OrlandoDon

We have to punt him now. Read that two pre contracts won’t sign since we have manager uncertainty. Got to move on asap.

Haven’t posted since the cup loss. Goodwin isn’t the man to take us forward, said that at his hiring. Moving forward we have to pick the best TEAM. Blooding myslovic against Darvel was stupidity at its finest, we have to take each game as a cup final and grind out wins to get some confidence. lewis mccrorie-Stewart-scales coulson/McKenzie ramadani-shinnie kennedy-clarkson-vinny/hayes miovski stick with this 4-2-3-1 formation and lineup as much as possible, enough grit and skill to win games. Stop the 3 at the back fannying around as it ends up 5 at the back and long ball since we don’t get numbers forward. Then we really are shit. Think the players are better suited to this, especially with adding shinnie. we cannot play duk and miovski, doesn’t work, and duk can’t play the 9. He’s actually a team killer if you ask me, scores goals but appears dumb as rocks and can’t pass. Super sub material. 1-2 to us, miovski and shinnie

Falkirk at home for the winner, can’t complain there!

Funny, I see us winning 5-0. miovski 2, Stewart, clarkson and shinnie at the right end this time.

I’d hope both. Wright is 6ft and can also play right back, looks like idzes is a ball winning central defender who has played in midfield too. Both right footed.

Pretty quiet here, any gossip regarding Connor Barron? With clarkson apparently here til summer and the two new central midfield signings, would you swap Barron for scales?

Anyone able to explain what our tactics are/style of play? Seems to be smack in long and hope most of the time. Limited build up through midfield and the usual hole in midfield in front of deeper central players and miovski up top. Though clarkson played in the position of a 10 for much of the game but we rarely played him to feet to create. That’s a waste of talent and a player out there if you ask me. I watched the first half and after 10 minutes was close to switching off. Improved and we created chances. Second half on I thought we were pretty shit and switched off after their second goal. Don’t think the loss of Stewart made a difference, from 45 mins onwards we sat too deep. Yes rangers pushed us back but we needed to push up and forward when we got the ball. Most of the time we just belted it long and lost it. disappointed to lose but didn’t expect to win, and another week where I see little to suggest goodwin has a positive impact on our team and positive style of play.

What a stupid and unnecessary red. Bring Ramirez on up top to give us a little energy. Scores the winner??

Very true. Although for what it’s worth, Wigan paid 30k to sign shinnie from derby. Perhaps they may accept a ‘reasonable’ offer for him to go home to his family?

Shinnie said he’ll decide in the summer but it sounds like his family moved back to Inverness and he’s been down south alone. That may work in our favor for him staying past the summer?

Any more details on shinnie’s performance?

I’m not sure how to take your first comment re credit to goodwin. My initial response to the lineup was wtf, back to tumbola tactics of past manager(s). And based on the game it didn’t do much for us. For me miovski and Ramirez play the same position, it didn’t work playing both together. Give Ramirez a run to play his natural role. I think we got it right in midfield with clarkson and ramadani. Said a bunch Barron and clarkson don’t compliment each other, better balance today. I thought duk did well when he played like a #10 and with his ability I’m ok with him having the freedom to roam. At the same time, his intelligence is limited and he certainly overdribbles, I’m sure he’s frustrating to play with. subbing was the usual mind blowing. Thought the subs made us worse, hard to play with duk up top, he’s not a center forward. Saying that, I didn’t see a lot of the game, only going by the limited parts I saw. What has happened to hayes, have his legs gone? Started the season well but is now a shadow of the player he was even early season. It’s January and no clue who our best wide players are, they all are average at best. I do not rate kennedy at all, and while he’s got a couple of goals of late I just think he’s so average and the fact he’s one of our better players at present sums up our lack of squad talent. I hope we do not throw out random tactics now to find something that works. While I recognize a manager finds a formation that suits the talent he has, I don’t see goodwin having figured this out and it’s January. Pick a 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2 and stick to it. Hard to find form when we change the tactics and personnel regularly.

I made a comment the other day and I’ll ask again, what is our recruitment policy? We restructured recruitment but what exactly are the roles? Does Gunn identify and sign players, and the manager is ultimately the coach who coaches the team? How much say does the manager have in signings? Are the poor signings goodwin’s fault? I’ll say it again, it did sound like we paid good money for morris and Richardson! Wtf. You say 50% return on recruitment, we signed 11 - roos, Stewart, duk, scales, clarkson, coulson, ramadani, miovski, Roberts, morris, and Richardson, and out of those I think so far scales, miovski, ramadani, clarkson, and duk appear squad upgrades. I’ll also assume we’ll not keep scales or clarkson so that leaves 3 players that will be here next year. But I also wonder if we get decent money offers for duk and or miovski. A lot of pressure on recruitment for January and the summer. I like cormack and I can’t see him canning goodwin given his 2-3 window comments recently, plus it doesn’t look good for cormack if he were to can a second manager in a row in less than a season. The manager was very disappointed in our fight today, we were outworked all game by killie. i seem to recall squad leadership grit and determination were repeatedly highlighted and praised early season. Where has that gone? Something is clearly wrong and goodwin’s interview tone and concern was a first tonight.

