CountryBumpkin Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 9 minutes ago, pub car king said: This is something that doesn't get mentioned, Connolly has been a shadow of the player he was last year. I think he's really suffered from no pre season. What has cost us this season over the course of the games where we dropped points is the defence. We have played something like 18 games with 1 recognised CB and despite Brown doing a great job covering that's exactly what he's been doing covering. We have 2 young CB where I have more of a chance starting a game than they do, a RB who had to be replaced after New Year for whatever reason, both CB have had injury spells and Liam Dick who has been alright for the most part. This was a real area of concern in both the summer and January windows although we did sign Ashcroft eventually. Regardless if we win the league or not then that has to be the 1st, 2nd and 3rd priority on the recruitment wish list. With Connolly, we don't play in a way that gets the best out of him. McGlynn's last season and Murrays first season, we played to make space for him to cut in and create an opportunity or hit a shot, now we're quick counter attacking and its not his strength. I'd not be surprised if he's moved on in the summer unless we change how we play and actually look to control games and the midfield. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SerieA Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 5 minutes ago, CountryBumpkin said: With Connolly, we don't play in a way that gets the best out of him. McGlynn's last season and Murrays first season, we played to make space for him to cut in and create an opportunity or hit a shot, now we're quick counter attacking and its not his strength. I'd not be surprised if he's moved on in the summer unless we change how we play and actually look to control games and the midfield. Yip he’s a different player when he had Millen playing behind him. Millen getting forward on overlap which created space for Connolly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MICMAC Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 15 hours ago, HoBNob said: McGurn had been dropped weeks before, I'm not sure on the alternative, but having Simmons as a wide midfielder was the more surprising of the decisions First goal was a header from a corner tbf. Why did I think it was 2 free kicks. This is the game where McNeil let the ball bounce over his head and it just went wide or is my memory totally fekd 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilted John Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Do people actually think players not having a pre season these days makes any difference? It’s not like the olden days where they would come back having put a stone of weight on. Most players at our level will be in shape all year round. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pub car king Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 1 hour ago, CountryBumpkin said: With Connolly, we don't play in a way that gets the best out of him. McGlynn's last season and Murrays first season, we played to make space for him to cut in and create an opportunity or hit a shot, now we're quick counter attacking and its not his strength. I'd not be surprised if he's moved on in the summer unless we change how we play and actually look to control games and the midfield. He signed a 2 year deal in the summer with an option of Nother year so I think he is in the plans. Just felt he's looked off the pace in games and has stopped cutting in so much which regardless of who's at RB he still has that option. RB for me is a key position when we go shopping. We know what we have with Liam Dick on the left do we stick with another osf those like James Brown or do we get a Tumilty type again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pub car king Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 1 minute ago, Jilted John said: Do people actually think players not having a pre season these days makes any difference? It’s not like the olden days where they would come back having put a stone of weight on. Most players at our level will be in shape all year round. It's to do with the injury recovery and getting up to speed. Look at last season Vaughan compared to this year. Both him and Connolly came back round the same time and we didn't get the best out of them. This year Vaughan is our top scorer and has played most games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoBNob Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 21 minutes ago, MICMAC said: Why did I think it was 2 free kicks. This is the game where McNeil let the ball bounce over his head and it just went wide or is my memory totally fekd Nah that happened in the first half, long ball from our left back area I'm sure that took a bounce and had McNeil floundering. Having a title decider played with Chris Smith and Andy McNeil in goals was some laugh, think the Rovers goal came from Smith spilling a header. Two very poor goalkeepers., 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pub car king Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Algorithms Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MICMAC Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 2 hours ago, HoBNob said: Nah that happened in the first half, long ball from our left back area I'm sure that took a bounce and had McNeil floundering. Having a title decider played with Chris Smith and Andy McNeil in goals was some laugh, think the Rovers goal