Quote Originally Posted by Don Julio View Post
So, the honeymoon is over and we?re back to the usual happy clappers v pant pishers. Worth thinking about why and how we?ve got here.

Quality on the park
The core of our team remains those that under performed pre Thelin. I think everyone recognises that he?s improved our players all over the park. And yet we?re on a downward slide. So whatever happened early doors versus now isn?t about ability (except maybe the loss of Gueye up front).

Formation/style
The way we play is now understood and we can see people setting up in a way designed to disrupt that in a way they weren?t early on. So it?s more difficult to play the way we want. Lots of people calling for changes in formation. But I don?t see that happening. This is a coach who has made his name playing a certain way and has sold that vision to the board. We might see some evolution but nothing drastic. Is it that we don?t have the quality to deal with opposition who are set up cleverly?

Confidence
We weren?t exactly world beaters during the league cup group stages or the early SPL games. But winning breeds confidence and confidence really matters. That shone through. That?s gone now and no getting it back till we get a win or two.

Performance levels
Not entirely separable from confidence but some players look tired and performances are suffering. One or two appear less motivated? Certainly we?re not battling in the way you have to in Scotland. And we?ve been playing one or two who just don?t seem to be up to standard yet. And yet Thelin keeps persevering with some players even when performance levels are low.

For me, what we?re seeing is Thelin having a very clear blueprint which has met the reality of a group of players who can?t execute it well enough against teams who are set up to nullify it. And I would argue that maybe the reason he keeps playing the same players is that he feels they?re the ones most able to execute what he wants. So even when they?re clearly exhausted he keeps playing them. Put that together and you see a drop in performance and a loss of confidence. Add in strikers who aren?t firing and a central defensive partnership that?s too inexperienced and you get what we?re seeing.

All this might be right, might be wrong. But in the short term the January window looks important and at the very minimum we need to fix the back line and the number 9 or we?re in trouble.

Sorry - far too long a post?.
On the contrary, an excellent well thought out post DJ.

I would add to the above that the matchday squad against United contained 13 players that were signed before JT arrived (it was 14 the match before) so we need to give JT time to build the squad that he wants before judging him. Patience is required as that will take at least the next two windows if not longer. He came with the reputation of being a steady squad builder so let's give him a chance to show that here. We have to get away from the hire and fire of the last few years and JT has shown enough already that he may well be the long term solution.

I think it's no coincidence that the majority of our league winning run came when we were playing one game a week and the majority of the drawing/losing run has come when we are playing twice a week. The engine of our team of Shinnie/Nilsen are just too old to be effective twice a week in a demanding CM position, which also applies to Devlin to an extent as well (he contributed to a lot of our early season attacking success, much less so recently). After the sevco away game most of the rest of the season for us will be Saturday to Saturday so we may get away with rolling out Shinnie/Nilsen/Devlin but in reality we either have to trust Palaversa/Polvara to start more often or sign alternatives - an alternative to Devlin is clearly needed.

I suspect our overall league record now is probably about what would have been seen as positive for most people at the start of the season given last year's record, it's just very unfortunate we got there by having such a great start to the season followed by a terrible recent run.

We just need to collectively take a breath and trust JT to put it right via both the practice pitch and the transfer window and look forward to getting back on track starting with a win on Thursday