The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Stardog_champion]

1 hour ago, CALDERON said:

I don't think Dabrowski has made much clear and obvious howlers as such, but I also wouldn't say he looks any better than Robbie Thomson.  

It's the main area of weakness in the squad, for me.  

We’ve been spoilt rotten the last few years with MacDonald, whoever took over had rather large boots to fill. Given time he’ll get better. 

[R.R.FC]

I genuinely think Dabrowski has been fine for the most part and seems to be a little bit of a scapegoat. I thought he was mostly good yesterday, made more of an effort to come and punch crosses and a great one on one save before the Hibs goal. His kicking still needs a lot of work though.

I do think he could have done better at the Hibs 2nd goal, but it wasn’t a howler and you could also just as easily say that Dick and Watson/Murray should have done much better with that too. I get what Murray is saying about Youan’s pace but the issue is more that Dick let’s him run inside of him because he has got his body shape wrong, if Youan had to go on the outside, they probably don’t score.

I also think people are comparing Dabrowski to the best of Jamie MacDonald and overlooking the fact that MacDonald himself dropped his levels last season and wasn’t perfect.

It’s a completely new centre back pairing and goalkeeper it will take time for that to bed in. We absolutely have to stop conceding 2 goals per game but I do actually think we look better defensively than last season. 2 goals conceded from set pieces in the last 2 weeks is frustrating but we’ve faced almost 20 corners across those two games and a whole load more free kicks and throw ins around the box and for the most part defended them quite well and much better than last season. Law of averages though if you keep giving teams the opportunity to put the ball into your box, they will eventually get chances.

 

[Enigma]

MacDonald would hardly ever be criticised for us conceding a goal on here. He wasn’t exactly blameless either, he conceded a lot last season. I think Dabrowski is a bit of an easy target at the moment.

[CountryBumpkin]

39 minutes ago, Enigma said:

MacDonald would hardly ever be criticised for us conceding a goal on here. He wasn’t exactly blameless either, he conceded a lot last season. I think Dabrowski is a bit of an easy target at the moment.

It's a weird thing when only keepers are blamed for conceding goals. MacDonald saved more points for us than he personally lost, but even he can only do so much when the 10 in front of him were hopeless at times in defending properly, specifically set pieces 

[Broken Algorithms]

49 minutes ago, Enigma said:

MacDonald would hardly ever be criticised for us conceding a goal on here. He wasn’t exactly blameless either, he conceded a lot last season. I think Dabrowski is a bit of an easy target at the moment.

Much in the same way people were right on to Ross Millen last season because he gave away a daft penalty against Caley. Even to this day you'll find people who are adamant that "they're not convinced by him" even though it's clear he's been fine.

 

[spot on]

2 hours ago, R.R.FC said:

I genuinely think Dabrowski has been fine for the most part and seems to be a little bit of a scapegoat. I thought he was mostly good yesterday, made more of an effort to come and punch crosses and a great one on one save before the Hibs goal. His kicking still needs a lot of work though.

I do think he could have done better at the Hibs 2nd goal, but it wasn’t a howler and you could also just as easily say that Dick and Watson/Murray should have done much better with that too. I get what Murray is saying about Youan’s pace but the issue is more that Dick let’s him run inside of him because he has got his body shape wrong, if Youan had to go on the outside, they probably don’t score.

I also think people are comparing Dabrowski to the best of Jamie MacDonald and overlooking the fact that MacDonald himself dropped his levels last season and wasn’t perfect.

It’s a completely new centre back pairing and goalkeeper it will take time for that to bed in. We absolutely have to stop conceding 2 goals per game but I do actually think we look better defensively than last season. 2 goals conceded from set pieces in the last 2 weeks is frustrating but we’ve faced almost 20 corners across those two games and a whole load more free kicks and throw ins around the box and for the most part defended them quite well and much better than last season. Law of averages though if you keep giving teams the opportunity to put the ball into your box, they will eventually get chances.

 

I agree with the point re free kicks and corners, we give away far too many of them allowing set pieces to get played into the box. Hibs knew yesterday how Dabrowski struggles with cross balls and every opportunity was taken to fire balls on top of him and have two players round about him and it paid off but we gave away far too many opportunities to do that.

[Raithie]

11 hours ago, TxRover said:

whose kick out resulted in Smith’s goal

You're being very generous there. 

[Specky Ginger]

There's a good picture in today's Courier which shows Dick clearly having his jersey pulled by the Hibs player as he attempts to clear the ball. This must have had an influence on the trajectory of his leg as he stretches.

[CountryBumpkin]

Having seen the highlights its harsh putting blame on the 2nd goal on Dabrowski, the ball goes through Watsons legs and he's unsighted. The question for me is how did their number 9 get all the space in the box in the first place, no one close to him as Youan burst into the box to set him up. Poor defending and marking. 

[philpy]

Just watched the highlights, hibs rather fortunate to get away with that handball near the end...

[Broken Algorithms]

10 minutes ago, philpy said:

Just watched the highlights, hibs rather fortunate to get away with that handball near the end...

Shame he didn't give it just so we could see the seethe from the fans of the Inverclyde irrelevance. 

[Michael W]

The first goal is more of a worry than the second: yet another goal lost off a bloody set piece, and a free header to boot. The defending of set pieces needs to improve quickly. 

I thought suggestions Dabrowski should've done better with Morton's first last week were wide of the mark, but I do think Hibs' second there is a bit disappointing. It's not powerful and whilst he is perhaps a little unsighted, it goes right through him. Not an error, but definitely under "could've/should've done better". 

[CountryBumpkin]

10 minutes ago, Michael W said:

The first goal is more of a worry than the second: yet another goal lost off a bloody set piece, and a free header to boot. The defending of set pieces needs to improve quickly. 

