So..............it was a bad Saturday, best forgotten. And the A9 is murder at this time of year.........altogether a bad trip.

One puzzle resulted from the fixture however. I was under the impression that Rankin was a central midfield playmaker. He turned up on the left side.........I was looking forward to seeing Morgan continuing to improve in this role. As for Royston...............well I think he can forget it...............back to Ross County methinks. Sad because he has been a genuine ICT hero for me.

So............is it Morgan or Rankin? Black must stay in his role (despite his absence on Sat). Is Duncan under threat if Rankin moves inside? I thought Barry looked lean, Caff would not overlap,and the shambles at the back.............best forgotten. Denzil ( and I have been a fierce critic of late) held the ball up well and linked the play. He did however try TWICE to outdo Marco van Basten and score from an impossible angle. His first half shot ( when Dargo was in the clear) was also woeful. Still.............he might just have shaded MOM for me

Rankin is a central midfielder and so was playing out of position on Saturday. I thought he did OK though but he did drift into the middle on occasion which is probably natural. He certainly made our goal with a great sliding tackle and excellent cross.

Midfield is a bit of a quandry all round. No idea what the perfect combination is. No one stands out as an automatic choice for the left midfield berth and on the right, with the greatest respect to Wilson I'm not sure he is a 90 minute player anymore.

I think Duncan gets far more critiscism than he deserves and he usually does a steady hard working job.

Rankin & Black may well be too similar to play together.  Maybe a renewed United bid will solve that problem though  :006:

Glad I don't have to pick the team

And the A9 is murder at this time of year

*eep*

' And the A9 is murder at this time of year.........altogether a bad trip.'

Probably loads of tourists trying to get a glimpse of the retro t-shirt.

Fit aboot a 3-5-2 formation? It worked in preseason.

-----------------------Brown------------------------

-------Caff----------Machine---------Munro------

-----------------------Duncan-----------------------

Wilson------Black-------------Rankin--------Morgan

----------------Dargo-----------Wyness------------

thats the ticket i'd go for! 

Make that back 3 Rossco/Proctor.....Dods......Hastings and I would be far happier.

Nothing against Munro, just think Hastings would be more suited to playing on the left of a back 3

And the t-shirt wearer aka Vic never complained about the music and the craic from his two fellow travellers  :015: I thought it wis barrie.

when rossco is match fit again hed be my first choice in RB.  either munro or hastings at LB for me. 

think that midfield would be a fantastic unit - perhaps even in a 4-5-1 . 

would mean dropping wyness and playing black and duncan in the middle with rankin at the front supporting dargoals.   

                            brown

       

        rossco - dods - munro - hastings

   

          wilson- black - duncan - morgan

                         

                                  rankin

                      dargo

All looks good on paper except you can be sure we will line up 4-4-2 on Saturday

rankins lack of confidence (or unwillingness to play) on the left on saturday lost us the match, or at least stopped us breaking st mirren down more.  if morgan was in there hw wouldve been hugging the line for 90 minutes, even if he doesnt get the ball hes stretching their midfield and giving space to others.

rankin cant defend at all on the left, and golly doesnt seem to give us anything coming forward either, his deliveries were f##king woeful (most balls into the box were, which is where morgan will never let us down).  perhaps if hastings was in then rankins postiitoning wouldve changed, as richard would be more inclined to playing it through the channels rather than gollys diagonal balls into the middle.

nothing against caff either, but tokely is better coming forward than he is, which frees up wilson to p1ss off and try and do something up front.  three changes for next week, morgan for rankin, hastings for golly and ross for caff.  maybe put caff in for dodds or munro?  if rankins to play it should be for duncan, black seems at his best when hes sitting infront of the defence and dictating play, maybe he could free up rankin to try something different.

wyness isnt good enough, as ive been saying for along time, but he fills a shirt

morgan

CC made a couple of comments during the closed season about having players making fewer "lung busting" sprints down the wings from the back of the park, so Caff and Golly not pushing forward may have been based on instructions from the dugout.  If/When these players are replaced next week we will see if the guys coming in perform a similar roll and it will become more obvious why we never seemed to be using the wings as well as we are known too. 

I have to say though, it doesn't make sense to have the widest pitch in the league and constantly try and play through the middle or via diagonal cross pitch balls.  I would love to have seen the pitch narrowed this season, but that hasn't happened so we need to be better utilising the width to our advantage instead of letting visitors kick our a55 up and down the wide channels for 90 minutes.

McBain!!

Seriously though, where does Roy fit into all of this??  Never let us down, naturally left footed.....

McBain  :015:

No thanks

Morgan

McBain  :015:

No thanks

McBain has been a loyal servant to the club and although he would not be my first choice he certainly does not deseve to be laughed at :008:

OK maybe I was bit harsh with the laughing smiley but McBain is well down the pecking order for the left midfield slot. He plays better in central midfield where he is even further down the list

royston has been a great servant to the club and its wrong to discount him totally, i still think the guy can do a cracking job for us

Don't see it myself but thats the beauty of football everyone has there own opinion  :003:

Cant see why Morgan and Rankin cant play in the starting line up.

I think if we started with the following line up for home games where we need to attack:

                  Brown

Caff      Dods    Munro  Hastings

Wilson  Black  Rankin  Morgan

            Dargo  Wyness

and this line up for away games when we can absorb pressure and counter:

                  Brown

Caff      Dods    Munro  Hastings

                  Duncan

      Wilson  Black  Rankin

            Dargo  Wyness

I think Duncan is a vital part in the team when we are trying to soak up pressure or when the opposition are likely to attack from the word go but when we need to attack i feel he isnt as strong an attacking force as any other of our midfield.

Any views?

You'd leave out Tokely?

Only while he is out injured, once Tokely has regained full fitness swap caff and tokely.

Rankin or Morgan?

Both !!

given that the 'machine' has shown his true colours and wants away and there are doubts over Black/Proctor .... this is my preferred lineup

_______________________________________

                              Brown

_______________________________________

Tokely      McCaffrey          Munro          Hastings          <--- Caff back where he belongs, switch to back 3 if needed

_______________________________________

                              Duncan                                          <--- Duncan doing the 'unsung' bit

                                                                                   

Wilson    Black/Keogh      Rankin    Morgan/McBain      <--- Rankin in the middle alongside Black/Keogh

_______________________________________ 

 

                              Dargo                                            <--- Dargo ploughing lone furrow, Denzil on if more needed.

wth a bit tinkering the 4-5-1 could win us the champs league....

mon christie...  do it!