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St Mirren game


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16 minutes ago, BishopLenBrennan said:

Assuming you've mixed Strapp and Ledger up, the weakness I see with that shape/system is our left hand side. McLean has improved this season, but I think that has been down to getting more protection in the back five rather than in a back four. In that system you'd expect the full backs to provide most of the attacking width in our build up play at least, meaning Strapp has to commit further forward. It runs the risk of exposing McLean quite badly. It's a shape that could definitely be of use to this squad though.

Agreed - McLean has been good at the middle of three CBs with more mobile players either side. It frees Strapp up to be more offensive too. I think the main thing going forward is to establish the strongest pairing in the central midfield and the best front three.

3-4-2-1 or 5-4-1 suits the squad quite well

-----------------------------McAdams

-----------Fjortoft -------McLean -------McGinty

Ledger ----------------------------------------------------Strapp

------------------Jacobs ----------Colville/Lyon

--------McPake ---------------------------Nesbitt/Oliver

------------------------------MacIver

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55 minutes ago, Pedrodelawasp said:

Agreed - McLean has been good at the middle of three CBs with more mobile players either side. It frees Strapp up to be more offensive too. I think the main thing going forward is to establish the strongest pairing in the central midfield and the best front three.

3-4-2-1 or 5-4-1 suits the squad quite well

-----------------------------McAdams

-----------Fjortoft -------McLean -------McGinty

Ledger ----------------------------------------------------Strapp

------------------Jacobs ----------Colville/Lyon

--------McPake ---------------------------Nesbitt/Oliver

------------------------------MacIver

That looks about right. Still have McGuffie, Salkeld and Wallace as options out wide and Orsi if the battering ram approach is needed up top.

 

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


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Yeah, the challenge we have is finding the trade off between a solid enough defence and a balanced midfield. At least we should now see Ledger get a run of games on the right whatever system it is and hopefully solve that problem.

If you go with the back four and 4-3-3 of last season then you can have a properly balanced midfield with Jacobs sitting and Colville & Lyon having more freedom to attack, then you're not having to leave any area exposed defensively to accommodate three attackers - surely McPake, Nesbitt and MacIver are the obvious first choices now. I suspect Hopkin would probably prefer two sitting midfielders in that setup, so Jacobs & McAlister with just one of Colville/Lyon but either way that's a balanced midfield and attack (discounting Blues and Omar as central midfield options for obvious reasons).

The problem comes in defence with Fjortoft probably having to do the job of two centre backs with either McGinty or McLean beside him being too error-prone and less likely to get away with it than they are in a back three. Maybe having a more coherent shape in midfield will compensate for that defensively though.

If you do persist with the back three/five to be more defensively solid, then we either end up short in the middle of the park through trying to accommodate so many attacking options with a 3-4-3, or can only pick one of McPake/Nesbitt off a centre forward in a 3-5-2 and you end up with little attacking width when your wing backs are really full backs.

While the 3-4-3 gets more attackers on, so far it's left us with no attacking Plan B beyond the diagonal balls from centre backs, and if that's not working then you've essentially got those three attackers completely isolated from the game. If you're going to set up like that then you need someone in the middle of the park who actually has a bit of composure in possession to either pick a pass to bring the attackers into the game or carry the ball up the park themselves and stop us being penned within 30 yards of our own goal all the time - two of Jacobs, McAlister and Blues won't work. It has to be Colville or Lyon beside Jacobs for that reason. With the bonus of also adding more composure in possession if needed but more importantly because he's just a better defender, I'd put McAlister on the left of the back three instead of McGinty as well.

If it's a more conventional 3-5-2 with three in the middle of the park then Jacobs, Colville and Lyon is the only option for the midfield - you need two creative central midfielders there and they're the only two we've got. Again, have McAlister on the left of back three. Finding a way to give enough game time to the dozen attackers needing a place when there are only two slots in the team however is a challenge.

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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Fjortoft is a proper find. Wonder if he's just lacked game time to establish himself anywhere because he's been our best player by miles.

 

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


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I would have Jacobs, Lyon and Colville in our midfield every time. Strapp and Ledger as wingbacks/fullbacks depending on whether you want three centrebacks (Fjortoft plus one/two others, one of whom might be Mcallister).  To me, the best we've played this season (not a terribly high bar tbh) is when we were adopting a high press, but some of our players ran out of steam early so might not be achievable yet.  In essence, Hopkin needs to pick our best players, and last night illustrated perfectly that he didn't in the first half, and even though we were far better than the midden in the second half, we didn't have Lyon or Colville in there, so further room for improvement imho.  Why on earth did Muirhead get recalled?  I don't think he offers much and his free kicks are pretty dreadful - I suspect Colville would be a lot more accurate.

"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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6 hours ago, Pedrodelawasp said:

Agreed - McLean has been good at the middle of three CBs with more mobile players either side.

Has he though? 

I mean he's looked slightly better than last season, but that isn't really saying much is it?

Fjortoft has done well and I wouldn't mind seeing Jim at CB again, as he did an ok job there last season.

It would also allow us to have Jacobs and either Colville or Lyon in the CM positions.

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Based on what I've seen, McLean is a solid Championship performer in a back three, which I wouldn't have anticipated last season. I still wouldn't want him in a back four due to a lack of mobility. But right now, given our resources, I'm not going to say he's a liability.

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