Jump to content

Walking Down The Halbeath Road


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Stellaboz said:

Absolutely this. There are only a very small number of clubs that can afford to implement a serious style of play consistently like Barcelona or Ajax and that comes with shitloads of money and years of developing.

Trying to stick rigidly to one "style" at this level or the one above is just being narrow minded. 

Yes, you can try to play a certain way but there comes a time when that won't work and you need a plan B.

AJ and Craw struggled with that, Hughes and Grant failed miserably with it.

McPake has chopped and changed the formation with relative success so far.

Agree with this. You need to have sustained success before you start worrying about style. But it’s worth noting, as a manager, if you have an ‘unattractive’ style of play, you will be given less time by the fans/board.

There are downfalls to having a set style of play. For example, I believe Klopp and Liverpool are struggling due to teams working out a way to play against them. Klopp seems to have no real solution. Everyone at the club is there to suit his ethos. When that isn’t working, there’s no alternative.

As a fan, I just want my team to win. The Falkirk game wasn’t pretty on the eye, but I thought we played well and deserved the win. If there’s one thing we found out last season, possession counts for absolutely nothing. You can pass the ball about the back all you want but football is, and always has been, about scoring more goals than the opposition.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 16/11/2022 at 11:55, Salvo Montalbano said:

I had been pestering my dad to get tickets for ages and he kept saying that they were sold out, he couldn't get one, that he couldn't get away from work to get to the ticket office etc. Come the day of the game I was reading the Sun pullout (the Dundee Utd 8... Dunfermline 0 or whatever it said article) and my dad dropped a wee brown envelope on the paper in which was two tickets for the game. To say I was pleased is quite the understatement. 

I'm sorry I completely forgot to mention this on the podcast. Great story and at least you actually went... 🤣

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really enjoyable afternoon watching the reserves. Shields has them playing some really nice stuff against all pretty decent Hibs team.

First goal was a deflection but Sutherland looked really assured for the second. Andy Tod Jrn kind of played all over the place so I'm not sure if he's a floating player or if they were shaking up the tactics with him dropping deep and then leading the line but he played some nice passes and put himself about well.

Edited by 101
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, 101 said:

Really enjoyable afternoon watching the reserves. Shields has them playing some really nice stuff against all pretty decent Hibs team.

First goal was a deflection but Sutherland looked really assured for the second. Andy Todd kind of played all over the place so I'm not sure if he's a floating player or if they were shaking up the tactics with him dropping deep and then leading the line but he played some nice passes and put himself about well.

Go and stand in the corner until you’re ready to apologise for this blasphemy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Wind Chime Jimmy

Meeting with CEO David Cook and Manager James McPake last night. Summary of what was discussed below. Thanks to Digs off the EEB forum. 

So, as I said, very informative and started off with David Cook giving some updates on a number of things, as we waited on the manager getting back from Edinburgh from the reserve game. 

Everyone delighted to be 7pts clear and how well we’re playing. 7 away wins out of 8. They’re not too disappointed with some of the points dropped, he said we’d maybe look back on the Clyde game as a huge point, from the point of view of the spirit showed, how we stayed focussed and got ourselves back into the game. McPake had said at his interview that the one thing he would gaurantee is they would be as fit as they possibly can be, and will be hard to beat and the general feeling is he’s delivered on that.

Tommy Scanlon, our head physio has gone to Hibs. We got him from there, but he’s gone back to a bigger job as Head of Medical. So they wish him well. 
We are currently at an advanced stage with a replacement from a Premier League club. 

Alan Main has left the club - Nothing sinister in it, he’s just decided he doesn’t want to work in football anymore. A replacement is imminent. 

Paul Allan - He was making good progress but has had another setback and has undergone surgery on a broken metatarsal last night. He will be back in 6-8 weeks.

McCann is ahead of Schedule and could make an appearance around the Christmas fixtures. 

Kevin O’Hara will be back in a similar timescale.

Janauary Window - We are continuing with the same ethos of only adding quality rather than getting bodies in the door. We are looking for players to play in the final 3rd, someone who can offer something a bit different to what we have. They are being offered lots of players at the moment and are getting through reviewing them, whether tha be in video, going to watch them, or having them watched. JM said later in that something that stuck with him in regards to players on his Pro Licence was David Moyes who told a story about how he went to see Jolean Lescott 17 times before he asked Everyon to buy him. It’s about making sure he’s got what you need, ability wise, and character wise. 

Off the field, they are delighted that we are happy, and want that to continue. 

