Mr November
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Posts posted by Mr November
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Quite funny/sad how we can predict non-Scottish signings without them being wild guesses. I remember recognising McStravick’s name as soon as he was announced purely because I spent the summer studying the Consilium list.
More fun than seeing people suggest bringing back Jordan Allan right enough.
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18 minutes ago, Passionate said:
We are asking a lot from Todorov and McGill to an extent, McGill got slated after the Thistle game, his first League game in weeks and gets dropped the next, Todorov comes in against Dunfermline does alright and gets dropped again, We are looking for the silver bullet upfront and not getting it, are we giving it enough of a chance though, how about judging Todorov after 3 starts in a row not after 75 minutes, we aren't scoring just now anyway...
Nothing will change unless we change our shape, Rhys knows teams will run through us if he does, you either drop McMaster or someone and play a 2 up front, our midfielders aren't physically strong or quick enough to play that regularly....
Personally don't think who we sign if anybody up front will make a great deal of difference, but we need a lot more productivity and goals from our wide players and Frizzell and Telfer if that clicks and we get ahead in games, our strikers will have more chances late in games....
Nothing is easy in this league, and we are in a battle , next 2 games are must not lose territory IMO
Yeah all very fair points. I think we’re both in agreement anyway that the main issue isn’t really the strikers themselves, it’s the attacking players around them not being creative enough.
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1 hour ago, Passionate said:
MCgill I agree , he was very effective in the last 2 seasons, Technically a mess, but his reckless direct style seemed to work in League 1, he would probably do a turn for Raith due to their open attacking style..
Todorov is proven he can get goals, he has been unlucky, what do you want him to do in 8minutes or whatever at Ayr, a more positive attacking approach to scoring goals is required and a physical midfield player to give us a different option than the dot to dot safety first passing...
O Connor has pace to burn, which we need, but little else, probably League 2 is his level at this moment in time..
Falkirk signed the lad Shanley from troubled Edinburgh, he is a good forward player that was available, hopefully we can get some business done, although recruitment is still a major issue under this regime...
Has Todorov shown that he can get goals here though? He’s had some great chances late on in games, Queen’s Park and Partick Thistle particularly, and hasn’t taken them. I think he played fairly well when he started against Dundee United and Raith to be fair to him and have him credit at the time. I’ve always said I don’t think his hold up play is that great (Chris Hamilton beat him to every header recently) but if we had wide players who could get crosses in he’d be a real threat, unfortunately we don’t really have them. I’m not desperate to get rid of him, just don’t think he fits how we play and McCabe doesn’t seem keen to adapt for him, rightly or wrongly.
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8 hours ago, Diamond1924 said:
Who would you be happy to see go in January if it meant freeing up some cash (hypothetical of course)?
I would let McGill, Todorov and O’Connor go
I think those are the obvious three. I don’t think there’s too much wrong with the rest of the squad, just lacks a bit of quality overall.
McGill to Raith would be a bizarre move, he just hasn’t got going at this level and Murray seemed to suggest he wanted pace out wide which he doesn’t really bring. I think he’d be a better fit in Murrayball than our patient style at this level but even so, it would be a strange signing. I’ll always be fond of him for last season but he must be on a very good wage and he hasn’t justified it unfortunately.
I do think Todorov hasn’t been helped by our style of play but even then, he hasn’t really taken his chances when he’s had them. Another probably on a decent wage who hasn’t justified it.
I doubt O’Connor is costing us too much but probably best for everyone that he goes out on loan to a League One/League Two team.
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I’m not sure Wotherspoon was ever a realistic option. From reading the Dunfermline thread it seems like they made him a very good offer which would have made him one of their highest earners, which is presumably well beyond our limits. McPake mentioned that Wotherspoon seemed keen to try for a move to Canada/USA again in January too, so Inverness might not have him for much longer anyway.
Overall though, as @Kenny_m says I feel like most fans on here were a bit concerned at the lack of recruitment in the summer? Yes some were a bit more negative about it but I don’t remember many posts on here with people particularly delighted at our recruitment.
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1 minute ago, Diamonds are Forever said:
He is definitely worse when McCabe is playing. It's like he goes into his shell more and just gives the ball to McCabe or Fordyce instead of looking to be pro-active with it. Not blaming McCabe for that by the way, that's up to McMaster to have the confidence to dominate a game, but I do think McCabe probably demands the ball more which makes McMaster more passive.
