St Mirren v Livi

Wonder how Kenny Miller was feeling after seeing that result yesterday.Brilliant outcome and thoughrally deserved by all accounts.Great to see big Alan back where he belongs in the heart of our defence and chipping in with an assist and a goal to boot.See wee Danny up to his usual tricks again,just glad our guys kept him quiet as we know he can be a handfull on his day.Once again we are are not getting our dues from the press but who cares we will keep proving them wrong on many occasions so get it right up them.Hibs up next in what promises to be a cracker,hopefully keep wee Lennon quite for the duration and have a right go at them.You never know,anyway well done to Gary Davie and the boys for yesterday.Wee move on.

Saunders was signed before Miller, so he may have played Miller’s way but he wasn’t brought in by him.
It was clear to me from what I saw of him that Lamie & Lithgow should be ahead of him. He did get a good assist at Parkhead though.

Durnford wrote:An excellent performance and result but surely this gives us a lot more problems; albeit nice ones to have.

Obviously Lithgow needs to start regularly, interesting to see Saunders didnt even get a place on the bench. Lamie also was pretty impressive up the left side.

Lawless had a very strong game going forward (but seemed to struggle a bit defensively) but so did Kaja although the latter certainly appears more effective as an impact sub.

A big struggle is going to be what to do with our front line; with Hardie approaching fitness and Miller presumably back soon; what happens with Hamilton and Robinson; a makeshift forward line that still managed to cause problems for St. Mirren right from the off.

Word about Lawson; think he will be a valued addition to the team although he seemed too keen to make an impression at times with one or two rash challenges going in; not least just after he'd been booked for a challenge which, in my opinion, was unjust but anyway could easily have been sent off and was correctly substituted at half time. Will need to get used to the team and the speed of the premiership; that being said does Keaghan not also deserve to start - but who would you drop?

Quite a challenge for the new manager.

Funnily enough I'd completely forgotten about Sibbald. Potentially is this better than the Squad we had in our first season in the SPL?

In a word - No!

orco wrote:In a word - No!

Okay on goal we had Broto/Culkin - In my opinion Kelly has shown glimpses of being at least as good as them in every department but kicking. Broto's long kicks are still legend but otherwise its pretty close.

Defensively we had Hart/Brinquin (I think) Andrews, Rubio; Bollan/Sabatini - On Saturday Lamie was better than Bollan and frankly Lithgow was better than Andrews. Halkett and Rubio are pretty much on par; both had their plus points although Rubio's experience probably manages to shade it here for him.

Midfield is a bit of a struggle as often we played 4-3-3 but trying to fit thing in we had Quino; Lovell, Fernandez - Obviously with Pittman and Byrne we can pretty much cover Quino and Lovell - Fernandez is more difficult to put up an argument against however he came under some pretty rough treatment later which left him heavily exposed; in replacements we had Caputo and Tosh (and McCulloch?) - now we have a choice from Jacobs; Sibbald; Lawson; Lawless; Kaja; Cadden; Robinson and Knox; maybe none are a Davide Fernandez but the overall strength of the squad needs to be considered. The treatment that Fernandez got in the cup final from Scott Brown being a case in point and that was just one game.

Upfront out most common lineup was Wilson; Bingham; Xausa. By comparison we have (when fit) Hardie; Hamilton; Miller; Da Vita and Menga. Pretty close in my book.

Squad wise I really do think we're at least on par; the big unknown though is the strategic management ability of Leishman and Haye compared to Gary Holt and his team. Time will tell; I was a bit worried when he took Hamilton off in the St. Mirren game with still about 20 minutes to go but it worked out well enough.

Its a long season but I do feel the depth of the squad this time around potentially means that we can weather an injury crisis better than in 2001/2002. I'm not saying we're going to finish in the top half (there's too many good sides around for that with a lot more money than us) but do think we have the makings of a reasonable mid-table position.

Defensively naebody was better than Marvin, esp in the air. He not only claimed any high ball into our box, he owned any high ball into our half. Wasn't many players that would even be brave enough to challenge him for one.
However as a back 3 unit our current players could match up well.

