Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[parsforlife]

8 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

No, we judge teams on results.

Which is based on...   how they compare to their opponents 

[DA Baracus]

1 minute ago, parsforlife said:

Which is based on...   how they compare to their opponents 

Sounds like we both arrive at the same conclusion then.

[Ayrpar]

Anyway, slightly changing topic, I will not be giving Hearts £18 to watch their feed next week . First game of the season I will have missed. Looking forward to a break from watching the subdued, limp performances we have been offering.  The team needs to come out of hiding and offer themselves up for the ball. 

[DA Baracus]

55 minutes ago, Ayrpar said:

Anyway, slightly changing topic, I will not be giving Hearts £18 to watch their feed next week . First game of the season I will have missed. Looking forward to a break from watching the subdued, limp performances we have been offering.  The team needs to come out of hiding and offer themselves up for the ball. 

We will be annihilated next week.

We will turn in a similar performance to the one we gave in Dundee, but won't come back from 3 down.

Can genuinely see us losing 4 or 5 nil after putting in a pathetic, timid, shitebag, cowardly performance.

[da_no_1]

If Crawford needs some inspiration for an entertaining and well-organised team then look east.

Today, aye

A couple of weeks ago their board was in utter meltdown because they lost ti the worst team in the Championship at that point.

Fitba eh? What's it like

[Islay]

Today, aye

A couple of weeks ago their board was in utter meltdown because they lost ti the worst team in the Championship at that point.

Fitba eh? What's it like

Football clubs will have bad results, ours was the Morton game at home. On the whole, we’ve been quite good defensively apart from the Dundee game. As DA Baracus has pointed out we seem to be on one of those Crawford runs, however because we’ve been decent at the back we are drawing games we would have usually lost. Thankfully this has kept us in the race for second place so we have time to fix our issue.

Our deficiencies are in attack, more specifically creating chances from open play. I find our attacking play tedious and boring to watch, I noticed this at the start of the season however because we scored a good number of goals from set pieces this papered over the cracks. Now that the set-piece goals have dried up it’s glaringly obvious where we suffer as a team. We do not create enough chances in 90 minutes, we seem scared to test the opposition keeper and most of the time we fail to get ourselves in the position to do so.

The last game I enjoyed watching was the Hearts game as that was a complete team performance, and that was back in November. The last 15 minutes of the 3-3 Dundee game are a benchmark for what this team are capable of in an attacking sense, although we had to be 3-0 down to show it. Is it a lack of ambition from Crawford, does he treat the opposition with too much respect? Whatever the issue, I’m bored watching Dunfermline at the moment. However, I’ll continue to do so in the hope that Crawford realises in order to win games of football you need to create chances as they lead to goals, which in turn provides a bit of entertainment for those watching.

[Ayrpar]

Absolutely Islay.  We didnt get a single shot on target yesterday . We didnt get a single shot on target against Morton away last week. That means in 180 minutes we didnt test the opposition keeper. That therefore puts pressure on our defence not to put a foot wrong

I do think it stems from the ultra cautious approach adopted by Crawford.    

[DAFC.]

Dom Thomas, Ryan Dow and Declan McManus is an attacking line that should be doing damage constantly. Stale as f*ck and look as if they don’t have a clue as soon as they get in to good positions. If there is any chance of getting a couple decent attackers in, then hopefully Crawford goes for it to put pressure on these guys for places.

[Stellaboz]

The way I see it it's the way we play rather than the personnel. McManus as I've said before is no target man and when the second ball isn't won we're immediately on the back foot.

Get him or o Hara running in behind more often. We often stroke it about nicely from side to side but we then play completely in front of the opposition with nothing happening.

[All-Star-Par]

The fact Crawford went with a flat midfield five yesterday at home to Ayr who have no real attacking threat says it all for me about the kind of manager he is. Start with a point and don’t lose it type. He was given by all counts a decent budget in the transfer window for players in the summer but he still sets us up like he did when he first took charge and went on a run of horrific viewing 1-0 wins. I don’t see any development as a manager in that period, we get the occasional false dawn for example the Hearts game or Dundee United last year but what goods that when it’s followed by a run of 6/7/8 games when we are chronic? Consistency wins leagues and we are too consistently in troughs rather than peaks in his tenure.

[HoBNob]

1 hour ago, Ayrpar said:

Absolutely Islay.  We didnt get a single shot on target yesterday . We didnt get a single shot on target against Morton away last week. 

