Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[Wacky]

11 hours ago, basher brash said:

Rovers season ticket holder now board member Colin smart sold his care home business for a reported 40 million ! Another season ticket holder / board member Ruaridh kilgour owns a very successful media marketing business over many continents both rovers diehards , So this isnt just the Dean Mackenzie show , So you heard this ! heard that !  The wee green eyed monster there I think , 

Our German overlords can apparently trump that, and I wish they’d show it with a shiny new striker, and maybe even a centre back to cover our defensive injuries too.  
IMO that’s all we really need to drag us out the doldrums.  
Meggle must know of a striker that would make a massive difference to the club’s fortunes on the pitch? I know the new owners said they wouldn’t throw flippin great wedges of cash at the playing staff, and they have already dipped into the coffers for KRH and Otoo, but they must know of a striker warming a bench somewhere they could bring in for six months, then lend a couple of our miss firing strikers down a league to find their scoring boots again. 
Football fans are all experts in what their respective team needs,  you only have to read P&B to see that, so these guys must see it too. 
 

ETA, and bin Chalmers, or get him to try a different style of play, a forward pass would be a good start 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Wacky

[CallumPar]

Not going to panic and start calling for anyone to be sacked yet. But the next week will be crucial, when it comes to deciding whether we’ll be in a relegation battle or not. If we get 2 points or less from these 2 games, we’re in for a long season. If we get 2 wins and build some confidence again, we are more than capable of competing for top 4. 3 or 4 points would be ok and suggest we’ll be mid-table.

We’re certainly not a good championship squad right now. It’s frustrating to see the lack of leadership/experience in the side. It’s frustrating that we’re crying out for a goal scorer, but haven’t even been linked with anyone. Another Andy Kirk or Nicky Clark would see us into the top 4. Wighton is a player that will hit a purple patch at some point, but he’s barely kicked a ball this season. Jakubiak works hard and puts pressure on defenders, but he’s terrible in front of goal. We play some good stuff, but it means nothing when we don’t have anyone you can depend on to put the ball in the net.

At the back, we needed some sort of cover for Bene, but didn’t bring it in. We have talented young players, but nobody with leadership skills/experience to help them out. We tried Euan Murray in January and he was apparently keen, then we decided to stick with youngsters. That would be fine if Bene stayed fit, but his recent injury history tells you that was unlikely to happen for 2 full seasons. The lack of experience shows when decisions go against us and everyone switches off for the set piece (as happened twice on Friday). That wouldn’t happen with Bene on the park and Raith wouldn’t have done the same either. The talented youngsters that we have won’t develop if they’re asked to go out and play with no leadership/support from experienced pros. It’s noticeable how much better everyone in defence looks with Bene there. We need the same in midfield and attack, in my opinion. Even to have as an option. Thats why Wotherspoon would have made a lot of sense. It’s disappointing to see him hit the ground running with Inverness, knowing that we’re the ones that got him fit and it doesn’t seem like we were willing to give him a deal that worked for him.

In midfield, I really wanted to see us sign a more physical midfielder, a real grafter that will hassle any opponents. Hamilton can play that role, but is now needed at the back. Otoo can play there too and has made a difference when played there. But again, he’s been needed at the back recently. It seems obvious, but if we were planning to play a back 3, we should have more than 4 recognised CBs at the club. That should have been obvious to the recruitment team, particularly once we moved Otoo to midfield.

January window is approaching and I hope some of our areas of need are addressed. Otherwise it’ll be a long second half of the season.

Apologies for the long post. Just wanted to get my thoughts out there.

[Raithie]

13 hours ago, CountryBumpkin said:

Define eye watering, as I imagine that's fairly subjective.

Aye, to @da_no_1 our entry costs are eye watering. 

[Craigus]

1 hour ago, CallumPar said:

Not going to panic and start calling for anyone to be sacked yet. But the next week will be crucial, when it comes to deciding whether we’ll be in a relegation battle or not. If we get 2 points or less from these 2 games, we’re in for a long season. If we get 2 wins and build some confidence again, we are more than capable of competing for top 4. 3 or 4 points would be ok and suggest we’ll be mid-table.

We’re certainly not a good championship squad right now. It’s frustrating to see the lack of leadership/experience in the side. It’s frustrating that we’re crying out for a goal scorer, but haven’t even been linked with anyone. Another Andy Kirk or Nicky Clark would see us into the top 4. Wighton is a player that will hit a purple patch at some point, but he’s barely kicked a ball this season. Jakubiak works hard and puts pressure on defenders, but he’s terrible in front of goal. We play some good stuff, but it means nothing when we don’t have anyone you can depend on to put the ball in the net.

