Livvy v Jags

[jlsarmy]

4 hours ago, Jordanhill Jag said:

If the Player isn't interested in his Fitness & Weight - there is Nothing the Club can do - that's got to come from him 

JJ , the John Lambie method worked the best , exercising in the sauna , maybe that’s what Fitzy has to do

The Club can do something, not play him until he gets a better level of fitness 

Down to Doolan 

[fenski]

Because everyone knows dehydration is great for long term weight loss.

I think it's fair to talk about the effort a player puts in or lack of it. And perhaps therefore question their fitness. I don't think it is at all fair to question their weight. But maybe that's just me...

[Jordanhill Jag]

1 hour ago, jlsarmy said:

JJ , the John Lambie method worked the best , exercising in the sauna , maybe that’s what Fitzy has to do

The Club can do something, not play him until he gets a better level of fitness 

Down to Doolan 

 Actually John Lambie employed very very experienced Athletes who took the players one day a Week for Strength and Conditioning Lambie was a lot more advanced than people think 

[Jordanhill Jag]

1 hour ago, fenski said:

Because everyone knows dehydration is great for long term weight loss.

I think it's fair to talk about the effort a player puts in or lack of it. And perhaps therefore question their fitness. I don't think it is at all fair to question their weight. But maybe that's just me...

 weight is a massive factor in Fitness - try running with 2 x 2 Litre Cartons of Milk see how hard it is 

thats 4Kg = 8.8lb ( approx ) losing half a stone makes a big difference to fitness  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Weebaw1]

6 hours ago, Jordanhill Jag said:

If the Player isn't interested in his Fitness & Weight - there is Nothing the Club can do - that's got to come from him 

Have you heard of motivation?

[ChiThistle]

I would love to know more about the players’ weight training regimens.  How often they are in the gym, what kinds of workouts they do, what kind of diet the trainers have them on, etc.

The closest I think we got is when the official site accidentally posted Harry Milne’s meals for the week!  😄

[Jaggernaut]

4 hours ago, fenski said:

Because everyone knows dehydration is great for long term weight loss.

I think it's fair to talk about the effort a player puts in or lack of it. And perhaps therefore question their fitness. I don't think it is at all fair to question their weight. But maybe that's just me...

Despite his weight, Fitzpatrick can outpace most of his defensive opponents. 

It's just that those occasional spurts of speed seem to completely knacker him, and so he stands still for long periods of time, perhaps even most of the time, even when he could usefully get involved.

[Jaggernaut]

On 12/15/2024 at 5:49 AM, dl1971 said:

Stuart Bannigan player manager. 

What we can look forward to: (For the avoidance of doubt, we are shooting left to right!)

 

[Lenziejag]

On 12/15/2024 at 8:55 AM, javeajag said:

Well we are now into the second half of the season and we haven't really had a great 90 minutes yet, so it’s not unreasonable to say the pattern is set and that it’s probably not going to happen now. Friday was very very poor.

we struggle to score at just over 1 goal a game and with Graham never going to be dropped despite being 37 and off form that’s unlikely to change. That’s down to the manager.

lets be honest we don’t look great and certainly not a title winning team.

we are in the mix ….for 4th.

Only 16 games played !

[Lenziejag]

19 hours ago, laukat said:

We had 7 players on the bench against Morton, 7 against Raith and 8 against Falkirk. That's plenty of players.  

Mitchell and Muirhead being unavailable isn't much of an excuse as we had signed Roberts and had more than enough centre-backs. Muirhead has barely played this season because O'Reilly, MacBeth and Ashcroft are comfortably better.

The manager knew before the start of the season that Lawless was out for a while hence he signed Chalmers, Mackay and subsequently Smith. So no shortage of wingers at that stage.

The only real difference in the playing squad between then and our recent run of gathering points has been we had a right back. To have started the season with not a single right back is Archibald 2018/19 levels of squad building.

We should have lost to Morton but got away with a point. We lost to Raith because Williams gives away a penalty whilst playing out of position well before Robinson gets sent off.

Falkirk away was the only one of the 3 that you was clearly affected by injury (Graham) and sending off (Stanway) however we did get back into that game and the manager then made subs that made us weaker (Sayers for Fitzpatrick) which when you add that we started with a rightback played right wing just looked poor choices. 

I really can’t believe that you really think that it doesn’t matter who is on the bench.

[laukat]

1 hour ago, Lenziejag said:

I really can’t believe that you really think that it doesn’t matter who is on the bench.

Have a look at the starting 11 for Morton and Raith then compare to our regular starting 11 and who was on the bench. Who do you think could have been on the bench for that game from our current squad that would have made a difference? Who do you think was injured at that point? Raith had 5 on their bench when they beat us, why did they win if options from the bench are so important?

