Put the youngsters on hold for now ?

[tannerall 25,935]

I think last night's result showed once again that now is not the time to be introducing too many younger players, but instead use experienced players to get us established back at the top.

In what I believe was our most important and best result so far , the seasoned players with the top level experience were the ones who contributed the most, Wallace, McCulloch, Templeton, Shiels, and to a lesser degree Law and Black, whereas Aird and Little for example made little impact.

Whilst the young players have the skill and enthusiasm, it takes time to build up the experience, toughness and guile to compete against the top professionals. Of course we can introduce youngsters such as Lewis McLeod who is already showing that kind of maturity,and allow others like Barrie McKay to gain valuable experience on loan, but to get back to where we want to be quickly, we need experienced players.

Unfortunately we are not ready yet to try introducing lots of youngsters playing open attractive football, and if anything Dunfermlines skilled, enthusiastic youngsters who competed to the end, but were well beaten proved this.

It will be tough getting back in to the top flight and establishing ourselves straight away in the next 18 months, I strongly believe at this time this is a job for men, not boys.

[Getstiffed 8,863]

Is there a reason you appear to get louder and louder as you go on?

[tannerall 25,935]

Is there a reason you appear to get louder and louder as you go on?

So posters know exactly my points and can answer them in a constructive fashion

So "Getstiffed" what is your opinion on the topic ?

[Getstiffed 8,863]

So posters know exactly my points and can answer them in a constructive fashion

So "Getstuffed" what is your opinion on the topic ?

My opinion on the matter, "Tannerall", is that there are certain young players who would have been just as good (or bad as the case may be) than some of our more experienced players.

I do agree that a team of 18-23 year olds was and is pie in the sky.

[Bothwellbear 1,392]

I don't think anyone played badly last night. A good mix of youth and experience

[STEPPS BOY 73,805]

As soon as we go 3-4 zip up in league games we should be putting at least 1 young player on.

Theres no point in putting Smith, Foster etc on its not benefitting club in any way whatsoever.

[tannerall 25,935]

I think Ally will be introducing more experience next year, and perhaps not playing the youngsters as often (for the above reasons), and although he will get stick for it, it may be the wiser option for our long term goals..

[Getstiffed 8,863]

I think Ally will be introducing more experience next year, and perhaps not playing the youngsters as often (for the above reasons), and although he will get stick for it, it may be the wiser option for our long term goals..

Where's he getting the money for that?

[cushynumber 25,178]

He doesn't really play the youngsters anyway, so I dont think there is any danger of this.

[tannerall 25,935]

Where's he getting the money for that?

Who knows ? Either by selling (which wont raise much), losing some of the current squad, free transfer and out of contract signings, inspired foreign signings (!!!), or by future investment (looks unlikely right now, but who knows who will become interested as we approach the top flight and potentially Europe again).

[SwallowsHisOwnSpunk 7,769]

I don't think anyone played badly last night. A good mix of youth and experience

We had one youth player starting last night in Aird and one who got a run out in Crawford in what way is that a good mix.

The fact is we have missed our chance to change our football ethos to many ego's and short sighted people are at Ibrox, the truth is we are just going to end up throwing money at the problem and sometime in the future we will be back once again at rock bottom and I am sick of it if we aren't giving youth players a chance now then we never will.

[rangersfc77 170]

I think last night's result showed once again that now is not the time to be introducing too many younger players, but instead use experienced players to get us established back at the top.

In what I believe was our most important and best result so far , the seasoned players with the top level experience were the ones who contributed the most, Wallace, McCulloch, Templeton, Shiels, and to a lesser degree Law and Black, whereas Aird and Little for example made little impact.

Whilst the young players have the skill and enthusiasm, it takes time to build up the experience, toughness and guile to compete against the top professionals. Of course we can introduce youngsters such as Lewis McLeod who is already showing that kind of maturity,and allow others like Barrie McKay to gain valuable experience on loan, but to get back to where we want to be quickly, we need experienced players.

Unfortunately we are not ready yet to try introducing lots of youngsters playing open attractive football, and if anything Dunfermlines skilled, enthusiastic youngsters who competed to the end, but were well beaten proved this.

It will be tough getting back in to the top flight and establishing ourselves straight away in the next 18 months, I strongly believe at this time this is a job for men, not boys.

I agree i said it all along, you do need a balance and yes i would give the youngsters an opportunity but not be dependent on them, look at all the teams that use mostly youngsters and you get inconsistency. They need less pressure and plenty skilled players to improve not just game time as some believe, although they do need enough

[Johnstone Burgh 1,637]

Little is not a youth player. He's only 5 months younger than Templeton and he has top level experience as well.

