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Nicky Low cannot travel to make a training session due to a change in his personal circumstances therefore needs put to bed once and for all. His contract will run down and he will go to Morton at the end of the season and stay on loan for kelty for the time being. As has been said, we really don't need another central midfielder at the moment, the problem lies up front where we badly need a focal point number 9 striker who will hold the ball up with his back to the goal and also grab us a goal. We had Dowds and Hamilton who did this last season. This type of player will get the best out of Mikey and Scott Allan. They're not growing on trees so hopefully we get someone in this ilk and not another Isiaka/Shanks who are just not up to it.

We also need O'Brien, Stewart and Hilson back asap. At times against QP and Hamilton we looked decent, as soon as we have 2 or 3 injuries we look well short.

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9 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:

That’s all well and good but who are these magical championship level strikers you’re talking about? I can’t think of any. The 5 sub rule has fecked teams like us as premier clubs are no longer putting the same amount of guys out on loan.

Also if you read pretty much any other championship team’s threads, there is a common theme - they all want strikers. We’ll be very far down the pecking order due to being part-time and likely at the foot of the table. Who would you rather go to as a player or loan a player out to as a manager - us or Raith, ICT, Morton etc?

To put it simply - January is Likely to be FAR FAR too late.

I could very well be wrong and I hope to feck I am but I just can’t see us finding this missing link in January. We couldn’t find one between May and September after all.

All we can do in the meantime is actually play the strikers we have and hope upon hope that they start scoring.

Part time thing works in our advantage in regards to the fact that if a Prem team actually thinks a player has a future there then the club will like them to still train with them half the week.
 

In regards to players who are looking to move on from clubs at end of their contract it obviously works against us as they’d prefer a loan that transitioned to a potentially full time transfer at end of their contract. 

 

I think January will be too late too though. The only ray of optimism for me is Bobby Linn, he very nearly got us infront with an unreal effort again on Saturday. He’s the main hope 

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11 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:

That’s all well and good but who are these magical championship level strikers you’re talking about? I can’t think of any. The 5 sub rule has fecked teams like us as premier clubs are no longer putting the same amount of guys out on loan.

Also if you read pretty much any other championship team’s threads, there is a common theme - they all want strikers. We’ll be very far down the pecking order due to being part-time and likely at the foot of the table. Who would you rather go to as a player or loan a player out to as a manager - us or Raith, ICT, Morton etc?

To put it simply - January is Likely to be FAR FAR too late.

I could very well be wrong and I hope to feck I am but I just can’t see us finding this missing link in January. We couldn’t find one between May and September after all.

All we can do in the meantime is actually play the strikers we have and hope upon hope that they start scoring.

What's the solution then? Just give up looking? We look like we have just added a new scouting system so would imagine they will be out watching games 2/3 times a week and speaking to contacts left, right and centre. 

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1 minute ago, Smokerson said:

What's the solution then? Just give up looking? We look like we have just added a new scouting system so would imagine they will be out watching games 2/3 times a week and speaking to contacts left, right and centre. 

Of course we don’t give up and I agree that the new system is a good thing, should have been in place months ago though.

What I’m am saying is that we can’t continue the way we are and hoping for a miracle in January - literally a player/s who will convert us from relegation form to title winning form overnight. Is that genuinely a realistic possibility?

We have to play the strikers we have so that come January, we at least have a fighting chance if we do unearth a Jack Hamilton mkII.

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On your striker front, I think you could do a lot worse than having a look at our young forward Bryden for a loan move in January.  He's only 18 but has a few goals for the first team in the league and cup.  He is just coming back from injury just now, but with Dipo/Young/McKenzie/Ashford we are pretty well equipped in that area and ideally getting him out on loan for 6 months would be the best option. Ideally, I would like to see him out to get more experience and I would assume this is something Bullen will be looking at.  Appreciate he wouldn't be the experienced striker you're after, but I would imagine it would be a low risk in terms of wages and he is very highly rated at the club and was linked with a move down south earlier in the year.

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Said to my mate, out of all the signings I think the Hancock one is the one that annoys me the most especially after recent weeks. Hancock was 100 percent signed to play left midfield, we saw it all of last year with Henderson and Craigen there. As soon as Dick told the Courier reporter that Hancock, who had played centre half / left back for Aberdeen youths / first team, could play left wing I’ve been raging about it. Plan was to clearly play him there over Bobby until it was discovered just how terrible he was out there, when you’ve seen how much Bobby has carried us this year it is absolutely crazy that this was seen as a good decision / signing. Out of all the random punts we’ve taken I think this signing and the intention behind it is the one that pisses me off the most. 
 

