The Arbroath Thread

[Tattie36]

38 minutes ago, Smokerson said:

We do have a few new players so it was never going to click straight away. Thought he got the team just about right today, we need to see how we look at the end of the window and at least after 10/12 games before talking about changing managers etc. 

Next week looking like a big game already.

There has to be an end game to this though surely. How many more chances is he going to get? one more game, one more month, one more transfer window, one more promise of not making the same mistakes again blah blah blah?? He’s had a year and three transfer windows to sort this but I can’t see many positives.

Something’s got to give - Either positive changes happen very very soon (the preferred option) or we need a regime change in order to give ourselves a chance.

Edited August 12, 2023 by Tattie36

[Guest]

Genuine question, has Craig Slater beaten the 1st man with a corner yet? 

[RedLichtie86]

4 minutes ago, TheClosingArguement said:

Genuine question, has Craig Slater beaten the 1st man with a corner yet? 

Think he struggles to get it past his own shadow at times

[SmokeyJoe]

18 minutes ago, lichtgilphead said:

Whilst the score ended up 2-1, it was not a narrow defeat. A draw would have been a travesty.

That said, the second half performance gave some grounds for optimism. Let's see how we get on in the rematch at the Gayf.

Tbh I had optimism after Dundee then Montrose and looked how it panned out need to have back to back positive results before I have optimism again not after a better second half 

[1320Lichtie]

A good Arbroath team could still easily and most likely be on the end of 2 defeats to United at home and QP away (this new look QP team / club). We will probably get beat next week too to be honest. Thought it was stupid to move that game, a free week to regroup and make some signings in areas we need to would’ve been ideal for me. Probably be on the end of 3 defeats in a row which won’t help. 
 

Thought Tam and Ricky were very good today which is promising. Ricky had to bail Steele out on several occasions, he had an awful day and got rinsed numerous times by Thomas and Hepburn. 
 

Glaring issues remain to be the middle of the park. We are so lightweight in there, thought Gold done ok and Slater tried but don’t think you’ll ever see the best of Slater without a big bad b*****d to sit and defend infront of the back 4 so he can go away and play. 
 

There really just is something not right about us and I cannot put my finger on it. We don’t look like we have any real style of play or look like we know what the plan is. We just look all over the gaff and I think that is because players are trying to cover up the big problems we’ve got. 
 

I don’t understand what’s going on. That today definitely wasn’t good but it wasn’t really bad either it was just extremely meh and we very well could’ve taken something. 
 

Do not know what to make of it but it would be good to just start enjoying Saturday nights and having some positivity about the football. We just give off bad energy and vibes.

 

I remember Nouble saying ‘Dick has no tactics he’s just vibes’ and that seems to be what we’re seeing. It’s all well and good when we are winning but when we’ve been poor for such a long period of time it just won’t work.
 

It needs to be and get better, we’ve spent good money and got some good players.
 

Hoping to see a reaction next week but it’s hard to have any confidence in that happening. 

Edited August 12, 2023 by 1320Lichtie

[SmokeyJoe]

9 minutes ago, TheClosingArguement said:

Genuine question, has Craig Slater beaten the 1st man with a corner yet? 

As a club we are pretty terrible at set pieces and rarely beat a first man so slater slots right in

[Guest]

1 minute ago, SmokeyJoe said:

As a club we are pretty terrible at set pieces and rarely beat a first man so slater slots right in

Infuriated me at forfar how utterly dreadful he is at crossing a ball. 

[SimonLichtie]

1 hour ago, Anotherlichtie said:

Come on then @clashcityrockerdefend that. Do your best. 
 

1 giant order of humble pie straight to your door. 

Normally ignore this continued pish - but regardless of the weirdness of posting the same thing over and over and targeting some random guy on a football forum constantly who you dont even know - my reading of the 'humble pie' situation was as follows:

·  You kept saying we needed rid of Dick ASAP, his signings in January would be shite etc etc

·  We beat Dundee 4-2

·  'clashy' as you call him made his 'humble pie' comment

·   We lost a few games/ continued to struggle, and you really enjoyed this and your 'humble pie' obsession began to fully form

·   The signings Dick made in January actually did enough to keep us up, which proved you to have actually been incorrect.

