Rangers v2.0 (A)

[JUSTaway]

Tony Watt spends 60% of his time on the wing, 38% of his time on his arse, and 2% of his time in the opposition box.

He's never been a prolific scorer, he had a decent scoring run at Motherwell, but that's all it was, and they were playing direct, launching the ball to the Dutch guy, so he was feeding off him and getting the ball in and around the opposition box. He's quite skillful, but he makes Paul Paton look like Usaine Bolt. I'm not even sure he is a striker, he doesn't play in the box, so what is he a playmaker? A slow winger? I don't actually think we have a plan how to utilise him, I'm hoping we might have a plan next season.

[TerryTheTerror]

I actually think he's very good at holding the ball when it gets played to him. I think he's improved us to be honest.

[LSArab]

Tony Watt is a very intelligent player. He gets the ball and tries to make things happen - often succeeds

The win v Motherwell was down to him (before the split)

The pass that led to the last minute winner v St Mirren was him.

Massive asset and we would not be in top 6 without him

[Chick A Saw]

It's not baffling at all. Mellon had a very good striker at his disposal. Tam doesn't. Whether or not Shankland was used effectively is another matter. 8 or 9 goals he scored was it not. That's an 8 or 9 goals striker than we haven't had this season. Those goals/points could've been massive for us this season.

Of course its to Courts' credit. How many other teams can lose 10 players and still finish the season in an equal, if not better position than they were when those 10 departed. Most would go to f*ck imo.

Landed lucky? Come on man. 😂 Some people just do not want to give the manager any credit whatsoever. Courts made Mulgrew his top priority. Personally meeting him and getting it over the line. He also brought in McMann, who, for the first part of the season, when we had our water tight defence, was a mainstay and played a big part. The youth have to be good enough yes, but the manager has to have the balls to play them. An 18 and a 21 year old playing in a 3 man defence vs Rangers at the weekend. Freeman who Mellon wouldn't play being given his chance and taking it. All decisions the manager made rather than sticking with the tried & trusted. Something Mellon was guilty of over & over again.

If Shankland was such a good striker, why did someone who is considered so bad score more than him last season? 8 goals for Shanks against 11 for Clark. To me, there was something else going on along with the way Mellon played the team. This season our top scorer is Clark on 7 where our head coach has said he is using our top scorer in a role he is not suited to, and the football on show is little different! We dont create chances for our forwards and this is borne out by the fact that the leagues top scorer in January has scored 1 solitary goal since he joined when he really should have been that true Shankland replacement! You've made me smile though as with 2 games to go, we have scored 2 more goals and have the same 44 points we finished in 9th with last season!

Im struggling with this 10 players figure that people are banding about. Apparently 12 players(Wiki but no youth loans counted) in total departed through the whole season, and if they were all first team regulars, then yes he had something to deal with, but.......

Summer,
Connolly who had already been replaced by Mulgrew with K Smith and Nielson emerging.
Robson for a fee replaced by McMann(who i believe was playing injured) and Niskanen.
Shankland for a fee and McNumpty in.

January,
Akinola in/out diznae coont!
Fuchs, for a fee and no direct replacement(Does McDonald count?)
Appere, for a fee and replaced by Watt for a fee.
K Smith, for a fee with the latter covered by the revelation that is Ross Graham.

After that, im struggling to see the case that TC had a serious lack of resources to deal with as the following have hardly been missed.
Reynolds (1 appearance), past the end of his time and better youths ahead of him.
Chalmers (2+3),
Carson (4) baffling signing and loan!
Glass (6+4),
Watson (2+3).

In effect, loosing one player in Fuchs is really all TC had to deal with, but he looked to have downed tools anyway so no real loss! If there are other first team player departures i am missing, then please tell me?

Again im struggling to see why Freeman makes a good case to give TC credit and to be critical of Mellon. Since Kieron arrived under Nielson, he has had a solid Liam Smith ahead of him and Mellon quite rightly put him out on loan, a decision that TC reaped the rewards from with Freemans performances when Smith was injured. Was TC right to let Flynn Duffy head out on loan this season? I think both managers have had to deal with very similar situations, and both should get credit for helping improve these players.

[tHeArAb]

If Shankland was such a good striker, why did someone who is considered so bad score more than him last season? 8 goals for Shanks against 11 for Clark. To me, there was something else going on along with the way Mellon played the team. This season our top scorer is Clark on 7 where our head coach has said he is using our top scorer in a role he is not suited to, and the football on show is little different! We dont create chances for our forwards and this is borne out by the fact that the leagues top scorer in January has scored 1 solitary goal since he joined when he really should have been that true Shankland replacement! You've made me smile though as with 2 games to go, we have scored 2 more goals and have the same 44 points we finished in 9th with last season!

Im struggling with this 10 players figure that people are banding about. Apparently 12 players(Wiki but no youth loans counted) in total departed through the whole season, and if they were all first team regulars, then yes he had something to deal with, but.......

Summer,
Connolly who had already been replaced by Mulgrew with K Smith and Nielson emerging.
Robson for a fee replaced by McMann(who i believe was playing injured) and Niskanen.
Shankland for a fee and McNumpty in.

