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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/02/2023 in all areas
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5 points
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The jury is still very much out on Kettlewell for me. I know he did well for us in the second half of last season, but I put a lot of that down to Van Veen hitting a mental run of form. I'm not so sure we'd have gotten to where we ended up without that. As some will already know, I had my doubts about Kettlewell from the off. His record at Ross County when he got the job on his own was honking. The one thing he has in his favour is that he really does sound like someone who knows what they're talking about. His media stint wasn't an accident, he's very articulate and good in front of the camera. But all of that means nothing if he's not able to deliver. And thus far, in his first full season, I've not been overly impressed. I won't mention his signings, because I know that annoys people, but anyone who honestly thought the guys we signed to play up front would come good were either incredibly naive or just plain stupid. I don't think we have the personnel to turn this around to any great measure, and sadly, I think he'll be gone before the end of the season.2 points
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If the opposition have the freedom to bring the ball up and pass it into the final third under zero pressure they will make chances. If you combine that with the fact the only way we can get up the park due to our hopeless strikers (other than Mika) is to play tight passes and throw too many bodies forward then we will lose goals because we have no defensive shape.2 points
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It's like a carbon copy of last season so far, we started really positively picking up points, and we played great in some games despite falling to defeat before each performance got worse than the last. You can also throw in a ton of training injuries and a game where we equalized in injury time only to lose. I have just watched the highlights back, the goals we lost were so poor. The first the ball seems to skim off Casey's head and McGinn has a fresh-air swipe at it. I thought it was a tremendous last-gasp challenge by McGinn at the second goal but everyone is just ball-watching waiting for the inevitable and Devlin has the freedom of Motherwell to prod home. For the third goal, Mika has a shot blocked and it's like ten seconds later the ball is in our net, I felt Miller could have defended it much better by at least attempting to tackle and then doing better at blocking the shot. The less said about the fourth the better, the smallest man on the park, Duk heads straight in from a corner beating Butcher, McGinn, and Kelly to the ball. Brutal stuff losing like that to a garbage Aberdeen team. In the first half, there were three occasions where we broke forward with a man advantage and we were either too slow moving forward to capitalize or misplaced the pass. The concerning thing is, that we have looked like quite a robust unit under Kettlewell for the best part but since that Livingston game, a lot of players have let their standards slip big time. Special mention to the ref, the worst performance I've seen since Stevie O'Reilly subbed himself off at Fir Park as he knew he lost the plot. He lets McGrath away with scything down Paton not to mention his handball but he penalised Well players for everything, I think we got four yellows in like seven minutes. While it's widely mentioned about the two Aberdeen players tackling each other there was one incident where Biereth nipped in front of a centre-back only to get booted for his troubles and the ref gave them a foul. Shinnie was in the ref's face moaning about something but when Kelly did the same he was swiftly booked.2 points
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Problem tonight is that no one has played well. Miller was off the pace, McGinn was making mistakes, o'donnell was awful, Spencer couldn't carry the ball, Paton, Slattery and Spittal rarely completed a pass. Just a complete off night for everyone.2 points
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Spot on. Calling for his head is ludicrous. What I will say is the summer signings are coming back to bite him. I never give players a hard time, but by god Wilkinson last night was absoluely lost(despite having little support).1 point
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For whatever reason, it seemed as though Slattery had decided to milk freekicks at every opportunity last night. The referee was having none of it, even when he was genuinely fouled. He was outstanding at the start of the season and looking really fit so I'd bench him so that he can refocus and get over this wee dip in form. Don't know Davor's strongest position yet but would like to see him get a run of starts to see what he can do. I like the idea of putting Butcher in a holding midfield role but Casey / Bevis / Blaney really need him next to them and keeping them disciplined. Casey in particular seems to be going walkabout a fair bit these days.1 point
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All teams go through bad spells and we are no different. We can't go looking to change manager every time we hit a bad run. We are 2pts off 4th. Difference for me is SK recognises the problems whereas Hammell just seemed so out of his depth and Alexander was just a character you couldn't warm to. SK has made mistakes, who doesn't but for me he deserves the chance to get us back on track. Having a restless support getting on his and the players backs achieves nothing though admittedly the players deserved criticism for that shambles last night. Keep the faith. We have been in this position before and turned things around .....COYW1 point
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Kelly wasn't great last night but wasn't the worst. As with all teams there are players who get more criticism than others who can get away with more. Actually one of our poorest players in recent games has been Casey but hopefully with Butcher back he will get back to his best1 point
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I'd be surprised if he featured for more than 15-20 minutes on that pitch. If he ends up with another injury, this time due to a sub-standard surface I reckon Arsenal may end up pulling him entirely.1 point
