The Small-Medium Rebuild 2018'19

[Welldaft Mk1]

1 hour ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Aldred did well last season but I agree that, outwith Aldred's own merits as a player, this is a signing with problems - the defensive balance, bringing Maguire through, an apparent commitment to playing McHugh in midfield, where it leaves Donnelly.

For me Robinson is really backing himself into a corner here with his signings.

Right now it looks the squad is not versatile enough and we don't have the personnel to play anything other than Robinson's favoured style - the merits and effectiveness of which remain open to question.

2 Cup finals for the 1st time in over 60 years and for only the 2nd time in our history. 

Sure - points to me questioning the effectiveness of his favoured style............

Nobody is saying it is particularly pretty to watch at times but even for you that post is a belter 

[steelboy]

No one cares about losing cup finals. Especially when we didn't score a goal in either.

The upside should have been improving the squad but we have stuffed it to bursting with scrubs.

[weeyin]

I suppose it depends if you want to be entertained for your £24 quid.

There's a balance to be struck, but we're not there yet. 

There was plenty of football in the team that won the cup. Enough to beat Celtic at Parkhead in the league and take 4 off them in the semi at Hampden. 

[Welldaft Mk1]

53 minutes ago, steelboy said:

No one cares about losing cup finals. Especially when we didn't score a goal in either.

The upside should have been improving the squad but we have stuffed it to bursting with scrubs.

The cup finals brought a chunk of money into the club. Maybe you don’t care.......

And you choose to conveniently forget the 2 cracking cup semi final wins v Rangers and Aberdeen that got us there.

Sure it was disappointing on the day(s) but Celtic are streets ahead of every team in the country so hardly surprising outcomes. 

Anyway - I have long know that if we won the Champions League you and Ya Bezzer and co would be on the next day moaning we only scored 2 goals in the final ! 

Some of us can actually see positives instead of constantly focusing on the negatives like quite a few on here. 

[Wellfan1984]

1 hour ago, weeyin said:

I suppose it depends if you want to be entertained for your £24 quid.

There's a balance to be struck, but we're not there yet. 

There was plenty of football in the team that won the cup. Enough to beat Celtic at Parkhead in the league and take 4 off them in the semi at Hampden. 

How do we know, it's week 2 of the season... 

[weeyin]

30 minutes ago, Wellfan1984 said:

How do we know, it's week 2 of the season... 

Because we set up as normal against Hibs. Frear on the bench after being one of our best players in preseason, and brought on with bench-warmer Bigi to chase a lost cause.

And watching us struggling against Clyde in the wind and on plastic because nobody was smart enough to put their foot on the ball and play short passes.

And Hartley talking about having to battle against Accies.

Exactly the same as last season.

I'll be delighted if I'm wrong,  but I don't see much likely to change in our style this season. 

 

[stv]

4 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Aldred did well last season but I agree that, outwith Aldred's own merits as a player, this is a signing with problems - the defensive balance, bringing Maguire through, an apparent commitment to playing McHugh in midfield, where it leaves Donnelly.

For me Robinson is really backing himself into a corner here with his signings.

Right now it looks the squad is not versatile enough and we don't have the personnel to play anything other than Robinson's favoured style - the merits and effectiveness of which remain open to question.

As opposed to Barcalona type of free flowing football ? Problem is he would need £200 million quid to do that. The manager has done great with what he has to work with and i think that may play a part in the style we have adopted. Real world , real budgets , real constraints .

[weeyin]

The constraints on our playing style are due to the type of player we recruit.

I have no problem with the approach of signing younger players with a point to prove. There is no reason, however, one or two of them can't have a bit of football in their skill set.

McGhee, McCall and Gannon managed to find one or two that could pass a ball. So it is possible.

Like said in an earlier post, it's about balance. A ball winning midfielder can lay off a ball to a creative player just as easily as lumping one down the channels.

And a striker can score from a precision pass just as easily as chasing down a long ball. 

There is a middle ground between Pep's Barca and Graham Taylor's Watford style of play.

[Kmac]

3 hours ago, Welldaft Mk1 said:

2 Cup finals for the 1st time in over 60 years and for only the 2nd time in our history. 

Sure - points to me questioning the effectiveness of his favoured style............

