dunning1874

Someone is certainly moving goalposts to suit an argument here. Are you genuinely failing to grasp the extremely simple point that looking at the time period in which a player has lost form is the only pertinent sequence of games to look at when discussing a player's contribution while off form, so we're talking about February as the start point because that's when Muirhead lost form? Or are you simply being so obtuse that you're pretending to because you blundered into this by using factually incorrect statements to support your argument and can't admit you were wrong on those points, which is why you've quietly discarded those arguments once the facts have been pointed out and gone down the road of arguing about what time period can be used to judge recent form? Tough call tbh.

Obviously both were already realistically over a week ago, but that's the playoffs now mathematically out of reach for us and Arbroath officially relegated.

Aye, in a fantasy land squad building scenario you're wanting Livingston's financial situation combined with a relegation clause in Jamie Brandon's contract to lead to him making his way here and Dundee United to allow Grimshaw to go as he's been in and out of the team recently, giving us two players who are huge upgrades at both right back and holding midfield, but I doubt either will come to pass. Millen would be a perfectly good signing and a significant upgrade on French.

This is how the passage of time works yes, what with February and March being more recent than January.

Anyway, keep: Strapp, O'Connor, Blues, Crawford, Garrity, Muirhead, Oakley Release: MacDonald, Waters, Broadfoot, Gillespie, Quitongo, McGrattan, no offer for French Undecided: Power My gut instinct has been to keep one of Power & Gillespie as cover for a new signing and release the other, while Imrie's preference has clearly been Power which would suggest Gillespie is the one who goes, but I'm increasingly leaning towards releasing both of them. Power was great through our good run, but when the team as a whole has been bad (two thirds of the season) he has been exceptionally awful, and there's a serious question about how much of that is down to his general fitness at 36 rather than just getting into a rut when confidence is low or becoming a wee bit leggy at the end of a long season. Maybe getting a proper pre-season and being firmly considered second choice so playing less would fix that issue compared to this year, but if this is just the player he is now and you're only going to get a few good months a season out of him because he doesn't have the legs to do more than that you can't justify keeping him. There's the issue of leaving enough room in the budget to make the serious upgrades required and there's got to be consideration given to if and how much King or O'Boy are going to be considered part of the first team picture in midfield too, or whether they're going out on loan again. If you have Wilson, Blues, Crawford, King, O'Boy and a new first choice holding midfielder all being considered first team players, I'm not sure you can justify carrying Power too.

Because he was still playing well three months ago. He had not lost form in January, hence his form in January is irrelevant to a discussion about his contribution since he lost his form. I reckon it's five: Kelty and Rangers in the League Cup, Airdrie and Kelty at home in October, Ayr on Tuesday, without mentioning all the times we started with him on the left and switched wings during the game.

When you're talking about a player's recent run of form and whether they could do with being dropped for it, picking a cut off of the last two months isn't arbitrary cherry picking: it would be stupid to include January and before because, as I am totally in agreement with, Muirhead was still playing very well in January as he had from the start of the season, and that's why he's earned a contract. Looking at the contribution from the start of February is pertinent to the discussion about how to respond to Muirhead's loss of form because that's the time in which he's gone off form. He has played on the right several times throughout the season. What does speculation mean if not spending outwith our means, which we can't do? The club have already said they're increasing the first team budget for next season and that some of the around £200K profit we're heading for if we finish 8th will also be added to that budget on top of their already planned increase.

Muirhead started on the right on Tuesday with Garrity on the left. A player who plays on the right is directly relevant to the conversation about Muirhead's place in the team when Muirhead is starting games on the right. You were the one who claimed Muirhead is undroppable regardless of recent form because fringe players aren't doing enough. He is obviously getting a contract offer for his contribution over the season, but since the start of February he has 2 goals in 10 starts. In the same time period Garrity has 3 in 3 starts and 7 sub appearances. It is an indisputable fact then that in the last two months Garrity has contributed more goals than Muirhead, while on not providing a significant number of assists or set-piece threat, he literally assisted a goal from a set-piece on Tuesday; something Muirhead has not done since the Dunfermline game at the start of February. No one is saying Muirhead hasn't had a better season overall or that his current dip of form is going to last forever, but the idea that we have no one to displace him from the team just now while he's struggling is demonstrable nonsense.

Garrity's only turning 22 in July, it's McGrattan who's 23 already and will be 24 next January. I broadly agree with your points about Crawford - for all that he's been mince for weeks, replacing him with either a more attacking player to play behind Oakley or a less attacking player in Blues (also hard to do without Wilson) means revising the whole game plan, there's no one else who can do the pressing job he does. While results could say we need a change of approach, finding a system that works with someone else in that role is easier said than done. I disagree on Muirhead though, as some of the fringe players who could come in on the wing without that same tactical overhaul and aren't starting every week have been better than him in the last two months, albeit for some of that time he was at centre forward where we didn't have an alternative without Oakley. Trying McGrattan in behind Oakley because of Crawford's poor form and McGrattan being a better presser than any of the other fringe wingers would come into the category of throwing shit at the wall when McGrattan's performances haven't earned a start and there's nothing to suggest he can press to the same standard as Crawford. Starting Bearne and Garrity out wide with Muirhead on the bench wouldn't, because they've both had far better performances than him in the same position recently which already prove they can contribute more than Muirhead's current form. If tiredness coming to the end of a long season is the most likely explanation for Muirhead's deterioration, it's all the more reason to give him at least a couple of games on the bench.

