January transfer window and the squad as it stands

[Jute]

Was going to post a rant but you know what I can’t be arsed. Club have clearly written off the season so why shouldn’t I. 

[HaarDon]

It's just so disappointing eh.

Cormack should hold another meeting and answer questions.

[wokinginashearerwonderland]

1 hour ago, BigAl said:

Been thinking this morning about the whole transfer window thing.

Obviously hugely disgusted disappointed about the lack of players coming in but also have had a think about the lack of interest in what appears to be our two most marketable assets i.e Ferguson and Ramsay.

The grand total of zero bids for Ferguson and only one club actually put money on the table for Ramsay despite all the bluster coming out of the club about how we were going to facing a deluge of offers for them. This begs the question, are they as good as we'd like to think or have we over hyped the pair of them ?

Undoubtedly fans bum up their own players a bit and make out they are better than what they are BigAl.  Having said that, Ramsay and Ferguson are good prospects and we will get a decent wedge for each of them in time.  It does come across like clubs hate buying and selling in January unless they really have to, either to avoid relegation or if they are pushing for the title.  An awful lot of January deals are loans, with teams unwilling to commit to either buying or selling.  I think we will see Fergie move on in the summer, hopefully Ramsay sticks around for a while.  If he can get a few caps we might get a bit more for him.  I do think we should have been more pro-active in replacing Hedges properly, not convinced this Dutch dude will be the answer.

[Chris Frae Killie]

I don't think we are any worse off than before the window. Hedges was very good, when he turned up but that was only every 3-4 matches. Hopefully the Dutch boy will give us similar, if not better. We also have Matty Kennedy coming back, whom I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. People are very quick to assume a player is not performing at training when he has long term recurring injuries. My biggest beef is that we were lacking before the window in certain areas - creative attacking players no.10 in particular and another goalscoring centre forward. I think we can survive with our defence and midfield but the problem is we are being outscored. If you look at our goals against column and the run of defeats we had, we are not conceding a lot of goals and didn't get hammered by anyone in our games we lost this year, so far. It is a very fine line. If we can start scoring more goals, then I believe people will very quickly realise our defence isn't that bad. The more goals you score the more it breeds confidence in the team and the less likely opposition teams will play attacking football in our half. Or they won't sit in because we've scored against them and they have to come out to equalise and in turn leave more gaps. Our biggest problem in the last 3-4 years has been breaking teams down. We used to be a free scoring team in the first few years under DM. Then we lost Hayes, McGinn and Rooney and it was downhill from there. If we don't get the centre forward and creative players we need this summer then the director of football and recruitment etc have to go. I don't blame Glass yet. I think he and Russel etc. are trying to do the right things but they don't have the creativity they need. I am disappointed but I am not giving up on this season yet. Let's see how the new lads do and how the players returning from injury get on. Remember we still have Watkins, who I actually rate better than Hedges.

[tlg1903]

12 hours ago, Jute said:

Better pray nothing happens to Ramirez as the thought of Emmanuel Thomas being only cover is a truly frightening prospect. 
 

LA is spot on about lack of a creative central midfielder as well. Been a need for a while now. 
 

Since Maclean and Christie left.  

[Goldie03]

I'm pleased that Ferguson & Ramsay are still here but keeping inTop 6 is still gonna be a massive job and I have the fear about the cuptie at Motherwell 

Nothing really making me want to go to the games tbh - was meant to be at Livi and have already sacked that!! 

[BigAl]

1 hour ago, Goldie03 said:

I'm pleased that Ferguson & Ramsay are still here but keeping inTop 6 is still gonna be a massive job and I have the fear about the cuptie at Motherwell 

Nothing really making me want to go to the games tbh - was meant to be at Livi and have already sacked that!! 

Cup tie ticket bought this morning.

I could be almost certifiable 

[RicoS321]

30 minutes ago, BigAl said:

I could be almost certifiable 

Maybe the technical admins should look into the fact that the words "could" and "almost" keep getting inserted randomly into posts.