Nobody is saying it is particularly pretty to watch at times but even for you that post is a belter 

Completely wrong on this one I'm afraid. As was said above, we went out with a whimper in the Scottish cup final and didn't score a goal in either.

As others have said, the signing policy has been exceptionally poor this summer. We have a bloated midfield and after today, two defenders too many on the books, considering we have Maguire as back-up. 

I argued before on this thread about quality over quantity which Robinson has not done in my opinion. 

Donnelly/Mbulu should have been only 1 signing or salary of real quality with Aldred and Maguire backing up Hartley and a returning Dunne as a back 3 with McHugh adequate to cover. 

Gorrin should never have been added to the squad without offloading a midfielder again, people will point to Bigi leaving but if that's the case, the club has badly managed an exit and stating it in the media was a crazy move by Robinson as it puts the player and thereby Gorrin in a very awkward situation. 1 player of that ilk, again with real quality should have been the objective. 

Sammon/Johnson once again should have only been 1 signing of real quality to play with Bowman and Main. 

I would argue the case now that we have a bloated squad devoid of any shining lights of real quality outwith our own homegrown players, the next generation of which seem to be over-looked in favour of Non-League English players. 

 

 

[Kmcalpin]

33 minutes ago, Kmac said:

As others have said, the signing policy has been exceptionally poor this summer.

 

We've just finished the group stages of the Friendlies League Cup and played one league game, just the one.  Quite a few of new lads are still gaing fitness.  Lets wait until January at the earliest and preferably May next year until we make that judgement. 

[Kmac]

28 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

We've just finished the group stages of the Friendlies League Cup and played one league game, just the one.  Quite a few of new lads are still gaing fitness.  Lets wait until January at the earliest and preferably May next year until we make that judgement. 

So you’d prefer that we’re reactive than proactive? 

[Yorkyred]

6 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Aldred did well last season but I agree that, outwith Aldred's own merits as a player, this is a signing with problems - the defensive balance, bringing Maguire through, an apparent commitment to playing McHugh in midfield, where it leaves Donnelly.

For me Robinson is really backing himself into a corner here with his signings.

Right now it looks the squad is not versatile enough and we don't have the personnel to play anything other than Robinson's favoured style - the merits and effectiveness of which remain open to question.

 

[Yorkyred]

Personally I feel it’s far too early to make a judgement on the squad or it’s versatility. I also don’t feel the effectiveness of his style is that open to question given last season. We did well in the league in my view and made two cup finals. Yes we lost both, but to a team head and shoulders above anyone else, even clubs on huge budgets next to ours. Along the way to the finals we beat Aberdeen, Rangers, and Hearts, the three other biggest teams in Scotland. How much more effective did his style need to be shown to be ?

[stv]

21 minutes ago, Kmac said:

So you’d prefer that we’re reactive than proactive? 

 

8 minutes ago, Yorkyred said:

Personally I feel it’s far too early to make a judgement on the squad or it’s versatility. I also don’t feel the effectiveness of his style is that open to question given last season. We did well in the league in my view and made two cup finals. Yes we lost both, but to a team head and shoulders above anyone else, even clubs on huge budgets next to ours. Along the way to the finals we beat Aberdeen, Rangers, and Hearts, the three other biggest teams in Scotland. How much more effective did his style need to be shown to be ?

Spot on. Some folk have short memories or like my missus ..... Never happy.

[Electric Blues]

11 minutes ago, Yorkyred said:

Personally I feel it’s far too early to make a judgement on the squad or it’s versatility. I also don’t feel the effectiveness of his style is that open to question given last season. We did well in the league in my view and made two cup finals. Yes we lost both, but to a team head and shoulders above anyone else, even clubs on huge budgets next to ours. Along the way to the finals we beat Aberdeen, Rangers, and Hearts, the three other biggest teams in Scotland. How much more effective did his style need to be shown to be ?

Indeed. We played the top three at Hampden four times last season, won two, lost two. Speaking as someone who has to spend the best part of a grand every time I come over for a game, I believe I still got my money's worth.

[Ya Bezzer!]

2 hours ago, stv said:

As opposed to Barcalona type of free flowing football ? Problem is he would need £200 million quid to do that. The manager has done great with what he has to work with and i think that may play a part in the style we have adopted. Real world , real budgets , real constraints .