Bearne as well.

I can't help going back to Imrie's comment after the Queen's Park game that Bearne "only played for 45 minutes." I think that was actually a really harsh criticism and he was still one of our better players in that second half despite not being as good as the first, but take it at face value anyway. I fully appreciate that established first team players have credit in the bank, they've earned leeway for poor form that young players still trying to prove they're good enough for this level haven't, and Imrie setting high standards for those players to keep improving after good performances is a good thing. There comes a point though where those high standards can start looking like a double standard when they just aren't applied to others. So against Queen's Park Bearne is our best player. He follows that up with with the Airdrie game where, like every other attacking player, he does absolutely fuck all. That's him dropped again and he doesn't even get off the bench last night, despite us not using our full complement of subs: one poor performance in a game where literally no Morton player got pass marks and that's him bombed right back to the bottom of the pecking order. Accepting the premise that he was only good for 45 minutes in that Queen's Park game, compare and contrast with established first team regulars. When was the last time Robbie Crawford had a good 45 minutes? Airdrie at home, 24th February? When was the last time Robbie Muirhead had a good 45 minutes? Dunfermline away, 3rd February? Again, those players both have credit in the bank for what they've contributed earlier in the season, and particularly with Muirhead there's the point that even when he's playing badly he can pop up with goals out of nowhere, as he did against Partick and Queen's Park in our last five games. There comes a point though where they just are not delivering, and both keep their places no matter how consistently poor they've been. At least last night Crawford was finally subbed while having another poor game, but Muirhead getting 90 minutes was baffling. Garrity had put in an excellent set-piece delivery for our goal, on a night where the ball was rarely getting into wingers' feet with how poor the distribution from the back four was he was picking it up and driving at their defence at every opportunity, winning more freekicks in dangerous areas and at least earning throw-ins or checking back and retaining possession in situations where he didn't find the space to beat his man. Muirhead on the other hand just wasn't in the game at all. On the one single occasion prior to our first subs being made that he managed to get on the ball in the final third without losing it instantly by dawdling into a tackle, he dribbled to edge of the box and had an opportunity to swing a ball in where we had three runners all looking for it. He decided to hit a shot instead, which he lashed wildly over the bar to the point it was closer to leaving the stadium than hitting the target. That's the sort of abysmal decision making in the final third that Bearne, Garrity and McGrattan have all quite rightly been criticised for, and you generally see them subbed promptly if they do something that selfish when they're in the starting XI. Yet the subs come and Garrity's off while Muirhead keeps his place on the park, and even as Bearne gets splinters in his arse no improvement on Muirhead's performance sees no change. No player should be unsubbable and particularly not one playing that badly. McGrattan got his couple of chances to start in recent weeks against Inverness and Dunfermline and was terrible in both of them so can have no complaints about finding himself back out of the team as a result. Garrity and Bearne however have actually played well more often than not when given starts, but Garrity has had no consecutive starts all season while Queen's Park & Airdrie was the first time Bearne has. Crawford and Muirhead however can turn in McGrattan v Dunfermline level performances every week - Muirhead was even worse than him in that game - and their places are never under threat. Garrity and Bearne have been our best attacking players since the start of March, pick them.

Well, at least Power's dropped.

You can forgive a defender having terrible distribution if they are at least competent defensively. Michael Ledger could hardly cross the halfway line but was consistently solid defensively, while on the flipside someone like Carlo Pignatiello was capable of delivering a decent cross in the final third but routinely caught out of position or otherwise not good enough at the back. French is the worst of both worlds: he combines the inability to do anything with the ball at his feet of a natural centre back stuck at right back like Ledger - and that comparison is pretty harsh on Ledger - with the positional cluelessness and general absence of any kind of awareness of Pignatiello. He's a poor man's Michael Doyle in the opposition half and a poor man's Reghan Tumilty in ours. The only thing stopping him being the worst full back we've had so far this decade is a youth product who'd been kept around too long and now can't get a game in League Two in Hynes.

I'd left at 3-0 down but disgusted to hear someone ended up spewing racial abuse. Hopefully enough people were aware and can identify to get him banned.

The build up to the corner for the third goal was laughable. Broadfoot gives away a freekick with no danger near the halfway line because our experienced ex-international who's played in European finals and can impart his wisdom to the rest of the team has absolutely lost his head and smashes through the back of Todorov who has roasted him all day, when the ball was going to harmlessly go over both their heads into our possession. The sort of stupidity you'd be chastising an 18 year old for and he's doing it at 39 as the supposed consummate professional setting an example. Then they take the freekick playing it down the wing, where Tyler French is asleep to the point that even after the ball is at the feet of the runner he's apparently marking, he is still standing still staring at him. We get away with that with the ball fired across missing everyone, then coming to the back post where someone - unsure if it was Waters or Baird - who has time and space to clear up the park: he slices it back over his own net for a corner. It was just one 45 second period in an abysmal performance where no Morton player got pass marks, but fucking hell that rolling incompetence summed it up. That should call time on Kirk Broadfoot's Morton career, and Alan Power's is on a shoogly peg. O'Connor and Gillespie have to be starting on Tuesday.