At the back, we needed some sort of cover for Bene, but didn’t bring it in. We have talented young players, but nobody with leadership skills/experience to help them out. We tried Euan Murray in January and he was apparently keen, then we decided to stick with youngsters. That would be fine if Bene stayed fit, but his recent injury history tells you that was unlikely to happen for 2 full seasons. The lack of experience shows when decisions go against us and everyone switches off for the set piece (as happened twice on Friday). That wouldn’t happen with Bene on the park and Raith wouldn’t have done the same either. The talented youngsters that we have won’t develop if they’re asked to go out and play with no leadership/support from experienced pros. It’s noticeable how much better everyone in defence looks with Bene there. We need the same in midfield and attack, in my opinion. Even to have as an option. Thats why Wotherspoon would have made a lot of sense. It’s disappointing to see him hit the ground running with Inverness, knowing that we’re the ones that got him fit and it doesn’t seem like we were willing to give him a deal that worked for him.

In midfield, I really wanted to see us sign a more physical midfielder, a real grafter that will hassle any opponents. Hamilton can play that role, but is now needed at the back. Otoo can play there too and has made a difference when played there. But again, he’s been needed at the back recently. It seems obvious, but if we were planning to play a back 3, we should have more than 4 recognised CBs at the club. That should have been obvious to the recruitment team, particularly once we moved Otoo to midfield.

January window is approaching and I hope some of our areas of need are addressed. Otherwise it’ll be a long second half of the season.

Apologies for the long post. Just wanted to get my thoughts out there.

Going doon

[Wacky]

1 hour ago, CallumPar said:

Not going to panic and start calling for anyone to be sacked yet.

McPake stated that he wanted Wotherspoon, but it didn’t happen. He can only identify the players he wants, I’m sure it’s up to the board to get the deals across the line? 
I know that every club’s owners will have a cap on what their prepared to spend on players, but the millionaire owners of DAFC must surely be aware that we need a wee leg up on the scoring front at the very least? This January window is going to make or break our season, I just hope our club owners see it that way too 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Wacky

[DA Baracus]

Not sure a new striker is going to be any use if we play like we did on Friday. They wouldn't suddenly get more chances.

[Ymscorer]

17 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

They'd be absolute morons to sink that in to a football club.

You for real ? Exactly what you guys did with Calderwood pampering his extravagances!! For what it’s worth you guys could well finish in play offs . Needing a hand up front.

[DA Baracus]

3 minutes ago, Ymscorer said:

You for real ? Exactly what you guys did with Calderwood pampering his extravagances!! For what it’s worth you guys could well finish in play offs . Needing a hand up front.

I have zero clue what relevance what happened decades ago has here.

[HoBNob]

8 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Not sure a new striker is going to be any use if we play like we did on Friday. They wouldn't suddenly get more chances.

Agreed, the problems run deeper than that IMO. 

Handy little graphic below but it matches what I'm watching at games, the quality of chances that our strikers are getting are pish. Just simply getting another striker in without any thought as to how we're going to make chances is daft. 

I followed Brentford allot when I lived down south and during that time they had three consecutive seasons where the main striker got 20 goals plus (Maupay, Watkins and Toney).Maupay and Watkins were sold, and each striker is slightly different from the last. I remember an interview with the DoF asking about this fantastic strike rate of bringing in good attackers, and he was fairly blasé about it and said what was more important was giving them the best opportunity to score, we aren't doing that. We've brought in Jakubaik, a striker who's just won promotion with Dundee and looked ok and we're making him look like an absolute ringer, despite Wighton scoring a good amount last year he got allot of criticism for looking shite. And I don't think he's bad. 

What's more important than just bringing in another striker to look shite, we should be looking at the attacking talent we have and figuring out how to make them look good. 

1 hour ago, Wacky said:

McPake stated that he wanted Wotherspoon, but it didn’t happen. He can only identify the players he wants, I’m sure it’s up to the board to get the deals across the line? 
I know that every club’s owners will have a cap on what their prepared to spend on players, but the millionaire owners of DAFC must surely be aware that we need a wee leg up on the scoring front at the very least? This January window is going to make or break our season, I just hope our club owners see it that way too 

 

 

I'm not sure I subscribe to the thought that McPake is identifying all these experienced players and it's purely the boards fault they're not signing. 

McGowan(Who I'm glad we didn't sign tbh) and Wotherspoon are often mentioned, but we did sign Jakubaik and MoH. 

On a related note, when you look at the players we sign, the ones we are rumoured to be signing, do we actually have a scouting department or is it just McPake phoning players that he's already played with or managed? 

[parsforlife]

44 minutes ago, HoBNob said:

Agreed, the problems run deeper than that IMO. 

Handy little graphic below but it matches what I'm watching at games, the quality of chances that our strikers are getting are pish.

 

Wonder where this guy gets his info? Presumably wyscout?  I’d be very interested to see our xG stats if they are publicly available. Like you I suspect they aren’t great and I can’t imagine we are significantly under performing them in actual goals.

A good finisher would help, then we’d maybe outperform our xG but even doing that is only going to get you a handful of goals.  Our chance creation needs to be upped,  I suspect last week would one of the only match days where we’d be top half with it.

