The New Raith Rovers Thread

[pub car king]

[Rover1883]

Understand if people disagree with my opinion no one is going to agree on everything but I’d be interested to hear why people think Murray should stay ?

[Enigma]

To be honest I have some concerns over Murray but he’s under contract and gets the benefit of the doubt. While I’m happy to see him stay, if he chose to resign tomorrow I don’t think I’d be particularly upset.

[Halbeath Raith Rover]

23 minutes ago, Rover1883 said:

This is one of the worst season we have had in the past few years 

 

Given the relegations to league one, and the dismal years in the seaside league I'll take this season as a foundation to build on. Certainly far from the worst I've watched.

[Brashy's Boots]

9 minutes ago, Rover1883 said:

Understand if people disagree with my opinion no one is going to agree on everything but I’d be interested to hear why people think Murray should stay ?

There's been plenty discussion on this in the thread already. Look back.

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, Michael W said:

Our league position and lack of clean sheets would tend to suggest that "at least middle Championship level" is being a bit generous here. If we do retain both, we need at least one more CB brought in so we can change up the defence if it's leaking goals or continuing to concede an irritating amount of goals from set pieces. They aren't bad players but the defence needs improvement next season and I don't think changing the LB is going to really achieve that. 

My point was you don’t toss those two overboard without having a replacement starting pair in place…or toss either without a replacement signed. Now, granted, they are both out of contract at years end, but a bird in the hand was something we learned this year.

[Rover1883]

Just now, Brashy's Boots said:

There's been plenty discussion on this in the thread already. Look back.

I’ve looked through it all but people seem to think things will just get better with Investment which couldn’t be the furthest thing from the truth great we will have money so Murray can go sign a Goncalves 2.0 

[raith1974]

27 minutes ago, Rover1883 said:

I’ve looked through it all but people seem to think things will just get better with Investment which couldn’t be the furthest thing from the truth great we will have money so Murray can go sign a Goncalves 2.0 

I agree with some of your earlier points not all. Murray had been allowed to bring in strikers and not one of them resemble anything close to being a striker. Connell I had my say earlier in the season. A player deemed not good enough for Killie and loaned out in their Championship season should never have been our first choice striker. Frederiksen I wanted to see succeed but sadly not. Goncalves is slow looks unfit and that Hamilton performance was a joke. Akio headless chicken comes to mind. If we are going to have any success next season Murray needs to find a couple of strikers and not random punters that wouldn't look out of place down the Bevvie.

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, raith1974 said:

I agree with some of your earlier points not all. Murray had been allowed to bring in strikers and not one of them resemble anything close to being a striker. Connell I had my say earlier in the season. A player deemed not good enough for Killie and loaned out in their Championship season should never have been our first choice striker. Frederiksen I wanted to see succeed but sadly not. Goncalves is slow looks unfit and that Hamilton performance was a joke. Akio headless chicken comes to mind. If we are going to have any success next season Murray needs to find a couple of strikers and not random punters that wouldn't look out of place down the Bevvie.

When Murray arrived, defenders were the priority, and ended up being more so, so the choice of strikers was quite limited. We though we had a healthy Gullan and a returning Vaughan, we had wingers, I feel Murray did reasonably well with a poor hand.

[Raith Against The Machine]

4 hours ago, raith1974 said:

I agree with some of your earlier points not all. Murray had been allowed to bring in strikers and not one of them resemble anything close to being a striker. Connell I had my say earlier in the season. A player deemed not good enough for Killie and loaned out in their Championship season should never have been our first choice striker. Frederiksen I wanted to see succeed but sadly not. Goncalves is slow looks unfit and that Hamilton performance was a joke. Akio headless chicken comes to mind. If we are going to have any success next season Murray needs to find a couple of strikers and not random punters that wouldn't look out of place down the Bevvie.

I really think this criticism is only valid if there are viable, visible alternatives. It'd be different if, in the same week we signed Frederiksen, other clubs in the division had brought in strikers who've knocked in ten goals since, but I'm not seeing that. Ayr brought in Akinyemi in the summer, Thistle and Caley had Graham and McKay already. Queen's Park had (and then lost to the Premiership) Simon Murray. Dundee brought Robinson back for a second loan, although I'm sure we couldn't have afforded him, and he's still only scored 9 goals all season. 

