Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard

[trublusince1982 243]

But preseason and transfer windows are crucial if you want a certain type of player to play a crucial role in how you want your team to play , Andy Halliday was never brought in as a defensive/holding midfielder he just happens to be the one playing that role just now , the formation does fit the squad , if we had taken half the chances we create we wouldn't be having this debate .

 

You state that yesterdays 11 was never going to beat Falkirk , strange statement given they were handed a goal and we missed a penalty ,as for the rest of your post its just with hindsight drivel imho , your calling him out after he was in place for less than 6 weeks and had a change in personnel of over 24 players ,(coming and going ) , don't you think he deserves a wee bit more time

Time for what? Nobody here said anything about getting rid of him only that he needs to learn and stop making the same mistakes over and over.

If the boy doesn't touch the ball on the line we are 3-1 down- all ifs and buts. Said it in advance of the game same as many others, the obvious deficiencies would hurt us and they did.

 

He brought in all the players, its not a lot to expect a squad to win the championship in Scotland. Hearts done it with similar time frame and far smaller resources.

 

You can imagine its all drivel if you like.Our manager is doing the same and its costing us points. You can call it calling him out if you like i just see it as stating the obvious.

 

Don't agree the squad fits the formation. We have no defensive mids, only one winger for each wing and no striker that can play the central role with centre halfs that are nowhere near competent enough to handle the extra responsibility the formation puts on them. All pivotal roles. The squad doesn't exhibit the strength nor any pace in the regions its needed to successfully play the formation, nor do we have enough goal scorers to play "we will score one more than you" tactics. We struggle against poor sides and rely heavily in my opinion on our fitness levels giving us an edge in the last 20 mins.

[jhunter 0]

We were absolutely awful yesterday, if it hadn't been for Baird's idiotic touch on a ball already going in and 2 world class saves from foderingham we'd have been pumped.

Edited December 20, 2015 by jhunter

[rbr 1,256]

For the first 5 months this squad bar the St J game were excellent ,there has been a massive over reaction to a few bad results , in those games if we had taken a fraction of our chances we aren't having this debate

[trublusince1982 243]

lucky if we have had more than a handful of games all season sown up before the 60th- 70th minute against what are poor sides. Fitness has papered over a lot of cracks this season.

[RANGERRAB 3,653]

For the first 5 months this squad bar the St J game were excellent ,there has been a massive over reaction to a few bad results , in those games if we had taken a fraction of our chances we aren't having this debate

 

Very true about taking our chances which is why we need a couple of quality strikers next month

[trublusince1982 243]

you need to go back to sept was the last time we had a game sown up at half time (morton).

 

qos 1 each scored in the 90th minute to win 2-1

livi 0-0 15 mins to go win 1 nil

dumbarton 0-0 20 mins to go score 2 and concede 1 to win 2-1

falkirk 1-1 8 minutes to go score twice

 

these are poor side which we should be easily putting to bed especially the games at Ibrox. The recent results have been coming for a while

[MacK1950 2,376]

Have posted often re midfield and square ball passes many of Wallace's runs are curtailed by having McKay in front of him who mostly struggles to beat a man or get decent pass or cross in oh to still have McLeod who worked well with Wallace.

Another thing that must stop is the short corner as the majority of times the ball ends up in our own half.

[colinstein 294]

disagree....we get more out of Wallace when McKay's there. It's McKay's through passes that Wallace overlaps on to. We've had some joy with that

[Frankie 8,562]

I understand the frustration with our tactical problems but I thought Rousseau's opening post was spot on.

 

I think Kiernan, Ball and Wilson are all good enough but because Tav and Wallace are so far up the park and Halliday is also so attack-minded that leaves our central defenders isolated to quick and/or direct counters, including long balls. Usually they can deal with them easily enough but, like it or not on Saturday, the wind was an issue in that sense whilst too many individual errors also cause us problems. Sometimes we need an extra body in there - whether it's Tav or Wallace sitting back for a period (as happened eventually in the second half on Saturday) or a Halliday and/or AN Other sitting deeper. Effectively we need tactical discipline - it's all well and good saying this is how we play but sometimes we might need to be more defensive for match periods - there's no shame in that.

 

The main attacking issue for me is the lack of pace and recent poor quality on the ball. Oduwa, McKay, Wallace and Holt are all quick enough but where we've fell down for periods in games is that our first touch and or final ball is poor. Wallace did make several good runs the other day but McKay's pass was almost always poor. Meanwhile, Waghorn's first touch wasn't good enough and both he and Holt were having to come too deep leaving us no focal point centrally. In fact it wasn't until we overloaded the final third late on with Waghorn, McKay, Clark and Miller we started to look dangerous and create chances. And force Falkirk into sitting extremely deep - nullifying their threat.

 

Ultimately I think our tactics are the right ones but still a work in progress. Yes, we're short of 2-3 players and yes we need to be more flexible and disciplined. However, we're still the best team in this division and we need to retain confidence in a manager and players who can deliver the kind of exciting football we all want.

[D'Artagnan 173]

I understand the frustration with our tactical problems but I thought Rousseau's opening post was spot on.

 

I think Kiernan, Ball and Wilson are all good enough but because Tav and Wallace are so far up the park and Halliday is also so attack-minded that leaves our central defenders isolated to quick and/or direct counters, including long balls. Usually they can deal with them easily enough but, like it or not on Saturday, the wind was an issue in that sense whilst too many individual errors also cause us problems. Sometimes we need an extra body in there - whether it's Tav or Wallace sitting back for a period (as happened eventually in the second half on Saturday) or a Halliday and/or AN Other sitting deeper. Effectively we need tactical discipline - it's all well and good saying this is how we play but sometimes we might need to be more defensive for match periods - there's no shame in that.

 

The main attacking issue for me is the lack of pace and recent poor quality on the ball. Oduwa, McKay, Wallace and Holt are all quick enough but where we've fell down for periods in games is that our first touch and or final ball is poor. Wallace did make several good runs the other day but McKay's pass was almost always poor. Meanwhile, Waghorn's first touch wasn't good enough and both he and Holt were having to come too deep leaving us no focal point centrally. In fact it wasn't until we overloaded the final third late on with Waghorn, McKay, Clark and Miller we started to look dangerous and create chances. And force Falkirk into sitting extremely deep - nullifying their threat.

 

Ultimately I think our tactics are the right ones but still a work in progress. Yes, we're short of 2-3 players and yes we need to be more flexible and disciplined. However, we're still the best team in this division and we need to retain confidence in a manager and players who can deliver the kind of exciting football we all want.

 

Alot in there to agree with Frankie particularly this part :

 

I think Kiernan, Ball and Wilson are all good enough but because Tav and Wallace are so far up the park and Halliday is also so attack-minded that leaves our central defenders isolated to quick and/or direct counters, including long balls. Usually they can deal with them easily enough but, like it or not on Saturday, the wind was an issue in that sense whilst too many individual errors also cause us problems. Sometimes we need an extra body in there - whether it's Tav or Wallace sitting back for a period

 

 

It comes as no susprise to that our dip has occurred with a similar dip in form for Tav. His distribution in recent weeks has been very poor - and such failing is compounded when he gives the ball away in a forward position thus leaving our CB's exposed as you highlight.

 

There was an interview Neil McCann did earlier in the season with Wallace & Tav and not only did he suggest to them both there was a danger with our FB's pushing on so adventurously he actually highlighted footage showing them both in the opposition box at the same time - something both of them actually denied in the interview they were guilty of !