change of plan needed

[eastcoasthibby]

as has been well muted on here in recent weeks but we have been sussed and it was before the rankgers game ..Alloa and Livingston tried and just failed to get a result from us and our luck ran out against the newco !! a change of formation worked last week but we just didn't take our chances and some crap defending lost us that one ! yesterday we went back to our diamond with 2 forwards that had poor movement, first touches and work rate, we created nothing for an hour almost, then AS changes it and Farid comes on and shows more physical presence, work rate and link up play than we have in weeks, and malonga decided that he maybe needed to get his finger out and work a bit ...we looked a better team..but our build up play remains too slow over passing the ball and rarely direct enough, when our players started running at the defenders they committed fouls and we got corners, but not near enough and for long enough.
My view defenders hate people running at them ..fact ! that is why we have had joy with stevenson & gray going at them on the flanks, cummings turning and facing them up, these avenues have been lost through injury ( gray & JC) teams doubling up on stevenson and gray in last third and our results have shown this.
Now we have reverted to passing the ball to death back and forward across the front of teams 9-10 man defensive units ... forwards and midielders don't want to take shots on, or take heavy tackles, or play in early balls ...our play is 90 % deliberate and predictable ...a new plan needs to be found as we need results.
I am not advocating a move away from trying to play football, but as AS and many other have said this is the business end of the season and it's results that count ...so let's change things a bit, we don't need 4 sitting ball players in midfield, we need a couple who will make runs and get up and play with our front two ... be prepared to go back to front for a change and importantly if they are not working there asses off get them told and if they continue get them off ...we need a must win mentality and top end work rate from them all, as that's what teams do against us ....

[GreenCastle]

We are too predictable and build up too slow.

Teams have worked out how to play us so we must adapt.

The crap pitch doesn't help but we need more steel in the middle to win the ball back quicker - I wokld keep Allen in but drop Fyfie.

I would get back to stretching teams and getting in behind teams on the ground and in the air.

Possibility 4-2-3-1 - though the slight problem is we don't have many wingers and haven't for a while - only Boyle does that job right now. Some of our crossing was poor yesterday - often over hit / not beating 1st man and even a corner going straight out !!

We looked like a Butcher team - to far apart / isolated and lacking ideas and unfit. Earlier in the season it was complete opposite.

We have some opportunities ahead - we need to wake up and earn them otherwise it will be another poor season.

[macca70]

I thought Watson was really poor on the right side,

In the 1st half, everytime Scott Allan picked up the ball in the middle of the park he was looking for a runner down that right to get in behind their fullback but there was nothing happening.

The time Watson did get into a decent position to put a cross in, his final ball was dreadful.

Once McGeoch is back I'd have him in for Stanton, have McGeoch sitting with Allan pushing forward, Forster in for Watson and Farid starting in place of Malonga.

[J-C]

Watson is not a wingback, he's a RB/CB who doesn't have enough pace to be a wingback and his final ball is pretty poor, also caught ball watching for the goal which came from his side.

I thought Stanton did ok yesterday and showed some nice touches and always looked to make himself free for the ball, something a few on the pitch didn't as the movement was atrocious all day long.

Our biggest preblem is we have been given the opportunity to sign 3 midfielders all very similar in Allan/McGeouch and Fyvie and they cannot work together. When we went on our long decent run, McGeouch was injured and Fyvie wasn't at the club till January and we had a midfield of Robertson/Craig/Allan and Handling which has a better balance to it.

We need to go back to having 3 in midfield, whether that's with a 4-2-3-1 which we started the season with or the 5-3-2 that we also used early doors but we are putting too much emphasis on wingbacks and if teams negate them, we have no other option but through the middle. We have 2 wide men sitting on te bench who have frightening pace, Boyle and Djedje, why not use them and take away the responsibility from the wingbacks.

[snedzuk]

I thought Watson was really poor on the right side,

In the 1st half, everytime Scott Allan picked up the ball in the middle of the park he was looking for a runner down that right to get in behind their fullback but there was nothing happening.

The time Watson did get into a decent position to put a cross in, his final ball was dreadful.

Once McGeoch is back I'd have him in for Stanton, have McGeoch sitting with Allan pushing forward, Forster in for Watson and Farid starting in place of Malonga.

Allans reaction to that final ball was to look over at the bench with his 'wtf' arms gesture......something hes done a few times now illustrating a worrying lack of team understanding from him - I accept he is better than many around him but we do need to keep it together for the rest of the season aand not compound this by falling out amongst ourselves - there was an allan fyvie spat as well plus the pointless dive in the centre circle and an equally pointless booking.*

[gaz1875]

Our play has become to congested when we push forward. The strikers are dropping back because the midfield are not pushing forward quickly enough when we are attacking. The midfield have then nowhere to go other than backwards or sideways, I guess that's where the wing backs come in, but again no player is looking to make the run beyond the opponents defence (other than DG). When it does happen we have no one capable of heading the ball when the cross comes in. Over the last few poor results the amount of cross balls that go into the box is huge, yet the percentage of attempts from these crosses is shockingly low, you could argue the crosses are poor which some are, but with no strikers in positions to get them this will always be the situation.