The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Salvo Montalbano]

11 hours ago, lgb61 said:

Lets hope this new talent dude spots someone sharpish then

Curious where the funding for all this additional support staff is coming from, must be impacting the playing budget surely, cannot see the new 'owners' bankrolling all this work and extra staff without a tangible return, if not this season certainly next term

It's cocaine a mystery.

[renton]

Fast becoming an Ian Murray tradition, nervously eyeing the Centre Back situation going into competitive games.

 

[Broken Algorithms]

19 minutes ago, renton said:

Fast becoming an Ian Murray tradition, nervously eyeing the Centre Back situation going into competitive games.

 

Last summer I was very much in the "we'll have one in before the competitive games start". 

This season I'm really dreading us going into a derby game with, to intents and purposes, an untested 19 year old next to Keith Watson. 

Obviously the market is sparse for centre halves. It's also probably important to look longer term too - the project is only just getting off the ground. We've brought in a few players tied to longer term deals. 

[HoBNob]

25 minutes ago, renton said:

Fast becoming an Ian Murray tradition, nervously eyeing the Centre Back situation going into competitive games.

 

Have you not signed two centre backs already? 

[renton]

1 minute ago, HoBNob said:

Have you not signed two centre backs already? 

Our centre half options are Keith Watson or two largely untested kids (one of whom we signed in the summer)

It's enough to be vaguely worried about.

[CALDERON]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Liam Dick at centre back, with Patterson signed as a left back - at least to start the season off with.

[Raith69]

Forrest Green wasted no time in replacing big Dunc I see.

They have brought in a female coach.

[renton]

19 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

I wouldn't be surprised to see Liam Dick at centre back, with Patterson signed as a left back - at least to start the season off with.

I dont mind Dick as a centre back, right enough - doesn't feel like a huge upgrade over last season's defence mind...

[CALDERON]

Just now, renton said:

I dont mind Dick as a centre back, right enough - doesn't feel like a huge upgrade over last season's defence mind...

True, but feels like a decent upgrade on how we went into the first league game last season - keeping in mind loans would likely happen into the first month or so.

[Jilted John]

33 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

 

Obviously the market is sparse for centre halves. 

It’s not really. It’s like saying the market is sparse for wingers, strikers or central midfielders. There’s plenty out there.

I’m not hitting the panic button just yet as there’s still over a week to go but given we have a manager and a director of football (or whatever his title is) who’s job it is to sign players, going into the competitive stuff without a proper centre half isn’t good enough. 

[Raith Against The Machine]

3 minutes ago, Jilted John said:

It’s not really. It’s like saying the market is sparse for wingers, strikers or central midfielders. There’s plenty out there.

I think it's a fair comment. If you look at the full-time teams around us, there haven't been a huge number of central defenders moving around. 

I might've missed one or two who I don't recognise, but with a tip of the hat to Narey's Toepoker, I think you're looking at:

- George Stanger at Ayr Utd

- Kevin Holt at Dundee United 

- Sam Fisher and Ewan Otoo at Dunfermline 

- Kirk Broadfoot at Morton 

- Wasiri Williams at Thistle 

Dropping into League One you've got Tom Lang and Lee Kilday joining Falkirk and Hamilton respectively. 

It's not exactly a saturated market. Across 12 or 13 full-time teams you've only had six or seven centre halfs moving in. Morton had to delve into the Lowland League for Broadfoot and Thistle have taken that Premier League U23 gamble. 

When you think that we've already got a veteran and two teenagers and that we probably want someone in their mid-to-late 20s to balance out experience with mobility, it narrows the market even further. 

 

[Double Jack D]

1 hour ago, renton said:

I dont mind Dick as a centre back, right enough - doesn't feel like a huge upgrade over last season's defence mind...

Last Season - Lang, Nolan and Macdonald

Potential start - Dick, Watson and Dabrowski

I would say that's an upgrade... Watson is better than Lang, Dick is better than Nolan and Dabrowski and Macdonald are probably about the same.

 

[Brashy's Boots]

1 hour ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

I think it's a fair comment. If you look at the full-time teams around us, there haven't been a huge number of central defenders moving around. 

