The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Jilted John]

The fact Murray came dressed as Neil Collins is also hilarious! Top level trolling from him.

[SanStarko]

1 hour ago, Jilted John said:

The 3-5-2 needs to go, that’s for sure! We desperately need to find a right back as quickly as possible. 

I heard Collins say on some interview that the way he does things is that it’s an evolution of what’s already there, not a revolution.

If that genuinely is the case then god knows why he seems to be insistent on going with this 3-5-2 formation.  Our squad isn’t built for it, it will work on occasion, just like last the odd time Murray would go with three at the back.  
But last night up until the sending off we were all over the place, especially at the back.  When we switched to 4 at the back after the sending off we immediately looked more comfortable.  We still weren’t creating anything and it wasn’t anything brilliant but at the least the players seemed to know what they were doing with 4 at the back.

Collins has also said something about playing guys where they can perform the best, and again 3-5-2 isn’t that.  Stevenson for example, great LB but he isn’t a WB anymore.  Seen it in the Ayr game last week and in the first 15 minutes last night that when he’s at WB teams are getting in behind him too easily.  I think it was twice in the first 15 last night the Pars got in behind him in almost a carbon copy of the two Ayr goals last week.

Hopefully next week will see some players back and a switch back to a formation the players are actually used to.  

[St. Jude]

37 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

In relative terms based on size of the clubs, Hibs fail year after year after year. 

Hanlon and Stevenson have been used to that and they're bringing that culture of failure to Rovers. The pair of them are spineless.

you’re at it.

[NlGHTMARE]

Neil Collins, your football is shite, your football is shite, your football is shite, Neil Collins, your football is shite.

he got serenaded with that a few times last season . No official figures were released, but the club sacked him a few days before the early bird season ticket deadline, then extended it, I think that tells its own story, the fans weren’t having him for another season. And showed it by withholding their money. 

[Stellaboz]

Any manager that wears a jumper and shirt, beware. Be a ware. 

[101]

4 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

Any manager that wears a jumper and shirt, beware. Be a ware. 

It was a jumper with a collar and under it a shirt with a collar. Weird.

[Crawford Bridge]

11 hours ago, kdypar said:

Hanlon turned his back on the shot. 

Hanlon is bad for that. 

[da_no_1]

9 hours ago, grumswall said:

The state of this. 

Any sympathy I had for him after his various injuries has long since gone. He's an odious sneaky wee toad and I'm glad he got laid out last night. 

[Ding Dang Doo]

Hanlon was excellent last night. Few times in this first half he made some excellent clearances when balls were getting thrown in down our left side. To suggest he was in any way liable last night is ridiculous. Perhaps a 3 year deal for a guy his age wasn't the smartest move but I've been told that was one of the reasons he came to us and not elsewhere. We didn't offer him the most money so had to incentivise him somehow.

The issue comes down to when we sacked Murray we had lost Turner, McGill and Rudden (thrown in Gullan from January) and replaced them with 2 untried youngsters at this level. Throw the Stanton "issue" into the mix (he is not injured). Murray never said he thought the squad was finished if I recall he more or less said he wanted others but if we couldn't get them we would go with what we had. That tells me he wanted options but the board never got it over the line which then is a worry. Are we offering 3 year deals cause we don't want to pay the money needed. 

[CountryBumpkin]

1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

3-5-2 is an absolute c**t of a formation and should be banned from football. No player is brought up playing it and has no clue what to do when some FM manager comes along and tries to reinvent the wheel or try to become the new Pep Guardiola by making them play in it every week.

It’s flawed by design, it asks wingers to play as wing backs and full backs to play as centre backs. 

Its really not and it really doesn't. It asks players to be flexible, fullbacks being able to cover the length of the pitch as a wing-back and centre halfs to be able to play a bit wider at times if needed. It also requires midfielders who are capable on the ball and able to break between opposition lines. Something that isn't possible with our current squad and I hope Collins learns that quickly.

Its true that players in the UK aren't brought up playing a back 3, but thats argueably more down to the piss poor level of coaching in this country from a grass roots level upwards. Kids should experience playing in all positions from a young age instead of being pigeon holed into certain positions due to their height or speed. There's a reason that our national team is prospering more now that the majority of our players have played their key years as professionals in leagues outside of Scotland and learned from better coaches and systems.

1 hour ago, Jilted John said:

Only teams like Man City can pull of a back 3. Grizzly centre backs like we have are absolutely lost in that set up.