Interesting post match interview from goodwin. Does he have the support of the players for them to respond? 3 losses in a row and then produce the worst performance of the season that lacked effort. Suggests all is not well.

Hahaha! That’s a word omission that slightly changes the sentence. Correct, insert ‘not.’

Don’t see him sacked any time soon. Cormack himself said it will take 2-3 windows. Sadly I think goodwin will be given time which isn’t really unfair, even though all signs show he’s good enough for the job.

Shambles. What did we do during the World Cup break, when we had an entire squad to work with? We’ve come back worse and now we’re seeing what goodwin is made of. Not much by the looks of things.

My issue, as always, is midfield. Win the midfield battle and dominate there, and you attack. We have no midfield, Barron and Duncan are young and inexperienced, how do we expect them to be successful? Barron is young and showing his age, low in confidence and virtually non existent. Getting tired of duk and his u12 mentality of get the ball and dribble. So predictable. we are awful.

You are correct re those 3, McInnes was 2013 and not 2014. But my argument is still valid, he inherited a much stronger squad than Goodwin. And yes, winning on penalties is winning a trophy. But penalties still has an element of luck, that's fact too. But yes, he won one trophy, and of course I'd take winning the semi on penalties. My point is that in the time he was here that's all he won, and while the league was piss we were a steady second, fact too. I think McInnes underachieved with a good squad for 3-4 years at least. Then we got worse and the rest got better, we were no longer second, and eventually McInnes got punted. I just don't see DM as a great manager, he had circumstances in his favor, Goodwin definitely has not. The league is better, we cannot get second. Apart from that I'd agree, the rest of the teams, like us, are bang average at present. If we had the 2013-2016 dons squad we would romp 3rd and be pushing the huns for second. Go on a run now and third is ours, but another 3 losses and we're 8th or so. We're as piss now as we were in the latter years of McInnes and I stick by my initial email. McInnes was no god, and Goodwin isn't showing anything to suggest we're in better hands than Glass.

That’s what’s interesting about this situation. We’re still third after a shit week. If we find form (not sure how though) and results go our way we can strengthen third. At the same time though, and very realistic, a shit run and we drop to 8th or 9th very quickly.

Wrong chain for the debate but McInnes was just as average as Goodwin appears to be. McInnes joined us with more experience than Goodwin having been in England, but he had two major factors going for him - he inherited a good squad with Anderson, Considine, Hayes, McGinn, Flood, Jack, Rooney, Reynolds, Robson, and Logan, Goodwin is starting with very little and a complete overhaul. McInnes joined us when Rangers weren't in the league, and Hibs Hearts and Utd had/were all relegated at some point. The league was piss and we were best of the rest. When Rangers, Hearts Hibs and Utd were decent in McInness' latter years we struggled and truly saw McInnes' limitations. McInnes won one trophy on penalties, he underachieved to me when we clearly had the second best squad in the league. I truly feel we'd have won the league with a good manager when we pushed Celtic that one year but McInnes shat it. I'd argue Goodwin would have been just as successful, if not more, in those years. Goodwin isn't experienced enough for our rebuild and we're seeing that. Case and point appointing Stewart as club captain. I honesty see very little between the two managers, average SPL managers.

I actually asked that question a month or two ago, is Stewart an upgrade on ash Taylor? And what’s Michael hector up to these days??

Our style of play is utter garbage, a lot of the time it’s belt it long and hope or give it to duk and hope he creates something. While miovski could move more and get open, it’s no surprise that we’ve seen so little of him in three games. I didn’t see much of today but it tough to be harsh on him as what I have seen this week we give him little chance of success. Earlier in the season we seemed to pass more and create and he was more involved. goodwin said we were tired or tired against rangers. Only one change today? That doesn’t add up to me, freshness may have helped if we were tired. Or tired was a lame excuse/deflection. Roos is no better than Lewis. He’s better with his feet but it doesn’t seem like he is comfortable off his line, one of what I’d consider Lewis’s strengths. I think Lewis lost confidence last year and I don’t see a keeper change helping us at present, defense is honking and no confidence there. Our center mid is so weak and with Stewart now suspended mccrorie stays at the back. We don’t seem to play through midfield and it really hurts us. We aren’t strong in midfield defensively either and that only puts more pressure on the back 3/4/5. it almost seems like we changed to 3 at the back to accommodate duk and two up top but in the bigger picture I think it’s made us worse. don’t see personnel or formation changes making a significant difference right now based on our current squad. Think goodwin is rather fucked to be honest, he doesn’t have quality depth to make changes and if the squad isn’t happy or confident, it doesn’t look like much improvement can occur. We had a World Cup break where none of our squad were away, loads of time to work and improve, week back and we’re a total mess. Not good.

We have absolutely no style of play, little desire, no leadership, and no midfield. See nothing to suggest we’ll get anything here.