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Killie V Thistle (19Th April)


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All games post split have the potential to be season-defining, but to get off to a good start for either team could really set the tone. Thistle will really need to buckle up and prepare themselves mentally in the long-ish break that leads up to this one.

 

I have been thinking about how we should approach this game, and I think we need to change things a little bit. Hearts exposed our lack of defensive cover on the right flank, with three of their goals coming down that side. Bannigan, although he instinctively plays centrally in midfield, just seems naturally to cover for Taylor-Sinclair down the left, but there's no natural equivalent on the opposite side, with Fraser staying, on the whole, very centrally. Having McMillan at right back does seem to protect a little better than O'Donnell, who drifts a bit (albeit offering more on the break down the right) but we need more protection on that side.

 

Some might think this is a bit batty, but I'm tempted to include Elliott in the starting line-up, where Erskine has been playing, move Erskine more centrally to where Doolan played on Saturday. He's a limited player, but offers a direct threat and decent defensive cover down the right, and in any case, Erskine hasn't seemed terribly comfortable either out on the right or providing wing cover. Instead of worrying too much about the midfield (Fraser and Bannigan had poor games on Saturday, but generally have done a good job, and weren't actually responsible, if you look carefully, for any of the goals on Saturday) we should think more carefully about how to provide the link between defence and attack around them.

 

I know a lot of people have their doubts about Piccolo and have drawn connections to our poor goals conceded tally and his playing, but I'd point out that he wasn't, really, to blame for any of the goals on Saturday.

 

The first was a case of Mair being beaten at the near post after a long ball caught McMillan on the hop and no midfield cover being there to protect them. The second was a long ball into the man Piccolo was marking, by the apex of the box on Mair's side, because he was slow in getting back and McMillan was out of position. The third was a near-post header from a corner by Stevenson, who was being marked by McMillan. And the fourth was a consequence of Taylor-Sinclair losing possession at the half-way line, Piccolo having no choice but to hold his position to prevent an early ball into Stevenson, Buaben failing to stop a cross and Mair being turned by Stevenson for the goal.

 

I don't know what the situation is with Balatoni's injury (I saw him in Jaconellis with Muirhead before the game; the latter was on crutches, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong with Conrad) but even if he is fit by this one, I'd keep Piccolo in the team.

 

There were some minor calls for us to consider whether to keep Gallagher between the sticks. I'm inclined to keep him there, in part because we need strong senior voices in the team at the moment and in part because I think he's still better than Fox.

 

After a poor game against Hearts and a not-much-better game at Perth, if this game were soon after, I'd have been inclined to drop Taylor and play Doolan from the start, but with the break, I think we might want to keep Taylor in. I've just got a feeling he'll come good at Rugby Park, and if he doesn't, we can bring on Doolan after an hour. It's made more difficult by Doolan scoring the last two goals.

 

Bearing all of this in mind, I'd go with:

 

Gallagher

McMillan Mair Piccolo Taylor-Sinclair

Fraser Bannigan

Elliott Erskine Higginbotham

Taylor

 

Subs: Fox, O'Donnell, Buaben, Moncur, Craigen (Balatoni if fit), Lawless, Doolan

 

Thoughts?

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I've been saying for a while that we seem to have a problem down the right hand side. I've also said that Elliott for all his shortcomings, defensively, is the best we have in that psoition. However, I do think SOD is a better all round player and I think the best answer may be to play him over there in front of McMillan. I'd also play Bauben ahead of Fraser at the moment. His (Fraser) inexperience could be crucial at this stage.

 

I see a lot of Facebook posts and tweets from Gabby showing off his strength. I wish he would bring it with him onto the park on matchday. If selected against Killie, he'll need every ounce of it against Boyd.

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I've been saying for a while that we seem to have a problem down the right hand side. I've also said that Elliott for all his shortcomings, defensively, is the best we have in that psoition. However, I do think SOD is a better all round player and I think the best answer may be to play him over there in front of McMillan. I'd also play Bauben ahead of Fraser at the moment. His (Fraser) inexperience could be crucial at this stage.

 

I see a lot of Facebook posts and tweets from Gabby showing off his strength. I wish he would bring it with him onto the park on matchday. If selected against Killie, he'll need every ounce of it against Boyd.

 

I can see the logic of playing O'Donnell in front of McMillan, but given we are light on defenders, I would be disinclined to have a bench, potentially with zero defenders if Balatoni isn't back. At least if O'Donnell is on the bench we have the option of fresh legs coming on if McMillan, Mair or Piccolo get injured (the latter two with McMillan playing CB). O'Donnell coming on as a second-half substitute could be handy in any case.

