The Small-Medium Rebuild 2018'19

[gee]

3 hours ago, steelboy said:

If we have any ambitions of this season being anything other than dire we have to bring in a decent striker. And if we are to persist with wing backs we need a genuine left wing back.

The squad size is already an embarrasment but if we don't add some quality the club is going to lose all the goodwill built up recently.

 

Agreed. Regarding squad size, could maybe see Ferguson, Newell, Turnbull, Maguire and Scott loaned out. Otherwise don’t see them getting any game time.

Taylor-Sinclair is our only option to play left in a back 4 so expect us to stick with wing backs. 

[Yodo]

38 minutes ago, gee said:

Agreed. Regarding squad size, could maybe see Ferguson, Newell, Turnbull, Maguire and Scott loaned out. Otherwise don’t see them getting any game time.

Taylor-Sinclair is our only option to play left in a back 4 so expect us to stick with wing backs. 

Turnbull Maguire & Scott will be needed for first team duty in the near future 

[weeyin]

3 hours ago, Yodo said:

Turnbull Maguire & Scott will be needed for first team duty in the near future 

Seems like Maguire will need Hartley, Aldred, Donnelly, Mbulu an McHugh to be unavailable before he gets another look in.

[milo]

Mind after the cup final in 2011 when we kept everyone bar Sutton and replaced him with Higdon and brought in Nicky Law? That’s basically all we needed to do this summer.  Imagine in 2011 if we didn’t sign Higdon and Law but instead brought in Fraser Kerr, Francis-Angol, Stuart Carswell, Bob McHugh, Zac Jules, Joe Chalmers, Craig Reid, Tony Straker and Lee Hollis......

That’s what I fear we’ve done this summer. I’m not saying the new guys will be *that* bad, but a couple of decent additions was what we were crying out for. We probably aren’t going to see that much of the new guys so we may never know.

Our squad is massive and crucially there are no goals in it. Conor Sammon is an abomination of a signing. I’d go as far as to lump him in with Bob Malcom and Gerry Britton under “players I refuse to accept played for Motherwell”.

[Busta Nut]

I always forget about Gerry Britton

[weeyin]

1 hour ago, milo said:

Our squad is massive and crucially there are no goals in it. Conor Sammon is an abomination of a signing. I’d go as far as to lump him in with Bob Malcom and Gerry Britton under “players I refuse to accept played for Motherwell”.

Sammon is nowhere near as bad as Bob Malcolm.

(Bob Malcolm who, by the way, when we signed him, was touted by many experts on here as a classy, footballing midfielder. I kid you not).

Johnson is the one we need to develop, though. Sammon was brought in as cover, then Bowman got injured and Main needs a cow's arse / banjo refresher.

[Haggischomper]

You lucky bugger

I always forget about Gerry Britton

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[MelvinBragg]

I don't necessarily think any individual player in the squad isn't good enough. What I would say is that the squad is very one dimensional.  Grimshaw, Rose, Gorrin, McHugh, Bigirimana, are these players that are capable at SPL level?  Probably. Could you combine them into a serviceable SPL midfield? I'd argue not because none of them offers anything massively different. 

The same applies to the forward line we started on Saturday. Are both capable at this level? You could make a case that both have shown in the past that they are. As a pair, no. We're pinning our hopes on Johnson or Bowman. At least Bowman drags defenders around the pitch by running the channels better than Sammon and Main.

Likewise with Saturday's back three. Obviously the sale of Kipré and Dunne's injury has forced our hand there but short of Mbulu proving a revelation, the limitations of the back three will be there for the first third of the season.  

Sadly the size of the squad doesn't allow for bringing in any players offering anything different. I suspect that the wage bill might be at  breaking point.. 

For me, if we're pinning our hopes on Bowman, Johnson and a Tanner that hasn't played in six months to try and win us games, we're effectively crossing our fingers and hoping for the best...

[weeyin]

I think we're playing one dimensional football. I don't think we need to - even with the current squad.

What won't work is fielding players that can pass a ball and expect them to adapt to long balls down the channels.

