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Sons' sorrow


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Big Nat’s a decent midfielder at this level and probably quite a unique player too. Very strong, great technique and scored a couple of goals for us from set pieces but he’s also painfully slow, as soon as the ball is played over the top of him he’s out the game. He looked quite unfit at times earlier in the season but he seemed much sharper from January onwards, although even at that he was still the slowest man on the pitch. He’s not a bad replacement for Kyle Hutton, just less mobile. 

He was quite a strange player at Airdrie, some fans regarded him as one of our worst ever players, others thought he should be in the team every week. The truth is somewhere in the middle. His best games seemed to come against poorer opposition where we had more time on the ball, unfortunately his lack of pace means he can struggle to make an impact in higher tempo games. I do think that he’s quite a likeable player and I was disappointed things never really clicked for him at Airdrie.

I think Murray’s initial plan last season was to have Wedderburn sitting as the holding midfielder or in a midfield two with Kieran Millar. In theory that pairing could have worked quite well as Millar’s endless running and energy should have covered for Wedderburn’s lack of mobility but it never really translated onto the pitch. I think Carswell’s a better player  though so pairing him with Wedderburn might work better.

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1 hour ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

I really don’t know how I feel about that. I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either. 

Hmmm....Ross Forbes and Nat Wedderburn in the same midfield ?  Well, we won't be getting done for speeding this season.

Having said that , Wedderburn has always had a presence against us as detailed above by the Ranter, so let's see what he produces in a Sons jersey.  Impress us Big Man.

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Actually quite like this signing.  A known player with plenty experience. Probably a straight swap for Hutton but with the added bonus of a few goals a season too. Just need to wait and see if he's able to play alongside Carswell as opposed to the Hutton/Carswell duo that never seemed to work.  

From the pics on website he looks a lot trimmer than he has in recent games against us. 

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????????

Sam Wardrop Ryan McGeever Morgyn Neill Rico Quitongo

Ross Forbes Stuart Carswell Nat Wedderburn Stefan McCluskey

PJ Crossan Denny Johnstone

Looking alright on paper so far. What positions need strengthened (aside from the obvious lack of a 'keeper)? Ideally I'd like to see us bring in another creative midfielder/winger and forward. That aside (and assuming we're running with a small squad) I'd be relatively happy with things. We've got a bit of versatility in there; Carsy can fill in at RB or CB, Wedderburn at CB, Forbes at LB, Crossan and McCluskey can play up front or wide and Langan can really play anywhere. It's not ideal, but given the circumstances I'm far happier than I was this time last year. Wedderburn would've been a marquee signing 12 months ago!

On the big man he's always a player who has divided me. Sometimes he looked like a really classy passer of the ball who would dominate games and dictate the tempo. Other times he looked clumsy and immobile. Reading that back though the same could be said about Kyle Hutton - and they are both the same age - so fair play to Duffy for finding a similar (on paper) replacement for our POTY. I just hope he can play better with Carsy.

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13 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

????????

Sam Wardrop Ryan McGeever Morgyn Neill Rico Quitongo

Ross Forbes Stuart Carswell Nat Wedderburn Stefan McCluskey

PJ Crossan Denny Johnstone

Looking alright on paper so far. What positions need strengthened (aside from the obvious lack of a 'keeper)?

I think we desperately need a starting winger to replace McCluskey IMO. I’m not against having him as a squad player who we can introduce in the second half or to fill in for injuries but he’s nowhere near good enough to be starting every week. Someone with pace would be nice.

We also need some reinforcements up top. Johnstone has spent pretty much the last 3 years injured and we can’t fully depend on someone with that sort of injury history, Jones is shite and Crossan isn’t a completely natural striker and I think Duffy may deploy him out wide.

A creative midfielder to replace McKee is vital and will be our most important signing. I have no doubt that getting someone of his quality will be pretty much impossible but I hope Duffy really goes baws out to find the best possible option in that position. 

Defensive backup is also required, as it stands we have no natural defenders to cover injuries or suspensions. Someone like David Ferguson would be perfect (is he still a free agent?), can operate anywhere across the back 4 if need be and is easily good enough to push for a starting place. I’d rather avoid tinkering with the midfield to cover at the back. 
 

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Forbes, Carswell, Wedderburn and McCluskey gives me the absolute fear tbh. If Duffy plans on starting that midfield we're in big bother. We desperately need pace in the team, there's absolutely nobody that brings that to the table aside from PJ.

IMO we need two goalkeepers, someone who can cover across the back, 2 attacking midfielders (one wide, one central) and 1 more striker. Running with a small squad is understandable but so far we have no pace and Ross Forbes for creativity. I'm getting a wee bit concerned that Duffy was only taking about another 3 or 4 coming in before Wedderburn arrived, if two of those are keepers then that leaves 1 more outfield player, which I think leaves us well short. I suspect Duffy is just doing his usual "play everything down and when everything works out okay we're all happy" tactic, but we absolutely need more than 4 players.

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A left-sided midfielder and /or  a  more creative player in the middle.Another  striker is vital otherwise we could end up like last season where weakness upfront arguably cost us any chance of top 4.A covering defender/utility man would also be good.Add 2 goalies then that would be  6 to come in.If the budget stretches to that , that would be a decent number of bodies for 27 league games.

Edited by lorenzo71
cannae spell
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Wedderburn will do the same thing that Kyle Hutton did. He'll break up play and generally be a destructive player in midfield. Quite how we play with Wedderburn, Carswell and Forbes is a mystery. Forbes' movement is non-existent. If we go 1 up front and Forbes out wide then that still leaves us with another wide player and an attacking midfielder to find. Or do we go with a back 3 and 2 wingbacks in Rico and Wardrop?

Big concern that we should be ok defensively in the middle of the park but that we look short on creativity or attacking options and we don't look great out wide. Given the teams who will be in our division next season, I can see Cove spending big, Thistle spending big (both in comparison to the rest of the division), Falkirk being Falkirk and a decent showing from either East Fife or Montrose. It's going to be a really tight division with a likely top 3 and then a load of teams who will be exceptionally close to each other. We could legitimately finish anywhere from 4th to 9th unless we can get a bit of attacking quality added to the squad.

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2 hours ago, lorenzo71 said:

A left-sided midfielder and /or  a  more creative player in the middle.Another  striker is vital otherwise we could end up like last season where weakness upfront arguably cost us any chance of top 4.A covering defender/utility man would also be good.Add 2 goalies then that would be  6 to come in.If the budget stretches to that , that would be a decent number of bodies for 27 league games.

we've also signed Robert Jones up front....

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59 minutes ago, aftershocker said:

we've also signed Robert Jones up front....

Yeah but he doesn't fill me with optimism.And as was mentioned above Denny Johnstone is a gamble.Good player when fit, but is he?Personally I'd like to see PJ Crossan play upfront but I'm not sure Jim sees it that way.

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