The Falkirk FC Thread

[Shadwell Dog]

1 minute ago, Bairnardo said:

Gomis hasnt had a bad performance for us yet and has been our best player in the last two games probably. 

Aye he doesnt need pace. He can sit and cover the back 4 all day long. Problem is you then stick mcshane and tidser alongside him.  Our best midfield in recent times was Mark kerr as the sitting midfielder and Vaulks as the box to box player with pace and drive alongside him.  You then had Alstons pace and drive on the right and Sibbalds skill on the left.  It was a perfect mixture of guys doing the different jobs that needed done in the side.  We don't have anyone with drive , we don't have anyone with pace out wide in fact we don't have anyone with skill out wide either.  Its all about putting a team together all with different merits and abilities.  

[Bigbrbairn]

We are still only 5 games in with a complete new team for goodness sake. Give it time. We should get an away win around March

[Grangemouth Bairn]

39 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Gomis hasnt had a bad performance for us yet and has been our best player in the last two games probably. 

Yes he’s been our best midfielder. Challenge I have is that he’s not playing alongside players who compliment what he brings.

The building of the squad for this season has been appalling. No thought put into it at all.

[Guest]

My take on the squad is that it is bang average. Probably good enough set up correctly and motivated well to get us up, but will need a major overhaul to be anywhere challenging in the Championship.

That points again to a major strategy issue where we have given most of this group 2 years.

For me outside Buchanan, Telfer, Gomis, Doyle and McManus the rest will need an upgrade to challenge.

[Shadwell Dog]

3 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

Yes he’s been our best midfielder. Challenge I have is that he’s not playing alongside players who compliment what he brings.

The building of the squad for this season has been appalling. No thought put into it at all.

To me its about the worst since hughes's stenhousemuir season when he signed about ten midfielders and left us with one striker in the second half of the season.

[Shadwell Dog]

Just now, Back Post Misses said:

My take on the squad is that it is bang average. Probably good enough set up correctly and motivated well to get us up, but will need a major overhaul to be anywhere challenging in the Championship.

That points again to a major strategy issue where we have given most of this group 2 years.

For me outside Buchanan, Telfer, Gomis, Doyle and McManus the rest will need an upgrade to challenge.

Aye although as we saw in the Ayr United game some of these players will suit the league above better than this league funnily enough.  We were more than a match for them that day and they are currently second top of the championship.  Difference being there were two teams attacking each other and lots of space to play in.  When we are faced with sides set up to be difficult to break down its a whole different story and we run out of ideas very quickly.   A team to win this league needs to be very different from one set out to challenge in the championship.

[ShaggerG]

3 hours ago, Shodwall cat said:

Yeah but are they really the best we could hope for? Was there a real need to panic sign these players. How much game time have moore and Millar had since they signed? Been far better holding off till nearer the window closing when players are desperate to find clubs.

When no doubt he would have been criticised for missing out on players who had by then signed for other clubs. I'm no fan of McKinnon as he can't seem to get the best out of the players that he's signed and his tactics are baffling at times however he'd be damned if he did or damned if he didn't in this situation. For example, I'd much rather he'd signed DKD than Robbie Leitch (which is no reflection on Robbie but we know what DKD can do) but there's no way that he could have known that RC would free him on the last day of the window. Similar with Armstrong.

Moore and Miller have had about as much game time as they could realistically have hoped for I would say although, personally, I'd have played Moore in a different formation and it really pisses me off that he's signed a guy with no left foot as a possible replacement for a LB that is providing almost zero attacking threat! (and neither he should because he's not that type of player)

[Sanity check needed.]

Still think with the right manager and current squad we will win this league with some to spare, just need the tempo picked up and to play with some width like we did against dumbarton even though dumbarton were poor we still played the game the right way and stretched them

[Shadwell Dog]

3 minutes ago, ShaggerG said:

When no doubt he would have been criticised for missing out on players who had by then signed for other clubs. I'm no fan of McKinnon as he can't seem to get the best out of the players that he's signed and his tactics are baffling at times however he'd be damned if he did or damned if he didn't in this situation. For example, I'd much rather he'd signed DKD than Robbie Leitch (which is no reflection on Robbie but we know what DKD can do) but there's no way that he could have known that RC would free him on the last day of the window. Similar with Armstrong.

