This team has nothing and relegation is a distinct possibility

We have no flair, no guile and the manager has failed big time to address this over the summer, rather he strengthened the subs bench. That is unbelievable. Add to that we have Salmon and Main up front who are too similar and contribute nothing apart from conceding fouls and no one capable of providing anything different in the way of service.

In years gone by when we have been thrratened with relegation there was always at least one player you could look to that you knew had the ability to dig us out the hole, ie. McDonald, Moult, McFadden, Johnston etc. But this team has nothing, absolutely nothing. There is not one player in that team you could look at and say, "well, at least he'll get goals, provide something special".

We are in trouble and I believe this is our year for the drop after a disastrous summer's transfer dealings.

On what we have seen so far this season I could not disagree with what you are saying LawSteelman. It is now l blatantly obvious that Sammon and Main cannot play in same team. IMO Cadden needs to be left out of starting eleven for a week or two he looked totally jaded yesterday and was taking absolute pelters from some in the East Stand .The sooner Bowman,Dunne and Tanner are back the better Don’t know if worth trying to get Moult back on loan, he was on the bench again yesterday and although 3 substitutions made by Preston he didn’t get on. Preston also signed another centre forward on deadline day

Cadden looks miles off the pace, as did Campbell yesterday, though that doesn't justify Robinson hooking him for Johnson. That is hugely concerning at this stage in the season, indeed the entire team looks as though the season has come too early for them. We have been flat, sluggish and lacking ideas since the first league cup match, where we actually struggled in the second half against Edinburgh city despite being 5-0 up.

In defence Hartley looks a shadow of the player he was pre-injury and if we are pinning our hopes on Bowman, Dunne and Tanner to come back from long term injuries themselves then we are f#cked.

It was clear as day last season that we needed to strengthen the side and add more attacking flair down the wings and we were actually in a position to do so following two cup finals last season. Sadly though Robinson has it seems allowed the opportunity to pass him by and here we are with a squad bloated by forwards who don't score goals, midfielders who are too similar and players that despite signing them, SR doesn't appear to even rate.

We absolutely do need someone else in before the window shuts but given we have had all summer to improve the squad and have failed badly, I'm not hopeful.

As for Moult, there's not a prayer we could get him back here, even on loan. I do though expect to see him back in Scottish football at some point in the future, whether in this window or later, but it won't be to rejoin us.

Can I just add that the brand of football we are playing is honkin'

That's my gripe with SR, he doesn't seem to want to even attempt to play football, he'd rather opt for high balls, head tennis and out battling the opposition. There's only so far that will get you as last season showed, but this season now we've lost Kipre to Wigan and injuries to Dunne & Bowman, that tactic has become significantly less effective. The fact that he signed Sammon and seem to favour him over Danny Johnson further illustrates that Robinson is going for hoofball over football and it is utterly awful to watch.

Last season the two superb Cup runs detracted from the fact that we were awful in the league and that's understandable given that we dispatched Aberdeen twice, Hearts and Rangers, but our league record in the same time was dreadful. I saw a pretty damning statistic posted on steelmenonline yesterday that shows that in our last thirty league matches stretching back to the 28th October last year we have won only seven of them. SEVEN! That is a horrific return in anyone's books and if it wasn't for the fact that we had those runs to both finals last season then SR would be under a lot more pressure than he currently is.

Robinson has done stuff which has concerned me virtually the entire length of his reign but you need to acknowledge that he has done everything asked - kept up an appalling team, punted half of them (including several under contract), had a solid midtable season (which was way better than expected) and reached two cup finals, something done only once before. He has earned the right not only to make some mistakes but the time to try to fix them.

That time is far from infinite but it can be given under certain circumstances. If he rows back a bit on the 'hoofball' and reworks the squad by the transfer deadline so that we have a structure, plan or whatever, a grim autumn is tolerable...Robinson has earned that space. And realistically, we only need to be a fraction above absolutely disgraceful to keep Hamilton, Livi and probably others within range while we rebuild.

But as LSM said, the mega cautious hoofball relying on others chucking us games, earns you absolutely no leeway at all. If it works, it works and he gets the credit. If it doesn't, he gets bulleted pdq...if he doubles down (again) on his apparent philosophy and this continues, he won't last past October.

What concerns me more about our manager is the fact that everyone posting on here says the same thing how dreadful we have been lately and in particular yesterday’s performance and yet Robinson says there was plenty of positives to take out of the game! Where the rubber duck were the positives, unless Sammon is injured I don’t see any .On another theme I sent the club the names of two players playing non league football in England who IMO would definitely improve our team.One has now joined Coventry City the other was outstanding in his first league game yesterday, the club have never contacted myself regarding either or acknowledged my e-mails, don’t think we are that good that we can ignore information about players who would improve us and are within our budget wages wise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Handsome_Devil

Robinson has done stuff which has concerned me virtually the entire length of his reign but you need to acknowledge that he has done everything asked - kept up an appalling team, punted half of them (including several under contract), had a solid midtable season (which was way better than expected) and reached two cup finals, something done only once before. He has earned the right not only to make some mistakes but the time to try to fix them.

That time is far from infinite but it can be given under certain circumstances. If he rows back a bit on the 'hoofball' and reworks the squad by the transfer deadline so that we have a structure, plan or whatever, a grim autumn is tolerable...Robinson has earned that space. And realistically, we only need to be a fraction above absolutely disgraceful to keep Hamilton, Livi and probably others within range while we rebuild.

But as LSM said, the mega cautious hoofball relying on others chucking us games, earns you absolutely no leeway at all. If it works, it works and he gets the credit. If it doesn't, he gets bulleted pdq...if he doubles down (again) on his apparent philosophy and this continues, he won't last past October.

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If we're going to persist with our current tactics we need to outflank the packed, narrow defences which will, without a great deal of trouble, keep us out as often as not. Infuriating though he could be, Lionel Ainsworth was maybe more of an asset than he sometimes appeared. Given the way we're setting up, an Ainsworth or a Humphrey type of player would be helpful in giving Sammon and Main something to run on to facing the opposition goal, a chance they're not getting at the moment. Frear just about does a job, but Accies just crowded him out on Saturday.
We need somebody on the other side as well.

Robinson has us playing the exact same football as last season, does he think other club managers are daft. It's the easiest type of football to work out for an opposition manager. We should have signed players with a bit of ability in the summer, granted Johnson hasn't really had a chance yet and what we have seen is a bit different to what we have up front at the moment. We needed pace out wide, we needed a midfielder who could put his foot on the ball and play a pass or two. Bigi can do that but hardly kicked a ball last season as he doesn't fit Robinson's style of football. We did what we had to last season, now move on, what do we do to go forward? That should be the question asked before we recruited any players this season. I'm afraid it's the same as last season. One look at our team sheet and you know your up against. A team that will scrap all day but has no real ability in the squad.

Bring back McGhoo !
Bring back McGhoo !