OrlandoDon

Ha, here we go. Square peg round hole. I also thought that yesterday too, move devlin into center mid alongside shinnie. Didn’t think Barron was bad yesterday, we just miss Rama’s drive, physicality, and effort, and devlin may be our best option. That’s not Barron, polvara, McGrath, or clarkson. It’s one of these four plus shinnie and a.n. Other. The downside to moving devlin is who do you play at right wing back. Means morris plays unfortunately. Highlights our bizarre summer window, we needed a Rama replacement and someone better than morris to back up devlin. I honestly prefer Richardson over morris.

So what’s the deal with Rhys Williams???

And not unfair to say we could/should have won the first leg.

Interesting comments. I actually think that Jensen is decent, small sample size but I’m ok there. Mcgarry too. Think devlin was poor today because of their left winger and his pace, I don’t think devlin wanted to bomb on knowing ruby would and did struggle behind him. Without the right wing back going forward we have nothing on the right, and it showed. Agree on the morris comments, he looked ok for 5 mins but I don’t think it’s unfair to say that you get 5 decent minutes per game from morris. Plus I’m sure he was given the freedom to go forward that devlin didn’t in the first half. we’ll get killed in midfield unless we sign an out of contract free agent. We have zero physical presence. Shinnie works, clarkson flair, but neither is a physical presence. Rama brought physicality and a presence. I just cannot believe for a Scottish league team we are going with this type of midfield. blew my mind that we play gueye , signed for a different look up top, wide left. Not what I expected at all. worrying day. I can accept struggling against a different look in Europe, but to see that against a bottom of the league hibs, not good.

And as mentioned the other night, we do look disorganized and are finishing with a front 3 but all are center forwards, two out of position trying to give us width. No right mid option other than Morris or Devlin....worrying.

Well, I defended us big time after Thursday, but bar the first few mins of each half we've been awful today. Problem I see is drive in center mid. Rama a big miss and we have few workhorses in there willing to drive us forward, and minimal quality center mid depth.

Nobody mentioning the ;passing on Macdonald, picked out the front row of multiple stands pretty well. Give him the benefit of being rusty. Agreed, it can only get better, need a different look up top. As long as its not Morris.

I can only assume the thinking is play duk back to march sharpness and hope he scores rather than bench him and dent the confidence? Barron for clarkson I understand, fair enough. Good to see Macdonald in there. Hopefully we’re three up after an hour and give sokler and gueye 30 mins!

I think he’s looked better than Taylor, plus is younger, way better upside. Ruby has joined an unsettled team, I think he’s got real potential. As I said before, and I think you agreed, way too much has been asked of him and he’s made mistakes. When he arrived he was meant to simply be a big loon who’d mark his man and wins the ball. He’s had more possession than he probably wants, plus as acknowledged, for the penalty it was late in the game, he was exposed, and he dove in on a very good player looking for his hat trick. He was highly regarded before his injury and I think he’s one we see selling on for a few quid in a few years. my question now is who is our preferred 3 at the back? I’m assuming Jensen on the left but the other two? I certainly want us to develop the two we own, plus I think Macdonald is the older head/leader and middle player, but I don’t see the loaners coming here to sit on the bench. Do any of the 5 play holding mid/Rama’s position?? I also mentioned before, I certainly hope there’s nothing more to macdonald’s injury and maybe we simply rushed him back a little early??

Problem we have is we also have to develop chemistry so need players playing together. We also have the international break so most of the players who have played every minute, clarkson shinnie devlin ruby will get a little break/rest. Robson also commented about duk re confidence and being careful with him so I suspect he won’t get dropped, but I think sokler deserves his chance. roos ruby Macdonald jensen devlin clarkson shinnie mcgarry mcgrath sokler miovski 3-1 us, miovski sokler McGrath

Yup. 23 yr old who had a serious knee injury that put him out for a year too. I think he’ll play the pollock role well, but currently asked to be the leader in the middle with an out of position right back next to him, plus no consistency on the other side, arguably it’s been mostly an out of position left back, and missing our main holding mid to protect him. Interested to see how our defense plays out once everyone is fit.

