Match Preview/Thread - Dundee vs Morton (15th April)

[irnbru]

2 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

I’m certainly not comparing them. I quite like Schwake but my point was if you don’t fully trust your keeper to command his area then it adversely affects your game. I take it if you played football at any level then it wasn’t in defence?

Schwake isn't a bad keeper and his inexperience/odd mistake isn't enough to cause a defender to have a second thought. 

[GiGi]

Thought Schwake was very good on Tuesday in awful conditions for a keeper.

[vikingTON]

8 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

I’m certainly not comparing them. I quite like Schwake but my point was if you don’t fully trust your keeper to command his area then it adversely affects your game. I take it if you played football at any level then it wasn’t in defence?

Trying to get your wife to give hauners for your dung posts was somehow less tragic than this. 

[DreamOakTree]

20 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

Trying to get your wife to give hauners for your dung posts was somehow less tragic than this. 

Not tragic, just blatantly obvious!

[DreamOakTree]

20 hours ago, Madton said:

Are you seriously suggesting the board, players and manager have had zero aspirations of a top 4 finish after being in and around them for much of the season and no one within Cappielow will be disappointed if we fail to get there as the target was survival?

 

When we reached 40 points Dougie told the players that was target reached and they were just to enjoy the rest of the season. Two days later he signed Aliesta and tried to resurrect his career using the club’s money. 

[SassenachTon]

1 hour ago, DreamOakTree said:

When we reached 40 points Dougie told the players that was target reached and they were just to enjoy the rest of the season. Two days later he signed Aliesta and tried to resurrect his career using the club’s money. 

Are you that stalky nutter who broke into Cappielow and installed covert CCTV and stealth recording equipment in the dressing room aye?

[EanieMeany]

31 minutes ago, SassenachTon said:

Are you that stalky nutter who broke into Cappielow and installed covert CCTV and stealth recording equipment in the dressing room aye?

To be fair, a number of players have made those comments in the papers. It’s a matter of record and I’d suggest it’s been evident the pitch at times too.

[TRVMP]

2 minutes ago, EanieMeany said:

To be fair, a number of players have made those comments in the papers. It’s a matter of record and I’d suggest it’s been evident the pitch at times too.

It's the least charitable interpretation of his remarks possible, and the part about "resurrecting his career" is just nonsense.

[EanieMeany]

20 minutes ago, TRVMP said:

It's the least charitable interpretation of his remarks possible, and the part about "resurrecting his career" is just nonsense.

Aye, that part is, for sure, but a number of players have stated that the targets have been met and that the job has been done, the pressure is off etc, and the thing about the players just enjoying themselves.

If anybody’s bothered enough to dig through old articles, the comments are there. Each to their own regarding interpretation, but it’s not a fabrication to reference them.

[Mr.Blue]

3 hours ago, DreamOakTree said:

I’m certainly not comparing them. I quite like Schwake but my point was if you don’t fully trust your keeper to command his area then it adversely affects your game. I take it if you played football at any level then it wasn’t in defence?

If you weren't comparing the two then please do tell what you were attempting to do.

As for playing football 'at any level' I'll treat that with the contempt it deserves. For starters your claiming that having a dodgy goalkeeper will only have an adverse effect on defenders......

[so72]

4 hours ago, irnbru said:

Schwake isn't a bad keeper and his inexperience/odd mistake isn't enough to cause a defender to have a second thought. 

I think Schwake's unwillingness to come off his line would put a bit of uncertainty in defender's heads. He is a good keeper for his age but all season he has let balls be floated into the box and to come into his 6 yard box. Thats the weakness in his game that he needs to work on, plenty of time to do so.

[Alibi]

8 hours ago, so72 said:

I think Schwake's unwillingness to come off his line would put a bit of uncertainty in defender's heads. He is a good keeper for his age but all season he has let balls be floated into the box and to come into his 6 yard box. Thats the weakness in his game that he needs to work on, plenty of time to do so.

Not Schwake’s fault if a cross comes into the 6 yard area. That would be down to our defenders or midfielders not closing down the wide players. Personally I reckon Schwake, recently at least, has been collecting high balls fairly well under pressure. Whether he should be coming further out to collect crosses is perhaps arguable, but in games I’ve seen his handling of high balls has not been the problem, I’m more concerned with him parrying shots into dangerous areas rather than getting the ball away from the danger area. He’s young and will presumably learn from his mistakes.

[vikingTON]

8 hours ago, so72 said:

I think Schwake's unwillingness to come off his line would put a bit of uncertainty in defender's heads. He is a good keeper for his age but all season he has let balls be floated into the box and to come into his 6 yard box. Thats the weakness in his game that he needs to work on, plenty of time to do so.

If the keeper isn't coming off his line then the defenders should be absolutely certain that their job is to track runners and head the fucking thing clear from danger. I don't think that your description of Schwake is accurate (there have been plenty of times when he has collected high balls no bother, but it's notable that the outfield defenders seem to get a free pass on here all the time. 

In the current back line I'd be looking for Baird to step up and provide that organisation given his greater experience - not doing that is one reason why he's never pushed on to a higher level than this. 

[so72]

6 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

If the keeper isn't coming off his line then the defenders should be absolutely certain that their job is to track runners and head the fucking thing clear from danger. I don't think that your description of Schwake is accurate (there have been plenty of times when he has collected high balls no bother, but it's notable that the outfield defenders seem to get a free pass on here all the time. 