[LA-Don]

5 hours ago, Chris Frae Killie said:

I don't think we are any worse off than before the window. Hedges was very good, when he turned up but that was only every 3-4 matches. Hopefully the Dutch boy will give us similar, if not better. We also have Matty Kennedy coming back, whom I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. People are very quick to assume a player is not performing at training when he has long term recurring injuries. My biggest beef is that we were lacking before the window in certain areas - creative attacking players no.10 in particular and another goalscoring centre forward. I think we can survive with our defence and midfield but the problem is we are being outscored. If you look at our goals against column and the run of defeats we had, we are not conceding a lot of goals and didn't get hammered by anyone in our games we lost this year, so far. It is a very fine line. If we can start scoring more goals, then I believe people will very quickly realise our defence isn't that bad. The more goals you score the more it breeds confidence in the team and the less likely opposition teams will play attacking football in our half. Or they won't sit in because we've scored against them and they have to come out to equalise and in turn leave more gaps. Our biggest problem in the last 3-4 years has been breaking teams down. We used to be a free scoring team in the first few years under DM. Then we lost Hayes, McGinn and Rooney and it was downhill from there. If we don't get the centre forward and creative players we need this summer then the director of football and recruitment etc have to go. I don't blame Glass yet. I think he and Russel etc. are trying to do the right things but they don't have the creativity they need. I am disappointed but I am not giving up on this season yet. Let's see how the new lads do and how the players returning from injury get on. Remember we still have Watkins, who I actually rate better than Hedges.

Correct. We aren't any worse but we aren't any better, and we aren't good enough right now. The two 'must gets' from the window were a center forward and a central creative midfielder like Christie or Maddison. Ideally a winger or two too but that was our 3rd priority in my eyes since we have Hayes, McLennan, Kennedy, even Watkins. Unless the dutch guy slides in centrally we failed to address both. Our team needs more creativity to create more chances, and based on the window I see the inconsistent season continuing. I get that January is a crappy window, particularly for teams with our finances, but surely we could have gotten another player or two?? 

[Goldie03]

5 hours ago, BigAl said:

Cup tie ticket bought this morning.

I could be almost certifiable 

I'll be joining you but defo gonna need a drink beforehand 

[BigAl]

8 minutes ago, Goldie03 said:

I'll be joining you but defo gonna need a drink beforehand 

More like several missus 

[Panda]

Changing the subject: Had Bruce Anderson signed a one-year contract instead of being let go, and was simply on loan at Livingston - based on him scoring his 10th goal of the season last night, would you bring him back & give him a chance in the first team?

[RicoS321]

38 minutes ago, Panda said:

Changing the subject: Had Bruce Anderson signed a one-year contract instead of being let go, and was simply on loan at Livingston - based on him scoring his 10th goal of the season last night, would you bring him back & give him a chance in the first team?

No. If we're not scoring with Ramirez up front, then it's unlikely to be any different with Anderson, they're similar players. I think Ramirez is better, although I think Anderson would have been fine as our main striker too. I completely understand the thought process behind the Jet move. He is a totally different type of player to Ramirez and should have allowed us to completely change tactics during a game. That he's pish and unfit is obviously the main problem there. On our budget, I don't think we can waste two wages on a Ramirez/Anderson type, with one simply replacing the other without anything else changing. We haven't had anyone that can offer something different from the bench since Magennis left.

If the question had been, would you have been happy with Anderson as number 9 this season with the Ramirez money spent on a good number 10, I'd have said yes. That's not a criticism of Ramirez, just I don't think we've significantly benefited from having him up front, or certainly not got the best out of him. It's much like me playing golf this morning with my relatively expensive irons. Ramirez is like the brain that we only ever use ten percent of. Just as I could get by just as well with half price irons, the dons would have been just as fine with Anderson. If I get those golf lessons, or the dons get a good number 10, then we'll really start to see the benefit of buying a more expensive tool (no offence, Christian).

