Livi v Morton

Fortnight break between games sucks, like being back in the Premiership with stop starts all the time, that's what we get for being Spartand though.

Anyways, back to league business and hosting Morton, with Ayr having played their 3rd league match already and winning it, we're 5pts behind them sitting 3rd, and could do with winning this game, trying to keep touching distance of Ayr and Falkirk hoping they'll both hit a bump soon. Morton haven't conceded or scored a league goal yet, two 0-0 draws, so quite optimistic we can score at home and beat them, though expect it'll be tight, prob a nervy 1-0. Would be great if we could get that 2nd goal to ease the nerves though.

Players will be that bit better acquainted with one another, having had another 2 weeks training under their belts, and our link up play showing improvement, looking forward to seeing if the difference shows. We've played well in patches, and that final touch around the box wasn't far off, if it starts clicking i think we'll see us scoring a few goals. Mon the Lions, lets take all the pts.

Started this one early LF…

Morton had a poor cup run but I hadn’t realised they’d had two 0-0 league draws… smack of them doing a Spartans job on us and nicking a 1-0 win.

Anyone know why Ayr played Accies yesterday? Could we not have done something similar to keep us ticking over as well?

Think they played that game to get it out the way.

We've a few players carrying knocks, Montano and Sole being 2 we really could be doing with starting games, and Olly Green isn't up to speed and match fit yet either, so i think the fortnight off does us more good than getting a game played. Hopefully Montano will at least be back in the match day squad, and the other two will be starting against Morton.

I don’t think we’ll see Sole & Muirhead starting together, they make us too attack minded for Davie’s liking. I really don’t know why he brings wingers to the club, or how he persuades them to come, cause if he told them they will either be on the bench or played out of position they wouldn’t sign but that is generally what happens.

Go on Davie, I dare you to prove me wrong.

Sure he played both of them against Kelty in our 5-1 win, Muirhead scored one and Sole got a double, and they linked up well. Hasn't done it since though*.

*i tell a lie, just checked and they started together against Forfar with both scoring, and our 1-0 win over the Pars, with Muirhead scoring. But after that he started with this playing only one of them, and then subbing one for the other nonsense.

Exactly my point. Sole scored against Forfar and was subbed within 10 minutes.

Davie just doesn’t like wingers.

Looking forward to tomorrow if only to see how Davie sets us up.Think for some the jury is out concerning Stevie May,and his match fitness could be questionable.Having said that weve been crying out for help in the forward area.Arguably weve got that now,but will hold my judgement on him till I see him in the flesh.He hasn't done an awfull lot recently, but hopefully a new venture for him will see us reap the rewards of a rejuvenated May.Morton will be no push overs and you'd expect Imrie to have them prepared for this,though the loss of Oakley to Ayr will have seriously hampered them this season albeit the inclusion of big JET to their ranks will be interesting to see.Hope he doesn't come back to haunt us..Anyway good to be back at home and even this early 3 points will keep us on the coat tails of those above us.Mon the Lions .

Nobody but ourselves to blame for not winning, our best bit of play brought the goal but we faffed about with it too often and didn’t really threaten in the first half, then started causing them problems in the second but reverted to faffing about again once we scored. Then you get Sole making a stupid challenge in the box, penalty despatched and suddenly Morton have a spell of getting forward. We get the chance to win it in the last few seconds, was it in? Couldn’t possibly tell from C2 but I’m not convinced we should still have been playing at that point anyway, where did 5 mins of injury time come from?

Decent enough debut from May, I initially thought it was him who scored but all in all not enough urgency and not enough creativity. Oh and by the way… why do we have wingers at the club?

Always the same, we start slowly, huff and puff all 1st half, come out and play better 2nd half and score. That should've been it, Morton didn't look like scoring and it looked a matter of time till we got our 2nd. Although i was wanting Muirhead and Sole on, Sole hadn't got the chance to get up to speed of the game and was caught cold not tracking his man, then got on the wrong side of him allowing the reverse pass inside us, and to top it off made a rash challenge from behind in our box. Was thinking no Sole, don't do it...........

Game changed after that, Morton had been a bit more open after going behind and we were finding space in their final 3rd, but the equaliser allowed them to go back to being compact and time wasting whenever play stopped. Their keeper was in slow motion all game taking kicks, apart from when we were a goal up. Also didn't think we were as fluid after the substitutions, looked disjointed.

Still think Sole and Muirhead starting would be better though, and setting us up to go for it from the start, getting 2 or 3 goals to see games out. Esp playing at home, and would like to see Green or Lawal starting too.

Maybe playing Ayr and Falkirk we'd need to be a bit more defensively set up, but not for any other games. Those are the only 2 that can punish you if you're too open, that's how Ayr ripped Airdrie apart.

Feels like 2 pts thrown away, we should've been out of sight having the cigars out.