Can’t argue with that. They’ve never fully clicked when played together in midfield have they? I’ve been quite vocal about Raith away being our best performance for ages and that shape suiting the current squad but even that day McMaster was our least impactful midfielder. Funnily enough our other best performance was Thistle at home when we looked fairly decent with him and McCabe together but dominated the game after McCabe went off injured.
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Just now, TxRover said:
Shall I point out that the leaders have 1 loss and 3 draws…and you contributed the loss and one of the draws. Just saying.
I did say the other day that win against Raith looks better every week. @Diamonds are Forever makes a great point about us not being able to hem teams in. For whatever reason the only time I can properly recall us doing that this season was that five minute spell up at Kirkcaldy when Dabrowski pulled off a great save, Todorov hit the bar and I think we had another run right across goal too. If only it was the same against every other team!
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6 minutes ago, Shibuya said:
Do you usually not mark the opposition's only striker?
It’s not even the first time that’s happened this month!
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McMaster has been fine this season. He had some excellent performances at the start of the season (he was our best player in August) and has tailed off since then. Telfer and Aiken have been the pick of the midfielders this season, the others have been a bit more mixed at best, but overall McMaster has been better than I expected at this level.
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Queen’s Park 0-3 Dundee United
Raith Rovers 2-1 Ayr
Airdrie 1-1 Morton
Arbroath 1-1 Dunfermline
Partick Thistle 3-1 Inverness0 -
I thought we played better today than we did the last two weeks. The first half in particular we moved the ball much quicker than we have recently, had a few balls across goal, one of which Gallagher hit the post from, plus McCabe and Frizzell's long range efforts. The issue is though that we concede another soft goal very early into the game and then run out of ideas in the second half. The latter part of that is a familiar story unfortunately.
The only goals we've scored in the last 15 minutes of league games have been McGregor v Arbroath (already winning) and Gallagher's penalty last week (a penalty). When plan A doesn't work, which it generally doesn't if we concede first, then we really need to figure out a way to at least look threatening late in games. We had plenty of possession towards the end there but did we ever look like scoring in the last 15-20 minutes? Even when we chucked Todorov on, it felt like largely the same gameplan, just with McCabe and McMaster (why both at this point in the game anyway?) looking very exposed.
We're obviously not going to wildly change our style of play, and I'm not sure that we really need to. Almost every game has been pretty tight, they're just often decided by conceding soft goals and then an inability to create clear chances. We really need to find a way to do something different going forward when we're chasing games. We don't need to go full Murrayball every week but when the patient build-up play has stopped working and we need a goal, why not just go for it and chuck McGill, Todorov, O'Connor etc. on and cause some chaos?
A bit of pressure on the next few games now. Morton have picked up and will be tougher opposition than the previous two games against them, while we never really got the better of Queen's Park in the last fixture. I'd say four points minimum from them is required.
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Ayr 1-1 Airdrieonians
Dundee United 1-1 Raith Rovers
Dunfermline 2-2 Partick Thistle
Morton 2-1 Queen’s Park
Inverness 2-0 Arbroath0 -
After that win tonight Morton are now only three points behind us and could move above us if they win their game in hand. I think that shows how tight the bottom five or six is at the moment.
I think over the next couple of months the league will split into a top two, a few play-off chasing teams (Partick Thistle, Dunfermline, maybe Inverness if Wotherspoon stays) and then the rest tightly packed at the bottom. Whatever happens over the next four games won’t necessarily define our season but two or three wins would be huge.
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2 hours ago, Kenny_m said:
I may be mistaken but I think we've only paired Gallagher & Todorov at Inverness this season so I think it's clear that the manager doesn't fancy that partnership, and they certainly didn't gel that day. A front 2 with no pace wouldn't be for me.
Yeah it never worked at all that day. I think it’s fine to chuck them both on if we’re chasing a game and going direct but not from the start. Gallagher is capable of playing a slightly deeper role in a front two and linking play but neither of them can run beyond a defender, definitely need some pace up there if you’re going with a front two.
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1 hour ago, Kenny_m said:
That's happened a few times this season although don't really have an issue with it as the manager doesn't want to give too much away.
The pre-match stuff is done on a Tuesday isn’t it? Suppose Telfer might have picked up an injury/illness between then and the game. Hopefully he’s back next week though as he’s been our best midfielder over the last few months.
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2 minutes ago, Diamond1924 said:
That wouldn’t be us joint bottom of the goals scored in the league table would it? I thought our attacking options in Gallagher, McGill and Todorov were adequate in this league according to many posters on here?
