Creative Midfielder

[GGTTH07]

We really really need one and playing 3 defensive midfielders just won't work. Crying out for a boozy type. Even if Cairney is put forward and bring a pacy left mid in. Thoughts?

[bingo70]

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We really really need one and playing 3 defensive midfielders just won't work. Crying out for a boozy type. Even if Cairney is put forward and bring a pacy left mid in. Thoughts?

Yeah, i'm not sure it's a boozy type of player we need though, definately some pace on the wing but in the centre i think it's more of an attacking player than Boozy was. Think Cairney moving to the middle would be the obvious choice.

Pace on the wing is an absolute must though, not sure that Craig from St Johnstone or the boy Erskine from partick we're looking at would offer that so that's got me a little concerned.

[Golden Bear]

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We really really need one and playing 3 defensive midfielders just won't work. Crying out for a boozy type. Even if Cairney is put forward and bring a pacy left mid in. Thoughts?

I'll agree with that and equally we need a pacy wide player who also provides a goal threat.

I'm not convinced that such attacking options will be foremost in Pat's thoughts though.

[superfurryhibby]

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We really really need one and playing 3 defensive midfielders just won't work. Crying out for a boozy type. Even if Cairney is put forward and bring a pacy left mid in. Thoughts?

Agree. With the current squad I would be tempted to drop Taiwo and play either Wotherspoon or Cairney in the middle. That leaves the issue of who plays wide right and wide left (assuming it´s a midfield five).

[GreenOnions]

What about Paul McGowan from the Buddies? I think he signed a two year deal with them in 2011.

[AlbertK86]

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Agree. With the current squad I would be tempted to drop Taiwo and play either Wotherspoon or Cairney in the middle. That leaves the issue of who plays wide right and wide left (assuming it´s a midfield five).

When playing the lesser teams I would like to see Deegan and Cairney in Centre Mid, Doyle on RM a new LM (Liam Craig looks likely)

LG and one other up front- Kenny Miller would be good - or Jon Daly would be even better

[LeighLoyal]

Why didn't Fenlon have Ivan on the bench? He knows what the Yam game is all about and would have gave his all, okay he isn't the Ivan of 2005 vintage but he's still decent enough and he'd have been fresh. Taking off Cairney was an odd one, left us with three defensive midfielders and Spoon, hardly that attacking. We need a guy with a trick like a Mickey Weir or McAllister, or even better a class act like Russell Latapy, we were spoiled!

[Scouse Hibee]

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Agree. With the current squad I would be tempted to drop Taiwo and play either Wotherspoon or Cairney in the middle. That leaves the issue of who plays wide right and wide left (assuming it´s a midfield five).

I don't think Spoony has the desire or commitment to be effective enough in the middle.

[essexhibee]

I agree crying out for creativity in the centre. Actually thought Stevenson was great when he came on at tynie but he's not the answer don't think.

[J-C]

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I don't think Spoony has the desire or commitment to be effective enough.

There, changed that for you.

[NORTHERNHIBBY]

Playing defensive midfielders will hopefully stop the team being easy touches and therefore harder to beat. Making us harder to beat is the first bit of the jigsaw that we need to get right, even if it is not pretty at times. Need pace up front though.

[blackpoolhibs]

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Playing defensive midfielders will hopefully stop the team being easy touches and therefore harder to beat. Making us harder to beat is the first bit of the jigsaw that we need to get right, even if it is not pretty at times. Need pace up front though.

Exactly, and when we have had our first 11 players out there playing, we have won more than our fair share and no matter what a couple of folk have said, we have been much harder to beat.

[Big Ed]

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Exactly, and when we have had our first 11 players out there playing, we have won more than our fair share and no matter what a couple of folk have said, we have been much harder to beat.

We need to be better at keeping the ball. Playing Deegan, Taiwo and Claros in the centre of midfield hands the initiative to the opposition.

