All things Dundee FC

[Ludo*1]

10 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

He plays Mulligan out wide with McCowan on the bench. I can totally believe he can't recognise that.

Jakubiak should be playing ahead of both. It was him replacing McCowan in a like for like change that obliterated QP.

Gonna say this with a tin hat on - Mulligan ain't worth the hype regardless of being played out of position. When he's good, he's very, very good, but so was Declan McDaid (I'd like to make it clear, in no way am I comparing the talent of the two!). If you only produce a top class performance a couple of times a season, then you're not up to much IMO.

[bp33]

Wasn’t quite as bad as I thought.

[baba douche]

12 minutes ago, bp33 said:

Wasn’t quite as bad as I thought.

You must have thought it was pretty bad then.

[Pens_Dark]

11 hours ago, RossBFaeDundee said:

As soon as I heard Bowyer only praising the players for Saturday past the fear set in, how does a team who is being told they're playing well when they're not getting results go into the next one eager to up the levels? They don't, and it's yet another horsing from Partick.

I still have faith in Bowyer, but there needs to be an immediate tactical reaction on Saturday. McGhee and Maguire are too passive to play together, Cameron isn't a starter and we need to try Robinson and Jakubiak together.

Hearing him put Saturday down as a good performance and 'feeling sorry for Robinson' last night filled me with rage. Bowyer could literally have done something about it and getting someone playing up closer towards Robinson; say, for example, Jakubiak who has been bombed out of nowhere after providing some great link up play between the two? It makes no fucking sense. 

I said before the game he still doesn't know his best 11 and to be in that state in March is a joke. 

[frank the pole]

I think Mr Bowyer is getting an easy ride here. He is the one who is frightened to play two upfront because he has no trust in the midfield. He is also the one telling the troops to play long balls upfront when we have many skillful players that would be more comfortable playing it on the deck through the middle. 

Be interesting to see what the Salford fans think of his style as in that TV show he seemed to also prefer a 'target man'. 

The jury is still well and truly out on GB in my view. 

[rainbowrising]

The Bowyer interview hints that he thinks that formation works and there's an element of players being "thrown under the bus" for it failing. Always a truth in there to some extent but surely line up and tactics sit with him too? for that kind of thing going public as we head to the run-in ain't good.

The usual, looking for a response guff around the game with Cove. No, we could win that by 3 or 4 and the real "response" will still be looming in the next 2 games against Thistle and Ayr . 

 

[Crawford]

39 minutes ago, rainbowrising said:

The Bowyer interview hints that he thinks that formation works and there's an element of players being "thrown under the bus" for it failing. Always a truth in there to some extent but surely line up and tactics sit with him too? for that kind of thing going public as we head to the run-in ain't good.

The usual, looking for a response guff around the game with Cove. No, we could win that by 3 or 4 and the real "response" will still be looming in the next 2 games against Thistle and Ayr . 

 

Regression to the mean. 

Things can only get better or worse.

[Ludo*1]

2 hours ago, rainbowrising said:

The Bowyer interview hints that he thinks that formation works and there's an element of players being "thrown under the bus" for it failing. Always a truth in there to some extent but surely line up and tactics sit with him too? for that kind of thing going public as we head to the run-in ain't good.

The usual, looking for a response guff around the game with Cove. No, we could win that by 3 or 4 and the real "response" will still be looming in the next 2 games against Thistle and Ayr . 

 

There's obviously clear issues with the formation at present, but the players deserve thrown under the bus for last night. Can play any formation, but if the players are just that bad then it'd make little difference!

There was no tempo from the players at all and they were switching off at pretty much every set piece including throw ins.

[Peadar BigDinnerO'Driscoll]

Thought Clampin looked half decent last night. That's the positives out of the way.

If he wants to persist with one up then it has to be Thomas.

Hannant might be a better option centrally or in Cameron position if rested.

[Spikethedee]

Playing McGhee and Maguire together in central mid, or playing Mulligan on the wing, should be punishable by being made to wear tangerine for a day. McMullen needs to be told to play a simple pass now and again, rather than trying a fancy flick every chance he gets. Someone should be left up at corners - how many times did we get the ball and have to hold on for someone to move forward? 

 

1 point taken from 4 home games against the Thistles is ridiculous. GazBo is burning through the goodwill he's accumulated so far at a fair rate of knots...

[LM_0803]

3 minutes ago, Spikethedee said:

Playing McGhee and Maguire together in central mid, or playing Mulligan on the wing, should be punishable by being made to wear tangerine for a day. McMullen needs to be told to play a simple pass now and again, rather than trying a fancy flick every chance he gets. Someone should be left up at corners - how many times did we get the ball and have to hold on for someone to move forward? 

 

1 point taken from 4 home games against the Thistles is ridiculous. GazBo is burning through the goodwill he's accumulated so far at a fair rate of knots...

Glad I'm not the only one that's noticed we never have anyone up for opposition corners. Every other team does it against us and we never do. 

