Summer 2021

[DelMonte]

5 hours ago, fine-n-dandy said:

Because I have said that until something miraculous happens with Bates & Gallagher (McCrorie is already a lost cause at CH) then I will continue to go on about Glass’s shambolic/amateur efforts at sorting us a central defensive unit that looks semi competent.

Bad enough the clusterfuck he tried to get us in euro groups with but now we have half a season more of that shambles to work with

Why? Make the point once then when it comes to fruition again maybe you can mention it. We aren’t even playing and you’re mentioning it a heap of times a day. Just stop ffs

[fine-n-dandy]

2 hours ago, DelMonte said:

Why? Make the point once then when it comes to fruition again maybe you can mention it. We aren’t even playing and you’re mentioning it a heap of times a day. Just stop ffs

I was getting moaned at for repeating the same after EVERY game pretty much this season.

The defence Is a fkn joke & I will repeat this until it becomes something close to acceptable for our level/expectations. Tough shite if yous don’t like this ? 

 

Why did you repeatedly slate Rooney yet heap praise on May, Goodwillie etc. you were as relentless in that shite as I am rgds our pish excuse for a central defensive unit

[RED_JOHN]

To bolster our defence we should drop Joe (the peeping Tom) Lewis. He is conceding too many goals and needs to be more commanding whilst using his experience to keep our younger defenders in check. 
Bates and Gallagher should be the central defensive partnership the next few matches to see how they get on. If McCrorie must be played he would slot in at right back as we push young Ramsay up into the right of midfield giving him more of a wingers role. He can beat players for fun and deliver a ball into the box well. 
The young lad is wasted at just right back. His strengths are going forward.

[The Hulk]

McCrorie does tend to get brushed off easier by physical players but by and large I think he's done reasonably well and I think maybe just needs a bit of consistency; it would appear Glass sees him as a ball-playing defender which looks about right.

Gallagher seems to talk well and just needs to settle and try get some of his Livingston form back....

For me the problem isn't so much the central defenders. It is clear that our full-backs (are instructed to) play very high and very wide.  For example Jack Mackenzie for all his obvious tough defensive qualities 1v1, which tends to lead to crowd-pleasing crunching tackles, has been caught out several times with suspect positioning.  I think this is partly naivete on his part and partly down to the high-line Glass wants the full-backs playing at with a more compact midfield not offering the same amount of defensive cover in the wide areas.  Ramsay similarly but to a lesser extent has been stretched at times.  It is my view if you get the FBs defending in a slightly more compact back 4, we'll have less pressure on the CBs and likely concede less goals, but possibly to the detriment of our attacking overloads in wide areas borne by the very offensive FBs.

In short, I think Glass may work very hard on that defensive shape over the international break and we'll see that tightening up begin to happen.  I think on paper, other than perhaps failing to bring in a LB, he has bought very well and has a great opportunity to bed everything down over the next few months.

[Bournemouth Gee]

I think Glass is a good coach ( maybe not great tactician) but he has experience and knowledge around him so I'd expect the defence to improve.

He has said from day one he wants to play attacking, exciting football which is actually really hard to do

[sooth_stander]

1 hour ago, Bournemouth Gee said:

I think Glass is a good coach ( maybe not great tactician) but he has experience and knowledge around him so I'd expect the defence to improve.

Has he though? Russell has never coached at club level and in any case, is an attacking coach. Brown has never coached at all. This Henry guy, what are his credentials?

[WesthillWanderersFC]

16 minutes ago, sooth_stander said:

Has he though? Russell has never coached at club level and in any case, is an attacking coach. Brown has never coached at all. This Henry guy, what are his credentials?

Henry Apaloo is more a tactical analyst. 

An Ian Cathro if you like.

As I’ve said, the lack of organisation may be the downfall, hopefully not once the new players are bedded in & they get time on the training pitch.  

[Don_Corleone]

I'm still slightly at a loss to really understand Glass' style of play and what he's actually trying to get them to do on the park. The only obvious thing is he wants the full backs pushed well forward to provide the width, which is fine, but it leads to quite a lot of other players crammed into the middle, and leaves the centre backs somewhat exposed. 

It seems obvious to me that Ramirez needs a strike partner who can play fairly close to him. When JET was doing that in the first 2 or 3 games they looked dangerous, but since then he's been up top on his own. 

It also seems to me that our play is quite predictable - if i was an opposition manager I'd be setting up to stop the two full backs then counter attacking by hitting diagonals, or balls into the channel in the space they've left by pushing so far up. We don't have much threat through the middle. 