came from Smith spilling a header. Two very poor goalkeepers., John Baird scored our goal in that game 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxRover Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) Murray is: +3 vs DU this season (7 pts earned vs 4 relinquished) +6 vs Partick (7 earned vs 1 relinquished...one game to play) +12 vs the Pars +6 vs Morton (7 earned vs 1 relinquished...one game to play) -6 vs Airdrie (1 earned vs 7 relinquished...one game to play) +6 vs Ayr (7 earned vs 1 relinquished...one game to play) +3 vs Queen's Park (7 earned vs 4 relinquished) +3 vs ICT (6 earned vs 3 relinquished...one game to play) Even vs Arbroath (4 earned vs 4 relinquished...one game to play) Airdrie and Arbroath have been our undoing this season, especially Airdrie., not DU. Edited March 31 by TxRover 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevoraith Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 1 hour ago, TxRover said: Airdrie and Arbroath have been our undoing this season, especially Airdrie., not DU. It’s clearly not United- without the wins against them we’d be well off the pace. I’m not even mad about the Airdrie games, at least they’re a decent side who have worked out how to play us. It’s the two implosions against Arbroath that may have torpedoed our title challenge. If we held on and won both of those games 2-0 we’d be level on points with a game in hand right now. That’s where the damage was done. I’ve been having a look at what we can expect from us and United over the rest of the season. United have 5 games left. Their best run over 5 games this season is 4 wins and a draw. We have 6 games left. Our best run over 6 games this season is 5 wins and a draw. That suggests that unless one of us hits our best form of the season right now, there will be more points dropped by both teams. United definitely favourites but it’s not over yet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrpaddyx Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Even after yesterday I'm strangely optimistic about going up. 6 wins would mean United would have to be perfect for the remainder of the season and their best streak so far is only 3 wins. (We have a 4 and a 5 streak so far). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CountryBumpkin Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 5 hours ago, Broken Algorithms said: An interesting listen this week, nice one. Listening to the team line up discussion, I think the nail was hit on the head, we started the game with essentially 3 players who like to play in the attacking midfield (10) position, two wider players and a forward. Murray is clearly just trying to get as many of his best players on the pitch as possible and hope that they provide moments of magic. I hope that the penny drops soon that its not feasible in these remaining games and we start to play a bit more sensibly. We need to drop a forward and add another man into a structured midfield, start to control games a bit more and stop leaving so much space in central areas. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxRover Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) 28 minutes ago, stevoraith said: It’s the two implosions against Arbroath that may have torpedoed our title challenge. If we held on and won both of those games 2-0 we’d be level on points with a game in hand right now. That’s where the damage was done. Worse, we'd be one up on DU...change a defeat to a win and a draw to a win gives +3 and +2... Edited March 31 by TxRover 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasperellon Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Was the game yesterday the first match where there was more than one goal in it? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxRover Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Just now, jasperellon said: Was the game yesterday the first match where there was more than one goal in it? No. We beat the Pars by 2 to break that string. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasperellon Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 46 minutes ago, TxRover said: No. We beat the Pars by 2 to break that string. So we did. Thanks Tx 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxRover Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 6 hours ago, jasperellon said: So we did. Thanks Tx It's still 16 wins by 1 goal, and 5 losses by one goal, that's +11GD. Add a 2 goal win and a 2 goal loss, and it stays +11GD. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimney Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 As many have said above, the team selection & formation was definitely wrong at Tannadice, but Murray clearly thought pre match it was the right one and we are saying that with hindsight. However, more worrying are: 1. A blind man could see it wasn’t working after 15-20 minutes and he did nothing to change it, either with shape or personnel. When after an hour he eventually did make a change (other than for the first half injury) it was swap the front 2 when that was never going to work as the core problem was the team was incapable of winning any ball in midfield to get service to them. 2. His comments afterwards that apart from a 15 minute spell it was a very even game (which in some ways is more worrying) fools nobody apart from himself and stinks of denial. Hopefully, his team selection against Ayr will prove this wrong! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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