The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours

[The Ghost of B A R P]

I think I know what they meant when they said 'quality over quantity'... 'this squad's going to be wafer-thin outside the starting eleven'.

I was pretty sure we'd re-sign McLean and Oliver and had accepted that Muirhead, who I hated watching, would get an offer (although I hoped he'd get a better offer elsewhere).

Blues, though, is just indefensible. It's handing a wage to a guy we all know isn't good enough. Him and McGrattan are it as cover for centre-mid.

Edited to add: even going on the 'wafer-thin outside the starting eleven' principle, he's going to have to sign, at the very least, a goalkeeper, a right-back, a centre-mid, and  three forwards (one central, two wide) who are definite starters. As Dunning's just said, that's a tall order in relation to the forwards, in particular.

Edited June 7, 2021 by The Ghost of B A R P

[GiGi]

Team that has lowest goals scored, by miles, in the league has all of their forward players out of contract. 

Do you:

A) release the forwards and seek out more effective striking options for the next campaign

B) re-sign them for scoring a few goals against league one opponents

[vikingTON]

17 hours ago, virginton said:

 

For those playing along at home, you can now mark 'handing Cameron Blues a new deal' off the bingo card of dreadful yet utterly predictable decisions taking us down this track. 

Muirhead = house!

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

Eh, I'm not actually here to answer your questions, massa... but I have, as a point of fact, answered your question: the information you (pretend to) seek is not a secret and is freely available in its appropriate place, i.e. on the politics threads. The fact that you're the only person on this entire fuckin forum who is obsessed with it, even though, you know, you weren't actually involved (and you're whining about it on the Morton thread), says it all... desperate, desperate deflection; see below.

Too far. You really are delusional...

You insisted we weren't trying to sign another goalkeeper over and above McAdams. Wrong.

You insisted there was no way the SG could, would, or should make grants to Championship football clubs. Wrong (in spades).

You insisted Morton were laughable L1 shite who would not only certainly be relegated, but somehow deserved to be relegated. Wrong.

Worst of all, you insisted - and you don't appear to have given up on it - that getting relegated was actually the best thing for us. So wrong getting your head round it is like trying to get beyond quantum physics.

Just admit it, move on, and we'll all think better of you. (Either that, or you could continue to scream 'see, I telt ye!' every time we play badly next season, in a desperate attempt to 'prove', retrospectively, that you had in fact been right all along... And yes, that is a prediction.)

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p.s. to go back to where this began, both Montrose and Airdrie players had been instructed to double up on McGuffie; he showed why by scoring the goal of the season to win the semi-final. 

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You still haven't actually answered the very basic question: how much real actual money did you pay out as a result of your busted flush predictions?

As for relegation being a preferable outcome, we're witnessing those chickens coming home to roost on a daily basis right now. 

- A two year deal for a piss-poor management team off the back of 'success' in the play-offs, despite finishing 9th being a unmitigated failure.

- Said piss-poor management team handing out new deals all round for haddies 

- MCT therefore hitching its credibility to the same donkeys and turgid, goal-free nonsense as the old and discredited regime.

Good luck flogging season tickets as well as new subscriptions then off the back of this long weekend of truly abysmal decision-making. 

Edited June 7, 2021 by vikingTON

[#Gary]

3 league goals and 2 assist between Oliver and Muirhead last season...

[gmfc]

1 hour ago, #Gary said:

3 league goals and 2 assist between Oliver and Muirhead last season...

Quality.

[Thumper]

Ayr and Morton are playing some sort of Brewster's Millions type game where the aim is to get relegated as quickly as possible and with as many of Hopkin's 20-21 duffers present as possible, aren't they?

[San Starko Rover]

Team that has lowest goals scored, by miles, in the league has all of their forward players out of contract. 
Do you:
A) release the forwards and seek out more effective striking options for the next campaign
B) re-sign them for scoring a few goals against league one opponents

Interesting decision, could be your coaching team thinks the problem was more the supply rather than the finishing. I only saw you against us last season and the playoff games and to be honest you did look very toothless up front against us. What’s the general feeling amongst the Ton fans for next season last I heard you had a fans takeover, has that gone through now? I’ll be interested to see how that works out for your club on and off the pitch. I guess it at least keeps any fly by night chancers away.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

22 minutes ago, San Starko Rover said:

Interesting decision, could be your coaching team thinks the problem was more the supply rather than the finishing. 

