LA-Don

Pretty sure you have/had people posting here about wanting Scottish teams to do well, even England. I'm sure it burned your eyes!

Didn't McGinn go to Celtic games? Is that on par?? Life and culture has changed. I'm 49 and old. Many 'young kids' want all Scottish teams to do well, and are quite happy to see England do well. I don't. But I don't grudge McGinn or McRorie supporting a team they support and have played for. From what I see he's not wearing a Rangers top and on camera singing inappropriate songs either. He went to see a European final in which some of his friends were playing. I don't think it's that bad unless I'm not seeing more pics or don't know the full story.

I think my first sentence says they weren't faultless, but blame should go to others too. I'm not saying there is nothing wrong with them as you can clearly see, but you can't deny that if we were better in midfield and forward there would be less defending and less pressure on them. We'd also be winning games if we were better in mid/forward, and that breeds confidence all over the park. It's like kids always blaming the keeper when a goal is scored, it's an easy out. Dig deeper. It's the same situation with Joe Lewis, the fans are critical of him when he's been under way more pressure this year. While I do feel Joe has not had a good season, mistakes come when there is increased pressure and confidence is low, it's just defenders and the keeper's mistakes result in goals, when the entire team has been piss for the most part.

A lot of space and, to be fair to Goodwin, do you give him a two year commitment? As you mention, Kennedy, McLennan, and Woods aren't on the list (but should be), of the 15 how many are players we ultimately want? It can't be a one season overhaul.....

Come on Rico, be fair. That's a hell of a biased book report. We've had a shit season, Bates and Gallagher taking a ton of the blame. They are not faultless but blame should go to others too. Put an 'in their Aberdeen prime' Shinnie Jack McLean Hayes McGinn and Rooney ahead of them and I guarantee you see two very different defenders. I'd even argue would it be different if we'd had a legit and experienced left back rather than a rookie or converted 35 year old left winger? It is sad. On paper we have two strong Scottish international central defenders. It's just not worked out to date, but for many reasons. We're meant to be one of the biggest clubs in Scotland, pro football, and our defenders can't play on the left. Not a real strong advert for the level of our team. Sad. No clue where you get your percentages from, you are making those up. You also way over sugarcoat and glamorize big Andy. He's a very limited defender too, has strengths but clear weaknesses too you ignore. Pretty certain a full season with Andy in there would not have been much different and he'd have taken abuse and criticism too. He way over commits and while you say he attacks everything and plays on the front foot, he has to because of his lack of pace and inability to recover. He's the high risk high reward guy. When faced with someone ball at feet in front of him, he's really poor and I used to cringe when he was at left back or caught 1v1. He needed a pacey Hayes at wing back or left mid to help him. As for the individual errors stemming from defense. They are dicking around on the ball most often because the options ahead of them are shit. Better players ahead of them providing better options means they have the ball less. Would you dick around knowing that giving the ball to Ojo is your only outlet?? We've had a terrible midfield this season. No width, central mids playing wide, an over the hill Brown making endless mistakes, and quite often multiple players playing the same role and getting in each others way. Very imbalanced. Then we blood Barron who, while he did well, is young and raw. We've really had no holding mid protecting your two central defenders. A strong holding mid does a hell of a protective job and quite often central defenders get exposed because of the lack of this player.....and I think we saw that.

And I'll add mclennan is one of our worst to play. He cannot control a fucking ball. Fumble stumble lose it repeat...

I think it's a tough call. Ferguson has been good but also very shit in games over the course of the season. Not saying McCrorie has been consistent either, but more consistent. I don't think Ferguson has been as good this year than in other years, and has under performed, should have a bigger influence in games that he has done. McCrorie has bounced between center mid, center defense, right back, even right wing back at times. For a first year here I think Ross has been good overall and deservedly should be our next captain. That said I then think, just slightly, it's the correct choice.

Does McInnes see Killie into the Premiership or jump to Hibs?

I'd be inclined to compare Ramsay to Gilmour here rather than Paterson. Playing with the Liverpool squad/reserves/u21 or whatever is all arguably a higher level than playing with us, and it's a very stable and highly successful club. Even having Robertson there helps him. No way he declines to stay with us if the offer comes in.