[HG5 11,082]

My opinion on the matter, "Tannerall", is that there are certain young players who would have been just as good (or bad as the case may be) than some of our more experienced players.

I do agree that a team of 18-23 year olds was and is pie in the sky.

Dunfermline tried it & see how that turned out!

Average age was just below 21, with only 4 out of 14 aged 23 or over.

That said, our youngsters should be better quality than theirs (you would expect) and I don't see why we couldn't field 4-5 at a time, alongside some strong experienced guys to show them the way.

[gmcf 34,093]

That's a fair comment regards the cup. Our experienced players were on form last night and there's no doubt we'll rely heavily on them in future rounds.

However , given the league is won , I'd like to have seen us play more youngsters in the league to give them the experience. Guys like Daly and Jig are unlikely to be around by the time we get back to the spfl , and I have my doubts as to any significance transfers for years to come , so I do think we'll have to rely on our present squad. I'm thinking longer term here.

Not saying we should flood the team with youngsters , but at the very least we should throw a couple on for the last half hour of games , if not give them an occasional start.

[simplythebest 11,453]

I'm not sure anyone has said we don't need experience but objected to having to pay good money to shite like Foster, Smith, Cribari.

But experienced players have let us down plenty this season as well one very good display doesn't change that

[CaptainofIndustry 921]

I think Ally will be introducing more experience next year, and perhaps not playing the youngsters as often (for the above reasons), and although he will get stick for it, it may be the wiser option for our long term goals..

In which case, our squad of 55 paid players could be shrunk by more than 50% and we wouldn't even notice it.

[Courtyard Bear 41,357]

Strangest OP ever, I would love to know just what team full of youngsters I'm missing because apart from McLeod last and this season and Aird in the last couple of games Ally hasn't stuck with any youngsters.

Could the OP tell us just when we are supposed to be blooding youngsters if it isn't right at this moment when the league is won and the pressure is off. Even last night at 4 nil we could've got Daly off the park and given a young striker a run out to get some game time.

[TravelingWilBEARy 4,319]

As has been shown with MacLeod and Aird, if you're good enough then you'll get game time.

People forget that the cream of our youth set-up deserted us (Ness, McCabe, etc).

[tannerall 25,935]

Strangest OP ever, I would love to know just what team full of youngsters I'm missing because apart from McLeod last and this season and Aird in the last couple of games Ally hasn't stuck with any youngsters.

Could the OP tell us just when we are supposed to be blooding youngsters if it isn't right at this moment when the league is won and the pressure is off. Even last night at 4 nil we could've got Daly off the park and given a young striker a run out to get some game time.

I'm suggesting Ally may be right in concentrating on getting experienced players in and that by introducing youngsters rather than experienced players it could be more difficult to establish ourselves quickly at the higher levels.

[Getstiffed 8,863]

Dunfermline tried it & see how that turned out!

Average age was just below 21, with only 4 out of 14 aged 23 or over.

That said, our youngsters should be better quality than theirs (you would expect) and I don't see why we couldn't field 4-5 at a time, alongside some strong experienced guys to show them the way.

Well as things have turned out we would have been better with Gasparotto instead of paying Cribrari for the same level of performance or worse.

That's just one example of 4 or 5.

[scarkev 3,540]

Last night we had an intensity sadly missing in many league games of late.....as well as giving youngsters the chance to develop and looking long term, introducing youngsters can also raise the intensity due to their energy and enthusiasm.....the league is done so introducing young players is a must for me!

[scarkev 3,540]

Last night we had an intensity sadly missing in many league games of late.....as well as giving youngsters the chance to develop and looking long term, introducing youngsters can also raise the intensity due to their energy and enthusiasm.....the league is done so introducing young players is a must for me!

[Getstiffed 8,863]

I'm suggesting Ally may be right in concentrating on getting experienced players in and that by introducing youngsters rather than experienced players it could be more difficult to establish ourselves quickly at the higher levels.

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, I do want to say that most supporters wanted to field youth players as an alternative to paying for the likes of Cribrari for the same level of performance. That would have cost significantly less over the 3 years leaving us with a decent pot of cash to do exactly what you are suggesting.

We could have been going into this summer with Bell, Jig, Moshni, Wallace, Black, Law, Sheils, Templeton and Daly, the youth players who'd impressed like Macloed and Aird (to a lesser extent of course); and still had a decent reserve of cash to add quality to that group.

[HG5 11,082]

Well as things have turned out we would have been better with Gasparotto instead of paying Cribrari for the same level of performance or worse.

That's just one example of 4 or 5.

Very good example, too!

I'll chuck in McAusland for Foster/Peralta.