The Partick Thistle thread

[third lanark]

1 minute ago, Jaggy McJagface said:

Hearing Ashcroft is a done deal, hopefully that should shore us up defensively for the rest of the season. McMillan leaving this month would be a huge blow so hope he stays on until at least the end of the season.

Raith fans on their thread stating Ashcroft is a done deal to them.  Though I’d be delighted if he did in fact sign for us

[Pie Of The Month]

If Ashcroft signed we could go with a back 5 of McMIllan - Neilson - Ashcroft - O'Reilly - Milne and just win games with goals from corners. Get someone with a decent long throw and go full Tony Pulis.

Edited January 12 by Pie Of The Month

[Fuctifano]

Ashcroft would take us up to 5 centre halves with Mcmillan and Milne also able to cover there so would be a bit odd unless Muirhead's injury is worse than thought or Williams is away. 

[JagsCG]

McMillan won’t be replaced with better, so losing him would be a huge blow - whilst not surprising. Much easier to take if he leaves in the summer though (despite the fact we’d get nothing) rather than now. 

[Nightmare]

Would be surprised if we signed Ashcroft as well as O’Reilly. Pleasantly so, but definitely feels like we could use the budget to fill other holes.

[Jaggy McJagface]

Just now, Fuctifano said:

Ashcroft would take us up to 5 centre halves with Mcmillan and Milne also able to cover there so would be a bit odd unless Muirhead's injury is worse than thought or Williams is away. 

I would guess that with the rumoured extension clause in Muirhead’s contract that is due to be triggered in 5 games time that Doolan is wanting to get rid of him at the end of the season.

 

Williams seems much more solid and reliable as cover at full back rather than CB so we can’t really avoid playing Muirhead if either of O’Reilly or Neilson got injured/suspended.

[BigMadMental]

Unpopular opinion but I am not fussed if McMillan leaves.

Great player, love him, but don’t see him and lawless as effective as before now that teams are starting to figure it out. They can go games at a time without having any impact. 
 

you still get a lot out of them on the whole but if anything, it’s a chance for us to try something else.
 

Would rather him in the team than out, but McMillan actually defensively hasn’t played too great since coming back from injury - struggles to get back and we are often left wide open there when him and/or lawless lose the ball and teams come straight down that wing. And on Saturday he gave the ball away several times to Arbroath early in the game.

Has missed a few that would expect him to score too.

Appreciate that’s not what everyone wants to read but this is what I’m seeing since he came back into the team after injury. 
 

All in all if you’re a Dundee fan you’re signing a good player but the caveat is, he was injured from June onwards, didn’t do pre season, played a few games at start of season then wasn’t back til November. Hasn’t quite hit full fitness or form yet for me.

There is also not really any evidence to suggest he would play better in another position to he is now, or how well he will link up with players who aren’t Lawless, cos they’re definitely a double act and they miss each other big time when one isn’t playing.

Similar to tiffoney, if Dundee don’t deploy a system like ours then I don’t see where McMillan fits in. Tiff has lost his way a bit at Dundee and whenever I’ve seen him he doesn’t seem to have the same role as he did with us, or get the same freedom to play. 
 

 

Edited January 12 by BigMadMental

[jaggyness]

41 minutes ago, Jaggy McJagface said:

I would guess that with the rumoured extension clause in Muirhead’s contract that is due to be triggered in 5 games time that Doolan is wanting to get rid of him at the end of the season 

 

I have to say, this was my first thought. Muirhead has been a great servant to the club over two spells but he's never eradicated the silly wild lunges and losing his temper too quickly. I'll be honest, I didn't expect him to play as much as he has this season but that is largely due to Williams taking a bit of time to find his feet. 

[Thistle_do_nicely]

3 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Courier saying we're going to offer Jack McMillan a PCA although they also say we're not desperate to get him in this window as we've other priorities.

What's he like? We've currently been playing Jordan McGhee there and he's never a RB. We've got Cammy Kerr, who is brutal and Tyler French who used to be amazing for us but hasn't impressed at Morton since recovering from injury. What's his style so to speak?