Who isn't working hard enough? That would be pretty much the entire team, it's a team game. Effort is physical and mental, we need to work harder and smarter, and work more to minimize mistakes. Hard work also means decision making, being sharper too. Mental effort and focus. We're are 9th, 6 points off the relegation playoffs. We have many experienced players, many capped by their countries including a number at full international level, and players who we may sell on for millions. We're not producing what we are capable of, that's effort. That's also fact. You think we're excelling right now? Or could we do more? I would mix things up to make a point. New manager has to set the tone. He made a point with Scott Brown, JET, gave Barron a chance, it's his job to be heard loud and clear from day one, and accept nothing less than the players best efforts. I don't think he's changed enough. All he's shown us in 7 games is that he's accepting less and we are still 9th. I don't understand how you don't get this. It's the managers job and responsibility to get the team to perform. If they don't it's on him. That's why McInnes was binned, Glass too. Successful managers get the best out of the players they have. Goodwin appears to have done that at St. Mirren and that's why we hired him. I hope he does that with us, but I don't see it (yet?) You were the one that said both Ferguson and Ramirez were more concerned about their next move. Now you are twisting it around and defending both....? I agreed with you about Ojo. Happy to see him go. But my point was that, to me, Ojo and Hayes have been the most productive wingers at times this season and I'd play them higher up the park, not at right and left back. We struggle going forward and getting numbers up to support Ramirez and create, yet we see our better attacking player(s) at full back. Ojo has been replaced at full back so he's not been there much of late I will add. You also said Ojo should be first out the door, in my eyes there are others that deserve to go before him, that's all. Don't quite understand what you being better than a dead Maradona has in regard to comparison. Yes, I do understand coaching. Been a coach for almost 30 years, including full time for a few years, 'A' licensed, done SFA and USSF badges. While it's all been at youth level, I've coached some pretty good teams and players, and been successful. I'm not naïve to think the professional game is different, but a lot of the coaching methodology and tactics are the same, just with better players (and egos) who can execute more.

Panda, you are clutching at straws now man. If the players aren't working hard enough you don't play them. It's on the coach 100%. That's his job, to get them to work hard enough, both mentally and physically. For example, I'd rather see Ruth given a chance and work his ass off if Ramirez is half way out the door. We've won 1 in 7, results don't lie. Stop making excuses. You were the one that said Ferguson appeared to be more concerned about his next move, now you are saying people were raving about Ferguson. Eh?? You made the 'we're going to work on defending this week' comment and it not being that simple. It was Goodwin who came in the door and said he needed to fix defending and it wouldn't take much. Said that in an interview early on. If we are vulnerable in defense and have a dodgy keeper then defend higher up the park. Change the tactics. Press a team higher, defend further forward, and play a more numbers forward attacking game. That's not complicated and we're dealing with professionals who can adapt quickly. You can play a high press and force an opponent to go long or make mistakes. As I said before, we don't get numbers up the park and end up defending closer to our own goal, and it's cost us. Ojo played well at the start of the year, that's a fact. He was praised for early season performances and got the typical "it's like signing a new player" comments. He is capable IF you can get him to perform. Problem has been consistency. Can Goodwin get him to perform? While I am happy to see him go this summer, he's shown me he's more capable than McLennan, Kennedy, and has given more to us than Devlin. That's 3 I'd show the door to before Ojo. I'm not suggesting square peg round hole, why bring up another topic? We have Ramsay and McCrorie, capable right backs. Worst case with injuries I'd play Kennedy or McLennan there in order to play Ojo further forward, that's my point. Ojo is no better than them at right back. I'm simply saying Ojo has given more in an attacking sense, the area we are clearly lacking. Ideally none of the 3 are RB but this is a different topic. I agree with one MAJOR thing. You said fine margins, and that's massive. Goodwin wins 3 in 7 and we're top 6 still fighting for a European place. Results (and clearly performances) to date are consistent with what Glass gave us, not good enough.

I'll also add, when Goodwin has hired, what do you think his short term/immediate goals were? What was he specifically asked to achieve? Top 6 and Europe? Do you think it's been a good positive start?

