Mr Bunny Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 This year has not been a flash in the pan for Erskine - or Paton. When he first came here, Erskine obviously had great skill but wasn't fit enough to last a whole game and this lack of fitness made him inconsistent. Each season he's improved, getting fitter and getting more stamina. Then he started tracking back and chasing so that even when he wasn't 'doing the magic' he wasn't a liability. What was finally needed and brought in by our previous manager was a system where could flourish - a kind of semi-free role which let him play where he could be most effective. Provided - and this is the important condition - he's used in a system that gets the best out of him he'll be fine. Maybe not as important to United as he was to us since it's a higher level but he'll be fine. Paton is a bit different - he came to us as a decent but limited full back with a very good cross but lack of ability to get into positions where it could be most effective. The same previous manager saw that in the playing system he was working on, Paton could provide the dig and tackling in midfield it needed and send some good long balls from deep afterwards. He'll do a job in the SPL OK though his kind of job can be done by any number of decent players so he'll possibly find it harder to establish himself of the two. Though in my mind why would McNamara buy these two unless he was planning to use the same system - it helps if you have a couple of guys who are used to it. I think Paton's best chance of being a regular player for them is if they plan to use the same system otherwise he may struggle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cup Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 You obviously haven't seen much of mackay-Stevens then I presume? Best young scottish player in SPL by a mile... Erskine is good but remember who he was looking good against... I think he may struggle next year. Good luck to him though, just no against us! I've seen GMS when DU play on the TV. He has good pace but for me his final ball is often poor and he doesn't score many goals. That's my opinion though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peagreenboy Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 He can't, on one hand, be our standout player(and a standout in the whole league) and on the other be likely to struggle in the SPL. It isn't logical. By that logic the whole squad would need replacing and no 1st division player could ever make the step up. If anyone can do it Erskine can. And after what he's done for us I hope he does great at Dundee United and moves on to a big money move down south. A lot of our players will have to improve if we have any hope of doing anything other than go straight back down next season. And we will need to have better players come in. I think that should be obvious. For his sake, Erskine will have to improve a lot. His first touch, his passing, etc. He won't get nearly as much time on the ball, defences will have him figured out a lot quicker than those in the 1st did, and he won't get anything like the chances he did this year. United fans won't have much patience if he's constantly losing the ball. I'm not saying he won't improve, but considering the type of game we'll have to play next season, perhaps it's best that his steep learning curve is with someone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglemon Posted April 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 A lot of our players will have to improve if we have any hope of doing anything other than go straight back down next season. And we will need to have better players come in. I think that should be obvious. For his sake, Erskine will have to improve a lot. His first touch, his passing, etc. He won't get nearly as much time on the ball, defences will have him figured out a lot quicker than those in the 1st did, and he won't get anything like the chances he did this year. United fans won't have much patience if he's constantly losing the ball. I'm not saying he won't improve, but considering the type of game we'll have to play next season, perhaps it's best that his steep learning curve is with someone else. Don't dispute the need for more/better players but losing our best player is still a loss. We're going to have to find entirely new ways to be creative without him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Stevenson Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 A lot of our players will have to improve if we have any hope of doing anything other than go straight back down next season. And we will need to have better players come in. I think that should be obvious. For his sake, Erskine will have to improve a lot. His first touch, his passing, etc. He won't get nearly as much time on the ball, defences will have him figured out a lot quicker than those in the 1st did, and he won't get anything like the chances he did this year. United fans won't have much patience if he's constantly losing the ball. I'm not saying he won't improve, but considering the type of game we'll have to play next season, perhaps it's best that his steep learning curve is with someone else. I can hardly believe I'm reading this. The guy scored and had two assists on Saturday, his pass to McMillan perfectly weighted. He scored a goal the previous week that saw him carry the ball from 10 yards inside our half. Against Airdrie, many who were there credited his appearance from the bench for changing the game for us. I could go on. In fact I will: his equaliser against Airdrie back in December. His 25 yard volleyed winner against Airdrie at Firhill. His goals against Raith in the ramsdens game at Firhill.... He has been our most influential player by a stretch. For years I've been coming to Thistle games and seeing midfielders take the ball with their back to goal and either pass it sideways or backwards. Erskine turns with it and makes things happen. If Archie can sign someone better than him, I simply can't wait till he plays for us! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peagreenboy Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 (edited) I can hardly believe I'm reading this. The guy scored and had two assists on Saturday, his pass to McMillan perfectly weighted. He scored a goal the previous week that saw him carry the ball from 10 yards inside our half. Against Airdrie, many who were there credited his appearance from the bench for changing the game for us. I could go on. In fact I will: his equaliser against Airdrie back in December. His 25 yard volleyed winner against Airdrie at Firhill. His goals against Raith in the ramsdens game at Firhill.... He has been our most influential player by a stretch. For years I've been coming to Thistle games and seeing midfielders take the ball with their back to goal and either pass it sideways or backwards. Erskine turns with it and makes things happen. If Archie can sign someone better than him, I simply can't wait till he plays for us! You can't believe that Erskine will have to improve to cut it in a higher division? Just as an aside, Dunfermline were a shadow of the team we destroyed 5-1 earlier in the season. And they could have easily been 6-1 up against us on Saturday if they had taken their chances/Fox not got in a couple of good saves. Against Raith Rovers (where we could have won the league in front of the home fans) we should really have been 3-0 down within half an hour. Yes, both games were at the end of a long season, and one was where we had already won the league. Some of our play was amazing this season. But you'd have to be mad not to think we'll have to significantly improve for the SPL. It'll be a grim season getting shafted 6-0 off the likes of St Mirren and St Johnstone ... Edited April 29, 2013 by peagreenboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Stevenson Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 You can't believe that Erskine will have to improve to cut it in a higher division? Correct. His first touch and passing are as good as, if not better than, most of what is on show on the SPL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peagreenboy Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 Correct. His first touch and passing are as good as, if not better than, most of what is on show on the SPL. Fair enough. I disagree. Let's revisit in a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Stevenson Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 But you'd have to be mad not to think we'll have to significantly improve for the SPL. I don't dispute that. We were debating Erskine specifically, who I think can perform in the SPL. I agree that there's no way we can afford to be as sloppy as we were against either Raith or the Pars. In fact, even in the 1st Division, we should have been punished. There have been times this season that we've dodged a bullet in ways that in previous seasons we didn't. A classic case was Lyle Taylor's miss at Firhill with the score at 2-1 (as mentioned by Archie in his interview on the SFL site). There have been other cases where balls have flashed across our 6-yard box and not been connected with. Last season or the one before that, there was someone there to make the connection and ruin our day.... But I do think you exaggerate the qualities of St. Mirren and even St. Johnstone...... But as you say, we can re-visit this in a year's time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Third Lanark Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 I can hardly believe I'm reading this. The guy scored and had two assists on Saturday, his pass to McMillan perfectly weighted. He scored a goal the previous week that saw him carry the ball from 10 yards inside our half. Against Airdrie, many who were there credited his appearance from the bench for changing the game for us. I could go on. In fact I will: his equaliser against Airdrie back in December. His 25 yard volleyed winner against Airdrie at Firhill. His goals against Raith in the ramsdens game at Firhill.... He has been our most influential player by a stretch. For years I've been coming to Thistle games and seeing midfielders take the ball with their back to goal and either pass it sideways or backwards. Erskine turns with it and makes things happen. If Archie can sign someone better than him, I simply can't wait till he plays for us! Well said David. The guy was an absolutely fantastic player for us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWM Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 I can hardly believe I'm reading this. The guy scored and had two assists on Saturday, his pass to McMillan perfectly weighted. He scored a goal the previous week that saw him carry the ball from 10 yards inside our half. Against Airdrie, many who were there credited his appearance from the bench for changing the game for us. I could go on. In fact I will: his equaliser against Airdrie back in December. His 25 yard volleyed winner against Airdrie at Firhill. His goals against Raith in the ramsdens game at Firhill.... He has been our most influential player by a stretch. For years I've been coming to Thistle games and seeing midfielders take the ball with their back to goal and either pass it sideways or backwards. Erskine turns with it and makes things happen. If Archie can sign someone better than him, I simply can't wait till he plays for us! I'd just ignore peagreenboy. All his delusional hand wringng has shown him up to be unfit for forum life. Its time for him to find another hobby like collecting stamps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 I'd just ignore peagreenboy. All his delusional hand wringng has shown him up to be unfit for forum life. Its time for him to find another hobby like collecting stamps. Oi! Spare a thought for us philatelists! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 Oi! Spare a thought for us philatelists! Philately will get you nowhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 Philately will get you nowhere That's true. Flatulence, however, often gets you some extra room on the bus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eff Tee Ohh Eff Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 Fully expect income streams like season tickets and gate receipts to increase and we should be able to get some more sponsorship as well. There will be the TV money and increased prize money (even if we finish bottom) also but costs will increase as well since existing players will be looking for an increase to sign new deals and new signings will be looking for the same sort of wages. We will also be spending some money on the stadium as mentioned in David Beattie's programme notes and we will be running 2 more youth teams plus hiring an under 20s coach. With us having an under 20s team we can't let Celtic use Firhill for their games so that income stream is gone. Don't know how the deal with Joma works in terms of whether we get the money made from merchandise sales. The important thing is that we continue to operate on a break even model and take this opportunity to further reduce the debt by as much as possible whilst remaining competitive on the pitch. can anyone tell me what are the stadium improvements he wrote about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fawlty Towers Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 can anyone tell me what are the stadium improvements he wrote about? The Main Stand is to be used more often for away fans and the directors will sit there as well so probably needs a bit of work to bring it up to scratch. Work to be done on the Aitken Suite as well (nothing specific mentioned). I assume something will be done with the bing but it was not mentioned in the programme notes. There will be a Meet The Board evening in the next month or so and the directors will be discussing more of the plans/ideas for next season at that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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