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As long as Butcher's here it's a non-starter for Siegriest. No love lost there these days....1 point
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He should have cleaned up the loose ball after Casey's challenge at the third. It was the same in the Scotland game in Paris where he was ball watching and allowed the ball to go out for a corner which cost the equaliser. He's a good instinctive goal keeper when the ball is near him but his decision making is terrible. The Celtic opener a few weeks ago he's panicked from a cross/shot that any decent goalie simply moves their feet and gathers.1 point
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Do you think Aberdeen won last night because they " sussed our system" , the goals we lost were so basic, down to people not following runners , not great play by Aberdeen ...who look bang average1 point
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I'd like to say I was surprised that some fans are looking for SK to be sacked after we finally hit our bad spell. But I'm not, because fans are idiots. Every - and I mean every - team hits bad spells. This is our first one under SK. Of course he needs to fix it, but looking for blood at this stage is ridiculous. Nothing to do with being happy clappy. Everything to do with having watched teams in multiple leagues across multiple decades.1 point
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When we are pinning our hopes on a on loan striker to stay fit then we know we are in a bit bother next three games could be bottom if results against us or could be top 6 but i fancy on the form we are in the bottom two could on the cards. Just out of curiosity has the search for a Ceo just ended just thought we shall save the wage?Cause we seriously need fresh ideas from an outsider at the club its so stale it stinks.1 point
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For the first time since getting the job Kettlewell has a lot to think about in terms of formation, tactics and personnel for Saturday, as that was completed unacceptable tonight. We’ve lost 7 goals in the last 2 home games, so clearly something’s wrong at the back. Then despite scoring 5 goals, remarkably all of them have come with Biereth on the pitch even though he only played 60 mins across the 2 games! Starting Biereth and Butcher would go a long way to helping these issues, however I assume Biereth still won’t be allowed to start, particularly on the plastic, I also wonder if we’d be concerned about starting Butcher on the plastic as well. Sadly I can only see another defeat 😞1 point
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Much like Saturday, his answer was to throw the stagnant game plan out the window and bring on all the subs when it was too late. It has all the whiffs of panic and it cannot continue like this.1 point
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Say what you like about Bair, but he`s shown more in 10 minutes than Wilkinson did in an hour. A shit show indeed, but some folk on here need to get a grip.1 point
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The entire team in front of him hasn’t turned up and been ragdolled as a result. He’s far from the only culprit tonight.1 point
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We were solid defensively at the start of the season for the first few games 😔 What happend1 point
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I think it’s perfectly clear the realists among us knew that going into the season with the forward line we acquired it always had the potential of being a shocker. My late Gran had more bite with her false teeth out than this crop of Forwards so so poor.1 point
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1 point
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In truth we lost the game before kick off last night. The formation and line up was all wrong and that was down to management. 5-4-1, 3-4-2-1 or whatever is a busted flush and we don't have the personnel to play that way. Too many square pegs in round holes last night. Defence was shocking, midfield non existent and lone striker totally isolated and ineffective. Just 30 minutes into the game I messaged our group that our formation was the main issue, and I'm no tactical genius. In game decisions were also questionable. Miller should have been taken off well before half time as he was clearly suffering after have been on the receiving end of 2 bad tackles. The team is chronically short of pace, especially out wide and in midfield. Both wing backs look vulnerable and thats where many of our defensive issues stem from. Aberdeen were poor but at least they looked organised and closed us down, just as Ross County did. Paton was the best of a poor bunch in midfield and Slattery and Spittal were totally ineffective. They tried, but were far too isolated from Wilkinson. Too many high balls thumped aimlessly in Slattery's direction when he was being marked by 2 men. Too often he was out wide - not a role for which he is suited. Midfield formation just isn't right. Up front? I said before the game, that Wilkinson is not suited to be a lone striker. He asked for balls to be played to his feet (Bair last Saturday?) but was frequently on the end of high balls thumped up to him when being marked by 2 big defenders. I saw a post on P & B by Fat Tony, which I'll quote, which sums up exactly my thoughts on him. "Wilkinson up top alone I think has the same problem KVV had under Hammell, in that we're lumping the ball up and not getting anyone close to him in the event that he does win it. I'm not saying he's even on the same planet as KVV but I can understand how we didn't get anything out of Wilkinson playing him that way. He looked brighter in the second half with Biereth alongside but was obviously struggling a bit given his lack of game time. I think there's *something* there, if we can get him fit and not just stick him up top on his own against 3 strapping big CBs." Biereth is our one bright hope, but how much can he achieve on his own? Unlike KVV in the second half of last season, he doesn't have the luxury of having an effective midfield and defence behind him. One final note. It wasn't all down to SK last night, the players must take some responsibility.0 points
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