We could’ve just signed an actual wide midfield player…. 

Edited by 1320Lichtie
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31 minutes ago, glasgowlichtie22 said:

No updates. Media silence from club for last 2 days

Don’t think you can blame the club in any way shape or form they seem to address every issue right away. They won’t know how Bitsindou is yet Livingston will have to do that and inform the club.
 

It looked like a bad one though I cannot see him returning for a while and if ToB is still out we are back to a Oakley, Little, Hamilton and Hancock back 4 with a midget midfield again. Just like Cove away and we all know how that went… 

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The league table tells it's own story - we have lost more games this season than any other club ( so far we have lost 7 league matches).

We have conceded 17 goals this season ( Queens, Thistle, Dundee, Cove and Hamilton have conceded more goals).

We have the worst scoring record in the league - only 8 goals from 13 games ( Hamilton have the 2nd worst scoring record with 13 goals).

We have only won 2 games this season and if things don't improve  soon we will be deep in a relegation battle with Hamilton and Cove.

We have some of the best players in this league, we have a very good defence - but injuries, suspensions and bad decisions have cost us points.

But whats really cost us points is having no fire power up front - Bobby Linn has produced moments of magic, but we can't put the weight of providing goals on Bobby Linn - we need 2 new strikers.

In the short term we need to source strikers who have no club and are willing to put themselves in the shop window between now and January - the management need to find these players, get them along to training and find out if they can click and gel with the squad of players we have (surely the management are networking, phoning their contacts and trying to find such players).

Best fasten your seat belts - it's going to be a bumpy ride.

 

 

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1 hour ago, clashcityrocker said:

The league table tells it's own story - we have lost more games this season than any other club ( so far we have lost 7 league matches).

We have conceded 17 goals this season ( Queens, Thistle, Dundee, Cove and Hamilton have conceded more goals).

We have the worst scoring record in the league - only 8 goals from 13 games ( Hamilton have the 2nd worst scoring record with 13 goals).

We have only won 2 games this season and if things don't improve  soon we will be deep in a relegation battle with Hamilton and Cove.

We have some of the best players in this league, we have a very good defence - but injuries, suspensions and bad decisions have cost us points.

But whats really cost us points is having no fire power up front - Bobby Linn has produced moments of magic, but we can't put the weight of providing goals on Bobby Linn - we need 2 new strikers.

In the short term we need to source strikers who have no club and are willing to put themselves in the shop window between now and January - the management need to find these players, get them along to training and find out if they can click and gel with the squad of players we have (surely the management are networking, phoning their contacts and trying to find such players).

Best fasten your seat belts - it's going to be a bumpy ride.

 

 

Last sentence so true

 

I think the thing that’s really pissing me off is the fact that we just do not look like a team at all, for the first time in a very long time. Just so unbalanced, there’s no chemistry there or identity. Just a bunch of guys in Arbroath jerseys running about trying their very hardest but they’re pishing in the wind with how bad a job their manager has done. Wouldn’t even go as far as saying we’re a bad team, plenty good players there, we are just not an actual team 

 

Theres nothing to really get behind, it’s just blind hope and Bobby. In an absolute rut

Edited by 1320Lichtie
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At the start of the season we had a great starting point with it being pretty obvious where we needed to strengthen...

                    Gaston

JT     Little           ToB         Hammy

Stewart    Low     ???         Linn

            Mckenna  ???

Keep the likes of craigen, gold and hilson or donnelly,

Obviously it's ot helped with the low situation and a few Injurys

 

But how did we end up where we are, its an absolute mess,

This squad would struggle in League 1

Edited by lichtiekev
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See this "the squad would struggle in league 1" nonsense?  Its pish.  This squad would not struggle in league 1.  Look at the cup results. This nonsense about our players is just hysteria.

The biggest problem I think we have right now is that the manager is not getting the best out of our squad.  The second biggest problem is the lack of a striker, but we had 3 on the bench last week, and the management chose not to play any of them.

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44 minutes ago, ExiledLichtie said:

See this "the squad would struggle in league 1" nonsense?  Its pish.  This squad would not struggle in league 1.  Look at the cup results. This nonsense about our players is just hysteria.

The biggest problem I think we have right now is that the manager is not getting the best out of our squad.  The second biggest problem is the lack of a striker, but we had 3 on the bench last week, and the management chose not to play any of them.

The manager has signed below average players and we are where we are because of that. 