I thought suggestions Dabrowski should've done better with Morton's first last week were wide of the mark, but I do think Hibs' second there is a bit disappointing. It's not powerful and whilst he is perhaps a little unsighted, it goes right through him. Not an error, but definitely under "could've/should've done better". 

Went right through Watson as well first. 

[grumswall]

Dabrowski isn't at fault for either goal yesterday. Could he do better with the second? Maybe. But quite honestly dick gave the Hibs player a straight run through for the pass that set up the goal. That's where the blame is there Imo. Unless he's expected to go through multiple people then he was getting nowhere near the first either so was right to stick to his line. He made a great save 2 on 1 and although he sclaffed one clearance I don't think his kicking was too bad either. Until Hamilton came on he didn't really have a focal point through the middle. his goal kicks in the past two games have all been wide to the point you think they're going out so it's obviously a tactic, one we've used for years due to a lack of height up top which seen macdonald putting many out for throw ins also. Ultimately we went toe to toe with a team in the last qualifying round of Europe and didn't look out of place. They just had an 800k signing and newell to bring on, that was really the difference yesterday. Weve played two prem teams so far and looked good in both games. Brown and Byrne being back/in will help us no end moving forward as well. 

[TxRover]

19 minutes ago, grumswall said:

Dabrowski isn't at fault for either goal yesterday. Could he do better with the second? Maybe. But quite honestly dick gave the Hibs player a straight run through for the pass that set up the goal. That's where the blame is there Imo. Unless he's expected to go through multiple people then he was getting nowhere near the first either so was right to stick to his line. He made a great save 2 on 1 and although he sclaffed one clearance I don't think his kicking was too bad either. Until Hamilton came on he didn't really have a focal point through the middle. his goal kicks in the past two games have all been wide to the point you think they're going out so it's obviously a tactic, one we've used for years due to a lack of height up top which seen macdonald putting many out for throw ins also. Ultimately we went toe to toe with a team in the last qualifying round of Europe and didn't look out of place. They just had an 800k signing and newell to bring on, that was really the difference yesterday. Weve played two prem teams so far and looked good in both games. Brown and Byrne being back/in will help us no end moving forward as well. 

Did that all with a less than 100% Hamilton, a returning Gullan plus no Connolly or Easton too…just saying.

[Beastie Russell]

11 corners faced yesterday and we lost 1 goal

thsts an improvement on last year in my book 

[grumswall]

5 minutes ago, Beastie Russell said:

11 corners faced yesterday and we lost 1 goal

thsts an improvement on last year in my book 

Yeah i think we've actually looked alot more solid both defensively and attacking set pieces so far. Our defensive issues do seem to be more based around defending runners and picking up the second man. Even the second goal yesterday, I think dick was expecting Ross to track the run he was supposed to so started just a half second late and was subsequently caught out. He should have really just taken a booking at that stage and allowed us to organise. Iv singled out dick a couple of times so I should also say that I think he had a decent enough game yesterday beyond that. What is a little worrying is he's had a portion of blame for two goals in two games now despite generally playing well. 

[Rovers_Lad]

52 minutes ago, grumswall said:

Dabrowski isn't at fault for either goal yesterday. Could he do better with the second? Maybe. But quite honestly dick gave the Hibs player a straight run through for the pass that set up the goal. That's where the blame is there Imo. Unless he's expected to go through multiple people then he was getting nowhere near the first either so was right to stick to his line. He made a great save 2 on 1 and although he sclaffed one clearance I don't think his kicking was too bad either. Until Hamilton came on he didn't really have a focal point through the middle. his goal kicks in the past two games have all been wide to the point you think they're going out so it's obviously a tactic, one we've used for years due to a lack of height up top which seen macdonald putting many out for throw ins also. Ultimately we went toe to toe with a team in the last qualifying round of Europe and didn't look out of place. They just had an 800k signing and newell to bring on, that was really the difference yesterday. Weve played two prem teams so far and looked good in both games. Brown and Byrne being back/in will help us no end moving forward as well. 

This

You can go back to Mullins poor attempt at halting the initial move,to Dick getting caught out,to the space given to the goalscorer

Been a bit concerned with Dabrowski in previous games but thought yesterday apart from a couple of dodgy kick outs he was fine

Red card,sorry but thats soft and pretty sure if VAR had been in place Walsh wouldn,t have shown a red and left it to VAR

Would like to have seen a replay of tackle on Vaughan in the 1st half as thought at the time that merited more than a yellow

Overall thought we did pretty well yesterday but think with a wee bit more belief the outcome might have been different

Although it would have been nice to win, this Saturdays more important and hopefully a even bigger travelling support than yesterday

[TxRover]

6 hours ago, Raithie said:

You're being very generous there. 

But is it? Kev kicks the ball and drops it just past the circle, we have a couple fo players there, Hibs Hibs the clearance and Smith and Company bury the chance…elapsed time, 10 seconds. Now, did Big Kev pick out Smith, drop a pinpoint kick onto his boot so Smith could score, no…but the point of a kick like that is asking a question, and we certainly liked the answer.

Kev’s weakest “kicking” aspect right now is his playing with the ball at his feet, and it’s there he’s made a couple of clunkers. But let’s remember, he played 66 matches, in 8 seasons, before joining us. He’s now played 7 matches with us, almost 10% of his total starts, so we shouldn’t be surprised he’s still learning the trade under fire. Practice is well and good, but it isn’t the same.

[Been going too long]

8 hours ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Much in the same way people were right on to Ross Millen last season because he gave away a daft penalty against Caley. Even to this day you'll find people who are adamant that "they're not convinced by him" even though it's clear he's been fine.

 

Surely everyone sees we missed him when he was out and McGill although gave his all is a midfielder and millen is a welcome returnee