Forfar Athletic News 2018 onwards

[IpswichLoon]

A bloody blind man could see at the start of the season we needed at least one more striker, its baffling, surely to god someone is gonna be arriving soon, this league is there for the taking if we sort the attack out. Not sure the booing Two games in is gonna help anyone. 

[nofixedability]

2 hours ago, IpswichLoon said:

A bloody blind man could see at the start of the season we needed at least one more striker, its baffling, surely to god someone is gonna be arriving soon, this league is there for the taking if we sort the attack out. Not sure the booing Two games in is gonna help anyone. 

We absolutely need more up top but bigger problem for me is how negatively we set up. A proper 5 at the back and two holding midfielders at home to Elgin? Utterly grim viewing up until he changed formations with the subs, was far too late though. Like we were happy with a draw for most of the game.

Edited August 13, 2023 by nofixedability

[Jupiter Jazz]

39 minutes ago, nofixedability said:

We absolutely need more up top but bigger problem for me is how negatively we set up. A proper 5 at the back and two holding midfielders at home to Elgin? Utterly grim viewing up until he changed formations with the suns, was far too late though. Like we were happy with a draw for most of the game.

Yeah and no creativity or vision from the midfield, same as last season. Whatley is a big upgrade on Hutton, I really like him. Robson though does absolutely nothing for me, he has to be the playmaker and it's all sideways and back the way.

[nofixedability]

9 minutes ago, Jupiter Jazz said:

Yeah and no creativity or vision from the midfield, same as last season. Whatley is a big upgrade on Hutton, I really like him. Robson though does absolutely nothing for me, he has to be the playmaker and it's all sideways and back the way.

Have seen flashes of what he can do but nowhere near enough. Like most yesterday was far too deep for far too long. Bizarre that we didn’t change it at half-time and waited until half way through second half. Was almost instantaneously better. 
 

This passive first half’s was a problem late last season and seems to be something we are doing this season. Not a fan of it at all.

[Loon From Outta Toon]

McKinnon’s interviews a bit poor for me. 
 

Basically saying he was content & happy with the performance, albeit more so the second half.  We could have played till 9pm and still no scored, we didn’t threaten at all. Had a couple of half chances, wasted every free kick opportunity.  Stated that Watson had a fine game? Deary me. Get the tangerine blinkered glasses off and see that he’s no good enough.

[ScottishLoon]

Only 1 more player coming in from the sounds of it in the interview.

Makes you think that the player budgets almost all used up or that the manager is happy with the size of the squad.

Edited August 13, 2023 by ScottishLoon

[Bridie Vision]

I personally like the formation we have seen in friendlies and the cup what a 5-2-3 / 3-4-3 can do. Nditi is a really good wide outlet, and Moore can cut inside allowing Kinglis/Seb/Thommo whoever the space on the left flank or drive on himself. 

Yesterday was too deep, and with the way Elgin parked the bus from kickoff we really should've threatened more. We looked better with a 4-4-2 yesterday but then we only thought about attacking a bit more once Thommo and Paterson came on.

Watson is young and probably best suited to gaining experience this season with sub appearances, he certainly cannot be our 2nd choice striker.

Finn Robson is a tremendous player and should be the heir to Slater, but I agree he's shown nothing so far and it seems like Smokie is our best LWB and best CM (if you call Whatley a CDM) right now. I'm sure Robson will shine but perhaps not at our club, he looks like he'd prefer a tiki-taka Guardiola esque style of play.

That's all been quite negative so I'll put out some positives:

McCallum looks like he's back on it after a few meh seasons, maybe Zach Paris is the most capable subbie GK we've had since maybe Hoban.

We have one of the best defences in the league Stuart Morrison, Matty Allan & Adam Hutchinson look like they understand each other well, and I honestly think we will be hard to beat this year (the weaknesses are clearly the other end of the pitch).

I really like Nditi, right since when Stuart Malcolm took a punt on a Londoner who had just moved house to Dundee (one of the few good decisions Malks made as Forfar boss). Yes he's not perfect but seems to thrive in this wingback role.

Whatley, he's solid and dependable. Kinglis an absolute gem of a player and I think we'll struggle to keep him for long, how Brechin got hold of him for as long as they did they deserve plaudits!

Sorry for the long posts guys but after two 0-0 games some folk here seem to think we're as terrible as we were last year, so wanted to try and make a balanced call - give the negatives along with the positives.

[BridiesHereBridiesThere]

58 minutes ago, Bridie Vision said:

 

McCallum looks like he's back on it after a few meh seasons, maybe Zach Paris is the most capable subbie GK we've had since maybe Hoban.

