Rovers vs. ICT

[renton]

13 minutes ago, Raith_Raver said:

Yes, I understated that. I didn't rate King at all on Friday but to be fair he's maybe short of match fitness. But he's no Hendry.

I'm maybe being harsh on him, but he's a very paint by numbers midfielder. Passive, static and anonymous. Stands in something like the right place most of the time and recycle the ball. There is no expression to his play.

 

[Raith_Raver]

I thought Gullan and Ugwu were bigger disappointments than King, Gullan especially. I would be surprised if any of the three of them start tomorrow. As someone mentioned they might have been chosen because of the heavy pitch, which of course won't be the case at Stark's, so more mobile playes in for them hopefully..

[CALDERON]

The signing of King reminds me of the signing of Kevin Mcbride.  Perfectly tidy and reasonable player, but a bit of a pointless addition.  

[Enigma]

15 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

The signing of King reminds me of the signing of Kevin Mcbride.  Perfectly tidy and reasonable player, but a bit of a pointless addition.  

He was the master of the 10 yard sideways pass.

[Raith Against The Machine]

1 hour ago, CALDERON said:

The signing of King reminds me of the signing of Kevin Mcbride.  Perfectly tidy and reasonable player, but a bit of a pointless addition.  

And Craig Winter before him. 

[CALDERON]

13 minutes ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

And Craig Winter before him. 

As much as I love John Mcglynn, it will forever be a black mark against his name that he paid money for Craig Winter.

 

[R.R.FC]

Stuart Anderson under Grant Murray is another one.

Onto the game, hard to know exactly how we will line up. McGlynn has often spoke about the whole squad being needed for this run of games but I would like to see us go as close to full strength as possible here.

Looking at the table, a win would pretty much guarantee safety and put us in a very strong position for top 4, 5 points clear off 5th with a game in hand so it is a very important game.

I don’t think we have been particularly bad the last 3 games. JM discussed after the Arbroath game that we were either putting 9/10 performances or 2/10 with nothing really in between. I think the last 3 games have probably seen us average around 6.5/10 not been great but it’s the longest we have gone without a real poor performance since December and a solid base to start building a consistent run of results.

As with any run of draws the next game is very important. Win here and we are 4 unbeaten in a strong position for the promotion play offs. Lose and we are 3 without a win and looking nervously over our shoulder. We have missed some good chances in the 0-0 draws, I’m not sure if we’re creating significantly less than earlier in the season we just are being less ruthless. We have given a few teams hammerings this season by being clinical and taking almost all our chances rather than the fact we were creating hundreds of chances every game.

I would bring Matthews, Armstrong and Abraham in for King, Gullan and Ugwu but after the line up that nobody predicted on Friday night I don’t know what to expect.

[CALDERON]

We've certainly moved the dial away from inconsistent to "solid if unspectacular".  

Don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.  We weren't far away from winning the past couple of games, so it's a step forward to say that we have looked decent enough over the past few games.  We need to start scoring and winning, but we have generally looked much more solid.

Matthews has to come back in, absolute must there.  I would probably throw Abraham in just for something different.  He hasn't looked anything special, but I don't have a huge deal of confidence in Duku or Ugwu, at the moment.  Gullan is worth another shout, perhaps, as I haven't been overly impressed with Armstrong either of late (in the attacking sense, he has done a hell of a lot of work tracking back etc).

[Raith_Raver]

Agree strongly re Matthews. Up front I'd have preferred Duku but there's something up regarding him, so I would give Abraham another shout. Arnstrong was ok on Friday but why is he still alloweds to take corners...

I would normally prefer Musonda to Davo but he had a hard time against Todorov so maybe Davo can cope with him better.

[WSDR 88]

Interesting game this, hopefully it doesn’t reek of the Hertz double header. Had “a good feeling” about Friday, and although I would say we played well, 0-0 isn’t ideal, better than a loss for sure though.
I don’t have that “good feeling” for tomorrow night...

For me the XI would be:-

JMac
Tumilty Mosunda Bene KMac
Matthews Hendry Spencer
Kennedy Gullan
Ugwu

Gullan was very quiet on Friday, but I’d give him another chance.
Big Gozie, missed a pile of sitters, but I’d stick with him, and maybe do the Hearts thing, and play Duku 2nd half. Depending on how things go. Abraham isn’t an option for me, I think he’s mince.

