I don't think there will be changes to the extent that most people are suggesting or hoping. Birighitti should be gone, Grieve and Tillson will return to their clubs. I think Holt and Grimshaw might be allowed to move on, along with a couple of academy lads who are well down the pecking order. I would be happy to offer Walton and McLelland deals. Aside from that, we may see a couple of departures if we have secured higher quality replacements but I can see most of the rest remaining as part of next season's squad.

As for Jim Goodwin, he's done what he was brought in to do, by bringing in players suitable for getting us out of the Championship (rather than trying to put together a team that could be competitive in the Premier and seeing them struggle in the league below - as has happened before). He has done it on a pretty limited budget, and generally he has spent money wisely. There are no guarantees, no matter who you bring in as manager. I personally would rather he stays and is given the chance to have a crack in the Premier with his own squad, rather than roll the dice. As far as I'm concerned, he has earned it.

CCX2 2010 wrote:

Tek wrote:

CCX2 2010 wrote:

Think we discussed it earlier in this thread but I shake my head at times thinking why anyone would think that playing in those conditions would suit a Mochrie or Meekieson, everything was late, every header had an elbow, those boys would disappear.

.

I didn't see anyone say start them. No-one.

But when we are 4 up, and the game is completely over, best to bring on Tillson?

Or bring on a young guy and see if he handles this type of match? 


 

I get 100% what you are saying and what I can't understand is that you can't see what is so obvious, those boys and as tough/hard as it sounds wont make it.

It not there, they don't have it.

At 4-1, again he done the right thing. It wasn't a mad panic, we comfortably seen the game out and left that shithole with three points.

Looking forward though,let's just enjoy the next few weeks, we have certainly earned it.

When you are 4-1 up, away from home, and the league is as tight as it is, you want the last 20 minutes to be as uneventful as possible.The fact is that the league hasn't been won yet, and too many times I've seen United throw it all away when in better positions than this (I'm talking more about cups than league races, but still ....). I've got no problem with making the safest, most boring decisions that are going to kill the game as a spectacle, to ensure we get the result. I don't think bringing on the likes of Mochrie, Meekison or McLeod is a "risk" as such, but it could leave us slightly more exposed than bringing on a midfield clogger like Tilson. 4-2 up with 15 minutes to go and suddenly the game isn't done and dusted. It also has nothing to do with a lack of trust in the younger players - it's about horses for courses. You wouldn't be 2-1 up against Celtic at Parkhead with 15 to go and replace Billy Kirkwood with Graeme Payne.
I expect to see more of these younger lads (and less of Tilson) when or if we get to being 6 ahead with 2 gam

Paint it Black - The Stones

David_Blunkett wrote:

If we had Jim McLean doing the tactics, then Fergie doing the motivation/team talk, we'd be sitting here with a trophy haul in double figures.

Yep. Wee stars above our badge and everything.

Fergie was asked (at the end of his Man U career) who the toughest managerial opponent was that he had come up against in his years of management. Don't think they were expecting him to say "Jim McLean" - but he did.

It's a great initiative and has the potential to make a big difference to how successful we are at Tannadice.

Obviously the Raith game was a big game and we got ourselves ahead early, so it wasn't difficult for the singing section to be really enthusiastic. What I would love to see is for the singing section to focus on encouraging the team when we are behind or when we aren't playing as well as on Saturday. In particular, songs to give support to individual players - especially the younger lads - if they're struggling a bit or have just made a significant error. IMO that will make the world of difference in helping turn performances and games around - just as the collective groans or vocal criticism cause players to go into their shells and for the team performance to suffer as a result.

Tek wrote:

We beat an understrength Morton and now Goodwin is getting lauded as a master tactician.

LOL.

Let's calm doon a bit and see if we can go on a bit of a run and win this league without anymore complications first lads.

You might be referring to my comments Tek. I didn't call him a master tactician (and clarified that in a subsequent post). He has a level of tactical ability that I would 100% expect our manager to have (at a minimum). A lot of guys have claimed he has zero tactical ability. I don't think that's supported by the evidence (e.g. last night, but not just last night). The truth is somewhere between zero and master tactician.

I think part of the problem is some of the players he has at his disposal don't have enough strings to their bow. He uses those players when the game in question is suited to the things they are good at, but too often things don't work out as a result of the things they're not good at. Example - Mochrie and Meekison. They absolutely have the technical ability to run the midfield alongside Sibbald against opponents who are technically inferior. He gave them the chance to do that, and they didn't take the chance, because they were found wanting in the side of the game that needs them to be physical, aggressive and tough. This IMO is why young Miller Thomson is getting starts. He has the technical ability but he also uses his strength well and doesn't back down from any challenge. He was really good yesterday.

If I put myself in Goodwin's position and look at what midfield to put out against Airdrie, who are 20 points behind us, and Docherty isn't available, it's not unreasonable to go with Meekison and Mochrie alongside Sibbald. They SHOULD be good enough to control the midfield, and if you want a line-up that's going to keep the ball away from Airdrie and make use of the huge amount of possession we should have, you're not going to put Tillson in there. He doesn't know it won't work until he tries it (and I doubt h

Finn Seemann wrote:

Delighted that some people see Goodwin as a tactician.  That means I might be wrong about him.  What I don't get however is that he doesn't appear capable of removing/motivating players that aren't doing what he wants.  If a player wasn't doing what he wants, why do they invariably come back on the pitch for the second half and why are the subs pretty much always at 60 minutes.  That suggests that he either isn't upset with the non-compliers or doesn't have the balls to deal with them.  Either way not good.

