I'd also say, quality doesn't have to be expensive- killie got the guy with w goals from the 5th tier of English football. 3 levels below bolton and 2 tiers below edwards....

They may not be the best most all-round players but certainly lads who can do a job

PatReilly wrote:

Tangy wrote:

Thankfully, the game made my eyes bleed - and i wasn't  able to see all 90 minutes...there  are recurring themes though and today we didn't get the luck of previous weeks. The team got great praise v celtic so need to take this on the chin too.

Some of those boys simply aren't good enough imo and should be bench players.

The system is  set not to lose/frustrate/limit opposition to long shots but to do it effectively, we have no threat at the opposite end.

The majority of our balls into the box come from butcher or connolly -neither of whom are known for delivering balls into the box. we would be as well playing 6 1 3 formation as the ball isn't getting anywhere near midfield.

When we started to push forward, there was nothing there and we could still be going this time tomorrow and be waiting for a goal

I'm agreeing with you mostly, but felt we did try to play the ball through midfield quite a bit, just not too successfully because we have few out ball opportunities up front.

BMT wrote:

A lot of possession today but no end product. Killie took there chances. When things are not going our way we don't have anything on the bench to change it.

It's true we have a lack of options, but I'd have had Edwards on for Connolly, Glass for Chalmers and Cammy Smith for Clark, just to freshen things and gives others an opportunity.

Probably (?) a coincidence, but three of KFC's four goals came within a couple of minutes of them making changes. 
 

I agree with Glass for Chalmers as he contributed little going forward and Glass was one of our better players in the mid week friendly and also Smith for Clark as he also is a bit more mobile than Clark.  didn't think Connoly was that bad but up until the goal to think he warranted substituted and not sure what Edwards would have offered that was different. Don't think it was a coincidence that 3 of there goals came after making positive changes just wish we had options to influence the game.

 

Billy_Hainey wrote:

I thought we were the better team. We had about 70% possession.

We had 18 attempts, but only 1 on target, and therein lies the problem today. Our final finishing was poor.

Seek as a doag if I'm honest.

Billy, I'll agree we were better than a four goal deficit, but the possession figures get us no points: losing four goals and scoring none also tells us the problem wasn't only not scoring.
 

Billy_Hainey wrote:

I thought we were the better team. We had about 70% possession.

We had 18 attempts, but only 1 on target, and therein lies the problem today. Our final finishing was poor.

Seek as a doag if I'm honest.

Definitely the better team in possession and I also thought we actually played OK, BUT, don't think their keeper had a save to make and two of their goals were a joke (2 and 3) from our point of view.

We do need some new players in that's for sure.  At the start of the season my target was to avoid going back down.  If we can get 2 or 3 players in plus Shanks back fit I think we can achieve that.

Had another look at the goals:
1-0 - good cross but not tight enough at the throw in (when do we ever make anything from throw ins) and not tight enough when the cross came over.  It's poor from the CHs as neither gets close enough and Connolly gets under the ball - bad defensive goal to lose.
2-0 - set up OK to defend long throw and do so.  Unlucky that it comes back so quickly but again Connolly gets himself on the wrong side of the attacker and it is a good finish.  Ultimately could have been defended better.
3-0 - we are chasing the game and have committed players forward.  It's a hoof which Connolly fails to deal with and let's the striker nick it.  Granted the pitch doesn't help, but he's a professional footballer and he should have horsed it out as last man. Benefit of the doubt if he hadn't been the one responsible in first two.
4-0 - Again we are pushing forward all but 2 players in or around their box.  A good breakaway, but we actually get back in numbers and should be able to defend it.  Great finish, but who was tracking the player?  There were enough players behind the ball to have someone close it down and the midfield tracker wasn't back quick enough.  However I'm putting that one down to Siegrist - he just shouldn't be beaten like that from there and it wasn't his greatest performance generally.
So Connolly has to take a great deal of the blame.  At fault in some way for the first three goals.  To be fair it was one of those days for him, but he is just always likely to ship one.  I'm not for getting rid - i think he is an asset, but when we aren't scoring we can't afford to be so leaky.
As for the young lad Neilson - work in progress for me - not convinced that he is positionally much cope and not sure he should be playing every week yet.

smedDUm wrote:

I'm sorry Finn but to find fault with our goalkeeper for the 4th goal is palbably wrong.

I disagree.  It is clearly harsh, but if his positioning was better he could have saved it.  He didn't. It's a shot with not a great deal of power from outside the box.  It is inherently savable. I'm not going to castigate him for it, but he has to be at least partly to blame.  That's all I'm saying.

Granted it was a great finish and all that but if you are assessing how it could have been stopped then you have to look at the keeper.  For me he has no fault for number one - I don't think it is one he should come for as the CHs should deal - others might disagree. If he gets anything on the second he's doing well.  He wasn't fantastic for the third - he got too static and made it easy for the striker, but I'd agree you could hardly blame him for the goal.

I think he has been fantastic last season and so far this one too, but that doesn't mean you can't criticise. 

Agree with these critisisms albeit extremely harsh.

The third you're pointing the finger at the wrong man Shedtastic.

The fourth was a peach. I suspect one you'd really only do in training or in a game where you're under no pressure and toying with the opposition such as Saturday.

To me Benji is still working very hard, learning and coming on well as borne out by Celtic performance. However I suspect he is always going to be a better shot stopper.

            - - - - - - - - -
Struggle to bring maself to rewatch these goals.

Only did to stick ma bib in re Benji.

But watching Mellon's comments on Saturday following our woeful performance I still like his realism and positivity although the repeated use of the cliche naive ..... I take that to mean we were shite.