lady-isobel-barnett

Not that I disagree with the rest of your post but yes, throw ins are truly terrible. May be wrong but I think we took only one shy quickly yesterday (Fitzpatrick, who then made an arse of the return ball). Losing possession too cheaply has been a problem all season and throw ins only exemplify that problem. That and slow distribution from the keeper are two parts of the game that if we worked on may help us move the ball thru midfield at a better pace.

Maybe didn't express myself well. Improvement was defensively.

I thought there was improvement from our last home game despite losing out on a couple of points. Livi look a better outfit than the Pars. However we continue to make very few scoring chances. Problems by and large are all of an attacking nature. In contrast I thought McBeth broke up play well protecting the back four, who in turn looked comfortable defensively. We just seem no further forward in the advanced areas. No penetration thru midfield and little co-ordination in attack. As a generalisation it's often the case the manager gets over criticised whilst the players get off lightly. But our problems are very much down to the management. We've got midfielders and forwards with proven ability. I think today's goalie, back four and defensive mid look fine. It's up to Doolan to select five further up the field to compete in a far more effective manner. Time is fast running out.

I hope it's not a back three but surely not 4-4-2?

That's excellent! Can't wait to see JJ's.

Genuinely don't know if our own Donnie McKinnon could speak Gaelic. But if he did it's likely his brother Ronnie (many Scotland caps) could also. Anyone able to clear that up? eta a quick look on the excellent Thistle Archive site confirms Donnie did speak Gaelic.

1. Agree. Back 3/5, unless one of the centrebacks routinely crosses the half way line, too negative and further cedes midfield to opponents. Besides Megwa & Milne are capable defenders and both have the energy to hit the goal line AND still play fullback. I'd say the back 3 (back 5) set up only becomes an option away on a narrow pitch or late on defending a clear lead. 2. We don't have that "someone" apart from McBeth (questionable to many at that), and it's obvious that he's preferred at centreback. I'd suggest that lack of of a midfield ball winner was part of the reason we went to a back3/5. I guess we'll just have to continue with two midfielders playing the role of of one. Not ideal but looks to me unavoidable. 5. & 6. kinda related. I feel we play too many balls, both long and short, to Graham. He'll get more goals if he can drift into scoring positions. Constantly involving Big Brian in attacking build ups negates that somewhat. If there's less involvement there he doesn't necessarily have to be playing well to keep him on. Less likelihood of him tiring as well. We've got midfielders capable of joiney up attacking play. Getting close to Graham and getting past him. Why we haven't seen more effective build up thru midfield to date is one of the more disappointing aspects of our play so far this season.

This fact checking business is a doddle.

Mirroring us in a way. Assembled what looked like a very competitive squad. Strongly fancied for the title but find themselves way behind the league leaders and currently placed nearer to bottom of table. In fact "mirroring" might be the wrong word as they were I believe stronger favourites for title and results are more disappointing than ours. Btw I'm neither against the director of football/head coach route nor for that matter anti McCall, if that position arose. But certainly he's currently not doing anything of note.

I know little re loans. Does that mean the window's shut for short term loans as well? Like others I feel we have rather too large a squad. Even with injuries we have players not getting playing time. Others more on the periphery lucky to make the match day squad. Into the bargain, and not meant as a criticism, Doolan tends not to vary starting line ups. Competition for places is important but so is players getting game time.

Apart from fitness, stamina etc there's three aspects to assessing Graham as a player*. 1/Number of goals scored against sitters missed, positioning when scoring chances created. 2/Link up play, back to the goal stuff, assists etc. 3/Amount of quality service he receives. *Apart from the occasional heid gone moments I doubt his captaincy is in question. Generalising I know but I reckon No3 is in his favour. He's not receiving enough quality balls either from wide positions or thru midfield. No 2 isn't ever Brian's strongest suit, which exasperates things if he ain't scoring. Re No 1, because of poor service it's perhaps unfair to assess Graham's current goal conversion rate. Just not enough data. It's all very much a management problem. Players get dropped all the time for tactical purposes even if they don't deserve to miss out. There's no reason whatsoever that makes Graham undroppable. That said it's far from clear to me whether dropping Brian is an answer.

When you take into consideration the intensity the wee fella goes about things it's hardly surprising he picks up so many knocks. A good player with an even better attitude. I guess the injuries go with the territory.

Long overdue but still young for a centreback . Believe he'll do well.

Well done to the Jags U18s who won 4-3 away to St Johnstone. Plus I'd just like to thank the staff at the Toby Carvery, Strathclyde Pk for their friendly service. Very much appreciated. *Hope nobody thinks I'm hijacking the thread by mentioning a game of football and premises kinda near New Douglas Pk. If so, sorry. I'm just assuming a match thread is the place to post largely unrelated things.

I actually find it strange that Muirhead plays in the centre of the three.

That's rather academic.

On the positive side at least Accies are at last doing something to reduce the length of queues at the away end.

Only problem I can foresee would be at Ibrox and Parkhead. A truly independent timekeeper might turn the clock back to the 17th century.

Not just time wasting but time taken treating players was way over the 5 mins allocated. It shouldn't even have been a case of take the corner and blow when the ball comes back out the penalty box. The sort of arbitrary way refs usually adopt. There should still have been further time to play. I know we wouldn't be talking about this if the corner had been at the other end of the park but it's no wonder teams play act so much when they're know there's a good chance the full amount of time won't be added on.

Considering they can hardly have had much practice together (if any) I thought there were positive signs of an understanding/partnership already developing.

Relative to a point I was making. Wee Stevie wouldn't be so reliant at trying to play Graham in on every forward move. Graham gets the bulk of his goals thru his off the ball movement in the box. The more you play him into just about every forward movement, long ball or build up, the less chance he has of ghosting into scoring positions. As captain he perhaps feels he should be involved in and/or directing build up play. But it ain't working and besides that yesterday we had the very player in Ablade that's suited to that part of the game. It's difficult to argue for or against dropping Big Brian when the scoring chances are not being created in the first place. Being captain, and obviously a very effective captain to boot, further confuses the issue.

Agree with that. Exchange a centreback for a midfielder and we might have been able to get more compact up top. One positive for me was the positions Fitzpatrick took up. He might not be on the best of form but I like him in that free role. Well, I assume it's a free role. Aiden wide left all the time was getting too predictable and part of a too rigid set up. However that formation today might just be effective on a narrower pitch but we'll struggle to get goals elsewhere.

As a long time revenue of the Jags I demand our next strip be made of sackcloth. Just don't ask me where I get the ashes from.

The 3-5-2 worked fine in containing Ayr but offered little going forward. Strangely Milne was more a threat in attack when moving back to fullback after the wingers came on. If we play with last week's intensity and move the ball about faster we should win. I feel we try to play Graham into too many attacking moves (missing Lawless here), whereas Big Brian is far more effective drifting into scoring positions. He certainly doesn't have the first touch his manager had and attacks too often break down around him. We're not short of midfielders who are comfortable on the ball, so little excuse for our often easy loss of possession. I'm wondering if Doolan will start Nilsson rather than Chalmers. That could in turn allow Ablade to start in a role not dissimilar to where Robinson plays.

Much as I see it tho' even a 4-4-2 would benefit from having a midfielder that could be described as a ball winner. Perhaps more a "Docherty" than an "Abdul" under that system. The best antidote for not having a ball winner/def mid in a team is possession. One of our big failings is losing possession too quickly and too often. We'll continue to struggle under any positive formation if we keep giving the ball away so cheaply. Of course possession in itself offers little positively if we don't move the ball at pace.