Midfield

[DonnyDuck]

Can somebody please answer why Ian Mcshane,who I've completely ran out of patience with and can't understand why we didn't accept any offer from Ross County) is getting in the team infront of Steven McKenna?

His delivery is abysmal and I can't decide if his first touch is actually a pass or just that bad?

[deek5trans]

If he played any deeper tonight he would have been in goals.
He's a alright player when he's coming forward but not sure what was going on tonight.

The only real complaints is he should be banned from taking set pieces.

[deek5trans]

If you want to point fingers at midfield
Michael Paton is the biggest waste of space.

[DonnyDuck]

I'm afraid he was slower than a week in the jail at actually passing the ball forward tonight,constantly wanting to pass back to defence in such an important game? Whole midfield seemed to be missing tonight

[deek5trans]

I thought it was a bad decision putting Kidd into the centre. Surely if McKenna was on the bench he was fit enough to give 30 or 40 minutes?

The only players i would give pass marks for were Danny and Dowie

[Dobmeister]

At least for league games we can still bring Millar into the midfield.
Any of the happy clappers still happy we didn`t sign anyone to replace Baird? Sick of hearing from some we don`t need to cos russell or paton can do the job.

[rjc_1988]

Criticism of McShane is laughable - easily been one of our best players this season and unlike many others keeps turning out despite carrying a niggling groin injury.

He is a player who keeps looking for the ball in tight spaces and tries constantly to play football the proper way.

If anybody thinks we could let him go and miraculously replace him with better quality at this level they are in for a very rude awakening.

Set pieces are a lot down to luck - some deliveries could be better but situation not helped by us not having a left footer taking corners and free kicks from the right flank.

There is no point in blaming individual players for last night - the game was a total farce in the wind and Falkirk were no better, if as good as we were.

[DonnyDuck]

Nowhere near one of our best players this season..that title lands and Andy Dowies feet first then a few more before (durnan,Clark,Lyle,Kidd to but a few)
Granted he looks for the ball but then try's to do something with it and 9/10 usually ends up passing back the way

As for the luck in set piece situations however,Mitchell was our regular set piece taker over last couple of seasons and we scored a damn sight more goals from them than we do now..all I'm saying is there are bound to be people on the pitch that can kick a ball over the first man?

[rjc_1988]

If I was reading your post correctly you were saying amongst other things that we should have sold McShane to Ross County for what would have amounted to loose change. Thankfully those in charge disagreed with that strategy.


As for the passsing back - central midfield is arguably the hardest position to play - it would be very easy to keep playing aimless balls forward more in hope than expectation but surely better to keep the ball and wait for an opening than continully give away cheap possession.

There are many who find McShane a frustrating player - I did initially but I think he is an excellent footballer with loads of natural ability and plenty of scope to develop further. He is miissing Kerr beside him but that ship has sailed. Filling central midfield with willing workhorses is one alternative to McShane but not one that I would personally want to see.

[Cresswell]

Sorry, rjc, but while I think you post a lot of sense I think it is nonsense to suggest set pieces are down to luck. If McShane has a major weakness it is his set piece delivery. How often have you seen him either not get the ball past the first defender or over hit it out of play. If a professional golfer can hit a wee ball with a stick over 150-200 yards to within a few feet of where he wants it to land surely McShane, as a full-time professional footballer, should be able to hit a football 30-40 yards to within a few feet of where he wants it to land. Practice, dear boy, practice.