stumigoo Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 Smith and Robson being our only wide players is down to Mellon. I have sympathy for both because they are playing roles beyond what their capabilities are, and in a system that relies heavily on them being able to deal with overloads down each flank (which they can’t). Smith is competent enough that I’m not desperate for him to be replaced but he does need competition. Robson does need to be upgraded but that has been that case for a number of seasons and we still haven’t addressed that. Ultimately though, we need width and the fullbacks need support on each flank, something Mellon has refused to acknowledge this season. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mishtergrolsch Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 21 minutes ago, stumigoo said: Smith and Robson being our only wide players is down to Mellon. I have sympathy for both because they are playing roles beyond what their capabilities are, and in a system that relies heavily on them being able to deal with overloads down each flank (which they can’t). Smith is competent enough that I’m not desperate for him to be replaced but he does need competition. Robson does need to be upgraded but that has been that case for a number of seasons and we still haven’t addressed that. Ultimately though, we need width and the fullbacks need support on each flank, something Mellon has refused to acknowledge this season. Ive defended Mellon and I do think he's done a very good job with what he's had to work with. I am beginning to wonder if the wheels are beginning to come off or has he squeezed all he can from what he's got and there's nothing in the tank. I dont think many managers would get much more out of what we have tbf. But, as you say, hes not successfully addressed the width of the team. I think he tried with Bolton. But he is garbage. So hes left playing McNulty wide, when he's not a wide player. Or Clark, same thing. Chalmers looked decent but got injured. Sporle is OK but wanders and we lose our shape so in certain games hes not going to work. Appere has just disappeared but he's not a traditional winger either. So full backs are left exposed, as they have been for about 5 years. With competent wingers in front of them, who knows? Maybe Robson and Smith would improve and that would be great. But due to poor recruitment we don't have wingers. Mind you, if we can't find a winger how the f**k are we going to find a full back? So, between shite recruitment, square pegs and injuries its just not happened. The squad in general needs a bit of an overhaul. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabianKnight Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 Siegrist (likely Deniz next season) Smith Edwards BETTER DEFENDER Robson Winger Butcher. Fuchs. Winger Clark. Shankland Is what I would hope for going forward. With the available wages after Bolton and McNulty are away we can strengthen those areas although I'd like to see the younger guys get a bit more game time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancashirearab Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 Robson had a good defensive game yesterday and put in some great blocks to nullify attacks. He has developed into a reliable fullback with that part of his game. However, every game he manages to infuriate me with his inability to make a pass. It isn't just that he cannot cross a ball. He fails to pass accurately on most occasions that he has the ball, giving the opposition another chance to attack us. He isn't the only one though. Our entire back line are all poor at distributing the ball. It makes it very difficult to build up momentum and maintain pressure on the opposition when we keep giving the ball away so cheaply. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabFC Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 57 minutes ago, ArabianKnight said: Siegrist (likely Deniz next season) Smith Edwards BETTER DEFENDER Robson Winger Butcher. Fuchs. Winger Clark. Shankland Is what I would hope for going forward. With the available wages after Bolton and McNulty are away we can strengthen those areas although I'd like to see the younger guys get a bit more game time. You really need to be hoping for better than Butcher in midfield! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabFC Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 5 minutes ago, Lancashirearab said: Robson had a good defensive game yesterday and put in some great blocks to nullify attacks. He has developed into a reliable fullback with that part of his game. However, every game he manages to infuriate me with his inability to make a pass. It isn't just that he cannot cross a ball. He fails to pass accurately on most occasions that he has the ball, giving the opposition another chance to attack us. He isn't the only one though. Our entire back line are all poor at distributing the ball. It makes it very difficult to build up momentum and maintain pressure on the opposition when we keep giving the ball away so cheaply. Robson was brilliant in the opening games of the season. He has it in his locker and its frustrating that his form can fluctuate so much, but, he's still a Premier League standard full-back, he's one of our own youth products and he's still young. Left-back is way down on our list of priorities for improvement. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancashirearab Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 32 minutes ago, ArabFC said: Left-back is way down on our list of priorities for improvement. I agree with you, but he needs a good winger that can fulfil the role further up the park that he cannot do because of his poor passing/crossing abilities. United desperately need creativity in the midfield and wide positions to nake us a more dangerous team 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabianKnight Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 46 minutes ago, ArabFC said: You really need to be hoping for better than Butcher in midfield! I'm hoping for better but realistically unless we get a more defensive minded player of Fuchs calibre then that's about our limit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mishtergrolsch Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 1 hour ago, ArabianKnight said: Siegrist (likely Deniz next season) Smith Edwards BETTER DEFENDER Robson Winger Butcher. Fuchs. Winger Clark. Shankland Is what I would hope for going forward. With the available wages after Bolton and McNulty are away we can strengthen those areas although I'd like to see the younger guys get a bit more game time. Put Butcher next to Edwards and get a midfielder that can spray the ball about. Two wingers that are capable of two crosses each per game then we're laughing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 45 minutes ago, mishtergrolsch said: Two wingers that are capable of two crosses each per game 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinkle Posted May 9, 2021 Author Share Posted May 9, 2021 Dont think its a coincedence that both our best chances to score yesterday came from crosses. Keeper makes a good stop from Shankland and Robson skewed the other one wide. How MM cant see that regular deliveries into opposition boxes will cause problems, is extremely worrying 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mishtergrolsch Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 42 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said: I'd settle for 2 crosses between them but I'm setting the bar high this year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arab_joe Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 22 hours ago, mishtergrolsch said: Robson can't cross a road and Smith is just about as bad. Considering they are our only wide players its criminal. Agree that neither are great going forward (but I do think that Liam Smith has been improving as this season has gone in), but we have no wingers and it is too much to ask of them to be our only wide option - especially as we only have one competent centre-back so they are always having to have one eye on Reynolds/Connolly. 21 hours ago, stumigoo said: Smith and Robson being our only wide players is down to Mellon. I have sympathy for both because they are playing roles beyond what their capabilities are, and in a system that relies heavily on them being able to deal with overloads down each flank (which they can’t). This is the issue - not, in my opinion, Smith or Robson. 21 hours ago, mishtergrolsch said: The squad in general needs a bit of an overhaul. Which is even more evidence, if it was needed, that Micky Mellon has done a fine job this season. 16 hours ago, ArabianKnight said: Siegrist (likely Deniz next season) Smith Edwards BETTER DEFENDER Robson Winger Butcher. Fuchs. Winger Clark. Shankland Arabs would complain no-end if we played a four man midfield with two holding midfielders in Butcher and Fuchs! But in all seriousness, Ian Harkes is not everyone's cup of tea but he does a power of running (especially beyond the strikers - which neither Butcher or Fuchs ever do) and he (or another more creative replacement) is needed in there if we have Butcher and Fuchs. 15 hours ago, ArabFC said: Left-back is way down on our list of priorities for improvement. Agree 100%. I genuinely can't believe that Arabs are complaining about our full-backs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dundee Hibernian Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 Changing managers again wouldn't be my priority for the club presently, but I have a feeling MM might be away shortly anyway. Looking at the five most popular candidates, listed by the press for the Doncaster job, four are unemployed right now and have been for months (Parkinson, Wellens, Stendel and Robinson), with Mellon the only one in employment. Yet the job has been lying open for a couple of months, which might indicate they are waiting on a particular manager, with the application process having closed three weeks ago. All this is based on supposition and guesswork. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabFC Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 4 hours ago, arab_joe said: But in all seriousness, Ian Harkes is not everyone's cup of tea but he does a power of running (especially beyond the strikers - which neither Butcher or Fuchs ever do) and he (or another more creative replacement) is needed in there if we have Butcher and Fuchs. Not my cup of tea because he's fairly obviously not cut out for this level. he may have the odd good game here or there, but he's poor on the ball, he's soft and he ain't very creative. Running about only gets you so far! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arab_joe Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, Dundee Hibernian said: Changing managers again wouldn't be my priority for the club presently, but I have a feeling MM might be away shortly anyway. The thought of our club's owners/Tony Asghar trying to recruit yet another manager gives me the fear - a truly terrifying prospect. The way I see it, we have a good manager at present - one that has a very decent record in the transfer market (few would argue that Edwards and Fuchs have been two of our best performers all season) and who is getting far more out of this group than Neilson could ever have done (staying up was always our goal, and supporters have only recently lost sight of that fact due to the fact that we almost made it to the top six then we almost made it to the Scottish Cup final). Doncaster could do far, far worse than Mellon. 59 minutes ago, ArabFC said: Not my cup of tea because he's fairly obviously not cut out for this level. he may have the odd good game here or there, but he's poor on the ball, he's soft and he ain't very creative. Running about only gets you so far! Ian Harkes is not a great footballer (and still cannot shoot to save his life), but in my eyes he is unfairly scapegoated at the moment - he could be a decent player at this level, if he had better players around him/sharing some of his workload. He is forced to do all of the forward running from the midfield (because Butcher and, to a lesser degree, Fuchs both hate running anywhere near our strikers) and a load of tracking back (as our "wingers" Clark and McNulty do absolutely no defending whatsoever), and he almost never has any easy/wide option as an outlet. He is constantly having to play difficult passes/through balls, and being made to look worse than he is. Basically, as we have been pointing out for months, the squad is missing balance and quality and Mellon seems to have lost a bit of earlier faith that he had in the youngsters. An important summer coming up... Edited May 10, 2021 by arab_joe Grammar 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pull My Strings Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 4 hours ago, Dundee Hibernian said: Changing managers again wouldn't be my priority for the club presently, but I have a feeling MM might be away shortly anyway. Looking at the five most popular candidates, listed by the press for the Doncaster job, four are unemployed right now and have been for months (Parkinson, Wellens, Stendel and Robinson), with Mellon the only one in employment. Yet the job has been lying open for a couple of months, which might indicate they are waiting on a particular manager, with the application process having closed three weeks ago. All this is based on supposition and guesswork. Yeah, I think Mellon will be away and I won't be particularly disappointed. He's done enough not to be chased away and he's clearly achieved the single most important target this season (staying up) but the football ... bleurgh! If he does stay (and I'm not dead against it) then I will remain open to the possibility that he's a builder of teams over time and things will get better but my instinct is that this is Micky's preferred style of football (work hard, close down, play it forward quickly and hope for the best). We might get better at that style of football but we won't ever be enjoyable to watch. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabFC Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 1 hour ago, arab_joe said: Ian Harkes is not a great footballer (and still cannot shoot to save his life), but in my eyes he is unfairly scapegoated at the moment - he could be a decent player at this level, if he had better players around him/sharing some of his workload. He is forced to do all of the forward running from the midfield (because Butcher and, to a lesser degree, Fuchs both hate running anywhere near our strikers) and a load of tracking back (as our "wingers" Clark and McNulty do absolutely no defending whatsoever), and he almost never has any easy/wide option as an outlet. He is constantly having to play difficult passes/through balls, and being made to look worse than he is. Naw. Where does he play? He's not a wide player and he doesn't have enough to his game to partner Fuchs or Butcher in a 442. You can play him in a midfield 3, but then you're doing that only because you know your midfield 2 isn't good enough. Fuchs is a decent player at this level. Butcher struggles and Harkes is nowhere near it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny Danger Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 On 09/05/2021 at 13:44, ArabianKnight said: Siegrist (likely Deniz next season) Smith Edwards BETTER DEFENDER Robson Winger Butcher. Fuchs. Winger Clark. Shankland Is what I would hope for going forward. With the available wages after Bolton and McNulty are away we can strengthen those areas although I'd like to see the younger guys get a bit more game time. Unlike some others I think that would be a decent team at this level. Still unhappy that we have given Pawlett another two years, a total head scratcher. I think Benji will be away and I really couldn’t blame Shankland if he wants to go, he will do very well in a side that gets him service. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdyteejay Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 1 hour ago, Granny Danger said: Unlike some others I think that would be a decent team at this level. Still unhappy that we have given Pawlett another two years, a total head scratcher. I think Benji will be away and I really couldn’t blame Shankland if he wants to go, he will do very well in a side that gets him service. I can see hertz coming in for him. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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