The New Raith Rovers Thread

[foreverarover]

It’s all about fitness, but I still think we should’ve stuck with a hybrid team. Midfield is lacking, we need a target man, as in we lack height going forward. 

Agree with the hybrid but there is the rumour of changes in the league in relation to two top leagues of full time teams. I still can't see why we let Ugwu go and have no replacement in mind.

[foreverarover]

Also the trialist that came on 2nd half is nowhere near good enough. The boy from Ireland had some nice passes and keeps it simple but sits far too deep and doesn't appear to have a tackle in him.

What's the chances of having several trialists and then signing Adam King. It'll be the McGlynn way of sating "look he isn't that shit"

[foreverarover]

Watched little of today’s Clyde “match”, but Liam Dick looked tidy and capable. listening to the post game from Saturday, Greg Young of Fife Elite was the trialist for the  game at LB, and JMcG seems to like his development for his age and lack of recent playing time over the shutdown. He also seems hopeful that Arnott will play a role in the middle, pretty happy with Mitchell and very high on Keatings. Makes me suspect additional signings may not be likely, and it’ll simply be loanees, except perhaps another mid.

No disrespect but "pretty happy with Mitchell" should not mean we are not signing someone who should be playing in front of him if fit. He needs nurtured not expected to be a key player in a league campaign.

[Been going too long]

6 minutes ago, foreverarover said:

22 hours ago, baillieinleeds said:

It’s all about fitness, but I still think we should’ve stuck with a hybrid team. Midfield is lacking, we need a target man, as in we lack height going forward. 

Agree with the hybrid but there is the rumour of changes in the league in relation to two top leagues of full time teams. I still can't see why we let Ugwu go and have no replacement in mind.

I would have kept him, decent player and worked for the team

[Been going too long]

4 minutes ago, foreverarover said:

22 hours ago, raith1974 said:

Also the trialist that came on 2nd half is nowhere near good enough. The boy from Ireland had some nice passes and keeps it simple but sits far too deep and doesn't appear to have a tackle in him.

What's the chances of having several trialists and then signing Adam King. It'll be the McGlynn way of sating "look he isn't that shit"

He signed for Alloa today thankfully 

[Ro Sham Bo]

5 minutes ago, foreverarover said:

22 hours ago, raith1974 said:

Also the trialist that came on 2nd half is nowhere near good enough. The boy from Ireland had some nice passes and keeps it simple but sits far too deep and doesn't appear to have a tackle in him.

What's the chances of having several trialists and then signing Adam King. It'll be the McGlynn way of sating "look he isn't that shit"

Not much. He's signed for Alloa. 

[foreverarover]

How

One slight worry I have is if we went into this season trying to show a bit more ambition with regards to signing players, but have ended up losing out to rivals.  I've every confidence in the manager, and using pre season games as a barometer is a danger, I just hope that there will be a few quality additions.
I was content enough with what I saw on Saturday, granted I didn't pay a huge amount attention during last nights game.  
I'm happy with the signing of Berra and I think he will bring a lot to the squad in the same way Anderson did, but paired with Benedictus isn't exactly much to get Usain Bolt worried about.  
Keatings looked to play well with Vaughan on Saturday, so I'm hoping there is something there.  I'm still inclined to prefer his signing to that of Duku, but we really need reinforcements fast in that area.  Even discounting the knee injury, Vaughan is usually good for a relatively lengthy thigh/groin injury - and Keatings doesn't sound exactly bullet proof.
It's early doors, but as things stand its a bit underwhelming given the stock of the club right now, especially the manager.  I'm not really sure where the increased budget has gone other than perhaps Berra and Keatings, but you would like to think that there is scope for some quality additions.
Can't see anything happening with the trialists.  The midfielder looked okay and kept the ball well enough, but I'm sure the development lads could come in and do that if we really needed.
Can't help but feel this squad needs a "marquee" type signing for it all to begin to make a bit more sense.

How can you then be content with what you saw on Saturday [emoji23][emoji23].

[foreverarover]

And now we all hoped that was the case [emoji1787][emoji1787]

One thing to consider about last night, is that it was a closed door game.  They happen all the time tbh.  You often see a footnote in the press saying "Raith beat Premiership team X in a closed door game" or "Raith were beaten by League 1 team Y".
Just so happens we were able to see it, but in previous seasons this game would have been played, not been on YouTube, and we would all have been none the wiser. 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, foreverarover said:

How

How can you then be content with what you saw on Saturday .

Quite easily. It was a bounce game, FFS! We saw a few nice crosses from Dick, we saw Arnott and Coulson get some time, and the mid trialist, Leo, looked possibly useful.

 

1 hour ago, foreverarover said:

18 hours ago, TxRover said:

Watched little of today’s Clyde “match”, but Liam Dick looked tidy and capable. listening to the post game from Saturday, Greg Young of Fife Elite was the trialist for the  game at LB, and JMcG seems to like his development for his age and lack of recent playing time over the shutdown. He also seems hopeful that Arnott will play a role in the middle, pretty happy with Mitchell and very high on Keatings. Makes me suspect additional signings may not be likely, and it’ll simply be loanees, except perhaps another mid.

No disrespect but "pretty happy with Mitchell" should not mean we are not signing someone who should be playing in front of him if fit. He needs nurtured not expected to be a key player in a league campaign.

Agree, but the reverse is also true…doesn’t mean we are going to sign a striker. We have four strikers on the books, just saying, so a loan seems more likely, unless we have a plan to farm out Mahady and/or Mitchell.

