The Arbroath Thread

[TheRoundO]

1 minute ago, lichtiekev said:

We got lucky for a while when we had JT, Little, Hammy and Tob who were undroppable and fit for a season, it's been clear we have needed more defenders for a long time, thinking we can just fill these gaps with midfielders isn't working, 

Jacobs shouldn't of been signed, its not his fault, but he isn't up to it, not one person thought he should of been kept on for the season, could add Allan into that bracket too, 

Our recruitment has been far better than last season but players should of been signed to play 4-4-1-1 and the style that works for us, 

4-1-4-1

[Fitbafan36]

Couple of thoughts after today -

4-0 flattered us… we could’ve been 4 or 5 down by HT easily. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen Tam and Ricky so easy to play against. 
Balde has to be first name on the team sheet and think him and Slater could be a good pair once Slater is match fit. Thought he showed good glimpses today. 
Would like to see MacIntosh and Bird up top together to really try and rattle a defence. Would also like to see Stowe and Dow play on opposite flanks so they’re on the stronger foot going down the line to get crosses in. This cutting in thing just doesn’t work and makes a narrow team even narrower and so easy to defend. Also think this is the biggest con of Stewart at LB cause we lose is forward running on the right.. 

[Make Saints Great Again]

Knew before the match Strain would have a field day against your right winger at left back.

 

Balde, Bird, McIntosh and Slater looked far and away your best players.

 

McKenna was invisible and genuinely felt bad for big Turan it’s not his fault he was signed

[1320Lichtie]

14 minutes ago, Make Saints Great Again said:

Knew before the match Strain would have a field day against your right winger at left back.

 

Balde, Bird, McIntosh and Slater looked far and away your best players.

 

McKenna was invisible and genuinely felt bad for big Turan it’s not his fault he was signed

Turan is fkn hopeless - not his fault no but it’s extremely concerning Dick and Pink signed him after 2 completely anonymous performances against Montrose and Brechin 

[SmokeyJoe]

Dick wanted to sign turan last season… would of fitted in well with fosu corfe and kareem 

[TheRoundO]

11 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Turan is fkn hopeless - not his fault no but it’s extremely concerning Dick and Pink signed him after 2 completely anonymous performances against Montrose and Brechin 

Again, Turan looked ok in his 20 minutes today. Not remotely like Fosu, Isiaka or Corfe. What is your problem with him?

[ExiledLichtie]

It does seem that some people have decided that Turan is the fall guy.  Whatever he does, it won't be good enough for some...

[RedLichtie86]

Turan is the least of our problems. I dont mind him and i am giving him a chance. Will make my mind up later in the season.

Now we fave the prospect of only 2 fit defenders in our squad and no capable player able to slot into the vacant positions.

The managements approach to our squad is the biggest concern.

For years we have rid out luck in regards to the defence. Last season was the first season where we were truely down to the bare bones due to injuries and suspensions. And we suffered because of this. Only the 2nd half of the season up until Hammy's injury did we have a settled defence.

Clear as day we needed to recruit more defenders and 1 or 2 defensive minded midfielders. Only recruit so far is Steele. (Slatery i am unsure of) that can play defensive. Pretty much all other recruits in past 18 months have been pretty much lacklustre in defensive positions.

We seem desperate to get McKenna back to his high point but we need to wisen up. He was great that season. But he had the players and the formation to get the best out of him and i am sorry to say that boat has sailed. He is having to do more and more leg work defending for over a year now and any attacking threat he may have is stiffled. Unless we get the defensive players behind him so he can do what he does best. Roaming in the space between the opposition defence and midfield.

[lichtiekev]

Obviously with Hammy and Steele fit our back 4 picks itself, hopefully we still add to that though, 

Midfield with Stewart on the right, Dow or Stowe on the left, Balde or Slater and a defensive midfielder in the middle, 

Mckenna behind Bird or McInitosh, 

That still gives us decent options off the bench, 

Could we move on Jacobs and Allan? Wasn't it after the cup last season we lost JT?

