Partick Thistle v Dumbarton - Saturday 5th December

[Norgethistle]

We had 4 shots on target (not counting the penalty). That’s not good enough against a team like Dumbarton 

[lady-isobel-barnett]

3 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

Unlike most, I saw enough there to give me more confidence for the rest of the season. We are improving game on game in terms of performance and now have a solid looking back 5 (four successive clean sheets). Obviously don’t score enough, but play like that (and get some forward players back as we are missing a few) and we should be in with a shout (possibly through the playoffs if Falkirk don’t slip up enough)

Agree with all that. We'll play a lot worse and get three points. Albeit watching from a distance but previously it's looked to me that our successful defending came at a price. Today it looked more that our back four and defensive mid were linking up well with those in front of them. Further up the park it looked more like, apart from clearly lacking a cutting edge, we suffered from a combination of poor decision making and predictability. 

Had a view last season that when Joe Cardle sees too much of the ball we run out of ideas. Looked like another example of that to day. That's not really a criticism of Cardle but more an indication that further up the park nobody else wants to take control of the ball. End result too much predictability. Performance wise tho' we maybe shouldn't be either too critical or too worried.

[northernsoul]

11 minutes ago, Fearchar said:

There was clearly nobody lurking in the box and few prepared to run into the box - until Gordon came on, after which he and Graham seemed to get in each other's way. Why do we insist on punting crosses into the middle of the box, then? (Not to mention the standard lower-league Scottish giant centre-back opposition.)

Williamson only needs to work on one thing: making sure he can put a cross in with his left foot. That alone would make him unpredictable and threatening for any opposition defence. (The one-footedness is a wretched habit which coaching should break: all professionals should be equally capable with either foot - including Bannigan!)

His decision making and crossing with his right foot has to improve.

Seeing as all our attacks are primarily down the right side now, then he has to start producing the goods. Other players were just as guilty as him. He will be susceptible to more criticism because his direct overlaps have become the focal point down that right hand side of late. That's not his fault, I don't see any other player try to be as direct as him. Therein lies the problem with this team.

[Fawlty Towers]

Not a Royalist but the Duke and the Lady know their stuff.

[thru thin and thin]

11 minutes ago, Fearchar said:

There was clearly nobody lurking in the box and few prepared to run into the box - until Gordon came on, after which he and Graham seemed to get in each other's way. Why do we insist on punting crosses into the middle of the box, then? (Not to mention the standard lower-league Scottish giant centre-back opposition.)

Williamson only needs to work on one thing: making sure he can put a cross in with his left foot. That alone would make him unpredictable and threatening for any opposition defence. (The one-footedness is a wretched habit which coaching should break: all professionals should be equally capable with either foot - including Bannigan!)

Agreed! I have always bemoaned the fact that too many professional footballers are one footed.

Also, why are players classed in the narrow bracket of being able only to play in the one position? A professional footballer should be capable of playing wherever he is required, to a reasonable level. Senna proves this point at this moment in time. 

Our midfield is too negative. Need more creativity similar to the Erskine, Lawless, Higginbotham style of the recent past. Surely, we can coach some midfielders to be more positive, making runs beyond Graham, or working  1 - 2's on the edge of the box, similar to Doolan/Erskine?

This can all be adopted on the training pitch, rather than constantly waiting on a transfer window to go and sign another forward.

Just plodding on without trying something different is no solution at all!

 

 

[lewcal]

Absolutely stunned we never won that game. Was like boys v men watching how much better we were than them. But if you don’t score goals you won’t win matches. You could put it down to one of they days but in all honestly it’s been the story of the season so far. All the possession and by far the better team but really struggle to score goals. Of the players out injured only spittal might’ve made a difference . Rudden has done nothing of note in his sporadic appearances and the guy from Livingston hasn’t impressed me at all in the limited time I have seen him.  Docherty, brownlie and senna were superb. Keeper had literally nothing to do from what I can remember. Iv never been Williamson’s biggest fan. Defensively and physically he’s weak. He has an attacking mind and I like his endeavour but his inability to find a thistle player with his final ball today was criminal. 