Honestly, had we signed Baccus I’d have been somewhat happy with the window. Very few loan players has to surely please many. It’s also one window, don’t expect all our problems solved at once. Willing to give the group a chance. we’re married to 3-5-2 hence the approach to the window, pretty much to cater to duk. Don’t like that but is what it is. Width comes from the wing backs, not a fan but again is what it is. pollock and scales weren’t ours, Stewart pish. Seen enough from ruby to suggest he’ll be a decent squad player and do ok alongside a solid Macdonald. Think a lot has been asked of him the last month. Jensen is an internationalist and a decent background, high hopes. devlin is a good replacement at rob/rwb for mccrorie. No clue of gartenmann. Not sure what Williams offers. We were weak on the left last year, aging Hayes, inconsistent loaner coulson, average McKenzie. Heard enough to suggest Mcgarry, another internationalist, is an upgrade. Happy with the signing of McGrath, gives us creativity and flair in there. However, I totally feel with three at the back it should be clarkson or McGrath with two workers in a central 3. If we’d kept Rama we’re good there. gueye and Sokler give us options up top, we’re not going to run miovski and duk to death like last year. Plus gueye give us a clear different approach. big concerns with a lightweight midfield. Rama not replaced and shinnie will get suspended. Gets worse if shinnie gets injured. Hoping that or Dadia is the plan and gives us the engine/bite we’re presently lacking.

Let’s be fair. Or dadia is supposedly a right back, wing back, or holding mid, Milne was/is a central midfielder first, and devlin a right back/wing back. For a back 3 it’s 3 from ruby, Williams, Macdonald, gartenmann, and Jensen. I guess with Stewart gone it’s not too much overkill. With this guy signed though it also makes me wonder if there is more to Macdonald’s health given he didn’t play last night. Lastly, Polvara Milne or dadia, even Barron, do not overly fill me with confidence replacing Rama.

Gartenmann, another central defender? A little strange. If that’s it we are certainly lightweight in center mid.

Any chatter here? Unexpected super signing imminent? Charlie on the beach in a black trench coat???

Comments about the trips and travel, any thoughts on opponents and games?? A finish team and we’ve seen PAOK vs hearts, plus Germans. Well?

I don’t know McGrath enough but I saw him as a 10 and potentially playing off one forward. A different look, be that with the big guy, miovski, or even with sokler. We’re also very reliant on clarkson, I also saw McGrath as the man when clarkson is injured/rested. The other player we are overly reliant on is shinnie, a midfield without Rama or shinnie is very lightweight unless it’s one coming in today. Hopefully. I get that it’s a quick assessment, I just think it’s timing. One month into the season and folks seem to have turned negative and critical. We’re still in Europe and it’s an exciting season ahead to me. I’ve seen enough positives in the team and new signings to be optimistic. Yes, ruby has made mistakes, but I still think he’s a good player and a step or two above ash Taylor. I didn’t want Robson as manager but I think he’s brought some intrigue and optimism, even seen in the 3-1 loss to Celtic. I’m not ready to be overly critical yet.

Rico, I just think people like you are way overreacting. Had we taken our chances last night, or even the first leg, we’d have won games, be through, and be having a very different conversation. It’s work in progress and their early goal killed us, we were chasing the game after that and they exposed us for sure. But it’s early season and we need to breathe and relax. Keep in mind we’re quite a young and inexperienced team too, and young manager, other relevant factors. said day 1 Rama needs replaced, he did a lot of the grunt work that helped our back 3. Whether it’s ruby and Jensen, or scales and pollock, we got stretched last night and our midfield contributed in the D getting exposed. Devlin played like a right back at times, I do agree he was played out of position. there’s criticism of Robson here in regards to formation and who plays where, we’re barely a month in and there’s questions of the manager. Come on, just cos hibs sacked there guy, let’s not eat ourselves just yet. to say we’d be better off not playing in Europe, go fuck yourself. What a stupid thing to say. Europe gets us exposure, money, and fun European nights. Some of our signings wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Europe, like clarkson. I’d also give my left nut to be at pittodrie for one of those nights. Yes, it will make it hard, but as we see pretty much every season, things are hard. Last year we were bottom 6 and going nowhere without Europe. I’d take this year, losing to hacken, maybe getting the odd spanking in the group stage, or maybe qualifying from the group. It’s exciting as compared to playing east fife away in July. Yes, we’ll lose at home to Dundee or hibs because we are exhausted, but I’d take this season and Europe over alternatives every time.

