MelvinBragg

I know I've banged this drum before but anyone suggesting a back four with Aldred and Hartley as centre backs needs their head read. Taylor-Sinclair being out added to Livingstone playing in the reserves yesterday pretty much puts to bed any notion of us playing a back four tomorrow anyway. It slightly amuses me that those claiming Robinson is too wedded to the 352 seem almost equally wedded to the idea that changing formation will help. Personally reckon it might just be that the majority of the players aren't good enough. That being said, it might be worth changing formation only to try and surprise the opposition. If Dunne is fit to play I'd go Carson Tait Aldred Maguire Dunne Turnbull McHugh Campbell Cadden Bowman/Johnson Frear Struggled to decide between Bowman and Johnson. Bowman is useful at dragging defenders out of position, creating space but Johnson looks a more natural finisher. Main? I'll pay his train fare back down south myself... Suspect a 0-0 is the very best we can hope for, hope I'm proved wrong

Having a track record at our level doesn't guarantee you will be in either of those categories. Just looking for a manager who can somehow fashion a team to score goals against the likes of Accies and St Johnstone. That's a long list..

Whoever it is should be someone with a track record of getting a team to create and score goals as that's clearly where we're lacking. We have a good goalkeeper and with Dunne back and some decent defensive midfielders, we should remain pretty solid, we're not conceding loads of goals. Who that would be? No idea but then again, it's not my job to find a new manager, that's down to the board...

Managers are judged on results and signings. Results this season are clearly disappointing. Signings? Robinson has signed 25 players in his time at the club. Gk Carson Griffiths Xenodochov Ferguson Gillespie DF Kipré Dunne Hartley Aldred Donnelly Hendrie Taylor-Sinclair Mbulu Plummer MF Rose Grimshaw Bigirimana Tanner Gorrin Petravicius FW Fisher Newell Main Sammon Johnson Obviously some of those players (Mbulu, Ferguson, Xenodochov) have never featured for the first team and a few (Newell, Donnelly, Taylor-Sinclair, Johnson, Sammon) have had limited opportunities. Some have already moved on again (Fisher, Plummer, Griffiths and a few others). Looking at the list though, I'd be interested to think how many of them would be seen as unqualified successes? For me, there's maybe four or five. Mainly they're in the defensive area of the field. Kind of ties in with results in that we're not conceding lots of goals but we're not scoring enough. Makes it kind of easy to portray him as an unimaginative, defensive coach whose only strength is stopping other teams. Problem is that it only takes one mistake to concede a goal. A long way of saying for him to turn a corner, he'll have to address the attacking side of the game. Which will be difficult given the lack of success in his attacking signings. I suspect he won't be our manager on December 1st...

Was Robbie Leitch not also involved? I heard he's, like Luke Watt, in Croatia. Via Burnley and Paisley. A weird world tour...

I heartily agree...

Fair point. If you'd told me before the games that we'd concede one at home to each of Accies, Livi and St Johnstone then you'd have to figure that we'd have at least three points from the three games. Sadly it only takes one goal to beat us at the minute...

I think one of the things that has frustrated me the most about the criticism of Donnelly is how Aldred and Hartley have performed but don't seem to face the same scrutiny. Both are fine at the centre of a back three with quicker, more powerful guys either side. You can't play both of them. To be honest, the only comic relief on this forum has been people suggesting four at the back with Aldred and Hartley as centre backs. Hilarious...

Sorry, but I'm not giving Robinson the budget as an excuse. If we're running with a tight budget then why do we have so many centre midfielders? Rose, Grimshaw, McHugh, Bigirimana, Gorrin, Campbell, Garden, Donnelly, Turnbull can all play there. Do we have one proper right winger at the club? People are suggesting playing 433, how do you do that without a right winger? Our budget may be small but a bigger question is how it is being used. Hartley, Dunne, Aldred, Mbulu, McHugh, Donnelly, McGuire can all play centre back. People complain about a lack of width in the team. Most of our budget, you could argue, has been spent on centre midfielders and centre halfs...

I think replacing Kipré with someone with similar quality would be difficult but a criticism would be that he's not replaced him with the same type of player. Aldred would have been an ideal replacement for Hartley but doesn't have the pace or stature of Kipré. Moult was always going to be difficult to replace. But we seem to have signed too many strikers who are very similar in style with the exception of Johnson who is unproven...

Not a lot anyone can argue with here. Loss of Dunne and Kipré and their pace has also meant the back three that our full backs are in line with is about 20-30 yards deeper than it was last season. Increasing the distance our full backs have to cover to get into dangerous areas...

I don't think it's lack of effort so much as a lack of ability. Purple patch when he first arrived but now looking like the player his previous stats suggested he was..

A bald Alex Fisher, yer just a bald Alex Fisher...

Donnelly has been no worse than our other defenders...

I'm not a fan of Robinson but even he would see the ability in Cooper. What Robinson does struggle with is finding a blend with players of slightly more ability and workers. Right now, it seems to be all about the best selection of workers...

Indeed. And replaced by the guy that got Ross County out of a hole and condemned us to the playoffs. Enjoyable as they were....

Quite..

While I don't disagree with your point regarding Maguire, I'd say that Donnelly has been no worse than Hartley whenever I've seen him...

Not one player in that team that you'd say even on their best day, you'd pay to watch. Not saying that they're bad players but not much there to get you off your seat or set the pulse racing. If Livingston are disciplined and stick with their men, we won't score. Don't see anyone in that side capable of doing something unexpected, or beating a man. We've obviously been spoiled over the years with players who can turn a game out of nothing (recently Moult, Johnson, McFadden, Humphrey, Law, even Ainsworth) but that's a pretty uninspiring lineup...

Sadly we are reduced to sarcasm. Never a good sign for a manager's longevity when fans are reduced to taking the piss out of his team selection...

I urge anyone who thinks we're on the right track at the moment to read this. Excellent post...

Fixed that for you...

Would be funny if it weren't true...

Dundee winning, we're losing. Anyone who says it's not time to panic is kidding themselves...

Dreadful goal to lose. As others have said, penalty miss will cost us...