The Falkirk FC Thread

[Andreas Kelevra]

15 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

They were powder puff up front that is their issue. They still moved the ball far better than us. Gomis looked like there was a bauble following him about all over the pitch his first touch was that bad today.

Gomis was poor and appears to be getting worse, for an experienced player in the middle of the park, he constantly makes rash decisions, is caught in possession, is often out of position and gives away stupid free kicks.

Most players use their experience to compensate for physical decline - he doesn't -  he's still chasing all over the park. that's not his game any more.

[FalkirkLad]

Performance was low priority today imo, needed 3 points and we got it. 
 

Would of loved to see the reaction to a loss today, starting to think some folk just live for being miserable. 

[Marshmallo]

26 minutes ago, Andreas Kelevra said:

Gomis was poor and appears to be getting worse, for an experienced player in the middle of the park, he constantly makes rash decisions, is caught in possession, is often out of position and gives away stupid free kicks.

Most players use their experience to compensate for physical decline - he doesn't -  he's still chasing all over the park. that's not his game any more.

That's because he is having to compensate for the invisible men in front of him in Alston and Leitch.

[Russ]

Performance was low priority today imo, needed 3 points and we got it. 
 
Would of loved to see the reaction to a loss today, starting to think some folk just live for being miserable. 

To a degree yes it’s about getting the points on the board to get over the line. However it’s not like we’ve been brilliant all season and we’re just looking to shitfest the final stretch.

We’ve been consistent poor all season and find ourselves top of the league more by default than by anything we’re doing ourselves. Our management have now had 3 transfer windows to improve the team and I can only think of Morrison that’s come in and improved the team, albeit they’ve been unlucky with Keena. We won’t play with any defined style or pattern to our play and are entirely reliant on Morrison doing something. This is not just a 1 off either before lockdown it was exactly the same.

Of course we are all happy that we won today but that level of performance against a team not so toothless up front and we’re struggling massively. The thought of going up with M&M and them keeping on utter jobbers like Francis, Dowds, Leitch and Hall genuinely gives me the fear.

[FFC 1876]

Looked like we were playing a 4-2-3-1 before we kicked a ball today but it was more like a 4-1-4-1 with Gomis sitting in behind the midfield. Leitch played as the centre mid but had license to roam forward whenever we were in possession. Keena looked lively but he's not a lone striker. Durnan & Hall done ok today but they weren't up against anything really they both aren't good at playing out from the back which halts us controlling games especially when it's only Gomis that looks to take the ball off them whilst Alston and Leitch are in hiding.
 

Against Forfar for me.

Mutch

Miller Neilson Hall Dixon

Morrison Gomis Telfer Fotheringham

Dowds Keena

[Shadwell Dog]

4 minutes ago, FFC 1876 said:

Looked like we were playing a 4-2-3-1 before we kicked a ball today but it was more like a 4-1-4-1 with Gomis sitting in behind the midfield. Leitch played as the centre mid but had license to roam forward whenever we were in possession. Keena looked lively but he's not a lone striker. Durnan & Hall done ok today but they weren't up against anything really they both aren't good at playing out from the back which halts us controlling games especially when it's only Gomis that looks to take the ball off them whilst Alston and Leitch are in hiding.
 

Against Forfar for me.

Mutch

Miller Neilson Hall Dixon

Morrison Gomis Telfer Fotheringham

Dowds Keena

Can't see Durban getting dropped to give him his due he was excellent the day. Disappointing that yes we needed players in but again we've brought in squad players and haven't actually resolved any of the issues we had pre break. I'm just getting sick fed up of a recruitment process that constantly fails to strengthen the side. We will go nowhere till we sort it out.

[FFC 1876]

13 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Can't see Durban getting dropped to give him his due he was excellent the day. Disappointing that yes we needed players in but again we've brought in squad players and haven't actually resolved any of the issues we had pre break. I'm just getting sick fed up of a recruitment process that constantly fails to strengthen the side. We will go nowhere till we sort it out.

We didn't exactly had a raft of options to pick from given the circumstances. Fotheringham to me looked like a positive improvement and I don't think it will be hard for Neilson & Mclelland to be an improvement on Durnan or Hall I think they just chose to go with Durnan and Hall today due to the fact they've played with eachother and it was a safer option than dropping in a youngster. Holt's got the job of looking at targets for next season so let's see how he does in the next transfer window but for now we've got to make the best out of what we've got. M&M have got a throb on for Leitch which is annoying, I can't help but think one of them are best pals with his dad and that's why. 

[NavyBlueArmy1876]

We've conceded just 8 goals (and 6 of those were set pieces/ penalties) in 12 matches so far this season. Only Partick have actually scored from open play against us. There is no need to tinker with the defense when our deficiencies clearly lie in a lack of creativity going forward. 

A midfield 4 of Gomis, Telfer, Connolly and Alston (with the latter playing 20 yards further up the park than he was today) and two up front (Keena + Dowds or Sammon or Miller) seems the bleedingly obvious solution to me. As Connolly is injured a combination of Leitch/ Fotheringham should be ok til he gets back

M&M need to bin the system we used today, as some other posters have already mentioned, it reeked of McKinnonBall at times

Edited March 20, 2021 by NavyBlueArmy1876

[AGPar]

4 minutes ago, NavyBlueArmy1876 said:

We've conceded just 8 goals (and 6 of those were set pieces/ penalties) in 12 matches so far this season. Only Partick have actually scored from open play against us. There is no need to tinker with the defense when our deficiencies clearly lie in a lack of creativity going forward. 