Has improved a lot and should at a minimum be good enough to be a rotation top flight right back. You'll need someone right sided in midfield that'll help him a lot defensively imo as he can be shaky 1vs1, e.g. he got turned a few times against Arbroath, think a lot of teams target him too. Can drift out of games, where he'll bomb forward a lot and create a few problems first half but has a poorer 2nd half. idk how much of that is him individually or us as a team tbf.

Loves getting into the penalty area, comfortable on the ball, fairly tall but not the best in the air. 

Funnily enough hes a bit like his namesake Jordan McMillan was for us (hopefully sans the drug habit however)

[Reid]

I’m surprised the Ashcroft rumours are still going, I thought us signing O’Reilly would cool them. I can’t see why we’d need 5 CBs, although Ashcroft definitely better than Muirhead and probably O’Reilly too. Signing him on a PCA would make much more sense.

[Red Kite]

I think fullback has become the most demanding position in modern football.  Some big clubs seem to be stockpiling young fullbacks.  You need stamina, speed, defensive ability and to be able to dovetail with players forward of you.   McMillan is as good a blend as anyone in the division and no idea who would replace him.  I'd sacrifice some defensive ability to get someone who can play a bit of football.  Open to any suggestions.

[Jaggy McJagface]

3 hours ago, jaggyness said:

I have to say, this was my first thought. Muirhead has been a great servant to the club over two spells but he's never eradicated the silly wild lunges and losing his temper too quickly. I'll be honest, I didn't expect him to play as much as he has this season but that is largely due to Williams taking a bit of time to find his feet. 

I think we’ve also got to bear in mind that McCall signed him again as backup but he’s somehow made it 2 seasons as a first choice CB. He’s been a good servant and is a competent mid table championship level defender but if we want to build a squad capable of challenging for promotion we can’t afford to not improve on him.

 

It’s actually quite astounding that we got within a bawhair of promotion with him and Brownlie as a pairing.

[third lanark]

8 minutes ago, Jaggy McJagface said:

I think we’ve also got to bear in mind that McCall signed him again as backup but he’s somehow made it 2 seasons as a first choice CB. He’s been a good servant and is a competent mid table championship level defender but if we want to build a squad capable of challenging for promotion we can’t afford to not improve on him.

 

It’s actually quite astounding that we got within a bawhair of promotion with him and Brownlie as a pairing.

What’s your source for the Ashcroft signing mate?

[Highlandmagar]

14 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Courier saying we're going to offer Jack McMillan a PCA although they also say we're not desperate to get him in this window as we've other priorities.

What's he like? We've currently been playing Jordan McGhee there and he's never a RB. We've got Cammy Kerr, who is brutal and Tyler French who used to be amazing for us but hasn't impressed at Morton since recovering from injury. What's his style so to speak?

He's pish. I wouldn't bother.

[baba douche]

17 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Courier saying we're going to offer Jack McMillan a PCA although they also say we're not desperate to get him in this window as we've other priorities.

What's he like? We've currently been playing Jordan McGhee there and he's never a RB. We've got Cammy Kerr, who is brutal and Tyler French who used to be amazing for us but hasn't impressed at Morton since recovering from injury. What's his style so to speak?

He's rotten - runs like this.

 

You wouldn't like him...

 

 

[Thistle_do_nicely]

have posted before and caveated that its only from glimpses of him (and wasnt at the game in Cappielow) but is there a strong case to drop Graham and start with Diack?

There's probably some kind of "debut bias" thing going on tbf because I remember thinking he looked the part in his first game at Firhill, albeit his first was an unmarked header + the second looked like an O.G to me, but imo we'd get more from starting Diack and bringing Graham/Adeloye on later than the other way round. Graham's still got a part to play, liked the way he took his goal against Arbroath even if Gaston was culpable, but I think Diack's shown enough to start a bit more often.