I've never coached at the professional level, but have coached for almost 30 years, made a career of it. A new coach can expect players to work harder immediately, and implement SOME different tactics (pass better) immediately. They are playing for their careers, and playing for a top 6 and European spot. The motivation to work harder is there. We made the management change mid February to specifically see a change in the following 7 games. We were bottom 6 and needed better, and had/have the squad to be better. What Goodwin has done to date isn't good enough. I'm not saying they were the correct tactics, but when Robson came in for McInnes, you immediately saw us as a build out the back team. Happened immediately. You can also expect players to change their defensive mindset immediately. High press, low press etc. Professional players can make immediate change with some things, plus their roles can be made clearer and they can be given more specific demands/instructions. It's the coaches job to get the most out of Ramirez and Ferguson. If he's not doing that, why keep playing them. While I don't know enough about Ruth, and I don't rate McLennan, both have played up top before. We also have McCrorie, McGeough, Ojo, Barron, and Jenks all capable of playing center mid. You say those two are more concerned about their next move, but it's either that or they aren't working harder/smart enough, either way Goodwin needs to do something there. WTF was Ferguson doing playing 50 yard diagonal balls last weekend, that's not his game. He was either coached/instructed to be doing that, or should have been told to knock that shit off as it's not his game. Someone commented here that we're a more direct team under Goodwin. Are we? If so that's made us worse. We don't create and long ball hurts us, and gets even less out of Ramirez. Tactical adjustments are needed. Our problem is we don't get forward fast enough, and don't get numbers forward. Hayes is our best winger, play him higher up the park, with MacKenzie, Considine behind him, even recall Campbell to play LB. We struggle in attack, fix it. I'd play Ojo on the other side, early season Ojo did well as a winger, inspire him to play like that again. If Ramsay is injured play Kennedy/McLennan at RB, or McCrorie. We lack the creativity of a 10, clear to everyone, but Ramirez needs central support. Ferguson is our best option, or Vinny, but we need a central player much higher up the park to connect with Ramirez. We almost always have a huge hole in the middle of the park between our deep center mids and Ramirez. Kills us. We have 4 defender, and two holding mids, say Barron and Ferguson/McCrorie, with a front 4 of Hayes, Vinny Ojo, and Ramirez, attack with those 4 at least, and coach them to play higher. That's still 6 behind the ball for much of the game, we're capable of doing that and have the talent to do so. Coaching is at least 50% man management, you inspire and ring every ounce of ability and effort from a player. Again, look what we got from Ojo at the start of the season, something clicked. Who has been inspired by the new manager, and who has upped their game? Barron maybe, possibly McCrorie, but, to me, for the most part, it's still the same average effort from the team with similar blah tactics, and we didn't make a management change in February to get more of the same.

How am I all over the place? Of course I am judging him now, aren't we all? It was a shit season and a change was made. We expect better than what we were getting. But it hasn't started any different to what we got from Glass. Did you not expect more since Glass got punted? We're in 9th place, 6 points off the relegation spot. One win in 7 isn't good enough. His job is to get the best out of a group of professionals, it's clear he hasn't done that to date. Why was Glass sacked in February if management didn't feel Goodwin could make the players play better and get more from this group? I'm disappointed. Who isn't? We're bottom 6 and Goodwin couldn't win more than 1 in 7. We're so close to a European spot ffs. You could argue early season Ojo was better than Goodwin is getting from him. Early season Ramirez, early season Ramsay too. Is it wrong to expect Goodwin to get more from this group? We know many of them are capable. At the same time, judging now doesn't mean I've written him off. Goodwin has to be given a window or two to mold this team in to his own. But nothing so far suggests it will be different, but the summer will is crucial. How am I so wrong to criticize now but still be willing to give him a summer to improve things??

Can we not doubt and ask questions? Or are we only allowed to make pro Goodwin comments? He needs a summer at least to assemble his own guys/squad and then we'll get a more realistic sense of what he's about. We'll learn a lot about him this summer and into next season but so far I haven't seen anything that suggests he's an upgrade on Glass. 1 win 3 draw and 3 losses when we had a European spot to play for and players had their livelihoods to play for, and he had a first impression to create. Doesn't mean he's written off but I feel my comments are valid, no?