We absolutely did have shots on target at Morton... 

[DA Baracus]

2 hours ago, Ayrpar said:

Absolutely Islay.  We didnt get a single shot on target yesterday . We didnt get a single shot on target against Morton away last week. That means in 180 minutes we didnt test the opposition keeper. That therefore puts pressure on our defence not to put a foot wrong

I do think it stems from the ultra cautious approach adopted by Crawford.    

 

1 hour ago, Grant228 said:

We absolutely did have shots on target at Morton... 

Yup. I can recall Wilson and Thomas having efforts in the first half that the keeper had to save.

McCann nearly scored in the second half and Turner hit one over as well.

Still, it was an absolutely terrible performance.

[Chubbychops]

I thought Ayr just looked a better team at passing the ball around midfield. More composed players in the middle of the park. Our three midfielders don't have any understanding between them. One or two passes and it breaks down. The build up is so slow and predictable that it gives the opposition time to read our passes. It leads to the full backs by-passing the midfield and hitting it long to the likes of McManus who's not a target man in a month of Sundays. His ball control is atrocious. The rare occassions we manage to get Dow and Thomas in the game, they are unable to beat their man or put a decent ball in. They're completely ineffective at the moment. We need a strong striker that can hold the ball up and act as a foil for O'Hara and McManus to do what they are best at, which is running on to balls behind the defence. Not playing with their back to goal.

The defence are doing well but that's because we are abandoning any attacking threat in the process. Dull,  negative football. I would rather lose a couple games playing a bit more expansive and playing on the front foot. I know we are second in the league but it doesn't feel like it due to the boring style of play. I can't be arsed watching the Pars right now. The problem is that Crawford's instincts as a manger is try keep a clean sheet first then we will think about winning games. I can't see him ever changing this safety first approach. Nisbet was a great outlet for him last year but it doesn't work with the personal we have up top this season.

Edited January 24, 2021 by Chubbychops

[parsforlife]

No interest in complaining about the style of play.  We could do with a bit more in attack to get more goals to turn these draws into wins. But being happy to lose games if it means we score more goals is insanity.  

1/2 creative players coming in and offering us alternatives for when Dow/Thomas aren’t on form can make a massive difference to us.  

[Chubbychops]

3 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

But being happy to lose games if it means we score more goals is insanity.  

No it's not. It's would be better to lose and win than draw two games, so trying to score more goals and take more chances defensively would hopefully produce more points and be a much better watch.

 

[parsforlife]

17 minutes ago, Chubbychops said:

No it's not. It's would be better to lose and win than draw two games, so trying to score more goals and take more chances defensively would hopefully produce more points and be a much better watch.

 

A lose and a win also gives more points to our opponents than 2 draws.

[DA Baracus]

St Johnstone or Livingston will win their second major trophy next month; the same number of major trophies we have.

[CallumPar]

The last 15 minutes of the 3-3 Dundee game are a benchmark for what this team are capable of in an attacking sense, although we had to be 3-0 down to show it.

I agree with most of your post. But I think I have to disagree on this one. For me, the Raith game would have been a better example. From memory, the 3 goals against Dundee all came from set pieces and we created nothing from open play. That’s the same as most games this season, for me. We did show more intent/play with more intensity after going 3-0 down v Dundee, but still created absolutely nothing from open play. I feel like our goals from set pieces paper over the cracks far too much, when we’ve got results from them. Too many games this season, we haven’t created anything from open play. We can only have scored from open play in about half of our league games, which is very poor for a team hoping for promotion.

The 2 goals away to Raith were good and we played some good football after that. I feel like we have players capable of creating chances/scoring from open play, however we don’t play a style of football that suits the players we have available. We rarely see Dow/Thomas running down the wing and whipping crosses in, as we saw for McManus’ goal against Raith. We don’t see the quick counter attacks that F Murray scored from against Raith. We don’t have midfielders like Turner busting a gut to get into the box when we have the ball, like he has in our better performances. Instead it’s slow passing play, with no obvious tactic to break down an opposition defence. Eventually playing the ball to a lone striker who’s in desperate need of support, with no teammates anywhere near him.

We look most dangerous when we play quick, direct football. I want to see us getting the ball and using the pace of our attacking players/Turner to run at the defence, before they get organised.

[Stellaboz]

Signing incoming! 

[Chubbychops]

3 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

Signing incoming! 

Scott Banks from Crystal Palace