 

[Leicesterlichtie]

3 hours ago, TheRoundO said:

Again, Turan looked ok in his 20 minutes today. Not remotely like Fosu, Isiaka or Corfe. What is your problem with him?

Always need a scapegoat. 

[lichtie23]

Ricky and TOB have been horseshit in both games so far. 

[lichtie23]

29 minutes ago, Leicesterlichtie said:

Always need a scapegoat. 

Scapegoat or pish?

You know the answer 

[Lichtie78]

5 hours ago, lichtiemike said:

Mental we have folk assisting with recruitment and we seemingly can’t identify a single left back in the country in near 5 months. 

Must be hard work scouting when our head of recruitment is soaking in the hospitality at every game to be fair. You'd think he might be, I don't know, scouting?

[TheRoundO]

I’m glad I don’t have Dick’s job. It looks like we need 12 or 13 players on the park to thrive. 

[SimonLichtie]

It's very odd to me that people like Scott Allan and Turan are getting called out over the past few weeks when there's multiple fan favourites who've been very poor so far.

Mikey McKenna must have lost the ball a dozen times yesterday through poor passing yet I never heard a peep from anyone, but when Turan came on and played one poor pass a load of people were immediately on his back. Scott Allan didn't even play yesterday, we got battered and walked over in midfield, and instead of people thinking 'maybe he's not the problem' there's more on how we need him out ASAP . I'm fully expecting people to be happy when we don't play Scott Allan, but then pissed off about us playing long balls when he's not on the park.... you cant have it both ways.

Ricky, Tam and Mikey have been really poor so far this pre season by their own standards; I'd say that's much more of a worry than any of the new signings or Scott Allan (whose a different player this season). I haven't seen a word said by anyone on Mikey so far, yet he's probably been our most out of touch player this entire pre season. Hopefully he can get back on it over the next few games and back to the player we all know he can be. If he continued playing as he has so far, he wouldn't get in my starting 11.

I've no idea how anyone could look at yesterdays game and feel a need to comment on Turan in a negative way to be honest.... the majority of the starting 11 were really poor and well below par yet they're not commented on and a guy who came on for the last 15/ 20 min and yet again clearly showed he has some positives to his game that we can use throughout the season somehow get's it. Bizarre.

Clearly we need a left back - the management are very aware of this fact. We've been trying to get this sorted over the past wee while, and I'd much prefer us to get the right player in that has been identified, as opposed to just signing a left back, any left back, to cover the position. What would the preference be - sign an average left back two weeks ago to play in the league cup, or hold off to get a good/ quality left back at the end of July in time for the league campaign?

Personally I'm not overly fussed with yesterday as I still consider this to be pre season, and we were playing against a top 6 Premiership side. If we perform like that in 4/5 weeks in league games I'd have a very different opinion on things.

[1320Lichtie]

7 minutes ago, SimonLichtie said:

It's very odd to me that people like Scott Allan and Turan are getting called out over the past few weeks when there's multiple fan favourites who've been very poor so far.

Mikey McKenna must have lost the ball a dozen times yesterday through poor passing yet I never heard a peep from anyone, but when Turan came on and played one poor pass a load of people were immediately on his back. Scott Allan didn't even play yesterday, we got battered and walked over in midfield, and instead of people thinking 'maybe he's not the problem' there's more on how we need him out ASAP . I'm fully expecting people to be happy when we don't play Scott Allan, but then pissed off about us playing long balls when he's not on the park.... you cant have it both ways.

Ricky, Tam and Mikey have been really poor so far this pre season by their own standards; I'd say that's much more of a worry than any of the new signings or Scott Allan (whose a different player this season). I haven't seen a word said by anyone on Mikey so far, yet he's probably been our most out of touch player this entire pre season. Hopefully he can get back on it over the next few games and back to the player we all know he can be. If he continued playing as he has so far, he wouldn't get in my starting 11.

