Match Preview/Thread - Morton vs Partick (11th March)

[SassenachTon]

5 minutes ago, TRVMP said:

Crawford off for McGrattahn, Miller off for Gillespie.

edit: Ali, not Robbie. Although Robbie went off a couple of minutes later for treatment after blocking a free-kick with his brain.

10 minutes to go. They should have been on from the get-go IMO.

[vikingTON]

This midfield shape and playing Muirhead alongside Oakley experiment needs binned, completely. The defence has done their job so far, but midfield to front we have been chronic, again. Badly missing Quitongo to give us a threat in behind because if we're not robbing the ball (which needs better pressing), we're just shuffling the ball in front of defences. 

[GiGi]

2 hours ago, GiGi said:

Prediction - we'll end up looking better in the 2nd half when Gilliespie and McGrattan are on.

I would say we were. Not that any form of improvement is saying much against the fucking tripe before they came on. 

Start McGrattan, drop Miller. When they're both fit that should be the easiest decision Imrie makes. 

[K K Kelbie]

[astuartm]

Why was Schwake wasting time with 5mins to go instead of getting the ball up the park?

 

[RossMcC1874]

Never optimistic again Partick but we were so passive it was unreal. 

Game was pretty dross they had a lot more the ball but Schwake didn't have much to do. 

Long ball all day with no effect is getting really tiresome imrie must see that it hasn't worked the past few games and change it. McGrattan did more when he come then Miller did in the whole game no idea why we keep going with Miller he offers very little. Muirhead and Oakley work hard but for me they just don't work as a 2 up top. Felt defence was a lot more solid with O'Connor and felt he had a good game. 

Also wee note to add I decided to stand at the Sinclair Street in the second half and I couldn't believe how negative the atmosphere was. Maybe I'm just not use to and that's usual but the amount of abuse some people were giving was way over the top yes it was a shite game and we offered very little but I think there is a limit. 

[EanieMeany]

Just not good enough, to be blunt. Why we seen that selection for a third time is a mystery and we can kiss any hope of promotion goodbye if we persist with it.

We need to see a lot better in the next couple of games, starting with Dougie’s choices.

[Chesh]

Once again imrie is going with trying to fit everyone into the team in an unfamiliar shape  (although it can be said that playing it 3 times in a row is making it familiar) rather than play us in a formation thats been successful for the most part of the season.

He was arguably doing better with a smaller squad, it would seem that he doesn't have the experience on how to manage a larger squad and being able to keep players on the bench while keeping them happy.

Or perhaps he's just being stubborn.

 

 

 

[Alibi]

Not a great game. I watched it online & managed to get the stream synchronised with the BBC Scotland live commentary which gave a bit of atmosphere as the stream had no sound. Probably a fair result but we were poor today. McGrattan should have been on from the start. We need Quitongo back asap. Schwake had very little to do today but did it well. Tiffoney is an arse & so is Graham. Never seen a game with so many bookings. Need to get back to the winning formula & that means a different starting line up. Too many sloppy passes and unnecessary soft fouls.

I think we will be a better team next season. I think Imrie didn’t expect us to be this good at this stage. Still a work in progress.

[LargsTON]

2 hours ago, astuartm said:

Why was Schwake wasting time with 5mins to go instead of getting the ball up the park?

 

That did my nut in.   Certain players appeared to be happy with a point.

[gmfc23]

Let's start with the positives from today. We kept a clean sheet. 

Everything else was poor from team selection to barley troubling there goal over 90 odd minutes. 

If we are serious about a playoff place then nothing less than 3 points on Friday night will cut it. 

1 point from 6 isn't gd enough at this stage of the season especially against teams who are our direct rivals for a playoff place. 

[EanieMeany]

21 minutes ago, Alibi said:

Tiffoney is an arse & so is Graham. Never seen a game with so many bookings.

Graham is an absolute prick of a guy. Jack Baird had a word with the ref about Graham booting them ball off the wall at the front of the Cowshed in a wee huff the first half, and good on him for doing so.  I’m sure that clown will insist that that was what he meant to do but I don’t think he was caring too much about it, but given the area behind the wall was populated only by wee boys, it was a fuckin stupid thing to do. I’m wary of sounding too precious here and obviously no harm was done, but still. He’s a helmet.

18 minutes ago, LargsTON said:

That did my nut in.   Certain players appeared to be happy with a point.

He seemed to be at it in the last minutes of the first half too. Pathetic, really.

 

[C B]

Why did Dougie take the blame for Tuesday with his team selection and then basically pick the same team ?

With McGrattan and Gillespie on from the start we win that game. 
 

PS. Has there ever been a selective bunch of players who moan as much as this Partick team does? They are brutal and refs need to bring back descent bookings for being shouted at ! Partick would have finished with 5 players !