Ian Murray can't conjure up strikers from nowhere. I think we've spent too much time this season trying to work a lone striker system with strikers who don't suit it, but he's brought in and then subsequently disposed of Connell and Frederiksen, alongside trying Gullan, Vaughan, Akio and Goncalves. You can't accuse him of not trying to find strikers, or choosing bad ones over good. He's had to settle for what he can get, because better options literally don't exist. 

[philpy]

Going to stick my neck on the line here, but I'm fairly confident we can get a good return from Gullan once he's had his op and gets a good pre-season under his belt.

[Scary Bear]

11 hours ago, raith1974 said:

All this talk of new people, investors coming in to try and take the club forward and yet we still have negativity. If Potter does come in as a director of football then let's give him a chance. McKenzie had done well for Kelty and taken them to a new level. I remember some on here during the season being negative about the rumours that Stevie May was signing, a player who has played most of his career at a higher level and is still scoring goals for St Johnstone. Wait to see who comes in, give them our backing and let's hops they can take us up a level.

Change isn’t always positive. 

[Michael W]

3 hours ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

I really think this criticism is only valid if there are viable, visible alternatives. It'd be different if, in the same week we signed Frederiksen, other clubs in the division had brought in strikers who've knocked in ten goals since, but I'm not seeing that. Ayr brought in Akinyemi in the summer, Thistle and Caley had Graham and McKay already. Queen's Park had (and then lost to the Premiership) Simon Murray. Dundee brought Robinson back for a second loan, although I'm sure we couldn't have afforded him, and he's still only scored 9 goals all season. 

Ian Murray can't conjure up strikers from nowhere. I think we've spent too much time this season trying to work a lone striker system with strikers who don't suit it, but he's brought in and then subsequently disposed of Connell and Frederiksen, alongside trying Gullan, Vaughan, Akio and Goncalves. You can't accuse him of not trying to find strikers, or choosing bad ones over good. He's had to settle for what he can get, because better options literally don't exist. 

Fully agree with this. McGlynn also had problems recruiting a decent striker last season, which was masked by Zanatta's exceptional form in the first half of the season until his regression to type. Even in the season before that we saw him bring in the likes of Timmy Abraham trying to find someone that would net a decent return. 

1 hour ago, philpy said:

Going to stick my neck on the line here, but I'm fairly confident we can get a good return from Gullan once he's had his op and gets a good pre-season under his belt.

I fear we might be clutching at straws a bit here, given Gullan's injury record. Hopefully the op solves the problem but you never know for sure. 

[raith1974]

1 hour ago, Scary Bear said:

Change isn’t always positive. 

But no change may also be very negative with no investment.

[SanStarko]

50 minutes ago, Michael W said:

Fully agree with this. McGlynn also had problems recruiting a decent striker last season, which was masked by Zanatta's exceptional form in the first half of the season until his regression to type. Even in the season before that we saw him bring in the likes of Timmy Abraham trying to find someone that would net a decent return. 

I mean if you think about it, the last manager we had who managed to sign a proper goal scoring striker (who scored goals for the whole season, not just a short spell) was Barry Smith who signed Nisbet.

Edited April 11, 2023 by SanStarko

[renton]

16 minutes ago, SanStarko said:

I mean if you think about it, the last manager we had who managed to sign a proper goal scoring striker (who scored goals for the whole season, not just a short spell) was Barry Smith who signed Nisbet.

Before that would have been McGlynn when he signed Graham.

[R.R.FC]

21 minutes ago, SanStarko said:

I mean if you think about it, the last manager we had who managed to sign a proper goal scoring striker (who scored goals for the whole season, not just a short spell) was Barry Smith who signed Nisbet.

Good point. This also proves there isn’t any guarantees when it comes to getting a quality striker for a club like ours. It’s an easy problem to identify but a very difficult one to fix and requires a great deal of luck as much as anything else.

Look at 3 strikers signed by Barry Smith, Liam Buchanan signed with 27 goals and player of the year for the level the season before, Spence scored 26 goals the season previous. Neither delivered to the expected level for us. Nisbet arrived with 1 goal in his last 30 games and as a bit joke figure and was a revelation.