A traditional 4-4-fucking-2 is theoretically possible but don't think we'd risk it given our midfield struggles meaning we probably have to keep flinging an extra body in there so we aren't hideously overrun if we go with two forwards.

Edited January 14 by Thistle_do_nicely

[BigMadMental]

56 minutes ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

have posted before and caveated that its only from glimpses of him (and wasnt at the game in Cappielow) but is there a strong case to drop Graham and start with Diack?

There's probably some kind of "debut bias" thing going on tbf because I remember thinking he looked the part in his first game at Firhill, albeit his first was an unmarked header + the second looked like an O.G to me, but imo we'd get more from starting Diack and bringing Graham/Adeloye on later than the other way round. Graham's still got a part to play, liked the way he took his goal against Arbroath even if Gaston was culpable, but I think Diack's shown enough to start a bit more often.

A traditional 4-4-fucking-2 is theoretically possible but don't think we'd risk it given our midfield struggles meaning we probably have to keep flinging an extra body in there so we aren't hideously overrun if we go with two forwards.

Diack plays better off Robinson and/or Adeloye too which probably brings more headache. 
 

Generally if the club captain is fit, they play. So this is probably always going to be an issue.

Adeloye could be a big player for us too I feel and he will be looking for a club, but there’s no way he is staying here to sit on the bench. 

[Jaggy McJagface]

2 hours ago, BigMadMental said:

Diack plays better off Robinson and/or Adeloye too which probably brings more headache. 
 

Generally if the club captain is fit, they play. So this is probably always going to be an issue.

Adeloye could be a big player for us too I feel and he will be looking for a club, but there’s no way he is staying here to sit on the bench. 

Would love to sign Adeloye permanently when his contract is up but agree he may be looking for a club that’ll start him.

 

Graham is captain and on a long term deal so he’s not getting dropped.

[JagsCG]

3 hours ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

have posted before and caveated that its only from glimpses of him (and wasnt at the game in Cappielow) but is there a strong case to drop Graham and start with Diack?

There's probably some kind of "debut bias" thing going on tbf because I remember thinking he looked the part in his first game at Firhill, albeit his first was an unmarked header + the second looked like an O.G to me, but imo we'd get more from starting Diack and bringing Graham/Adeloye on later than the other way round. Graham's still got a part to play, liked the way he took his goal against Arbroath even if Gaston was culpable, but I think Diack's shown enough to start a bit more often.

A traditional 4-4-fucking-2 is theoretically possible but don't think we'd risk it given our midfield struggles meaning we probably have to keep flinging an extra body in there so we aren't hideously overrun if we go with two forwards.

I think we’d struggle to move to 4-4-2 due to the reasons you mention hence why despite it being a success in the play off run (albeit with some big players who’ve since left) Doolan hasn’t really went back to trying it. 
 

Putting aside that realistically Graham probably won’t get dropped, I honestly believe he could just be doing with someone closer to him, not suggesting he hasn’t had a few duff games recently and can’t pass blame simply onto the lack of an effective No.10 and/or second striker. But it would significantly benefit him imo, to get one of the 3 midfielders up closer to him (Alston doesn’t do it, McInroy has at times but is fairly inconsistent, Robinson in theory should be good foil for Graham but obviously has had injury issues), or start a Diack or Adeloye up with Brian (again theoretically because it’s unlikely due to the aforementioned reasons). I do think it’s a difficult task being asked of him in terms of a loan striker, at the moment. It’s not like he’s missing a shedload of chances each week (bar the QP game where he was poor), we just seem to be struggling to create too many opportunities for him at the minute. 

Edited January 14 by JagsCG

[Red Kite]

My main concern for Diack is that his game-time is managed properly, at this stage.  He looks physically strong, but is still only a teenager.  I am sure we can all list strikers who were over-played, or over-hyped, to the detriment of their later career.  Adeloye should be capable of playing every game and I would like to keep him.  We have a manager who knows what it takes to play up-front so I am keeping patient.