Forgetting Jay Kennedy’s time was after Hoban?

[C_titz]

1 hour ago, Bridie Vision said:

I personally like the formation we have seen in friendlies and the cup what a 5-2-3 / 3-4-3 can do. Nditi is a really good wide outlet, and Moore can cut inside allowing Kinglis/Seb/Thommo whoever the space on the left flank or drive on himself. 

Yesterday was too deep, and with the way Elgin parked the bus from kickoff we really should've threatened more. We looked better with a 4-4-2 yesterday but then we only thought about attacking a bit more once Thommo and Paterson came on.

Watson is young and probably best suited to gaining experience this season with sub appearances, he certainly cannot be our 2nd choice striker.

Finn Robson is a tremendous player and should be the heir to Slater, but I agree he's shown nothing so far and it seems like Smokie is our best LWB and best CM (if you call Whatley a CDM) right now. I'm sure Robson will shine but perhaps not at our club, he looks like he'd prefer a tiki-taka Guardiola esque style of play.

That's all been quite negative so I'll put out some positives:

McCallum looks like he's back on it after a few meh seasons, maybe Zach Paris is the most capable subbie GK we've had since maybe Hoban.

We have one of the best defences in the league Stuart Morrison, Matty Allan & Adam Hutchinson look like they understand each other well, and I honestly think we will be hard to beat this year (the weaknesses are clearly the other end of the pitch).

I really like Nditi, right since when Stuart Malcolm took a punt on a Londoner who had just moved house to Dundee (one of the few good decisions Malks made as Forfar boss). Yes he's not perfect but seems to thrive in this wingback role.

Whatley, he's solid and dependable. Kinglis an absolute gem of a player and I think we'll struggle to keep him for long, how Brechin got hold of him for as long as they did they deserve plaudits!

Sorry for the long posts guys but after two 0-0 games some folk here seem to think we're as terrible as we were last year, so wanted to try and make a balanced call - give the negatives along with the positives.

Too positive for this thread . Admin please delete . 

Spoiler

I agree with most of your points 

 

[lwh]

1 hour ago, Bridie Vision said:

I personally like the formation we have seen in friendlies and the cup what a 5-2-3 / 3-4-3 can do. Nditi is a really good wide outlet, and Moore can cut inside allowing Kinglis/Seb/Thommo whoever the space on the left flank or drive on himself. 

Yesterday was too deep, and with the way Elgin parked the bus from kickoff we really should've threatened more. We looked better with a 4-4-2 yesterday but then we only thought about attacking a bit more once Thommo and Paterson came on.

Watson is young and probably best suited to gaining experience this season with sub appearances, he certainly cannot be our 2nd choice striker.

Finn Robson is a tremendous player and should be the heir to Slater, but I agree he's shown nothing so far and it seems like Smokie is our best LWB and best CM (if you call Whatley a CDM) right now. I'm sure Robson will shine but perhaps not at our club, he looks like he'd prefer a tiki-taka Guardiola esque style of play.

That's all been quite negative so I'll put out some positives:

McCallum looks like he's back on it after a few meh seasons, maybe Zach Paris is the most capable subbie GK we've had since maybe Hoban.

We have one of the best defences in the league Stuart Morrison, Matty Allan & Adam Hutchinson look like they understand each other well, and I honestly think we will be hard to beat this year (the weaknesses are clearly the other end of the pitch).

I really like Nditi, right since when Stuart Malcolm took a punt on a Londoner who had just moved house to Dundee (one of the few good decisions Malks made as Forfar boss). Yes he's not perfect but seems to thrive in this wingback role.

Whatley, he's solid and dependable. Kinglis an absolute gem of a player and I think we'll struggle to keep him for long, how Brechin got hold of him for as long as they did they deserve plaudits!

Sorry for the long posts guys but after two 0-0 games some folk here seem to think we're as terrible as we were last year, so wanted to try and make a balanced call - give the negatives along with the positives.

Think the formation is right but heavily relies on the full backs getting up really high. In the league cup, Nditi and Moore spent more time as wingers than full backs and it worked really well. I also think Inglis has been far better in midfield than in the front three

[Jupiter Jazz]

10 minutes ago, lwh said:

Think the formation is right but heavily relies on the full backs getting up really high. In the league cup, Nditi and Moore spent more time as wingers than full backs and it worked really well. I also think Inglis has been far better in midfield than in the front three

This.

