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a f kincaid
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33 minutes ago, macca said:

I would have Penrice and Gordon as subs and try and sign two decent players for there positions  ,also think we need an experienced good  goalkeeper .

Scott Fox was an experienced goalkeeper last season, with more than probably 130 games in the top flight of Scottish Football with a major trophy to his name, and was hardly sensational. I think it’ll be Sneddon that’ll be No.1 at the start of this season. We’ll either make the other young goalkeeper his backup or bring in a No.2 from down the leagues, in my opinion. 

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I would have thought our starting line up would look something like the following

Sneddon/new Goalkeeper

Foster-Brownlie-O'Ware-Penrice

Murray-Docherty-Bannigan-Lyons

Graham-Rudden

Murray and lyons will rotate with Cardle and Cardle may well be a regular starter until Lyons or Murray can show they deserve to be in front of him.

Don't see Gordon as a first choice pick. He's more somewhere that can fill in a number of positions to cover suspensions and to provide a goal threat from the bench if we're chasing the game. Also wonder if McCall wouldn't be unhappy to see Gordon go.

At this point Sena looks like he will be cover for Docherty and Bannigan as Bannigan will always pick up a suspension or two. However I think we need another central midfielder.

Having Murray as a number 10 behind a striker provides a form a cover if Graham is injured/suspended but we need another more mobile striker as cover. I think thats more likely covered by a loan signing

At the back I would like to see us sign a left footed centre back to push O'Ware and offer us a better balance with Brownlie as well as a fullback to challenge Penrice. In my mind part of Penrice's stagnation is that he has had no serious competition at left back for 2 seasons.

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Worth remembering, could have a situation where Foster is playing regularly at LB and Williamson is at RB, with Penrice on the bench. I personally don’t feel we need anymore cover at full-back positions although I wouldn’t be against maybe a loan signing at LB to provide more competition. 

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2 hours ago, laukat said:

I would have thought our starting line up would look something like the following

Sneddon/new Goalkeeper

Foster-Brownlie-O'Ware-Penrice

Murray-Docherty-Bannigan-Lyons

Graham-Rudden

Murray and lyons will rotate with Cardle and Cardle may well be a regular starter until Lyons or Murray can show they deserve to be in front of him.

Don't see Gordon as a first choice pick. He's more somewhere that can fill in a number of positions to cover suspensions and to provide a goal threat from the bench if we're chasing the game. Also wonder if McCall wouldn't be unhappy to see Gordon go.

At this point Sena looks like he will be cover for Docherty and Bannigan as Bannigan will always pick up a suspension or two. However I think we need another central midfielder.

Having Murray as a number 10 behind a striker provides a form a cover if Graham is injured/suspended but we need another more mobile striker as cover. I think thats more likely covered by a loan signing

At the back I would like to see us sign a left footed centre back to push O'Ware and offer us a better balance with Brownlie as well as a fullback to challenge Penrice. In my mind part of Penrice's stagnation is that he has had no serious competition at left back for 2 seasons.

Although he wasn’t great I’d say Gordon contributed more in the Park when he wasn’t injured than banzo or oware did last season.  His goals were important in a number of games for us and still young. We and he were very unlucky when he got injured as I think he would have still given us a few more goals 

regarding competition for Penrice I know mccall really rates the youngster at Ayr Finn Ecrepoint who he was interested in signing before. The fact we are a division below them and the lad has another year on his contract there probably means we won’t be able too 

Edited by Third Lanark
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2 hours ago, Third Lanark said:

Although he wasn’t great I’d say Gordon contributed more in the Park when he wasn’t injured than banzo or oware did last season.  His goals were important in a number of games for us and still young. We and he were very unlucky when he got injured as I think he would have still given us a few more goals 

regarding competition for Penrice I know mccall really rates the youngster at Ayr Finn Ecrepoint who he was interested in signing before. The fact we are a division below them and the lad has another year on his contract there probably means we won’t be able too 

Gordon has struggled to find a position that he can call his own or that shows he can contribute to the team outside of scoring goals. I think he needs to be played as a central attacking midfielder similar to Albert Craig or as a defensive midfielder shielding the back 4. The most effective game I've seen him have for thistle was the opening 45 minutes v Falkirk in a 2-1 win where he played as the defensive midfielder. Unfortunaly he got injured in that game and has never reappeared in that position again.

