The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Scary Bear]

The only positive I can take from yesterday is that we’re only 1 point worse off and it’s still possible Arbroath could implode.

However, we don’t look like a title winning side and East Fife are only 3 points behind us.

We’ve let Barry Smith put a squad together then hoped McGlynn could do better with the squad of players. It’s a squad with no strong goalkeeper, no real full backs, midfielders aplenty and only one real striker.

Unless things change then in all likelihood it’s the dreaded play-offs again. 

[Scottydog]

With the mentality on show from the team we don't look like a team that can defeat East Fife in the play offs never mind put a decent enough run to gather points and catch Arbroath should they falter.

Too many guys had an off day yesterday, perhaps too many thinking that it was a simple just turn up and win job with the hard yards done last week in Angus?

Both wingers ineffectual, strikers wasteful, central midfielders over-run and defenders out-thought and out muscled.

A black mark against the managers copy book too imo, our midfield wasn't at it and he did nothing to counteract their 3 in the middle, he's obviously learned nothing from the 1st 45 mins nor the 90 at Bayview in November it'd appear. Own up John, in a 1 on 1 Darren Young has got the better of you twice.

[Scary Bear]

Was Armstrong trying to win the game on his own yesterday? He seemed very reluctant to pass to a teammate when we were going forward.

[Brashy's Boots]

Was Armstrong trying to win the game on his own yesterday? He seemed very reluctant to pass to a teammate when we were going forward.

Building his portfolio for the move I think. If he was gonna play like that every week I'd be happy for him to move on. Head is turned by the attention.

[Michael W]

Hard to see Anderson staying given reported interest from the league above. Falkirk's interest seems firm and they can undoubtedly offer more than we can. High chance of us playing them down here next year though. 

[baillieinleeds]

A bit of a meltdown on my part yesterday after another defeat to East Fife, what do we do about the defensive frailties. From what I can see is that Thomson’s confidence is shot to buggery. Granted he’s a good shot stopper, but constantly out of position. Communication between defence and gk is at an all time low. Quite literally a toxic situation. If Wright and Crane are fit I’d replace RT and EM with CC and KW in the left back position and goals respectively.

 

[Raith Against The Machine]

Not sure Crane's tall enough to play in goal tbh

[baillieinleeds]

Not sure Crane's tall enough to play in goal tbh

Fixed and duly noted

[Tony Stark(s Park)]

Not sure Crane's tall enough to play in goal tbh

His distribution can’t be any worse than Robbie tbh

[Ro Sham Bo]

Wright has to be worth a run of a few matches in goals. McGlynn's refusal to change a back 5 that has been leaking goals regularly is a bit worrying really. We're pretty much at the point where the replacement(s) would be highly unlikely to make things any worse than they are anyway.

[Paco]

What was McGlynn meant to do on Saturday? Change things from the team that beat Arbroath 2-0?

I would probably have made changes from the Dumbarton game but he didn’t and it worked fine at Arbroath. Didn’t hear any complaints last week.

Hopefully now we’ll get Gillespie out of defence and back into the middle of the park. Thomson could probably do with dropping and I think Benedictus might be suspended for Stenny, certainly he’s on five league yellows - if so, gives a good chance for McKay to show what he can do. Admittedly as I type this I get the feeling it’ll be Murray and Davidson at CB, Crane LB and still Gillespie at RB, but still...

For me, Jeff.

Thomson/Wright
Murray Davidson McKay Crane
Armstrong Gillespie Wedderburn Vaughan
Nisbet Duggan

[Brashy's Boots]

McGlynn was asked about the defence at the recent Q&A session - with reports of interest in Bene, did he think we were strong enough at the back? His response was that we defend as a team, not just as a back line. I disagree. We're not strong enough. I think Gillespie is a good player but how he played half his career at right back (according to JMcG) I'll never know. Both current full backs are slow to recover position and we are softer through the middle than we were. When players are out of position others can get caught out because they're picking up, hence Davo's mistakes seeming more prominent. I've never been convinced by Thomson, and like others I don't think the back 4 are either. Wright, Crane and McKay back in and a new right back please, although arguably too many changes. Gillespie back to midfield and Vaughan at front with Nisbet. It's not easy.

 

 

[Tony Stark(s Park)]

McGlynn was asked about the defence at the recent Q&A session - with reports of interest in Bene, did he think we were strong enough at the back? His response was that we defend as a team, not just as a back line. I disagree. We're not strong enough. I think Gillespie is a good player but how he played half his career at right back (according to JMcG) I'll never know. Both current full backs are slow to recover position and we are softer through the middle than we were. When players are out of position others can get caught out because they're picking up, hence Davo's mistakes seeming more prominent. I've never been convinced by Thomson, and like others I don't think the back 4 are either. Wright, Crane and McKay back in and a new right back please, although arguably too many changes. Gillespie back to midfield and Vaughan at front with Nisbet. It's not easy.
 
 

Nisbet and Vaughan will complement each other up top in my opinion. Nisbet seems to have the strength to hold play up when played to his feet but also likes getting in behind as well. Vaughan has that creative spark to link up with him, plant Gillespie in behind them as a more advanced midfielder and chances should start coming

[grumswall]

There is no balance to the defence at the moment. They were dragged all over the place on Saturday which led to efs opener with Davo not getting out quick enough. We need crane in at lb and a rb brought in, wardrop at utd is apparantly available on loan and I'd be happy with him signing.