·  You continue to bring it up despite the fact you were actually wrong and keeping Dick for the full season last year actually proved the correct decision

·  Everyone ignores your continued one tone copy and paste posts on the same thing and get bored and decide to start accusing club volunteers of being paid. This does not go down well. You disappear for a few weeks and return with the 'humble pie' posts again.

It's weird, man. Really weird.   

[keptie]

4 minutes ago, SimonLichtie said:

Normally ignore this continued pish - but regardless of the weirdness of posting the same thing over and over and targeting some random guy on a football forum constantly who you dont even know - my reading of the 'humble pie' situation was as follows:

·  You kept saying we needed rid of Dick ASAP, his signings in January would be shite etc etc

·  We beat Dundee 4-2

·  'clashy' as you call him made his 'humble pie' comment

·   We lost a few games/ continued to struggle, and you really enjoyed this and your 'humble pie' obsession began to fully form

·   The signings Dick made in January actually did enough to keep us up, which proved you to have actually been incorrect.

·  You continue to bring it up despite the fact you were actually wrong and keeping Dick for the full season last year actually proved the correct decision

·  Everyone ignores your continued one tone copy and paste posts on the same thing and get bored and decide to start accusing club volunteers of being paid. This does not go down well. You disappear for a few weeks and return with the 'humble pie' posts again.

It's weird, man. Really weird.   

Spot on Simon, he is really weird.

[SimonLichtie]

Oddly, and I can't entirely put my finger on it, but todays game really annoyed me. Every poor performance/ defeat we've had so far in pre season, and last week, I've not been phased by at all, but today was the polar opposite. We were poor for the majority of the game, but I felt like we got basically everything wrong in almost every area tactically and in terms of substitutions which is really frustrating. Players who were really struggling throughout the game got 90 minutes while others who were beginning to come onto a game were hooked. We made the same double substition we were planning to make at 1-1 as we were at 1-0. My reading into that is Dick didn't see the situation any different when it was 1-1 than being 1-0 down, which is absolutely incredible.

I also feel like for a lot of last season there wasn't much we could do in terms of changing it up etc. because we had such a poor squad overall, but our squad is miles ahead of where it was 12 months ago in my opinion. I genuinely think apart from the two blindingly obvious positions we need to fill we are in much better shape overall. That's a credit to the management. However - with that comes the belief that we should be doing better than we were throughout last season. If were not, then serious questions will need to be asked in a couple of months time.

Finally, once again, I have to question why Scott Allan has literally become our last pick of all our outfield players both today and last week, with 5 subs on ahead of him. Throughout both of these games we've struggled to string two passes together and keep the ball for any length of time. We have much better forward players this season than last, and we've given them basically no service so far in the league games. Scott Allan struggles with various aspects of the game, but the two areas he's miles better than anyone we have are picking out a pass and ball retention. In our first few pre season games we seemed to be looking at playing him as a ball playing sitter in midfield, and he looked a lot fitter, we were holding the ball and knocking it about and we had possession far more. My worries of several weeks ago that if we didn't play Scott Allan we wouldn't be seeing a lot of the ball and would be whacking it long the vast majority of the time have grown considerably.

Far more negatives than positives today (although there were a few of them as well) and really frustrating. However, it's games against the other teams in the bottom half that'll make or break our season, not ones at the top end such as we've played today and last week.

[Anotherlichtie]

36 minutes ago, SimonLichtie said:

Normally ignore this continued pish - but regardless of the weirdness of posting the same thing over and over and targeting some random guy on a football forum constantly who you dont even know - my reading of the 'humble pie' situation was as follows:

·  You kept saying we needed rid of Dick ASAP, his signings in January would be shite etc etc

·  We beat Dundee 4-2

·  'clashy' as you call him made his 'humble pie' comment

·   We lost a few games/ continued to struggle, and you really enjoyed this and your 'humble pie' obsession began to fully form

·   The signings Dick made in January actually did enough to keep us up, which proved you to have actually been incorrect.

