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The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours


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That's not really the case though. It was about being dropped when playing well and contributing, which no half decent manager would actually do anyway. Jim Duffy on the other hand...

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That's not really the case though. It was about being dropped when playing well and contributing, which no half decent manager would actually do anyway. Jim Duffy on the other hand...

Managers stand or fall by their decisions. Get them right consistently and they'll do well, get them wrong and they won't, and they'll end up out of a job.

Yes, Caldwell was definitely one of our better performers and was playing well when he was in the team, and Duffy dropped him. Presumably for the good of the team; what what the precise reason was we'll probably never know. I can't be arsed checking precisely when he was dropped, but we won the last five or six games on the bounce without Caldwell in the team, which thankfully was good enough to win the league as it turned out.

This post isn't a defence of Duffy, who we all know isn't Jose Mourinho material. It's a post in response to thoughtless bollocks like the one I've quoted. Constructive criticism is one thing and is to be welcomed on threads like this; groundless negativity for the sake of it though just pisses me off.

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Caldwell was dropped after having an absolute stinker in the 2-0 defeat to Forfar. He got back in against Ayr and was subbed after another shocker, and it was a similar story against Stenny. If you've got players like McManus and MacDonald for competition and are in the middle of a tight promotion battle you can't afford to be offering so little in games.

Caldwell was strong, full of energy, and a decent finisher for the most part with us. His touch, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about. It's difficult to tell if he was a good player who lost confidence, a poor player who had a good spell of form, or something in between. I don't think we had him long enough to really make a judgement on that.

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Caldwell was dropped after having an absolute stinker in the 2-0 defeat to Forfar. He got back in against Ayr and was subbed after another shocker, and it was a similar story against Stenny. If you've got players like McManus and MacDonald for competition and are in the middle of a tight promotion battle you can't afford to be offering so little in games.

Caldwell was strong, full of energy, and a decent finisher for the most part with us. His touch, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about. It's difficult to tell if he was a good player who lost confidence, a poor player who had a good spell of form, or something in between. I don't think we had him long enough to really make a judgement on that.

That's a fair summation.

I still reckon dropping him after the one bad game against Forfar was harsh, as I felt MacDonald (from the bench) and McManus were even worse than Caldwell that day, but ultimately MacDonald and McManus both had some great games in the run-in whereas Caldwell never recaptured the form of his first few games, so couldn't complain about not getting back in the team for all that he could feel hard done by about being dropped in the first place.

While on that evidence he's either the best/worst example of a confidence player around or has an attitude problem I'd still have taken a gamble on keeping him this season, but he certainly wouldn't be starting every week if he'd stayed so it's possible the same issue could have arose.

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I wonder if we will see scullion more involved this season.

He has shifted some weight apparently and has scored 3 goals over 2 games and has been impressive.

Think we were all quite impressed with his technique last season. I'm looking forward to seeing if he can make an impact.

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What's Morton fans views on season ahead? Sounds like you guys weren't too impressed with Duffy last season. Do you think he's up to the job?

I'm looking at my team (Alloa), Dumbarton, Morton and Livingston being bottom 4. Preferably Livingston being bottom.

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I have this awful feeling that Duffy will play Forbes wide left and continue to play Michael Miller at centre mid. Should be wrong as we have Stef/Barr but after his weather based decisions last year, you just cant trust the Duff!

Edited by FenTon
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Duffy was quite predictable on his set up last year, mostly 442 but this year I suspect we will see different combinations depending on the opposition and If its home or away( and of course the weather)

Im expecting to see 442/451/4231 and anything else Duffy can think of this season.

Agree about Forbes, needs to be in the middle. McLuskey, Barr and even Russell can play left mid so no need for Forbes to be out there.

Think we need to accept that Miller is a midfielder in Duffys eyes seeing as he never played him centre half even when Crighton and Milo weren't performing.

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With our current squad, I would go with the following team

Gaston

Kilday - McKeown - O'Ware - Russell

Pepper

Barr - Forbes - Tidser - McCluskey

MacDonald

Ideally, we would sign an experienced centre mid to replace Pepper, some real competiton for MacDonald and someone to compete with Stef (who I think will be a surprise this season), but otherwise I don't think that's a bad team at all. Good pace on the flanks, and creativity in the middle of the park.

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I'd expect Duffy to have Miller where you've got Pepper, but apart from that I can see that being the first choice side.

I'm not giving up hope that he'll surprise us by signing a real holding midfielder, and a new right back is also essential as Kilday's not ready for the step up.

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I'd expect Duffy to have Miller where you've got Pepper, but apart from that I can see that being the first choice side.

I'm not giving up hope that he'll surprise us by signing a real holding midfielder, and a new right back is also essential as Kilday's not ready for the step up.

I know I only saw a few games last season, but I don't see the issue with Kilday myself. He played every single game last season, some could say that was due to lack of competition, but I would be more inclined to suggest that it as because he was a reliable performer.

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Not a chance Pepper will play the holding role under Duffy. Pepper was dropped for a lot of matches last season purely for the reason that he didn't stick to his position and chased the ball about everywhere, so it will be a cold day in hell before Duffy deploys him in such an important defensive role.

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Could be possible to play Forbes in the holding role (bear with me)

The best players in that position don't need to run around to break up attacks. If their positional abilities are good enough they can do a job there without even breaking sweat (Carrick's good at this for Man U). Pepper's energy just infront of him could be enough to pick up any issues caused by Forbes lack of mobility as well.

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