As far as I can see the only real injuries were Lawless and MacKay but we still had Chalmers and Fitzpatrick fit. I'm willing to give a small exception for the Falkirk game as Graham was injured but it doesn't say much for Doolan that we are ok with losing when our 37 year old striker is unavailable

For Morton and Raith only notable changes are MacBeth for Ashcroft and Williams for one of Nillson/Megwa.

Ashcroft has been very good but MacBeth is a capable centre-half so hard to believe that makes much of a difference. However Williams was not a right back so to my mind the big difference is a right back. It therefore stands to reason that the manager could have signed a rightback earlier and we may well have got more points. Plus its what we could all see with our own eyes. Funnily enough our performances have started to slip a little since Megwa got injured. 

The league cup game against Clyde also tells a tale. The only real injury we had was Milne. He had MacKenzie and Bannigan on the bench who could have played fullback but instead went with 5 centre backs (O'Reilly, Muirhead, Ashcroft, Williams and MacBeth). That game cost us progression in the league cup and every single player in that squad should have been more capable than anyone in a Clyde top. We had a bench of 9 players but still couldn't get past a struggling league 2 side. We similarly toiled against Montrose and in the first half of the Edinburgh City game but choose to ignore the obvious problem.

Also have a look at Doolan's subs in all games played, which ones have changed the game in our direction? If Doolan had all the players fit at all times would it really make a difference? 

[JAG1970]

Regardless of injuries and squad size, I think it’s pretty clear Doolan has not made the best of his budget so far this season. He’s got the second half of the season to do better. But I don’t think merely reaching the playoffs is enough, I can’t see him surviving a playoff defeat or exit for 3 seasons in a row. Any January signings will be crucial. 

[javeajag]

5 hours ago, Lenziejag said:

Only 16 games played !

Long enough for the pattern to be set, we’re fighting to be fourth.

[Lenziejag]

What is clear is that there are posters judging Doolan’s whole season on those opening few games and ignoring that even with the defeat on Friday night we are still top of the form charts over 6 games and within a point or two of Falkirk in the last 8 and 10 games. This season isn’t even 1/2 way done yet and people have handed it to Falkirk. Better teams than them go from being unbeatable to a total slump.

[Jordanhill Jag]

12 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

What is clear is that there are posters judging Doolan’s whole season on those opening few games and ignoring that even with the defeat on Friday night we are still top of the form charts over 6 games and within a point or two of Falkirk in the last 8 and 10 games. This season isn’t even 1/2 way done yet and people have handed it to Falkirk. Better teams than them go from being unbeatable to a total slump.

And if they slump - Ayr will step in - the Board sacked McCall in pretty much identical circumstances 

I'm not calling for Dools to be sacked - but the Club created a precedent 

Our Signings have been Poor - and the fact we have unfit Players is for me a massive issue - Fitness is the easiest thing in Football to address 

No Professional Football Player should be carrying too much weight or be unfit - No matter the level your Playing at  

 

[Third Lanark]

52 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

What is clear is that there are posters judging Doolan’s whole season on those opening few games and ignoring that even with the defeat on Friday night we are still top of the form charts over 6 games and within a point or two of Falkirk in the last 8 and 10 games. This season isn’t even 1/2 way done yet and people have handed it to Falkirk. Better teams than them go from being unbeatable to a total slump.

We certainly not on form in the cups to be fair- exited at bottom level every time we played 

[laukat]

31 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

What is clear is that there are posters judging Doolan’s whole season on those opening few games and ignoring that even with the defeat on Friday night we are still top of the form charts over 6 games and within a point or two of Falkirk in the last 8 and 10 games. This season isn’t even 1/2 way done yet and people have handed it to Falkirk. Better teams than them go from being unbeatable to a total slump.

If it was only Falkirk that was ahead of us I would also say you have a point but we were miles away from Livingston. Over the 2 games against them they looked much more street wise and organised. At no point this season have we performed like a team capable of a promotion push and we are almost halfway through.

Also if Doolan was a new appointment this season I would agree but he's now had almost 2 full seasons. Last season we had a budget that broadly matched our finishing position so Doolan deserved another season. This season I would be surprised if Doolan's budget isn't in the top 2 in the league however I doubt we will finish in the top 2.

We do tend to give academy players longer than we should before deciding they're not good enough and it feels like we are wishing Doolan to be a success because he scored a lot of goals for us as a player rather than looking at what he is actually capable of as a manager.

If promotion isn't possible under Doolan this season then its hard to imagine when it ever will be, so if he can't close the gap to the top in the next few weeks I think we have to say its not working and move on. If for arguments sake he lost 2 of the 3 next games he should be gone in the same way McCall was binned after losing to Hamilton and Cove.

