I'd have Connolly & Reynolds at CH with full backs Smith & Robson.
I'd have Shankland & McNulty up front trying to link.
That leaves 4 in the middle so I would have Fuchs, McMullan, Clark & Butcher. I'm not sure whereabouts, McMullan is the nearest to a wide player there tho for a winger he often does his best work cutting inside.
So no room for Bolton, Edwards, Sporle, Harkes, Power, Pawlett, Appere or any kids so you could say that's a strong bench.
If Chalmers was fit I'd have him in for one of the midfielders.
Our last two goals were byeline jobs. Get to the byeline. For crosses & cutbacks, not necessarily goals. Width wins.

Benji
​Smith Connolly Reynolds Robson
Bolton Fuchs Butcher Sporle
Shankland McNulty

I'll put my tin hat on again and repeat that if Clark isn't getting played up front then he shouldn't play, he offers nothing in midfield, would rather have Pawlett or Sporle in there.

smedDUm wrote:

I'd have Connolly & Reynolds at CH with full backs Smith & Robson.
I'd have Shankland & McNulty up front trying to link.
That leaves 4 in the middle so I would have Fuchs, McMullan, Clark & Butcher. I'm not sure whereabouts, McMullan is the nearest to a wide player there tho for a winger he often does his best work cutting inside.
So no room for Bolton, Edwards, Sporle, Harkes, Power, Pawlett, Appere or any kids so you could say that's a strong bench.
If Chalmers was fit I'd have him in for one of the midfielders.
Our last two goals were byeline jobs. Get to the byeline. For crosses & cutbacks, not necessarily goals. Width wins.

Don't disagree about the byeline point but you've just put up a team that you've admitted has one wide player that does best work by cutting inside. I'd have sporle and mcmullan wide and punt Clark--never a midfielder.
 

japanarab wrote:

smedDUm wrote:

I'd have Connolly & Reynolds at CH with full backs Smith & Robson.
I'd have Shankland & McNulty up front trying to link.
That leaves 4 in the middle so I would have Fuchs, McMullan, Clark & Butcher. I'm not sure whereabouts, McMullan is the nearest to a wide player there tho for a winger he often does his best work cutting inside.
So no room for Bolton, Edwards, Sporle, Harkes, Power, Pawlett, Appere or any kids so you could say that's a strong bench.
If Chalmers was fit I'd have him in for one of the midfielders.
Our last two goals were byeline jobs. Get to the byeline. For crosses & cutbacks, not necessarily goals. Width wins.

Don't disagree about the byeline point but you've just put up a team that you've admitted has one wide player that does best work by cutting inside. I'd have sporle and mcmullan wide and punt Clark--never a midfielder.
 

Yeah I almost contradict myself Japan but I guess I was reflecting on Chalmers who of course isn't back yet.
I wonder if Kai Fotheringham's ready for a go, who knows, he might just surprise us like Chalmers has done all too fleetingly this season thus far.
Martin Boyle's the boy for Hibs, a winger with speed wins games. Helps if you have a cross in your repertoire too. I remember when we sold Kevin Gallacher to Coventry for a king's ransom Jym was all chuffed cos he said (privately) that we had a got a load of money for a winger who couldn't cross a ball!
I was brought up on Bannon, Sturrock & Milne so I am spoilt.

Benji
Smith Edwards Reynolds robson
Bolton butcher fuchs mcmullan
Shankland Clark

I think we are going to win tomorrow, 4 at the back with Connolly and Reynolds in the middle. 

McMullan deserves the chance to start after last Saturday and hopefully he grabs it, Butcher and Fuchs will be in the middle and the other position is anyone’s but I would like to see Sporle getting the nod.

Up top I would go for Clark sitting just behind Shankland.

Finally this mob are on a wee slump at present and gave us a right pumping earlier in the season so we should be right up for correcting our worst result in the league so far this season.

Arabdownsouth wrote:

lifesanocean wrote:

Arabdownsouth wrote:

Personally I'd have Shankland on the bench on current form, Clark and McNulty seemed to work better together imo.

 
Shankland and McNulty haven't played up front 'together' bar the last 35 minutes on Saturday. Shankland's been stuck up front on his own with McNulty about 30 yards away from him, stuck out wide right of midfield and times virtually playing as an extra right back in Mickennachio. Hardly a sound basis for judging their merits as a strike pairing.

 
Not judging anything just giving my opinion based on success rate so far.

 
So you are just basing it on stats rather than from actually watching us play?

lifesanocean wrote:

Arabdownsouth wrote:

lifesanocean wrote:

 
Shankland and McNulty haven't played up front 'together' bar the last 35 minutes on Saturday. Shankland's been stuck up front on his own with McNulty about 30 yards away from him, stuck out wide right of midfield and times virtually playing as an extra right back in Mickennachio. Hardly a sound basis for judging their merits as a strike pairing.

 
Not judging anything just giving my opinion based on success rate so far.

 
So you are just basing it on stats rather than from actually watching us play?

 
I'm saying Clark is our top scorer and I'd like to see him start up front. It's not rocket science.

The 4-0 drubbing away to Killie is the result that made Mickey Mellon go so defensive and we've never looked back.

Here's the thing though. We are just 4 points off of 2nd bottom (Hamilton and St.Mirren suddenly picking up points).

We are playing a bottom 6 side (albeit Covid related).

Can we just for once have a fucking go and try and 

1) Take a game to a team
2) Take shots, put in crosses and win a game by a few goals

Even fucking Hamilton done that last week.

Pointless posting my preferred XI up because he'll play Edwards, Connolly, Reynolds and 8 other players disjointedly shoe-horned into whatever formation we set-up to not lose.

 

Anyone else bricking it?
Cos whether I have a good Xmas or not entirely hinges on tonight's result.
(Don't tell the family).
But I mean it. If bad tonight & Xmas can gtf.
It's just cos of more streaming & more we're not there makng it worse.
Ordinarily I would have loved going up to Tannadice tonight, a couple of pints before, a few pints after having witnessed events LIVE.

Looks like pretty much the team we have all wanted to see. Let's hope it works now (and let's hope we don't sit so deep hat we still can't create anything