Jump to content

Our Problems On The Field


Graeme Bremner
 Share

Recommended Posts

Folk do realise Joe Chalmers is 21 years old, has had 10 first team appearances and spent a big chunk of last year injured? His experience beyond that is 10 first team games at Falkirk. Add that to the fact he's playing in a team devoid of confidence and until recently devoid of leadership off (and arguably on) the park. I'll also chuck in that he's playing in a team who are only starting to understand 'pass and move'. If he looks indecisive on the ball it's usually because he's had 0 options.

 

I don't know if he's good enough to make it at this level. He may not be. And I wouldn't mind if folk were saying he's not yet ready for 1st team action. Critique the managers to decision to put him in the team just now but for fuck sake, (and I appreciate it's only a couple of folk saying this) why would any youngster fancy coming to a club when they are calling for a 21 year old to be let go after 4 months at the club.

 

Mental.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The McManus one is baffling, He has been the biggest disappointment, maybe due to his experience.

 

Aye, when he puts his mind to it, he looks like a top qulaaity player, but since he arrived, those games seem few and far between. No doubt his experience is good to have on the park and around the training field, but agree he has been disappointing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Folk do realise Joe Chalmers is 21 years old, has had 10 first team appearances and spent a big chunk of last year injured? His experience beyond that is 10 first team games at Falkirk. Add that to the fact he's playing in a team devoid of confidence and until recently devoid of leadership off (and arguably on) the park. I'll also chuck in that he's playing in a team who are only starting to understand 'pass and move'. If he looks indecisive on the ball it's usually because he's had 0 options.

 

I don't know if he's good enough to make it at this level. He may not be. And I wouldn't mind if folk were saying he's not yet ready for 1st team action. Critique the managers to decision to put him in the team just now but for fuck sake, (and I appreciate it's only a couple of folk saying this) why would any youngster fancy coming to a club when they are calling for a 21 year old to be let go after 4 months at the club.

 

Mental.

I've slaughtered him but I also agree with this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been a critic of Josh Law but have to say he's improving. I think we all agree Chalmers wont do but hopefully Stevie Hammell comes back after the break. Would like to see Moult and Fletcher given a chance up front. Macdonald as an angry sub. Taylor,Grimshaw.Clarkson,Twardzik etc can move on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"The fact that both our full backs are very limited makes it's difficult to get the wingers in the game and to play much football in general."

 

The fact that neither of the wingers are prepared to work hard defensively means that our full backs are consistently exposed.

 

You say tomayto, I say tomato.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, we need a central midfield playmaker.

 

I also think that if the team start to think about supporting the guy on the ball by providing movement, then guys like Chalmers and Grimshaw will look a lot better. Half the problem with these guys is that they don't want to give the ball away, but have few, if any options in front of them. Hence, they invariably go sideways or backwards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can put out any formation, any team, with any instructions and any tactics but if you have basically been losing for a year and a half then it's not going to work, at least immediately.

 

Player confidence is very low and you can see that out on the pitch. However I think we have improved on the latter stages of the Baraclough era but it's not going to be something that turns around in 3, 4 or 5 weeks.

 

McGhee has to be given time to get us going again, not a week by week autopsy of what hasn't miraculously changed in the last 7 days.

 

A few weeks ago we didn't even look like a rotten team, we looked like 11 rotten footballers who had never seen each other before. Now we look a lot more organized with some actual structure and team work going on. We had 16 shots on Saturday - a big improvement on recent form. The quality of the final ball, the final shot, the final cross is still lacking but I do believe we are only one step away now, a month ago we were miles away.

 

It's not going to be easy to get to where we all want to be and everyone has to accept that there is probably still a lot of disappoints and false dawns before we actual do but the objectives need to be longer term, at the end of the season we need to look back and evaluate, but there is still a lot of football to be played before then.

 

By all means give your views on individual matches, individual performances and so forth but also put those individual matches into a larger and more important context. This season is surely going to be about slow gains, slow improvement not a sudden transformation.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been a critic of Josh Law but have to say he's improving. I think we all agree Chalmers wont do but hopefully Stevie Hammell comes back after the break.