 

The Buaben/Fraser dynamic is definitely worth considering. I think Fraser will knuckle down for this fixture though. My concern is Buaben can be very lethargic at times, and often takes too many touches. Fraser has a killer through ball matched by nobody in this team and it could be the difference away from home where chances might be more limited.

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When was the last Fraser pass that resulted in a goal. Bauben's was on Saturday. Played the pass that Lawless left for McMillan to score and incidentally, have a look and see who was closest to getting a touch on McMillans shot.

 

For me, Buaben reads the game far better and is a lot cooler in possession. I think folk are seeing his lack of pace as laziness/lethargy. He's also more physically up to playing against Eremenko who seems to be starting to hit a bit of form for Killie.

 

The one big advantage Fraser has over Bauben is his shooting power though and he does have a good range of pass. I just feel that it's too much pressure on someone so young to be in the position he's in just now and it's also unfair on Bannigan expecting him to be the senior player in central midfield.

 

I expect we'll be back to 5 in the middle at Killie and I fully expect Bauben to be one of the 5. another option for Archie could be to bring Elliott in for right mid cover, shift Erskine into central midfield to play in front of the Central midfield 2. in that scenario, I'd go for (right to left), Elliott, Bauben, Erskine, Bannigan and Higgingbotham. I also think that Doolan's guile would be more suited to playing against Killie's defenders. Taylor got it tough playing the physical game against them last time at Firhill.

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When was the last Fraser pass that resulted in a goal.

 

The Aberdeen game. And it was an absolute peach to set Taylor through on goal.

 

Bauben's was on Saturday. Played the pass that Lawless left for McMillan to score and incidentally, have a look and see who was closest to getting a touch on McMillans shot.

 

Just to be clear, we're comparing a 40 yard pass from inside our own half after a superb Fraser tackle, which stopped an Aberdeen attack only seconds earlier, which cut open the Aberdeen defence to an 8 yard pass about 35 yards out?

 

For me, Buaben reads the game far better and is a lot cooler in possession. I think folk are seeing his lack of pace as laziness/lethargy. He's also more physically up to playing against Eremenko who seems to be starting to hit a bit of form for Killie.

 

See, I can understand the physical argument to neutralise a player like Eremenko. But Buaben's problem isn't just a lack of pace. There are times when he seems to take about 4 or 5 touches when 1 or 2 would do. It's like the ghost of Paul Cairney at times. I don't know if you were at the Perth game, but this was a constant theme on that day. You'd expect the pass after touch number three and he'd take another couple, pulling himself out of position and away from the opportunity to play the pass. It's not necessarily laziness but lethargy, I think the jury's firmly out.

 

The one big advantage Fraser has over Bauben is his shooting power though and he does have a good range of pass. I just feel that it's too much pressure on someone so young to be in the position he's in just now and it's also unfair on Bannigan expecting him to be the senior player in central midfield.

 

I expect we'll be back to 5 in the middle at Killie and I fully expect Bauben to be one of the 5. another option for Archie could be to bring Elliott in for right mid cover, shift Erskine into central midfield to play in front of the Central midfield 2. in that scenario, I'd go for (right to left), Elliott, Bauben, Erskine, Bannigan and Higgingbotham. I also think that Doolan's guile would be more suited to playing against Killie's defenders. Taylor got it tough playing the physical game against them last time at Firhill.

 

I think Bannigan and Fraser are perfectly capable of doing a powerful tag-team. The issue on Saturday was that they were effectively a 2 man midfield. I think bringing in Elliott and shifting Erskine into the middle would do enough to cover that problem and take some of the pressure off both of them. I can see the case for Doolan up-front (if nothing else it means we can use Taylor as a fresh pair of legs to try and burst through a tiring defence in the latter stages). I get the feeling, though, that Archie will instinctively think "Away game. Physical opposition. Big man up front".

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When was the last Fraser pass that resulted in a goal. Bauben's was on Saturday. Played the pass that Lawless left for McMillan to score and incidentally, have a look and see who was closest to getting a touch on McMillans shot.

 

For me, Buaben reads the game far better and is a lot cooler in possession. I think folk are seeing his lack of pace as laziness/lethargy. He's also more physically up to playing against Eremenko who seems to be starting to hit a bit of form for Killie.

 

The one big advantage Fraser has over Bauben is his shooting power though and he does have a good range of pass. I just feel that it's too much pressure on someone so young to be in the position he's in just now and it's also unfair on Bannigan expecting him to be the senior player in central midfield.