Moore and Miller have had about as much game time as they could realistically have hoped for I would say although, personally, I'd have played Moore in a different formation and it really pisses me off that he's signed a guy with no left foot as a possible replacement for a LB that is providing almost zero attacking threat! (and neither he should because he's not that type of player)

Would anyone really have complained if we had missed out on the likes of moore and millar? I very much doubt it.  Having extra bodies is ok if the first team is firing on all cylinders but we need players to play in the team every week at the moment as the guys who are arent performing.  We should've been signing players better than the guys we have and using the guys we have as squad players . Lets face it if the guys he signed cant get in the team just now when we are absolutely honking then I doubt they will ever get much of a chance.

[ShaggerG]

6 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Would anyone really have complained if we had missed out on the likes of moore and millar? I very much doubt it.  Having extra bodies is ok if the first team is firing on all cylinders but we need players to play in the team every week at the moment as the guys who are arent performing.  We should've been signing players better than the guys we have and using the guys we have as squad players . Lets face it if the guys he signed cant get in the team just now when we are absolutely honking then I doubt they will ever get much of a chance.

Completely agree. Who, in your opinion, could we have signed that would have allowed Tidser, Telfer, Doyle, Sammon etc to be squad players?

In fact we could go a step further and make the guys that we could have signed to let the current ones be squad players be squad players by signing even better than the ones that we could have signed to let the current ones be squad players.

[champions]

24 minutes ago, Sanity check needed. said:

Still think with the right manager and current squad we will win this league with some to spare, just need the tempo picked up and to play with some width like we did against dumbarton even though dumbarton were poor we still played the game the right way and stretched them

Agreed. On paper we easily have the best squad of players.  The issue is the managers narrow formation and clueless tactics. 

[ilostmyself]

Yes he’s been our best midfielder. Challenge I have is that he’s not playing alongside players who compliment what he brings.
The building of the squad for this season has been appalling. No thought put into it at all.

You've hit the nail on the head here. Just feels a bit of a mess. He's had complete control over a decent budget for this level and has signed players he knows well so there's absolutely no excuses for him if we dont click fairly soon.
I thought him playing Osman, McShane and Paton last year was out of necessity but he seems to want to have 3 fairly static central midfielders. I really dont think that works with the 2 strikers we have and it leaves the 4th member of the midfield looking a bit lost. Seems overly complicated.
We all seemed in agreement that if we were a bit more adventurous last year then we could have stayed up and im worried we'll be in a similar situation this year.

[bridge of allan bairn]

we do look very pedestrian this season again, however I think it's no coincidence that the Dumbarton game not only did we score first but we scored early, thus they had to open up a bit couldn't timewaste and the game suited us. the 3 away games we haven't scored and the montrose game they scored first and we scraped it in the end.

if we don't score first we're going to really struggle due to timewasting, 10 men behind the ball and our inability to get in behind teams to the byline

[Marshmallo]

1 hour ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

Yes he’s been our best midfielder. Challenge I have is that he’s not playing alongside players who compliment what he brings.

The building of the squad for this season has been appalling. No thought put into it at all.

It's just a list of "names" without a coherent idea of how those players would interact with each other.

Just unfortunate it's not a relay race given all the sprinters we've apparently got through the squad.

[Bairnardo]

Jesus fucking wept

It's just a list of "names" without a coherent idea of how those players would interact with each other.
Just unfortunate it's not a relay race given all the sprinters we've apparently got through the squad.

[MrDust]

2 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

The last part is I think unfortunately why we are stuck with him.

Re the rest, I have never said we were great. I have acknowledged how bad Dumbarton were but its wrong to dismiss that we were very good that day. Basically most of your post agrees with what I am saying. Ray setting these guys up not to lose is the issue. Its not natural to a lot of them and it results in turgid shite. Personally that is a significantly bigger issue than the quality of the squad which I dont recall too many questioning until the Clyde game.