 

[dl1971]

Its pretty obvious this team is far too inconsistent to be a genuine promotion contender. If Falkirk do flounder, Livvy will win it, only because they are a well organised, difficult to beat team. Ayr dont have a strong enough squad. I don't think Doolan will survive another play off failure ( I still think we will make that ) and always remember when funds are tight, we won't replace the manager until the end of the season. Could a new manager get more out these players....I'm far from certain of that. 

 

 

[partickthedog]

3 hours ago, javeajag said:

Long enough for the pattern to be set, we’re fighting to be fourth.

I think I would put it that we are in a 3 way battle for 3rd and 4th places.

That does not make it much better!

 

 

 

[Dick Dastardly]

I said it before, but the biggest issue has been our performance on plastic pitches. If we had averaged just 1 point per game over these 6 games we would now be right in the mix. Any suggestions as to why we are so bad on plastic when we train on it ?

[laukat]

I don't think we have a problem on astro pitches.

Falkirk, Livingstone, Raith, Hamilton and Airdrie use them.

We were lucky to get a point against Falkirk at Firhill so losing to them away from home wasn't out of the norm. We are not as good a Livingstone so no great surprise we didn't get anything on Friday. Raith we again only got a point at Firhill against them and the manager chose not to sign a rightback ahead of the league starting nor in time for when we played them early in the season.

That leaves Hamilton as the only real outlier. At that stage the manager was going with a weird 3-4-2-1 formation and we were largely still really poor at that point and didn't really start to improve until a month later after we beat Airdrie at home.

So largely we have got what we deserved form those fixtures due to the performances we put, team selections, mangers choices and the form we were in.

On Saturday we have Airdrie who have won won game and only gained points in the league on an astro pitch. However there should be no excuses for not winning against a team who are rock bottom and not taken a single point against anyone in the top 5.

[Third Lanark]

1 minute ago, laukat said:

I don't think we have a problem on astro pitches.

Falkirk, Livingstone, Raith, Hamilton and Airdrie use them.

We were lucky to get a point against Falkirk at Firhill so losing to them away from home wasn't out of the norm. We are not as good a Livingstone so no great surprise we didn't get anything on Friday. Raith we again only got a point at Firhill against them and the manager chose not to sign a rightback ahead of the league starting nor in time for when we played them early in the season.

That leaves Hamilton as the only real outlier. At that stage the manager was going with a weird 3-4-2-1 formation and we were largely still really poor at that point and didn't really start to improve until a month later after we beat Airdrie at home.

So largely we have got what we deserved form those fixtures due to the performances we put, team selections, mangers choices and the form we were in.

On Saturday we have Airdrie who have won won game and only gained points in the league on an astro pitch. However there should be no excuses for not winning against a team who are rock bottom and not taken a single point against anyone in the top 5.

Airdrie have a very tough game against Livingston tonight.  Happens very rarely but i will be hoping for an Airdrie win or at least a draw tonight, though i cant see it

[lady-isobel-barnett]

2 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

I said it before, but the biggest issue has been our performance on plastic pitches. If we had averaged just 1 point per game over these 6 games we would now be right in the mix. Any suggestions as to why we are so bad on plastic when we train on it ?

The astro pitches themselves differ so much from ground to ground. So I should imagine that negates us training on plastic to a degree. That tho' doesn't answer why we've got the worst record on artificial surface out of the five "grassy" teams.

[Jaggernaut]

28 minutes ago, laukat said:

I don't think we have a problem on astro pitches.

Falkirk, Livingstone, Raith, Hamilton and Airdrie use them.

We were lucky to get a point against Falkirk at Firhill so losing to them away from home wasn't out of the norm. We are not as good a Livingstone so no great surprise we didn't get anything on Friday. Raith we again only got a point at Firhill against them and the manager chose not to sign a rightback ahead of the league starting nor in time for when we played them early in the season.

That leaves Hamilton as the only real outlier. At that stage the manager was going with a weird 3-4-2-1 formation and we were largely still really poor at that point and didn't really start to improve until a month later after we beat Airdrie at home.

So largely we have got what we deserved form those fixtures due to the performances we put, team selections, mangers choices and the form we were in.

On Saturday we have Airdrie who have won won game and only gained points in the league on an astro pitch. However there should be no excuses for not winning against a team who are rock bottom and not taken a single point against anyone in the top 5.

Aw naw, that's us beat already.

[Lenziejag]

16 hours ago, Jordanhill Jag said:

And if they slump - Ayr will step in - the Board sacked McCall in pretty much identical circumstances 

I'm not calling for Dools to be sacked - but the Club created a precedent 

Our Signings have been Poor - and the fact we have unfit Players is for me a massive issue - Fitness is the easiest thing in Football to address 

No Professional Football Player should be carrying too much weight or be unfit - No matter the level your Playing at  

 

What your evidence that the signings have been poor, when I have just presented evidence that over the last 6 games we have more points than any other team and over 8 and 10 games we are just a point or two behind the leaders.