As for the defence, Tait, ATS and Johnson can all play full back, and Aldred, Hartley, McHugh, Maguire (and Mbulu) can all play centre.  So while it may not be his preferred approach, there's no reason we can't play a back 4 in the short term.

[joewarkfanclub]

Id like to see what Bigi and Gorrin would be like playing together.

I think its incredibly unfair to chuck one of them into our current set up and expect them to be able to change things on their own. They need others to find space, run channels and make themselves available to take a pass.

I lost count the number of times Bigi got the ball on Saturday and looked up to find nobody in front of him to pass to. Our movement off the ball was very poor and resulted in Bigi having to pass backwards, passes going astray or being dispossessed.

Bowman and Tanner being fit would definitely improve this.

Meantime Id like to see us set up:

Carson

Aldred McHugh Hartley

Campbell

Cadden Bigi Gorrin Tait

Main Johnson

If we need to chase a game we can bring Frear on for Tait or take Cadden off and put Tait back to the left.

Against the better teams in the league we could drop one ball player for Rose or Grimshaw if required.

I dont think we need major surgery. But a few tweaks here and there and deploying the right personnel for the tactics would help.

Edited to say: I wouldnt discount playing Turnbull in such a set up but figure thats less likely to happen.

Edited August 13, 2018 by joewarkfanclub

[wellwell91]

2 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Id like to see what Bigi and Gorrin would be like playing together.

I think its incredibly unfair to chuck one of them into our current set up and expect them to be able to change things on their own. They need others to find space, run channels and make themselves available to take a pass.

I lost count the number of times Bigi got the ball on Saturday and looked up to find nobody in front of him to pass to. Our movement off the ball was very poor and resulted in Bigi having to pass backwards, passes going astray or being dispossessed.

Bowman and Tanner being fit would definitely improve this.

Meantime Id like to see us set up:

Carson

Aldred McHugh Hartley

Campbell

Cadden Bigi Gorrin Tait

Main Johnson

If we need to chase a game we can bring Frear on for Tait or take Cadden off and put Tait back to the left.

Against the better teams in the league we could drop one ball player for Rose or Grimshaw if required.

I dont think we need major surgery. But a few tweaks here and there and deploying the right personnel for the tactics would help.

That back 3 is distinctly lacking in pace

[MelvinBragg]

30 minutes ago, weeyin said:

I think we're playing one dimensional football. I don't think we need to - even with the current squad.

What won't work is fielding players that can pass a ball and expect them to adapt to long balls down the channels.

As for the defence, Tait, ATS and Johnson can all play full back, and Aldred, Hartley, McHugh, Maguire (and Mbulu) can all play centre.  So while it may not be his preferred approach, there's no reason we can't play a back 4 in the short term.

For me, pretty much all our centre midfielders have the same qualities, perhaps with the exception of Cadden if you play him there, or Turnbull. Even Bigirimana is pretty similar to Rose, McHugh and Grimshaw in that he prefers a 20 yard sideways pass. One can argue that the midfield is not that much to blame as our tactics involves bypassing them. 

All our central defenders have similar qualities. 

Elliot Frear, offers something different, but where does he fit in our 352 system. Maybe time for us to step away from the 352 in order to try and get the best out of the players we have..?

[joewarkfanclub]

5 minutes ago, MelvinBragg said:

For me, pretty much all our centre midfielders have the same qualities, perhaps with the exception of Cadden if you play him there, or Turnbull. Even Bigirimana is pretty similar to Rose, McHugh and Grimshaw in that he prefers a 20 yard sideways pass. One can argue that the midfield is not that much to blame as our tactics involves bypassing them. 

All our central defenders have similar qualities. 

Elliot Frear, offers something different, but where does he fit in our 352 system. Maybe time for us to step away from the 352 in order to try and get the best out of the players we have..?

I dont agree that Bigi is anything like Rose Grimshaw and McHugh (who I would agree are all defensive minded midfielders). He has a lot more football in him and is far less defensive minded.