With respect, no elongated summary from myself.A game where we should have seen this out comfortably. Chances not takin,albeit a couple of worldly saves from their goalie should have seen us over the line.So dissapointing, especially with Ayr and Falkirk stretching away.I was on the far side of the south stand,and that ball definitely crossed the line off the crossbar.Even Morton fans said so.The one time I wished for VAR. .Thought May looked better than I thought he would.Still feels like we're trying to find our feet here.Enough said,so dissapointed..

Disappointing - like others have said we brought it on ourselves.
Good to see May has 90mins in him.
Slow and indecisive - players not looking for a forward pass , faffing around playing it back/ sideways when there are other options available - how often was it passed to a player with 2 men on them.

Davie's post match - "hope the fans can see what we're trying to do" or similar wording - half hearted attempts at dominating the game and half hearted attempts at trying to win - IMO

Your not going to score goals , win games , pissing about playing it around at the back / your own half.

McGowan & Finlayson are both slow - like tortoises running through mud.

Having seen Morton and Livi videos of the game, the ball does not cross the goal line after hitting the bar. As I said earlier we have only ourselves to blame for not winning. Yes we have some nice passages of play and you can see the plan is to try to play patiently which is fine if you have the players who can do that and open up the opposition defence but when a defence is packed with no interest in doing anything except stifle, playing slowly plays into their hands. We need more urgency, we need to be zipping the ball around to get them moving and open up space and then we need to be clinical.

Look at our goal, Shinnie switches the play quickly over to Finlayson who wastes very little time in sending it into the “corridor of uncertainty” for Pittman to knock it in. Quick incisive play. But most of the rest of the game was sideways and back, yes it’s good to retain possession and sometimes you have to take the sideway or backwards pass to draw them out but you need to do it quicker than we are doing it, if not you end up trying to hang on to a 1-0 and you get punished by a quick break or an overload on one side or a sub not yet up to game speed making a rash challenge & giving away a pen.

I think it had crossed the line Nick, the freeze frame i did shows it at the keeper's feet, which is behind the line, whether it is fully over i can't tell as the pic isn't the sharpest, or the angle the best, but it's def partly over, and maybe fully over.




Clarke's miss was also a killer, buries that and it's def game over, the double save by the keeper, esp saving May's shot heading for the top corner was unreal, Shinnie hitting the post, Notts hitting the bar, one of these games we'll hit the net instead of the woodwork all the time.




There are positives in our play, we're creating chances and dominating games, but yes, we need to be doing it in the 1st half too, and not waiting till the 2nd half before we score, and we need to be making forward passes quicker, spotting runners, and not always turning back looking for the safe pass. Poster on the P&B forum summed up our play, methodical, slow and safe, we need to start making riskier forward passes, but maybe that's also down to players not yet gelled, and on the same wavelength.

May is looking a good signing, willing to do the running up front, and press defenders, and looks desperate to score, it wont be long till he finds the net i'm sure.

Think Muirhead has to start though, he isn't an impact sub, and needs started to get the best from him, would like to see Sole starting too, and both playing together, getting the time to do something. The lack of game time Sole and Green are getting is doing my head in.

livikev wrote:Disappointing - like others have said we brought it on ourselves.
Good to see May has 90mins in him.
Slow and indecisive  - players not looking for a forward pass , faffing around playing it back/ sideways when there are other options available - how often was it passed to a player with 2 men on them.

Davie's post match - "hope the fans can see what we're trying to do" or similar wording -  half hearted attempts at dominating the game and half hearted attempts at trying to win - IMO

Your not going to score goals , win games ,  pissing about playing it around at the back / your own half.

McGowan & Finlayson are both slow - like tortoises running through mud.

I agree with him to an extent, we're not just lumping it forward like last season, but we're too slow in our build up play, it's fine knocking it about at the back, having to go back to go forward, esp when playing a team that doesn't want to come out of their own half, sitting in to break on us. But when we do go forward, it needs to be done a lot quicker, that sudden burst of pace zipping the ball to feet and runners being spotted. It's like painting by numbers just now, frustrating to watch.

All looks a bit disjointed just now too, with players not playing as a team, Yengi made a great bursting run, but didn't spot the player to his left bursting a gut getting up the pitch for the pass, and instead went to his right and kept going till he ran into a blind alley. Same with our passing, it's always safety first nd turn back looking for the pass that'll keep possession, not looking up and seeing a runner going forward*, and when we do make a forward pass, it's usually behind the runner, who has to stop and come back for the ball.

*which brings me back to wanting Green playing, he's a shining light for getting us forward quickly, and making that decisive pass that'll send us on our way to attacking their goal. His first thought is going forward, and doesn't automatically turn back looking for a safe option.

Sole makes things happen too (not usually in the way he did on Sat, giving away a pen), a player that can take the bll with his back to goal, turn and beat his man to get space to run with the ball. And wont just pass it back to the player that passed to him, because an opposition player is on him. Yengi on the other hand, needs the ball played in front of him, to run at defenders, he's hopeless with his back to goal, and will lose the ball 99 times out of 100.

