Raith Rovers vs Dundee FC & Dundee FC vs Raith Rovers

[HoustonRover]

Buzzing about this now. We’ve massively over-achieved this season and just papped out our rivals in the playoffs.

Free hits galore and I think we are a very good team. Go out and play with freedom and see what happens.

[TxRover]

43 minutes ago, Pride of Fife said:

Davo was bad enough but now we are faced with Bene being partnered by Mendy?!  Not for me, he has at least one bombscare moment every 30mins and with stakes so high, I wouldn’t be risking it. Cooney to come in perhaps?

Not to be cynical, but Mendy paired with Bene has the same quality of results as Davo paired with Bene. Do I believe Mendy is a solid CB for us, not really, but he hasn’t been the disaster some predicted when he plays. Given Dundee will try to rile Davo, if there’s any injury concern, bench him. Mendy has played for us successfully, Cooney has not.

[R.R.FC]

4 hours ago, TxRover said:

Not to be cynical, but Mendy paired with Bene has the same quality of results as Davo paired with Bene. Do I believe Mendy is a solid CB for us, not really, but he hasn’t been the disaster some predicted when he plays. Given Dundee will try to rile Davo, if there’s any injury concern, bench him. Mendy has played for us successfully, Cooney has not.

I’m not sure that’s true, unfortunately. The reason McGlynn has only played Mendy in a 3 recently is because his positional sense is so bad. It can be covered slightly better in a 3 (though not entirely if he just runs away from his man ala Hearts). In a two that will be (and has been) badly exposed.

His starts in a two this season have been:

3-3 vs Inverness     
1-0 vs Cowdenbeath     
5-2 vs Alloa    
0-2 vs QOS

He was all over the place in all of those games, the only reason we got a clean sheet against Cowdenbeath is because they lacked the quality to take advantage of a couple of his mistakes. An average of almost 2 goals conceded per game and none of those against strikers the quality of Cummings. The only solid performances I can remember from him were in the 1-0 win at Cappielow and he played an hour in the 5-0 win against them at Starks.

Your commitment to defending Mendy is admirable and I hope you are proven correct and he has a brilliant couple of games if he comes in. Unfortunately, I think Davo is far from perfect but remains miles better than Mendy and if he is not fit I’d say our chances in this tie go from slim to zero.

[true_rover]

I’m not sure that’s true, unfortunately. The reason McGlynn has only played Mendy in a 3 recently is because his positional sense is so bad. It can be covered slightly better in a 3 (though not entirely if he just runs away from his man ala Hearts). In a two that will be (and has been) badly exposed.
His starts in a two this season have been:
3-3 vs Inverness     
1-0 vs Cowdenbeath     
5-2 vs Alloa    
0-2 vs QOS
He was all over the place in all of those games, the only reason we got a clean sheet against Cowdenbeath is because they lacked the quality to take advantage of a couple of his mistakes. An average of almost 2 goals conceded per game and none of those against strikers the quality of Cummings. The only solid performances I can remember from him were in the 1-0 win at Cappielow and he played an hour in the 5-0 win against them at Starks.
Your commitment to defending Mendy is admirable and I hope you are proven correct and he has a brilliant couple of games if he comes in. Unfortunately, I think Davo is far from perfect but remains miles better than Mendy and if he is not fit I’d say our chances in this tie go from slim to zero.

Mendy did a decent job when he came on on Saturday but he can do that when we're sitting in - positioning becomes less of an issue and it's more about just winning balls on the box.

Would I feel confident with him starting in a game that we need to come out and win against a team with a decent strike force - not really.

[R.R.FC]

2 hours ago, true_rover said:

Mendy did a decent job when he came on on Saturday but he can do that when we're sitting in - positioning becomes less of an issue and it's more about just winning balls on the box.

Would I feel confident with him starting in a game that we need to come out and win against a team with a decent strike force - not really.

Yeah, if we are under pressure defending our box and he just has to kick/head the ball the way he is facing, I think he can do that job pretty well as he did for the last few minutes on Saturday. However, the various flaws in his game would be exposed over 2 legs by a striker like Cummings and a midfielder like Adam finding the gaps.

The only real positive of him playing if Davo doesn’t make it is that Dundee are a huge threat from set pieces. They seem to have scored from at least one set piece every time I have watched them and Nando’s main strength is his aerial ability.

[Michael W]

2 hours ago, true_rover said:

Mendy did a decent job when he came on on Saturday but he can do that when we're sitting in - positioning becomes less of an issue and it's more about just winning balls on the box.

Would I feel confident with him starting in a game that we need to come out and win against a team with a decent strike force - not really.

