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The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours


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I dislike players being played out of their ‘natural’ position when it clearly harms their own performances and the team as a whole. An example would be Declan McManus being played out wide in the League One season when we had no other competent centre forwards, with the result of neutering our attack and wasting our best player at the time. Another issue would be the classic Jim Duffy line-up of two centre backs in central midfield with two central midfielders on the wing, when you end up with so many out of position that the whole team becomes a disjointed mess because you don’t have enough players with an understanding of their role.

In McAlister’s case last season that wasn’t an issue. We had other central midfielders good enough that he wasn’t missed there and he was an improvement on what we had in defence, even though it meant displacing natural centre backs. I wouldn’t have considered him part of our strongest midfield then and I still wouldn’t now with Millar, Lyon and Jacobs at the club, while he was far less error prone than Buchanan and Waddell after he got to grips with the positional sense and was certainly a better option than McKeown. He was probably our best centre back in the run in.

I’d hope we find natural centre backs better than him, but if we’re playing a back three I have no issues with him filling in there. We could do far worse and with no centre backs signed yet I wouldn’t be surprised if we do.

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Wonder how the search for centre halves is going.  Hopefully we see a few arrive this week as our first  cup game is less than 4 weeks away so really need to get a few in to start building  partnerships, work on defensive shape etc etc.

Wouldn't surprise me if we see a couple of bruisers come up from lower leagues in England using Timmins contacts. Can't think of anyone up here who is a free agent who stands out. Can only think of Durnan and the Edge.

Probably see a young defender from Premiership come in on loan as well.

 

 

 

 

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I’ll admit I’m also unsure if McAlister still has the legs to play wing back, however I thought having Nesbitt in front of him would reduce his need to fly up and down the wing for 90 minutes. I’m also taking from Hopkin’s intention to sign 4 CB’s, that’s it’s a back 3 with one as cover. Perhaps McAlister could fit in there with Strapp at LWB?

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On 17/06/2019 at 21:05, DreamOakTree1 said:

I'd be very surprised to see Hoppy play 4-3-3! possibly more likely to see something like this:

                         Ramsbottom

            New            New           New

Tumilty    Millar     Jacobs    Lyon    McAlister   

                       Salkend     Nesbitt

You've missed out Muirhead.  Fairly sure he'll be a default choice as one of the strikers.

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With Cadden, Nesbitt, Salkeld and Orsi in the squad, you’d think that either 3-5-2 isn’t going to be Hopkin’s preferred formation, or he sees at least two of them as number 10s to be used off Muirhead rather than as wingers. Having the flexibility to move between different systems can only be a good thing, of course.

Edited by Dunning1874
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Just now, Dunning1874 said:

We’ve signed Nicky Cadden.

With Cadden, Nesbitt, Salkeld and Orsi in the squad, you’d think that either 3-5-2 isn’t going to be Hopkin’s preferred formation, or he sees at least two of them as number 10s to be used off Muirhead rather than as wingers. Having the flexibility to move between different systems can only be a good thing, of course.

How refreshing to see we have a few wingers in the squad now..

 McKinnon and Duffy never really had that area covered. Prob need to go back a good few years to when we last had 2/3 good options on either wing.

He talked about how Salkeld could play anywhere across the middle or up top  so  he could play just off Muirhead with Nesbitt and Cadden either side.

 

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Just now, Scosha said:

Has Jacobs snaked us and gone elsewhere? Seen no mention of him officially signing apart from the PCA. 

Think he's on holiday...that's why he signed a PCA till he gets back 

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47 minutes ago, madton said:

Surely the signing of the PCA is enough?

 

Players can walk from them if they like. The fact he's not on our official site but every other new signing since his PCA announcement is on there would suggest it's not completed yet. 

Also, looks like Mark Farrell (fitness guy) is away. No longer on the site. 

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Players can walk from them if they like. The fact he's not on our official site but every other new signing since his PCA announcement is on there would suggest it's not completed yet. 


Or it would suggest he hasn't been in to Cappielow to get his photo taken to be added to the squad page, which isn't overly surprising if all the formalities were done when he signed the PCA.

More than likely get done on the first day of pre-season training.

Still very rare for players to renege on a PCA, especially one signed just a week before he could have signed officially.
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57 minutes ago, Scosha said:

Players can walk from them if they like. The fact he's not on our official site but every other new signing since his PCA announcement is on there would suggest it's not completed yet. 

Also, looks like Mark Farrell (fitness guy) is away. No longer on the site. 

Calm doon mate, Jacobs knows if he fucks big hoppy about the ginger king will crush his skull with his own bare hands.

Edited by M0rtonfc
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