joewarkfanclub

Re Ross County. I dont ususally do the "must win game" thing. And in the context of the whole season, it clearly isnt a must win. But in the context of the current run we are on, we really need to stop the slide and do it quickly to prevent confidence being eroded away. This would be a really good time to start.

Not sure how this backs up your point? We were discussing how SOD has done this season for Motherwell. That goal doesnt really compare to any of the goals we have lost this season because the Scotland players are all in position and doing their job. You can say that SOD was culpable for that goal, but I dont recall him being similarly so for us this season. The St Mirren one is the one folk will try and beat him over the head with, but there are 2 players in front of him out of position marking no one causing him to have to come inside to mark the man in front of goal. Thats what leaves the man free at the back. Not just bad defending like the goal above.

The goals that you describe have been caused by players at the front being out of position, forcing everyone in the line to have to move in one to cover whats in front of goal. That leaves the man at the back post looking really stupid. But its not their fault. On one occasion it was Casey that was left high and dry at the back post and he quite rightly went tonto at his team mates. Im hoping putting Butcher back in there sorts that problem out. He is clearly a talker and an organiser. We need that back in our defence.

Aye, wouldnt drop McGinn either. Was really just responding to the question of whether we could play a 4 at the back. Think we are much more likely to stick with the 5. SOD has been much better in a 5, but he still looks a bit awkward on the ball at times and folk cant see past that and his previous performances. I think in our system having Spencer on the right and Gent on the left would make us more dynamic going forward, but neither are our player and it would leave us an issue with SOD again, and he hasnt done that much wrong this season for me. Butcher back in defence for Mugabi and 2 up top seem the most obvious changes sticking with Paton, Slattery and Spittal in midfield.

With Miller out suspended it is definitely an opportunity for SK to change things up a bit in terms of shape. Whether its 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 or some other variation Im not overly fussed. Be interesting to see if Butcher is fit what happens there. I think he and Casey at the back could be secure enough, but that would be harsh on McGinn who has been one of our best players this season. Probably start with the tried and tested with the option to pull a centre half for an extra forward player later in the game if required.....

Sensible decision. Just travelling anywhere around the east of Scotland rught now is fraught wuth danger. Let alone trying to play a football match in it. Like others have said, it lets Butcher and Biereth both get a step closer to making their returns, and anything that improves our selection issues over the last month or so is to be welcomed.

Dont think the game being postponed would be a bad thing at all. Give Butcher and Mika an extra week to be closer to fitness.

Aye, sorry, wasnt referencing your post, just commenting on my own observations. Far more contact on Wilkinson than Miller made on their player yet he gives a foul and a straight red for that. A little consistency would be nice.

Wasnt at the game yesterday, so wanted to see the highlights before I commented. From the little there was to see it looked like a fairly turgid game on a bad pitch in poor weather, with neither side really offering anything. The sending off clearly has a huge impact on the game and Im still struggling to see the justification for it. For me Miller doesnt make any challenge for the ball and appears to try and pul himself back to avoid any contact which, if there was any, was minimal. He clearly wasnt trying to bring the man down, so any contact was accidental. I appreciate that if there was, its still a foul, but is it an immediate red card? The disappointing thing for me is that neither of the goals we conceded were caused as a result of having a man less. We have plenty bodies in the box for the first and just dont defend it properly. Thats a few we have conceded like that this season and it needs addressed. As for Bevis and the penalty, least said about that the better. The Wilkinson incident looks a penalty to me. Im not sure how he can be booked for simulation when there is clear contact from behind. I doubt at that stage whether it would have made a difference to the result, but it is annoying. Finally, thats the first time this season I think that criticism of SK and the team has been fully justified. It was good to see that SK himself didnt sugar coat it or shy away from saying it how it was. With a 2 week break now and players coming back into fitness, the team has given him every justification to change things against St Johnstone and none of them can complain now if they are dropped. Gonna be interesting to see how we shape up for that game.

Pishing down tomorrow would be perfect and give us a much better chance on the plastic.

Good to hear that Butcher, Obika and Biereth are not far away. Will certainly increase our options going forward. If we can cut out the odd mistake we are making at the back and be a little more clinical in front of goal we will be a hard team to beat.

I think if we had beat St Mirren or even got a point, there wouldnt have been anywhere near the reaction we have seen. The performances against Rangers and Celtic would have been seen as encouraging, rather than reinforcing a negative narrative.

Good post.

Im more than happy to give Shaw a run of games up front. I think there might be a decent player there, but he is short of match sharpness that can only be improved with gametime. My argument against the criticism of Bair is that isnt balanced and ignores the good work that he does. Anyway, its not the "happy clappers" you need to convince. Its the manager.

Potentially when Butcher comes back. I think he and Casey could be strong enough to play 4 at the back. But I dont think you could have SOD at left back. You would probably need the legs of Spencer and Gent to get up and down and we dont really know if Gent is good enough yet. Of course in that scenario you are also taking McGinn out the team and he has been one of our best players this season.

No point really responding to any of that. Ive given plenty of mitigation to my position which you seem happy to ignore. You obviously have no interest in finding the middle ground and seem determined just to win the debate. Thats fair enough and you are entiteld to your opinion. As I said before, its a matter of perspective. I will continue to look at the positives.