First of all you don't need £200 million to pass a ball so that's a non argument.  It's quite possible to do so on our budget, in fact you only have to go back as far as our last league fixture to see that it is when we had ball playing youth players and a striker who's not a heid-the-ball up front. 

Secondly the managers preferred style of football has gleaned a whooping 6 wins from the last 26 league matches. Therefore it's open to question whether it's actually successful - especially this term when we have lost some of our stand out players (Moult, Kipre). 

Also the element of surprise is an important factor in this. Robinson won 6 out of the first 10 matches last season and then 7 wins from the subsequent 28.  That's a win ratio drop off of 60% to 25%.

Does that tell you? That maybe other teams have us figured out now, know what to expect and can counter it fairly easily?

[stv]

You seem to have it all figured out. Is it even worth me turning up tomorrow or for the rest of the season.

[Welldaft Mk1]

2 hours ago, Kmac said:

Completely wrong on this one I'm afraid. As was said above, we went out with a whimper in the Scottish cup final and didn't score a goal in either.

As others have said, the signing policy has been exceptionally poor this summer. We have a bloated midfield and after today, two defenders too many on the books, considering we have Maguire as back-up. 

I argued before on this thread about quality over quantity which Robinson has not done in my opinion. 

Donnelly/Mbulu should have been only 1 signing or salary of real quality with Aldred and Maguire backing up Hartley and a returning Dunne as a back 3 with McHugh adequate to cover. 

Gorrin should never have been added to the squad without offloading a midfielder again, people will point to Bigi leaving but if that's the case, the club has badly managed an exit and stating it in the media was a crazy move by Robinson as it puts the player and thereby Gorrin in a very awkward situation. 1 player of that ilk, again with real quality should have been the objective. 

Sammon/Johnson once again should have only been 1 signing of real quality to play with Bowman and Main. 

I would argue the case now that we have a bloated squad devoid of any shining lights of real quality outwith our own homegrown players, the next generation of which seem to be over-looked in favour of Non-League English players. 

 

 

Great - that is all we need. A.N other miserable ****** on Steelmen Online 

[weeyin]

Miserable can be applied to  the posters who constantly write "we're gonna get humped", "we always lose at Firhill", "come back to haunt us" week in and week out.

I think there is a legitmate discussion taking place on the progress of the team, and the style we play. It may be speculation at this stage, but I'm not seeing misery.

[Welldaft Mk1]

No offence Weeyin but open your eyes ! 

How can a constant stream of criticism based on signings so far and style of play not be deemed as negative. 

We are one game into the league season. ONE-game. 

Now we may have a shite season and we may be fighting a relegation battle and we may get knocked out of the cups early. 

And u know what if all of that happens I will be as pissed off and miserable as everyone else. 

But at least I will wait to see before p1ssing my pants before a ball has hardly been kicked. 

I think I will give this place a wide berth for a while. Depresses the fuck out of me.........

 

[maxywell]

5 hours ago, stv said:

As opposed to Barcalona type of free flowing football ? Problem is he would need £200 million quid to do that. The manager has done great with what he has to work with and i think that may play a part in the style we have adopted. Real world , real budgets , real constraints .

Falkirk and Hibs managed to play some of the best football that any team ever has in the SPL years between around 05 and 10 without paying much higher wages than us.Even MM managed it in his first spell.

 

I want us to play a winning way, whatever that is but the point some folk are making is if you're playing hoofball and not winning then the fans will get on the players and managers back a lot quicker than if we were at least trying to play good football.

[dinnae-punt-it]

12 minutes ago, maxywell said:

Falkirk and Hibs managed to play some of the best football that any team ever has in the SPL years between around 05 and 10 without paying much higher wages than us.Even MM managed it in his first spell.

 

I want us to play a winning way, whatever that is but the point some folk are making is if you're playing hoofball and not winning then the fans will get on the players and managers back a lot quicker than if we were at least trying to play good football.

Eh, good examples.........both got relegated!?!

[dinnae-punt-it]

Hibs also have 16,000 season tickets to our 4,000, so are not a barometer for our success; they are a much bigger city club.

[weeyin]

You don't need to look further than Fir Park to see examples of teams that have played better football in recent times.

[maxywell]

7 minutes ago, dinnae-punt-it said:

Eh, good examples.........both got relegated!?!

Not during that period, Falkirk got relegated a couple of yrs later after losing most of their better players and Hibs were around the European places at that time.