The Queen of the South thread

[Tonsilitis]

14 hours ago, palmy_cammy said:

Almost as long overdue as our quest for 3 points.

Why are we so shite at defending set pieces, and what can we do about it?

You could maybe start by improving the marking in the box - see this picture of the instant before the goal.  Tam O'Ware is Morton's leading goalscorer this season - yesterday's goal being number nine with I think nearly all of those if not all delivered from Ross Forbes' left peg.  Despite that you have two men on Gunning the decoy and Tam gets left all on his own.   That's hardly, Robinson's fault!

[kirkyblue2]

I don't know what they do at training but you would hope they practice defending set pieces. 

[Doonhamer doon south]

The lack of squad depth is worrying. Yesterday's game and others have had a half decent starting 11 but we got nothing on the bench. The best being Carmichael.

I echo the thoughts of others that players have to be brought in January.

[Rjc-1988]

Set pieces - we used to be great at both ends - attacking and defending them. Durnan was a huge part of that but for some inexplicable reason Messrs Brownlee, Dowie and Higgins have become vulnerable at one end and a minimal threat at the other.

Can't believe that we do not have smaller players deployed on both posts. I can think of several headed goals that we have conceded that might well have been avoided with posts being patrolled. The headed goal at Albion being a good recent example.

[Homer Thompson]

Main difference that I see from the McIntyre/Fowler team that finished 4th in a very tough league is the lack of young progressive players in our squad. We are now packed full of players at the wrong end of their careers. Apart from Marshall and possibly Dykes the squad is bereft of youthful enthusiasm and like so many Championship sides we are basically reliant on solid journeymen. If we are to outperform our status we have to recruit much better and our Dev squad has to produce players of genuine first team quality. Although players like McShane, Holt, Reilly, Durnan and Carmichael have probably not gone on to fulfill their full potential they are exactly the types that we are lacking on the Palmy conveyor belt. We are not alone in this - Falkirk are the same at present and are struggling a bit by their standards.Ayr and Raith are broadly the same. Morton on the other hand have a good crop of potential climbers in Lindsay, Russell, Quitongo,Nisbet. No coincidence that they are having their best season in a long time.

Clearly a very difficult puzzle to solve but for us to be successful (i.e top 4 position we need 4/5 progressive types to supplement the good experienced players that we currently have. A great scouting/development system can find these players but in past couple of seasons we have fallen into the trap of signing too many players at wrong end of career and are paying the price of that.

Lindsay is on loan from celtic

You could maybe start by improving the marking in the box - see this picture of the instant before the goal.  Tam O'Ware is Morton's leading goalscorer this season - yesterday's goal being number nine with I think nearly all of those if not all delivered from Ross Forbes' left peg.  Despite that you have two men on Gunning the decoy and Tam gets left all on his own.   That's hardly, Robinson's fault!

The defending at set pieces and balls in to the box in general has been poor pretty much throughout our recent slump. I'd love to be able to say it's one particular player who could improve or be replaced but it's right through the defence. As you point out, Brownlie leaves O'ware all on his own. A few weeks ago it was Higgins who lost Durnan.

[Broony88]

1 hour ago, Mr X said:

Lindsay is on loan from celtic

The defending at set pieces and balls in to the box in general has been poor pretty much throughout our recent slump. I'd love to be able to say it's one particular player who could improve or be replaced but it's right through the defence. As you point out, Brownlie leaves O'ware all on his own. A few weeks ago it was Higgins who lost Durnan.

Think Nesbitt and Lindsay are both on loan from Celtic. 

[Homer Thompson]

Think Nesbitt and Lindsay are both on loan from Celtic. 

They are indeed. I didnt notice that he mentioned Nesbitt too until you replied.

[Rjc-1988]

I don't see that as a negative - it serves to highlight that over past couple of seasons Jim Duffy has a strong network of recruitment that finds young players with good potential who are "hitting the road running" and making a real difference.

[Tonsilitis]

29 minutes ago, Rjc-1988 said:

I don't see that as a negative - it serves to highlight that over past couple of seasons Jim Duffy has a strong network of recruitment that finds young players with good potential who are "hitting the road running" and making a real difference.

It helps that Celtic play their development squad games at Cappielow and Jim Duffy sees most of them. 

[Rjc-1988]

The point of my original post was that if you want to get ahead of the game at our level you have to have a slick recruitment process that strikes a great balance between experience and potential. By whatever means Duffy is outperforming his principal Managerial rivals in this important area - unfortunately for us since the break-up of our 2014/15 squad we have not unearthed many progressive types and have relied on experience. We need to change this trend asap but it will not be easy at this point in season.

