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Vinnyjag
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I am keen to hear the opinion of people in relation to whether they feel the club are ahead or behind where we were at this point last year, in relation to players.

In my opinion, we are significantly weaker than we were last year, and don't have the capabilities to compete in the top-6 at current strength. We haven't replaced arguably our best defender (Keown is a replacement for himself, and not an addition to the squad), our club captain, or our second choice striker. Nor have we addressed the Dumbuya situation that Archibald must have known about since the tail end of last season. And our situation in midfield in not replacing Welsh thus far, seems to be predicated on the assumption that Bannigan/Fraser are going to stay injury free.

Obviously there is still a good while to go until the end of August, but I fear that a poor start to the league for the third year in a row might now lead to the best outcome. I think we are at the bare minimum, 3 good quality players away from where we could realistically compete Top-6.

 

Think that's a bit disingenuous re Keown. He wasn't here last year at this time, which is pertinent to your question. In my mind you can drop the significantly weaker to a marginally weaker. I'm not too concerned re squad but of course it's all about opinions. Also we're not starting this season without Cerny*/Bannigan.

 

*Scully and or Sneddon may well get game time but not thru necessity.

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I am keen to hear the opinion of people in relation to whether they feel the club are ahead or behind where we were at this point last year, in relation to players.

In my opinion, we are significantly weaker than we were last year, and don't have the capabilities to compete in the top-6 at current strength. We haven't replaced arguably our best defender (Keown is a replacement for himself, and not an addition to the squad), our club captain, or our second choice striker. Nor have we addressed the Dumbuya situation that Archibald must have known about since the tail end of last season. And our situation in midfield in not replacing Welsh thus far, seems to be predicated on the assumption that Bannigan/Fraser are going to stay injury free.

Obviously there is still a good while to go until the end of August, but I fear that a poor start to the league for the third year in a row might now lead to the best outcome. I think we are at the bare minimum, 3 good quality players away from where we could realistically compete Top-6.

There are 7 weeks to go until the end of the transfer window, which only officially opened in England on 1st July. I certainly don't think there is any need to panic. Yes, we would all like to have seen some more signings coming in by now but I don't believe for one minute that the club haven't being trying their hardest to get players in.

 

I would actually argue that, given our injury list at this stage last season, we are slightly better off at this stage. We didn't have Barton at this time last year and our young players are a year older. We can't forget about the likes of McCarthy, Nisbet, Penrice and McLaughlin, who are all close to the step up from development.

 

I said last week that I was looking forward to finding out who we will bring in. It will be one or possibly two strikers and, as discussed at length recently, a left sided defender. I'm not sure if we will look for cover at right back while Muzzy is out or risk just going with Elliott.

 

With the squad we have at the moment, we are good enough to get out of league cup section and that is the aim on the lead up to league season starting.

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Early last year, many didn't rate Lindsey too highly.

 

I don't rate the player and as said before he looked very shakey at times and that was against opposition 2 leagues below us.

If we get a decent offer (20k plus) take it.

But for me, I think he hasn't improved enough to merit an automatic place in the starting 11.

Pity he is a defensive bombscare.

Him (Lindsey) and scully in the same team give me nightmares!

 

I have the utmost confidence that Archie will, over the course of the season, building on the current roster, will compile a team that will finish top-6 again this season.

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Okay so we're a defender down, but in other areas of the pitch we've improved. We have Spittal instead of Amoo.

 

And at this time last year, we had Pogba (shudder) who was eventually replaced by Azeez (shuddder). But now we have neither.

 

And as another poster said, we didn't have Barton.

 

So I think that overall the current squad is actually better than this time last year.

 

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We're quite clearly slightly better than at the start of last season, or at the very least I'd say we're not any worse. Goalkeeping options of Cerny, Scully and Sneddon is better than Cerny and Scully both being injured and having David Crawford in goals. We've effectively replaced Lindsay with Keown, and also now have Barton who can play there too. With Dumbuya out, we only have Elliott at right back, instead of Ziggy Gordon or David Syme (now of League 2 Cowdenbeath...) being our choices there. Bannigan and Fraser are back in midfield, and them with Osman, Barton and McCarthy should be good midfield options. Remember that in our first game our central midfield partnership was Sean Welsh and David Wilson... I'd say any combination of our current midfield options should be better than that. Spittal is better than Amoo, and we've kept the rest of our attacking midfielders... We need depth up front, but we relied pretty heavily on Doolan in that department anyway. I'm really not sure in which department our starting 11 is significantly weaker than last season. We need depth certainly, but I'd say if you took 11 from this seasons squad it'd be superior to last seasons.

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In my opinion, we are significantly weaker than we were last year, and don't have the capabilities to compete in the top-6 at current strength.

I actually think we're significantly stronger than this time last year or at worst slightly stronger as we have the same defence minus Lindsay and Dumbuya, but Dumbuya will be back in October or November and Lindsay will get replaced by a good solid left sided centre back. Midfield is also an improvement on last year, as was pointed out in one of the previous posts last year we had a midfield of Welsh and Wilson now we'll have either Barton and Edwards or Barton and Bannigan plus Osman(soon) and Fraser(eventually) to come back.