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58 minutes ago, ExiledLichtie said:

See this "the squad would struggle in league 1" nonsense?  Its pish.  This squad would not struggle in league 1.  Look at the cup results. This nonsense about our players is just hysteria.

The biggest problem I think we have right now is that the manager is not getting the best out of our squad.  The second biggest problem is the lack of a striker, but we had 3 on the bench last week, and the management chose not to play any of them.

See when you’re the only person that keeps repeating the same thing do you ever just contemplate that maybe you are just wrong. See if we weren’t rooted to the bottom spot after being absolutely dreadful for 90 percent of the season you may have a point but the evidence speaks for itself 

 

We have played in L1 recently we all know the standard, I watch L1 highlights every single week and keep up to date with every team in every league. That is not an unfair comment at all. What team in L1 would be wanting Fosu / Corfe / Isiaka / Shanks / Paterson to come in and play for them? Who are these teams that these guys would play for? 
 

And can you please stop saying the word hysteria, it’s anything but hysteria.

 

ETA - and why do you think the manager is choosing McKenna as a number 9 instead of the guys on the bench? Why do you think Goldie got put to LB instead of Hancock? That’s happening for a reason, that reason is the fact the squad is not upto it. 

Edited by 1320Lichtie
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I wouldn't disagree we need some better attacking options but we have to give those that we have a run in the team as they are better than not having any.

Shanks scored against Queens and could have got a second. Give him a run of games and see if he can build a partnership and get some confidence.

We are getting in some great positions but nobody in the striker area to bag the goals.

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46 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

See when you’re the only person that keeps repeating the same thing do you ever just contemplate that maybe you are just wrong. See if we weren’t rooted to the bottom spot after being absolutely dreadful for 90 percent of the season you may have a point but the evidence speaks for itself 

 

We have played in L1 recently we all know the standard, I watch L1 highlights every single week and keep up to date with every team in every league. That is not an unfair comment at all. What team in L1 would be wanting Fosu / Corfe / Isiaka / Shanks / Paterson to come in and play for them? Who are these teams that these guys would play for? 
 

And can you please stop saying the word hysteria, it’s anything but hysteria.

 

ETA - and why do you think the manager is choosing McKenna as a number 9 instead of the guys on the bench? Why do you think Goldie got put to LB instead of Hancock? That’s happening for a reason, that reason is the fact the squad is not upto it. 

I'm not the only one though, am I?  

 

Edited, in fact, let's run this through.  My argument is that the players are not poor.  McKenna has not magically become a bad player, O'Brian (oh look, he was carrying an injury after all) is not suddenly league 2 standard.  What is poor is that the manager is not picking the right teams, and is not getting the best out of the players we have.  

You seem to be arguing that actually, its our players that are the problem, and that the manager, who signed these players, is not playing them because he knows they are not up to it.  This implies that you think the manager is in fact putting out the best possible teams with the squad he has.  And if you think that, then I suspect you are very much on your own.

Edited by ExiledLichtie
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4 hours ago, Hammerafc said:

I wouldn't disagree we need some better attacking options but we have to give those that we have a run in the team as they are better than not having any.

Shanks scored against Queens and could have got a second. Give him a run of games and see if he can build a partnership and get some confidence.

We are getting in some great positions but nobody in the striker area to bag the goals.

Run of games is whats needed, not one game and bombed onto the bench for 6 weeks.

Whether that be Hilson, Shanks or whoever, someone needs a run of games seems like if you dont hit the ground running as a striker in the one game you get a chance, you dont get a look in again.

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Although the lack of "known" strikers signed at the start of the season was a concern the first major concern for me (and many other Red Lichtie fans before/during/after the game) was the home match against Queens Park when DC in some mental crazy decision decided to play Luke Donnelly in central midfield when he had a capable and proper central midfielder (James Craigen) sitting on the bench!!

This was the game where Simon Murray absolute "bossed" us (oh to have him back in a Red Lichtie shirt).

Since then DC has made some bizarre line ups and subs and i agree with the majority on here that he has to give Shanks or Hilson (or both) and Isiaka a run in the team, not playing a proper forward (or bringing them on) at Saturday's game was unbelievable.

Where this club has come in the last few years on and off the park is superb and this includes with the help of DC and for that i will 100% support him and i think he deserves a chance to get us back on track and save us from relegation but i also blame him for (in the main) pipe-reek signings and letting other players go who should still be at the club, and please sometimes admit "I HAVE MADE A MISTAKE" like everybody else does in everyday life.

C'Mon the Red Lichties, 36-0.     

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