David said the “Marmite” 3rd kit has sold well with half the stock being sold in 2 days. (I couldn’t get a word in here to ask about the Joma contract - Sorry)

Rosyth - We’re not really that further forward from the last meeting. We have conditional planning approval, and are currently working with Scottish Water and some third party consultants to overcome the challenges presented by Scottish Water. I asked if the challenges that have been previously documented and the current status and the obvious additional costs have caused them to perhaps rethink or deviate from their original plans for the place. The answer was an unequivocal no. They have a vision of what they want and need it to be and haven’t ever deviated from that, as it is integral to the plans they have for the club so we will persevere and get there in a timely manner being mindful of costs. That doesn’t mean we will drop parts of the plan to make budget, it will just be done responsibly. 

The club will be announcing an initiative soon involving the Business Club, the Centenary club, Supporters Trust etc to buy Christmas presents for under privileged families in the area. We will need volunteers to help with this. More to come in that soon.

Bring me nicely into Volunteers. The clubs volunteers has been pretty much the same group of people for the last ten years and they are essential to the club. We need more help though so they are going to hold an event in the Purvis Suite to do a ‘Speed Dating’ volunteering event for people to come along to see how they can offer their help. They need drivers (to drive youth players to games, events, college etc) tradesmen such as plumbers and electricians, Marketing/Comms skills, Social Media help. An overview wil be given as to what is required shortly. 

Outside East End after games - Fife council approved the TTRO but Police Scotland have declined to honour it due to resourcing pressures. This applies to both us and Raith Rovers and a steward has already been knocked down at Starks. The club have tried to appeal to them in a safety basis but have so far been ignored. This is not over yet and the club are pursuing this. 

James McPake gave a demo of the analysis software we use and let us see how they prepared for the Falkirk game. He says it’s a massive part of the game. Generally speaking, Some players are really tactically aware others need things explained if you want them to do a certain thing, and this is a really big help. 

They show it in a Thursday, and again in the hotel at lunch on game day. He was introduced to it down south when he played under Chris Coleman and learned a lot from him. It’s usually a 10-12 min video, showing how the opposition like to attack, how they defend, and also what they want us to do in certain situations, occupying pockets of space, being aware of their surroundings in those spaces in order to stop the other team, or keep a shape to press high or force them further up the pitch by dropping into the pocket to occupy defenders and create space for the midfield to get beyond.

We didn’t go to Falkirk to counter attack. We knew we they would have the ball and the idea was to keep a shape, with Wighton dropping into a space to pick up McGinn when they had the ball, but get us up the pitch when we had the ball. He also spoke at length about corners and Falkirk don’t seem to pay too much attention to individuals or how they set up. We noticed that they mark zonally and usually have two men at the back post not really picking people up. 
Im not going ti give the game away as to how we did it, but our goal was completely planned and was an example of a perfectly executed corner kick, and was thanks to Dave Mackay who worked on it after picking it up in the analysis. 

They also use it to show the players what they do well, what they like, and what they need to tweak. 

Matty Todd got a lot of praise from the manager, showing examples of his the runs he makes, like the one at the death in the Falkirk game, will cause them, and other teams problems. He makes loads of runs during the game and it’s deliberately done to occupy defenders and get people to pick him up and create space for others, stretching the opposition. The manager loves the runs he makes. 

It was asked about Hamilton and why he isn’t always playing and the manager says it’s purely tactical. Says he actually spoke to him about it on Friday and that it’s all about playing the best 11 to beat the opposition in regards to the formation and tactics we want to play and he is fully confident that Hamilton will have a great career with us and sees him as one of the players who can improve and we will be able to sell on to bigger and better things and he’d love him to do it. 

We are hopeful of keeping all four of the loan players but there are lots of variables involved so nothing is Gauranteed but the signs, at the moment at least, are good. On a side note Kane Richie Hosler was apparently the best player on the park today. He was sold on us as a winger but it’s obvious to us he is better in a more central role and likes playing there, so if we see him playing there, it’s not out of position (that’s my take on why they said that BTW)

I think that’s everything, lots more was said around some of this but it was detailed on what we were seeing in the screen so really difficult to translate to notes. JM clearly loves football, and is loving it here. We were there from 6pm to 8.45pm and most of it was him talking about football, I could have listened to him all night tbh.

In summary, very informative and really enjoyed it. The one thing that kept coming up from board down to the squad to us fans is togetherness. They see it, and they are feeding off it so the longer it continues, the better for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rob1885 said:

Amazing how when results go well on the park then the rest falls into place. Only thing that matters in the lower leagues tbh.

Only thing that matters in any league tbf,  we exist to compete on the pitch and do everything we can to win, everything else is extra.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good news that Dundee United have agreed to Chris Mochrie playing in the Scottish Cup. A sign that he will be with us for the rest of the season.

KRH and Fisher's clubs have agreed too. Only Mahon at Motherwell not agreed.

Think KRH might start playing a bigger part going forward. The management team seem to think he's better centrally than on the wing. They seem to be dishing out a lot of praise on him last few weeks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Chubbychops said:

Good news that Dundee United have agreed to Chris Mochrie playing in the Scottish Cup. A sign that he will be with us for the rest of the season.