·  You continue to bring it up despite the fact you were actually wrong and keeping Dick for the full season last year actually proved the correct decision

·  Everyone ignores your continued one tone copy and paste posts on the same thing and get bored and decide to start accusing club volunteers of being paid. This does not go down well. You disappear for a few weeks and return with the 'humble pie' posts again.

It's weird, man. Really weird.   

Haven’t you got an archive to update? 
 

which is wonderful work by the way. Make sure you’ve got good old clashy on it tho 

[lichtie23]

There a mute button lads 

[DUAFC]

1 hour ago, SimonLichtie said:

Normally ignore this continued pish - but regardless of the weirdness of posting the same thing over and over and targeting some random guy on a football forum constantly who you dont even know - my reading of the 'humble pie' situation was as follows:

·  You kept saying we needed rid of Dick ASAP, his signings in January would be shite etc etc

·  We beat Dundee 4-2

·  'clashy' as you call him made his 'humble pie' comment

·   We lost a few games/ continued to struggle, and you really enjoyed this and your 'humble pie' obsession began to fully form

·   The signings Dick made in January actually did enough to keep us up, which proved you to have actually been incorrect.

·  You continue to bring it up despite the fact you were actually wrong and keeping Dick for the full season last year actually proved the correct decision

·  Everyone ignores your continued one tone copy and paste posts on the same thing and get bored and decide to start accusing club volunteers of being paid. This does not go down well. You disappear for a few weeks and return with the 'humble pie' posts again.

It's weird, man. Really weird.   

So Simon,  do you think we're in a decent place and should carry on with the same management  ?

 Edited to add, clearly Another Lichtie is a total cock

Edited August 12, 2023 by DUAFC

[Leicesterlichtie]

I think the management will be kept in place for the foreseeable future, unless we get badly cut adrift from the remaining boats in the harbour and we are somewhere near to the bell rock before the board will take action. 

[Tattie36]

We all seem to be in agreement that our current squad is better than this time last year. Yes, it’s massively unbalanced and we’re short in some critical positions but generally we have stronger players as a whole, correct?

Would our squad do better with a change of management? A fresh, new and different approach?

So, the big question is why does everyone think we are underperforming so badly this season and last? And what can be done to turn things around?

I know what I think.

Edited August 12, 2023 by Tattie36

[RedLichtie86]

I have already resigned myself to long and hard season where we ultimately finish bottom.

Last seasons performances on and off the pitch have given me little to no hope for this season. Why?

Because despite all we have achieved up until Jan 2022, we have regressed by a fair bit.

Jan 22, we were riding high yet we failed to build on the momentum we had. Failed to strengthen sufficently and in the end it cost us the title. But that happens in football.

Come summer 22 we had a huge influx of Season Ticket holders, an abundance of positivity going into the season. Did we dare dream of a title challenge or aim for promotion playoffs. Surely we could build upon this squad and achieve that.

But what did we end up with? Bargain basement signings, fallouts within the squad with players leaving. A season where we scored 11, yes 11, fucking goals at home. Tactics, selections and subs all utter pish for the most part. Only by grace of Cove and Hamilton being just marginally worse than us did we stay up.

Does anyone mind Dick saying the fans need to get a grip? This on the back of another poor performance where i believe our only attacking threat in Linn was subbed for Corfe and we booed him. Or when the fans sung Linns name that it "gets on his tits" 

As soon as Jan 23 came Linn was relegated to the bench barely to be seen as Dick was making it clear he was in charge. Not the fans. He knows best..... Yet we still struggled and we all knew Linn would have given us his all and offered far more attacking threat than any other player that played LW. 

And Jan 23 was an ok transfer window with the additions of Balde and Hetherington. El Mhanni was a 1 game wonder. Ardarkwa was injured for a good chunk. And Dow is pretty usless in the final third.

