dunning1874

Yeah, it's easy to get sucked into the 16 game unbeaten run and think we were actually brilliant for half a season, but in reality breaking it down to the league we were brilliant for a third of it and appalling for two thirds. You don't deserve the playoffs if you're that bad for that long, and that we were in title winning form for a third of the season and have still ended up miles off the playoffs shows how dependent we've been on a few individuals to raise the level of the players around them in that run. There are some players who've played less in the two bad runs and were nearly ever present when we were good, along with others whose performances haven't really dipped in the bad runs compared to the great December-February run, but ultimately what having a dreadful two thirds of the season means is that there are several players who've had far more bad games than good ones over the season. Last season we had more than XI players who had far more good games than bad, this time that hasn't been the case for a comfortable majority of the squad and that's why we've regressed overall. The out of contract cohort of that underperforming group should be getting moved on if we want to improve next season.

Not averse to the idea of having Bird as cover for Oakley, only 22 and 6 goals in 31 appearances (22 starts) for the worst team in the league by a mile isn't a bad return at all. What makes me wonder if it's worthwhile is that we're already bringing in Davies. I know Davies can play out wide or in behind a striker too, but we don't want to end up stockpiling attacking players and being short in other areas due to adding too many players who aren't going to improve the starting XI.

Job done, ultimately. Shouldn't have made such hard work of that after the start to the second half where you thought we could go on to add more, but aside from a couple of individuals who were poor throughout, the second half performance was much better than the first. Gillespie had his best performance in a long time, Muirhead went through quiet spells but when he was involved was much better than he's been in recent weeks, Quitongo had an end product for a change, Crawford got his first goal since October, Waters was solid. Have to consider that we were up against the worst team in the division and had we been playing anyone else we probably wouldn't have made it to half-time level, which we had Mullen to thank for, so we'll still need to improve considerably to take anything from Raith, but at least the risk of collapsing into 9th is now gone.

Imrie confirmed in his preview that Strapp is done for the season and Wilson likely is too, but Oakley should be back tomorrow.

Just get survival wrapped up with a win and we can look beyond this season.

Wilson POTY ahead of Mullen & Strapp who are a clear top three for me with Oakley next in line (if you don't count low number of appearances against Strapp), Oakley at Tannadice goal of the season narrowly ahead of Muirhead's second v Ayr. I suppose you can split worst signing into two categories, between who's been our worst player (the Ali Crawford award) and objectively bad recruitment (the Ally Roy award). French has been our worst player in reality but on paper the signing did make sense and you can question how much blame Imrie gets for it not working out, although he can certainly be blamed for trying him at holding midfield and left back rather than dropping him. Boyd however was a signing that made no sense on paper and made even less when you saw him play. There was nothing in his career to suggest he could be good enough for the Championship, and so it proved.

It's the fixed starting point because it's when Muirhead lost form and the whole discussion is about his contribution from the point he lost his form. Including his unquestionable positive contribution before that date would therefore be irrelevant, because no one is questioning that he was very good earlier in the season. Moving the start date forward would make no sense because it is still when his ongoing spell of poor form started. You know this. I would avoid criticising someone for causing a tedious back and forth through a stubborn refusal to admit they're wrong with the incorrect use of statistics if the various claims I'd made in a thread included: 21 year old Michael Garrity is about to turn 24, a fact you didn't address when your error was pointed out Muirhead never plays on the right when he'd played on the right three days prior to you making that claim, a fact you responded to by moving the goalposts to claim Muirhead only starting on the right once all season is irrelvant, an argument you then dropped and failed to address when the fact of his other starts on the right was pointed out at your request None of the fringe players have shown they can make as many contributions to goals as Muirhead, then when it was demonstrated that one of the fringe players competing for a place had in fact been involved in as many goals since Muirhead's form deteriorated despite less time on the park, you pivoted to: Claiming Muirhead's 10 starts in that time period prior to Friday's game was the same thing as Garrity's 3 starts and 7 sub appearances when Muirhead had more than double the amount of time on the park, and finally now with every actual footballing argument expended you're reduced to semantics about what constitutes recent form. People get things wrong all the time, which certainly includes me being too harsh on Muirhead recently enough. You can quietly accept that you were objectively factually incorrect on any or all of these points and stop digging at any time.

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.