Also untrue. Only teams like Man City can pull off a back 4 and turn it into a back 3 due to positional interplay, players at this level lack the intelligence, fitness and creativity to achieve similar. A 3 centre back system isn't alien at this level, we have the centre backs for it, what we don't have are the wing backs or capable midfielders to support it.

[CountryBumpkin]

10 minutes ago, da_no_1 said:

Any sympathy I had for him after his various injuries has long since gone. He's an odious sneaky wee toad and I'm glad he got laid out last night. 

Aye, sucker punched from a wee coward. Of course you lot enjoyed that, you've got previous from last season in that sort of stuff. 

[Sarto Mutiny]

1 hour ago, Jilted John said:

Only teams like Man City can pull of a back 3. Grizzly centre backs like we have are absolutely lost in that set up.

Not necessarily. United have played with a back 3 this season with grizzly centre backs Ross Graham and Declan Gallagher in it, and we've largely been fine. So far.

[RAITHROVERS84]

Was it Stanton who walked across the pitch with his hood up during the warmup?

I see a poster above has alluded that he’s not injured. Are we going to see him play again this season?

[kdypar]

22 minutes ago, Ding Dang Doo said:

Hanlon was excellent last night. Few times in this first half he made some excellent clearances when balls were getting thrown in down our left side. To suggest he was in any way liable last night is ridiculous. Perhaps a 3 year deal for a guy his age wasn't the smartest move but I've been told that was one of the reasons he came to us and not elsewhere. We didn't offer him the most money so had to incentivise him somehow.

The issue comes down to when we sacked Murray we had lost Turner, McGill and Rudden (thrown in Gullan from January) and replaced them with 2 untried youngsters at this level. Throw the Stanton "issue" into the mix (he is not injured). Murray never said he thought the squad was finished if I recall he more or less said he wanted others but if we couldn't get them we would go with what we had. That tells me he wanted options but the board never got it over the line which then is a worry. Are we offering 3 year deals cause we don't want to pay the money needed. 

Excellent apart from in the key moments. Turns his back on both goals. Lack of pace let Kane in which gave Murray a choice to make. Average would be a better description. 

[TheScarf]

19 minutes ago, CountryBumpkin said:

Its really not and it really doesn't. It asks players to be flexible, fullbacks being able to cover the length of the pitch as a wing-back and centre halfs to be able to play a bit wider at times if needed. It also requires midfielders who are capable on the ball and able to break between opposition lines. Something that isn't possible with our current squad and I hope Collins learns that quickly.

Its true that players in the UK aren't brought up playing a back 3, but thats argueably more down to the piss poor level of coaching in this country from a grass roots level upwards. Kids should experience playing in all positions from a young age instead of being pigeon holed into certain positions due to their height or speed. There's a reason that our national team is prospering more now that the majority of our players have played their key years as professionals in leagues outside of Scotland and learned from better coaches and systems.

Also untrue. Only teams like Man City can pull off a back 4 and turn it into a back 3 due to positional interplay, players at this level lack the intelligence, fitness and creativity to achieve similar. A 3 centre back system isn't alien at this level, we have the centre backs for it, what we don't have are the wing backs or capable midfielders to support it.

You’ve just disagreed with me then agreed with me.

[North West]

Here's a cartoon for you. Simplistic and almost Lowrey like, but a thing of beauty.

[CALDERON]

6 minutes ago, kdypar said:

Excellent apart from in the key moments. Turns his back on both goals. Lack of pace let Kane in which gave Murray a choice to make. Average would be a better description. 

That decision didn't need to be shove him to the ground though, to be fair.  

[Ding Dang Doo]

15 minutes ago, kdypar said:

Excellent apart from in the key moments. Turns his back on both goals. Lack of pace let Kane in which gave Murray a choice to make. Average would be a better description. 

Sorry not having him at fault for red card. Murray is in front of Kane but for some reason is expecting Big Kev to deal with it. He then realises he's not and it's too late so makes the rash call. All Murray had to do was clear the ball. 

For the 2nd goal perhaps he should front up more but the bigger issue was not having an actual right back. Both that goal and Mullen for the corner leading to the first was down to having no right back.

Edited Saturday at 10:47 by Ding Dang Doo

[101]

20 minutes ago, RAITHROVERS84 said:

Was it Stanton who walked across the pitch with his hood up during the warmup?

I see a poster above has alluded that he’s not injured. Are we going to see him play again this season?

Can you blame him for not wanting to be involved when his best pal was sacked over the phone.

[CountryBumpkin]

39 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

You’ve just disagreed with me then agreed with me.

I've not agreed with you at all. You said its flawed by design and it asks wingers to play as wing backs and full backs to play as centre backs which is fundamentally untrue.