The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours

[BishopLenBrennan]

Indeed. Any club that pays for Scott Tiffoney with actual real money are absolute mugs.

And that's coming from a club who once paid £10,000 for Tony Wallace.

[M0rtonfc]

I'm still amazed that Tiffoney's getting any interest from clubs at a higher level. He seems entirely the kind of ineffective young winger who'd turn down a full-time deal believing he can do better, end up at Clyde for a couple of years where his sanddancing achieves nothing then spend the rest of his career at Largs Thistle.

If anyone offers compensation we should take it and run.

 

It really is baffling!

[Ludo*1]

Mark Russell is on trial with us. He failed a trial at St Johnstone. What's he like?

Why did he leave you/get punted?

[Scosha]

7 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Mark Russell is on trial with us. He failed a trial at St Johnstone. What's he like?

Why did he leave you/get punted?

There's a lot of potential there but he's been brutal for the majority of the last 2 seasons. When he was good he would just ghost past any player coming near him and was decent going forward but he seemed to lose all of that in the months after. Mainly due to Duffy playing him a left-mid which didn't suit him at all. 

It was the right thing for him to leave but I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a good career. He's another player we'd be due compensation for though. Came through our academy and has played 150+ games for us. 

[madton]

9 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Mark Russell is on trial with us. He failed a trial at St Johnstone. What's he like?

Why did he leave you/get punted?

Not Premiership class.  Was a highly promising full back a few years ago but then stalled and actually went backwards.

Would be amazed if you offered him a deal. Has had some really poor spells over the last season or two.

He was also on trial with Falkirk before St Johnstone too.

He was offered a new contract with us as he was under 23 but it dragged on and I believe we withdraw the offer. Not sure how that leaves compo!

[mcintyre_gmfc]

46 minutes ago, Scosha said:

There's a lot of potential there but he's been brutal for the majority of the last 2 seasons. When he was good he would just ghost past any player coming near him and was decent going forward but he seemed to lose all of that in the months after. Mainly due to Duffy playing him a left-mid which didn't suit him at all. 

It was the right thing for him to leave but I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a good career. He's another player we'd be due compensation for though. Came through our academy and has played 150+ games for us. 

We wouldn't be due anything as we withdrew his contract.

[Tri-TON]

Mark Russell is on trial with us. He failed a trial at St Johnstone. What's he like?
Why did he leave you/get punted?

I likened him a few seasons or two ago in a similar mould to Kieran Tierney, not so much anymore but a fresh start could help.

[BishopLenBrennan]

1 hour ago, Ludo*1 said:

Mark Russell is on trial with us. He failed a trial at St Johnstone. What's he like?

Why did he leave you/get punted?

Defensively he's decent, but prone to lapses of concentration. He used to offer some excellent attacking runs from full back, but as mentioned above they have become a rarity.

He had potential a couple of years ago, but he's never recovered from getting chopped and changed position under Duffy. As a very cheap back-up option then maybe you could get something out of him, but given we'd be due compensation I wouldn't recommend it. He's not good enough, or displayed enough potential recently, to merit a fee.

Edited August 1, 2018 by BishopLenBrennan

[Scosha]

40 minutes ago, mcintyre_gmfc said:

We wouldn't be due anything as we withdrew his contract.

We are. As long as a contract is offered, if it isn't accepted after a certain amount of time it can be withdrawn but we'll still be entitled to the compensation. 

[vikingTON]

He was actually solid defensively last season after a blip the start of the season, but the focus on the defensive side of the game has nullified his main strengths and confidence when going forward. At least has time on his side and the chance of regaining them at a new club with a fresh start, which can't really be said for Doyle.

Mystified as to why people are content with our current left-back options though, which are clearly weaker than what we had last season.  

[madton]

16 minutes ago, virginton said:

He was actually solid defensively last season after a blip the start of the season, but the focus on the defensive side of the game has nullified his main strengths and confidence when going forward. At least has time on his side and the chance of regaining them at a new club with a fresh start, which can't really be said for Doyle.

Mystified as to why people are content with our current left-back options though, which are clearly weaker than what we had last season.  

What don't you like about Iredale VT?

For me, he gives us pace, height, can beat a man, can cross a ball and has popped up with a few goals as well in a short space of time which is more than any of our other full backs have did in recent years .  Think he has been fine defensively too and is still only 22 so that side of his game can only improve. Remember playing left back is relatively new to him having played centre back and left winger when he was younger.

I've seen you say a few times that you don't rate him, curious why.

 

[Ira Gaines]

He's a fucking disaster zone defensively. He's been absolutely nowhere near fine in that side of his game.

[madton]

18 minutes ago, Mayor Wilkins III said:

He's a fucking disaster zone defensively. He's been absolutely nowhere near fine in that side of his game.

Completely disagree.