 

Gus came in off the back of a 10 game run without a win (although we did get a sneaky 1-0 away win the Inverness just before he started). During this run we had McElhone taking the team with players assisting but he is not a manager not tactician so he maintained the 4-5-1 formation Hopkin kept and this had a gaping chasm between the midfield and striker (often Orsi who, for all his effort and physical presence had neither the technique, intelligence or finishing ability to play as a lone striker). Despite the lack of wins we didn't lose many, stayed fairly solid at tje back and often didn't play badly. Jist nothing upfront and nothing to support but I would put 90% of that on the tactics. We had awful strikers but no-one looks good chasing down punts with midfielders 30 yards away.

In the period between McPherson's first game and the final league game we, more often than not, had less than a week between matches but we had over a week between Arbroath on the last day and Montrose in the play offs. This makes me wonder if, with games coming often and less time on the training ground, McPherson thought keeping the basic formation made more sense than a big overhaul. Especially as the tactic was fairly sound defensively

It's not like we stuck, rigidly, to that 4-5-1 or that a switch to 4-3-3 is a massive difference really but it happened between the regular league season and the play offs. In return we scored more in two weeks than we had in two months previously. It was against lower league opposition but two forwards who previously looked isolated and toothless, Oliver and Muirhead, started to look dangerous. I've always quite liked Oliver and always thought Muirhead was useless but neither really missed glaring opportunities. They jist never got them.

I dunno if McPherson went more attacking because he realised we needed to score goals or if he finally felt he had time to work on things in training or he thought the lower level of opposition allowed us to be more attacking but I can see why he thinks it will work with Oliver and Muirhead if he can get the other parts.

Of the front three we went with the worst of the lot was Salkeld and he's gone. If we can bring someone for that right hand of the front three who can make or create chances for the other two it might be a tactical masterstroke. If he is going with the tactics used v Airdrie we need someone on the right of the three to come in and at least one other option to challenge Muirhead/Oliver unless he thinks Easdale is up for the challenge. 

Edited June 7, 2021 by AsimButtHitsASix

[baba douche]

17 hours ago, virginton said:

You still haven't actually answered the very basic question: how much real actual money did you pay out as a result of your busted flush predictions? 

Listen, dickhead. You have no business asking how much money someone paid out on a bet.

If he says he paid out, and no-one's contradicting him, that's their business, it's fuckall to do with you.

Tosser.

Here's a fucking stupid Ainsley picture to make sure you understand.

 

 

[Mr.Blue]

10 minutes ago, baba douche said:

Listen, dickhead. You have no business asking how much money someone paid out on a bet.

If he says he paid out, and no-one's contradicting him, that's their business, it's fuckall to do with you.

Tosser.

Here's a fucking stupid Ainsley picture to make sure you understand.

 

 

Oooft. Someone's rattled

[Rudolph Hucker]

44 minutes ago, Mr.Blue said:

Oooft. Someone's rattled

Funny, though.  And he has a point for once.

[Dunning1874]

13 hours ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Gus came in off the back of a 10 game run without a win (although we did get a sneaky 1-0 away win the Inverness just before he started). During this run we had McElhone taking the team with players assisting but he is not a manager not tactician so he maintained the 4-5-1 formation Hopkin kept and this had a gaping chasm between the midfield and striker (often Orsi who, for all his effort and physical presence had neither the technique, intelligence or finishing ability to play as a lone striker). Despite the lack of wins we didn't lose many, stayed fairly solid at tje back and often didn't play badly. Jist nothing upfront and nothing to support but I would put 90% of that on the tactics. We had awful strikers but no-one looks good chasing down punts with midfielders 30 yards away.

In the period between McPherson's first game and the final league game we, more often than not, had less than a week between matches but we had over a week between Arbroath on the last day and Montrose in the play offs. This makes me wonder if, with games coming often and less time on the training ground, McPherson thought keeping the basic formation made more sense than a big overhaul. Especially as the tactic was fairly sound defensively

I think this is actually unfair on McElhone while it's too fair to Hopkin and MacPherson.

Hopkin had been playing with a back three, and in his last two games in charge that changed to what was undoubtedly a back five where there no debate about using full backs rather than wing backs as he set up with a flat 5-4-1, with the line that midfield four were holding only about 10 yards in front of the back five. There was a good 40 yards between the midfield and lone striker at Arbroath and at home to Hearts.

