Raith Against The Machine

Josh McPake. If he goes out and signs a winger I'll have absolutely no idea how he's planning to play. Pack the midfield and the wings, forego defending altogether?

John will be a great signing for Falkirk too, tbf.

Haha! Caught that too late.

Coulson might be worth another shot. Cowden were happy enough to keep giving him game time, but a winger is never going to thrive in a team that's getting gubbed every week. A loan out to a team at the top end of the Lowland League might give him a better platform. Mahady being dropped down to the Shippy halfway through the season isn't a great sign. I don't know how he got on there, but unless he was banging in hat-tricks I'm not convinced he'll be in a position to offer anything at Championship level any time soon.

Nut.

I really hoped we'd be able to keep Musonda, I think he's got the potential to be a real standout at this level if he's played in the same position every week. I'll be interested to see where he pops up next.

It's stating the obvious and a little trite, but it depends entirely on who replaces him. He's a perfectly serviceable defender but there will be better out there who'll sign for clubs like us this summer. All depends on whether Murray can pick one of them.

[citation needed]

Does He Have A Moustache?

Based on the little I've seen of him, I'd take Comrie. Scored against us after running from inside his own half in one of the Covid games, didn't he? I like my fullbacks to be as marauding as possible.

I'd be much happier if we knew Musonda was definitely staying, but I'm relatively happy to roll the dice on this one. Purely theoretical, but if you had a guaranteed full fitness Berra, Lang and Musonda for the season, Benedictus wouldn't get a look in. On that basis alone I can see why he'd maybe be thinking about going elsewhere, particularly as club captain. As we saw last year, though, with the availability of the defenders we've got we're going to use at least four centre halfs fairly regularly throughout the season. I think there are better players out there than Benedictus, whether or not we can find one of them is obviously the gamble. We could probably do with another young guy to come in and take Dave McKay's squad place too. All in all, it's probably not cost effective to try and retain Kyle Benedictus as one of the most prominent (and therefore, you'd imagine, best paid) players in the squad. Ideally, you'd want your captain to be the kind of player the teams around you covet. But there's a reason that Benedictus has dropped into League One rather than going to a direct rival. He's not got the required quality to be a guaranteed starter in a top half Championship side. That said, I think he'll be a really good signing for the Pars. Some of his limitations will still be apparent in League One as they would be at any level, but he's got a lot of experience and he's won League One before. He's a good all-rounder for a centre half, for the vast majority of the time he'll give you 7 or 8/10 in his positioning, heading, tackling and passing. The price you pay for that is the odd mad rush of blood where he gets himself sent off or is wildly out of line with the rest of his defence, but in games against the bottom half sides in League One when the Pars will have most of the ball, he'll be imperious.

I don't think there's been much or any substantiation to the rumours of where he's going, but it'd be a real coup if Murray can convince him to stay. He's got his flaws, but he's earned the chance at a bottom six Premiership club.

Benedictus would be absolutely fine in League One for the next year. He's on the borderline as a top half Championship player, hence the discussion around him potentially leaving the Rovers, but he's by no means being bombed out. I suspect he will stay at the Rovers, but if he doesn't, he'd be a perfectly good pick for anyone planning on winning League One.

Excuse me. People from Peterhead aren't "hillbillies". They're trawler-trash.

Or both.

Whaaaaaaaaaat!?

Signed a new contract at Airdrie three days ago.

I suspect he's planning on a diamond in midfield, which might limit opportunities for Zanatta and Connolly but makes the signing of Brown make more sense. Means you've got four options (again, assuming Spencer signs, alongside Stanton and Matthews) for the three slots outside of the tip which will be Ross/Easton.

McGlynn does that too. It's obviously a very deliberate and measured decision, but I find it maddening.

