The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours

[madton]

Dougie in the paper talking about a change of style,  bringing in more technical players and moving away from our more direct style we've been 'famous' for.

He's also keen to bring the average age down.

Sounds like a few more are close too so things are taking shape finally.

[Dunning1874]

Happy with Moffat. A profile of player who has an okay pedigree without being fully established as a Championship starter yet but has lots of potential to improve and is the right age to believe that Imrie's track record for improving players can work for him soon. It makes more sense than picking up someone like Jakubiak on the hope of getting more out of him.

We'll surely still add another centre forward to compete with Davies, but I think otherwise that could be us done for attacking players? That gives us Garrity, Reynolds, Moffat and Bearne as wide options, possibly King too depending if and where Imrie wants to use him. We obviously lack of a conventional number 10 type (unless he tries one of the above there) but again based on nothing but pure speculation, I wonder if removed of the need to accommodate Muirhead somewhere, we might see Imrie attempt a more conventional 4-3-3 with out and out wingers as opposed to a 4-2-3-1, which means you don't necessarily need that replacement for Crawford.

In many ways Crawford wasn't the archetypal number 10 himself either, he played that far forward as much for his ability off the ball as on it, as we were always carrying someone in the front four who didn't know how to press and was a defensive weak link. If you have a front three who are all more mobile, maybe you can afford to have a midfield three without the more attacking player.

[Ferguson]

3 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

That gives us Garrity, Reynolds, Moffat and Bearne as wide options, possibly King too depending if and where Imrie wants to use him. We obviously lack of a conventional number 10 type (unless he tries one of the above there) but again based on nothing but pure speculation, I wonder if removed of the need to accommodate Muirhead somewhere, we might see Imrie attempt a more conventional 4-3-3 with out and out wingers as opposed to a 4-2-3-1, which means you don't necessarily need that replacement for Crawford.

Imrie's comments in this mornings tele were quite interesting, we'll be relying more on pacey, technical players to break through the lines with Moffat being seen as the 10 in that system. As you say this would mean neither a replacement for Muirhead nor Crawford are needed, but I suspect we'll have one more striker to come.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing this new approach and the signings so far make a lot of sense if that's the way we're going.

[Passionate]

1 hour ago, Mr Toon said:

The thing McGrattan lacks at the moment is composure. He played in multiple roles for us and time and again went past players with ease and then when in a great position fired wide or too early or ignored a team mate in a perfect position. If he could develop the ability to read the game better and develop that bit of composure he could do very well. 

You have described Lewis McGregor down to a tee as well,   Thanks for info,hopefully he kicks on this season,  looking at our squad he could be a very important player 

[vikingTON]

I've no issue with the signings so far. You can make a case for each of them, and the reality is that we have to shop outside the usual market (especially for attacking players) or we just won't get many of our targets. We do need a couple of more proven players to complement what we've got, but we've often waited until August or even later to get the right player or two in the door. 

[Mr Toon]

58 minutes ago, virginton said:

I've no issue with the signings so far. You can make a case for each of them, and the reality is that we have to shop outside the usual market (especially for attacking players) or we just won't get many of our targets. We do need a couple of more proven players to complement what we've got, but we've often waited until August or even later to get the right player or two in the door. 

Agreed and as regards waiting it is often then that good loan signings become apparent and available. 

[baba douche]

17 hours ago, Colkitto said:

Didn't realize Pepe was older than Kirk Broadfoot

Aye, but Pepe is a multi-Champions League, La Liga and European Championship winner.

 

Kirk Broadfoot is a donkey that hurt himself cooking eggs.

[Colkitto]

1 hour ago, baba douche said:

Aye, but Pepe is a multi-Champions League, La Liga and European Championship winner.

 

Kirk Broadfoot is a donkey that hurt himself cooking eggs.

[Colkitto]

Arron Lyall on our radar apparently 

[Passionate]

1 minute ago, Colkitto said:

Arron Lyall on our radar apparently 

Very good player, Imrie was on for him in January and Airdrie beat him to the loan,  thought we might have tried to pursue him,   probably outwith our wage structure.

[madton]

Just now, Colkitto said:

Arron Lyall on our radar apparently 

I'm taking that as a done deal, Burns seems to get these bang on.

Seems highly rated by Airdire fans, many saying the wanted him back so sounds like another good piece of business by Dougie.

[TheGoon]

Certainly beefing up the winger options. Can’t run with too big a squad, but absolutely need depth there and options Imrie actually trusts.

[Mr November]

Lyall’s a good signing. Technically very good, always looking to be brave and take the ball in tight areas and has a bit of dig about him too, isn’t shy of going in for a tackle. He can be a frustrating player though as you can tell he hasn’t played a lot of first team football. His decision making can be really poor, whether it’s holding onto the ball for too long and losing possession or trying to do too much when a simple pass will do the job. I think he could play out wide but very much a number 10 and I’d probably prefer him to Moffat in there.

[vikingTON]

Having them rotating/swapping positions sounds a goer, which Imrie tried to do with Muirhead/Quitongo to less but not zero effect. 

I'm quite excited about our forward options now, still plenty of work to be done but we seem on the right track after a difficult start to the window. Getting genuine attacking threats has usually been our biggest problem at this level. 

[Chippyminton]

Agree with everyone else who’s happy and encouraged by the business we’ve done already. Irrespective of who comes through the door though - my greatest source of confidence is the fact that Dougie will rapidly have these boys running through brick walls for him. 

[Jamie_M]

 

[Colkitto]

As they say..happy with that!

[D'Jaffo]

Morton going for a different approach with more technical players should be interesting. Imrie might actually find himself with more interest from other teams. McCabe seemed to gain a lot of plaudits (they did finish fourth right enough) but I think a lot of it was due to them playing “the right way” whereas Morton played a different way. 
 

The change is probably more down to what’s available to Imrie in the market but I wouldn’t be surprised if bigger teams now showed an interest if he can make it work this coming season.

[TheGoon]

13 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Morton going for a different approach with more technical players should be interesting. Imrie might actually find himself with more interest from other teams. McCabe seemed to gain a lot of plaudits (they did finish fourth right enough) but I think a lot of it was due to them playing “the right way” whereas Morton played a different way. 
 

The change is probably more down to what’s available to Imrie in the market but I wouldn’t be surprised if bigger teams now showed an interest if he can make it work this coming season.

Aye this is the interesting bit. I’d have rather have kept Oakley, but we did become extremely one dimensional. Forced our hand to mix things up, which may not be a bad thing.

[D'Jaffo]

5 minutes ago, TheGoon said:

Aye this is the interesting bit. I’d have rather have kept Oakley, but we did become extremely one dimensional. Forced our hand to mix things up, which may not be a bad thing.

I guess this is our concern now as we have Oakley and Dowds as our strikers although given the amount of attacking midfielders we’ve signed I doubt we’ll start them both together. 
 

Changing the subject slightly but what’s happened with O’Connor? We’re still looking for another defender and seem to after Lee Ashcroft but failing that I’d be happy with someone like O’Connor.