[sancho_panza]

Meanwhile we've got eight central midfielders by my count, which is much like having eight woods in your golf bag for no reason and constantly having to use them in situations they aren't suited for. Every time we get into an area that needs a bit of finesse we end up having to use a 3-wood (an "Ojo") when what we really need is a short iron.

[LA-Don]

Surprised it's not been suggested yet. Leigh Griffiths on a free until seasons end??

[BigAl]

2 minutes ago, LA-Don said:

Surprised it's not been suggested yet. Leigh Griffiths on a free until seasons end??

It has now 

[Jute]

2 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

No. If we're not scoring with Ramirez up front, then it's unlikely to be any different with Anderson, they're similar players. I think Ramirez is better, although I think Anderson would have been fine as our main striker too. I completely understand the thought process behind the Jet move. He is a totally different type of player to Ramirez and should have allowed us to completely change tactics during a game. That he's pish and unfit is obviously the main problem there. On our budget, I don't think we can waste two wages on a Ramirez/Anderson type, with one simply replacing the other without anything else changing. We haven't had anyone that can offer something different from the bench since Magennis left.

If the question had been, would you have been happy with Anderson as number 9 this season with the Ramirez money spent on a good number 10, I'd have said yes. That's not a criticism of Ramirez, just I don't think we've significantly benefited from having him up front, or certainly not got the best out of him. It's much like me playing golf this morning with my relatively expensive irons. Ramirez is like the brain that we only ever use ten percent of. Just as I could get by just as well with half price irons, the dons would have been just as fine with Anderson. If I get those golf lessons, or the dons get a good number 10, then we'll really start to see the benefit of buying a more expensive tool (no offence, Christian).

Would say Anderson is more mobile than Ramirez. I think we could have used both. 
 

I have never understood why we signed Emmanuel Thomas. 

[OxfordDon]

1 hour ago, LA-Don said:

Surprised it's not been suggested yet. Leigh Griffiths on a free until seasons end??

Pretty sure Rico had already mentioned overpriced tools.

[tlg1903]

4 hours ago, LA-Don said:

Surprised it's not been suggested yet. Leigh Griffiths on a free until seasons end??

Previously I was a big fat no on that idea but now I'm not so sure.....

[HaarDon]

5 hours ago, OxfordDon said:

Pretty sure Rico had already mentioned overpriced tools.

And divots

[Panda]

23 hours ago, Jute said:

Would say Anderson is more mobile than Ramirez. I think we could have used both. 
 

I have never understood why we signed Emmanuel Thomas. 

The thinking was he would go up a level at Aberdeen. But he's clearly too lazy to develop into anything useful.

 

On Griffiths. In summer I'd have said yes. But based on what he managed at Dundee, nah.

If we're taking a punt on a free agent I'd go for Snodgrass.

[LightbulbMoment2021]

Griffiths with brown in his ear could well do us a trick till may. Snodgrass even at 33-34 is out of our reach especially with cormack in charge.

[manc_don]

56 minutes ago, Panda said:

The thinking was he would go up a level at Aberdeen. But he's clearly too lazy to develop into anything useful.

 

On Griffiths. In summer I'd have said yes. But based on what he managed at Dundee, nah.

If we're taking a punt on a free agent I'd go for Snodgrass.

A tim mate of mine was amazed we haven't gone for him. Personally I thought he was done, but I haven't seen him play in a long time.

[Jute]

Even if you ignore the off field baggage (which is reason enough not to touch him) Griffiths has only got 3 goals in 17 games. 2 of them against us. Not a chance we should be considering him. 
 

 

[Jute]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

The thinking was he would go up a level at Aberdeen. But he's clearly too lazy to develop into anything useful.

 

 

One look at his career should have told them that would be the case.