In the current back line I'd be looking for Baird to step up and provide that organisation given his greater experience - not doing that is one reason why he's never pushed on to a higher level than this. 

Oh I'm not meaning to give the defenders a pass, it is their responsibility first and foremost. Barely any keeper in our division commands their area, any Championship defender should be emptying absolutely everything. Too often we don't win first balls or clear properly and empty our box.

[dunning1874]

It's a bit hard to tell who Imrie's getting at with those comments to the Tele, but I suppose we'll maybe find out when we see who's dropped next week.

There's the obvious point of King giving away freekicks and Imrie's post-match interview with the club was fair and constructive in the criticism of King for that, but it wouldn't make any sense if he's the target of the comments to the Tele. Imrie explicitly says "the same people keep costing us" when we have been consistently conceding poor set-piece goals for months, the vast majority of them happening without King being on the park.

That leaves you looking at the defence in general. Are fullbacks (and wingers) not doing enough in either stopping crosses coming in from open play or showing players outside, rather than allowing time to cross or diving in and giving away freekicks? We've certainly seen an increase in goals conceded with Waters in place of Strapp although I can't say I've noticed either of those being particular problems in Waters' game. Are fullbacks not covering the back post well enough, when you look at Grimshaw for the first goal?

While defending set-pieces is a reflection on the whole team rather than centre backs alone, I've got the impression we're poorer at it with O'Connor in the team instead of Ambrose. Ambrose hasn't been without his own set-piece errors (3-1 at home to Ayr) but O'Connor being a half yard behind his man has seemed to be a persistent issue. He's generally very good in open play, rarely loses out in one on one contests with a forward and pretty much never gets done or caught out of position - things which Ambrose does at least once a game - but if we're losing more goals from set-pieces there's a conversation worth having about that trade off.

The build up to the freekick for the second was a right mess, we've a couple of chances to get that leathered out for a throw-in or up to the halfway line before King stupidly dives in, then Blues makes a complete mess of marking his man. No idea what Oakley is even trying to do for the third, if he just hooks that clear we're fine.

[SpoonTon]

I think Schwake has been more assured in recent weeks, and did a very good job in difficult conditions last week, but the high ball in for the third goal is going to fall and bounce in the six yard box before Oakley makes a meal of it. That's absolutely the goalkeeper's ball to claim. The problem is that he doesn't anticipate/read the cross and doesn't react to it, and that is clearly a weaker point in his game. I'm not singling him out for that goal, though, and it's not out of place at all for goalkeepers at this level. It happened to be something that Jack Hamilton was pretty good at last season, despite some errors, and it immediately takes some pressure off if a goalkeeper is going to be able to take more of those than Schwake does. Giving away free-kicks doesn't help and Oakley not dealing with it also gives O'Connor two players to cope with (and one of them scores). I'm not sure I quite get Imrie's criticisms because I can see plenty of blame spread among plenty of players in recent matches. 

The Dundee 'keeper made a meal of a few things as well. Goalkeeping at this level can be pretty ropey.

[DreamOakTree]

The common denominator for Imrie blaming players, Inexperienced or otherwise for snatching draws or defeats from the jaws of victory, is that by that assertion the only person without blame is Imrie himself. To throw away a 2 goal lead could cause slight question marks against his growing reputation and career potential, if he was to take full responsibility for the collapse. In fact he appears to contend that zero percent of the blame lies with him.

In the case of Schwake causing our defenders to be nervous, of course they should take more responsibility, however the lack of organisation amongst some Individually decent defenders could also come down to how well they’re being coached to defend their area as a unit. That also seems to be lacking based on the evidence that we see every week.

[irnbru]

14 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

The common denominator for Imrie blaming players, Inexperienced or otherwise for snatching draws or defeats from the jaws of victory, is that by that assertion the only person without blame is Imrie himself. To throw away a 2 goal lead could cause slight question marks against his growing reputation and career potential, if he was to take full responsibility for the collapse. In fact he appears to contend that zero percent of the blame lies with him.

In the case of Schwake causing our defenders to be nervous, of course they should take more responsibility, however the lack of organisation amongst some Individually decent defenders could also come down to how well they’re being coached to defend their area as a unit. That also seems to be lacking based on the evidence that we see every week.

Imrie has said he'll take his share of the blame and has made the wrong choices at times. 

I think his problem is he says things in the heat of the moment so these things will happen. Would rather an honest manager who gets emotional about things than the likes of Gus MacPherson. 

[DreamOakTree]

4 minutes ago, irnbru said:

Imrie has said he'll take his share of the blame and has made the wrong choices at times. 

I think his problem is he says things in the heat of the moment so these things will happen. Would rather an honest manager who gets emotional about things than the likes of Gus MacPherson. 

I haven’t seen much of Dougie taking any blame but I’ll take your word for it. I agree with your second point though. It’s just the old adage that if you don’t admit there’s a problem then how can you start to fix it? If referees, opponents tactics or your own players’ failings are the cause of all your ills then who’s going to sort it out if not the manager with a change in attitude? Thankfully for us that seems to be the reason other clubs are steering clear of Dougie just now.

[Cappiecat 1.2]

1 hour ago, DreamOakTree said:

Thankfully for us that seems to be the reason other clubs are steering clear of Dougie just now.

You're an absolute fantasist.