Livingston - all the threads merged

[ATLIS]

10 hours ago, DavideFernandezLoveChild said:

Thought he played more centrally from the cameo in the QPR game. Definitely midfield we can agree on that.  

 

He's a striker as far as I'm aware. This is an old Scotland lineup where he played

[DavideFernandezLoveChild]

Absolute mystery then. Thought he was a CAM type player from the minutes I’ve seen of him. 

[ATLIS]

I think there's a few pieces to fall into place. Was it Callum Carson on the Facebook that said Goncalves, Guthrie and Bitsindou have been told to find new clubs as they wont play here?

I stand by the opinion Obileye isn't good enough for this level but we were honking without him. A lot of our hopes and dreams are on Devlin staying fit to replace Fitzwater.

In other news Omeonga is away to Israel? Fair enough, good luck to him.
 

[The Wrong Car]

24 minutes ago, ATLIS said:

I think there's a few pieces to fall into place. Was it Callum Carson on the Facebook that said Goncalves, Guthrie and Bitsindou have been told to find new clubs as they wont play here?

I stand by the opinion Obileye isn't good enough for this level but we were honking without him. A lot of our hopes and dreams are on Devlin staying fit to replace Fitzwater.

In other news Omeonga is away to Israel? Fair enough, good luck to him.
 

Obileye has turned out to be the only CB who is happy to just defend, minus Parkes’ cameo against United. 

He won’t improve, but he’s turned into a fairly decent CB a bottom 6 club

It does look like any movement depends on who we can shift 

[ATLIS]

Just now, The Wrong Car said:

Obileye has turned out to be the only CB who is happy to just defend, minus Parkes’ cameo against United. 

He won’t improve, but he’s turned into a fairly decent CB a bottom 6 club

It does look like any movement depends on who we can shift 

I actually reckon Guthrie and Esma will move on. They'll likely go to the weird leagues across the world they've played in before or similar. They won't be on a lot of money with us and can probably get more elsewhere

[The Wrong Car]

As much as I doubted Kane would sign, it does suggest Martindale wants another CF who’s similar, which is progress

[RandomGuy.]

14 minutes ago, The Wrong Car said:

As much as I doubted Kane would sign, it does suggest Martindale wants another CF who’s similar, which is progress

Hes only contracted for 6 months so might yet get him in January.

[ATLIS]

56 minutes ago, The Wrong Car said:

As much as I doubted Kane would sign, it does suggest Martindale wants another CF who’s similar, which is progress

I know the choice between teams like Bayern, Man Utd, staying at Spurs and Livi is a hard one but I reckon we've got a good chance there  

[Menga Bus]

We pretty much had first dibs on Paton and gave him the most pathetic contract offer possible, a laughable offer, so I’m glad the funds that could’ve been used to get him are going towards top quality forwards like Guthrie and isma.

[Troy.1995]

1 hour ago, Menga Bus said:

We pretty much had first dibs on Paton and gave him the most pathetic contract offer possible, a laughable offer, so I’m glad the funds that could’ve been used to get him are going towards top quality forwards like Guthrie and isma.

.

[ATLIS]

Even if we did, there's nothing to suggest he's not another Kouider-Aissa or even another Esma at that. He would've went out on loan to Morton or someone. I don't think Paton is someone who would've made an immediate impact on the squad as a whole. 

Guthrie and Esma will hopefully find new clubs elsewhere but I'm not sure we're that close to a signing at this point. Looks like we're banking on English contracts ending now.

We've also apparently told Parkes to find a club as well, and zero movement on Nouble as it stands. Might be a case of one domino starting the activity and on and on but we're awfully slow this year. Squad back in tomorrow for preseason and no doubt 100+ trialists over the course of the next 2-3 weeks I'd imagine. 

Edited June 24, 2023 by ATLIS

[Troy.1995]

Absolutely excruciting Atlis.Appears we are going to be  left with the dregs that nobody wants.Trialists trying to get a contract.FFS its Premier League were talking about here.Really worried about the season ahead.And just to confound things a wee fat guy headlining Glastonbury from West Lothian. Whitburn, you've a lot to answer too.Sorry..

[Durnford]

We may have a few trialist but I'm thinking we'll probably have a number of loans.

 

[The Wrong Car]

30 minutes ago, Troy.1995 said:

Absolutely excruciting Atlis.Appears we are going to be  left with the dregs that nobody wants.Trialists trying to get a contract.FFS its Premier League were talking about here.Really worried about the season ahead.And just to confound things a wee fat guy headlining Glastonbury from West Lothian. Whitburn, you've a lot to answer too.Sorry..

Most teams at this level sign players well into August, and the squads in fairly decent shape already 

Getting a RB in the next few weeks, punt the players that have been mentioned and taking our time to sign decent squad options isn’t the worst sounding idea

 

[ATLIS]

32 minutes ago, Durnford said:

We may have a few trialist but I'm thinking we'll probably have a number of loans.

 

Possibly but we seemed to turn away from loans after the Chukwumeka debacle, Soto didn't do much either. Could be out of desperation mind you. 
 