I also expect Vaughan to make a cameo, based on him going “full pelt” in the prematch training to Ayr. Maybe that’s just hope rather than anything else.

[Raith_Raver]

Surely the second highest scoring team in the division cant fail to score three games running

[PB1994]

4 minutes ago, Raith_Raver said:

Surely the second highest scoring team in the division cant fail to score three games running

If you can’t score against McKay and Devine in 2 consecutive games I believe the forfeit is relegation to league 2 and a 15 point deduction.

[TxRover]

On 14/03/2021 at 16:29, Rovers1992/1993 said:

Musonda has never played RB for us before and you want us to drop a known RB who hasn’t really done anything...

Yes, and I fixed it for you. Tumilty has sort of disappeared the last couple of games, let’s give him a game to rest. Frankie looked sterling at LB earlier, and RB is something he was advertised as being able to play for us.

As for dropping Hendry, he didn’t set the world on fire last match, while King looked decent the first half. Let’s shake it up people say, so let’s do it!

[TxRover]

11 hours ago, Raith_Raver said:

I thought Gullan and Ugwu were bigger disappointments than King, Gullan especially. I would be surprised if any of the three of them start tomorrow. As someone mentioned they might have been chosen because of the heavy pitch, which of course won't be the case at Stark's, so more mobile playes in for them hopefully..

Agree on Ugwu and Gullan, which is why I suggest Abraham...I’d even say roll out Smith with him and Kennedy, but Tait is better suited to work as a defacto right wing or attacking mid.

[Broken Algorithms]

Pretty sure Musonda did fill in at right back for a game and looked fine there. Can't remember who it was against but he definitely played there.

Abraham has looked miles off it every time he's played so far. He's been bullied by pretty much every centre half and inevitably spends half his time looking at the referee wondering why he's not getting fouls. It wouldn't surprise me if he suffers from Stephen Reynolds syndrome (scores hundreds in the non-competitive youth leagues and utterly anonymous in any actual game of meaning). 

[Raith_Raver]

3 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Agree on Ugwu and Gullan, which is why I suggest Abraham...I’d even say roll out Smith with him and Kennedy, but Tait is better suited to work as a defacto right wing or attacking mid.

Listening to McGlynn's pre match it looks like he'll play what he thinks is his strongest eleven, so I think rotating and experimenting ill be out. I would think an early season line up, except with maybe Abrahams.

[stevoraith]

Yes, and I fixed it for you. Tumilty has sort of disappeared the last couple of games, let’s give him a game to rest. Frankie looked sterling at LB earlier, and RB is something he was advertised as being able to play for us.
As for dropping Hendry, he didn’t set the world on fire last match, while King looked decent the first half. Let’s shake it up people say, so let’s do it!

I thought Tumilty had a really good game on Friday, probably my man of the match.
Hendry also looked decent I thought, certainly one of our better performers.
King wasn’t terrible but was largely anonymous.

Strange how we can all see the same thing an interpret it so differently.

[grumswall]

Musonda has 100% played at rb for us. I also can't remember who it was against, but he has played there.

[TxRover]

39 minutes ago, stevoraith said:

I thought Tumilty had a really good game on Friday, probably my man of the match.
Hendry also looked decent I thought, certainly one of our better performers.
King wasn’t terrible but was largely anonymous.

Strange how we can all see the same thing an interpret it so differently.

Tumilty was OK as a defender, but didn’t appear the wing threat that he has in his best games. To be honest, I’d be fine with Frankie giving Bene a day off instead, but Tumilty’s lack of threat against ICT on Friday made me suggest a change and Davo and Bene looked decent. While I’d love to see Arnott, Coulson, Smith and Mahady get some play, it’s not the time for any of them to get any serious time, except perhaps Smith...unless JMcG now sees something in Smith that he doesn’t want the rest of the league to see, since he isn’t signed beyond May.

Hendry was sub-par, thus the suggestion to try King, who looked pretty decent the first half, and give Hendry a reminder he isn’t invincible. I wonder if Hendry isn’t nursing a nagging niggle (or a COVID hangover), because he hasn’t been himself the last couple of months.

[TxRover]

28 minutes ago, grumswall said:

Musonda has 100% played at rb for us. I also can't remember who it was against, but he has played there.

27/10/20 vs Arbroath for a bit...and a few seconds vs Alloa on 27/2/21...if Transfermarkt is to be trusted.