[Broken Algorithms]

As with any of the younger lads, if Mitchell is good enough he'll get the game time. It was exactly the same with Bowie and Tait - with Bowie it was more enforced as we gave him a chance at the start of the season and he took it. Tait utilised the game time he got at the end of matches really well to break through. There's multiple routes - the one hindrance to our strong start last season was that we put ourselves in such a good position we couldn't give any of the young lads a try out. 

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, Broken Algorithms said:

As with any of the younger lads, if Mitchell is good enough he'll get the game time. It was exactly the same with Bowie and Tait - with Bowie it was more enforced as we gave him a chance at the start of the season and he took it. Tait utilised the game time he got at the end of matches really well to break through. There's multiple routes - the one hindrance to our strong start last season was that we put ourselves in such a good position we couldn't give any of the young lads a try out. 

That was the one downside to last years magnificent run. We had little, if any, time to get the youngest lads any experience other than conditioning and practice time. Certainly we would expect that the time spent last year will have given Bow, Arnott, Coulson and Mahady a good tutorial in professional football. Without that actual game time, we are still unsure of their abilities and skills…they could be another Bowie or Smith. What we don’t know is what JMcG’s opinion is of these laddies, in terms of does he believe it’s time to bloody them?

I’ll ask again, of all those insisting we need X and Y, who is/are the unicorn(s) awaiting a contract that we can afford to lure to Stark’s Park? In the end, in John McGlynn we trust, as his choices seem to have generally paid off more than flopped…but either is a possibility.

[foreverarover]

As with any of the younger lads, if Mitchell is good enough he'll get the game time. It was exactly the same with Bowie and Tait - with Bowie it was more enforced as we gave him a chance at the start of the season and he took it. Tait utilised the game time he got at the end of matches really well to break through. There's multiple routes - the one hindrance to our strong start last season was that we put ourselves in such a good position we couldn't give any of the young lads a try out. 

I'm sorry but Mitchell as good as he looks will get kicked and botted about in the championship and will spend as much time injured as a result of it. He has nothing like the stature of Bowie.

[foreverarover]

As stated earlier there is little noise from. The club re season ticket purchases. May it be a case that we are far below what we had last year and don't have the funds to splash out on what we think we require?

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

On 29/06/2021 at 22:21, mealsonwheels said:

We are 4-5 weeks away from the start of the season, I would expect we will sign the relevant players by season kick off! 

Can we just trust In our management team!!

Just post this every pre-season. 

Same overreactive shite after one or two friendlies every single year. 

[Paco]

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of the ‘we’re shite’ and ‘it’s too early’ camps. The squad clearly needs more players - we’re sorted in goal and the defence looks improved from last season, but Hendry has left and no CM has come in, we probably need a wide player assuming Zanatta/Coulson aren’t going to boss it, and we have two ‘number ten’ types up front with two young lads. Clearly we’re missing a Ugwu/Duku replacement. In addition to that we might have an issue with Ross Matthews out for an indefinite period of time.

None of this would’ve been any less true if we’d beaten Clyde 1-0 instead of losing 1-0. What we can know for sure is that John McGlynn knows all of this full well. He’ll have turned down dozens of strikers in 2019 to wait for John Baird and Jamie Gullan to arrive in September, and Steven Anderson arrived in August when I’m sure he could’ve taken a punt on any old defender between June and then.

It’ll be sorted, eventually, I’ve got no doubt. And if it isn’t then it’s because he thinks one of the young lads can step up, like when he replaced 30-goal Kevin Nisbet with a 16 year old from Glenrothes Strollers….

[YorkshireRover]

The squad is clearly a bit light but if JMcG is looking at players down south again then I think contracts tend to expire at end of June so might now start to see a bit of movement on that front. 

[TheScarf]

17 hours ago, TxRover said:

Steady on, he’s no Adam King…

 

But that’s where you’re wrong. The team needs some players now, but we also need those MA’s for the future. To be absolutely honest, we can expect perhaps one of three or four MA’s to offer any real hope of being a future starter, and maybe half may become a squad player at some point. But, they are also where we can find the future…and they provide valuable assistance in practice.

I agree we need a mid, not convinced we HAVE to get a forward in now, but wouldn’t mind one. JMcG called Keatings the best finisher he’s ever seen, and he and Vaughan can be healthy…we can’t panic simply because we’re afraid the Rovers curse will occur. Would you rather a quick striker signing that might help, or trust that JMcG has a plan and is perhaps saving the dosh for a nice, but expensive, loanee striker?

Fuck me, he hasn't been around many good strikers in his life then.

[CALDERON]

30 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

f**k me, he hasn't been around many good strikers in his life then.

He did say in training,  to be fair,  if I'm clutching at straws.

[roverthemoon]

Have been watching Rovers for over 30 years and pre-season games have never meant anything. There is pretty much no correlation between how you do in them and the season you’re going to have.  At least wait until the first few competitive games before the usual  ‘we’re doomed’ patter gets rolled out. 

[Michael W]

No issue at all with results as they don't matter. It's all about personnel and we are short of a few players at the minute. 

Midfield is the one causing me the most consternation. Hendry hasn't been replaced and I am concerned with Matthews' injury at the moment as it looks like he might be spending some time out as well, with some concerning messaging about us not really knowing how to treat him. Neither of these players are ones you want to be replacing with some 19 year old from a Premiership reserve side.