So we stayed up. Dick stayed. New recruitment team was announced. Into another transfer window we went.

Then the fun begins. A few decent signings announced. Then the trialists come and all hell breaks loose. Most are released after less than 2 weeks yet we were told they had all been scouted and believed to be good enough to play for us. IF that was the case infind it hard to believe they would have been punted so quickly.

We do make a few more encouraging signings........ and some questionable signings. Yet it was clear as day that we had 2 huge gaps in the squad. LB and DM. Roles we have needed covered/filled since Apr 23 and May 22. Why was this allowed to happen? Incompetence?

And then the League Cup starts. Same shit different season.

Weak in the midfield, formations that are all over the shop with players playing out of posititon looking like they dont want to be on the pitch. At one point only having 1 fucking defender in the squad because we have been too stupid to have any proper cover. We are like a pub side scrambling to put a side together. I thought we were the best part time club in the country but still have only 4 defenders in our squad. 4!!! And thia has been a common theme for years now. Thats like playing russiun roulette with 5 bullets in the gun and putting on a kevlar vest thinking it will all be ok. 

And thennwe come to our opening match.

Beyond belief that we praticaly went 4-2-4 with a RW at LB, 2 midgets in CM and a gung ho attitude which left us so exposed at the back he waited until we were 4-0 down before making any change to the formation or squad. That game was an embarrasment of failures from Dick. And its not the first time we have seriously questioned his tactics or selections over the past 14 months.

Now do i see things getting better. Yes. The squad is stronger. But only marginally. Our defence is fragile as we have no LB and is too exposed due to our midfield being so weak. Our attack is struggling as we lack any sort of creativity, this despite having Allan on the bench that looked good in preseason as the attackers were making great runs for his passes.

We still need 4 players mimimum. LB, DM and a backup DM and a RB/CB to challenge the other defenders for places.

Do i see Dick lasting the season....... unless we make signings and get results to keep us within touching distance of safety. No

Sorry for the long read.

[lichtie23]

4 minutes ago, RedLichtie86 said:

I have already resigned myself to long and hard season where we ultimately finish bottom.

Last seasons performances on and off the pitch have given me little to no hope for this season. Why?

Because despite all we have achieved up until Jan 2022, we have regressed by a fair bit.

Jan 22, we were riding high yet we failed to build on the momentum we had. Failed to strengthen sufficently and in the end it cost us the title. But that happens in football.

Come summer 22 we had a huge influx of Season Ticket holders, an abundance of positivity going into the season. Did we dare dream of a title challenge or aim for promotion playoffs. Surely we could build upon this squad and achieve that.

But what did we end up with? Bargain basement signings, fallouts within the squad with players leaving. A season where we scored 11, yes 11, fucking goals at home. Tactics, selections and subs all utter pish for the most part. Only by grace of Cove and Hamilton being just marginally worse than us did we stay up.

Does anyone mind Dick saying the fans need to get a grip? This on the back of another poor performance where i believe our only attacking threat in Linn was subbed for Corfe and we booed him. Or when the fans sung Linns name that it "gets on his tits" 

As soon as Jan 23 came Linn was relegated to the bench barely to be seen as Dick was making it clear he was in charge. Not the fans. He knows best..... Yet we still struggled and we all knew Linn would have given us his all and offered far more attacking threat than any other player that played LW. 

And Jan 23 was an ok transfer window with the additions of Balde and Hetherington. El Mhanni was a 1 game wonder. Ardarkwa was injured for a good chunk. And Dow is pretty usless in the final third.

So we stayed up. Dick stayed. New recruitment team was announced. Into another transfer window we went.

Then the fun begins. A few decent signings announced. Then the trialists come and all hell breaks loose. Most are released after less than 2 weeks yet we were told they had all been scouted and believed to be good enough to play for us. IF that was the case infind it hard to believe they would have been punted so quickly.

