This Charming Man Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Great three points tonight, however let's remind ourselves who we are and where we currently are. Let's build on this good result, who knows what's possible once we realise how to utilise and feed the natural skills and talents of Kane Hemmings. Best regards 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamDFC Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Good three points in the bag. Onwards and upwards. Have a teckle weekend, fellow Dee’s! Thank you. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifespud Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 I still think this squad is crying out for a 5/3/2 - 3/5/2 formation. I know we played the first half of the league season in this line up and got skelped by Dunfermline, but hear me out. While watching that match it was clear to me that Dunfy players had been told to let our CH's have the ball, not pressure them, flood the midfield, and wait for them to give it away in desperation. What I couldn't really understand is that both wingbacks still sat deep inside Dunfermline's half every time one of our CH's were on the ball. The net result was that we couldn't get the ball out of our own half, and were reduced to aimless punts, or giving it to a midfield player who was already under pressure and immediately lost the ball. This isn't an inherent problem with 3/5/2, the problem lay with the fact that our players apparently had no idea how to cope with Dunfermline standing off our CH's when they had the ball deep in our own half. Our wingbacks need to realise and not stray so far up the pitch, so that our midfield stretches the pitch sideline to sideline, makes it more difficult for the opponent to totally stymie our midfield, and offers easier out-balls to the CH's. 3/5/2 -5/3/2 formations work perfectly fine for teams all over the world. Dunfermline haven't suddenly stumbled upon some sort of revolutionary counter to it that renders them hopeless. Our fullbacks are not that great when playing in a four anyway, all of our better midfielders are central players, we lack any real threat in wide positions, and folk are complaining that playing a single forward is leaving them isolated, frustrated, and ineffective. When we play in a 4/4/2 our central midfield usually gets overrun and the wingers don't see the ball anyway. Playing a 3/5 formations relieves these issues. We really need to be looking at it again, not just binning it outright after a poor 45 minutes using it. The players obviously need more coaching and practice in how to utilise it and understand it though. Barring that, the problems with the side go far beyond anything that can just be attributed to poor management. It's an unbalanced squad with questionable talent deficiencies in certain areas. Only to be expected when we had to do more or less an entire rebuild job after the McIntyre farce. We need another two transfer windows at least before I think its fair to say that you can punt McPake simply because we're not top of the league. If you punt him right now, that's as much because he's NOT overachieving, which is silly considering the squad's issues. We're right about where we should be IMO, and that's based on circumstance and the squad, not because I'm 'accepting mediocrity' or any such nonsense. Folk that think we should have been walking away with this league after the last couple of seasons and managers we've had are delusional. McPake can do better, that's not in doubt, but he's a rookie manager and needs to learn from his mistakes. The reasons why we're not up at the top of the league with Hemmings sitting on 15 goals already are a lot more complex than McPake simply being a poor manager.I agree with all of that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifespud Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Hamilton, Kerr, Marshall, McGhee, Forster, Meekings, Byrne, McGowan, Dorrans, Hemmings, Johnson. I'm not a fan of a couple of those players myself, I think they're below the standard we require, but that's the nature of a squad after one transfer window when you had to gut the whole thing after the previous season. They're the players I think are a priority to replace in January, but I don't see the point in naming them because others will disagree and that's not really the purpose of this post. I'd have no issue with using Nelson in place of Hemmings or Johnson, and if Ness is fit, obviously both he and Robertson are candidates for a midfield position, but Robertson is still just a wee laddie in reality, and as much as he's talented, it's not realistic to be regarding him as a full first-team squad player capable of playing 40 times this season if required. Likewise, I'm not dropping McDaid, Todd, or McPake simply because I don't rate them. They have their place, I just think they're better suited to playing in other systems. Someone always has to miss out when you can only put 11 on the pitch.And that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifespud Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Having said that I’m pretty confident we’d have more points on the board with either McCall or Robertson in the dug out. And points are what count at the end of the day. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Khaki Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 Yep, McPake has made mistakes, but for me the frustrating thing is not really the fact we have a rookie manager making mistakes as so much that we have a ton of experienced older heads around him, and still the simple mistakes keep coming. Ok, we do have a bit of a limited squad, and on most matchdays we've got 3 or 4 teenagers on the bench, but you think in times like the situation towards the end of the Partick match, somebody like Jimmy Nichol would be in McPake's ear asking him if that was really the appropriate situation to be bringing on a pair of schoolboys. Maybe I'm wrong and that's just not Nichol's role at the club. But after watching two years of McCann struggling, a scattergun signing policy, no apparent strategy for squad building etc, people were shouting out for an older, experienced guiding hand, so I was relieved when we announced Nichol and Strachan because I thought at least that Nelms and co had finally woken up to what we were seeing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K.T Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 United rolling the dice on promotion.https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/dundee-united-s-wage-to-turnover-ratio-is-a-mammoth-133-per-cent-1-5033371/amp?__twitter_impression=true 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alert Mongoose Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 4 minutes ago, K.T said: United rolling the dice on promotion. https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/dundee-united-s-wage-to-turnover-ratio-is-a-mammoth-133-per-cent-1-5033371/amp?__twitter_impression=true Not great reading but more an indication of the paucity of prize money/away attendance in the championship. I imagine Dundee and most of the other promotion chasing teams won’t perform well on that measure. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry94 Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 United rolling the dice on promotion.https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/dundee-united-s-wage-to-turnover-ratio-is-a-mammoth-133-per-cent-1-5033371/amp?__twitter_impression=trueI love how the premise of the whole article is that it's impossible to win the play offs without spending huge amounts of money. The two lowest financed sides to compete in the final, Livi and Hamilton, have both prevailed.Fair dos, talk about changing the structure etc but it's no one else's fault when sides who are funded much better than anyone else in the league can't get promoted. St Mirren were historically bad for 11th placed last season as well and seemed to suffer from horrific refereeing against them in the tie. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Khaki Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 What a disaster it would be for football in the city if they went bust. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alert Mongoose Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 6 minutes ago, Boo Khaki said: What a disaster it would be for football in the city if they went bust. What’s it like? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RossBFaeDundee Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 1 minute ago, Alert Mongoose said: What’s it like? Don't know, your club's not dead yet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Khaki Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 2 minutes ago, Alert Mongoose said: What’s it like? No idea because we've never gone bust mate. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alert Mongoose Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 1 minute ago, Boo Khaki said: No idea because we've never gone bust mate. Really? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Khaki Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 Just now, Alert Mongoose said: Really? Yup really 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RossBFaeDundee Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 3 minutes ago, Alert Mongoose said: Really? Look, are we really going to have to fill up a page or two on this? You know it's not going to go anywhere and you're talking shite, so quit while you're ahead. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Girth Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 New keeper looks handy! Better than Flapjack?Thank you 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Khaki Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 Impossible to tell after 90 mins, but I didn't have my heart in my mouth every time the ball went into our box or near our goalmouth, so on that basis alone, I'd say aye. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee Bliss Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 2 hours ago, harry94 said: I love how the premise of the whole article is that it's impossible to win the play offs without spending huge amounts of money. The two lowest financed sides to compete in the final, Livi and Hamilton, have both prevailed. Fair dos, talk about changing the structure etc but it's no one else's fault when sides who are funded much better than anyone else in the league can't get promoted. St Mirren were historically bad for 11th placed last season as well and seemed to suffer from horrific refereeing against them in the tie. The only thing loaded in the top flight team’s favour is the 2nd leg of the playoff is at their ground. The top flight sides play Saturday/Wednesday/Saturday when the playoffs begin. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee Bliss Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 3 hours ago, K.T said: United rolling the dice on promotion. https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/dundee-united-s-wage-to-turnover-ratio-is-a-mammoth-133-per-cent-1-5033371/amp?__twitter_impression=true Fantastic plus Shankland’s wages aren’t included as well so you could add another 250k onto that. The dabs are quick to point others misgivings. Might not need to go to the dump around Christmas time, braw. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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