[whitburnjag]

Happy with the defence and midfield gets pass marks but our main issue is there are no forwards who can go past anyone or show a bit of ingenuity. I'd like to think that when Williamson gets the ball at least one forward should run to the near post area as odds on that's where its goin. Like to see Gordon on from the start in the next game. 

[Muscat Jag]

16 minutes ago, whitburnjag said:

Happy with the defence and midfield gets pass marks but our main issue is there are no forwards who can go past anyone or show a bit of ingenuity. I'd like to think that when Williamson gets the ball at least one forward should run to the near post area as odds on that's where its goin. Like to see Gordon on from the start in the next game. 

Not a huge fan of Gordon but he's got to offer more than Murray. 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Muscat Jag

[Lenziejag]

3 hours ago, westertonjagfan said:

What's Doolan up to these days?

Not scoring for Arbroath ? Or playing ?

[AirdrieJag]

2 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Agree with all that. We'll play a lot worse and get three points. Albeit watching from a distance but previously it's looked to me that our successful defending came at a price. Today it looked more that our back four and defensive mid were linking up well with those in front of them. Further up the park it looked more like, apart from clearly lacking a cutting edge, we suffered from a combination of poor decision making and predictability. 

Had a view last season that when Joe Cardle sees too much of the ball we run out of ideas. Looked like another example of that to day. That's not really a criticism of Cardle but more an indication that further up the park nobody else wants to take control of the ball. End result too much predictability. Performance wise tho' we maybe shouldn't be either too critical or too worried.

I'm with Duke Getwana and Lady Isobel.  I thought we played well against a poor side.   Controlled midfield and were solid at the back.  If we were in any doubt,  today confirmed that we lack creativity and composure up front and rely too much on Graham - who had an absolute stinker today. 

But,  we are looking a better side every week,  and if we can get goals into the team,  I believe we can challenge in this league.  

 

[partickthedog]

Could Ryan Williamson learn from the right back example of Stephen O’Donnell? When Ryan comes into the box he often does brilliantly to get past his man. However, he always heads to the bye-line and tries to pass or cross, so you then need an accurate pass or cross finding a teammate plus that teammate being able  to finish. SOD would tend to bear direct towards the goal, thus increasing the options by including that of having a shot himself. He scored a few that way and also induced at least one deflected own goal. One advantage of this approach is that even if the shot is not precisely on target, but dragged across the face of goal into the corridor of uncertainty, there is always the possibility of forward or defender knocking it over the line or the keeper pushing it out to one of our forwards for a tap in.

[Lenziejag]

2 hours ago, northernsoul said:

His decision making and crossing with his right foot has to improve.

Seeing as all our attacks are primarily down the right side now, then he has to start producing the goods. Other players were just as guilty as him. He will be susceptible to more criticism because his direct overlaps have become the focal point down that right hand side of late. That's not his fault, I don't see any other player try to be as direct as him. Therein lies the problem with this team.

Part of the issue is that we don’t have anybody that hangs back around the penalty spot, which means that any cross is into a congested 6 yard box.

[ironfist]

6 points behind Falkirk and 1 ahead of Montrose after a quarter of the season has been played. Let’s be honest here- that’s a poor poor return 

[jagfox]

49 minutes ago, Muscat Jag said:

Not a huge fan of Gordon but he's got to offer more than Murray. 

Yup, disappointed in Murray so far and Lyons is nowhere near his form of last year. 

Only problem is Gordon has been like playing with a man down this year.

[jagfox]

Disappointing that we're  not taking advantage of set-pieces either.

Sena had two decent opportunities and Brownlie had a seemingly  free header in the first half too.

Along with penalty kicks these are pieces of play that can be improved in training...

[JAG1970]

IMC saying in a very brief Jagszone interview that 4 or 5 of the injured players might be available for the next home game 

[Jimmy McD]

8 minutes ago, JAG1970 said:

IMC saying in a very brief Jagszone interview that 4 or 5 of the injured players might be available for the next home game 

Interesting to see who gets benched... Back 4 doing ok ..Midfield seems to be working ..That just leaves the forwards..Graham on the bench???