We’re in big trouble if we don’t get some serious attackers in or at least different attackers. Gallagher, McGill and Todorov are much and the same (slow, laboured, poor control)
I think near enough everyone agrees with the general point that we’re struggling in attack to be fair. McGill has been poor, Todorov has his uses but has struggled so far and doesn’t seem a great fit, Gallagher will score given chances (we can agree to disagree there).
The bigger issue is the creativity around them. We don’t score enough goals but I think that’s largely because we don’t have much in attacking midfield areas. Frizzell has had a poor season, McStravick has moments but is still young, McGregor has pace but beyond that we are particularly weak there. He’s not necessarily a creative player in the classic sense but put Callum Smith in this team and we create a lot more chances. We’re not missing loads of great chances every week, so unless we can sign someone who can create their own chances and finish them then I think it’s slightly further back and out wide where we really need to improve.
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Tam Courts does seem the obvious shout for what Queen’s Park are trying to do. I do fear for Queen’s Parks sake that it might be Malky Mackay though.
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27 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:
Whilst McGregor has his limitations, his pace is invaluable and he was more often than not our out ball from the back. I think he's improved greatly since last season.
The loss of Murray Aiken is a massive being our "different midfielder" and his ability to win the ball back and get us forward was highlighted today.
Small sample size but using league games, when Aiken has played at least 45 minutes our record is W4 D1 L3 (two of those defeats were Dundee United). When he’s played less than 45 minutes or not at all it’s W1 D1 L5.
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8 minutes ago, VinnyPar said:
Josh Rae fucking loves a brain fart against Dunfermline.
It’s bizarre isn’t it. He has his moments in other games but he particularly loves charging out to the touchline against Dunfermline. We had two keepers on the bench today and I like to think it was because McCabe knew Rae can’t be trusted in this fixture.
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I think that game can be summed up by Chris Hamilton winning every header against Todorov. I had the fear we were in for 90 minutes of McPake terrorball when I saw Dunfermline’s back three but rather than shitfesting they were just fairly solid and then cruised it after the first goal.
I thought Airdrie edged the first half hour, though there wasn’t too much in it like most games in this league. Our issue is a lack of creativity, particularly when a goal down, and Dunfermline were able to just sit, control the game and then use their pace going forward to attack Fordyce/ATS.
I fancied Dunfermline to finish fourth at the start of the season and I still think they’ll do it. I can see the league splitting into a 2/3/5 with the top two miles ahead, Dunfermline, Partick and Inverness for the two play-off spots and then the rest of us scrambling about mid-table.
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I thought we played ok today until the first goal. Still the usual issues in the final third but our play was a bit quicker and while nothing really came off, we looked slightly more threatening. Once we conceded the (as usual very soft) goal though we were out of ideas and contributed nothing going forward for the rest of the game.
I think we clearly do miss the injured players. McMaster and Gallagher were ok today but neither provide the energy that Aiken does or progress the ball forward quite as well as Telfer. Likewise with McGregor, as I said last week we really miss his pace as an option but that’s more due to the ability of O’Connor, Dunlop etc.
We’re in a bad habit of playing ok, conceding a goal and then not being able to recover from it. I don’t think it’s a mentality issue, just a real lack of spark and creativity going forward. I’m not sure how we address that with the current squad other than scoring the first goal which generally helps us.
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It was a very tight game but that win over Raith looks better every week. I think we’re the only team that’s kept a clean sheet against them too. I wonder who scored a great finish that day?
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1 minute ago, TheScarf said:
If Raith survive the January transfer window, they’re 4000% winning the league.
Big test is if they can beat Dundee United. Feel like it might end up a bit like Airdrie and Cove a couple of years ago, two sides miles ahead of the rest of the league but Murray’s team not quite able to get over the line in the games between the two teams.
This has been a great laugh. Enjoyed seeing Callum Smith score one of his trademark goals and Alasdair Lamont’s excitement at seeing Murrayball in full flow.
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Raith Rovers 2-1 Partick Thistle
Airdrie 1-0 Dunfermline
Arbroath 1-1 Morton
Dundee United 3-0 Ayr
Queen’s Park 1-2 Inverness0
Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️
in Scottish Championship General Chatter
Posted
Was talking about Ryan Donnelly the other week. What a six months that was. Can’t believe Allan and Coogans got their big moves and he never.