joewarkfanclub

First and foremost football managers need to win games. If they dont do that they will be out of a job as the same fans complaining about lack of entertainment will be the ones demanding their head. That said, the football has been generally brutal this season and save for the odd game when things have clicked into place, there hasnt been much entertainment on offer. Id like to think there is a happy medium to be had where there is sufficient entertainment to be had whilst also picking up the necessary points. Lets not forget that this is the same squad that beat United 4-3 and drew 2-2 with Rangers. Both thoroughly entertaining games. It has been the exception to the rule though and it is something that does require to be addressed. A football club is nothing without its supporters to play in front of.

There is some merit to this argument. I do feel that SK sees the same problems as the rest of us. Its just his solutions to those problems often seem quite mental. Same with his in game management. That said, I know you are a big advocate of going to a back 4, and under different circumstances I would agree. But the majority of our injuries this season have been to midfield players so dropping a defender to put in an extra midfielder would be next to impossible, paricularly as we dont have a decent defensive mid to sit in front of a 4. With Vale back, I do think 4-3-3 is a possibility, but with his red card, it definitely wont be on Saturday. In short. SK has had a really shit hand dealt to him this season. I think there ARE things he could have done to make life easier for himself, but we arent in possession of all the facts and information he has at his disposal, so he will continue to get the benefit of any doubt from me for the moment. If we get knocked out of the cup and get dragged into a relegation battle and he is still doing the same things, then my patience will be severely tested. Right now, I will continue to suffer like everyone else.

This is where Im at. Unfortunately, up until this point, we havent had enough fit midfielders to successfully play more attacking football, or change from 5 at the back to a 4. With the signing of Andrews and with Slattery, Nicholson and Paton all coming back, I would expect to see a move towards more of a passing game. The first half yesterday was generally fine out of possession, other than the 2 absolute abherrations from Halliday and Wilson, but in possession we were brutal. Zero shots at goal in 45 minutes is horrific. Second half was much better once Slattery came on. He, Andrews, Vale and TJ all have that little bit more quality about them. I actually feel sorry for Ewan Wilson. He has needed rested for a few weeks now, but the injury to Seddon has cost him that opportunity. That said, his positioning for the first goal and decision making for the second were very poor. SOD has also looked well off it since his injury and his positioning for the corner leading to the penalty was criminal. Pretty disappointing as he had started this season pretty well. SK has some big decisions to make for the Cup game. We are back to where we were after the Hibs game at Fir Park where things looked very bleak. He managed to turn that around with a couple of good performances and wins and he needs to do the same again.

Its deliberately endangering an opponent. Rugby players get sent off for it and they are allowed to batter each other.

Fair point caller. We have certainly been less effective in an attacking sense without Miller pulling the strings.

We do that anyway (well, a lot of the time) and we dont have anyone to make it effective. Id be ok with going long if it didnt keep coming straight back again.

I think he is overweight!

Stama still out, so our attacking options will be as they were. Need to get the ball to Watt and Maswanhise on the geound into their feet and give them a chance. Hopefully McGinn starts. He will improve that.

Fair chance. It was alluded to a few weeks ago that we were in the market for a defensive mid. He was one of the names suggested. Think he is more of a utility player than an out and out defefensive mid, so no idea if he is what we are looking for or not. Cant say Ive ever paid him much attention.

We will undoubtedly set up the same way against St Johnstone. We have done it twice already this season and beaten them twice. The game at Fir Park they played really nice football but barely had a sniff at our goal. I dont mind that as long as when we have the ball we do something with it rather than just shell it long. My hope is that we have our better players on the pitch to allow us to do that. Counter attacking football can be quite entertaining if done properly. Just ask Leicester fans! You do of course require a plan B for teams who wont come out and let you play that way. I dont expect St Johnstone to be one of them.

Between Casey and the Ox. Went for the Ox as he ensured we got a hard earned point. His save in the first half from point blank range was excellent!

Maybe giving his boy Luke a lift to the game?

I expect that now we are back on grass a few more of the players returning from injury will get more game time. I expect McGinn to start. Stama will be back and maybe Seddon. Nicholson, Slattery and Andrews should all get more minutes. Hopefully that should see an upturn in performance levels and a bit more football being played. Still a difficult place to go and Hibs are in good form so a point will be more than acceptable and keep us ticking over going into the cup game.

