Is the squad too young?

[KWJ]

I think we were all a bit surprised at the strength of the team put out against Stranraer as it could easily be the team we put out for our next league match so it's one of our strongest sides.

There's no crazy young lad in there, even Scott Martin on the bench is 18. The average of the 13 that played was under 24 which maybe isn't all that young but it is inexperienced when you think that only really the back 4 (generous to McGregor) have played a lot of games at a decent level. Fyvie played 50 odd games for Aberdeen but I'd imagine a lot of them wouldn't have been 90 mins and that there'd have been a bit of cotton wool going on, even more so after that bad injury he got.

Personally, I don't have a problem with it unless it doesn't get us up. I think if we were in the top flight it'd be pretty much the type of team that I'd want to go and see and there would hopefully be less pressure on them to get the result week in week out like there is now. We need to be winning almost all of our games just now and understandably the crowd can get restless when we're not doing that. Even when we're doing well we'll be a long way from being able to carry the team with a packed ER. The last thing inexperienced players under pressure need is abuse leading to more pressure but it's what we've got. More experienced huddies like Jon Daly, Frazer Wright and co might treat it like water of a ducks back but it's tougher for these guys, especially when they're likely to be far more immersed on the social media side.

Not saying it's wrong, more pointing it out. Get up this season be it first or through playoffs and I think we've got a lot to look forward to.

Age of the team below.

Oxley - 24

Stevenson - 27
Fontaine - 29
Hanlon - 25
McGregor - 30

Fyvie - 22
McGeouch - 22
McGinn - 20
Henderson - 19
Boyle - 22

Cummings - 20

SUBS
Carmichael - 25
Keatings - 23

[KWJ]

Far different circumstances and climate but last time we were down it was very much experience that McLeish went for to get us back up. That said you could've probably put anybody in with Yogi, Latapy, McGinley, Sauzee (even if later), Lovell and Mixu there.

Other players

Reguero - 33

Gray - 27 (thought he was older than that!)
Forster - 21

Bartley - 29
Stanton - 21
Martin - 18
Sinclair - 19

Malonga - 26
Shaw - 18
El Alagui - 30 on Friday.

[J-C]

I mentioned this last week on another thread that I thought the midfield in particular was too young and inexperienced. If you look at the players separately you can see how little they've played at the top level.

McGeouch, prior to this season only 48 senior games.
McGinn, although young has 87 games
Henderson, only 26 senior games.
Stanton, 55 senior games with the majority off the bench.
Fyvie, 77 senior games in 6 seasons.
Martin, well he's just a young lad starting out.

Bartley is the only one with real experience and he's not even getting a look in.

Add in Boyle the majority of his games for Montrose and Carmichael, all games played in lower division with QOS, we have a pretty young very inexperienced squad, with no leaders on the pitch whatsoever, no matter what people thought about Allan, he will be sorely missed.

[HoboHarry]

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I mentioned this last week on another thread that I thought the midfield in particular was too young and inexperienced. If you look at the players separately you can see how little they've played at the top level.

McGeouch, prior to this season only 48 senior games.
McGinn, although young has 87 games
Henderson, only 26 senior games.
Stanton, 55 senior games with the majority off the bench.
Fyvie, 77 senior games in 6 seasons.
Martin, well he's just a young lad starting out.

Bartley is the only one with real experience and he's not even getting a look in.

Add in Boyle the majority of his games for Montrose and Carmichael, all games played in lower division with QOS, we have a pretty young very inexperienced squad, with no leaders on the pitch whatsoever, no matter what people thought about Allan, he will be sorely missed.

Scott Allan, according to Wiki, has only played 79 games himself which is less than McGinn, and 33 of them were for Hibs - how does that fit in with your theory?

[MWHIBBIES]

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I mentioned this last week on another thread that I thought the midfield in particular was too young and inexperienced. If you look at the players separately you can see how little they've played at the top level.

McGeouch, prior to this season only 48 senior games.
McGinn, although young has 87 games
Henderson, only 26 senior games.
Stanton, 55 senior games with the majority off the bench.
Fyvie, 77 senior games in 6 seasons.
Martin, well he's just a young lad starting out.

Bartley is the only one with real experience and he's not even getting a look in.

Add in Boyle the majority of his games for Montrose and Carmichael, all games played in lower division with QOS, we have a pretty young very inexperienced squad, with no leaders on the pitch whatsoever, no matter what people thought about Allan, he will be sorely missed.

Scott Allan had less than 50 senior games before joining us, not sure what your point is? He wasn't a leader at all, you only had to watch him walk back after giving the ball away for the 12th time to understand that.

Bartley isn't playing games like this because we don't need a defensive midfielder against teams with almost no intention to score a goal.

[J-C]

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Scott Allan, according to Wiki, has only played 79 games himself which is less than McGinn, and 33 of them were for Hibs - how does that fit in with your theory?

I never mentioned Allan because he isn't here now and last season he had Craig and Robertson beside him with the experience.

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Scott Allan had less than 50 senior games before joining us, not sure what your point is? He wasn't a leader at all, you only had to watch him walk back after giving the ball away for the 12th time to understand that.

Bartley isn't playing games like this because we don't need a defensive midfielder against teams with almost no intention to score a goal.

Again I never said anything about Allan's experience, see reply above and I also didn't see him as a leader because I never said he was a leader but you can't deny he was a far better player than most we have now and is at the moment sorely missed.

[NAE NOOKIE]

You'll never win anything with kids

[Hibernia&Alba]

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You'll never win anything with kids

Exactly, what matters is quality not age. Matt Busby's team of kids weren't bad, and that was nearly sixty years go.

[jdships]

Bill Shankly
" If you are good enough you are old enough ! "

[jacomo]

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Scott Allan had less than 50 senior games before joining us, not sure what your point is? He wasn't a leader at all, you only had to watch him walk back after giving the ball away for the 12th time to understand that.

Bartley isn't playing games like this because we don't need a defensive midfielder against teams with almost no intention to score a goal.

Re: Bartley - I take the point, but playing a DM in front of a back 4 simplifies things in a way, allowing other midfielders to get forward. We do need some organisation and experience on the pitch.

[SmashinGlass]

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Bill Shankly
" If you are good enough you are old enough ! "

This ^