bowers wrote:

Hard one Saturday but its these ones we need to be winning.

Neilson to drop out? Or will he go with same again? Maybe McNulty will be ready to start? Possibly Pawlett back in ?

At least not lose.

Young Lewis Neilson should be taken out of the firing line after a couple of difficult matches, where he struggled.

Butcher hopefully fit enough to make the bench.

It won't be this but i'd go.

........................Siegrest...........
L.Smith...Connolly...Reynolds...Sporle
Bolton...Powers..Harkes..Appere
...............Clark...Shankland...

Subs - Mehmet, Butcher, K.Smith
Pawlett, McNulty, Robson, Fotheringham

Shakey Isles Arab wrote:

Why so hard on young Lewis ?
Ok he made a stuff up that cost us a goal, he doesnae need telling, but it happens - he's 17.
Connolly (in particular), Reynolds and Edwards have cost us goals.
Whatever's best to help the laddie, to drop him or leave him in there and show confidence ?
To me more an asset than a risk.

He is certainly an asset. I thought he was fine against Aberdeen. 50/50 on Tuesday with some good moments and bad moments. It will happen. Him dropping in and out of team is what he can expect over the next year or so in my opinion. Might benefit from a loan next season just to get that regular game time. If Ross Graham comes back a better player from his loan, and also a couple of years older than Lewis, then it might makes sense to have him around the first team and get Lewis some regular game time. We then have Kerr Smith who will be 16/17 next season (like Lewis this season) who can come in now and again. It's all a process with youngsters. We actually have 4 highly rated young centre backs at the club just now (Neilson (17), Graham (19), Smith (16) and Hutchison (17)) so it would make sense to have a couple out on loan and a couple at the club to get chances now and again.

An important thing to remember about Neilson is that he was a midfielder up until about 2 years ago. So his whole footballing career he was working and practicing the abilities of a midfielder. Then RN wanted him moved to CB so he is still learning the defensive side of the game. I don't think anyone should be giving him a hard time. But you call a spade a spade and he needs to learn from it.

I've taken him out of my team because I want a back 4, of which, Connolly and Reynolds are the best pairing at the minute with Edwards out. If we are playing a back 3 and Edwards is still out, I have no problem at all with Lewis playing.

lifesanocean wrote:

LarsErikKjell wrote:

Benji

Smith
Connolly
Reynolds
Robson

Bolton
Powers
Harkes
Sporle

Shankland
Clark

 
That's what I'd play as well. Would be happy with TEKs team though. Can see Edwards replacing Neilson though being the only change.

Edwards not even on the bench the other night though, chances of him being involved seem slim?

I REALLY hope we switch to a 4 at the back.

So apparently all of our loan players have returned to the club?

Cant imagine any of them will make it into the starting 11 on Saturday but certainly good to have some depth within the squad.

You'd expect Freeman, Graham, Hoti and Mochrie to all feature on the bench if Butcher/Edwards and Fuchs are still out.

Good news on loan returnees and injuries back.
'Specially Fuchs, Chalmers.
Looking like we've got some depth in squad under Covid circumstances and great to see Academy boys come through.

We'll be able to put out two elevens!

Tek wrote:

LarsErikKjell wrote:

Whatever people think of him as a manager, I think everyone can agree that Micky is a fuckin great guy 😂

He is a genuinely nice and likeable fella.

I just wonder if he lacks that bit of edge all the very top Manager's have.

As an example. Klopp seems like a genuinely nice and decent human being and 99% of the time you see him in jovial spirits and flashing that big smile of his.

But sometimes his face changes and you get a hint that he can get serious and kick arses when he needs to.
 

I'd be surprised if he hasn't punched a puss or two in his time.
Craig Levein had that attribute surprisingly, probably being a Fifer.
I'm not advocating violence btw but you're right, you need an 'edge'.
 

Do quite a bit of work for a German bank.  One time one of the younger Germans told me that he had been 'praised' by a very senior colleague that he would have 'made a good SS officer'.  He seemed strangely pleased by this.  That's the way I see Klopp.  Great leader of men, long memory.

Well that was fucking dreadful. I'll start by saying every player gave 100% and as a team we defended really well. I'll also say Powers was far and away our MOTM for me.

Harkes and Robson, for all their potential, will only ever be higher Championship/lower Premiership players. And pretty average ones at that. How many shite passes? Honestly it beggars belief. Has Robson ever put a good ball in the box? Actually, has anyone actually put a good ball in this season?

A truly awful performance and why Micky didnt make any more changes (Sporle for Robson? Bolton for Neilson and go 442?). It tells me he was ok with a 0-0. Now that is another point towards safety, I get that, but we had a real chance to put a bit of daylight between ourselves and the bottom 6. I hope Fuchs and Chalmers are back for the next run of games, cuz fuck me we have nothing in this team currently apart from Shankland.

Last edited by LarsErikKjell (16/1/2021 6:01 pm)

We needed to pick up some wins. We should have been aiming for 6 points from these two games and I think it was realistic to expect that we can beat two teams well below us in the table.

Now we have St Mirren, Hibs, Motherwell, Ross County and Livi and if we dont pick up at least 2 wins from these games then I'm a bit worried about where we might be.

Our first sub today (nice and early too btw) was so wrong. Louis was working hard up top. We should have brought Bolton on for Neilson and gone 442. Robson and Smith would get the ball out wide and HAVE to stop because there was no one near them. Just a really frustrating game to watch that we so easily could have won. I cant believe how bad our final ball is. Clark had a corner that hit the first man an went right back to him. Then he hit the first man again from the resulting cross. Harkes then picked it up and tried a cross... guess what? First man.