joewarkfanclub

Exactly this. If we signed half the players, we could afford to pay for a little more quality (maybe less injury prone) and supplement with youth. We seem to have lost our way in the transfer market.

Tell that to Man United....... Obviously not the same league. But the principal is the same. As highlighted above, you need to spend your money wisely. Given how little so many of our players have contributed this season, it could be argued we havent done that, or at least need to do better. Of course we have been unlucky with injuries, but again, as others have pointed out some of those could have been forseen. Others, not so much. Wimmer needs to be quite ruthless if he wants to get his own players in and give himself the best chance of playing his style of football, if indeed ge still thinks he can do that. I note today there was lots of talk about "compromises". But if he does want to play a high intensity game, he will need youger fitter players to do so.

I understand that. So we need to try and bridge the gap in other ways. You dont do that by signing a team full of other teams cast offs. As I said, there will be exceptions to the rule. Someone like Paul McGinn has done very well for us until his injuries. Experience will always have its place. But with SOD, probably Halliday and potentially McGinn all still here next season and Nicholson and Robinson still under contract and likely to be still injured at the start of the season, we need our new recruits to be young and full of energy. Otherwise we are likely to suffer another season like this one.

I know the club need to make decisions on season ticket prices pretty early to get money in over the summer so they can start planning for next season, but they must be pretty confident that we are staying up to fire a price increase in. Unless of course they have done their market research and are confident folk will still part with their cash for a season in the Championship. FWIW, I do think we will stay up. But I wouldnt say Im confident that we definitely will!

If we want to progress and finish higher than the teams above us in the league, I think we need to stop signing players they have let go. They are letting them go for a reason. Tony Watt should be a great example of that. Similarly with Halliday albeit he has done a job this season. There will always be exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking we should be looking at getting younger more dynamic players with a bit of pace (ability) with the prospect of developing them. We have enough old experienced legs in our squad as it is. Dont think we need any more.

I thought that bit went without saying. If they dont have any ability, no one will want them, so there is no sell on value. 🤔🤔🤔

He will probably end up at Dundee if they survive the drop and they are in the market for a centre half. He wont want to have to re-locate back in the central belt when he is from up that way. He probably IS a better centre half than we have at the moment, but his best years are behind him and not the kind of signing we need to be making. Younger, with a sell on value is our demographic....

Imagine how bad Ross County would do down there! 😍😍😍

I would have said the same about Lennon Miller when he broke into the first team. But 18 months has seen a big change in that department. He can handle himself just fine now. Hopefully some of our other young talent will do likewise.....

Annan are only part time, so I presume he trains with us the rest of the week, which is good for him and us. Means he is never out of sight out of mind. Hope he has filled out a bit. I liked what I saw of him in the league cup, but it was clear he was still a boy.

Aye. Feels like Slattery has played more games than 10 given he scored that freekick against Hibs away. Not sure I agree with Miller as POTY though. Its been pretty tough for the boy playing out of position in a disjointed struggling team. He had the injury as well, so despite there being flashes of his quality, I dont feel we have seen anywhere near what he is capable of this season. Alternatives are thin on the ground though.....

I think you need to read my 3 posts on possible future team selection together. The point raised was that we should ditch our loanees and out of contract players as they have no incentive to put their bodies on the line for the club during the run in. I dont necessarily agree with that (some will, some wont) but thought Id play the game. What I would do in those circumstances, what Wimmer is likely to do and what our best overall team selection is, are all totally different things. FWIW I think Tony Watt is a far more talented footballer that Armstrong. But for me, he hasnt shown he is willing to work hard enough to get himself in the shape necessary to contribute to the cause (either that or he is done). So Id play Armstrong because he runs himself into the ground (and we dont have anyone else who has shown they can play the loan striker role.) My personal preference would be to go to a 4 at the back as I think it best suits the players that we have. Playing a 5 means relying on Kaleta and Seddon being fit. Thompson wouldnt play again for me. He has a good engine but continually gives the ball away. His positional sense and reasing of the game are also poor. Of course none of this really matters as Michael Wimmer is his own man. But his decisions will influence the confodence the support have in him going forward. He does need to show he is capable of getting the most out of what is at his disposal. He started positively, but things have stalled recently.

If we lost our remaining 5 games I still think St Johnstone would struggle to overcome our total. They would still need to win another 2 and draw one of their remaining 4. That seems unlikely, but not impossible. It would bring the play off spot into sharp focus though. Thankfully, I dont think we will lose all 5 games. Even a couple of shitfest draws should see us safe (I think!). It will be tight though, so Im not expecting to enjoy the next few weeks.