Totally agree. He was absolutely fine against Morton early in the season for example, although they are a worse team than Dundee and also played most the game with ten men, which nessecitated some fairly direct play. He handled that just fine.  Cummings or McGowan running at him? No thank you. 

Let's see what Wednesday brings... 

[TxRover]

Mendy, and fluid defense, are terms seldom used concurrently...however, Dave’s been the responsible party in countless breaks where he plays the opposition onside. Say what you may about Mendy’s positional sense, but he has enough to play the back line even quite well, where Davo cheats due to the knowledge that he doesn’t have to makeup speed anymore.

Dundee have plenty of players experienced enough to take advantage of either Davo or Mendy, but Mendy is much less likely to draw a card. Coney seems to not be a viable choice, so that leaves Mendy or Davo...and if Davo is knicked, his ponderous nature would likely be more exposed than usual...thus my grudging suggestion we may start Nando. If we do start Mendy; 50% catastrophe, 30% perfectly acceptable, 15% excellent, 5% MotM.

[roverthemoon]

Davidson, despite all his flaws,  is a far far superior defender to Mendy. I don’t think a defence of Mendy and Bene would be good enough to get us past Dundee over two legs, unless either Jamie McDonald is exceptional or our midfield runs over the top of Dundee like we did against the Pars in the 5-1

[roverthemoon]

4 minutes ago, TxRover said:

If we do start Mendy; 50% catastrophe, 30% perfectly acceptable, 15% excellent, 5% MotM.

Based on actual performances in games where we were under even just a little bit of pressure, I think the figures are more likely to be 75% catastrophe, 24% acceptable and 1% MotM. 

[HoustonRover]

Not even joking I’d play Brad Spencer at centre half ahead of Mendy.

[Michael W]

I admire the defence of Mendy eminating from the Lone Star State, but I'd also take Davidson over Mendy. He has many flaws that I've highlighted on here repeatedly for years, but he does have some level of composure which Mendy lacks. If we were going to spend the day having the ball melted at us, I'd be fairly relaxed, but this isn't what we are going to face here. 

[McGuigan1978]

Aye, the defence of Mendy has went beyond jumping the shark and is now a bit weird. 
 

Even the 5-0 game against Morton where he was fine, they were down to 10 men after about 25 minutes. In his last game he was substituted at the interval versus Hearts as he was egregiously bad, and was a miss timed tackle away from being sent off. 
 

God love him, but if Mendy plays in both games, we’ll probably need to score seven just to take it to extra time. 

[Lang Toun Lad]

Frankly, Mendy isn't even close to being the ayer Davo is. He is completely clueless in his positioning and is only passable in the air with his passing being fine.

Even the 1‐0 at Cappielow he was taken on and beaten several times one on one and left looking the fool. I don't understand anyone thinking he played well in that game.

Unfortunately, he was a gamble that never worked out.  I hope he does well in the future but he isn't capable of playing above League 2 at the moment and will be nowhere near the Rovers next year.

[Raith_Raver]

If Kelty Hearts beat Brechin which most expect them to do I see Mendy back there next season, where I reckon he'd do well.

[Spikethedee]

I take it we should petrified as, true to regular Dundee form, this opposition player that Raith are declaring to be absolute horseshit will have the two best games of his life and win the tie single-handedly???

Edited May 10, 2021 by Spikethedee

[spot on]

12 hours ago, TxRover said:

Not to be cynical, but Mendy paired with Bene has the same quality of results as Davo paired with Bene. Do I believe Mendy is a solid CB for us, not really, but he hasn’t been the disaster some predicted when he plays. Given Dundee will try to rile Davo, if there’s any injury concern, bench him. Mendy has played for us successfully, Cooney has not.

Did you not watch him against Hearts? 

[Fifespud]

Will be interesting to see how hard the Raith players who have signed pre-contracts with us try in these 2 games.

[grumswall]

Will be interesting to see how hard the Raith players who have signed pre-contracts with us try in these 2 games.

Have you not seen the chat? Mendy probably won't play.

[RossBFaeDundee]

Sounds like Davidson will probably be fine. Will take the stick-on red card instead then.

https://www.bt.com/sport/news/2021/may/raith-hopeful-that-iain-davidson-is-fit-enough-to-face-dundee

[kev23]

Mendy seems like the nicest guy in the world but he’s never a footballer.
If Davidson doesn’t make it, I’d rather move MacDonald to centre half with Armstrong at left back than see Mendy in the starting XI. Any hope we have of taking something to Dens most likely relies on Davidson being fit which is madness in itself.