If it is wyscout @Random Guycan you give us that info?

Edited November 26, 2023 by parsforlife

[HoBNob]

16 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Wonder where this guy gets his info? Presumably wyscout?  I’d be very interested to see our xG stats if they are publicly available. Like you I suspect they aren’t great and I can’t imagine we are significantly under performing them in actual goals.

A good finisher would help, then we’d maybe outperform our xG but even doing that is only going to get you a handful of goals.  Our chance creation needs to be upped,  I suspect last week would one of the only match days where we’d be top half with it.

If it is wyscout @Random Guycan you give us that info?

Aye, on the bottom right hand side of the graphic that the data's from wyscout, I'm not sure xG information for the Scottish championship is available anywhere that doesn't require a subscription. 

[CallumPar]

1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

Not sure a new striker is going to be any use if we play like we did on Friday. They wouldn't suddenly get more chances.

Wasn’t in response to Friday. We created nothing and improving strike options wouldn’t have made a difference to that result. It’s more that, when we have played well, we haven’t taken our chances. See the Inverness game. See the Morton away game, where it was a tense finish because we wasted chances.

Last season, we wasted a lot of chances too. Took forever to get that goal some weeks. It wasn’t as costly, because we rarely conceded. However, if anything, we’re now weaker than last year (in terms of goal threat) as Todorov was one of our better goal scorers.

[Cardle is Magic]

Last season I don’t think anyone felt Wighton, McCann, Todorov & O’Hara would be a good enough set of forwards for the Championship.

However, I really don’t think that Jakubiak is an improvement on the two we let go over the summer.

Midfield is the bigger issue to solve first though; we will struggle this season if we don’t get better solutions in there.

[basher brash]

19 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

They'd be absolute morons to sink that in to a football club.

 

19 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Hope not,  unintended consequences perhaps but its actively encouraging defenders to sit deeper.   There's not a chance defenders are letting someone get half a yard on them and let them go,.

Infantino's quote just make him look like a twat.  There's no need to make football more offensive, its a game between attack and defence with both areas being intriguing,  there's no need to weight the scales in either direction.

What's going on here then?  Shifted from 'we're not spending much' to 'well we've got loadsa money'  pick one ffs. 

 

I was purely responding to one of your fellow pars fans in that it was alluded to that it’s the Dean Mackenzie show far from it hence the 2 Rovers supporting business men I mentioned , If the poster is correct that a non playing staff member is on eye watering money maybe this individual is bringing in valuable income ? Via his/ her role within the club , Regarding splashing money it’s on record that the Rovers budget is comparable with a lot of clubs in the championship stated by John Sim infact he said some clubs would be cutting budgets this season , Maybe you guys need to look closer to home signing the likes of jakubiak who I bet won’t be on crap money , Wighton have you not extended his deal and Mehmet and the likes . 

[The Toun Clock]

Random one, but anyone see a large number of red bobble hats at the game on Friday? Style of the red away top with the cool collar from 1992 and Landmark writing on them?

They were pretty cool. Was so disappointed after Friday I just went straight home so didn’t pop into the shop, but can’t see them on sale anywhere. Can’t see any Pars bobble/wooly hats actually.

The Christmas section has a naff Santa style hat in black, I’d be shocked if anyone buys one, then a couple of Christmas stockings. It’s a bit sh*t although I did get the away kit for the wee man in the Black Friday sale, was nearly £20 off so credit where it’s due for that. 

[DAFC.]

18 hours ago, Cardle is Magic said:

3000 pages of this thread now.

Not looked back, but believe it was started shortly after being relegated from the Premiership away to Hibs? Feels like a lifetime ago. 

[Wacky]

5 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Not sure a new striker is going to be any use if we play like we did on Friday. They wouldn't suddenly get more chances.

I think Friday was an exceptionally shite day at the office for us. We have created plenty chances in many league games and couldn’t convert. We created a barrow load against ICT, that could be considered an inordinate amount of chances for us in that one game, and failed to score. We haven’t done too badly in many league games, and I think a player who can hit the target would have made all the difference. Our league games against rovers could have been very different if we converted the small amount of the chances we made. 
A decent striker would definitely help IMO. 

[Kirkcaldybanjo]

On 25/11/2023 at 13:50, kdypar said:

Jealous of what? A couple of wins and 2500 home fans. Let’s see how the next few seasons pan out. 
 

The wee team fans are first taught to hate the Para before even starting to like their own team. It’s hilarious and pathetic. 

Nothing against the paras

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

7 hours ago, HoBNob said:

 

 is it just McPake phoning players that he's already played with or managed? 

Yes, been there and seen it all, not good enough really.

[da_no_1]

17 minutes ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

Yes, been there and seen it all, not good enough really.

I can't be arsed looking. Can anyone be bothered researching his signings for us? Not interested in what he did at Dundee to be honest. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by da_no_1