Good grief min. Someone or something has possessed you within the last 24 hours. You’re normally one of the more rational thinkers here. Re write this in a month. It’s been a mad scramble to field a team this month, give the boys a break and a chance to even unpack and get settled in at the club. Some of the guys, particularly the last three prior to the big unit up top, will be key players for us. But have they even trained yet?? Barely.

Come on man. Defenders have been signed to play alongside Macdonald, the main guy in a three. Let’s see how that goes. A lot has been asked of ruby since he’s come in. He’s made mistakes but has also done plenty positive too. He’s also been exposed at times too, like the penalty last night. Shouldn’t have dived in but was left 1v1 against a very good player. Jensen hasn’t even been with us a week! Mcgarry shows enough promise too and he’s come half way across the world within a couple of weeks while not playing for a couple of months and just having had his first kid, only to leave them. Lots of factors, but giving them time is only fair. morris is shite. We can certainly agree on that. But he’ll be devlin back up once Macdonald is fully fit. rama was missed last night, we do need another grafter and holding mid in the squad. One of the reasons our defense does look exposed at times, leading to the questions about the ability of our defenders. Hopefully that gets fixed today.

And yes, I think we are better off in a way in the conference league. There are some weaker teams in there. Some good ones too obviously. Based on some of the comments today we’ll get crucified by some of you if we get a European pumping. It’s an exciting adventure, won’t be perfect or pretty at times but enjoy it ffs. robson is trying to implement a more attacking style, I think we hear and see that. It’s work in progress with new players yet we’re getting complains about our performance. I’d rather we tried this than the mcinnes tactics. Or Goodwin. lastly, refreshing to sign most players rather than a bunch of loaners coming in. Congrats to the club for that. We’ve got this group for a couple of years at least. It’s been less than a month, scrambling to put a team on the field. Again, give it time.

Quite a bit of bitching and moaning, come on boys. Had we scored our chances we’d be in the group stage. We didn’t though but we’re still in a European competition with exciting games ahead. That’s a good thing. Would rather see that than play group stage league cup football? Think we missed a healthy Macdonald last night, that’s a factor. We also lost to the Swedish league champions who are in mid season, that’s no embarrassment. We’ve lost one game in the league to our league champions, and we actually played quite well in that game. St mirren beat us last year. Livi away isn’t an easy fixture. Loads of signings coming in, lots of varying fitness levels, players developing chemistry, even possibly Duk and miovski a little unsettled with transfer talk. Hopefully we sign Baccus today and let’s give the team and squad time. I’ve seen enough from the new signings to suggest we’ll be a decent team this year. It’s September 1, breathe!!

Explain the whole ‘can’t play in a 3-5-2’ comment…..who??

Kind of the way I feel. A dozen new signings and not like they all arrived together at the beginning of preseason. And I still feel we’re a center mid away from having done good business. But, as also mentioned, they are mid season, many of ours didn’t get a full preseason, and have few games under their belts. Add bojan coming back from injury, no way is he fully sharp. My only disappointment is duk, should have scored in both legs. cnference league is a good fit for us, a few more weeks to gel and some winnable games perhaps.

Other than Duk for sokler that’s the team I want. Just don’t see Duk dropped, his pace is huge and he needs games to find fitness/form.