Also worth remembering we only got Nisbet because we missed out on Rory Loy who looked a much better signing on paper but ended up retiring after 0 goals in 12 games for Dumbarton whilst Nisbet scored 34 goals for us.

[Raith Against The Machine]

Well, ladies and gentlemen, here it is. The definitive* list of all the strikers we've used since Kevin Nisbet left at the end of season 2018/19... 

• Jamie Gullan - 21 goals in 71 appearances
• Lewis Vaughan - 12 goals in 30 appearances 
• Matej Poplatnik - 11 goals in 44 appearances 
• Manny Duku - 10 goals in 28 appearances 
• Kieron Bowie - 10 goals in 35 appearances 
• John Baird - 5 goals in 24 appearances 
• Gozie Ugwu - 4 goals in 19 appearances 
• Lewis Allan - 4 goals in 22 appearances 
• Ethon Varian - 3 goals in 43 appearances 
• Steven MacLean - 2 goals in 7 appearances 
• Isma Goncalves - 2 goals in 8 appearances
• William Akio - 2 goals in 10 appearances 
• Kyle Connell - 2 goals in 23 appearances 
• Lars Lokotsch - 1 goal in 7 appearances 
• Jack Smith - 1 goal in 8 appearances 
• John Frederiksen - 1 goal in 11 appearances 
• Joao Vitoria - 1 goal in 12 appearances 
• Luke Mahady - 0 goals in 2 appearances 
• James Keatings - 0 goals in 7 appearances 
• Timmy Abraham - 0 goals in 8 appearances 
• Kieran Mitchell - 0 goals in 18 appearances 

Those 21 strikers have combined to score 92 goals in our last 170 games. Pin that list on the mantel to keep the bairns away from the fire. Absolutely pitiful, abysmal stuff. It's miraculous that we've actually been reasonably successful over those four seasons! 

_{*not definitive at all. I've scribbled it down when I should be working, so there's every chance there's a couple of errors in there. I forgot Ethon Varian entirely on the first run through, if you can believe such a thing. I've combined starts and sub appearances in all competitions because, frankly, I can't be bothered doing otherwise.} 

[CALDERON]

[R.R.FC]

47 minutes ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

Well, ladies and gentlemen, here it is. The definitive* list of all the strikers we've used since Kevin Nisbet left at the end of season 2018/19... 

• Jamie Gullan - 21 goals in 71 appearances
• Lewis Vaughan - 12 goals in 30 appearances 
• Matej Poplatnik - 11 goals in 44 appearances 
• Manny Duku - 10 goals in 28 appearances 
• Kieron Bowie - 10 goals in 35 appearances 
• John Baird - 5 goals in 24 appearances 
• Gozie Ugwu - 4 goals in 19 appearances 
• Lewis Allan - 4 goals in 22 appearances 
• Ethon Varian - 3 goals in 43 appearances 
• Steven MacLean - 2 goals in 7 appearances 
• Isma Goncalves - 2 goals in 8 appearances
• William Akio - 2 goals in 10 appearances 
• Kyle Connell - 2 goals in 23 appearances 
• Lars Lokotsch - 1 goal in 7 appearances 
• Jack Smith - 1 goal in 8 appearances 
• John Frederiksen - 1 goal in 11 appearances 
• Joao Vitoria - 1 goal in 12 appearances 
• Luke Mahady - 0 goals in 2 appearances 
• James Keatings - 0 goals in 7 appearances 
• Timmy Abraham - 0 goals in 8 appearances 
• Kieran Mitchell - 0 goals in 18 appearances 

Those 21 strikers have combined to score 92 goals in our last 170 games. Pin that list on the mantel to keep the bairns away from the fire. Absolutely pitiful, abysmal stuff. It's miraculous that we've actually been reasonably successful over those four seasons! 

_{*not definitive at all. I've scribbled it down when I should be working, so there's every chance there's a couple of errors in there. I forgot Ethon Varian entirely on the first run through, if you can believe such a thing. I've combined starts and sub appearances in all competitions because, frankly, I can't be bothered doing otherwise.} 

That’s harrowing. If we take out the players who came through our youth team, I think half of the strikers signed across the last 4 seasons could be put in an all time worst Rovers XI without too much complaint.