Match Preview/Thread - Dunfermline vs Morton (18th March) - General Morton Chatter - TheMortonForum.com Jump to content
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Match Preview/Thread - Dunfermline vs Morton (18th March)


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Draw would be fine but a win would see us safe from the bottom two I reckon and perhaps may see us make a late charge for 4th - but that's probably too much to ask. 

Oliver in for Jacobs and I'd be tempted to fit Muirhead in somehow but not sure where. 

Not decided yet if I'm going. Fiver entry is appealing.

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Given that Dunfermline seem to play out from the back most of the time, I'd maybe be tempted to have Ugwu, Reilly and Muirhead on up front to put serious pressure on them. Maybe some variation of 433 with Wilson, Lyon & 1 of Oliver/Blues in the middle.  Don't want to throw caution to the wind entirely but we should be going out to give them a right doing again.  In previous games they don't seem to have been able to make anything of their goal kicks, usually either ending up hoofing the ball up the park or getting into bother defensively through getting caught in possession.

Might also be an opportunity for Mcgrattan to show what he can do.  Nice to have decent options now.

"Any nation given the opportunity to regain its national sovereignty and which then rejects it is so far beneath contempt that it is hard to put words to it."

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Pars must be thinking they're drinking in the last chance saloon with games now running out and little evidence of the mythic miracle of Yogi. They surely can't be as bad as our last outing against them but they must be there for the taking if we get stuck in from the start.

Midfield is still a big puzzle for me and I'm unsure if Muirhead will be more effective starting or coming on to give us a 2nd half boost. Whatever, Dougie has managed to use the bench to good effect so far so hopefully we can put some more distance between us and start thinking about next season.

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It's a 6 pointer for them. Don't think they will be anywhere near as bad as they were last time we put them to the sword. Think Muirhead deserves a start and as one of the other posters said maybe 3 up top wouldn't be the worst idea. 

Wouldn't be the worst if we got a point tbh. Late Muirhead winner again would be lovely thanks. 

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This is a wee bit of a half-formed theory that only occurred to me in the late stages of the Partick game, and was mostly noticeable due to the area I was watching it from, so I'm not sure it'll stand up to further evaluation in other games, but...

For starters, it's clear that we don't push out quickly when opposition attacks break down or when corners are cleared etc, and quite often our defending suddenly becomes quite last ditch when it probably doesn't need to be; at the same time, the back-three has been (mostly) quite good recently and Lithgow in particular has been much better than he was before, in large part due to being a lot more disciplined and not being dragged wide or moved about like he always so easily was.

Which gets to my point, which is that Lithgow's recent form and the conditions that have helped him achieve it presents a little bit of a conundrum: it looks like the other two centre-halves are now sticking very close to him and are not pushing up to try to win balls higher up the pitch which is allowing Lithgow to dominate his own area and deal comfortably with anything near him without being left isolated and having to try to push up or out wide and getting (sometimes comically) easily turned like he generally does in those situations. On one hand, this is undoubtedly making the defence itself a lot more secure and resilient than it was, but on the other hand it's having the knock-on effect of balls going uncontested in the area in front of the defence resulting in things becoming a bit more last-ditch than necessary and also stops us pushing right out after defending set-pieces etc and also has an impact on how we attack and bring the ball out. Lithgow's fondness for booting it as far as he can in whatever way he's facing is another thing altogether...

Again, this only occurred to me late in the game on Saturday and was maybe just how the play was going and doesn't extend beyond that, but on reflection it seems to ring true in general and it isn't a bad thing in itself, even if it isn't what you'd want in an ideal world. It's a solution to the imbalances in the squad at our disposable and it's another feather in Imrie's cap that he's been able to identify and implement it, and also a credit to Lithgow for his own improvement. Perhaps you could say the other two are sticking close to him for his organisational skills which is probably true to some extent too.

All that said, seeing as Dunfermline are shite and we should be looking to go and dominate the game as much as possible, I'd be interested to see a switch to a back 4 of Brandon, Ledger, McEntee and Strapp, with Wilson, Lyon and McGrattan in midfield which would have plenty of energy to both protect the defence and get forward and also dominate possession.  A back 4 would also more easily accommodate Wilson and Lyon together as they both prefer to be starting deeper even if they do different things, whereas the 3 makes that a bit more difficult to do.

