End of the season evaluation

[He's blue he's white 717]

The end of the season has now officially arrived, however watching our performance today it did indeed look like many of our players were already on holiday.

Our management team:

Deserve immense recognition for the job they have done over the past twelve months, if I were offered automatic promotion as champions, the Petrofac trophy, pump Dundee and the scum and get to the Scottish final I would’ve bitten you’re hand off.   We have done these things and in the main, managed it in style – we now play an attract brand of football where the mentality and philosophy at our club has improved tenfold. 

Our playing squad has lowered in average age to around 24/25 I’d guess, with 95% of players at the club worth profit.  Some great players have been found along the way, all this on a shoe string, everything good about the club has been influenced by Warburton I’d suggest.

On the negative side, I don’t want to hear anymore that we are “better for it, we’ve recognised the failings” etc.  We have not addressed our weakness’ at set plays – every team knows we leak goals and our defence have been pretty powder puff most of the season and I hold the management team not fully, but responsible for this.

It certainly looks like the preparation for today’s game wasn’t right and they got it wrong.

Goalkeeper:

Start of the season he looked the part, coming for cross balls and shot stopping was excellent.  Now...fills me with fear, looks capable of a wonder save now and then, but just isn’t reliable.  A keeper should inspire confidence; big Wes sadly looks poor – wanted him to be a success as well.

Defence:

Our defence have looked shaky and weak over the full season, Tav and Wallace bombing forward is part of our style and we need to accept that, that style ultimately will cost us goals and teams will exploit that.  Wilson has let himself down badly this season IMO and demonstrates poor body language and attitude being frank about it.  Had a good spell a few months ago, but nowhere near playing to his potential or ability.  His partner in crime is simply not good enough, he is meant to be the one winning the tackles and balls in the air – most of the time he looks a yard slower than every attacker he competes with and defends like an amateur, with poor positioning and decision making.  Wallace has had a fantastic season; fuck knows what happened today though.  Tav has had his poor games but he has been a real find.  His goals and assists are incredible for a defender, against the cum he looked solid…he will improve.

Midfield:

Sometimes we have looked like world beaters, passing, movement and intelligence all attributes on display from these guys.  We need a midfield powerhouse, someone who will stand up; make a crunching 50/50 and dictate the game.  Midfield need to take control and dictate the tempo – speed it up and slow the play down – sometimes the midfield looks lost without any leadership in there…today being the perfect example.  Will be interesting to see who plays where next season.

 

Forwards:

Don’t walk it into the net!  Shot on sight is the message, too many passing in the final third with no real change in tempo too often when we are in a dangerous position.  The interchanging at times has been fantastic to watch and really positive stuff, with teams just unable to contain us.  With the amount of possession, we usually have I expect us to hurt teams much more than we do.  Again would like a “plan b” striker…big powerful winner.

Wish list for next season:

·         New keeper / or at least someone to push Wes

·         A strong, quick and powerful centre half (A mix of big Marv and Boogie would be nice)

·         A comfortable in possession centre half, who can play out from the back and sweep up when needed

·         A commanding, capable defensive midfielder with vision and ability to read and dictate the game, stamping his authority all over the team.

·         A powerful, fast and intelligent striker

 

Overall we have met and at times, exceeded expectations.  Games like today sadly offer the platform for criticism as when we are poor we are really poor.  Unable to see a game out, conceding poor goals whilst defending like amateurs angers me.  I hope we really do address the issues we have all seen this season starting with creating a solid spine of the team, we need to be stronger mentality and tougher physically.

 

I’m hurting cause we lost today, in the manner we lost.  We went out today without a whimper, not what I expected at all.  However, choosing to focus on the positives is the only way, we have the foundations of a great team and a management duo I wouldn’t change for the world.  Let’s enjoy the success of this season and look forward to next.

[simplythebestest 2,145]

First and foremost I'd congratulate the management and players for achieving our primary goals and even going a wee bit beyond with the semi-final win and revamping our training, preparation, scouting etc. But I also have to be honest and say the performances since the title win and semi have really put a dampener on the season for me. We've been terrible at the back. We shipped far too many goals and done nothing to fix it, hence why we find ourselves losing today to a very poor hibs side, who themselves failed to get past Falkirk. We let Hibs win today by gifting free headers and shots on goal. Wes, Kiernan and even Tav should have played themselves out of automatic selection next season. I think we need a gk, two dfs, challenge for the full back positions, a dm, an attacking mid, a winger and a striker all good enough for the first team in this window. I trust MW, Davie and Frank to do that, but today's result can't have helped from a budget or proposition point of view.

Hurting after today, but onwards and upwards and looking forward to what we can achieve next season with the quality men at the helm.