48 minutes ago, Troy.1995 said:

Absolutely excruciting Atlis.Appears we are going to be  left with the dregs that nobody wants.Trialists trying to get a contract.FFS its Premier League were talking about here.Really worried about the season ahead.And just to confound things a wee fat guy headlining Glastonbury from West Lothian. Whitburn, you've a lot to answer too.Sorry..

There's nothing wrong with having loads of trialists in, we've done it for seasons. I think Martindale said when we were looking for a striker to replace Dykes we took in 70+ trialists from around the world/Europe. We ended up with JET out of that and without him we don't end up with Nouble either. Worth noting Nouble came in on trial when we were abroad as well and scored two in a friendly I'm sure. It's nothing out of the ordinary in the way we work.

[ATLIS]

The one point I would make is that I don't actually think this squad is actually that good. 

GK- Shamal (looked good in spots but needed to kick on a bit), Hamilton (okay as a back up that will barely get minutes, none if things go perfectly)

RB- Brandon (clear to see he isn't good enough) - Need depth (1)
CB- Devlin (should be good enough if injuries haven't ruined him and he stays fit), Parkes (looked good but been told to find a new club), Obileye (good in spots, bombscare in others, doesn't have a left foot at all), Boyes (needs to kick on and develop as he looks iffy at times), De Lucas (looked good in the brief appearances he had, maybe needs time to settle) - Need depth (1) if Parkes leaves.
LB- Penrice (looked good last season, can fit in elsewhere), Montano (had his best season last season and arguably POTY for us). We seem to be perfectly good here
 

CM- Holt (reliable, dependent and experienced), Pittman (seemed to drift away at the end of the season, but he's reliable enough), Stephen Kelly (probably our biggest asset in terms of selling for future profit, really solid CM), Shinnie (experienced and better for games where we have the ball more Ross County etc), Kelly (good cover, reliably fills in here and there), Bitsindou (been told to find a club and didn't do much at Arbroath) - Probably not a priority point for cover but would like to see another attacking minded CM/CAM signed. 

LW- Nouble (again arguably our POTY last year, but looks set to leave), Bahamboula (for me if he kicks on he's a ready made Nouble replacement if we get him cutting inside and running at people) Need depth (1), if Nouble leaves. 

ST- Anderson (needs to kick on a little bit but the best striker at the club by far), Guthrie (been told to find a club, not good enough), Esma (been told to find a club, not good enough) - Need depth (1), if and when they leave. 

RW- Bradley (looked to develop well last season and hopefully kicks on again) - Need depth (1) just to allow for rotation.

I make that, priority RB/ST/RW. We need to shift a few before we can open up those spots really but we look weak at the back if Devlin can't stay fit. We look to be in a horrific position at RB if we don't get someone in. We ideally need Bahamboula to step up and contribute a lot next season because we don't create or score a lot. Anderson probably scores a lot more if he had better service. As it is he has to do a power of running and hassling defenders when it isn't his strongest side of his game. 

We're going to concede goals next season unless Shamal has a miraculous run of form and upturn in quality, while we don't look like we're going to score a lot. Especially if our biggest contributor in Nouble goes. We might see Montano at LW again, maybe Penrice at RW too but it's not a great spot to be in

[The Wrong Car]

I’d agree that RB is a priority, however most of the players have proven they can perform at this level. 

 It’ll be interesting to see the formation used during the friendlies, as that’ll show what areas we need to focus on

[thruthenight]

Shamal was arguably the best keeper in the league up until February. His form fell off pretty hard when the rest of the team's did though.

Who we bring in depends on who moves on I suspect. Esma/Guthrie will be top priority to replace. Parkes hasn't provided any value so far at all, but Davie's sang his praises for 2 years so I'd be surprised if he did leave. If he does, I'm not sure he needs replaced if we have Ayo, Boyes, Devlin and De Lucas in CB.

Interested to see the trialists.

[LIVIFOREVER]

Not sure if Brandon is good enough or not, haven't seen enough of him as a RB, looked ok playing further up the pitch though, gets stuck in and aggressive enough. Def need another signing in that area though.

Defence may improve on last season if we get a settled pairing, plus a good pre season under their belts. de Lucas could do what Montano did, and kick on after a season getting used to Scottish football. That was one of our weakest areas last season, esp after January. Hopefully we scrap this high line we were playing, we kept getting ripped apart with balls over the top, we really need to get a better system sorted for this season, to make us difficult to score against again.

Bit worried about our wingers, Bahamboula looked dreadful when he was getting games after the split, watched him against County and looked like Bambi on ice, tripping over the ball and stumbling about. Again, maybe just needs a run of games as he was left out on the cold for a good part of the season. With Devlin away we need a right sided player to get down the wing, Montano and Penrice can cover the left side no problem.

Like in defence, we need to change our style up front, hitting long balls up to Anderson is a waste of his talent, we are far better playing it through midfield and up the wings, then getting balls into the box for Anderson to score goals.

Stephen Kelly and Montano were absolute stars last season, and Bradley should benefit from the experience he gained too, we've a decent balance of youth and experience,  a couple of tweaks to our defence and attack and i think we'd be fine, plus 3 or 4 new signings, replacing out going players.

[ninja82]

St Mirren offered cash for Anderson. It’s obviously been knocked back.