[Tonsilitis]

True!   Duffy has a much better strike rate at identifying players to do a job at whatever level we have been at.   No manager we have had in recent years has come anywhere near his competent player to Diddy signings ratio. 

[Homer Thompson]

The point of my original post was that if you want to get ahead of the game at our level you have to have a slick recruitment process that strikes a great balance between experience and potential. By whatever means Duffy is outperforming his principal Managerial rivals in this important area - unfortunately for us since the break-up of our 2014/15 squad we have not unearthed many progressive types and have relied on experience. We need to change this trend asap but it will not be easy at this point in season.

You're actually point that our recruitment could be better and that the youth squads aren't producing the same level of talent as recent years is perfectly valid. You were clearly using Morton as an example of a club doing well in the latter though.

[Rjc-1988]

Sorry to be pedantic Mr X but I actually said that Morton have a good crop of potential climbers - I didn't actually distinguish between loan signings and home grown. I knew that Nisbett was from Celtic but didn't know about Russell and Lindsay.

[The Caul Back]

We have a really short squad, and when he have a few injuries were stuffed, I blame the board, I'm sure when Skelton was manager he would have wanted a bigger squad, it looked to me that the rot set him when he had to field players that were not fit and others who had lost form, to get out of this league and seek promotion you must spend money and have a good bench,
I am now 68 followed Queens for most of my life, but now giving up hope to ever seeing them in the top divisions

[Bluenortherner]

36 minutes ago, The Caul Back said:

We have a really short squad, and when he have a few injuries were stuffed, I blame the board, I'm sure when Skelton was manager he would have wanted a bigger squad, it looked to me that the rot set him when he had to field players that were not fit and others who had lost form, to get out of this league and seek promotion you must spend money and have a good bench,
I am now 68 followed Queens for most of my life, but now giving up hope to ever seeing them in the top divisions

Good post!

[Homer Thompson]

Sorry to be pedantic Mr X but I actually said that Morton have a good crop of potential climbers - I didn't actually distinguish between loan signings and home grown. I knew that Nisbett was from Celtic but didn't know about Russell and Lindsay.

OK, seeing as it's Christmas I'll let you have that one [emoji2]

[football maniac]

13 hours ago, Tonsilitis said:

True!   Duffy has a much better strike rate at identifying players to do a job at whatever level we have been at.   No manager we have had in recent years has come anywhere near his competent player to Diddy signings ratio. 

To be fair any manager in his right mind I would hope would be able to identify Nesbitt and Lindsay as players of note before they had joined Morton. Its just Duffys powers of persuasion that let yous get them 

Edited December 26, 2016 by football maniac

[Tonsilitis]

1 hour ago, football maniac said:

To be fair any manager in his right mind I would hope would be able to identify Nesbitt and Lindsay as players of note before they had joined Morton. Its just Duffys powers of persuasion that let yous get them 

I don't disagree but he has also had a knack of spotting other decent signings and taking players other clubs did not rate and getting the best from them.  A few examples

Lee Kilday, Rikki Lamie, Ross Forbes, Jamie  McDonagh and even Andy Murdoch who has been great for us could not get a club until Jim signed him.  Ditto Gavin Gunning who's career may well be resurrected thanks to JD.

He is far from infallible but he has an eye for a player and the ability to get them to play for him!

[Ira Gaines]

Andy Murdoch was always going to be a good signing and not many fans of other clubs thought different. Have to agree on many of those though. His hit rate this season in particular has been terrific. He's been one of our better managers in the transfer market in recent memory.

[Guest Flash]

20 hours ago, Rjc-1988 said:

Set pieces - we used to be great at both ends - attacking and defending them. Durnan was a huge part of that but for some inexplicable reason Messrs Brownlee, Dowie and Higgins have become vulnerable at one end and a minimal threat at the other.

Can't believe that we do not have smaller players deployed on both posts. I can think of several headed goals that we have conceded that might well have been avoided with posts being patrolled. The headed goal at Albion being a good recent example.

That goal at Albion Rovers was a complete shambles. 2 players run with the guy who scored and if you freeze the video as he heads the ball, there are 2 Rovers players running into the 6 yard box unmarked. 

This is just one example of loads of shambolic defending this season, especially at set pieces. Either the players are not being given specific players to mark or some of them are choosing not to bother their arse.