First of all, really awful watch last night. It was never going to be a great game of football on that pitch in those conditions given the players at our disposal, but we were so far off it first half it was alarming. We did steady the ship a little second half and were more competitive, but we did so by dragging Kilmarnock down to our level rather than being more creative. All that said, we got a clean sheet and a very good away point in really difficult circumstances, so it would be churlish to ignore that. It kind of feels like we discuss the same things on here most weeks and folks positions are fairly entrenched, so not trying to change anyones opinion here, but I do wonder what some of us expect. We have seen what happens with Hammels team when you try and play football in this league without the quality of player required to do so. Simo is proving it again at St Johnstone right now. We havent had a fully functioning midfield due to injury since the start of the season. Things are starting to look a little brighter on the horizon, but its going to take a few more weeks to get Nicholson, Slattery and Andrews up to speed. But at the same time we have lost Miller and Paton. Our only 3 fully fit midfielders last night were Davor, Halliday and Sparrow. I would have been tempted to bring Sparrow on at half time, but that would have meant taking TJ or Vale off who were both putting in a shift anyway. Kaleta and Wilson both had very poor games last night which with a 2 man midfield isnt going to end well. But with Seddon out Wilson has to play and Kaleta's replacement is the much maligned SOD. The way I view this is that the first half of the season has been a means to an end. If we are still playing the same way in March, I will start to ask questions. Sure SK could help himself at times by making better in game changes. But for once last night I thought they did improve us a little. Back on grass on Saturday with hopefully Stama and Seddon back and available and hopefully McGinn in the starting 11. A bit more game time for Nicholson, Slattery and Andrews and we should be looking a bit more competitive going into the cup game. File last night in the delete/trash bin.

I agree. The points for safety will be higher this year. I think St Johnstone are gone. There's no way they take 16 points more than us in the second half of the season when they have only managed 15 total in the first half. But everyone else is still within striking distance. Thats why games like tonight are so important. Killie are currently 6 behind, so not losing tonight would be great to just keep that gap ticking over. A win would fantastic and give us a phenomenal return for the first half of the season given the injuries we have had. Its actually quite mental that we should be in any way still worried about a play off place. Given that we could be a point off 3rd at the end of the night!

Andrews seems like the kind if signing we should be making at this time of year. Young player with greater quality than we can normally afford but needs a platform to gain some senior experience. We have a big squad and plenty of midfielders, but as others have said, most of them are not match fit. I would envisage him being used to support the rehabilitation of Slattery, Nicholson et al. Looking forward to seeing what he can do.

33 points to the midway split would be some achievement. Particularly with the catalogue of injuries we have had. Looking back, our best ever total (in the 3 points for a win era) is 70 points the year we finished 2nd with McCall. He also did a 62 and a 64. Obviously all achieved when the dead club were in the lower leagues. I think we would all agree there is still plenty of room for improvement, but if we could match that total in the second half if the season, it would be some feat and a huge carrot for the players.

Some Morton fans on P&B were saying although he has been scoring goals for them he hasnt been contributing much else. SK was very non committal on recalling him during an interview I saw. My take is that he probably has the ability but isnt prepared to work hard enough with it, hence why he was farmed out to Morton in the first place. I could be wrong, but thats my reading of it. Shame because he certainly had a bit of pedigree when he was younger. But there has to be a reason he has repeatedly gone down the levels.

Wasnt his worst game, he does cover a lot of ground and closes off space well. But he isnt the strongest in the tackle and his passing is always a hit or a miss. Thought the yellowcard he got was a bit harsh given Halliday had just got clattered by the guy Davor tried to tackle. Walsh ignored that and was very quick with the yellow. Couldnt believe they were actually considering a red!

Doing some quick maths on the stadium seating plan, its about 1k.

No one is saying there is anything wrong with slowing the ball down. We just did it at the wrong times. Also pretty sure the shot that hit the bar was in the last 20 minutes, so I would say we were anything but comfortable in that period. If that went in, we would have been under serious pressure. Whereas at 3-0 its game over. Not suggesting we should have gone gung ho, in fact, quite the opposite. But where is the risk in punting a ball long to a single striker when the other 10 are still in position behind the ball?

To be fair to Valikari, he is just in the door and hasnt had a window yet to move some players on and get his own in. That said, their results have not improved despite him changing their style of play and making them easier on the eye. Maybe shitfesting games is the way to go after all? 🤔

Hopefully sell that out quickly and get extra sections behind the goal!

We are certainly set up to let other teams have the ball and play them on the break. McInnes did deal with that effectively at Fir Park by not playing into that tactic which made it really difficult for us. But will he be able to get away with the same thing at home when they have just lost to Ross County? Be interesting to see their fans reaction if he does. Hoping Paton is fit again and we dont need to see Davor and Halliday together again!

I heard that as well. But didnt the league vote to ban plastic from the top flight from the end of this season? There were some Falkirk fans losing their shit over it at the time.