Gordon clearly has an eye for goal but I think McCall's system of play looks for the attacking midfield options to be the wide players. Docherty and Bannigan are clearly McCall's starting central midfielders so I struggle to see where Gordon fits.

Ecrepoint or someone of that age/potential could be a decent shout to challenge Penrice. Penrice has a relatively easy ride for the last 2 seasons but he's now 22 and needs to push on. When he first came in he looked capable of being an overlapping fullback with a decent delivery. Instead he's rarely seen as an attacking threat and doesn't seem to back his own pace. Hopefully a challenge to his position will make him realise he needs to start working a bit harder.

However if you look at our potential starting 11 it should on paper be able to compete at the top end of the championship so hopefully if McCall can get them playing as a team and restore some confidence we can be optomistic about how we will fare in league 1.

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Where are the goals coming from ? Neither Graham nor Rudden have been prolific. Graham had a great season with Raith 9 years ago, but has struggled to make double figures since. Rudden scored 2 in 14 at Plymouth and didn’t impress when I saw him last season. (Admittedly he didn’t look fit). With so many of last seasons players still around I can see another season of passing around the box and no end product

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1 hour ago, Dick Dastardly said:

Where are the goals coming from ? Neither Graham nor Rudden have been prolific. Graham had a great season with Raith 9 years ago, but has struggled to make double figures since. Rudden scored 2 in 14 at Plymouth and didn’t impress when I saw him last season. (Admittedly he didn’t look fit). With so many of last seasons players still around I can see another season of passing around the box and no end product

Graham’s last season in the Championship he was County’s 2nd or 3rd choice striker and scored 14 goals in all competitions. They went on to win a League and Cup double. At a level below that, he should be reaching 15+. Rudden scored 12 goals for one of the worst Falkirk teams in recent history. With a bit of confidence at League 1 he should be looking to 15, 20 goals. Brian Graham does a lot more than score goals, hence not being overly prolific, but he’s also always played at a level above this too. 

Edited by CGJags
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42 minutes ago, CGJags said:

Graham’s last season in the Championship he was County’s 2nd or 3rd choice striker and scored 14 goals in all competitions. They went on to win a League and Cup double. At a level below that, he should be reaching 15+. Rudden scored 12 goals for one of the worst Falkirk teams in recent history. With a bit of confidence at League 1 he should be looking to 15, 20 goals. Brian Graham does a lot more than score goals, hence not being overly prolific, but he’s also always played at a level above this too. 

Brian Graham is also very much a leader and team player who hurts badly when we lose. In my opinion we have not had enough players with his attitude the last 3 seasons 

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7 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

Brian Graham is also very much a leader and team player who hurts badly when we lose. In my opinion we have not had enough players with his attitude the last 3 seasons 

Absolutely, it was clear at the end of last season, that Graham was a leader. Particularly in that semi-final against Raith Rovers, he was the 1 player trying to get the whole team in order, and then encourage them. He’s got a really good mentality. Of course that doesn’t guarantee you goals, but we know if a couple chances fall to him, he’ll stick one of them away, he maybe doesn’t score the most prettiest of goals, but they all count. 

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Dick D asks a pertinent question. I think a lot depends on Rudden and Graham forming a decent partnership. I've seen absolutely no signs yet to suggest that's imminent. I also realise that Rudden wasn't fit enough and Graham wasn't having one of his better spells.

I know he can have a few off days but I'd be hopeful of Lyons scoring a good few and as mentioned Gordon has a knack of getting amongst the goals. Mansell will probably be used only when others are injured or coming off the bench to replace a tiring forward and keep what pace there is up.

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2 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

I know he can have a few off days but I'd be hopeful of Lyons scoring a good few and as mentioned Gordon has a knack of getting amongst the goals.