I've no idea how anyone could look at yesterdays game and feel a need to comment on Turan in a negative way to be honest.... the majority of the starting 11 were really poor and well below par yet they're not commented on and a guy who came on for the last 15/ 20 min and yet again clearly showed he has some positives to his game that we can use throughout the season somehow get's it. Bizarre.

Clearly we need a left back - the management are very aware of this fact. We've been trying to get this sorted over the past wee while, and I'd much prefer us to get the right player in that has been identified, as opposed to just signing a left back, any left back, to cover the position. What would the preference be - sign an average left back two weeks ago to play in the league cup, or hold off to get a good/ quality left back at the end of July in time for the league campaign?

Personally I'm not overly fussed with yesterday as I still consider this to be pre season, and we were playing against a top 6 Premiership side. If we perform like that in 4/5 weeks in league games I'd have a very different opinion on things.

My comment nothing to do with the game itself - Jacobs and Turan means we’ve got 18 bodies but only a 16 man squad - all I meant 

[1320Lichtie]

Think it’s important to not get beat in the next 2 games. Can’t have losses or poor performances piling up against lower league teams before going into Dundee United at home and QP away. Need to build up some kind of feel good factor again.. 
 

Should be playing what he thinks is our best team in both games and go out to try win both - Balde / Slater / McKenna getting minutes as a midfield trio too hopefully 

[ecto]

1 hour ago, SimonLichtie said:

It's very odd to me that people like Scott Allan and Turan are getting called out over the past few weeks when there's multiple fan favourites who've been very poor so far.

Mikey McKenna must have lost the ball a dozen times yesterday through poor passing yet I never heard a peep from anyone, but when Turan came on and played one poor pass a load of people were immediately on his back. Scott Allan didn't even play yesterday, we got battered and walked over in midfield, and instead of people thinking 'maybe he's not the problem' there's more on how we need him out ASAP . I'm fully expecting people to be happy when we don't play Scott Allan, but then pissed off about us playing long balls when he's not on the park.... you cant have it both ways.

Ricky, Tam and Mikey have been really poor so far this pre season by their own standards; I'd say that's much more of a worry than any of the new signings or Scott Allan (whose a different player this season). I haven't seen a word said by anyone on Mikey so far, yet he's probably been our most out of touch player this entire pre season. Hopefully he can get back on it over the next few games and back to the player we all know he can be. If he continued playing as he has so far, he wouldn't get in my starting 11.

I've no idea how anyone could look at yesterdays game and feel a need to comment on Turan in a negative way to be honest.... the majority of the starting 11 were really poor and well below par yet they're not commented on and a guy who came on for the last 15/ 20 min and yet again clearly showed he has some positives to his game that we can use throughout the season somehow get's it. Bizarre.

Clearly we need a left back - the management are very aware of this fact. We've been trying to get this sorted over the past wee while, and I'd much prefer us to get the right player in that has been identified, as opposed to just signing a left back, any left back, to cover the position. What would the preference be - sign an average left back two weeks ago to play in the league cup, or hold off to get a good/ quality left back at the end of July in time for the league campaign?

Personally I'm not overly fussed with yesterday as I still consider this to be pre season, and we were playing against a top 6 Premiership side. If we perform like that in 4/5 weeks in league games I'd have a very different opinion on things.

As usual and annoyingly Simon is bang on with this calm and considered analysis of our current predicament

[WHM]

We ve never replaced Chris Hamilton, someone who sits in front of the back 4 ,breaks up play,too many gaps.

[RedLichtie86]

Hammy was injured months ago. We have known ever since then we need to get cover there as even with Hetherington doing a decent job he was still limited in his abilty to play that position.

With him gone it was more evident we needed a left sided defensive player to play that role. Yet we have failed to sign anyone. Not even had a player on trial long enough to consider as a short term option.

We have gone down the route of throwing any player into that role and hoping it works. Stewart, a Right Winger, struggles enough at RB so why we thought playing him LB was a good idea is bonkers. 

I dont see the club signing a LB as all our hopes are pinned on Hammy coming back and we play the same back 4 every game. No plan B. No replacements or competition. Just 4 defenders all season.