KRH and Fisher's clubs have agreed too. Only Mahon at Motherwell not agreed.

Think KRH might start playing a bigger part going forward. The management team seem to think he's better centrally than on the wing. They seem to be dishing out a lot of praise on him last few weeks.

I hadn’t seen that until I read your post earlier. Hopefully they can all play - suggests clubs might want them to stay here beyond January, which would be good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, par-adise said:

Anyone know if legends are showing the World Cup games before and after tomorrow? Assume they will be.

Do they still have TVs? Can't recall last time they showed a game in there, but was there not some issue about licenses for public broadcast?

Reckon that no, they won't be showing any games, but might be best to contact the club.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 19/11/2022 at 09:41, Wind Chime Jimmy said:

Not sure it bothers me to the point I'd retract an opinion. Abba were, are, always will be shite. Up there with Westlife and Bewitched. 

Terrible take from you @Wind Chime Jimmy. You can not like Abba if you want. Musiic all about taste at the end of the day. Bjorn and Benny are great songwriters though. 😝

On 20/11/2022 at 11:11, Diamonds are Forever said:

Dunfermline will win the league by 10-15 points. They remind me of Cove last year - solid, don't lose many goals, score a few late goals, aren't spectacular to watch but will grind out wins each week. Their defence has conceded 10 less goals than the next best defence which is unreal. The likes of Falkirk, QOS, ourselves, Edinburgh and Montrose will flail about winning 4 nil, drawing 3-3, losing 5-1 etc and provide exciting games while Dunfermline will steadily move towards the title.

This, largely. Not sure it will be as much as 10 - 15 points but it could be and they'll certainly win it I think. Consistency and a solid back line makes a league winning combination. I've only seen them once and they didn't look anything particularly special but more than good enough to swat us aside.

Everyone else is just all over the place really. Peterhead and Clyde looked a bit below the rest (as did Edinburgh in 3 games against us but they MUST be better in other games) but they've shown some recent signs of being at least more competitve. The middle 6 or 7 (Kelty looked ok against us but are just a little behind the rest of the pack currently) are all capable of winning heavily or losing heavily and anything in between as you say.

At times we've looked very impressive. First 80 minutes at home to Alloa we were outstanding (in a game we still didn't win). We were very good against Edinburgh three times. But we were abject at home to Clyde, offered nothing in the home games against Dunfermline and Falkirk and we also managed to lose 5-1 at Alloa albeit most of the damage was done in a 5 minute crazy spell in a game we'd dominated up to that point.

I expect most of that middle group could say the same. They'll have had excellent showings and dreadful ones, often within the same game! I think the best I've seen from an opposition this season might be Airdrie's 1st half at Palmerston in August. But they fell right out of the game after half time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, par-adise said:

Anyone know if legends are showing the World Cup games before and after tomorrow? Assume they will be.

I would imagine so, last time I was in there they were showing the Hibs Hearts semi final which was last season but I would think they would have the games on

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 24/11/2022 at 18:47, Chubbychops said:

The management team seem to think he's better centrally than on the wing

He played centrally against Hibs in the R.Cup and looked good, he was on the end of some poor challenges which I think was out of frustration from the defending team. 

He didn't score but I'm pretty sure he drew the foul from which we scored from and it's worth bearing in mind Hibs player Darren McGregor in that game and on a tight park he can still put a good performance.

I think him in behind Todorov or McCann would be decent 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, 101 said:

He played centrally against Hibs in the R.Cup and looked good, he was on the end of some poor challenges which I think was out of frustration from the defending team. 

He didn't score but I'm pretty sure he drew the foul from which we scored from and it's worth bearing in mind Hibs player Darren McGregor in that game and on a tight park he can still put a good performance.

I think him in behind Todorov or McCann would be decent 

Probably unfortunately for him he’s got mochrie to fight for that position.  It will either take us struggling and him coming on or a game where mcpake thinks playing both is worthwhile, only likely if we’re expecting a team to park the bus

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Probably unfortunately for him he’s got mochrie to fight for that position.  It will either take us struggling and him coming on or a game where mcpake thinks playing both is worthwhile, only likely if we’re expecting a team to park the bus

Playing on a narrow pitch like Kelty having the two of them in behind Todorov might be an option 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, 101 said:

Playing on a narrow pitch like Kelty having the two of them in behind Todorov might be an option 

It’s a possibility, as is going 4-2-2-2 but that would ask the full backs to stay deeper than they have done this season.    Good headaches for mcpake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very pleased we've got those awful Scottish Cup stats to f**k today, and very comprehensively.

Could, and should, have been more, and think we had at least one more gear to go up.

Thought Ritchie-Hosler looked decent today. Shame he had to go off, but looked more precautionary than anything.

Hoping for a good draw on Monday. Still loads of decent ties we could get.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...