Nothing wrong with a lot of words, and its hard to argue with many of the points you make. I think the only huge difference between your position and mine is one of perspective. Mines is that Bair was never the plan. In fact I dont think 1 up top was even the plan. We have been forced into it because our other options have been injured. We just happen to have stumbled onto the 4 in midfield out of necessity and it has had some success. For me I think Obika could get 10 goals a season in this team. The big problem is will he ever be on the pitch long enough to do that? Given the discussion previously surrounding Moult, I think criticism of SK in that regard is fair game, particularly in light of the length of his contract. Ive no idea whether Ollie Shaw or Wilkinson can score 10 goals or not but they need a run of games for us to find out. Clearly our budget has been significantly reduced in recent seasons, so it stands to reason the quality of player available to us has gone down and our managers have to be more resourceful. I think thats where loans for players like Biereth can be useful. Looking around the league I dont see too many other clubs with our budget signing players of a calibre that Ive thought wow! Wish we had got him! So I think we need to modify our expectations a little and hope that going forward SK can find another gold nugget from somewhere.

I think that is definitely the current plan. As I said in the Celtic matchday thread, there are many different ways to play football now. Not comparing us to Man City, but look at the way Pep keeps re-inventing the way they play to gain an adavantage over the opposition. They may have the best striker in world football right nie, but look at the goals they get from midfield even when Haaland isnt scoring. Even at international level, look at the success Clarke has had with Scotland using Dykes up top and getting the likes of McGinn, McTominay and Christie into the box. Its often harder to defend against midfielders arriving into the box late. If you cant afford a quality striker, its definitely a good way of trying to redress the balance. Of course teams will eventually work out a way of stopping that and who knows that mught already have happened with us. But SK has shown he is prepared to change it up when necessary. Maybe not as quickly as I would like at times, but he certainly isnt as rigid as Alexander and Hammell were.

It beggars belief that anyone on here cant see the difference between the absolute gutless spankings we used to get regularly at the hands of the big two and what we have seen in the last two weeks. You'd have to be a real miserable barsteward not to accept that those two performances are as close as we have been to beating either of them in years. Yes its disappointing and frustrating not to have got anything to show for our efforts but surely folks are encouraged by the fact that we were finally competitive with them? It might also be worthy to consider how football has changed over the years and that the old ideas of playing 2 or 3 up top automatically give you more of a goal threat just isnt the case any more. There are many different ways to play. Some of which dont involve the use of out and out strikers at all. The injuries to our forwards have forced SK into adopting a style of play he may not have chosen otherwise. The extra man in midfield is giving us much more possession of the ball and more security for our defence. Before that we were much more effective as a counter attacking team and had to be as we had less possession with a man less in midfield. The last 3 games have been tough to take and naturally because we failed to score in 2 of them everyone looks at the strikers and is blaming Bair for not being good enough. But take a minute to look at the chances we have created. Who the chances have fallen to and who has had a part in creating them. Bair is offering plenty to the team. For all his good work he only had one chance on goal, hit the target and forced a good save from Bain. Other chances have fallen to Spittal, Slattery, Shaw etc. No one is criticising them for missing their chances and they still get plenty credit for the other parts of their game. I dont want to make out that Im some Theo Bair fanboy, because Im not. I can see his deficiencies the same as everyone else, but he is being measured by a different bar to everyone else in the team and that doesnt seem fair. Ive no doubt that when we have all our players back match fit he probably wont be near the first 11 as Biereth, Wilkinson and Obika will all be ahead of him, but until then, I think he is doing alright and if we start winning games again and he never scores another goal for us, no one will care as long as he is contributing towards the 3 points. The team has also been given a significant overhaul over the summer, so it wouldnt be unreasonable to think its still a work in progress and might take a couple more windows to address everything SK would like to fix. Rome wasnt built in a day, but the foundations are laid and Im quite excited to see what this team can become if SK isnt poached away and gets the opportunity to finish the job.

Wilkinson is just coming back from injury. I wouldnt have him near that pitch! He also isnt that mobile and I wouldnt suggest best suited to the lone striker role. If we are swapping Bair out for anyone, I would put Ollie Shaw in. But given SK has been very loyal to the players thus far, Id expect the same 11 to start again. Our record v Livvy is very good. I forecast a return to winning ways, but a more scrappy encounter with us winning 1-0.

I dont think thats generally the case. I think the majority of posters are reasonable enough to wait and see how a signing turns out before we judge them or jump to conclusions Most managers will lean towards signing players they know, or from leagues that they know. (See Postecoglu). It makes sense to take some of the variables out of the risk. It could be argued that assusming someone is a lazy signing because the manger previously worked with that player, is a lazy assessment of the players worth. 😉

Good luck to the lad. Best for both parties that he is able to move on and progress his career.

No failures again this week. The midfield all had good games but Paton was the pick of the bunch for me. Even in the first 30 minutes when we were generally poor in possession, he was the one snapping into tackles and leading by example. He is now an integral part of how we play. Not bad for someone that was considered a really "lazy signing" not so long ago......

As others have said, todays scoreline is very frustrating on a number of levels. I actually didnt think we were very good for the first 30 minutes. We were still organised and defended well, but we were poor in possession and didnt really create anything of note. However, we did eventually get a foothold in the game, finished the half strongly and probably had the 2 best chances of the game to that point. Second half was much better. A really enjoyable half of football with end to end stuff. We carried much more of a threat but the downside to that was we left ourselves a little bit more exposed at the back as a result, so it wasnt a surprise when we did eventually concede. The first goal looked to me like it was a cross, so disappointing to lose it that way, but we didnt let it effect us and thoroughly deserved the equaliser when it came. I felt sure we had secured a point and to lose it in the fashion that we did was an absolute sickener. Hard to criticise anyone after what was another excellent overall performance, but there were areas where we let ourselves down and we need to keep trying to improve and learn from those if we want to avoid becoming a perpetual hard luck story. Still with players starting to come back from injury and a much more winnable run of fixtures coming up, I think we should be able to put some more points on the board before the first quarter cones to an end.

Because he is a big battering ram that holds the ball up and occupies centre halves to allow our midfield to get into advanced positions. Neither Tierney or McKinstrey could do that.