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32 minutes ago, Fae_the_'briggs said:

I've not been a great admirer of Cochrane since he came here and wanted to give Liddle a chance, sadly I don't think Liddle has shown to be any better than Cochrane from what (admittedly little) I've seen if him so far. If Gibson is to be kept in midfield to accommodate Max J at rwb, I'd hope that AJ will get Todd, if fully fit, in beside him. 

I have been wanting to give Cochrane time to get fit and hopefully start to influence our games. But I do not see it as he seems to struggle to keep up with the pace of the game. I really liked Todd before he got injured so hears hoping he's back full fit. 

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6 hours ago, Otis Blue said:

I feel your pain sir, I feel your pain.  A wonderful opening line which surely captures the agonising essence of supporting second tier fitba' in Scotland. 👍

The agonising essence of it all would be hearing the team, thinking he's gone with an enterprising 4-3-3, going in with renewed hope... then watching us get bullied and generally out-thought by a 56-yr-old Wullie Gibson...

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Central midfield , as it has been for several years now, is comfortably our weakest area in my view. Gibson is the only player who seems capable of bossing this area and I think there is a danger of “burning him out” if we continually play him in there. Cochrane for me has some nice touches but looks very one paced and doesn’t cope well with hurly burly of Championship football. McGrory lacks consistency- when he has a very good game he invariably follows it with an anonymous showing. I quite like Todd as he can beat players and run with the ball but he is so unreliable with injuries that he often becomes a bit part player. Joseph just doesn’t get involved in games when he gets his chance - never seems to get on the ball and make things happen. Paton - I am unsure if he knows what his best position is. His goal scoring record is very good and that in itself ticks a big box. Liddle looks pretty pedestrian although being left sided should give him an edge.

Not a ringing endorsement of our midfield - maybe a tad harsh but when you have a strong central midfield you can manage games when leading and keep the ball in opponents half..........something we are incredibly weak at doing.

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Central midfield , as it has been for several years now, is comfortably our weakest area in my view. Gibson is the only player who seems capable of bossing this area and I think there is a danger of “burning him out” if we continually play him in there. Cochrane for me has some nice touches but looks very one paced and doesn’t cope well with hurly burly of Championship football. McGrory lacks consistency- when he has a very good game he invariably follows it with an anonymous showing. I quite like Todd as he can beat players and run with the ball but he is so unreliable with injuries that he often becomes a bit part player. Joseph just doesn’t get involved in games when he gets his chance - never seems to get on the ball and make things happen. Paton - I am unsure if he knows what his best position is. His goal scoring record is very good and that in itself ticks a big box. Liddle looks pretty pedestrian although being left sided should give him an edge.

Not a ringing endorsement of our midfield - maybe a tad harsh but when you have a strong central midfield you can manage games when leading and keep the ball in opponents half..........something we are incredibly weak at doing.

I've complained about our CM or lack of for years. I have to say I think this year's selection is the best we've had in a long time though. I think if AJ can decide on his preferred central midfield then we might get somewhere with it. Todd being injured and Cochrane coming back to full fitness hasn't exactly helped him but we've not had a settled CM all season in the league. It's rarely been the seem week to week. We saw last season that it took the players a good while to gel, I don't think chopping and changing players' positions and roles will help that process.

I think there's a case to be made that up front is our weakest area this season. Our strikers have scored 2 of our 10 league goals this season - though in fairness again, Roy has been out for a wee bit. Paton has 2 as well but both came from midfield. Maybe giving him a run upfront with support might get us some results. He worked really hard against Thistle and played well IMO but he doesn't really look cut out for the lone striker role.
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7 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:


I think there's a case to be made that up front is our weakest area this season. Our strikers have scored 2 of our 10 league goals this season - though in fairness again, Roy has been out for a wee bit. Paton has 2 as well but both came from midfield. Maybe giving him a run upfront with support might get us some results. He worked really hard against Thistle and played well IMO but he doesn't really look cut out for the lone striker role.

This really depends on how you've categorised Connelly. I'd say he's part of a front three (or he's the one behind a front two). He's not a midfielder. Count Connelly as a forward and forwards have got 6 of the 10.

Cameron's been here a fortnight and Roy was injured for all bar the opening two games. Ruben doesn't look likely to be a big scorer.

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This really depends on how you've categorised Connelly. I'd say he's part of a front three (or he's the one behind a front two). He's not a midfielder. Count Connelly as a forward and forwards have got 6 of the 10.
Cameron's been here a fortnight and Roy was injured for all bar the opening two games. Ruben doesn't look likely to be a big scorer.