Josh Law may be improving offensively but defensively he's not really come on much and he is 26. We don't all agree that Chalmers won't improve and its presumptious to write that. He hasn't had the best of starts with us but at 21 he has much more time to improve; whether Mark McGhee agrees or not is another matter. Stevie Hammell may be a short term solution but I doubt if he'll still be with us next season. Given his injury record now I just wonder how many more games he'll play for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, we need a central midfield playmaker.

 

 

 

Nicky Law will be available on a free this summer, won't he? We love our ex-players coming back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Nicky Law will be available on a free this summer, won't he? We love our ex-players coming back.

might be in a minority of 1 here but i would have him back. He went to sevco to earn ridiculous amounts of cash and nobody can blame him for that but he is a decent midfield player,something we have been lacking for a few seasons now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd have him back if he was capable of reproducing the form he showed the first time around. His drop down divisions definitely affected his performances (as you would expect). If you want to improve or even maintain your form, you need to be up against players better than you every week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nicky Law was generally a good player for us, but there were a lot of games he hid when things weren't going for us. I found him infuriating at times.

 

3 years in the lower leagues at his peak, albeit financially beneficial, has screwed his footballing career. I'd bet if he does sign for a Premiership team again, even though the standard isn't high, it'll take him a full season to get back up to speed, therefore a seasons wage wasted!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pre Warbarton era, Rangers fans would've gladly paid us to take him back. However, like others he has improved recently, although don't think he's a first pick now. So maybe he's not back to the same performance level as he was with us

I asked my mate (Rangers season ticket holder) about him yesterday. Says he barely gets off the bench this season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see your point Ropy but in sporting terms we are once again in a relegation battle and once again if we go down we could end up like St.Mirren or worst even like Dunfermline. We have to assume Dundee Utd will get their act together and Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock will fight like feck all season so WHO are we better than in the SPL that means we'll be fine....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see your point Ropy but in sporting terms we are once again in a relegation battle and once again if we go down we could end up like St.Mirren or worst even like Dunfermline. We have to assume Dundee Utd will get their act together and Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock will fight like feck all season so WHO are we better than in the SPL that means we'll be fine....

Kilmarnock who we beat two weeks ago?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see your point Ropy but in sporting terms we are once again in a relegation battle and once again if we go down we could end up like St.Mirren or worst even like Dunfermline. We have to assume Dundee Utd will get their act together and Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock will fight like feck all season so WHO are we better than in the SPL that means we'll be fine....

So you assume a rank rotten Dundee United are "going to get their act together", yet it's all doom and gloom for us.

Looking at the two teams since the respective new managers have taken over, I would say Motherwell show much more likelihood of stringing a run together and finding some mid-table mediocrity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kilmarnock who we beat two weeks ago?

 

Let's face it, we could lose 5-0 one week then win the next. Nothing is a given in a league so small. We might win out next 20 games and be in the title challenge come the split. We could be relegated by March.

 

 

If we stay on the ball, get at least a point ahead and match their results, I'll be somewhat satisfied.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sitting here thinking about the club and our sad position for the second year in a row I can't help thinking of St Mirren's recent demise. I know that their survival game went on for a few seasons longer and featured some great last minute escapes but there are too many similarities with our own plight. How is it that Hamilton, Ross County and Inverness who all have practically no away support and empty home stadiums are able to put competitive teams on the park and fight for results while we struggle to motivate a group of precious professionals, some of whom are lucky to still have a team to play for? Strong management is part of the answer but all of this team seem to have a 'so what' attitude and are ready to blame everyone else for poor results. Unless attitudes change we will need a Ross County type clearout in January with 6 or 7 replacements capable of going on a run to mid table.

Relying on Hamill, Las and Mick returning when they were part of last season's failure and the early part of this season I cannot regrettably see improvement happening. Sad times.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...