Vaughan barely trained last week going by mcglynn pre match so it made sense he didn't start but he needs to be starting v stenny. I think buchanan has done a good job the past few weeks but he just isn't as good as Vaughan.

[basher brash]

Think big changes are needed, Starting with Wright back in goals ,Crane at full back Gillespie in midfield with Vaughan up front. I would drop Murray who I think has been poor for weeks would rather see Bene at full back and McKay at centre Def just to ruffle some feathers in the squad because team selections are getting very predictable and personnel are presuming automatic selection on a Saturday. I appreciate Mcglynn had to stick with the same team that won at Arbroath however these same players have let him and the fans down again with a very poor performance . You can see with Mcglynns post match interview that he’s had enough with those sub standard performances and let’s face it you don’t have to be brilliant to win games in this league just heart, desire and effort which our team has lacked for the last couple of years.Ive said even last year we have players who think they are better than they are and think they just have to put there boots on to win a match  wrong!

East Fife weren’t great yet still beat us comfortably which says more about how dreadful we were , personally I’m getting tired of the usual  we let the fans down , we must repay them , certainly Davo was very vocal about it he gift wraps them the second goal absolutely embarrassing from a full time team. 

[He's Got No Hair]

McGlynn came to the club for the second time with a new idea of how to play football. This philosophy was based around one player: Regan Hendry.   Someone with genuine quality in the middle of the park, not scared to take the ball deep and drive us forward. 

You could see in the first few games back he focal point of all attacks and playing out from the back. The football we played did improve in the few games Hendry played and he looked cut above the rest . Since he was injured we have lost 4 games, and reverted back to a more direct style. 

We can only hope he comes back from injury soon and we extend his loan until the end of the season and along with a few more additions, can start to improve. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by He's Got No Hair

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

3 hours ago, Paco said:

What was McGlynn meant to do on Saturday? Change things from the team that beat Arbroath 2-0?

I would probably have made changes from the Dumbarton game but he didn’t and it worked fine at Arbroath. Didn’t hear any complaints last week.

Hopefully now we’ll get Gillespie out of defence and back into the middle of the park. Thomson could probably do with dropping and I think Benedictus might be suspended for Stenny, certainly he’s on five league yellows - if so, gives a good chance for McKay to show what he can do. Admittedly as I type this I get the feeling it’ll be Murray and Davidson at CB, Crane LB and still Gillespie at RB, but still...

For me, Jeff.

Thomson/Wright
Murray Davidson McKay Crane
Armstrong Gillespie Wedderburn Vaughan
Nisbet Duggan

He is currently on five league yellows following the East Fife game on Saturday.

[R.R.FC]

3 hours ago, Paco said:

What was McGlynn meant to do on Saturday? Change things from the team that beat Arbroath 2-0?

I would probably have made changes from the Dumbarton game but he didn’t and it worked fine at Arbroath. Didn’t hear any complaints last week.
 

Exactly this, he’d have been slaughtered if he made any changes after Arbroath. Looking for consistency in results needs consistency in the selection which is what he was trying. Before Saturday we’d won 5 out of the last 6. He was correct to choose the same team on Saturday.

People saying the inconsistency in performances and players not being bothered are a fault of McGlynn is only partly true. Any manager would struggle working with someone else’s players.

In the top 3 leagues in Scotland; Dundee, St Mirren, Dundee United, Partick, Morton, Falkirk, Airdrie, Dumbarton, Brechin and Stenny have all changed their managers during the season. Not one has made massive improvements under the new manager (barring possibly Airdrie) and all are waiting on the January window to shape their season.

The difficulties in working with someone else’s (extremely unbalanced) squad are severely underestimated. Even someone like Jack Ross struggled at St Mirren until he got a transfer window. He had some very good players already but needed to shape it to what suited his style. He got rid of Hardie and Shankland and replaced them with Loy which sounds fucking nuts now but they weren’t pulling their weight or performing for him. 

People are entitled to be let down after Saturday and ask certain questions but we won’t have any idea whether McGlynn Mark II will be a success until the window has closed then will be the correct time to start judging.

[Broken Algorithms]

4 hours ago, Paco said:

What was McGlynn meant to do on Saturday? Change things from the team that beat Arbroath 2-0?

This is a point a lot of people have missed. 

In terms of the defence, there's a few changes I'd like to see. Firstly, in January I'd hope we re-sign Crane and we get in a new right back on loan. We'll have a wage freed up with Silva going back to Hearts (Wright seems to be the preferred choice of the two). 

From there, I'd hope we give Wright a run of games. Thomson has had some good saves, but there seems to be like there's a bit of nervousness in the defence. I'd also hope we change up the back two. We have stuck with Benedictus and Davo at all costs so far, even though McKay has looked assured each time we've seen him. We'd also have Murray as a back up - for whatever reason he hasn't looked as assured this season. 

Agree with @He's Got No Hair about Hendry. He looked different class when he came back and has been unlucky to have suffered a freak injury. If we get him back in January, it'll allow for us to have a midfielder who can pick passes. 

[Paco]

He is currently on five league yellows following the East Fife game on Saturday.

I know that. Does it mean he’s suspended?