[JAG1970]

17 minutes ago, Jimmy McD said:

Interesting to see who gets benched... Back 4 doing ok ..Midfield seems to be working ..That just leaves the forwards..Graham on the bench???

He effectively said Sena wouldn’t be dropped 

Can’t see Graham being dropped

Edited December 5, 2020 by JAG1970

[Third Lanark]

39 minutes ago, jagfox said:

Disappointing that we're  not taking advantage of set-pieces either.

Sena had two decent opportunities and Brownlie had a seemingly  free header in the first half too.

Along with penalty kicks these are pieces of play that can be improved in training...

Both sena and Brownlie scored goals last year. Unfortunately Brownlie scores a very good goal against us

 

32 minutes ago, JAG1970 said:

IMC saying in a very brief Jagszone interview that 4 or 5 of the injured players might be available for the next home game 

McCalls use of the word might lends me to think we will definitely not have 4 or 5 back unfortunately 

[CotterJag]

4 hours ago, thru thin and thin said:

Surely, we can coach some midfielders to be more positive, making runs beyond Graham,

I think the problem, at least today, is that Graham is too high up the park.

It's difficult to get beyond him when he is so far up and any crosses from wide positions are often to an already crowded box.

I'd like Graham to sit back a bit and time his runs better and allow players to break beyond him.

He seems to be waiting up front like some kind of target man and it's quite easy to defend against.  

[lady-isobel-barnett]

1 hour ago, partickthedog said:

Could Ryan Williamson learn from the right back example of Stephen O’Donnell? When Ryan comes into the box he often does brilliantly to get past his man. However, he always heads to the bye-line and tries to pass or cross, so you then need an accurate pass or cross finding a teammate plus that teammate being able  to finish. SOD would tend to bear direct towards the goal, thus increasing the options by including that of having a shot himself. He scored a few that way and also induced at least one deflected own goal. One advantage of this approach is that even if the shot is not precisely on target, but dragged across the face of goal into the corridor of uncertainty, there is always the possibility of forward or defender knocking it over the line or the keeper pushing it out to one of our forwards for a tap in.

Mentioned in a previous post about predictability in attack. Williamson is good at getting to the bye line and, tho' poorer today, usually puts in quality crosses. Trouble being the opposition's left side defence know exactly what he's going to try to do. If he was to take a different route, as say in above post, just now and again it could wrong foot defenders. Also, and not referring to Williamson in isolation, too many times we see our players in attack being overdependent on playing the ball on their good foot. More predictability. Foster looks to be the one exception.

[Auld Jag]

We dominated possession and hammered them 0-0. In typical Thistle fashion we seem to have sorted the defence out and misfiring up front. We need to keep Falkirk in our sights and get the defence and attacking working together. Easier said than done, but that is McCalls job to sort it out.

[sandbank boy]

47 minutes ago, CotterJag said:

I think the problem, at least today, is that Graham is too high up the park.

It's difficult to get beyond him when he is so far up and any crosses from wide positions are often to an already crowded box.

I'd like Graham to sit back a bit and time his runs better and allow players to break beyond him.

He seems to be waiting up front like some kind of target man and it's quite easy to defend against.  

Similar to the way Kane’s manager has changed his roll at Spurs.

[Jimmy McD]

9 minutes ago, Auld Jag said:

We dominated possession and hammered them 0-0. In typical Thistle fashion we seem to have sorted the defence out and misfiring up front. We need to keep Falkirk in our sights and get the defence and attacking working together. Easier said than done, but that is McCalls job to sort it out.

Keep Falkirk in our sights   , may as well give them the league title now and put us all out of our misery.....A 0 ..0.  draw v the mighty Dumbarton at home  while Falkirk  beat them 3.0.at there place last week..

[Auld Jag]

14 minutes ago, Jimmy McD said:

Keep Falkirk in our sights   , may as well give them the league title now and put us all out of our misery.....A 0 ..0.  draw v the mighty Dumbarton at home  while Falkirk  beat them 3.0.at there place last week..

I know Falkirk are 6 points ahead and at the moment we are not setting the heather on fire, but i would not say give them the league now. I hope the team don't give up so easily and if they did as fans we would not be happy.