We've been the least pish in a pish league.  We've lost cup ties to teams 1 and 2 leagues below us.  Our football has at times been turgid.  The squad we've currently got is miles off staying up next season.  Our owner is a basket case and our manager has managed to get a squad of very average players (built with easily the largest budget in the league) to the top of the league (potentially only by goal difference). 

However the revisionists are feeling all warm and fuzzy because we are back in the big time.  There is a lot of work to do in the close season to build a squad for the next level.  Is Goodwin the man to do that?  That might not matter if Ogren is still in charge, but in any case I think the answer is no.  However, if it is still Ogren then we'd be as well sticking with him as I would have absolutely no trust in Ogren finding anyone in his price range that would be any better (and probably worse).

Still a great time to be an Arab...

I'd play Moult if he wants to be played.  Otherwise I'd give one of the young lads a start, probably Stirton.  Would be good to get him a goal to build confidence.

Job done.  Unnecessarily the hard way at times, but done nonetheless.  Rovers eventually ran out of steam just as we found our second wind.  Overall a sense of relief rather than achievement (it was a very poor league this year and one we should have had wrapped up long before now).

Goodwin is a tough one.  He got a lot wrong this year but he seems to have had the dressing room stick with him and he has delivered the main objective.  It has been a difficult watch at times and we need a fairly large personnel change to be competitive next season (and by competitive I mean safe from relegation).

My knee jerk reaction is to let him go, but I do wonder if he has suffered with a lack of support this year.  There has been an awful lot on one man's shoulders, but he has done what was needed.  If we do get new investment and they want to hold on to him and support him better than Yankie Doodle Dandy then perhaps it is worth giving him a chance.  If we don't get the investment then, realistically who else is going to come in?  I think the best for all might be that new investors have their own plans and own man to bring in but if I was a betting man then I think it will be Goodwin come August.  Hopefully with a bit of a budget to boost a very thin squad.

For those at the game, how did Graham and McLelland play?  Clearly a clean sheet tells a story, but was it due to QP being poor or did they command things?  It's a big pitch so if we controlled things that would be fairly impressive.

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kdyteejay wrote:

Shakey Isles Arab wrote:

.... What !!???

- You put the ball in the back of the net.

But to go back to United's "style"  ...ffs !
We are in Scottish diddy division, we're no the team of 95/96 or 1983/84.
1984 was 40 years ago. History. We sound like Dees banging on about 1963 or England 1966.

So forget all the other shit and concentrate on quickly accurately getting the ball up the park into opposing penalty boxes and into the net. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with playing the way you're facing and backwards, nothing wrong with possesion so long as it's quick, accurate and attacking. By the same token, nothing wrong with the odd hoof up the park , or better still a precision long ball - gives the opposition something different to think about. Whereas modern football coaches keep the ball on the deck - fair enough, but not to the exclusion of all else.

We cannot afford to let opposition teams come to Tannadice put 10 men behind the ba and watch us fanny around. We either score first half or let paying fans see our team working their bollocks off trying - if we don't we give the opposition an extra man.

"Style"  ... ffs get a grip !

100% this.

Agree with the general gist of this.  I'd referred to 'style' in quotes.  What I mean is that if there is a discernible Goodwin tactic (which is a better word) it is keep possession at all costs.  It's the baseline Guardiola without any of the flair needed to actually breakdown teams and without the skill level to do the baseline well.  There is no other discernible tactic.  

Raith, Airdrieonians, Morton, Inverness, Queens Park, Thistle and even Dunfermline have discernible tactics when you watch them play.  Tactics that play to their strengths.  We don't.  That's on Goodwin.

I'd agree that if you are looking for style in the strictest sense you are probably not going to find that in Scottish football.  Ange was the last manager that played the game with any style.

Macbonzo wrote:

Finn Seemann wrote:

Tek wrote:

Fantastic post.

A lot of good points made there.

I too cannot stand this philosophy of 'play it out from the back' at all costs. Cost Scotland their losing goal against Northern Ireland tonight when a good old fashioned hoof up the park would have ensured no loss.

Only thing i think you are being a wee bit harsh on is Airdire and Rhys McCabe. Yes, they are a pass from the back team, but i have actually been very impressed with them at times this season. Think there's a wee bit more to them.

He's in under two seasons won promotion from League One, the Challenge Cup and i think they will be in the Play-Off's. 

His 'association' with Consilium is possibly as simple as they represent him as a player (he's still registered as a player on Airdrie's books).
 

In this country we have a massive issue about how the game is played.  I remember going to Barcelona with my son to an international tournament with some lower level Spanish Academy teams.  Technically they were far superior, but our boys got to the semi by more or less kicking them off the park as they tried to pass it around us.  When they met boys who were a little stronger and technically better there was no competition.  Couple of years later the best technical player in my son's team was dropped to the team and division below as he didn't fit the physical side of playing first division U14 football in Edinburgh (according to the 'coach' - who's Dad used to be a scout for Man U therefore knew everything...).  That boy has been at the Getafe academy for a couple of years and I believe has just been named in the Egypt U19 squad.  Yet his footballing talent was simply ignored at grassroots level in Scotland.

So I don't think the issue is that we shouldn't be playing pass around the back football, it's that our system is set up to produce players who can't do it.  Until grassroots football is sorted we'll continue to produce flawed players.  My w

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