Yellow & Redneck Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 Doolan needs to get his deluded head out of his arse and realise that Neilson and Muirhead are not a Championship winning CB pairing. I know Williams has a lot going on personally. But, if he isn't in the frame, he needs to be moved out and someone else brought in because this is a bloody joke. Unfortunately, Doolan's signings have looked mediocre at best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garscube Road End 2 Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 2 minutes ago, Yellow & Redneck said: Doolan needs to get his deluded head out of his arse and realise that Neilson and Muirhead are not a Championship winning CB pairing. I know Williams has a lot going on personally. But, if he isn't in the frame, he needs to be moved out and someone else brought in because this is a bloody joke. Unfortunately, Doolan's signings have looked mediocre at best. Yeah. Signings have been very Meh! Looking like Doolan is out of his depth. I know we won 4-0 at Aur, but we really rode our luck at 1 up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javeajag Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 9 outfield players on the bench , our midfield is poor and the manager changes little…. On the basis of today we then have a squad of about 15 players …. The board must be wondering why we are paying Alston , Macdonald etc a wage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dl1971 Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 Outplayed by miles today. Deeply worrying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAG1970 Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 Although that was the worst performance since Doolan took over, I’m not overly surprised by how easily we were turned over by an experienced manager who easily picked out our known weak spots. The warning signs have been there since the beginning of the season with a gaping hole in our midfield (look no further than the first half at Somerset), and a malfunctioning defence… only one clean sheet this season and ironically that was Somerset. Doolan urgently needs to find a more effective blend in defence and midfield before other teams suss us out. Something that will need to be further addressed in January as he’s got too many attacking midfielders and a scarcity of defensive ones. If it had been a game of battleships then The Bunnet had our positions before the game started! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javeajag Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 2 minutes ago, JAG1970 said: Although that was the worst performance since Doolan took over, I’m not overly surprised by how easily we were turned over by an experienced manager who easily picked out our known weak spots. The warning signs have been there since the beginning of the season with a gaping hole in our midfield (look no further than the first half at Somerset), and a malfunctioning defence… only one clean sheet this season and ironically that was Somerset. Doolan urgently needs to find a more effective blend in defence and midfield before other teams suss us out. Something that will need to be further addressed in January as he’s got too many attacking midfielders and a scarcity of defensive ones. If it had been a game of battleships then The Bunnet had our positions before the game started! Correct Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fearchar Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 No football team attains consistent success without a sound defence - whatever the witterings of journos make out. Ours needs a lot of work. The central defence is adequate, but we have a right-back, albeit a stand-in, who will not make it there; a left back who has lost interest in the game since last season; and two goalkeepers who aren't prepared to put a firecracker under their defenders' backside when they make an error. (They need to take a lesson from Manuel Neuer, who shouted and screamed at his defence, cursing them all ends up when they let Brazil score against Germany; at the time, Germany was winning 7-0.) As for midfield: they have to be impressive to carry the passenger Bannigan (slow, still one-footed at the end of his career) AND cover their defence. No wonder Graham feels he has to come deep to help out. Lyon might at least offer support to attack, but Robinson and Alston also offer better options, at least coming forward. A mean, aggressive defensive midfielder or centre back should be the priority in the next window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAGSMAN1968 Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 No pass marks at all today. Wonder what platitudes will be churned out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laukat Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 Honking today. Been a long time since I've seen such a poor performance. I think that was worse than Cove and Hamilton last January. Arbroath should have put 6 or 7 past us. It's been obvious to most folk that Stanway and Bannigan are too lightweight. To compound that by starting Stanway beside MacKenzie was just asking for trouble. When we went 2 behind we had to change it but no Dooland kept it going. At halftime he clearly recognised a problem and switched Bannigan and Stanway. If Doolan recognised he has a problem why isn't he looking to his subs bench to fix at halftime? Ben Williamson is much more of a physical presence than Bannigan or Stanway yet he was left on the bench. Instead we wait for 15 minutes into the second half before the first sub. Worst of all the first sub was Adeloye for McInroy instead of taking MacKenzie, Stanway or Bannigan off. When everyone is fit think we have a decent back 4, our front is one of the best in the league, McInroy and Robinson are very good attacking midfielders. However we cannot go through the season with Bannigan and Stanway as our defensive midfielders. We either need to make our last loan a CDM or play a midfield of Williamson, McInroy and Robinson with Wiliamson and McInroy playing deeper. Another couple of performances like that and Doolan may no longer be our leader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy McD Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 By the sound s of all reports boy am I glad that I am down in Blackpool for the weekend... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javeajag Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 If you were a sub today and didn’t get on the park you clearly need to leave in January as you won’t be playing for us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggy Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 That was just dreadful today. Arbroath miles ahead and won’t get an easier game all season. Changes should have been made at half time. Not that he’s brilliant, but how can Williamson go from being a starter most games to not even getting on the pitch today? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambies Lost Doo Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 Match Report. Everyone in Red, Yellow and Black was terrible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elevenone Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 Milne is a weird one. Went from looking like someone going all the way to bang below average. Of interest he is looked after by Ark Sport whose owner was pretty scathing about club and Dools on social media in relation to Dowds after he moved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenziejag Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 I thought we were ok until the 1st goal, although Stanway had no idea where he was meant to be playing. As has been said Zander Mackenzie is no full back and his involvement in that 1st goal clearly impacted his game. Those two not contributing meant that Muirhead, Lawless and Mcinroy were having to try to compensate for them.Stanway improved a bit in the 2nd half before he was subbed, but I think Doolan needs to let McKenzie and Stanway have a spell on the bench. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter of '63 Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 (edited) I really dislike Dick Campbell so it was particularly painful to see Arbroath absolutely school us. They had time, space & options, they choked off our attacking threats and played on our weaknesses. Worryingly, I thought that was our strongest line-up...we were let off the hook last week against Ayr...I'm hoping that it was just a bad day but fear that our style of play has been found out exposing obvious flaws. The midfield balance isn't right. Stanway looked young & inexperienced (as did Zander) and although I like Banzo, he surely has to do more than drop deep and play safe passes. I don't think McInroy won a challenge or completed a pass. For all of those who left after the third goal, we did actually make a few chances with Graham missing 2 sitters - 3 if you count the rebound after Gaston palmed away his first fluffed effort. I bought a season ticket and joined The Jags Foundation but am wondering if my contribution to signing Blair Alston was money well spent when we've needed a proper holding midfielder for at least three seasons. And while I'm in a moany mood, can they stop playing that awful racket from the Rangers-supporting AC/DC just before the teams come out? Edited September 23, 2023 by Winter of '63 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 If I was forced to name a MotM it would be a cruel thing to do. Adeloye by default, I guess. But just none of the starting XI were anywhere near passable today. I'm only singling Sneddon out as today's lethargy spread forward from him. The time he takes on the ball you would think we were protecting a comfortable lead. Slow ineffective distribution just hampers every move out of defence. The goalie booting the ball aimlessly up the park just as useless. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlsarmy Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 10 minutes ago, Lenziejag said: I thought we were ok until the 1st goal, although Stanway had no idea where he was meant to be playing. As has been said Zander Mackenzie is no full back and his involvement in that 1st goal clearly impacted his game. Those two not contributing meant that Muirhead, Lawless and Mcinroy were having to try to compensate for them.Stanway improved a bit in the 2nd half before he was subbed, but I think Doolan needs to let McKenzie and Stanway have a spell on the bench. Agree with what you say , Zander is never a fullback and after his booking should have been hooked at halftime and no idea what Dools instructions were to Zander as he was playing an inverted full back role which meant Lawless was covering all of the right hand side by himself. We had too many players off form today , BG never got a kick today from the Arbroath centre halves and that’s where we fall down as there doesn’t appear to be a Plan B Time to shake up the team for next week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weebaw1 Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 10 minutes ago, Lenziejag said: I thought we were ok until the 1st goal, although Stanway had no idea where he was meant to be playing. As has been said Zander Mackenzie is no full back and his involvement in that 1st goal clearly