That's really interesting, thanks everyone for the responses. Tactically he sounds like a bit of an open book, lots of different defensive and midfield permutations. I'm really intrigued to see how he sets out his midfield at the Rovers, particularly at the beginning of the season. He'll almost certainly be constrained to a back four just through availability of centre halfs, and based on what's been said I think he'll probably favour a diamond (no pun intended), even though that'll mean leaving our two "showiest" players on the bench in Dario Zanatta and Aidan Connolly. If we sign Scott Brown, as has been mooted, I think we could stamp a confirmation on that idea. And as for throwing strikers forward, he'll have a job to do there because we've only got two, but I imagine that's the item at the top of his agenda. At this level, I don't think it's a huge issue if the manager is a wee bit too rigid or not particularly reactive. If you've got the right players in from the start you'll still win more than you lose, as Airdrie saw last season, and that in-game stubbornness is a price I'm more than willing to pay for the most important thing that Murray brings to the table, and it's what you've highlighted above. My biggest fear when we lost John McGlynn was that he was (without doing a disservice to Paul Smith or the others in his backroom) a bit of a one man football department. Compared to other Championship clubs we've got a very lean structure and McGlynn made it work by putting in all the hours and being very hands on with his training, and his scouting, and his recruitment etc. I was worried that if we brought in a Kevin Thomson, for example, that he wouldn't thrive in that position, but it sounds like Ian Murray has fought to get to exactly that point with Airdrie, where he's got the autonomy to run the show himself. Time will tell if he's successful, and like most managers I think he'll ultimately live and die by his recruitment, but at least the whole setup looks like quite a natural fit.

Apologies if this has already been asked and answered (and please point me to the right place if it has) but what is Ian Murray's preferred formation/set-up? Is he quite militant with how he adheres to it or does he adapt fairly frequently for different games? And do you think he found players to fit into the way he wanted to play, or did the system come about as the best way to get results from the players he had at his disposal?

So as things stand at the moment, is this the state of play? For the purposes of the chart, I've assumed that our out of contract players will return but that none of the loan players will. I've also just stuck with McGlynn's 4-2-3-1 but of course Murray might fancy a totally different set up. Keepers are obviously fine. Obviously it looks likely that Reghan Tumilty will leave, but even if RT stays, I think we could still do with an out-and-out right back to come in as a second choice, even if it's a kid out of a Premiership academy. I think Musonda suffered last season for constantly being shifted around the back line. At left back, I wouldn't be surprised to see Mackie return but I'd be a wee bit disappointed. Maybe he just needs a pre-season, but I don't think he was a particular upgrade on Liam Dick who was probably the weakest regular in last year's team. I'm quietly confident about Musonda staying, and while I wouldn't be overly upset about Benedictus leaving, I'm starting to think it might not be the worst idea to keep someone of his experience and ability around. I'm not sure we'll get better in a like-for-like swap in this market. Those four centre halfs are a solid unit for this level, albeit there's a reliance on Lang and Berra maintaining an element of fitness. The base of the midfield intrigues me, but I'm thinking about it through a real John McGlynn lens where he's always tried to pair a tackler with a passer. We don't really have an alternative to Matthews, and I wonder if that's where Murray maybe sees Scott Brown filling in? At the very least I think he'd be a more all-action option compared to Spencer (who we might not have, of course) and Stanton who are both more creative/passive. Into the attacking midfield and you come to another of the issues we had last season, with Zanatta and Connolly as the only two wingers. Ethan Ross clocked a lot of minutes on the left but he's half the player there as he is in the middle. Although I've put Easton into the middle, hopefully he can be an effective wide option to go into a three man rotation with Zanatta and Connolly to make things much less predictable for opposition managers and defences. The middle of that three though is where this squad shines brightest. Ethan Ross, on his day, might well be the best in the league in that role, we know Easton can do it, and Vaughan is excellent there too if he drops back. Speaking of Vaughan, as things stand there's a fair onus on him to hit the ground running and stay fit. Obviously that's completely in the lap of the Gods. We know if he's fit he scores goals, but there's no point putting any pressure on him, it's not fair and it's not pragmatic. That leaves Jamie Gullan, who I think is better than he showed last season, but he needs a good strong start to the season if he's to avoid accusations of flattering to deceive. We definitely need at least one more proper striker to come in.

I had to go in twice, mostly because I'd left the tab open too long before beginning the process the first time. But when I did try, the error messages suggested there was a fairly significant issue. I left it half an hour and tried again though and it was grand. If you were getting bother yesterday, it's worth having another shot today and see if anything's changed.