Slim pickings this season. No one has really been a stand out. You could make a case for Halliday given he has been an ever present, had a few good games and has generally been better than anticipated, but thats a pretty low bar. I went for Slattery purely because the level he has got back to after such a serious injury has been impressive. That and he has scored some important goals that will probably keep us up. Young Player of the Year can only be Lennon. He has been a good bit short of his level from last year, but he has had a lot to contend with being in a porr team with no recognisable striker to hit with his passes and being played out of position quite a lot. Goal of the Year - went for Maswanhise v Rangers. Great take down, turn and finish. Felt like an important goal at the time. Surprised Stama's against Rangers wasnt included. One of the few cross ball/header combinations we actually executed this season. No clue who to vote for Womens POTY as havent seen them play.....

2 wingbacks with no pace in a 5 will only result in us being penned back in our own box. We have seen that movie plenty already this season. Watt has been absolutely gash since his return and shows little sign of turning it around.

You need pace and delivery to play wingback in a 5. He has both of those. Defending is less important than in a 4 which is why I didnt pick him in my 4 at the back line up.

If I was picking a 5 at the back though, I wouldnt be restricting myself to players under contract. I think in that system the best we have available really requires Seddon to be fit. Ox Balmer Gordon Casey Kaleta Seddon Miller Halliday Sparrow Slattery Armstrong We should be able to press from the front with that team and switch Paton for Halliday on 60 minutes. Koutroumbis for Kaleta and Wilson for Seddon. Watt for Armstrong. Get the game won early then see it out.

Following on from the previous post, if I was picking a team under the remit of contracted players that will get the job done, Id go...... Ox Koutroumbis Gordon Balmer Wilson Miller Halliday Sparrow Slattery Maswanhise Armstrong But given Wimmer is unlikely to move away from a 5 at the back, and Casey isnt likely to be one of those that chuck it he could go........ Ox Balmer Gordon Casey Koutroumbis Wilson Miller Slattery Sparrow Maswanhise Armstrong For me the 4 at the back works much better with the players available.....

The answer to that would appear to be to play the majority of players who are still under contract and do actually give a shit about the club. Question is, do we have enough quality within that group to get what we need?

What happens in this one will, once again, very much depend on whether Wimmer will be ruthless enough to start wielding the axe on those who havent been performing for him, and give opportunities to others, in some sort of effort to solve the connundrum he has found himself in. We have enough players of sufficient quality in the squad to get the result we need. Im just not convinced he has identified who they are yet. I guess much of that will depend on who is fit enough to play. Having Gordon Kaleta and Seddon available would help. Although, given we had a clean sheet on Saturday he probably wont change the backline. Unfortunately that will limit what we can do in attack. Really hope Im wrong, but I foresee a same again type team selection and a rather dismal performance, scraping out a low scoring draw.

Can certainly see Dundee doing ok post split. My point being that if they did they would be taking points off everyone else anyay, so wouldnt just be us under threat. Ross County and Killie would also be looking over their shoulder. I know I got the arithmetic wrong, but the premise is still the same.

Aye, my bad. Shouldnt challenge my half arsed arithmetic late on a Saturday night! 😍😍😍

As long as Hibs win tomorrow then I think we only need 1 win to be safe. Dundee and St Johnstone would both then need 4 wins from 5 to get ahead of us. Given that they would both need to take some of those points from Killie and Ross County to overtake us, it would need a pretty remarkable set of results for us to go down on 42 points.

A manager with football coaching ability can always learn the Scottish game. A Scottish manager with limited football coaching ability is never getting any better.....

I think its absolutely impossible to say what Winmer would do if we were to be relegated. He hasnt really been here long enough for us to know what kind of character he has. I dont think our board would sack him without giving him the chance to sign his own players and bring us back up. We would probably end up being more ruthless in that scenario and have a chance of moving on some of our under contract players who maybe wouldnt fancy the Championship, or indeed have clauses in contracts to allow them to seek other clubs. FWIW, I still think there's a decent chance of us making top 6. We dont deserve it, but then, can St Mirren or Hearts say different given where they are points wise? I get that % wise we are the least likely. But football often doesnt work out that way. If we do end up bottom 6 it will end up being very tight, but we do havr a starting advantage and 1 or 2 wins from the 5 would probably see us have enough to get us over the line. Regardless of what happens, it will just be nice to get this season out the way. Its be so shite for so many reasons.