I was classing him as a midfielder tbh. I know we have this 'front 3' and the guys on the flanks of the main man up top could be regarded as strikers but I see them more as an attacking from midfield rather than out and out strikers.
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18 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:


I was classing him as a midfielder tbh. I know we have this 'front 3' and the guys on the flanks of the main man up top could be regarded as strikers but I see them more as an attacking from midfield rather than out and out strikers.

Fair enough but it's semantics. I'd say Connelly is an attacker all day long, he doesn't have any particular defensive responsibilities in the formations we use (usually 3-4-1-2, or 3-4-3). In neither case is he part of the "4". Either way, if the "strikers" by your definition get 20% of our goals and the guy in the "10" role gets another 40% with wingbacks accounting for another 30% then we're not far wrong at that. Subject to the % being of a decent number of course.

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Fair enough but it's semantics. I'd say Connelly is an attacker all day long, he doesn't have any particular defensive responsibilities in the formations we use (usually 3-4-1-2, or 3-4-3). In neither case is he part of the "4". Either way, if the "strikers" by your definition get 20% of our goals and the guy in the "10" role gets another 40% with wingbacks accounting for another 30% then we're not far wrong at that. Subject to the % being of a decent number of course.

My post wasn't to have a go at our strikers/goalscoring tbf. It was more defending our midfield (bookmark that given how often I'm usually criticising it). I think our midfield options are better than our striking options. Getting the best out of them seems to be the problem just now, not so much the personnel.
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18 hours ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

The agonising essence of it all would be hearing the team, thinking he's gone with an enterprising 4-3-3, going in with renewed hope... then watching us get bullied and generally out-thought by a 56-yr-old Wullie Gibson...

Indeed, and I still feel your pain.

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McPherson claimed that he'll need to make some changes due to our 'risible and amateurish*' defensive mistakes at Inverness, which presumably means that Lewis Strapp will be punted to the bench. He's been off the boil since at least the turn of this year and it's past time he was taken out of the action for a while until he can win back that position on current merit. Russell has been much more effective as a left-sided option who will actually do something going forward: Allan will surely be dropped to the bench as well after failing to impress in his fifth different position he has been tried out in. Most likely team IMO:

Hamilton

McEntee McLean Lithgow

Blues Jacobs Oksanen Russell

Oliver (in our specially designed sand-dancer role)

Reilly Knowles

The return of McLean and Lithgow playing wider triggers some alarm bells about how that backline would deal with pace, but I'd be surprised if McPherson switched to a back four instead. Or if he ever stops building his attack around Oliver before wondering why it does f**k all for 30 games a season. 

 

 

 

 

* Not his description but very much mine. 

Edited by vikingTON
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His best game so far was his debut at Kilmarnock in which he did a pretty thankless task of harrying their defence well. He has been disappointing since but looks very low on confidence. If he gets a goal then he could kick on from there, but we're not creating a huge amount of chances. Those that have fallen to him, he should have done better with including one at 0-0 on Saturday. 

Tl;dr version: 'not great'. 

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Back four. Ten who started against Arbroath, with Ledger coming in for McGregor and Strapp returning to left-back. If Ugwu isn't fit, Reilly through the middle with Russell or Knowles coming in on the left.

If MacPherson picks the team VT lists above, he should be punted before kick-off.

Reilly could be important here (and for our season in general): if there are signs he's getting closer to match fitness, you'd fancy a goal; so far, though, he's looked like a guy who might never get the mobility and confidence back to be competitive even at this level.

Most important thing, though, is we need to see the kind of response you sometimes get when players know their manager is sliding towards the exit-door. Maybe he should tell them it's the second-leg of a relegation play-off...

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2 hours ago, 19QOS19 said:

Forgot Reilly is at Morton the now. Not scored yet I see (got to be decent value for a goal on Saturday then!). How has he done so far?

 

He didn't even give the 'keeper a save to make from this chance, which just about sums up how effective he has been. 

Screenshot 2021-10-21 101828.jpg

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3 hours ago, virginton said:

He's been off the boil since we brought in McPherson...

Fixed that for you. 

Does sound like Strapp is being dropped. Wonder while way the tombola will go to decide who replaces him at left wing back. Robbie Muirhead hasn't stunk out that position in a while. 

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If we went to a back four then Russell should be at left back and Allan left midfield. Not because that's our definitive best team or because Allan has done anything of note yet, but because Strapp absolutely needs dropped right now. I don't see him playing his way out of this slump after Saturday's performance. 

Allan can sand-dance out wide left with Lyon tucking in on the right hand side of midfield to help win the battle in that area of the park and drive into the box. No space for Blues or Oliver in the team which is very much a bonus. 

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I see Oliver openly criticizing our style of play in the local rag. 

For Oliver to publicly  criticize how the manager sets us up is very brave and I can only assume he knows Gus's job is on a shoogley peg or the dressing room have turned against him

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