is crucial, get beat and the thought of going to Dingwall and Ayr with no points would really ramp up the pressure.

I will be happy if we start to look like a team coming together, getting forward more and creating a lot more chances which we haven't so far.

I am still very much in the keep the faith, give them a chance camp but the thought of 0 points from 5 games genuinely gives me the fear.

[Shodwall cat]

23 minutes ago, DeeBairn said:

I'm grouchy enough to remember Lambie and Bannon. People need to wind it in a bit. 

Bannon won 8 and lost 6 out of his 17 games in charge . Will be interesting to see how many we win in our first 17 this season.

Edited August 15, 2018 by Shodwall cat

[Bigbrbairn]

A slight positive may be that in both league games we performed better second half. That’s the know your opponents positive! Or perhaps not

[Rocco]

Problem for me is that we have seen virtually no improvement in the side since pre season started . That and the constant chopping and changing players here there and everywhere has made the issue even worse.  A formation and team selection should've been worked on from day one with the odd tweak here or there being needed.  Players should've been signed to fit in the required formation and positions. Here we are  how many games into the season and we're now looking at playing 3 at the back perhaps. That should've been sorted out weeks ago . The fact that we seem to have signed a pile of players with no idea what their best positions or formations are and we're still trying to find a team and formation that fits after the season has started is shambolic if you ask me.

I agree with some of what you're saying, however, I think some of it is naivety. Some players can play well in certain positions because of the players around them or the way they setup. It's possible that the guys just aren't linking up.

Most teams will sign a few players and only have to play with a few positions to see what works. Falkirk effectively have a brand new team who don't know each other or what the style of play the team plays. I think this is a case of too many new players but I don't know what the alternative is and unfortunately I think we're just going to have to go with it and hope things start to progress

[Guest Back Post Misses]

Last was what it looked it was. A bunch of players that don’t look good enough that have been thrown together without any obvious coherent way of playing.