A midfield 4 of Gomis, Telfer, Connolly and Alston (with the latter playing 20 yards further up the park than he was today) and two up front (Keena + Dowds or Sammon or Miller) seems the bleedingly obvious solution to me. As Connolly is injured a combination of Leitch/ Fotheringham should be ok til he gets back

M&M need to bin the system we used today, as some other posters have already mentioned, it reeked of McKinnonBall at times

Your solution to our chronic lack of creativity is to leave out our best and only creative player? Strange.

[FFC 1876]

2 minutes ago, AGPar said:

Your solution to our chronic lack of creativity is to leave out our best and only creative player? Strange.

I'm assuming he meant to say Morrison instead of Alston. Alston's not been at the races all season, a shadow of the player he used to be which is the norm when we bring a player back to the club. Problem is M&M probably feel like they have to play him due to the wages he'll be on.

[Rizzo]

Does today's result mean we've somehow won the opening game of the season twice?

[FFC 1876]

1 minute ago, Rizzo said:

Does today's result mean we've somehow won the opening game of the season twice?

I'm counting it

[Stainrod]

4 hours ago, Sgt Bilko said:

No argument here but we do make it difficult for ourselves. 

The team Tatics were what made it difficult . Playing 1 up to try to pull them out simply didn’t work . Keena was industrious at best. To be fair to dowds and Frances if they hadn’t come on we would have struggled to get over the line . My take was

Mutch 5 not mutch to do. 
gary Miller poor 4 

Hall pish 3 

durnan limited but effective 5

dixon average 4

 

Morrison - his pace is a threat 6 
leitch - more assured but not really good enough 5 

kai fotheriham 2 ran around to no avail 

Gomis -3 continuallly lost the ball 

somebody 1 can’t even recall who he was  

kenna - a little disappointing but some. touches ;4

subs - dowds 5 looked strong 

Francis 5 covered the ground well

telfer 1  - subueteo player

Edited March 20, 2021 by Stainrod

[bairn88]

Dowds had a more positive impact in his 10 mins than a couple of our “midfielders” had all game. I’m not sure he’s a striker but with ball at feet I really think he’s pretty decent. Did well today for second goal, put in a crucial ball for Morrison v cove if memory serves me correct too. Seems to have his head up and looking to create. I’d start him up with keena (or maybe in the hole behind a 1 up top) in our best 11

[NavyBlueArmy1876]

1 hour ago, AGPar said:

Your solution to our chronic lack of creativity is to leave out our best and only creative player? Strange.

Whoops...I actually meant to suggest a midfield of Gomis, Morrison, Telfer & Alston 

That would still be a bit unbalanced with no one really able to play wide left. We also don't have fullbacks with enough attacking quality to play a diamond imo. Basically the sooner Connolly is available again the better 

[roman_bairn]

A lot of people talking about us being rusty but to me it was just exactly the same kind of performance we had before the break and surely we weren't rusty then too.

Nobody said rustiness had anything to do with our pre shutdown performances.
But surely it’s a bit silly not to consider that all of the teams have had no preseason restart games so there will be rustiness across the board today, including ourselves?
That’s not making excuses, it’s simply a fact.....

[MS RR]

Do you think Lewis Connelly's job is to try and con Falkirk fans into believing that we're actually the team in the ascendancy? What he comes out with doesn't match with the utter dross we're watching. It gets quite irritating when he talks about how strong Falkirk look during a match, meanwhile Durnan is passing a ball out the park and we've not strung two passes together in twenty minutes at some points let alone create a chance. 

[MS RR]

3 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

Nobody said rustiness had anything to do with our pre shutdown performances.
But surely it’s a bit silly not to consider that all of the teams have had no preseason restart games so there will be rustiness across the board today, including ourselves?
That’s not making excuses, it’s simply a fact.....

No the point is we'll be just as shite in 4-weeks time after training everyday. 

[roman_bairn]

No the point is we'll be just as shite in 4-weeks time after training everyday. 

Possibly (actually probably), but don’t tell anyone. It’s a tough enough read on here already....

[roman_bairn]

We've conceded just 8 goals (and 6 of those were set pieces/ penalties) in 12 matches so far this season. Only Partick have actually scored from open play against us. There is no need to tinker with the defense when our deficiencies clearly lie in a lack of creativity going forward. 
A midfield 4 of Gomis, Telfer, Connolly and Alston (with the latter playing 20 yards further up the park than he was today) and two up front (Keena + Dowds or Sammon or Miller) seems the bleedingly obvious solution to me. As Connolly is injured a combination of Leitch/ Fotheringham should be ok til he gets back
M&M need to bin the system we used today, as some other posters have already mentioned, it reeked of McKinnonBall at times

Interesting that Partick scored in open play against us. Especially when we are (understandably) complaining about a lack of creativity.
However it’s interesting (to me at least), that the team most of us consider our biggest threat this season have scored exactly HALF the number we have this season....yep, Partick have 10 goals in eleven fixtures.
Point here is, it’s really not that easy to play silky entertaining football in this league with mid Championship level players..
Ps. Partick scored today with their first shot on target in the 70th minute.