impacted his game. Those two not contributing meant that Muirhead, Lawless and Mcinroy were having to try to compensate for them.Stanway improved a bit in the 2nd half before he was subbed, but I think Doolan needs to let McKenzie and Stanway have a spell on the bench. Kris has done fine so far. But today was a shocker. Inertia. From goalie to the manager. Do something!!! He needs to learn quicker. It was inexplicable that there were no subs at h t., so badly were we being outplayed. McInroy and McKenzie could have been off after 25 minutes. They were that bad. No idea if you can have 4 subs at once but Stanway and Banzo should also have gone at h t. I thought Ngenwya played well. Couldn’t believe he wasn’t on much earlier. And we at least created some urgency when Adeloye and Robinson came on. Lawless didn’t have any one on ones. Not one! The supply and lack of movement from midfield was woeful. Why was nothing done about this? We’ll bounce back but this was a reality check. The attitude today was not right. Kris needs to kick ass now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auld Jag Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 A fully deserved win for Arbroath. Thistle were to slow, passing terrible and any crosses were also terrible. Every ball seemed to land at an Arbroath player. Performance today as bad as the Cove and Hamilton games last season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javeajag Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 It’s clear Ngenwya should have started ahead of Zander , why Doolan thinks he’s a right back is a mystery. He should have changed things more at half time and again at 60 minutes. The lack of changing things during the game is a real concern, Aidan could easily have replaced for example. the test will be if Doolan learns from this debacle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Kenny Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 You could tell after 5 minutes we had no idea how to break Arbroath down. Laboured sideways passing followed by a hopeful diagonal from Neilson or Muirhead. Once they scored it was game over. Mackenzie didn’t cover himself in glory for the first but we still had two chances to clear and the guy who scored had the freedom of Firhill to tap home. For Muirhead to then turn and berate Mackenzie was unnecessary and naive, it clearly affected him for the rest of the match. We have one right back in the squad, far too many midfielders who are all very similar and not one ball winning player. That comes down to poor recruitment and possibly shows Doolan’s inexperience. We may have won comfortably last week but Arbroath were always going to be a much tougher opponent. Easy to say in hindsight but playing Ngwenya at RB and Alston/Robinson in midfield might have given us some more experience and dig. Im not a massive fan of Sneddon or Mitchell but Sneddon was awful today. Zero communication with his defence, ponderous distribution and mostly aimless punts to a towering Arbroath defence. Mitchell at least appears to have much quicker/better distribution. A bad day at the office but must be one of the few games when absolutely zero players would get a pass mark. Graham, Milne, Muirhead and Bannigan were particularly dreadful out the senior pros. I moan enough about Fitzpatrick, a more frustrating player you’ll struggle to find. All the skill in the world but far too many times he has zero application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Rubble Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 (edited) Saw that result coming all week. Merited, and the score tells the truth. Arbroath have a midfield that digs, hits and scores. We have a midfield that looks pretty on the ball and ineffectual when we cannot get on the ball. Like today. No dig meant no ball for Graham and `Fitzpatrick. And Lawless was negated to the point of being useless. Dools has to find a way of integrating BG and TA into the same staring line-up. There is a complementaririty there that could be outstanding going forward, but not if TA is kept on the bench every week. Edited September 23, 2023 by Barney Rubble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
partickthedog Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 Reluctantly have to give some credit to Dick Campbell. He or one of his staff must have looked at our 2 excellent games against Morton and Ayr, and realised that in both cases we were fairly ordinary until inspired into life by some magic from Stevie Lawless. Stevie was double marked and generally received the ball far from goal facing backwards with 2 Arbroath players on top of him. This stifled our creativity and the rest of our team could not make anything happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 23, 2023 Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 1 hour ago, javeajag said: It’s clear Ngenwya should have started ahead of Zander , why Doolan thinks he’s a right back is a mystery. He should have changed things more at half time and again at 60 minutes. The lack of changing things during the game is a real concern, Aidan could easily have replaced for example. the test will be if Doolan learns from this debacle Kris struggles to make tactical substitutions when the team is in need of a goal or goals. Today was not the first time we've experienced this. I accept that this can be challenging but it does suggest the balance of the squad isn't quite right. Re other posts critical of Sneddon's slow distribution. From where I was sitting he lacked options. Hello Zander McKenzie & Harry Milne. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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