January,
Akinola in/out diznae coont!
Fuchs, for a fee and no direct replacement(Does McDonald count?)
Appere, for a fee and replaced by Watt for a fee.
K Smith, for a fee with the latter covered by the revelation that is Ross Graham.

After that, im struggling to see the case that TC had a serious lack of resources to deal with as the following have hardly been missed.
Reynolds (1 appearance), past the end of his time and better youths ahead of him.
Chalmers (2+3),
Carson (4) baffling signing and loan!
Glass (6+4),
Watson (2+3).

In effect, loosing one player in Fuchs is really all TC had to deal with, but he looked to have downed tools anyway so no real loss! If there are other first team player departures i am missing, then please tell me?

Again im struggling to see why Freeman makes a good case to give TC credit and to be critical of Mellon. Since Kieron arrived under Nielson, he has had a solid Liam Smith ahead of him and Mellon quite rightly put him out on loan, a decision that TC reaped the rewards from with Freemans performances when Smith was injured. Was TC right to let Flynn Duffy head out on loan this season? I think both managers have had to deal with very similar situations, and both should get credit for helping improve these players.

About to start work, so I'll only reply to the Shankland bit. You're missing my point slightly I think. Good, bad, worse record than Clark, whatever..... He scored 8 goals. That's an 8 goal striker that Courts hasn't had. He's had Marc Mcnulty. And also, if you don't think we have been affected by the loss of those 10 or so players then you must be watching a different Utd to me. We have zero strength in depth, highlighted by the fact we have to keep playing Clark & McNulty.

[arab777]

If Shankland was such a good striker, why did someone who is considered so bad score more than him last season? 8 goals for Shanks against 11 for Clark.

Of these 11 goals, 2 were penalty kicks and another 2 against the worst team in Scotland Brechin, a game Shankland missed because he was on international duty with Scotland. I am sure there were free kicks in there as well.

The bottom line is there was a total lack of service to our strikers. I would have loved to have seen Shankland play with Watt. Tony would have complemented him very well.

[TerryTheTerror]

I think what tHeArAb is saying is last season we had Shankland, Clark, and McNulty but this season we have the others but not Shanks.

The main issue being we are a striker down but that's more to do with what turned out to be the poor recruitment of signing Biamou.

Regardless the point he makes still stands, we are a striker down and those 8 goals could we have seen us already 4th. Speculation of course but I'd imagine they'd have made some difference.

[tHeArAb]

I think what tHeArAb is saying is last season we had Shankland, Clark, and McNulty but this season we have the others but not Shanks.

The main issue being we are a striker down but that's more to do with what turned out to be the poor recruitment of signing Biamou.

Regardless the point he makes still stands, we are a striker down and those 8 goals could we have seen us already 4th. Speculation of course but I'd imagine they'd have made some difference.

Shanks was a guaranteed goalscorer. Always has been. Courts doesn't have that. As you say TTT, those 8 goals would've had us breezing into Europe instead of looking at other teams for favours.

Yes we signed Watt, but as has been said, he spends most of his time stuck on the wing and the rest on his arse. He's never been a goalscorer, and what we all feared was a purple patch for him at Motherwell, is looking to be true. That's not to say he hasn't been a good signing. If you only look at the stats, then quite rightly you may be asking wtf have we done to the league's top scorer, but he brings more to the team than goals. We really need someone to compliment his creative streak though. Something Van Veen did at Well.

[Chick A Saw]

About to start work, so I'll only reply to the Shankland bit. You're missing my point slightly I think. Good, bad, worse record than Clark, whatever..... He scored 8 goals. That's an 8 goal striker that Courts hasn't had. He's had Marc Mcnulty. And also, if you don't think we have been affected by the loss of those 10 or so players then you must be watching a different Utd to me. We have zero strength in depth, highlighted by the fact we have to keep playing Clark & McNulty.

I think everyone to a man on here is shaking their heads at how bad McNumpty is. The basic fact is that last season we scored 32 league goals with Shankland, McNumpty and Clark scoring 18 of those. This season so far, we have scored 34 with Clark, McNumpty and Watt scoring only 9! So im sorry that im not fully getting the point you are trying to make or that im not giving TC credit, but many people have bemoaned the fact that, added to top scorers out of position, we do not get enough quality chances into the guys who are paid to put the ball in the net, and i dont think Shanks would have had any more chances to score than the others! The fantastic goals from others should be a celebrated bonus, not something to be relied on!

[weegiearab]

I think that comparing scoring rates in this way can throw up some dodgy stats.....what these stats show is that we have nothad a balanced team in a way that complements our strikers. McNulty might do well with a big striker next to him to play off.....Shankland could have been better with Watts supply.... it is all about getting the balance right. You need to look at a strikers peak goal scoring and look at the whole picture....what was the system they played...what type of goals did they score. Looking at it in isolation is not ideal. We need to find out what type of striker complements Tony Watt..then we need to find a strike partner that complements that striker. We also need to find a midfielder that can link up well with Tony what.
This is where TC will have his work cut out as he needs to identify these players and give TA a list of what he wants. We need balance...get that balance right and the rest of the players should flourish!