I might've missed one or two who I don't recognise, but with a tip of the hat to Narey's Toepoker, I think you're looking at:

- George Stanger at Ayr Utd

- Kevin Holt at Dundee United 

- Sam Fisher and Ewan Otoo at Dunfermline 

- Kirk Broadfoot at Morton 

- Wasiri Williams at Thistle 

Dropping into League One you've got Tom Lang and Lee Kilday joining Falkirk and Hamilton respectively. 

It's not exactly a saturated market. Across 12 or 13 full-time teams you've only had six or seven centre halfs moving in. Morton had to delve into the Lowland League for Broadfoot and Thistle have taken that Premier League U23 gamble. 

When you think that we've already got a veteran and two teenagers and that we probably want someone in their mid-to-late 20s to balance out experience with mobility, it narrows the market even further. 

 

Get outta here with your common sense approach.

[Jilted John]

Yeah but those teams were probably in a better place than we are. We were literally left with no centre backs at all. The fact some of us are now content with Liam Dick being a first choice CH shows how bad things are. The simple truth is, unless we get at least one more in, we can kiss goodbye to a successful season.

[CALDERON]

Liam Dick gets a lot of unfair criticism   he's absolutely fine at Centre Back.  I do agree its not ideal  and we need more signings in that area, but if he needs to play there for a bit before that happens, that's absolutely fine.  He's a better option than Nolan, in my opinion.

Appointing Potter as a director of football won't suddenly unearth a wealth of defenders we didn't have access to previously, who arent too young, too old, and have the relevant experience and capability to start at this level straight away.  I'dsay we are in better shape than we were going into the first league game last season, and we still have the best part of a month before then.

I can't see it personally,  but if the Considine rumour was true  one look at St Johnstones squad suggests it would take them bringing players in to let anyone out.  We've no idea what moving parts are in play to make potential deals happen. 

Also  it's pre season.  There is zero need to panic at this stage.

Edited July 5, 2023 by CALDERON

[raith1974]

21 minutes ago, Jilted John said:

Yeah but those teams were probably in a better place than we are. We were literally left with no centre backs at all. The fact some of us are now content with Liam Dick being a first choice CH shows how bad things are. The simple truth is, unless we get at least one more in, we can kiss goodbye to a successful season.

I wouldn't say we can kiss goodbye to a successful season. What is success 4th, 5th ??. The problem is we have a strike force that will score us goals and most teams would like in our league but a defence that will conceed goals. Hopefully we see a couple of defenders in soon.

[Broken Algorithms]

Other than Euan Murray and Dylan McGowan who left Accies (and is rumoured to be off to Asia), I really can't say I've any knowledge of centre halves at this level or above who are on the go. We seemingly went for the lad Stanger who ended up at Ayr but there's been slim pickings outside of that.

I'd expect that the likelihood is we'll get another one in via the loan market from down south. Most seasons you'll have a group of core players to start with and see players added to supplement it. Even if we started with Corr and Watson, I've absolutely no doubt that they'll get reinforcements before long.

[Paco]

The main obstacle right now to Liam Dick being used at CB is that we don’t have anyone else to play left back! 

We’ll bring defenders in one way or the other. We got it all our own way it seems when it came to the likes of Hamilton, Mullin and Dabrowski but life isn’t always like that. A couple of names that we were linked with have ended up elsewhere - shit happens.

Our first League game last season had Scott Brown and Ryan Nolan, who hadn’t met the squad, playing at centre back. Kyle Connell started up front. Perspective. 

[TxRover]

4 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

It's cocaine a mystery conservatories.

FTFY

[TxRover]

It’s all well and good to bemoan player coverage at positions, but let’s face the reality of this team size. IM has said 22 players, with maybe 24-25 including loans. We currently have 22 signed players, of that 5 are outright defenders, plus McGill can play LB (and perhaps RB), Brown can play CB/RB and Connolly can play LB in an emergency. Possible loanees from us are Mitchell and Masson…but Masson is pretty important coverage.

I think that one more defender signed is probably the maximum we can expect, and it will likely be a LB to allow Dick to play primarily at CB. Watson and Dick is an experienced pairing, with Dick being the speed that Watson requires teamed with him. Coor looks perfectly capable of spelling Dick or starting. Masson is perfectly acceptable at CB and RB coverage. We’ll probably see another CB on loan, but it’s likely to be a young kid, with little assurance of playing time, or an aging player who is playing out his last contract year, either one selected for cover.