Raith Against The Machine

You're right about Matthews. He's certainly not averse to driving forward and into the attacking areas. I suppose nominally it's a 4-2-3-1 but Hendry is definitely static while Matthews is more box-to-box. The personnel we've got really don't leave us much room to change. We've got three strikers so we shouldn't have to commit wholeheartedly to the one up front, but Lokotsch and Duku are carbon copies of each other in terms of approach. Ugwu could possibly be a second striker and provide variety, but I haven't seen enough of him to say that with any confidence. To facilitate two strikers, you've got two options. Withdraw either Matthews or Tait from the middle and go to a 4-4-2. That either leaves you with a lightweight midfield duo or the same pair we've got at the moment. I don't see it working, or being something John McGlynn is likely to try. The alternative is going back to the 3-4-1-2 that we saw last season. It means keeping Nando and bringing Musonda across into the centre of defence (although maybe that's what Mendy needs?). I think it brings the best out of MacDonald and I imagine Tumilty would be effective at wing back too. All things being equal, it's the system I enjoy watching the most, and I think it's the most realistic alternative we've got in terms of providing a coherent attack.

See, I'd categorise our current system as a 4-2-3-1. Matthews and Hendry sit deeper than the other three. You could certainly replace Matthews with Spencer to try and provide some more creativity from deep, but you're going to lose a lot of the dig and industry out of the midfield.

The thread for the last game was remarkably cordial for the first couple of days. Good to see that with the game just half a week away, we've gotten straight down to the weird petty bullshit.

I came to Mendy's defence - to some extent - after the weekend, but he was quite clearly dreadful tonight. That doesn't necessarily define him as a player, any more than Hendry or Duku's poor showings define them, but to try and paint his performance tonight as anything other than significantly sub-Championship is fanciful.

Someone's started a thread for this game with a stupid fucking thread title. Just hoping this one takes off instead.

That was absolutely pathetic. It doesn't change anything in terms of this manager or this team, and what they can achieve, but it should be firmly nailed to the wall as the nadir. Someone mentioned earlier that if it was any other team than Rovers, Queens would have lost. I'd flip that. If it was any other team than Queens, the Rovers still would've lost. They beat themselves tonight. That might sound disrespectful to Queens, but setting aside the fact that they are objectively an absolute gang, they fielded a 16 year old goalkeeper tonight and he only had to make one save. Queens could've played George Galloway in goal and they'd still have won 2-1. Did Obileye have a great game? Not really, he won his headers, he was probably the man of the match, but he wasn't exactly strolling around like Maldini. Gregor Buchanan barely featured. Wullie Gibson was more involved going forward than he was defending. Queens will go out and ship another four or five within their next couple of games. And I promise I'm not just slamming Queen of the South, they're just clearly not a very good team at this level. That happens sometimes. But what also happens is that a team and a manager go out with a mentality and a strategy that is so utterly below what is required that they embarrass themselves. That's what happened tonight. Not a single Rovers player comes close to getting passmark. Did any of them achieve what they set out to do? If that was "don't just kick the ball out the park under no pressure" you can strike five from the list immediately. We had three strikers on the park at the end. None of them manager a shot at goal. Duku played 90 minutes and only managed about three touches facing goal! At best, the defence looked like strangers. At worst, they looked drunkenly disoriented, swinging wildly between committing bad fouls and failing to put in basic challenges. Musonda probably the least culpable for that, but also offered no support getting forward. Hendry and Matthews at the base of midfield looked bereft of ideas from the second minute onwards. The short passes into the attacking three, that should be the trademark of this team, never materialised. And as for those three? The greatest culprits of all tonight. Tait, Ross and Armstrong managed to have a sum total of zero influence on the match. Neither part of the midfield or part of the attack, they allowed themselves to be bypassed and waited for someone else to rescue them. Abysmal. As bad as that was tonight, it does feel like an aberration rather than a new normal. It feels like the result of a perfect storm of negative factors. The galling thing is that it's come when that almost shouldn't have mattered. Against a team so lacking in numbers, quality, form, confidence and goalkeepers as Queen of the South, you can afford to have a bad attitude or a bad strategy. You can have a midfield that has an off day. Or a defence, or an attack. You cannot afford for all of these things to happen.

f**k off!

There's a yellow jersey under every second ball. Has been all night. This is an all-time bad performance result from McGlynn. I expect some severe mea culpa in the post-match from him or Smith.

I assume the app is only used by children. I cannot overstate how absolutely woeful we've been. Absolutely no ideas beyond the first minute.

All I can say is, there's no way any Rovers team could ever sit this deep for fifteen minutes and not concede. Looking forward to seeing Queens manage it though.

Freekick 25 yards from goal. Untested sixteen year old goalkeeper... Cross played at hip height to a spot fifteen yards from goal. Piss poor.

Five.

We look like we've got at least a two man disadvantage. When Queens counter we look outnumbered and when the ball goes up our forwards look completely isolated. Where are all the Rovers!?

Nando, Jesus Christ. Leaving Pybus alone there. Pybus barely moves and the cross is straight to him, while Nando skips three or four yards away from him, under the ball. Abysmal from the big man.

This is a very generous interpretation. You could count on one hand the number of controlled, deliberate touches we've had in the final third.

Hendry has a tendency to spiral when things are going against us, doesn't he? There's a lot to be said for his willingness to keep on getting involved, he never hides, but he tries more and more to take on extra responsibility and his success rate drops considerably.

This long ball strategy is a bad idea. If Manny Duku insists on constantly starting in an offside position, it's a fucking dreadful idea.

How many times is that Rovers players have played simple side-footed passes right out the park? Four?

I'm reminded of the game down at Ayr where Ryan Stevenson played in goal. Their players seemed so fixated on our ridiculous goalkeeping situation and just totally forgot the basics of just playing football. They should've come out flying after a half time bollocking/regroup, but they never did. They won it on a set piece. We're going to need to be a whole lot better.

Yeah, this has been utterly infuriating. The kind of performance that I think you'd be angered by even if you were a neutral. Just fundamentally bad football.

Stick a second striker on. Lose any one of Tait, Armstrong or Ross. We're not using that midfield three, we might as well at least get a second forward on.

Fucking f**k me Rovers.

I thought they'd nailed that one. No idea why Armstrong poked it at the near post though. Driving the ball into the middle could've seen it end up in the goal off anyone.

Obilaye showing us how we might get back into this one. Brutal defensive header.

Before the game, I wondered if it would be like some of the games we struggled in last season, where the visiting team shut up shop and we really toiled in breaking them down. We're toiling alright, but there's been no stuffiness from Queens. They're absolutely all over us. Could be three already.