Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[Stellaboz]

Two boxing day games spring to mind- a boring 0-0 home to St Johnstone where Crawford missed a penalty and the day we pumped Rangers.

[HoBNob]

To be honest, I'd prefer the game on New Years Eve. Hope we don't move it. New Year is just the anticlimax after Hogmanay.

Yep, I've no idea how it would be better for the fans or players for the game to be moved to the second. Fucking shite.

[TheMessiah]

Considering the lack of public services available on christmas eve, hogmany and new year's day, it is undoubtedly better for fans.

getting trains/buses around new year is a fucking nightmare.

[Stellaboz]

Christmas Eve services are much better than Boxing Day. They were a few years ago anyway.

[HoBNob]

Christmas Eve services are much better than Boxing Day. They were a few years ago anyway.

Indeed, with traditionally more people going out on Christmas Eve the public transport is usually better?

Likewise trains are fine for Hogmanay upto a time. Not only that but you can make it an all day event, pub, football, friends, pub, bells, regrets and then home, magic.

[D.A.F.C]

Very frustrating day today. I thought there were quite a few positives from our perspective despite the setbacks.

Keeper, still hopeless but not really to blame for any goals. Bit slow to get down maybe. Nearly dropped it too.

Full backs Martin was pretty steady under pressure from their winger who was decent. Ryan was poor at the first and the second was horrific. His positonal play is awful. Fordyce and Ashcroft were going mental at him. He was OK going forward tbf.

Centre backs

Solid all game, Fordyce put forward some excellent balls. Their striker never got a sniff all game despite resorting to fouling. 

Geggan

Did OK but not composed enough at times.

McCabe

Not a fan, steady today but doesn't do enough to get a place every week. I think maybe HiggB should have been on for him sooner.

Paton

Did well but tired, should've done better with his chance. Again should have been subbed earlier.

McMullan

MOTM for me, great fighting and beating players constantly. Looks a different player from the one we saw at the start of the season.

Clark

Looks a class act, clever link up play and surprisingly good in the air.

Reilly

Not sure if it's confidence or he's not just up to it. Moffat looks a better option tbh.

Farid

Superb at winning things in the air. Looks a handful.

Cardle 

Not enough time

Poor management from AJ today, slow to bring on subs or change the game effectively when we were a man up.

Lumping long balls up to two small strikers is playing into the hands of united. We needed to take control of the ball and pull them about and get in behind them. Plenty options on the bench. If we were going to continue with long balls then bring on farid earlier?

We now have a decent squad who should be challenging for top four but we look like a badly disorganised team.

Three must not lose games next.

 

[101]

fairly certain higgy didnt come on think next week we should swap McCabe out for Herron and Paton for Cardle

[D.A.F.C]

5 minutes ago, Adam101 said:

fairly certain higgy didnt come on think next week we should swap McCabe out for Herron and Paton for Cardle

Sorry, I meant that he should have came on for him and maybe even a half time. Herron does look a bit more physical would like to see what he could do.

[D.A.F.C]

http://dafc.co.uk/audio/ALLAN_JOHNSTON_100916.MP3

 

AJ comments, agree about a good performance but not with the penalty taker decisions. He seems too laid back and contented.

Sore throat though, so maybe a different guy behind the scenes? He's been saying we need to cut out the mistakes for too long now.

[Poet of the Macabre]

Aye, missing three penalties and losing 3-1 at home to 10 men who played shite. What a great performance that was.

[Black and White Tragic]

Aye, missing three penalties and losing 3-1 at home to 10 men who played shite. What a great performance that was.

You're a glass half empty sort of a chap?

...your glass has a crack in it too.

Your summation is too simplistic to describe what went on in that game. I still think that we have not played that badly (apart from QOS game) and certainly have never looked out of our depth in this league. What I'm not getting is why Cardle and Higginbotham are both on the bench? There were plenty of times after DU went to 10 that Higginbotham's long range vision and passing would have been finding our spare man.

If KH is fit he should start. End of.

[D.A.F.C]

11 minutes ago, Black and White Tragic said:

You're a glass half empty sort of a chap?

...your glass has a crack in it too.

Your summation is too simplistic to describe what went on in that game. I still think that we have not played that badly (apart from QOS game) and certainly have never looked out of our depth in this league. What I'm not getting is why Cardle and Higginbotham are both on the bench? There were plenty of times after DU went to 10 that Higginbotham's long range vision and passing would have been finding our spare man.