It's been an okay start to the season, and has been more interesting than the last couple of seasons under McInnes, but I hope we begin to see more signs of improvement in the next few weeks as defensively we've been a shambles, midfield hasn't been as controlling as I'd have hoped, and from midfield to attack we still seem to lack pace and creativity (especially without Hedges).

On paper the acquisitions are good - I just hope he gives up playing 6 or 7 central midfielders every week shoehorned into different positions, or it's going to be like McInnes all over tgain.

[RedRichard]

3 hours ago, WesthillWanderersFC said:

Henry Apaloo is more a tactical analyst. 

An Ian Cathro if you like.

As I’ve said, the lack of organisation may be the downfall, hopefully not once the new players are bedded in & they get time on the training pitch.  

Get Willie Miller in for some defensive advice

[fine-n-dandy]

8 hours ago, The Hulk said:

McCrorie does tend to get brushed off easier by physical players but by and large I think he's done reasonably well and I think maybe just needs a bit of consistency; it would appear Glass sees him as a ball-playing defender which looks about right.

Gallagher seems to talk well and just needs to settle and try get some of his Livingston form back....

For me the problem isn't so much the central defenders. It is clear that our full-backs (are instructed to) play very high and very wide.  For example Jack Mackenzie for all his obvious tough defensive qualities 1v1, which tends to lead to crowd-pleasing crunching tackles, has been caught out several times with suspect positioning.  I think this is partly naivete on his part and partly down to the high-line Glass wants the full-backs playing at with a more compact midfield not offering the same amount of defensive cover in the wide areas.  Ramsay similarly but to a lesser extent has been stretched at times.  It is my view if you get the FBs defending in a slightly more compact back 4, we'll have less pressure on the CBs and likely concede less goals, but possibly to the detriment of our attacking overloads in wide areas borne by the very offensive FBs.

In short, I think Glass may work very hard on that defensive shape over the international break and we'll see that tightening up begin to happen.  I think on paper, other than perhaps failing to bring in a LB, he has bought very well and has a great opportunity to bed everything down over the next few months.

That doesn’t explain how the majority of our goals  against have come right through middle of defence & not from the wide/FB areas where you seem to think the weakness is

 

or maybe you are trying to suggest our CH’s are being forced to play as FB’s & leave holes right through middle ?

[redcryptoknight]

Looks like we're we may be seeing a breakthrough for Mason Hancock soon.

https://www.afc.co.uk/2021/09/03/preview-mason-hancock-feature/

[fine-n-dandy]

13 minutes ago, redcryptoknight said:

Looks like we're we may be seeing a breakthrough for Mason Hancock soon.

https://www.afc.co.uk/2021/09/03/preview-mason-hancock-feature/

?for the lad. Hope he is every bit as good as (if not better than) Mckenna when he does break into first team.

Central defence & in goal has got to be easily the hardest areas for young players to really break into first team football.

Obviously mistakes there are far more costly, hope he realises this & is very patient because with two young FB’s already in team it is going to be even harder for him to get a real chance in central defence.

Lets hope we can establish some good commanding leads in some games where we can afford to then give him some decent game time/experience in first team ?

[sooth_stander]

1 hour ago, redcryptoknight said:

Looks like we're we may be seeing a breakthrough for Mason Hancock soon.

https://www.afc.co.uk/2021/09/03/preview-mason-hancock-feature/

Interesting that we picked him up from Fulham at 16.

All the best to the lad.

[StandFree1982]

On 9/3/2021 at 8:12 PM, redcryptoknight said:

Looks like we're we may be seeing a breakthrough for Mason Hancock soon.

https://www.afc.co.uk/2021/09/03/preview-mason-hancock-feature/

Another youngster bigging up Andy Considine.  

When you talk about a player being "good to have around the place" this is 100% true of him.  

[RED_JOHN]

2 hours ago, StandFree1982 said:

Another youngster bigging up Andy Considine.  

When you talk about a player being "good to have around the place" this is 100% true of him.  

I would much prefer he was good on the pitch but that’s asking a lot of Cumbersome. 

[afc1903mad]

On 9/3/2021 at 10:08 PM, sooth_stander said:

Interesting that we picked him up from Fulham at 16.

All the best to the lad.

Hope he pushes on through unlike Virtanen whom we picked up from Everton and he failed to make it

[Andy_123]

19 hours ago, afc1903mad said:

Hope he pushes on through unlike Virtanen whom we picked up from Everton and he failed to make it

I admittedly know nothing about him, but was he ever given any sort of chance here under McInnes? Saw he scored for Hamilton the other week? 

 

[afc1903mad]

5 hours ago, Andy_123 said:

I admittedly know nothing about him, but was he ever given any sort of chance here under McInnes? Saw he scored for Hamilton the other week? 