I dont think he is setting up to get a point tbh, he just doesnt have an attacking forumula to set his team(s) to follow, at Raith he had hoof ball to Daly till he threw a double six and managed to get an eager Connolly and Hardie to compliment what he had in the January window and remove hoofball to Daly. The worrying stat from his Raith season is that he had 3 away league wins up till March 22nd and he lost half his away league games in his first season at Utd.

I started watching the Mutch interview today, I lasted longer than the initial watch of McKinnons on Saturday(he said 3 or 4 words and I was like fuk off) but Mutch was very much like a McKinnon blub in that we are doing one twos in training on repeat function, by fuk there is more to attacking than one twos

We need another Dumbartonesque performance soon but the word is out now to pack defence and midfield and play the counter and there is a good chance you will get at least a point. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Bigbrbairn said:

We are still only 5 games in with a complete new team for goodness sake. Give it time. We should get an away win around March

This coming March or next ?

1 hour ago, ShaggerG said:

Completely agree. Who, in your opinion, could we have signed that would have allowed Tidser, Telfer, Doyle, Sammon etc to be squad players?

In fact we could go a step further and make the guys that we could have signed to let the current ones be squad players be squad players by signing even better than the ones that we could have signed to let the current ones be squad players.

There surely was better loan players out there than Moore, a few of the Celtic players shone recently against us, there will be more than that out there, I cant see Moore getting a start

Edited September 3, 2019 by MrDust

[TheScarf]

48 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

It's just a list of "names" without a coherent idea of how those players would interact with each other.

Just unfortunate it's not a relay race given all the sprinters we've apparently got through the squad.

That's all McKinnon has done in essence.  Signed 'names' and hoped they would gel/interact/become a good side.

So far it's backfiring, going by you guys comment's and the highlights I've seen.

[Guest Ecosse83]

Bit surprised folk are having a go at the squad, for me that's the one thing McKinnon has done well with. 

A better manager tactically would have this squad pissing the league. 

[ShaggerG]

36 minutes ago, MrDust said:

I dont think he is setting up to get a point tbh, he just doesnt have an attacking forumula to set his team(s) to follow, at Raith he had hoof ball to Daly till he threw a double six and managed to get an eager Connolly and Hardie to compliment what he had in the January window and remove hoofball to Daly. The worrying stat from his Raith season is that he had 3 away league wins up till March 22nd and he lost half his away league games in his first season at Utd.

I started watching the Mutch interview today, I lasted longer than the initial watch of McKinnons on Saturday(he said 3 or 4 words and I was like fuk off) but Mutch was very much like a McKinnon blub in that we are doing one twos in training on repeat function, by fuk there is more to attacking than one twos

We need another Dumbartonesque performance soon but the word is out now to pack defence and midfield and play the counter and there is a good chance you will get at least a point. 

 

 

This coming March or next ?

There surely was better loan players out there than Moore, a few of the Celtic players shone recently against us, there will be more than that out there, I cant see Moore getting a start

Aye, I'm sure there were and I'm sure that he'll have tried to get them too. IMO, I think that he's done quite well to get the calibre of player in that he has, especially at this level. The problem that we have is that he doesn't know what to do with them!

[Shodwall cat]

1 hour ago, ShaggerG said:

Completely agree. Who, in your opinion, could we have signed that would have allowed Tidser, Telfer, Doyle, Sammon etc to be squad players?

In fact we could go a step further and make the guys that we could have signed to let the current ones be squad players be squad players by signing even better than the ones that we could have signed to let the current ones be squad players.

Doyle would be fine in a 442. You don't need tidser gomis ,telfer and mcshane in the squad  never mind the team. McLean is a waste of a wage . Sammon is fine if you can get a wide player to hit the bye line and supply crosses.  They aren't all shit but some of them aren't good enough and others are just too similar to what we have.