Broto also takes it imo, absolutely outstanding keeper, my personal best Livi keeper ever, with Alexander a close 2nd.
Kelly has been solid though and massively improved from his last spell with us, i'm really happy having him.

Wingers are 50/50, Barry Wilson would be first choice in our current team but Michael Hart wouldn't.

Midfield is tricky, Xausa/Tosh, Lovell, Quino-Byrne, Pittman, Sibbald/Robinson. Both have great qualities, Sibbs adds some flair to Pitts and Byrne's hard graft, quality wise though i'd gp for class of 2001/02.


And I just couldn't possibly go past Fernandez and Bingham, my 2 choices of best outfield players ever in a Livi shirt, Fernandez skill was something to behold and Bingham was a tricky fecker too. I'd have Hardie as a sub in a best Livi XI from those two eras though. Choosing between Fernandez, Bingham and Griffiths would be a lot harder, throw Lilley in there too and my head would hurt trying to select a starting pair.


This team v that team though, well unless this team comes 3rd at the end of the season then why are we even discussing who's best?

Fair enough although Broto lasted less than half a season didn't he when we brought in Culkin on loan.

Agreed Andrews use to win pretty much everything in the air but so does Lithgow/Halket. Coupled with that Lithgow's long throw ability and chipping in with a few goals edges it for me.

I enjoyed watching Barry Wilson, an exciting player to watch, but I'm not sure he'd get so much space nowadays. Actually I was astounded that we let him go back to ICT (on a free wasn't it).

Bingham was an enigma; as you say a tricky fecker; just kept chipping in with the goals even though for some games he didn't seem to do much - whether Hardie cuts it at this level remains to be seen but I am getting more and more impressed by Hamilton (Forfar game aside) who seems to be really settling in to the first team possibly quicker than Griffith's ever did.

For this season we have the old firm plus the Edinburgh twosome and Aberdeen presumably challenging for the top spots. Its difficult seeing any other team competing there. Hibs game will be an interesting game although its difficult to see getting much from this (unless the pitch comes in our favour - imagine the mockrage interview with Lennon after the game ).

One thing that that team did really have in its strength is that you pretty much knew who was going to be on the team-sheet every game; currently we probably know (or think we know) five or six of the defined starters for every game; other than that its been pretty fluid (no thanks to Miller).

What is really pleasing though is that we're even able to have this conversation; I can't think of one team since 2001/2 that would even come close; some individual players maybe but nowhere near a team.

Liviforever wrote:This team v that team though, well unless this team comes 3rd at the end of the season then why are we even discussing who's best?

Oh and I'm not saying this team is definitely better but it at least is able to draw some comparison; we know we wont end up in third place irrespective; the financial gulf is just too wide.

If its just a bit of fun then fair dos but i feel its a tad unfair to compare this squad to the one from 2001.For a start most of the current squad are a lot younger and dont yet have the experience that the former had although obviously that will come through time.Would agree that when we have a fully fit current squad then yes comparisons will inevitably be made and that there is a togetherness that hasnt been seen for a long time with these lads.Suffice to say that the legends from 2001 will always have there place in our short history always cemented and would be interesting if our current lads can get anywhere near what those guys achieved.Lol T.

Comparisons can only ever be for fun as they are subjective rather than objective.

In my book the best player ever to wear a Livi shirt is Quino; closest thing I've seen at out level of football to Xavi; his range of passing was incredible; he rarely gave it away & he chipped in with a few excellent goals. The only thing he lacked was pace but he often made himself the space to operate in with his awareness & anticipation.

Fernandez was exciting but should have scored more IMO.

As Troy says the experience of the side back then was greater but they still punched way above their weight by finishing third.

Alan Lithgow makes the SPFL team of the week - I wonder if Kenny Miller has seen that?

Durnford wrote:Alan Lithgow makes the SPFL team of the week - I wonder if Kenny Miller has seen that?

Yep, totally baffling as to why he didn't even give him a chance. For that alone i'm glad he's gone, but his playing himself before even giving Hamilton and Miller a try also deserves him being punted.