Looking the list of midfielders our website suggest Robinson addresses our team weakness - MIDFIELD.
We have NO creativity. McHugh too slow and often caught on ball, Rose and Frear too weak and offer no forward penetration. Tanner is ‘nearly’ man and decision making is poor and I have yet to see Petravicius on the ball !
Cadden’s consistency disappoints and whether its tactics .. overrated. This leaves Grimshaw and Bigirimana who I would play both from the start alongside Campbell. I’d have MacLean on bench for over.
Regardless of vision or ability we seem to be unable to go at full pelt until we fall behind. Both at Easter Road midweek and at Fir Park today we stepped up a gear after we lost a goal.
Maybe on Tuesday we can start like that and get ahead?
IMO until manager finds his strongest starting eleven and sticks with it we will always struggle in the first half of games. Changing the team formation and system game on game seems to have the players not really knowing where they are playing and what their particular role within the team is. Players are not getting to build up an understanding with each other when team is changed each week. IMO we look stronger and more potent as a team when we line up 4-4-2 as opposed to a 3-5-2 and defence in particular looks more solid as a unit.
There's no doubt that midfield is our weak point right now. Yesterday there was no attacking ability and we lacked pace and width. Over the 90 minutes Thistle won the right to play football, through their competivieness but either couldn't or wouldn't do so. For too long we were bullied in the middle of the park.
Midfield shows up as a weak point because it's so obvious but I think it's the symptom rather than the cause at the minute. As Texaco Cup said, Robinson either doesn't know or doesn't wish to have a regular XI and formation - that's fine when things are going well but problematic when not as you have no fall back position.
I think we're slowly but surely getting back to being hard to beat and there's little else to really look forward to in terms of footballing entertainment. However, should we win at Dens in the cup that'll cut the complaints...big if though.
The more this season has progressed, the more I think Robinson deserves tremendous credit for what he did in autumn when we had a very brief window of opportunity and absolutely seized it. We had a brilliant player in top form and he got everyone else working as a unit around that. It got us the points which will hopefully form the basis of survival and to a cup final, even if we've returned to normality with a bump now.
It's already clear we'll need a big summer in rebuilding our offence...Robinson's transfer record is mixed but generally speaking his defensive signings have been much, much better than the attack-minded players he's brought in. It's not time for panic but a little concern is understandable.
Our midfield is being run over in games mainly because one player doesn't seem to know what the other is doing. We seem to be all over the place in there. We need to get a better balance to our midfield. A little bit of creative spark is also needed, I think Bigrimhana could provide that. Any time he comes on he looks as if he can provide something. Maybe a run in the side to see what he could do may work.