Forgot about Levitt. I'll give them that one as a pass mark, quality wise. Though agree about him not really suiting our set-up currently. Or not having the right players around him to get the best out of him.

Tony Watt - Tin hat on. Not contributed anywhere as much as i hoped he may have.

1 goal in 14 games. And yes, he's been played out on the left, and yes he has a couple of assists, and is a fan favourite etc etc.

But he slows our play down a lot imo. Also spends far too much time on the deck for my liking.

A good player, who would doubtless be seen more with different type of players round him. But i'm a bit underwhelmed (and i never had much expectation).

 

Just did a quick look at our squads goals/assists in all comps this season. Might be 1 or 2 out in some of the assist numbers as different places have different levels as to what counts as an 'assist'

Goals/Assists:

Nicky Clark - 8/1
Peter Pawlett - 5/1
Harkes - 4/2
Ryan Edwards - 3/3
Dylan Levitt - 3/1
Charlie Mulgrew - 3/1
Marc McNulty - 3/0
Kieran Freeman - 2/4
Ross Graham - 2/1
Liam Smith - 2/0
Ilmari Niskanen - 1/4
Tony Watt - 1/3
Declan Glass -1/1
Chris Mochrie - 1/0
Scott McMann - 0/3

tried to take a step back to look at this question rationally.

Early part of the season we lost Shanks and Robson, never felt that we replaced Shanks and McMann seemed to be a better defender but not offer as much going forward as Robson.  But overall I think we came off worse we got some money but we never signed a replacement striker  Niskanen came in after a long chase from us along with the loan signing of Levitt and Mulgrew coming in on a free.  The signing of Biamou was made in October and we can all agree it has been a disaster and has tied up a salary we could have used elsewhere, club needs to look at medicals and checks before signing as we have signed too many crocs over the years.

Our early season form took me by surprise after a shocking opening game of the season against Aberdeen, for me when Smith became injured and we were forced to play Freeman we seemed all of a sudden to have a more attacking threat.  And depending on your viewpoint it was down partly to Freeman creating more chances and space or a change in the our tactics.  Our stats at the end of round 1 of fixtures were P11 W6 D3 L2 - 21 Points, which any fan would be happy with.

In the second round of fixture i feel that other managers had spotted how we would play and started to set up the teams to prevent us playing through them the way we had and we did not seem to adapt or change tactics through this period we had a terrible run which may have seen other manager lose their roles but we kept faith with ours.  A lot of players had a slump in performance during this time was that tactics or player for causing the slump; i can only speculate.  Our record in the second round of fixtures was P11 W1 D2 L8 (I have inlcuded the original date for the Dundee fixture in our second round of matches) - 5 Points

January Transfer window saw a lot of departures Kerr Smith, Fuchs and Appere attracting fees of some sorts, with a lot of younger players moving out on loan and Reynolds being released.  We signed Watt from Motherwell, McDonald on a free and a replacement for Benji.  Along with a loan signing from Arsenal under 23 who had never played a competitive match,  I felt we got some of the players we needed especially as we had real trouble in the second round of fixtures holding the ball up front.

For me our change in fortunes coincided with an enforced change in defence where Ross Graham came in as we had no cover and our results seemed to stablise and we were able to hold the ball up the park for longer to create chances, however we seem to lack the ability to close out games that has cost us and we have had a large number of draws as a result.  our form in the 3rd round of fixtures has been P11 W3 D6 L2 - 15 Points

For me our early season form has helped us this year and without that we would not be in the top 6, with our slump in the second round of games.  Us picking it up in January can be linked to the signings and also the emergence of Ross Graham, the manager was backed in January by the club.

TC has achieved the objective of getting us top 6 no doubt and has exceeded my expectation of him at the start of the season.  We can all say that the bottom 9 clubs all seem to be set up not to lose but we can only play against the opposition there is so cant take away the achievement by saying other teams have been poor.  And we still have the opportunity to qualify for Europe which all of us would take.

For me given all the talk at the start of the season i dont see any real improvement on the way we play from previous years, it is very much the way we played last season only the manager has been backed in certain quarters with some signings. I am still at a loss to see how we want to play the game and what our tactics are.  Everything we do seems very pedestrian and allows our opposition to settle; we play wide players and then never seem to allow them to get to the by line to make crosses and when they do we have no one in the box or no one breaking from midfield; when we go though the middle we have a lot of sideways passing no one creating space and a general lack of movement.

This summer for me is key as we have a lot of players leaving and some who have not signed new contracts who could leave, a lot of the players we have are probably beyond their peak (thinking Clark, Pawlett, Mulgrew etc.)  The much vaunted younger players have not delivered, although some of that is down to them not getting a run in the team even in games they have played well.  Signings are going to be critical as I doubt the league will be as poor next season.

Overall from me the jury's still out

Last edited by Lancashire-Arab (26/4/2022 3:15 pm)

dufc2019 wrote:

we also played 4-3-3 the first quarter not this 3-5-2 shite

Apparently the players dont like it either