McMullan has been stinking recently, doesn't deserve to start on Saturday but he inevitably will. As will sweeney, and McGhee in midfield again. Last night was up there as one of the worst performances I've seen from us. 

[Liam899]

Thomas needs to play if we’re gonna adopt Morten tactics. Thistle dominated us for 90 mins and looks leagues above us. That sits with Bowyer. 

[Shadow Play]

Meant to say, last night just about every time McMullan, Mulligan and Cameron took a pass the ball ended up at knee height, rather than killing the ball dead on the ground.  This results in having to wait on the ball landing at their feet again, giving the opposition that bit more time to close them down.  That’s just basics.

I don’t know if that’s because they train all week on a good pitch and then can’t adjust to the pitch at Dens (although Partick seemed to handle the pitch well).  If that is the case I fully expect to see a flawless display at Cove on the Astro and Dundee training on Lochee Park pitch 1 when I walk past there next week! 

[Juantwothree]

McMullan has been Shite recently because he's signed a pre contract with Motherwell. Heard it here first

[Ludo*1]

12 minutes ago, Juantwothree said:

McMullan has been Shite recently because he's signed a pre contract with Motherwell. Heard it here first

@capt_oats

[Shadow Play]

20 minutes ago, Juantwothree said:

McMullan has been Shite recently because he's signed a pre contract with Motherwell. Heard it here first

He was sitting behind me in the main stand just after half time last night.  He sat beside Roberston and Byrne.  I’ve never noticed players that have been subbed sitting in the main stand before.  Is that unusual or have I just not noticed it before?

[Dee Bliss]

The manager is coming across as pretty clueless. Watching months of abject midfield performances from McGhee whilst natural midfielders are sitting on the bench or in the stand isn’t acceptable anymore. 
 

His best run of games was when he confessed we stumbled upon a formation at halftime against Partick. Bizarrely changed the winning formation and now we’ve been shite for the last half a dozen games. 

[RossBFaeDundee]

Just reading this article and Bowyer's quote in it, and I fear he's missing the wood for the trees:

Quote

“Partick deserved it and they were better than us. The performance came out of the blue. I asked the boys if something had happened at the weekend or some in-house fighting but they said no. It isn’t good enough and we told them that. The goals we conceded are atrocious. Hopefully it is just one of those days.”

I hope he soon realises that his consistent praising of their previous performances despite not getting the win created a sense of complacency in the team going into last night, as if they went in with a mindset to just turn up and things would go right this time. I remember Bowyer being good for not hyping up any wins and just focusing on improving performances when we were winning, where's that gone? I know it's easier to keep a winning team motivated over a losing team, but Bowyer has seemingly had a 'pat-on-the-back' approach to bad results this season and I think that played a big factor in last night's awful performance. You need to demand better, even when things are good. The standards expected need to be raised on his and the coaching team's part, quite simply.

Hopefully this serves as a big wake-up call, as we're surrounded by teams looking a lot more eager to reach their goals than us just now. Part of the reason I'm still raging that Gowser's gone is that it now confirms we no longer have players who demand that standard anymore, our captain has the heart of a mouse if you ask me and neither McGhee nor anyone else is that kind of leader. The only one I believe is a leader anymore is Legzdins, but you can only lead so much from the goal. We desperately need a leader on the pitch, or failing that a proper commander on the touchline, which Bowyer has to be if he is going to get this group of McPake players and loan rejects to a play-off win, never mind a league title.

We've not lost two games in a row all season so I expect a reaction on Saturday but the players need to go out and earn it by playing at their best. They can't be allowed to believe that whatever they're doing is 'good enough', because they're nowhere near good enough to play with complacency. We're in a dogfight, we need to be ruthless going forward.

[capt_oats]

10 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

@capt_oats

Cheers.

If nothing else it’s interesting from a timeline POV given we emptied Hammell 2.5 weeks ago and only gave Kettlewell the job permanently last week.

You’d imagine any discussion has been going on longer than that.

Begs the question who was driving that one or if it’s one our recruitment team has put on the table.

Hammell stuck religiously to a 4231 despite it clearly not working and literally not having the players to play it (he finished the last Aberdeen game with a back 4 consisting entirely of full backs).

Kettlewell has blown that up and is playing a 3412 which means the wingers Hammell signed aren’t getting off the bench including your boy Olly Crankshaw. It also means we have 3 players for the 1 spot as the #10.

It feels that it’d have been a Hammell deal. We’ve previous for just cracking on with a PCA regardless - Connor Shields was a PCA despite Alexander’s feet barely being under the table.

Then again, 6 of our 9 “forwards” are OOC or their loans expire in the summer (Efford, Aitchison, Crankshaw, McKinstry, Mandron and Obika) and the expectation is we’ll mutual Josh Morris so there’s definitely space.

I’ve never really paid much attention to McMullan other than when he’s scored against us. Is he exclusively a winger or can he play different roles?

 

[Pens_Dark]

Rumours doing the rounds that McMullan, Kerr and Cameron have all signed PCA's. They are just that...rumours but irrespective or whether it's true or not I can see a big summer rebuild on the cards.