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Walking Down The Halbeath Road


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I've seen Byrne and Forbes have games where they look way above league one standard. Then suddenly they look rotten and drop out of the team. Do they get dropped for being rotten or does JJ's tinkering cause them to lose form and confidence?

After his goal against Peterhead (the one Islay mentions), young Thomas said that he and Byrne just pulled off a move they do all the time in the u20s and it looked liked like something they'd do in their sleep. I know the modern trend in top level football is squad rotation but I sometimes thing a settled 11 is the way to really get a team playing with trust and confidence in each other. Maybe we (ie the management) over-complicate things for the level at which we're playing?

Edit - not sniping at JJ - just wondering why a player's performance level can change so drastically?

Edited by Shandon Par
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Same could be said for Whittle.

Playing well and pumped out the team for Grainger. Taken off at Ibrox and shouted at then Gringer comes on and gets sent off.

Only game I've seen Bryne dominate for the entire match was a comprehensive win at Airdrie, one of the best performances in midfield for the Pars for him.

I think we have far too many central midfielders. I would like to see some sort of formation that uses Ryan Thomson and Forbes. They are pretty big guys compared to our normal midfield. I think we should try that against more physical sides and leave Bryne and Falkingham to come on later once the battle is won. Sometimes we over complicate things, just boot people and win the midfield... It's what Morton did to us at Cappielow. Williamson was taken right out and Josh got some attention. Ryan T came on and within minutes we won a penalty. Is it as simple as that?

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Squad rotation isn't going to win us the league, we need to get a settled squad with a settled formation/tactics and a plan B when things inevitably don't go our way.

Shocking that we haven't got a settled XI in November. Think we need experience in there as well. Players like Dods totally breezed past us.

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We have plenty of experience. Guys like Falkingham, Geggan, Moffatt, Wallace, Forbes, Stirling have years of experience in the lower leagues. Thomson was playing when we were in the SPL. Guys like Whittle and Byrne are in their 3rd season in the first team

'Lack of experience' simply isn't true for the majority of our squad.

Edited by DA Baracus
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Didn't say that. I think we could be doing with a journeyman or two that know the league, can take control of matches and be the difference between a win or a draw. Something similar to Hardie when we win the 1st division. It's a bit organic but these are the players that can win you league titles.

Hopefully Ugwu isn't kept on in January to provide the impetus to get these type of guys.

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We have plenty of experience. Guys like Falkingham, Geggan, Moffatt, Wallace, Forbes, Stirling have years of experience in the lower leagues. Thomson was playing when we were in the SPL. Guys like Whittle and Byrne are in their 3rd season in the first team

'Lack of experience' simply isn't true for the majority of our squad.

Falkingham 163 appearances

Geggan 287

Moffat 157(not counting his junior days)

Wallace 123

Forbes 103

Stirling 118

Whittle 59

Bryne 53

Dods 588

For what it's worth I don't think the ones you listed bar bryne and whittle (both only 21 ) can be described as inexperienced, however their time on the park is well behind someone like dods.

All fairly irrelevant anyway, our squad is absolutely fine as it is, I'm not desperate to get anybody in.

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By posting that you're just proving my point (which it sounds like you agree with anyway).

I find it odd that some of our fans want Jefferies out and cite one of the reasons as him being out of touch/jurassic/old fashioned yet say we should sign someone like Dods.

We comfortably finished 2nd last year without such a player and have strenghtened the squad since. I think we have a good squad who are underperforming and not playing to their potential.

Edited by DA Baracus
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I think we have a good squad who are underperforming and not playing to their potential.

I agree with this but some fans will blame individual players and some (eg - me) will blame the manager for not getting the best out of the players. I can't be arsed digging out ancient posts but when our ban on signing 21+ y/o players was lifted I questioned the wisdom of us doing so. I know we were leaking goals but we had a spirited young squad and signing a few ancient boys (face it - when you're 18, mid 20s seems ancient) could mess with the spirit.

Our previous manager was pretty good at improving the squad in transfer windows. We're far from a terrible team -we're just really clunky when it comes to wing play and creativity. Get shot of a few central midfielders and add wide/central attacking flair to the squad and we should be untouchable for the rest of the season,

al

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By posting that you're just proving my point (which it sounds like you agree with anyway).

I find it odd that some of our fans want Jefferies out and cite one of the reasons as him being out of touch/jurassic/old fashioned yet say we should sign someone like Dods.

We comfortably finished 2nd last year without such a player and have strenghtened the squad since. I think we have a good squad who are underperforming and not playing to their potential.

I am in full agreement with your final 2 paragraphs.

My general view is that the ideal squad balance would have about the same number of guys on 100-120 + appearances, but rather than the rest being 50ish and under you may have a couple 400 + in there. However it's much more important to sign good players, and at this level that's easier to do with younger guys than older ones since the older players are more likely to earn more if they go part time.

I am not adverse to signing an (very)experienced player but for me they need to be better than dods and on the wages we pay that's something very hard to come by. In fact it would probably be difficult to sign somebody like dods.

As I say, the squad is fine, the players just need to perform closer to their best.

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I never said we should sign a player like Dods, just someone with that same kind of experience. Dods, at 39, will be hitting the scrap heap after this season you'd imagine. Would be good to get someone who would do a job in the Championship as well. Thinking about next couple of seasons not just this season, however it is very important we get out of League 1 this season.

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