Four points out of six from Celtic at ER and Hearts away is an excellent return, but these tactics cannot carry on, because we can't keep riding our luck the way we did against those two.

[wookie70]

Pat McGinley\Frank Lampard type of midfielder required as well as some pace wide and up top. The striker or strikers play so far away from the midfield that we need someone who can quickly bridge the gap. Not sure they exist in our price bracket.

[blackpoolhibs]

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We need to be better at keeping the ball. Playing Deegan, Taiwo and Claros in the centre of midfield hands the initiative to the opposition.

Four points out of six from Celtic at ER and Hearts away is an excellent return, but these tactics cannot carry on, because we can't keep riding our luck the way we did against those two.

Its funny how we suddenly need to keep the ball much better, yet we are sitting nicely in 4th 3 points off 2nd?

I'd say its more important gathering points and making sure we were not in ANOTHER relegation battle?

I'd suggest we as a club when everyone is fit, HAVE kept the ball enough, and have done very well so far considering?

Pat has decided to build the team from the back, he was very unlucky to have Clancy and McPake out at the same time, but when they played we did well, and since coming back EVERYONE can see the difference.

Some folk are panicking for no reason, all teams will go through a bad spell, why should we be any different?

[Big Ed]

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Its funny how we suddenly need to keep the ball much better, yet we are sitting nicely in 4th 3 points off 2nd?

I'd say its more important gathering points and making sure we were not in ANOTHER relegation battle?

I'd suggest we as a club when everyone is fit, HAVE kept the ball enough, and have done very well so far considering?

Pat has decided to build the team from the back, he was very unlucky to have Clancy and McPake out at the same time, but when they played we did well, and since coming back EVERYONE can see the difference.

Some folk are panicking for no reason, all teams will go through a bad spell, why should we be any different?

Who's panicking: not me. I just observed that we need to keep the ball better.

It's not a new thing either. We have been useless at at ball retention for years.

In the past, we have usually had quite a big turnover during the transfer window. I don't think we'll see that this time unless we lose our loan players.

Three holding midfielders is excessive. I'd like to see someone who can pass the ball brought in and if we only bring in one new player, that's the position I'd like to see us strengthen.

[blackpoolhibs]

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Who's panicking: not me. I just observed that we need to keep the ball better.

It's not a new thing either. We have been useless at at ball retention for years.

In the past, we have usually had quite a big turnover during the transfer window. I don't think we'll see that this time unless we lose our loan players.

Three holding midfielders is excessive. I'd like to see someone who can pass the ball brought in and if we only bring in one new player, that's the position I'd like to see us strengthen.

I disagree, most of the time THIS season when we have been at full strength we have been fine at ball retention? We will NEVER have more of the ball against Celtic, and while Thursday was not great, we were not in much trouble during the game, there were chances at BOTH ends, and as James McPake said, they will never run over the top of us again.

We are thin on the ground with good experienced players, i agree we will bring in more better players, and that will help when we have injuries and suspensions.

We are not far away from a very decent team.

[superfurryhibby]

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We need to be better at keeping the ball. Playing Deegan, Taiwo and Claros in the centre of midfield hands the initiative to the opposition.

Four points out of six from Celtic at ER and Hearts away is an excellent return, but these tactics cannot carry on, because we can't keep riding our luck the way we did against those two.

I think it depends on who the opposition are. It could be argued that Celtic and Hearts are our two toughest fixtures. Celtic, because they are a half decent football team and Hearts because they are Hearts.

I agree that three holding midfielders is excessive for most SPL games and reckon this window will see some changes (probably enforced if Claros goes). I reckon Cairney or Wotherspoon can add thrust to the centre mid, although (as said by Scouse) Spoon does need to show he has what it takes in terms of dig and application to make it his position.

Signing up Griffiths and McGivern and a decent wide player would be the icing on the cake (we can but dream).