We do make a few more encouraging signings........ and some questionable signings. Yet it was clear as day that we had 2 huge gaps in the squad. LB and DM. Roles we have needed covered/filled since Apr 23 and May 22. Why was this allowed to happen? Incompetence?

And then the League Cup starts. Same shit different season.

Weak in the midfield, formations that are all over the shop with players playing out of posititon looking like they dont want to be on the pitch. At one point only having 1 fucking defender in the squad because we have been too stupid to have any proper cover. We are like a pub side scrambling to put a side together. I thought we were the best part time club in the country but still have only 4 defenders in our squad. 4!!! And thia has been a common theme for years now. Thats like playing russiun roulette with 5 bullets in the gun and putting on a kevlar vest thinking it will all be ok. 

And thennwe come to our opening match.

Beyond belief that we praticaly went 4-2-4 with a RW at LB, 2 midgets in CM and a gung ho attitude which left us so exposed at the back he waited until we were 4-0 down before making any change to the formation or squad. That game was an embarrasment of failures from Dick. And its not the first time we have seriously questioned his tactics or selections over the past 14 months.

Now do i see things getting better. Yes. The squad is stronger. But only marginally. Our defence is fragile as we have no LB and is too exposed due to our midfield being so weak. Our attack is struggling as we lack any sort of creativity, this despite having Allan on the bench that looked good in preseason as the attackers were making great runs for his passes.

We still need 4 players mimimum. LB, DM and a backup DM and a RB/CB to challenge the other defenders for places.

Do i see Dick lasting the season....... unless we make signings and get results to keep us within touching distance of safety. No

Sorry for the long read.

Don’t apologise. I enjoyed your passage. Everyone is allowed an opinion 

[SimonLichtie]

Sacking a manager two games into a season is, frankly, absurd and is for clubs that are in turmoil. Any manager who starts a season should be given, at least, the first 9 games and anything less reflects very badly on the club in question.

In my opinion there are 'right' and 'wrong' stages in a season to sack a manager, unless there are underlying issues at play. Early/ Mid October after the first quarter, late November in order to get a new manager in and give them some time to assess things prior to January, and late February prior to the last quarter.

Sacking managers during transfer windows is usually a bit of a nonsense in my opinion. You either have a manager and back them to do their thing during that time or you make a change prior to it to give someone you think better positioned the job.

Between now and October will form my opinion on what's best for us going forward for the rest of the campaign, as it would do in any given season.

[ecto]

1 hour ago, SimonLichtie said:

 

 

Finally, once again, I have to question why Scott Allan has literally become our last pick of all our outfield players both today and last week, with 5 subs on ahead of him. Throughout both of these games we've struggled to string two passes together and keep the ball for any length of time. We have much better forward players this season than last, and we've given them basically no service so far in the league games. Scott Allan struggles with various aspects of the game, but the two areas he's miles better than anyone we have are picking out a pass and ball retention. In our first few pre season games we seemed to be looking at playing him as a ball playing sitter in midfield, and he looked a lot fitter, we were holding the ball and knocking it about and we had possession far more. My worries of several weeks ago that if we didn't play Scott Allan we wouldn't be seeing a lot of the ball and would be whacking it long the vast majority of the time have grown considerably.

Far more negatives than positives today (although there were a few of them as well) and really frustrating. However, it's games against the other teams in the bottom half that'll make or break our season, not ones at the top end such as we've played today and last week.

The Scott Allan question is easy for me, it’s obvious the manager doesn’t see him as a player for a scrap, tbh I don’t see where he fits into the team

but you are right, we do have to take points of the teams about us

[ExiledLichtie]

If I could be bothered right now, I'd just quote one of the many posts I made over the last year where I said that I felt the management were not getting the best out of the players we had.  

I haven't changed my mind at any point.  Its why I get so annoyed with all the calls to chuck Allan (and others) on the scrapheap.  He's a quality player that the management aren't getting the best out of.

 

(I'm editing just like the post below, because I also don't think he should be sacked now, its too late)

Edited August 12, 2023 by ExiledLichtie