 

I expect we'll be back to 5 in the middle at Killie and I fully expect Bauben to be one of the 5. another option for Archie could be to bring Elliott in for right mid cover, shift Erskine into central midfield to play in front of the Central midfield 2. in that scenario, I'd go for (right to left), Elliott, Bauben, Erskine, Bannigan and Higgingbotham. I also think that Doolan's guile would be more suited to playing against Killie's defenders. Taylor got it tough playing the physical game against them last time at Firhill.

 

Was it not Fraser that played the ball through for Doolan ?

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I don't mind the idea of starting Elliot, Erskine, Higgy over the front of midfield. Getting Erskine and Higgy closer might also pay dividends.

 

I'd give Taylor a rest if we go with that. I like Erskine and Doolan through the middle, they have a great understanding.

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Imo the most salient point being made is our defensive weakness down the right side. I can see merits in playing SOD or Elliott in that right mid slot. I actually think you'd get a fairly similar performance out of either.

 

The Bauben or Fraser question is a difficult one. My concern with Bauben is he appears not to be able to play in sync with the natural pace in our side. Then again I could criticise Fraser for being too rash on occasions, when maybe a slower more considered approach is necessary..Kinda similar to whether to play Forbes or Lawless on occasions last season

 

I agree with the above post re Doolan and Erskine having a great understanding but it's difficult to see them playing together for any length of time in an away game particularly.

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imo I think we should start with Doolan up front and put Taylor on the sub bench , We will see how he responds to this.

 

totally agree, if were gonnae persist with going one up front then Taylor has missed a lot of sitters recently. in the hearts game dools chance was harder and he buried it, taylor put it in the canal. same sitters against aberdeen, hibs, dundee utd. as much as I think the boy is brilliant he needs a wee kick up the erse

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I like Taylor a lot, but I am intrigued by what reaction we'd get from benching him. Would also allow us to keep Doolan in the team who deserves it, and get some extra bodies in midfield with Bauben.

 

However it's a game we really need to get something from, and I think Taylor forms part of our strongest 11, so maybe dropping him is madness.

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I would maybe give Dools the first 45 up front on his own. He certainly is a better finisher than Taylor IMO.

 

We would miss Taylor's physical presence though, he is brilliant at holding the ball up on the half way line and bringing midfielders in to play.

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Only change I would make from the Hearts massacre is Buaben for Taylor. I think it's a fairly simple decision to make deciding between Doolan and Taylor just now: one's in form, the other isn't. I'd also agree that Taylor would have a better impact from the bench than Doolan would, for me he has more about his play that could potentially change the game in our favour if we're too powderpuff for the first 50 minutes or so. Seeing as we go into the post split games occupying 11th I think the onus should be on us to play to our attacking strengths, while at the same time giving some substance to our midfield as we didn't do last week. On the basis that we need to score goals I'd keep Elliott out of the team entirely, he has an awful first touch and the majority of games he's started we've lacked any kind of exciting attacking movement at all because he's just an awful player, regardless of his ability to keep running backwards and forwards. Erskine Higginbotham and Doolan would be a more cohesive and intelligent forward line with the quality (on their day) to cut open defences.

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Whilst this game definetly isn't a must win for us, it does fall into the category of games that we should be winning. IMO we've been unlucky against Kilmarnock this season and hopefully we can get that right on Saturday. I don't really see anything to be afraid of in Kilmarnock and I have no doubt their supporters will be saying the same about us, like all of our remaining games vicyory will go to the team whgo wants it most.

I hope the Hearts game gave our players the neccessary kick up the backside they need: frankly, they should be ashamed of themselves after that performance. Hopefully Archie and co. will have them right up for this game and a good travelling support should be able to cheer us on to victory. :)

P,S. I would probably start with a similar team to the Hearts game, give the quilty men an opportunity to redeem themselves!

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I feel that this is most important away game of the split. Haven't been away this season - so really thinking about going. What's the feeling about how many Jags fans will travel ?

I'll be very surprised if we don't take at least a thousand.

 

last time i predicted in advance a away support of ours was hearts with 1000. was 21 out i think?

that was cold january, saturday forecast is warm and sunny, easter weekend, can see it being similar to st murn away in numbers, huge important game, so am going for around the 14 to 15 hundred mark.

 

Regardless we'll all be initially herded into one cordoned off area holding about half that amount.

 

they'd better not.

we're partick thistle, we'll sit, stand and conga where we want,

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