[irnbru]

[vikingTON]

51 minutes ago, gmfc23 said:

Let's start with the positives from today. We kept a clean sheet. 

Everything else was poor from team selection to barley troubling there goal over 90 odd minutes. 

If we are serious about a playoff place then nothing less than 3 points on Friday night will cut it. 

1 point from 6 isn't gd enough at this stage of the season especially against teams who are our direct rivals for a playoff place. 

I don't think we need three points at Arbroath. Draw our away games (more or less) and get 2 points per game at home again and we'll be there or thereabouts. Obviously a win would be great but I don't think we're in a place to rock up there and demand it - not least given our stinking performances against them. Cove on the final day is the away match I'm looking at for three points instead. 

I do agree that the clean sheet was a positive: Waters recovered well after a tough game midweek, O'Connor and Baird communicated effectively for high balls and dealt with their threat mostly with ease. Grimshaw remains a clear level of quality above. 

[Mr.Blue]

Imrie was very quick to take Kabia off when  he wasn't playing well. Why not do the same with Miller and Muirhead? I also don't think Miller has offered anything more than Kabia in his time here.

[Cat10]

Graham seems to be bulletproof with referees. He is the one telling them what to do, but how bad is Alan Muir?? Lost control of the game in the second half as he was too busy trying to make it all about him. 

[TopCat]

Can we get another update on the McGrattan stats? He made a huge difference for us both on and off the ball when he came on.

The drop off in energy, attacking threat and general team positioning without Jai and McGrattan is massive. Its like they generate another half-yard for everyone else. 

[dunning1874]

The foundation of our successful runs of results this season has been first and foremost how high up the park we press out of possession and the intensity with the ball. We've seen a team selection in the last three games that has basically left us with three of the front four unable to press effectively, and the problems in our performances stem from there.

Formations have fluctuated over the season but if you generally view it as a 4-2-3-1 for simplicity's sake, our best runs have been with the three behind the striker being McGrattan, Robbie Crawford and Quitongo. Quitongo being out just now can't be helped and he's probably the most critical of those three in moving us up the park, both in pressing and as an outball, but that makes it all the more important not to remove the other two.

When you have Miller, Ali Crawford and Muirhead in those three positions instead you've pretty much entirely lost the ability to press from that three. I wouldn't accuse any of laziness but none of them have the same defensive positional sense as our best three there and simply don't press nearly as well because they don't know how. We also see them not offering enough protection to the full backs or helping out the sitting midfield two as much as McGrattan, R. Crawford or Quitongo.

A team could handle one of those drop offs defensively if you think one of those players is going to offer more creatively and want to accommodate them for that reason (although arguing that for any of them is a massive stretch, especially Miller). You can't handle all three at once.

It's exacerbated by not having Gillespie or Grimshaw in midfield. As you don't have as much pressing and teams are waltzing into our half with no pressure, Robbie Crawford is having to push up out of the sitting two to shut the ball down in the absence of central one of that three getting back behind the ball. That then leaves Blues alone as the sitting midfielder, which is a difficult task for any player but one he is especially unsuitable for. You've seen how often in the last three games we've had players not being shut down on the edge of our box and particularly the number of second balls we fail to win in our own half.

Again you maybe get away with Crawford and Blues as a sitting two if you've still got the defensive presence of McGrattan and Quitongo out wide, but even that feels a stretch. If Gillespie's not going to start for either fitness or form, then we need to have Grimshaw in there. The drop off in standard at right back with Pignatiello being a downgrade on Grimshaw is less than the drop off in midfield without either of them.

You get away with Muirhead or Ali Crawford playing centrally if the other three in the front four are Oakley, McGrattan and Quitongo. You can get away with one of those two or Miller out wide if the other three are Oakley, Robbie Crawford and one of Quitongo/McGrattan. You can't have two of them behind Oakley for this system to work, never mind all three.

[dunning1874]

3 hours ago, TopCat said:

Can we get another update on the McGrattan stats? He made a huge difference for us both on and off the ball when he came on.

The drop off in energy, attacking threat and general team positioning without Jai and McGrattan is massive. Its like they generate another half-yard for everyone else. 

McGrattan starting: P14 W9 D4 L1

McGrattan not starting: P14 W2 D5 L7

Extrapolate those point per game totals for a 36 game season and you'd get 79 points with McGrattan, 28 points without him. One total that would have you cantering to the title by about 15 points and another that would have you relegated by about 10 points.

Generating a half-yard is a great way of describing of McGrattan. He opens up that space for the rest of the midfield with his positional sense and workrate as you say, but he also has the same unteachable knack to buy himself some room with one clever touch that the likes of Chris Millar had. Contrast with how often Miller or Ali Crawford ran into blind alleys yesterday because they had no idea how to deal with being in a tight space.