Yengi frustrates the hell out of me.I get he's being asked to play out of position at times,but cmon.For me he hasn't the pace you'd expect from a number 9.Hes got May with him now so hopefully that will help.We can't start everyone on any givin Saturday. Suspect we're still trying to find our strongest 11 ie Montano Green for instance.Then who do you drop?
I get its early doors,but the two above us look menacingly strong at the moment.We can't let them stretch away,which if we continue to drop points is a distinct possibility ‍�.

Yeah it's a tough one deciding the strongest starting XI, not just the best XI players, but the best team, where they all blend together as a functioning unit.

Shinnie has his place, he gets involved in the build up to our goals (in previous games too), and hit the post with a shot, when he went off we seemed to lose our shape in attack. However if he's playing are we keeping better players out the team, like Muirhead on Saturday. Start Muirhead and we'd have a player that is more likely to score himself, and win us games.

Also where do you play Yengi now we've signed May, May is a better No9 than Yengi, more natural striker, with pace, so do we move Yengi onto the wing, same problem as Shinnie, that keeps Sole or Muirhead out, both better players. Or can we play 2 up front, with May play off Yengi.

Could we go with a front 3, if we did, my preference would be Muirhead-May-Sole.

Also want to see Green starting, which means moving Brandon to a RB and dropping Finlayson, who i thought was looking better playing there.

Doesn't look like there would be a place for Shinnie, but really can't see Martindale dropping him.

My choice would be;

..........                         Shamal

Brandon         Nottingham*      McGowan           Montano*  


Sole               Pitts                 Green                 Kelly


....                         May          Muirhead  

*Montano is going to be played as a CB though, so Notts would be dropped for Montano, and Clarke playing LB.

Like i said, Shinnie wont b dropped so i know i'll never see that starting line up, but i can dream.

Agree on the wonder saves LF and Clark’s miss but we need to be creating these type of openings more often to be able to capitalise. If a striker scores 1 in 2 chances he’s prolific, if he scores 1 in 3 he’s very good, we are lucky if we score 1 in 6 as a team so we need to create 12 chances to score twice. That needs to improve massively and it won’t while we play the way we are playing.

As for the team

George seems to be a fixture, I would like to see if Prior is any good before saying who goalie should be but George hasn’t done anything to merit being replaced so far.

Clark is a better LB than Montano, Montano has the edge going forward but I think Clark links better with the guy ahead of him. Would be interesting in seeing them both on the left with Montano at LM or LW but my gut says I don’t think it would work…

Back four would be Brandon McGowan Nottingham Clark

We have too many midfielders to fit them all in. Green was outstanding against Dunfermline, only time I’ve really seen him but I’d play him on the strength of that performance, even if he can only give you 60 minutes. So… midfield four

Sole Green Pittman Shinnie with Green bringing the ball out, Shinnie providing assistance in the middle third, Sole switching wings and Pittman supporting the forwards. I like Kelly based on when he first arrived but I don’t see him currently reaching that level, that said he could start instead of Pittman, Pitts is a Livi legend but is not the force he once was, still more of a goal threat than Kelly though. Kelly could also start instead of Shinnie but I agree that we’ve been better balanced with Shinnie on the pitch and Davie isn’t going to drop him unless he has to.

I’d go with May & Muirhead as a front pairing.

Green & Shinnie give their all for 60 mins then you bring on Kelly for Shinnie or Pittman, Brandon takes over from Green with Finlayson coming on as the sub to fill the RB position (or Lawal straight swap with Green)

Montano or Korboa can switch out with Sole on 70/75 mins (or Montano for Clark)

Yengi can come on for Muirhead or May about then too.

As the season progresses some those can be switched to cover for injuries/suspensions/loss of form.

Pass and move, shift it quickly and really go at them.

Davie was rabbitting on about establishing ourselves as the Celtic or Rangers of this division by focusing on how we play rather than how the opposition play… but the way we’re playing isn’t causing enough problems.

Saw Prior playing and he looked a lot better than Shamal with the ball at his feet (very confident and good), and his kicks. He's also quick with his distribution, and accurate*. Couldn't say about his goal keeping though, it was in our friendly against Alloa and he hadn't much to do in the way of making saves, it was all pass backs and taking kicks, which he was excellent at.

*That's something we're hopeless at just now, never going to hit teams on the counter because we're too slow getting the ball up the pitch, and we don't actually leave a player on the halfway line when defending set plays to get a counter attack going. We have to break from our own box and run the full length of the pitch with the opposition already having players back in defensive positions.

Liverpool showed how to do that effectively on Sunday against Brentford but I agree, we need someone as an out ball.

Auld Nick wrote:Liverpool showed how to do that effectively on Sunday against Brentford but I agree, we need someone as an out ball.

Stevie May would be ideal, but we'll have him in our box defending a set piece. I'd like to see the data for doing this, how it's more effective than leaving a man up the pitch, which also drags 2 opposition players up the pitch, so we still outnumber the opposition in our box by 10 men to 7, with them having their keeper back in their own half, 2 men marking our man on the halfway line, and the one taking the set piece.

So why do we need to have 11 men in the box, which allows them to have 9 men in and around our box, with anything cleared going straight to their players to come back into our box.