McElhone took over, switched to a 4-2-3-1 and we immediately looked both more defensively sound and more of an attacking threat with it, winning his first two games. I don't think we'd have won either of them with Hopkin in charge; McElhone made a tactical change which had improved us. We then began that 10 game winless run and McElhone being moved on was the right decision as that was an unacceptable run of results and he never claimed to be a manager, but despite that appalling run he somehow still had the best results and best goals to game ratio of our three managers this season.

MacPherson kept that 4-2-3-1 for his first game in charge as he'd only taken over two days before it, but then he did change things to the back three which had already failed to work under Hopkin. He wasn't reluctant to change the formation, he just changed to the wrong one then was forced to can it after we got pumped by Inverness, because it didn't make us any better going forward and actually made us even worse defensively. So he then reverted back to a back four, but still never found an attacking balance until the playoffs despite using variations of 4-2-3-1, a flat 4-5-1, 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1.

That lack of attacking balance wasn't helped by a lot of the formations he was trying out not needing two holding midfielders, but he viewed McGinn as undroppable so we would be playing a 4-4-2 with both him and Jacobs in the middle, meaning we had no creativity from midfield while Lyon and Colville were on the bench. We were often playing centre backs at full back at this point as well, further limiting any attacking intent.

Even in the playoffs, the change to the out and out 4-3-3 where it was firmly three forwards as opposed to 4-5-1 with wide midfielders didn't happen between the Arbroath game and first leg with Montrose with a week to prepare for it. We played a flat 4-4-2 at Montrose, with Jacobs & McGinn in central midfield while Lyon & Colville sat on the bench, naturally.

The change happened between the first and second leg when we had three days between the games. It was a desperate last roll of the dice in response to a grim performance which involved bringing players who'd spent weeks not even making the bench straight into the starting eleven, and to his credit the gamble paid off with neither Montrose or Airdrie being able to cope with the physical presence of Muirhead and Salkeld or how direct we were. It was a massive contrast to the pedestrian first leg tactics and performance where McGuffie and Nesbitt had been our only creative outlets and were effortlessly marked out the game.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Yer right actually. I forgot McElhone had made us slightly more attacking at first but, from then on, I just remember the season being such a dirge it all blends in to one another. Still, no matter what shit was thrown at the wall over the season, or the reasons for it, it's clearly the fact it worked v Airdrie that has made McPherson decide he can get a tune out of Muirhead.

[SpoonTon]

6 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Yer right actually. I forgot McElhone had made us slightly more attacking at first but, from then on, I just remember the season being such a dirge it all blends in to one another. Still, no matter what shit was thrown at the wall over the season, or the reasons for it, it's clearly the fact it worked v Airdrie that has made McPherson decide he can get a tune out of Muirhead.

This. 

McElhone did make the initial positive change to a 4-2-3-1, with a clearly defined attacking player in front of the midfield (McPake for the first couple of games), but then he tweaked it to a 4-1-4-1 with a holding mid behind the wingers and two more advanced centre mids (nearly always 2 out of Blues, Lyon and Colville playing in front of Omar, Jacobs, or Millar). This became very stale because, unlike in the first couple of games when we had McPake connecting the midfield and attack, the whole thing was very detached. 

[Jamie_M]

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Jamie_M

[baba douche]

6 hours ago, Mr.Blue said:

Oooft. Someone's rattled

not rattled, but that sort of talk in most situations would get you skelped!

In fact, let him keep going then...

[cappiecat]

38 minutes ago, baba douche said:

not rattled, but that sort of talk in most situations would get you skelped!

In fact, let him keep going then...

Asking someone how much they lost on a daft football forum bet gets you skelped in most situations?

You're clearly mental.

[baba douche]

4 minutes ago, cappiecat said:

Asking someone how much they lost on a daft football forum bet gets you skelped in most situations?

You're clearly mental.

If someone kept asking me for proof if I pay my debts? Yup, you could deserve a skelp, unless it's you I owed.

And if you can actually read correctly, an internet forum is NOT most situations. Can't understand that?

Maybe get back to your Meg and Mog books...

[cappiecat]

1 hour ago, baba douche said:

And if you can actually read correctly, an internet forum is NOT most situations. Can't understand that?

I understand that no-one can be skelped in a forum.

Maybe you meant that if he asked you face to face, in most situations, you'd skelp him?