Jump to content

Jaggernaut

Members
  • Posts

    17,473
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Jaggernaut

  1. 5 hours ago, partickthedog said:

    With Cammy Logan and Logan Chalmers we are very close to a name reversal.

    Has this ever been perfectly achieved? Is there an Arthur Kenny, a Graham Brian, a Craig Albert or even a Lawless Stevie in our history?

    Fulham definitely managed it with John Collins and Collins John. 

    Dunno, but Jim Slavin' might work both ways.

  2. 3 hours ago, laukat said:

    Agree with @lady-isobel-barnett that we can be quite fixated on formations such as 4-2-3-1, 3-5-2 etc when in reality they are only really starting positions.

    From what what I have seen in the 2 friendlies so far Wilson is changing the nature of how the fullbacks play. We have for the last few seasons been used to seeing overlapping fullbacks when we have possession so that it creates overloads in wide area's.

    To my mind it was noticeable against Glenafton and against ICT that Wilson is looking for the fullbacks to either underlap or be more central and almost become the midfield allowing the likes of Stanway and Crawford to make runs into the box and get beyond the strikers. In theory pulls a wide defender into central area's and leaves our wingers with more space and a 1v1 against the opposition fullback which in turn makes us less predictable in attack and less reliant on a striker for goals.

    Second half of the ICT game showed this particularly when Lowe and Logan were our fullbacks. Logan is very good at making underlapping runs, Lowe is pretty good on the ball and able to pick a pass and put in a decent cross. Harkness tried to play as an overlapping fullback putting more pressure on our weak midfield and whilst Reading was trying to underlap Fitzpatrick he's not as good as Low on the ball and got caught in possession a couple of times.

    So if we are looking at formations against ICT we looked more like a 2-3-2-3 when we had the ball with occasional periods where either Logan, Stanway or Crawford would go further forward and we end up with almost 5 up front but people finding space in the defensive channels rather than just out wide and overloading the fullback. Downside is that if an opposition can break quickly they will find space in wide areas which will in turn mean our centre backs getting pulled wide. So might not be the worst thing to have a centre back play as CDM who can drop in central in that scenario and immediately have 3 at the back.

    Where I think the issues are is that I'm not convinced Reading can play in that system as he looks more like a wingback who can carry the ball but struggles with delivery and on defensive duties. Low looks better in possession but still not got the physicality required for the defensive work. Whilst we become less reliant on a striker to score goals we need a striker with better movement to create spaces for the advanced midfielders to exploit. For our wingers to exploit the 1v1's requires them to have a few tricks which I think only Chalmers and Lawless truly have as Fitzpatrick and MacKay are more about pace. Conversely we need the wingers to have pace to cover back quickly and Lawless doesn't have that. 

    I would also add that we will be asking O'Reilly and Ashcroft to do a lot more quick changes of direction so we might well find they start to pick up more injuries than last season. I like Dolan and I think he can cope with first team football but we might still need another centre half for cover

    Great analysis, thanks. No doubt some will disagree, but this is the kind of  analysis that we need now.

  3. A random memory of Mr Reid from school: He asked if anybody could translate "Pater meus homo durus est."

    My mate piped up: "Ma faither's a hardman."

    Robert couldn't help but laugh out loud; he praised  the pupil, but kindly suggested it was "hard man" rather than "hardman."

    It was clear that he was smiling about that right through the rest of the lesson, looking forward to sharing the story in the staff room.

    Oh, and that mate was a Thistle fan too.

     

  4. Sad, sad news indeed. A class act of a man: intelligent, educated, polite, funny, sympathetic, helpful, and a greater, non-millionaire supporter of PTFC there can never have been.

    Thanks for the French and Latin classes, Mr Reid, and for the great chats we had in and around Firhill, and for your hilarious and entertaining Hospitality tours, which were always the highlight for those lucky enough to have attended. I doubt if he realized just how much he was treasured by so many people. 

    RIP

    Condolences to all Robert's family and friends.