I totally agree with Blackpool. We are not far away from being a strong side. It´s a steep learning curve for Fenlon and his team is shaping up nicely. I´ve enjoyed this season more than any since the League Cup winning season.

[SMAXXA]

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We need to be better at keeping the ball. Playing Deegan, Taiwo and Claros in the centre of midfield hands the initiative to the opposition.

Four points out of six from Celtic at ER and Hearts away is an excellent return, but these tactics cannot carry on, because we can't keep riding our luck the way we did against those two.

This really annoys me, why is it when we beat Celtic and draw away to them we are lucky? If we had been beat folk would be saying we are ***** blah blah blah but no, we get 4 points out of 6 and we are lucky?


Can we not just appreciate we defended well, were hard to beat and we had chances to increase our lead against Celtic and a couple of chances to win the derby?

Mind its always easier to be negative I suppose

[blackpoolhibs]

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This really annoys me, why is it when we beat Celtic and draw away to them we are lucky? If we had been beat folk would be saying we are ***** blah blah blah but no, we get 4 points out of 6 and we are lucky?


Can we not just appreciate we defended well, were hard to beat and we had chances to increase our lead against Celtic and a couple of chances to win the derby?

Mind its always easier to be negative I suppose

Its great fun being the luckiest team in the league.

[NorthNorfolkHFC]

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Its great fun being the luckiest team in the league.

Its true though, our tactics against Hearts surely can't have been to "not string more than 3 passes together, hump the ball to Zal and allow them to be first to every ball".

I would have been happy if we had gone out and defended well (which our back 4 did) from the front 2 and midfield 4 however, it was just our back line that got us the draw against Hearts. That kind of play is not sustainable.

[NORTHERNHIBBY]

You make your own luck, and lucky teams are more often than not confident teams.

[ancient hibee]

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Exactly, and when we have had our first 11 players out there playing, we have won more than our fair share and no matter what a couple of folk have said, we have been much harder to beat.

I agree somewhat but if you look at the stats we are still losing far too many games and have drawn very few compared to other teams in the league.We're also of course winning more so it's really win or bust.

[blackpoolhibs]

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Its true though, our tactics against Hearts surely can't have been to "not string more than 3 passes together, hump the ball to Zal and allow them to be first to every ball".

I would have been happy if we had gone out and defended well (which our back 4 did) from the front 2 and midfield 4 however, it was just our back line that got us the draw against Hearts. That kind of play is not sustainable.

Rubbish, our team defended well, we did not play well going forward.

[blackpoolhibs]

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I agree somewhat but if you look at the stats we are still losing far too many games and have drawn very few compared to other teams in the league.We're also of course winning more so it's really win or bust.

We have lost most of our games during the period when we were light on numbers through injuries. I'd back our first 11 against most in this league, and i'm sure we will get stronger in the coming weeks and months.

[SMAXXA]

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We have lost most of our games during the period when we were light on numbers through injuries. I'd back our first 11 against most in this league, and i'm sure we will get stronger in the coming weeks and months.

[Big Ed]

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This really annoys me, why is it when we beat Celtic and draw away to them we are lucky? If we had been beat folk would be saying we are ***** blah blah blah but no, we get 4 points out of 6 and we are lucky?


Can we not just appreciate we defended well, were hard to beat and we had chances to increase our lead against Celtic and a couple of chances to win the derby?

Mind its always easier to be negative I suppose

We have taken four points out of six in two fixtures where we regularly get nothing: surely this is the time to be objective about any deficiencies the team may have, rather than when we have lost, and the toys come out of the pram.

I think we have a good defence. Clancy, McGivern, McPake and Hanlon are a good unit, but if any defence is exposed because the midfield aren't pulling their weight, then they can look *****.

Our midfield in the last two games has been good defensively but we can't keep the ball, so the other team dominates possession and we have to defend constantly.

You may call my suggestion that we try a bit more passing as negative: I'd call it constructive criticism.