Same attacking midfielders except Amoo has been replaced by Spittal as for the strikers we have been strengthened by our weakest link leaving, as The_Numbers_Game says it's better for your team to get rid of the weakest link than upgrade your strongest link and this theory has been proven by decades of research. So that's my 2 cents for today

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Getting rid of Amoo, Azerz and Pogba is balanced by the loss of Lindsay who ended up a fantastic asset.

 

But we thought we had a brilliant rb in Dumbuya whose future must now be in doubt. However i think Christie can cover adequately.

 

If we have Banzo back to his best, he can be our best player again and we will end up a better team. Erskine and Lawless need.a good kicking to crank them into action early.

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So we're stronger than at the start of last season, when we made a dreadful start.

It's surely more relevant that compared to the end of last season, presumably our benchmark for what we want to achieve, we are a centre-back, a right-back and a striker down. All 3 need replaced.

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It just wouldn't be the summer without this sort of debate. We're stronger than this time last season tho' I worry a bit about us winning our League Cup section as it's significantly stronger as well.

 

We continue to extend contracts of key players, which makes the ins/outs at the Club that bit less important than when we were having to replace a good handful of key players. In goals we start the season far stronger. Midfield, Barton wasn't with us this time last year and with Bannigan back despite losing Welsh we're in much better position. McCarthy certainly and Lamont possibly add to the strength. In the more forward positions Spittal I reckon will offer us far more than Amoo did.

 

On the down side might just be age. The likes of Osman, Doolan and Erskine are not getting any younger, tho' their pace has never been a strong point so only a marginal concern. But the loss of Azeez and Amoo means the pace of attack has dropped off considerably and that has to be a concern. Amoo didn't use his pace enough but Azeez for all his faults could use his pace and strength to advantage. Archie's search for a striker/attacker will have become that bit more difficult as we need to redress pace and strength up front and not just sign a player with an "eye for goal".

 

A fit Elliott helps fill a few positions but if we get hold of a defender with flexibility would definitely be of use. In previous seasons we've always had the likes of McMillan, Miller or Gordon in the squad. We need a centreback for sure but ideally one who could cover full back.

 

Probably require three more signings. That perhaps sounds a lot as we're about to kick off the season but we haven't even dipped into the loan market yet.

Edited by lady-isobel-barnett
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It depends on how you look at it. If it is a comparison to last years squad looked at from this point last year then at the time we thought Ziggy and Ade were great additions, but had worries about Liam as a regular starter.

 

At the moment, we probably have 3 unknowns, so I would say that as a starting 11 we are marginally stronger, but as a squad, marginally weaker, but with options to improve.

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360 sports on Twitter have tweeted about us playing st mirren u20s, not sure if it is today or not but there's a photo wih a few guys I dont recognise, I think Dools is wearing no.10 but there's someone infront of him that isn't Erskine or Nisbet, there's a centre back I dont recognise but too hard to work it out.any ideas?

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I'm prepared for very mixed response, but here goes...

 

Scott macdonald on radio scotland earlier - he is a free agent, had planned to go back to Australia but never worked out - now looking for a club...

 

Yeah, yeah I dislike him as much a the rest of you, but if he was in red'n'yellow conning referees, winning free kicks, holding the ball up, laying off to others, scoring goals - surely that could benefit us..?

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Not sure if Scott MacDonald is the type of player we need just now, agree with 1 of the above posters we need pace in the team.

I would go for Michael O'halloran on a loan deal if we could afford it, can play out wide or through the middle and also gives us the pace we're lacking just now .

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Not sure if Scott MacDonald is the type of player we need just now, agree with 1 of the above posters we need pace in the team.

I would go for Michael O'halloran on a loan deal if we could afford it, can play out wide or through the middle and also gives us the pace we're lacking just now .

From what I have heard, O'Halloran is now most likely to head to Aberdeen, allowing Miles Storey to come our way.

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From what I have heard, O'Halloran is now most likely to head to Aberdeen, allowing Miles Storey to come our way.

Really hope you're wrong on that , got a worse goal scoring record than Azeez and has spent the majority of his career on loan to other clubs.

Hopefully because they got Mackay Steven during the week the O'halloran deal is dead.

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Really hope you're wrong on that , got a worse goal scoring record than Azazel and has spent the majority of his career on loan to other clubs.

Hopefully because they got Mackay Steven during the week the O'halloran deal is dead.

Hope so too. as yesterday showed if we don't get a t least one decent forward in, we'll be toast. However as I said or maybe should have said, on another thread the transfer deals are all arranged to suit the English football season and whether we like it or not . Ipso facto. we don't have to throw all our toys out of the pram immediately, but yesterdays result should raise some concerns at the very least.

After all this is Partick Thistle and we're often a stones throw from calamity.

By the way, I'd happily take a punt on MacDonald, after all he's a proven goalscorer whilst the only thing that the likes of Storey has shown in that he is not one?

Edited by stillresigned
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