CLYDE FC Season 2017-18 Thread

[ScottR96]

41 minutes ago, Bankies Alive said:

Played 2nd tier Juniors last season because he's rubbish.

If only he was good enough to play in the footbaling Mecca that is the top tier of the juniors. 

Edit: The juniors

[GYSPY ARMY]

Well that's the transfer window closed. 3 players on loan. More importantly DGW remains.

Upto the players we have and the coaching staff now.

I would like to see us further up the league by the time the next window opens.

[David W]

Jim Chapman said at the Meet the Manager that he felt it was easier in this division to organise/sign a good attack, rather than defence. He felt this was a league wide problem.

Given that it's been obvious since day 1 that centre half was a real problem, I thought it might be interesting to see how our comparative clubs did in the transfer market. Here is a list of all centre halves (or players who can play centre half) signed during the summer by teams in League 2. I've included QP and Albion Rovers as sides who are in our area, who we can probably compete with financially. Apologies if I've missed anyone.

Jason Marr

Ross Perry

Kevin Green

Ayrton Sonkur

Jamie Pyper

Scott Rumsby

David Syme

Gareth Rodger

Stuart Morrison (loan)

Zdravko Karadachi

Stephen Bronsky

Sean Dillon

Matty Allan

Jason Brown

David McCracken

Mason Robertson

Michael Dunlop

Ross Dunlop

Ewan McNeil

Not a very inspiring bunch. The ones I've scored-through are ones that I don't think we'd have had a chance of signing, either for financial reasons, geographical reasons or because they were making loan deals permanent. 

Indeed, from the others, we sold McNeil (primarily a full-back, though he'd be our best centre half) and released Perry (who'd have him back?). The Dunlops (who would've given us a well tried partnership) were at Stenny before Chapman was appointed IIRC. Marr is literally always injured. Sonkur is primarily a midfielder. Karadachi doesn't seem to have played for Edinburgh. Kevin Green went with a group of guys from KRR to QP.

Narrowing it down like that and we're basically left with Gareth Rodger (who I've heard of but can't remember watching) and ex-Clyde youngster Stephen Bronsky (who amazingly was at Annan last season). Whilst not being overly impressed by Andy Munro, he's at least decent enough in the air and has played at this level. Might make a good pairing with the slightly sharper and quicker McNiff. He's more of a front-foot defender.

There's obviously other players out there; in the juniors, perhaps still without a club. However, I have a bit of sympathy with Chapman. There's not even that many decent centre halves who we could've nicked from the other teams in the league who I'd rate as being better than McNiff.

[David W]

On the other two, unless the goalkeeper is a standout and coming in to start every week, I don't really see the point of that. At this level I think you have a first choice, a cheap option on the bench, and then sign a guy on a short-term loan if you get an injury/suspension. If we're not paying much of his wages then I suppose it makes sense; I'd hope we're not wasting money on him though. Chapman always seemed to have two good goalies at Annan (Hart and Currie, Currie and Mitchell etc).

Lamont played against us for the Thistle colts last season, definitely as a right-footed right-winger. Seems a strange addition in that regard, although I do remember (vaguely) him moving inside regularly to allow the full-back to overlap. He looked a decent player and is now a year older. If he can play up top, then I think he's a good addition. Alternatively, we might see Wright employed centrally more often.

[1320Lichtie]

Munro is awful, genuinely amazed he's not in the juniors

Maldini would've looked shite in that Todd Lumsden team.

Guy can clearly do the basics at L2 level well enough.

[DeanMck]

Content enough at the signing of Munro. A player we have obviously been crying out for. The other 2 signings just seem to bring more depth into the squad rather than quality. A sign of the times im afraid. Nevertheless Mon tha Bully

[Armand 2]

Young Lamont has increasingly been playing a more central role in the U20's - and doing so quite well. He's come up on the blind side for me a bit but he's certainly considered one of our brighter prospects.

[Only one David Marsh]

Backup keepers been released and 8 u20s have gone out on loan to junior teams

[Jan Vojáček]

Backup keepers been released and 8 u20s have gone out on loan to junior teams

Is Kevin Thacker one of them? Kilsyth are crying our for someone of his ability at the moment.

[Bankies Alive]

13 hours ago, ScottR96 said:

If only he was good enough to play in the footbaling Mecca that is the top tier of the juniors. 

Edit: The juniors

That's just it he wasn't good enough to get a club in that Mecca!  Yet he`s playing every week for you.

