Lobey_Dosser

Frear, not looking full of confidence but our sole source of creativity.

Alarm bells ringing on the way out of a baltic Broadwood today. The defence, which was our key strength last season, is an utter shambles. Hartley shouldn’t have been given the captaincy if there were doubts over his recovery from injury. Fingers crossed McHugh’s injury isn’t a bad one. Going forward, we have very little quality and absolutely no guile. Frear was the one bright spot. I’m hoping Main is one of these big strikers that takes time to get up to speed but I’m not convinced. Meanwhile, none of the new signings look like they are ready to hit the ground running. Early days but there isn’t much to get optimistic about at present, particularly when reliable players like Campbell and Kipre look off the boil.

Loss of Dunne for at least 3 months is a big blow. His electric pace got us out of trouble on many occasions last season. Interesting to see if we can stick with a back three in his absence.

Tomorrow is the first time I’ll see us this season but amidst the desire for a wee bit more creativity, I think it’s worth bearing in mind that none of our strikers, despite their stature, actually excel at attacking the ball in the air. From what I’ve seen of Main, Bowman and Sammon, they are more likely to score from a nicely threaded pass. Yet Robinson often talks about crosses into the box.

With 3 centre halves starting and umpteen ballwinning midfielders to choose from, I’d like to think we could give one creative player a bit of freedom.

Four of our new signings that are reportedly lacking fitness (rather than quality?) failed to get off the bench yesterday. Our transfer policy this summer to strengthen 12-18 goes against the model of the club imo as it limits the development of Turnbull, Hastie, MacLean, Maguire, Livingstone & co.

Coming away from Hampden in May, the one bright spot was the performance of BigI. His absence from the squad, never mind the team is a real shame. That in conjunction with our underwhelming transfer activity suggests we are in for a long season of grim football.

Sums up my thoughts perfectly. If he’s a replacement for Bowman, I’d view that as an upgrade. If Conor is the final piece of the jigsaw however, then deary fucking me. I expected us to build on the foundations of last season by introducing a bit of craft to our play but the signings to date have been underwhelming.

The news about the captaincy was fairly inevitable but McHugh and Robinson have dealt with it in the best fashion possible. It will be interesting to see how significant a role McHugh has to play this season. Regarding our pursuit of a forward, is there any possibility we could be in for Jai Quitongo? Out of contract at Morton but I assume compensation will be a barrier.

Watt would come with similar pros and cons to Ciftci. I’d be more than happy to see us invest in such quality. Having said that he doesn’t quite meet the description of a forward that Robinson is seemingly pursuing. Either way, I hope the striker we bring in has a bit of proven quality as we have no idea whether Danny Johnson will be able to make the step-up. If we were genuinely in for Ciftci and O’Halloran earlier this summer, there should be some room in the budget for a striker of decent calibre.

Reports that newly promoted Wigan are in for Cadden. Talk of Wigan offering £500k but we want double that. I can see this happening.

We’ve seemingly rejected a bid from Hull for Kipre. IIRC, they made a number of bids for Scott McKenna in Jan without ever offering serious money.

The photoshopped switch of shorts and socks over on P&B works an absolute treat.

I interpreted the interview differently and thought if we were to sign one norward, it would ideally be someone with a bit of pace that can do a job wide. A O’Halloran style player.

No quite sure what the thinking was behind the placement of ‘1886’ on the home kit. in comparison to other Macron efforts this summer, I think we’ve came up short. Not that it really matters though.

Neither particularly impressive imo. I feel the away one is close to being special but something puts me off, maybe the sponsor. With many clubs going down the 90s route, was expecting something a bit more interesting.

This would be a decent template to follow: https://rugbyshirtwatch.com/2018/02/21/news-germany-rugby-reveal-2018-macron-home-away-shirts/

That’s what I’ve been wondering. It would be quite a bold move to change from a system that returned 20 clean sheets but some sort of 433 fits well with the current balance of the squad. It would get the best of our top forward thinking players, provide the width Robinson talks about and allow for an industrious midfield. This wasn’t an option last season as Moult couldn’t play upfront himself, Main most definitely can.

Who knows how the signings will turn out, many exceeded expectations last season but recruitment so far has been a tad underwhelming. Given the income generated from the cup runs, I thought we’d be in a position to invest in one or two more players with slightly better pedigree.

Interesting signing. If he can get up to speed with Scottish football, I wonder what Robinson’s preferred midfield will be. Gorrin, Campbell and Rose?

Morton should provide a decent platform for Ross McLean. Fingers crossed he makes the most of it.

I’ve no issue with the club going for the best financial offer if we’ve done our due diligence. Given their lack of presence online however, I’m not sure how sponsorship of a provincial Scottish club benefits Bet Park... Shame we had to cut ties with McEwan Fraser, I thought they served us well and done all they could to support the community ethos.

If he can return to Scotland and rekindle his Thistle form in similar fashion to Stephen O’Donnell, we’re onto a winner here.

Sep, Oct and Nov is for the international break, combination of friendlies and the nations league. There will be another one in March as qualifying for Euro 2020 gets underway. As for Aug, I believe the first knock out phase of the league cup will be that weekend.

I think the incoming midfielder will have a huge role to play in determining our style of play this season. Robinson’s interview would suggests we are pursuing a forward thinking wide player. I thought a left back would be no.1 priority.