I was relatively pleased with the first-half performance, given how poor we were last week. We pressed high up the pitch and started to play with greater composure. The second-half performance, however, was dire. I'm not convinced that the problem is the formation per se; after all, there are reasons why 4-2-3-1 is the most popular formation in modern football. The problem is more fundamental than this unfortunately. We are extremely one dimensional, in that we rarely play through balls in behind the opposition defence, even when someone with pace, such as Doolan, is playing up top. Instead we rely on hitting Pogba with crosses and long balls. This means is that when he isn't able to win his aerial battles, as was the case yesterday, we're completely toothless. And even when he is able to get the better of the opposition back four, we rarely have midfielders running beyond him, anticipating flick-ons. But even more fundamental than this, there's no getting around the fact that the first team, and the squad more generally, is significantly weaker than was the case last season. If this is due to us having a relatively low playing budget -- and I don't have data to hand to answer this conclusively one way or another -- the fault, in so far as any can be apportioned, may not be the manager's. Either way, unless we can find a way to strengthen the team during the transfer window it looks like the play-off spot is the best we can hope for. Such is the life of the Thistle fan though -- with the average attendance we're attracting at the moment there's only so much that can be achieved.
I was relatively pleased with the first-half performance, given how poor we were last week. We pressed high up the pitch and started to play with greater composure. The second-half performance, however, was dire. I'm not convinced that the problem is the formation per se; after all, there are reasons why 4-2-3-1 is the most popular formation in modern football. The problem is more fundamental than this unfortunately. We are extremely one dimensional, in that we rarely play through balls in behind the opposition defence, even when someone with pace, such as Doolan, is playing up top. Instead we rely on hitting Pogba with crosses and long balls. This means is that when he isn't able to win his aerial battles, as was the case yesterday, we're completely toothless. And even when he is able to get the better of the opposition back four, we rarely have midfielders running beyond him, anticipating flick-ons. But even more fundamental than this, there's no getting around the fact that the first team, and the squad more generally, is significantly weaker than was the case last season. If this is due to us having a relatively low playing budget -- and I don't have data to hand to answer this conclusively one way or another -- the fault, in so far as any can be apportioned, may not be the manager's. Either way, unless we can find a way to strengthen the team during the transfer window it looks like the play-off spot is the best we can hope for. Such is the life of the Thistle fan though -- with the average attendance we're attracting at the moment there's only so much that can be achieved.