Lyons stats from 2019/20

Games - 33, Goals - 11, Assists - 7 

That’s pretty decent for a guy who spent 90% of the season out wide. 
 

Gordon stats from 2019/20

Games - 23, Goals - 7, Assists - 1 

I always think Gordon’s better as an impact player, as oppose to regular starter (best example being Morton at home last season) but we know he has goals in him. 
 

All in all, it’s promising that Gordon and Lyons have decent scoring records, and hopefully will contribute as well as our strikers. 

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I think we have struggled for goals in the last 2 seasons for a couple of reasons.

First, we haven't had genuine wide left and wide right midfielders/wingers since Lawless and Erskine were part of the team. In our first season in the championship we seemed to start with Erskine and Spittal. Spittal never looked comfortable wide and it created and lack of balance. Last season we struggled on the right side so much that we ended up putting a right back (Kakay) on the right side of midfield until New Year. Zannatta and Cardle should have brought more balance but Zannatta's attitude and form was erratic whilst Cardle never looked like he could provide for 90 minutes.

Second, we have had managers that never really looked like they new what formation and system was best and recruit for that system. Archie in the championship was still keen to go with his 4-2-3-1 but in Bannigan, Gordon and Slater he didn't really have the Osman type player that made that system succeful to produce a base for the 3+1 to attack. The 4-2-3-1 also relied on the fullbacks to get pretty high up the park and deliver into the box. Penrice struggled to get forward and Elliot's delivery was dreadful. Caldwell wanted to play 3-5-2  with Archie's squad and whilst his January transfer window got enough players to get us out of trouble he never really got the 3-5-2 to work. Last seasons recruitment seemed desperate and relying on guys like Mitch Austin who was signed at the last minute to provide pace and width meant the team lacked structure and balance.

McCall's recruitment seems to be much more thought out. In January I think he recognised he wouldn't be able to change to a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 straight away but he did try to plug the gaps so we could play a more effective 3-5-2. However the creativity still relied heavily on Cardle and Zanatta or the combination play of Rudden and Graham. Rudden's injury meant his partnership with Graham was only just gelling when the league stopped. Playing Zanatta was always a gamble as his defensive work was poor. From what I saw from January forwards I really liked Graham and saw enough in the time he and Rudden had on the park to belive they will score goals.

McCall has started recruiting this summer to start getting the team to play more like his Ayr United team. So I would expect us to be playing 4-4-2 regularly. We have in Graham and Rudden a proper front two and in Murray and Cardle wide players who can also do their defensive duties. Hopefully Lyons provides a bit more pace and ensures Cardle and Murray are kept on their toes.

I'm much more optomistic that we will score goals this season. I still think we need a little more options in defence. I don't think its desirable to be going all season with O'Ware as our left sided central defender, we really need a left footed player and if Mayo was available on loan I would take him and drop O'Ware.  Docherty looks like he will provide more defensive cover than Bannigan but I would like to see an out and out defensive midfielder recruited.

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33 minutes ago, Gary Peebles Tackle said:

Doolan has left Morton.:. Asset for any squad in this league.

Without doubt always a legend- but one goal in the champions last season and 2 poor seasons in that division is far from guarantee that he will be a success. I think too many fans are still thinking this is the same Doolan as 2 to 3 years ago

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52 minutes ago, Gary Peebles Tackle said:

Doolan has left Morton.:. Asset for any squad in this league.

It was predicted he would be a great asset for Ayr.....he wasnt

He will be be a great asset for Morton....nope 

His last two seasons for us were let’s say disappointing 

let’s move on 

 

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1 hour ago, Gary Peebles Tackle said:

Doolan has left Morton.:. Asset for any squad in this league.

East Kilbride are welcome to him. Sadly that is now his level.

Am I right in thinking that his only goals since leaving us were against us in the game where we had 2 sent off ?

Edited by Dick Dastardly
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2 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

East Kilbride are welcome to him. Sadly that is now his level.

Am I right in thinking that his only goals since leaving us were against us in the game where we had 2 sent off ?

Scored twice v Berwick in the opening League Cup game last season.

Did he ever make an appearance for Morton?

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