1320Lichtie Posted August 31 Author Share Posted August 31 9 minutes ago, Leicesterlichtie said: Oh, for a Nicky Low type creative player. Plenty of chances in good areas today, feel like Reilly was a bit wasteful - definitely got to click in that top end of the park and I don’t like Gallagher being on the bench 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledLichtie Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 32 minutes ago, WeeWelshy007 said: we really need to pick up 2 or 3 more loan signings you can't expect a 20 player squad with 3 keepers to push for the league title which we really should be doing Don't say that to our fans. Some our fans still live in the 3 on the bench era and consider any more than 17 players to be wasteful... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeodhasXD Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 6 minutes ago, ExiledLichtie said: Don't say that to our fans. Some our fans still live in the 3 on the bench era and consider any more than 17 players to be wasteful... Utter woke nonsense to have more than starting 11 and 3 subs tbh. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattie36 Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 My first game of the season and the difference compared to last season is night and day. Definitely not the finished article but we were so much more energetic and dynamic today than any time under McIntyre. Nice to see all the players out on their feet at the end of the game too. Loads of effort all over the pitch. Very impressed with the new guys and Spalding looks excellent. Stewart superb today as usual but I don’t think there was a bad performance from anyone. Noticeable though that there is a massive crisis in confidence in attack. Had some amount of good possession in and around the Alloa box but never really tested the keeper. Several times it just needed someone to have a pop or swing a leg at it. Want to watch it back but don’t know why Reilly didn’t stick his head on that cross, he appeared to be indicating that he got a shout but a confident striker would have ignored that and went for it. Perhaps it was slightly behind him? Also Gallagher needed to go for goal instead of chipping it to Coulson. Also on Coulson - looks really good but needs to have the confidence to take on his man more and try to hit the byline. Defending crosses from there is so much harder than from 15-20 yards out. Overall pretty good, continue to play like that and the goals and wins will come. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledLichtie Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 So as others have said, a massive improvement than the previous games under McIntyre. First and foremost, we ditched the 4-4-2, which makes a lot of sense. I would have gone Gallagher over Reilly, but regardless, it was a much better shape. Having Dow in the middle gave us a bit of creativity which we had been desperately screaming out for, and Coulson and Stewart could still be effective in the new shape. It just makes more sense! The difference was also clear straight away. The first few league games, we were set up to defend and not concede goals, so we'd look solid, have the majority of possession, but not look remotely like scoring a goal. This time out, particularly in the first half, we went for it straight away. A more confident team would have got on the end of a couple of those first half chances. I thought that first half was unrelentingly positive, and having Flynn and Spalding gave us that platform to do more. Second half, Alloa came into it a bit, and while we were still the better team, were weren't getting as many chances and Alloa had a couple opportunities on the break. We were a bit slow to freshen things up, and it took until Gold came on to really get the initiative back. I notice that Gold mentioned the "losing culture" in his post match interview. That was why we needed a new manager for the new season, as some us really tried to explain to the football 'experts' on here. You could see that in the way the players seemed to snatch at shots, or pass rather than have a go. Confident players would have put a couple chances away. You could also see it at the end when we seemed to be quite happy to settle for a point. Why was McAdams timewasting right at the death? Confidence and belief is massive in part time football, I would argue more so than in full time football, as the manager gets less time to coach the players and work with them tactically, and we just don't quite have it yet. Gold in his interview mentioned the "losing culture" and that "he was a part of it", and that's why I have reservations about giving him the job. Its giving me flashbacks of giving the job to continuity Steve Kirk after Brownlie resigned. Its been much better to watch, but we need to win games, and thats 0 from 2. If they don't win the next game, then we should 100% get someone from outside. It might be harsh, but there is a good squad there, and we should have won more than 1 game from the first 9, with that being a league 2 team. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1320Lichtie Posted August 31 Author Share Posted August 31 If today is how Gold and Hammy plan to set us up I am all for it - sign me up 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayshead2 Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 Did anyone notice the masterclass of a holding midfielder from Miko today. OK before he went off due to getting booked. Exactly what we are missing (Other than goals) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeodhasXD Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 Little bit later as I couldn't stomach sitting back down to watch a 0-0 straight after a long drive. Andy's interview audio was done in what seems like a wind tunnel on my phone so I may just type it out tomorrow. In summary, not happy with a point, he never is, frustrated we didn't play well today but defensively worked well. I said the defence had done their job and he countered with it's a team effort. Will look at how to improve (did talk after the audio about our percentages of duels won and long balls which is quite stark) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokeyJoe Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 47 minutes ago, Hayshead2 said: Did anyone notice the masterclass of a holding midfielder from Miko today. OK before he went off due to getting booked. Exactly what we are missing (Other than goals) I thought miko was pretty poor tbh shadow of a player he was in first stint with us 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fitbafan36 Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 Ali Spalding was miles better than Virtanen in my opinion. No disrespect to Miko, I hope he does well and did have a couple of decent passes in the second half; tackle didn’t look great mind you. But would rather have Spalding in there. We definitely look a lot better and on another day we take a chance or two and win that. Sinclair and Flynn look great additions. Stewart and Coulson will cause teams big issues out wide - just wish they’d start 5-10 yards wider and higher to get past defenders. Thought Reilly was also really good today. Linked the play well and always gave an option - the finishing will come. A small, picky complaint but I’m absolutely fed up with referees making mistakes that could come back to bite teams. Dow gets booked for trying to stop an attack but fails and Alloa still attack therefore it’s not a yellow, hasn’t been for two years. But ref still books him and that could come back to bite him with a suspension later on or a second yellow in the game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 2 hours ago, SmokeyJoe said: I thought miko was pretty poor tbh shadow of a player he was in first stint with us Hasn't played much so far this season to be fair due to injury and also hasn't played too many games in a midfield two with Hetherington either. But aye, didn't have a great day and most certainly wasn't a "masterclass" from him. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rory Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Seems to be same old story for us this season, playing badly but not being punished. We don't have another option up front till Rankin is back but I'd like to see the likes of Nevans and Cammy getting a start to change up the attacking midfield. Hopefully a couple of loan signings in will help too 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevchenko Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Good to pick up some sort of result and remain undefeated in a game where we didn’t really play well at all. As @printer said it’s been fits and starts so far, with the first half against Annan being the only time we have had any sustained momentum so far in the league. I thought we had a decent 10 minutes leading up to the interval and a short spell in the 2nd half yesterday but outwith that, Arbroath were the better team. In saying that, we restricted them to really only a few half chances. 4 clean sheets from 5 games is encouraging compared to last season and McKay and Neill did well yesterday on the whole. With the chat on Miko, did think he had a bit of a shocker 1st half, being caught on the ball too much (especially for that key transition position) and I wouldn’t really have been surprised to see him hooked at the break. He did start the 2nd half better before coming off, but definitely not at the level yet that we seen when he filled in for Stevie H last season. Pretty obvious we are lacking in the areas we had the loanees last season so hopefully Andy can look for a couple to come in there in the next week or two. Overall, when the season started if you offered me 9 points from the 1st 5, 4 clean sheets and sitting joint top, I would have certainly taken it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayshead2 Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Back to Miko for a minute.Its not so much what he does on/with the ball that I like. It's the strength he has and the protection he gives the back 4 when the opposition have it. Exactly what Arbroath have been missing for a long time now. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 42 minutes ago, Hayshead2 said: Back to Miko for a minute.Its not so much what he does on/with the ball that I like. It's the strength he has and the protection he gives the back 4 when the opposition have it. Exactly what Arbroath have been missing for a long time now. He wasn't doing that yesterday though. We also have an issue at Alloa in that we have a player in Stevie Hetherington who does all those things and does them better. He can put the tackles in but his positional sense in protecting the defence and anchoring the midfield is stronger. Crucially, he can also put his foot on the ball and slow things down when required. As it stands, that makes him the automatic pick in that role next to a fit Kurtis Roberts with Miko as back up. When Roberts is out, as he was yesterday, then we have to work out how to make it work with Stevie and Miko as the two together, which didn't really work yesterday (and again to be fair, they haven't played together too often), or else change the shape. Something I'm sure the manager will be looking at. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokeyJoe Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 I’d absolutely have heatherington over miko aswell. Like him when at Arbroath 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattie36 Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Miko was superb in his first spell with us but poor when he came back. Don’t think he was much cop at Accies and I barely noticed him yesterday. I would also have Hetherington over him any day. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayshead2 Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 So Alloa have 2 or 3 players who can play the holding midfield roll my point is we haven't had one for a couple of years now, but desperately need one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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