 

To be fair, signed an extension under Glass but then after assessment he was let go.

Aye he scored the other week, against Hearts Youth team.

He turns 23 in January, so wonder if he’ll make it back up to a higher level

[Tord31]

Jamie McGrath - St Mirren demanded £1M all summer and then ended up accepting £500k, and finally £300k at the deadline.

Callum Hendry - Saints demanded a fee all summer and then end up letting him move on loan again.

Missed their opportunity to join the Famous as surely the new gaffer (Broony) will have his own targets in mind.

[WesthillWanderersFC]

44 minutes ago, Tord31 said:

Jamie McGrath - St Mirren demanded £1M all summer and then ended up accepting £500k, and finally £300k at the deadline.

Callum Hendry - Saints demanded a fee all summer and then end up letting him move on loan again.

Missed their opportunity to join the Famous as surely the new gaffer (Broony) will have his own targets in mind.

Why would we want that coo Callum Hendry?

Was poor first time round. 

McGrath would’ve been good - he danced round Brown like he wasn’t there in setting up St Mirrens 2nd goal on Sunday. 

[Granite95]

16 minutes ago, WesthillWanderersFC said:

Why would we want that coo Callum Hendry?

Was poor first time round. 

McGrath would’ve been good - he danced round Brown like he wasn’t there in setting up St Mirrens 2nd goal on Sunday. 

HEndry just joined Killie in Championship which shows his level

As for McGrath looked very good on Sunday, happily get him in January if a deal can be done (kennedy going other way?)

[Ten Caat]

3 hours ago, Tord31 said:

Jamie McGrath - St Mirren demanded £1M all summer and then ended up accepting £500k, and finally £300k at the deadline.

£300k plus Scott Allan plus Drey Wright

Allan must be worth £150-200k even despite his health problems

Wright must be worth? .......well probably nothing at all but St Mirren amazingly were biting. 

Must be worth us at least trying for him in January. We've got a surplus of midfielders we could offer in part-exchange (I presume they don't want Kennedy for whatever reason....maybe McGeouch??)

[aberdeen1970]

I don't think they want any of our midfielders otherwise we could have got the deal done earlier in the summer when we were making enquiries about him. 

Goodwin obviously nae stupid.  Probably knows he can get better value elsewhere rather than taking one of our injury prone underperforming cast offs. 

 

[WesthillWanderersFC]

2 hours ago, Granite95 said:

HEndry just joined Killie in Championship which shows his level

As for McGrath looked very good on Sunday, happily get him in January if a deal can be done (kennedy going other way?)

If Hibs are still way above us come January & we’re still struggling you’d think he’s far more likely to go to Hibs.

He already agreed to go there in the last window, it was just a lack of time that prevented it. 

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

57 minutes ago, Roberto said:

IMO when on form Scott Allan is one of the best passers of the ball in Scottish football.

His vision is class, he's just not 'at it' like he should be.

Most likely this is down to his health issues. 

Some of it will be but take a look at his career appearance stats.... cunts away to turn 30 and hes never got going. Basically had 1 good season in the Championship and half a season on loan at Hibs. Was brilliant for Hibs on those occasions. Nobody would have turned down those pay rises at West Brom and Celtic but they haven't done him any favours long term

[Zander1903]

the struggle is going to be trying to swop some of our surplus players as they are going to be on too good a wage to drop down to smaller teams

[fine-n-dandy]

On 10/1/2021 at 12:41 PM, Zander1903 said:

the struggle is going to be trying to swop some of our surplus players as they are going to be on too good a wage to drop down to smaller teams

Correct 

 

Wonder what wages all these Glass signings this window are on

Glass was broken this window

[RED_JOHN]

It’s going to be a busy January transfer window. The good thing about blowing all the seasons budget in the summer is we can always get a handout from our Atlanta chums. Bound to be someone else the fancy firing over the Atlantic. Hopefully they don’t quite make Aberdeen this time.

[Andy_123]

Jack Gurr - Gone

Matty Longstaff - Gone

Teddy Jenks

Austin Samuels - Gone

Dante Polvara

JET - Gone?

Scott Brown - Gone

Marley Watkins

Declan Gallagher

Christian Ramirez

David Bates

Almost 50% of our summer business binned before the season has even reached the split. And of the rest, Ramirez and maybe Bates get pass marks so far. Fucking shocking. Someone, somehow, needs to be asking serious questions about what the fuck was going on in summer.

[The Gee Man]

DC Arrogance is what happened. He knew best and failed! 0/10. Must now get someone into the club to run it as a football club and realise success on the park breeds success off it