If KH is fit he should start. End of.
 

He's our most creative player, he was brilliant against Hibs. Apart from McGinn the best on the park.

We haven't looked outclassed and if we had the right tactics and cut out mistakes we could have got a draw against Hibs, drawn or beat Rovers, drawn against QOTS and won today.

The players performed well today but lacked leadership and tactics. Before the game I thought our bench looked stronger than our starting lineup. Too many creative players on the bench, Dundee United look absolute garbage, we beat ourselves.

 

[TheMessiah]

1 hour ago, D.A.F.C said:

He's our most creative player, he was brilliant against Hibs. Apart from McGinn the best on the park.

We haven't looked outclassed and if we had the right tactics and cut out mistakes we could have got a draw against Hibs, drawn or beat Rovers, drawn against QOTS and won today.

The players performed well today but lacked leadership and tactics. Before the game I thought our bench looked stronger than our starting lineup. Too many creative players on the bench, Dundee United look absolute garbage, we beat ourselves.

 

I feel we did have the right tactics for all those games tbh, just not the right players, personally I'd like to see us with a more rigid style based on quick counter-attack, similar to Atletico's style. It's seemed to me that it's either the team selection that is poor more than anything.

Also, we didn't cut out the mistakes, and in every single one of those games those mistakes have lead us to 0 points out of a possible 12 rather than 8 that we could have had.

We don't have them, because they keep making basic errors which, at this level, is utterly unacceptable.

Every single game this season we have had at least one massive f**k-up which either has or very nearly cost us a goal. That is shameful, especially given the fact that it has completely sullied what would have otherwise been a good performance.

It isn't nice when you play badly and lose, but when you seem to be playing well but are losing games comfortably, that is terrifying.

[D.A.F.C]

Well said.

[Stellaboz]

KH is an utter cumwipe, games against Rovers and Queens he went totally missing when we went down a goal.

[Skyline Drifter]

53 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

KH is an utter cumwipe, games against Rovers and Queens he went totally missing when we went down a goal.

Yep. He sure did. I dont think he even touched the ball between our 45th minute goal and his half time substitution!

[Homer Thompson]

He's our most creative player, he was brilliant against Hibs. Apart from McGinn the best on the park.

We haven't looked outclassed and if we had the right tactics and cut out mistakes we could have got a draw against Hibs, drawn or beat Rovers, drawn against QOTS and won today.

The players performed well today but lacked leadership and tactics. Before the game I thought our bench looked stronger than our starting lineup. Too many creative players on the bench, Dundee United look absolute garbage, we beat ourselves.

 

What mistake led to you losing to Queens? We scored a goal from a, well worked free kick.

Yep. He sure did. I dont think he even touched the ball between our 45th minute goal and his half time substitution!

Yeah, but he was pretty anonymous in the 45 minutes before the goal

[Skyline Drifter]

5 minutes ago, Mr X said:

What mistake led to you losing to Queens? We scored a goal from a, well worked free kick.

Yeah, but he was pretty anonymous in the 45 minutes before the goal

The marking on Dowie at that free kick was atrocious to be fair.

Higginbotham was anonymous (which I put at least partly down to Hamill absolutely levelling him in an early tackle) but thats not what he said. He said he went missing after we scored. He was subbed 30 seconds later!

[Homer Thompson]

46 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

The marking on Dowie at that free kick was atrocious to be fair.

It was but that wasnt what he said. Goals like that happen in almost every game, to describe them as "mistakes" is, at best, over simplistic. If you go down that road, every goal is a mistake

46 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Higginbotham was anonymous (which I put at least partly down to Hamill absolutely levelling him in an early tackle) but thats not what he said. He said he went missing after we scored. He was subbed 30 seconds later!

I know. I was just pointing out why he got hooked at half time

[gingapar]

Mistakes as in routinely conceding goals from a failure to do the defensive basics.

Defensively, there are just too many holes. Geggan is struggling because we are relying on him to be the entire midfield. MCCabe is a complete passenger and Paton, Cardle, Higginbotham and Mcmullen don't really have a defensive side to their game.

On top of that, we have Williamson who is exciting going forward but largely lost at the back. You can see he is working hard on his defensive positioning but that tends to result in him forgetting to ever challenge for the ball.

Then Riley, he has come with a good reputation but has shown absolutely nothing. Could be that the service is wrong, could be that he has no confidence, could be both. Regardless, he has yet to deliver.