I would self isolate everyone and take the 3-0

Dundee Utd 0 is a safe prediction

Lost all confidence in this team sadly

Don’t know how on earth we get anything from this game or the following 6

Arabdownsouth wrote:

SuperMario wrote:

Lost all confidence in this team sadly

Don’t know how on earth we get anything from this game or the following 6

 
Extremely pessimistic view imo. Next week is, and always was a comfortable win for Sevco and whatever line up or formation we play, whichever tactics we employ won't make a jot of difference against their far superior players. That's a given and I've already learned to accept it, all I expect is that our players give their absolute all from start to finish. Every game after that is one we can at least compete in in my honest opinion, even the Celtic game ( as evidenced by their recent failings) we are in sixth place right now which is better than most of us predicted at the start of the season, and yes our football may not be very pretty right now, but we have shown we can win games and will continue to pick up points throughout the season too. I'm not writing us off at home to Motherwell and Kilmarnock without a ball being kicked that's for sure.

If we are still on 20 points by the new year you may come back and rip me a new one though 😋

Positivity is a great thing, but I am concerned that we are simply not looking like scoring goals. The Sevco game is a free-hit, but we can't afford to lose too many goals given it is going to be tight at the bottom come the end of the season.  They have been thumping teams 4-0 recently whilst we have been defending reasonably well.  If we can keep it under 3 and maybe just maybe fluke a goal then that would be a real boost.

LarsErikKjell wrote:

We cant do this for the Rangers game obviously, but I feel we need to revert back to a 442 for the Xmas fixtures.

We can play Bolton/Sporle as the wingers in front of Smith and Robson so we have some attacking threat but also players who worn hard defensively.

Trying to cram Clark, Shankland and McNulty into the same team leaves us with only the 3 at the back option so I'd suggest mixing them up. Having one of those types to come off the bench if needed could really help us.

Example of a starting 11:

Benji

Smith
Edwards
Reynolds
Robson

Bolton
Butcher
Fuchs
Sporle

Clark
Shankland

Surely this gives us a bit more threat further forward with wingers who can carry the ball further up the park and get balls in the box.

 
Maybe Chalmers in for Bolton if fit? I'd drop Shankland to the bench at the moment as Clark and McNulty seemed to team up better. He needs to get his head right and maybe impact from the bench for now?

I don’t think any of our strikers complement each other particularly well. But neither look like being able to play up top alone.

The much maligned 4-2-3-1 might be a way of playing a back 4, giving them protection but still have supporting full backs to help the wide attackers to create from there.

Sporle, chalmers and Bolton behind a striker would allow for the optimum amount of pace in the team. Striker becomes a hard choice though.

Lilley01 wrote:

I don’t think any of our strikers complement each other particularly well. But neither look like being able to play up top alone.

The much maligned 4-2-3-1 might be a way of playing a back 4, giving them protection but still have supporting full backs to help the wide attackers to create from there.

Sporle, chalmers and Bolton behind a striker would allow for the optimum amount of pace in the team. Striker becomes a hard choice though.

I'd disagree and say that in a 2 up front any combination of the 3 should really work, when we can actually get the ball to them with bodies around them that is...

LarsErikKjell wrote:

Lilley01 wrote:

I don’t think any of our strikers complement each other particularly well. But neither look like being able to play up top alone.

The much maligned 4-2-3-1 might be a way of playing a back 4, giving them protection but still have supporting full backs to help the wide attackers to create from there.

Sporle, chalmers and Bolton behind a striker would allow for the optimum amount of pace in the team. Striker becomes a hard choice though.

I'd disagree and say that in a 2 up front any combination of the 3 should really work, when we can actually get the ball to them with bodies around them that is...

​I think they're all too similar is probably my main point. They're decent footballers and should be able to link up well enough in terms of basic link-up but certainly not natural foils (in this league). What we needed was either a Jon Daly physical-presence, a Ciftci who could hold up and run or someone like Simon Murray who would run all day (very fast) and let the other one feed off that. Not necessarily those specific players btw......

Just now, we have 3 strikers who would ideally for the selves be the guy in the box, scoring chances. None of them are lightening fast, none are tall or particularly strong, none can run or dribble past defenders. I think the team as a whole could benefit more by having more presence and pace out wide, keeping bodies in midfield and sacrificing a striker (who aren't getting service anyway) to do so. 

​MM seems to have got ultra spooked by early October into this defensive approach. Would love to know what the plan to evolve and come out of it is because we're certainly not going to be spending big in January to help with it. 

​One wee bonus for Sunday is Rangers want a win on Thursday night with hopefully a full strength team. Which hopefully means a bit of tiredness, changes and loss of focus. In fairness to them though, that hasn't happened this season. They can change personnel and don't see any drop off at all. 

smedDUm wrote:

Message for Sunday...play like we played for first 60 mins v St Mirren at Tannadice on Sept 19.
That was the game when Shankland scored in the first half with his twisting volley then Sporle made it 2-0 on 52 mins.
Tait got sent off for them on the hour then they scored and we got nervy.
Logan Chalmers got rave notices in this game & of course we're missing him just now.
It's pretty much the last time we kicked a ball & it's nearly 3 months ago.
So Micky, play back the first hour in that game & repeat.
 

 
The St Mirren home game and the first 50 minutes against Hamilton the week after were the best and most attack minded performances since the early weeks of the season. Both 4-4-2.

I would be happy enough with that side starting Tek as I'm in the horses for courses camp. Think we need energy all over the park as it's going to be a hard shift. Start of frustrating them then hope to sneak something near the end.

Tough Game

Micky apparently back in the dugout this weekend?