    • Like 5
  5. 4 hours ago, JeanieD said:

    Charlie Smith- Alex Forsyth behind him - Hugh Strachan Jackie Campbell Rough John Gibson Jimmy Bone and Tommy Rae

    Correct! But here's the real challenge: Whose nose is that behind Strachan, and whose shoulder behind Campbell?

    I can make a good guess for each, but don't want to give any clues!

  6. 4 hours ago, JeanieD said:

    Charlie Smith- Alex Forsyth behind him - Hugh Strachan Jackie Campbell Rough John Gibson Jimmy Bone and Tommy Rae

    Yep, Charlie Smith, who seemed to disappear without trace. I seem to remember a rumour years ago that he had passed away. Does anybody know about him?

  7. As an exile who'll be able to make it to no more than one game next season (that's been the case for years), I won't be buying a season ticket, but will be subscribing for all the home game live streams, and have contributed elsewhere (e.g., season tickets for others), and will go for several of the usual "offers" (I won't mention them.). That's my choice, and I'm happy with that, and remain open to any other (reasonable) promotion(!!)/campaigns. (I really do miss the hospitality and Hall of Fame events!).

    Enjoy the new season everybody!

    'Monra Jags!

    We arra Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisseelle!!!

  8. 9 hours ago, Albert's Ghost said:

    Eh?

    Yeah, sorry: Not OF, but might as well have been! And I'll leave it there.

    Actually, a further comment: PC's statistics certainly aren't as bad as some of the other main characters/charlatans we've had as managers, but I think it's fair to say that we had higher expectations back then compared to now (sigh , that's a sign of how much we have declined). Anyway, I admired him as a player, but "didn't value him" as our manager.

  9. On 6/1/2025 at 6:00 PM, The Thistle Archive said:

    ^ No, the parameters were laid out in the introduction. Good point though. The capped (non-playing) Thistle managers include Davie Meiklejohn, Scot Symon, Willie Thornton, Bertie Auld, Pat Quinn, Bobby Watson, Gary Caldwell and, now, Mark Wilson!

     

    God, we really are e retirement home for auld firm oldies, aren't we.

    And to make matters worse, shouldn't Derek Whyte be added to that list?

    ETA: Aaargh, and Murder MacLeod!

    ETA: Peter Cormack

  10. 1 hour ago, MarciaBlaine said:

    As far as I understood it, it means players can be supported to study alongside playing. It follows schemes that are popular in the USA, the likes of which Luke McBeth took part in.

    Oh, is that it?

    Err, as far as I can remember, there have always been football players who have studied during their playing careers. But I guess until recently there were no fancy but vacuous names such as "hybrid" and "transformative model" used to describe football club operations. Honestly,, shortly after I started reading that text I thought to myself "AI generated." With experience you can spot it quite easily, a gut feeling that's usually right.

  11. 7 hours ago, fenski said:

    Here's the chatgpt authored article about it. It's pioneering apparently.

    https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/david-elliot-appointed-head-coach-of-partick-thistle-womens-fc/

    Thanks for that.

    To me that article is full of gobbledygook: buzzwords, verbosity, and mangled meaning. I STILL don't know what the "uniquely hybrid" model really means.

    At least now I know what it doesn't mean (I think): it doesn't mean that the women's team will be a mix of full-time and part-time players, and it doesn't mean that the women's team will be a mix of women and men who want to be known as women.

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  12. All the best to Robert, my ex French and Latin teacher!

    Here's a wee story (again): Back in season 70-71 we had a late afternoon kick-off match at Stranraer (they had no floodlights), and to get there it meant I had to dog school and miss my French lesson. I went on the NW bus, if I remember correctly. Outside Stair Park, as I was waiting in the queue at the turnstyle I heard "Hello, Anderson..." and turned to see Mr Reid looking at me, as he walked with a companion towards the stand, for which he surely had a complimentary ticket. Like me, he was dogging school that afternoon! We exchanged a kind of ""We'll say no more about this" glance.

    We met at many matches, home and away, over the years. Two other Jags diehard teachers from the same school were Hector McLeod and Ian Woodburn.

    • Like 4
×
×
  • Create New...