I take your point re Frear. He would be most effective in a 4-4-2 but we would be giving away the midfield to most teams in our league which is never good. We could go 4-5-1 but then you have one less target to hit in the box unless you can get your forward running midfielders up in support.

Bit of a conundrum!

[joewarkfanclub]

12 minutes ago, wellwell91 said:

That back 3 is distinctly lacking in pace

I agree. But until Dunne is back we look short of options. Donnelly and ATS havent looked concvincing and I dont see anyone else with the correct attributes. As per my last post going 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 arent without their own issues.

[numpty]

19 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

I dont agree that Bigi is anything like Rose Grimshaw and McHugh

I'd quite like to see us starting Rose Grimshaw.

[couttsy]

3 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Id like to see what Bigi and Gorrin would be like playing together.

I think its incredibly unfair to chuck one of them into our current set up and expect them to be able to change things on their own. They need others to find space, run channels and make themselves available to take a pass.

I lost count the number of times Bigi got the ball on Saturday and looked up to find nobody in front of him to pass to. Our movement off the ball was very poor and resulted in Bigi having to pass backwards, passes going astray or being dispossessed.

Bowman and Tanner being fit would definitely improve this.

Meantime Id like to see us set up:

Carson

Aldred McHugh Hartley

Campbell

Cadden Bigi Gorrin Tait

Main Johnson

If we need to chase a game we can bring Frear on for Tait or take Cadden off and put Tait back to the left.

Against the better teams in the league we could drop one ball player for Rose or Grimshaw if required.

I dont think we need major surgery. But a few tweaks here and there and deploying the right personnel for the tactics would help.

Edited to say: I wouldnt discount playing Turnbull in such a set up but figure thats less likely to happen.

Great post! Exactly the team I’d like to see start in the absence Bowman, Tanner and Dunne. Would deffo give us more ball players but still keep the endeavour of Campbell, Tait and Cadden. I am a fan of Robinson and he still has a lot of credit in the bank in my opinion, but if we start with Main & Sammon on Saturday I think we better start worrying........

[joewarkfanclub]

3 hours ago, numpty said:

I'd quite like to see us starting Rose Grimshaw.

Didnt we try that against Hibs?

[Haggischomper]

She's got her knockers

I'd quite like to see us starting Rose Grimshaw.

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[Busta Nut]

We have a shit load of central players and very few who can play wide.

 

Cadden is in everyone of the teams picked by folk and I can only assume it's cos we don't have any other wide players.

[weeyin]

Robinson doesn't want wide players in the traditional sense - he wants wing backs that track back and cover in defence. Typically, that means natural wide players - or wingers as the old folks call them - aren't part of the mix.

He's happier to play a defender that can run up and down a bit, than a winger that can take people on and hit the bye-line.

[joewarkfanclub]

17 hours ago, numpty said:

I'd quite like to see us starting Rose Grimshaw.

Sorry just got what you did there! Nice work! 

[Clackscat]

 

 

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[Londonwell]

On 8/13/2018 at 4:08 PM, weeyin said:

Sammon is nowhere near as bad as Bob Malcolm.

(Bob Malcolm who, by the way, when we signed him, was touted by many experts on here as a classy, footballing midfielder. I kid you not).

Johnson is the one we need to develop, though. Sammon was brought in as cover, then Bowman got injured and Main needs a cow's arse / banjo refresher.

Tbf to the bold Boab, he could fair skelp a free kick. 

[robsterwood]

Concerned re lack of mobility and pace going forward. Main and Salmon too similar. Lack of creativity and also lack of pace at the back. All been mentioned before. Surely Salmon loan can be cancelled in January. Surely u20s strikers  no worse than main and salmon?

[wellwell91]

2 hours ago, robsterwood said:

Concerned re lack of mobility and pace going forward. Main and Salmon too similar. Lack of creativity and also lack of pace at the back. All been mentioned before. Surely Salmon loan can be cancelled in January. Surely u20s strikers  no worse than main and salmon?

Was at Colts game the other night young boy Scott is a fair bit away from 1st team still got a lot to learn although there is plenty potential there