As for last night, when I saw the team, that was the team I would have picked against Morton.  People shouting for Cudjoe in that game don't appear to understand the reality of Scottish football.  This was one for your most resolute and physical players to go and grind out a result.  We did that so congrats to all.  Players looked pumped at the end so maybe just maybe a bit of team spirit can get us the gap that we need.

He's a tactician in as much as he understands the game and has a number of strategies and approaches to counter and beat different types of teams. That's no more than I'd expect from a manager at United.

I agree with you regarding the motivation (or whatever the problem is - communication, possibly?) - too often the guys starting the game don't do the job they were sent out to do. I think he gives them an hour because he wants to give the game plan they have been presumably working on in training the chance to work, as plan B wasn't the preferred approach on that particular week and less time was spent on plan B in training.

He gave Mulgrew the boot at the first opportunity, along with a few others that were meant to be the spine of our team, brought in guys who are more likely to get the job done, he benched Freeman, Glass and one or two others who are probably not what our team needs, he has had Kai on the bench a lot after his form dipped, and Middleton, and Watt, and Grimshaw, and Moult, and Tillson. He

dufc2019 wrote:

Laughed out loud at his foul sky
 

Sorry for going off topic a bit.

He was penalised for throwing the ball downwards.

I've had "discussions" with refs over here, as they allow throws like that. In fact, they allow throws that are thrown at the ground barely 6 feet in front of the thrower! I always shout "foul throw", and they never give it. So a senior ref comes over to talk to me, and I said "In no other country in the world would that not be called as a foul throw". The ref then directed me towards the FIFA LotG on procedure for throw-ins. And here is the relevant content:

Procedure
At the moment of delivering the ball, the thrower must:
• stand facing the field of play
• have part of each foot on the touchline or on the ground outside the touchline
• throw the ball with both hands from behind and over the head from the point where it left the field of play

Thomson did all of those things correctly (the throw is at about 2:05 of the game on DUTV). The point being that there is absolutely nothing in the LotG that says you can not throw the ball downwards. As long as it goes from behind the head and then over the head as it is being thrown, it's fine.

And yet every ref in the SPFL (and most other places) will blow for a foul throw.

(Edit: I assumed you did mean to type "foul shy")

dufc2019 wrote:

Midfield 3 of Meekison Mochrie and Sibbald tonight at least there should be some football played between the lines if the Defender are not too scared to pass it to them.

I appreciate that people like to know what the line up is going to be ahead of time (so they can start moaning well before kick-off 😂) but I wonder how wise it is to post details on a public message board? If I was Jim Goodwin and I saw this, I'd be livid. It's maybe not likely that Airdrie get a hold of this info, but it's possible. And it wouldn't take much effort to figure out that your team info is usually on the money.

For context: years ago, the papers had Gough injured. When the team got off the bus at the main entrance to Pittodrie, Gough was last off, and he was on crutches. I was therefore more than a bit surprised when he was listed in the starting XI, and Alex Ferguson was too, as he had already submitted his team sheet to the ref with a focus on attacking down our right. We won.

SuperMario wrote:

Big changes tomorrow apparently

The previous several managers we have had have persisted with guys in the team who were clearly not deserving a place, and all of us were regularly asking "How can [insert manager here] not see what we can all see?"

Credit to Goodwin. It isn't often that he doesn't drop someone when they have been poor the week before and the fans have been in general agreement that the player's performance wasn't good enough, and when he has a reasonable option to replace them with.

I'm not saying he makes changes because he reads Tekel Towers and agrees with our opinions - I'm saying he sees many of the same problems that we do, and he generally does something about it.

Makes a pleasant change.

I look at these things from a coaching perspective.

At a club like ours, a number of the first team squad are always going to be lads in the age range 17-23. They are young, impressionable, still learning the game. Outfield players generally don't peak until around 27. They are also human beings, and they're going to make mistakes. And they haven't developed a thick enough skin to take the negative with the positive, despite what some fans think they should be able to tolerate.

Imagine being a young lad, going into work every day and having a bunch of people constantly criticising what you're doing and how you're doing it. It's not going to encourage you to try to do better. It's just going to weigh on you, and chances are your performance level will drop and mistakes will become more frequent.

Kieran Freeman is a good example. Not the best right back we've ever had, but when he had confidence, he put in a good shift and was involved in setting up goals pretty regularly. A couple of errors, people start to get on his back, his head goes down, the rest is history. And as a club, I think we've had a good number of younger players who have moved on - or got out, if you prefer - a lot sooner than I'd have liked. I agree that quite a few in our support are quicker than most to turn on a player and give them a barrage of criticism every week. More so than at most other clubs.

Any player who downs tools and isn't putting the work in deserves all the criticism directed at them. But players who have been selected by the manager and who are out there giving everything they've got, despite not being particularly good, don't deserve abuse.

Are you entitled to give a player abuse? Sure. You've paid your money. Will it help? Make him play better? Get the team to shift up a gear? Nope. It's counter-productive.

Like DB said, if the performance hasn't been good enough, give them some stick at half time and let them know what you think at full time if things haven't improved. B

The nice thing about teams coming to Tannadice who need 3 points is that they can't park the bus for 90 minutes.