The front line is a bit more a problem with the lack of any real width, but Oliver could probably do a shift on the left of Reilly, with Muirhead nominally on the right but coming inside as he's prone to do anyway and allowing Brandon the space outside him which he's more than got the stamina and pace to occupy by himself.

Anyway, chances are we'll go with the same as Saturday with somebody coming in for Jacobs and for definite and perhaps Muirhead for Ugwu and that should be able to see of these yokels with the ease which we have become accustomed to.

AWMSC

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Appreciate the above post, particuarly the bit were you give Lithgow a bit of praise for his recent perfomances. As I read it, I'm thinking you may be having a bit of a change of heart about the guy and then you drop him for tonight by the end of your post....so nothing changed.

On the defence, I think Dougie may be of the mind in all games we play, keep it tight at the back and we won't loose this game, hence why we invite pressure on the defence as a result of not pushing out and up quickly. The consequence of this tactic is the longer the game goes on the less disciplined our opponents have been, which gives us the opportunities to win these games. As we know, we have won games recently with late goals, which may support the point.

Not a criticism of the above post, but I don't think we can go with the mind to be more open going forward and if they score we will score 1 more than they do.

 

 

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For a start, I'm not 100% wedded to that theory even though I think it seems about right, so I'm not going to go all in on defending it, but on the basis it's accurate..

It's not at all a criticism of Lithgow as such , but the fact that he's extremely immobile is unavoidable and naturally affects the way we play. When we play Kilmarnock in a few weeks, for example, I'd 100% go for playing with the 3 with Lithgow at the centre of it in the way it has being deployed at the moment as we're going to come under a lot of pressure and he'd help us withstand it; if we want to push up the pitch and play more aggressively like we could maybe do tonight, Lithgow's presence is going to be a bit of a hindrance a due to his lack of mobility which has been shown time and again. It's a tricky balance and I'm not saying we should bin the back 3, merely that there's a change that could allow us to play a different way. Every team has a few different options of how to approach games, we should too.

The thing about how we've played recently is that it isn't producing too many goals at all, nor a huge amount of clear chances from regular play (not that crosses aren't regular play, I suppose, so that's probably not the best word - I don't want to sound like John McGlynn) and the manner in which our chances come isn't always going to pay dividends. We haven't won by more than one goal since mid-January, and also failed to score in 3 of our last 5 games: if we're to progress, we undoubtedly need to add more creativity and dimensions to our play. If you're not scoring, you're leaving yourself open to dropping points because of a single mistake.

It also isn't being gung-ho attacking to replace a defender with another body further up the park, especially against a team that's bottom of the league with the fewest number of goals scored and who have been without a win for a long time: if anything it would give us more control of the game rather than inviting them on by sitting deep as they simply aren't good enough to play through us nor to resist heavy pressure. If you have the ball and you have it far away from your own goal, the other team can't score.

If we go out with the intention of battering Dunfermline, we'll do so, and we shouldn't be scared of adding more attacking options to allow us to do it. 

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As effective as Wilson might be at times, I'm never dropping Lyon to accommodate him unless Lyon's not fit.

 

Peter Weatherson is the greatest player since Ritchie, and should be assigned 'chairman for life' 


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18 minutes ago, GiGi said:

As effective as Wilson might be at times, I'm never dropping Lyon to accommodate him unless Lyon's not fit.

He's not dropped to accommodate Wilson, he should be playing beside him. He's dropped for one of Blues/Oliver.

In the three games we've started with a midfield three of Wilson, Blues and Oliver we've only scored once. Hoping the Oliver v Dunfermline curse is enough to overcome that because dropping Lyon doesn't make much sense.

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Oh Lord, Brian Wake

 

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You could sail a P&O fery through the gap between Wilson and Blues...need to keep our shape much better rather than running around chasing the ball like 10 year olds and picking up zero second ball

Dougie clearly not happy and a rocket incoming I suspect

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We've been gash. Lucky a couple of times that Dunfermline are as well. 

Lyon and Muirhead on at half time, Oliver and Ugwu are not applying themselves.

 

 

Peter Weatherson is the greatest player since Ritchie, and should be assigned 'chairman for life' 


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3 minutes ago, Chesh said:

What do people see in Wilson btw?

 

Since he has started games our overall play has been slower and we've looked so lackadaisical.

 

I see a tremendous daisy cutter finish. 

 

Peter Weatherson is the greatest player since Ritchie, and should be assigned 'chairman for life' 


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