Says it all really.

[Sao Paulo]

13 hours ago, David W said:

Lamont played against us for the Thistle colts last season, definitely as a right-footed right-winger.

16 hours ago, Dynamo 2013 said:

Lamont not left footed very much right footed who played right wing v St Johnstone u20 the other night.

That's slightly disheartening. If, as you both say, he's right footed, I'm going to guess that he'll play in the middle with Cuddihy. Burbridge has been praised by Chapman recently so I shouldn't assume that he's going to continue on the bench. The manager's thinking is presumably that Lamont will bring legs, creativity and an ability to keep the ball to our engine room.

However, I'm put in mind of Willie McLachlan. Another right-sided player (full-back), who was moved into the middle of the park when with Clyde. The rationale back then was that McLachlan, unlike more or less all of our squad, was a full-time player; he'd bring legs and all the rest of it. We were still posted missing in midfield though. And that goes to prove the point that pure fitness in the sense of being able to work at a certain rate for longer isn't enough to guarantee dominance in midfield. You need other qualities.

By the way, the reason I said he was left-sided is because there are a couple of - obviously unreliable - websites which indicate that much.

[AgentDaleCooper]

Here's hoping Lowdon will bridge the gap on the left hand side once fully fit, think Stewart is fine at left back, and him and Lowdon should compliment each other well. 

[Sao Paulo]

Be interesting to see what we do with our midfield and defence from hereon. Maybe we'll see Lamont up-top, who knows. If had Wright, Lamont and Cuddihy as a midfield three, that'd be a lot more legs and ball-playing skill than we'd ever had before. It'd also be a lot less presence too, mind you.

I've no recollection of Munro, the centre half. However, the comment above re kick and head everything in sight heartens me.

I'm still going to try and set things up for Marv to come back though. It's getting done.

[David W]

4 hours ago, Armand 2 said:

Young Lamont has increasingly been playing a more central role in the U20's - and doing so quite well. He's come up on the blind side for me a bit but he's certainly considered one of our brighter prospects.

By central do you mean central midfield, centre forward, or behind the striker?

[BullyWeeLad]

Jason Marr would have been perfect at the back, great player 

and Marvin has church commitments mate 

[haufdaft]

I'm assuming Nicoll will be moving to midfield.

Monro and McNiff as the central pairing.

Breslin to right back or dropped.

[David W]

10 minutes ago, BullyWeeLad said:

Jason Marr would have been perfect at the back, great player 

and Marvin has church commitments mate 

I agree but just 124 appearances in 5 and a bit seasons since he left us is atrocious. Some players would be nearly double that. He's been part-time as well so it's not even been from over-training.

[Emfaefifeyahoorsur]

Raffi Krissian is an available centre half .

[Armand 2]

5 hours ago, David W said:

By central do you mean central midfield, centre forward, or behind the striker?

The times that I've seen him more recently, he's been playing in a central midfield role. 

 

[Sao Paulo]

It shouldn't be surprising that Johnstone has done well for Clydebank wide on the right. Nor should it be surprising that Nicoll, despite his accolade at Petershill last season, had a lot of poor games in the Juniors. In the top few tiers of the Juniors, there can be a massive gulf in individual quality. Just look through the squads, sure. Stefan McCluskey, as a Pollock player, is whizzing by defenders who, at other times, would have nothing like as hard a time keeping tabs on their man. Johnstone's pace trades at a higher value where he is now. It's as simple as that.

About Nicoll. It doesn't matter how much Clyde supporters will him to be a good midfielder. He will, in a lot of matches, have the legs ran off of him in there. If we're going to content ourselves with a midfielder who wears his heart on his sleeve, we'd be as well asking John Sweeney back.

I'd love it if Nicoll was this 'big solid boay' everyone wants him to be. He isn't. He's nothing like as limber as he once was. He stands a chance of being a good organiser in a back three, if there's a couple of nippier players around him. The Airdrie friendly brought that out. What he's had to face since are teams which play much more directly than Airdrie did that evening. You look at him, his age, where he's played... And you think: he'll deal with long, searching balls no bother. Well he doesn't lads, I'm sorry.

He just about redeemed himself in the second-half against Stenny, having pretty much sold them their opener. Let's be realistic about him, eh? In addition to being a decent organiser in a back three, he could, with a couple of dynamos round about him, anchor our midfield. But this is pie in the sky stuff with the boys we have just now IMO.