I couldn't believe how deep Nditi and Moore were yesterday. I'd also have Inglis playing beside Whatley and Thomson starting.

[BridiesHereBridiesThere]

I believe our strongest lineup currently based on league cup and league so far is:

3-4-3

 

GK: McCallum 

LCB: Hutchinson 

CB: Morrison

RCB: Allan

LWB: Moore

LCM: Whatley

RCM: Inglis

RWB: Nditi

LW: Ross

ST: Skelly

RW: Thomson

[Jupiter Jazz]

8 minutes ago, BridiesHereBridiesThere said:

I believe our strongest lineup currently based on league cup and league so far is:

3-4-3

 

GK: McCallum 

LCB: Hutchinson 

CB: Morrison

RCB: Allan

LWB: Moore

LCM: Whatley

RCM: Inglis

RWB: Nditi

LW: Ross

ST: Skelly

RW: Thomson

Yep.

Forward this on to Ray please.

[ScottishLoon]

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is Seb Ross's injury, looked like he was using his shirt as a sling when he went off?

Edited August 14, 2023 by ScottishLoon

[ForfarLoon84]

First Post, although I have been following for a while.

Was at my first game in over three years on Saturday due to working and living down south.

I was really looking forward to getting back to Station Park, but unfortunately thought it was a terrible game of football with Elgin clearly happy to park the bus early doors and take the point back up the road.

I was a little disapointed however in how negative we set up and how little we created.

Did the Elgin keeper have a save to make until the last 10 minutes?? Thought the subs made a difference when coming on and brought a bit of much needed urgency to the team and looked to go forward all the time.

Great save by Mark from the header also.

Will hopefully get to most home games this season and maybe even a few away matches too, but really hoping the performances improve.

 

 

 

 

[ForfarLoon84]

11 hours ago, ScottishLoon said:

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is Seb Ross's injury, looked like he was using his shirt as a sling when he went off?

Just read on the clubs FaceBook post that it is only severe bruising and he should be fine for Saturday.

[Bridie Vision]

19 hours ago, BridiesHereBridiesThere said:

Forgetting Jay Kennedy’s time was after Hoban?

Jay Kennedy was only since last Christmas (could be wrong) by then we had Ray and started to improve. In truth we've never seen any backup goalie play, not even in friendlies since Hoban. So, whilst I had no proof whether any keepers provided any real competition to Marc. It was - in my thinking - a reason why McCallum has improved, there may well be other factors that contribute to his improvement. For example having defenders that aren't prone to lapses in brain function ala Munro could give him confidence. 

Whatever they are I'm glad he seems more on it than he has been.

[theSilverFox]

11 minutes ago, Bridie Vision said:

Jay Kennedy was only since last Christmas (could be wrong) by then we had Ray and started to improve. In truth we've never seen any backup goalie play, not even in friendlies since Hoban. So, whilst I had no proof whether any keepers provided any real competition to Marc. It was - in my thinking - a reason why McCallum has improved, there may well be other factors that contribute to his improvement. For example having defenders that aren't prone to lapses in brain function ala Munro could give him confidence. 

Whatever they are I'm glad he seems more on it than he has been.

Very true, we haven’t seen any in action. I have no idea how good Jay Kennedy was ability wise but I’ve heard his attitude was very professional

[fafc1885]

49 minutes ago, Bridie Vision said:

Jay Kennedy was only since last Christmas (could be wrong) by then we had Ray and started to improve. In truth we've never seen any backup goalie play, not even in friendlies since Hoban. So, whilst I had no proof whether any keepers provided any real competition to Marc. It was - in my thinking - a reason why McCallum has improved, there may well be other factors that contribute to his improvement. For example having defenders that aren't prone to lapses in brain function ala Munro could give him confidence. 

Whatever they are I'm glad he seems more on it than he has been.

Kennedy signed around September after we put Lewis Sanderson out on loan to Vale of Leithen (who, from what I last read, he was playing outfield for bizarrely)

35 minutes ago, theSilverFox said:

Very true, we haven’t seen any in action. I have no idea how good Jay Kennedy was ability wise but I’ve heard his attitude was very professional

I’d also heard nothing but good things about Jay’s attitude while at the club. 

[BridiesHereBridiesThere]

1 hour ago, Bridie Vision said:

Jay Kennedy was only since last Christmas (could be wrong) by then we had Ray and started to improve. In truth we've never seen any backup goalie play, not even in friendlies since Hoban. 

We have seen Sanderson play about 15 mins against Dunfermline in a friendly aswell as against Stenny competitively when Marc had covid, but Sanderson was pish.