We were collectively creaming over him when he first got his run at left back, great debut  against Dunfermline, scoring against DU and Dumbarton and the team winning 5 or 6 on the bounce   There wasn't one mention of him being a fecking disaster then!

If you don't rate him fair enough, but don't go overboard!

[vikingTON]

51 minutes ago, madton said:

What don't you like about Iredale VT?

For me, he gives us pace, height, can beat a man, can cross a ball and has popped up with a few goals as well in a short space of time which is more than any of our other full backs have did in recent years .  Think he has been fine defensively too and is still only 22 so that side of his game can only improve. Remember playing left back is relatively new to him having played centre back and left winger when he was younger.

I've seen you say a few times that you don't rate him, curious why.

 

He was atrocious defensively in the first two League Cup games and was positionally suspect in many of his appearances last season too. He has about twenty - if even that - senior appearnces under his belt, so we have no idea yet how he would cope with a loss of form over week after week of a league campaign: he simply doesn't have that experience. But because he wasn't as ineffective as Russell in an attacking sense when he broke into the team and scored a worldy at Tannadice, Morton fans have been willing to overlook what would be huge red flags in any other position.  

I've got nothing against Iredale personally - he has shown promise and like Russell has plenty of time on his side to make the required improvements to his game. But he should not be the first choice left back in our squad if we have any credible ambition of for promotion now. And that's before we start on having Strapp, a player with even less experience at this level, as our only other option in that position. 

The club has done more right than wrong over the summer but as usual we've been guilty of taking some half measures and the left-back position has been left as an obvious weak link to date.  The goalkeeper situation is another opportunity missed and those could well be the crucial margins between success and failure. 

 

Edited August 1, 2018 by vikingTON

[madton]

46 minutes ago, virginton said:

He was atrocious defensively in the first two League Cup games and was positionally suspect in many of his appearances last season too. He has about twenty - if even that - senior appearnces under his belt, so we have no idea yet how he would cope with a loss of form over week after week of a league campaign: he simply doesn't have that experience. But because he wasn't as ineffective as Russell in an attacking sense when he broke into the team and scored a worldy at Tannadice, Morton fans have been willing to overlook what would be huge red flags in any other position.  

I've got nothing against Iredale personally - he has shown promise and like Russell has plenty of time on his side to make the required improvements to his game. But he should not be the first choice left back in our squad if we have any credible ambition of for promotion now. And that's before we start on having Strapp, a player with even less experience at this level, as our only other option in that position. 

The club has done more right than wrong over the summer but as usual we've been guilty of taking some half measures and the left-back position has been left as an obvious weak link to date.  The goalkeeper situation is another opportunity missed and those could well be the crucial margins between success and failure. 

 

Fair enough.

Wouldn't have said he was atrocious at Patrick, ( I wasn't at Ayr). He started at left mid to accommodate Tidser at left back and once we changed that, we absolutely dominated the rest of the game and can't remember him doing much wrong at all.

Either way, lets see how he does in the first few games, I'm hopeful he will be fine!

[ATLIS]

We've signed Lawless with the Morton winger expected to be confirmed tomorrow  

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, madton said:

Either way, lets see how he does in the first few games, I'm hopeful he will be fine!

I hope he does well but whatever he does won't tell us anything about his ability to handle an entire season as a first choice player though.  And that's the biggest issue with both  of our squad options in that position. 

[Scosha]

11 hours ago, ATLIS said:

We've signed Lawless with the Morton winger expected to be confirmed tomorrow  

Might be Frank Ross? 

[BishopLenBrennan]

14 hours ago, madton said:

Fair enough.

Wouldn't have said he was atrocious at Patrick, ( I wasn't at Ayr). He started at left mid to accommodate Tidser at left back and once we changed that, we absolutely dominated the rest of the game and can't remember him doing much wrong at all.

Either way, lets see how he does in the first few games, I'm hopeful he will be fine!

While he wasn't helped at all by the half-baked 3-5-2 shape down at Ayr, Iredale was really poor. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and attribute his positional sense to the 3-5-2 shape, he was poor. Ayr began specifically targeting his side and turned the game around when they did, that wasn't coincidental. As good an attacking full-back as he may be, I don't want him providing all our width on the left hand side if Ayr is anything to go by.

Iredale has potential and has clear positive attacking attributes, and as mentioned above he has time on his side, but I would rather have a more experienced left-back with Strapp going out to a League One club on loan. It's a massive responsibility to place on a young player who is still adapting to life and football in Scotland, and the potential negative impact could curtail any potential he does have. Hopefully he can adapt quickly (as he has done to the left back position in general thus far) and can prove me wrong, but I can see it becoming a recurring issue over the course of the season.

[BishopLenBrennan]

@Branch Ton

If you ever try to red dot me like that again, I will rip off your arms.