Livi v Falkirk

Lack of urgency, options and creativity in midfield and a fluke goal made the difference today. Burchill needs to drop the big names and get back to starting a team that'll work for each other rather than trying to give everyone a game but saying that, even he doesn't know his best XI.

The counter-attacking team of last spring seems like a far too distant memory.

I must admit I got a bit fed up watching that game yesterday, I've criticised the midfield and championed signing Hugo but him I and Cole didn't work yesterday.

Cole is a defender and as everyone says we now have 5 centre backs at the club, so I can see what the manager is trying to do playing 352 as it suits the players at his disposal, but we really need to get them all playing for the positions that suit them not just playing them In the team because they have the tag as captain.

Every player needs to earn the right to play. I can't see what qualities as a captain that Cole brings to the team at all, he was so lazy yesterday , the captain should be the hardest worker in the team and should be a leader encouraging the others to bust a gut for the cause. Did he show these qualities yesterday? Maybe I missed it as I went to the toilet and was on my phone a couple of times during the game so my apologies in advance if I got this observation wrong.

So my view is these players should be playing for these positions in future as a 352 and let's get a settled team all fighting for their own position.

Goalkeeper from 2 players below
DJ
Gould

Back 3 from 5 players below
Gallagher
Gordon
Sives
Cole
Neil

Wing backs from 4 players below
Millen
Longridge
Hippolyte
Mullen

Centre Mid from 5 players below
Faria
Pittman
Gibbons
Glen
Georgiev

Forwards from 3 players below
White
Sheerin
Buchanan

Utility from 2 players below if we ever see them again
Currie
Duckrell

Why not give it a try.

DJ

Gallagher - Sives - Gordon

Mullen (wing back) Cole - Pittman - Faria - Hippolyte (wing back)

White - Buchanan


Its not working with what we have just now, so change it.

Didn't Cole play at right back for the team formerly known as Rangers?

I agree with comments about Cole - watching yesterday i couldn't see what justified the Captains Armband.
We missed Pittman , Faria looks the part , watched him in the friendlies and was impressed , though yesterday looked as though not match fit .
Mullen falls about too much and too easily , ref's have him tagged so he will get very little awarded his way.
White plays too deep , a reflection that our midfield is absent.
Our general work rate looked very poor , movement off the ball (ahem) , players in the same space , bumping into each other , we just look disorganised.

Buchanan was a player who when playing against us ran riot and tormented our midfield and backs , he's either lost these abilities or being told not to do it.

White is being wasted - punting the long ball for him to win and feed Mullen , who nine times out of ten is out of position (in his own world).

There were times yesterday when looking for a forward pass our "Strike Force" where loitering in midfield.

Its lack of good coaching and training - we also seem to have a backroom squad who are happy to hide in the dugout , at half and full time i was impressed that so many of them could could fit under the shelter.

cptn_hooch wrote:Didn't Cole play at right back for the team formerly known as Rangers?

He did, played right back for Rangers1872-2012 and also captained the Scotland 17's and 19's in that position as well.
He did look solid last season in the middle but looks lost this season

Think it's a case of having too many similar players in certain positions and trying to play them all instead of choosing the best from that position and dropping the rest. Until we do that we're fecked and will be playing to a fraction of what we're capable of.

Cole and Sives should be dropped but the manager will have to have the courage to do it instead of taking the easier option of leaving out the younger players. Thought Cole would do well with Faria but it didn't work, and once Pittman is back from injury he's a must play in midfield which will make it even harder to fit players in that are currently being put in there.


DJ in goal, but for gawd sake he needs to get his kicking sorted, said on his blog he tries not to knock it straight down the middle as it just gets knocked straight back up by the big CB's but that's what he keeps on doing, or straight to their keeper.

Millen and Longridge as the FB and Gallagher and Gordon CB's.

Gibbons might work well with Faria, energetic young player along with an older experienced CM to coach him, Pittman and Hippo as attacking midfielders.

Sheerin, White/Buchanan up front. Would like to see Sheerin and White given a chance to work together but if not then Buchanan and Sheerin, either way I think Sheerin is the hold up player/target man  we need with one of the other two.

Mullen on the bench for now as an impact sub. Neil to shore things up IF we get ourselves ahead with 20 mins to go.

Once we get a settled starting 11 that works and they all play together it would also make a big difference as they'd have an instinctive knowledge of where players will go, just now it's disjointed looking individuals because we're chopping and changing the starting 11 every game.

Right now we're still only a win from getting ourselves up into the middle of the pack around 6th place but another couple of defeats and we'll be left sitting in the bottom 3 with Alloa and Morton like the Cowden-Alloa-Livi 3 way of last season all over again.

I vote Liviforever as guest manager for the next two games.

Burchill probably thinks that because Cole used to play for the Gers and had 10 minutes in a Champions League match that he's a stick on captain for a diddy team like Livingston. Questions need to be asked of the manager that we're now in late August and he still doesn't know his best team or what tactics/formation to implement. We went through at least 3 formations yesterday as well as a tactical substitution at half-time.

It's very much the same as last season in my view, what we lack is pace and direction. I'll give credit to Burchill that at least he's not stubborn/blind enough to refuse to change things, but he's had all summer to build a squad, and in the games I've watched us in the league (Raith and Falkirk), they've both looked much more solid outfits. Burchill ought to watch DVDs of Livi under Gary Bollan. We had a lot of options there, and a lot of good players were left out too, but we played with a lot more space and urgency, something we've lacked for a couple of years.

My starting XI would be a simple 4-4-2, very similar to what kept us up last season. It's the Scottish Championship we're in here, so 4-4-2 isn't a dead formation at this level.

Jamieson

Longridge
Gallagher
Gordon (captain)
Cole

Glen
Pittman
Faria
Mullen

White
Sheerin

Pls.

You're watching a different game from me if you think Mullen should be in and Hippo out.

Didn't Cole start at RB against Raith, near gave away a goal when he kept the ball in for the Raith player to take it and run in on goal. Would prefer Millen playing there and have Longridge at LB.

Glen has done well when I've seen him so could be decent alongside Faria, I think Gibbons would also do well there with Faria guiding him.

Personally I'd like to see us go back to the Davie Hay style of play.

We have an abnormal amount of defenders, lets put it to use. We have 2 full backs who can also bomb forward.

I'd play

GK

Jamieson

CB's

Gallacher
Gordon
Neill

WB's
Millen
Longridge

Mid
Faria
Gibbons
Pittman

FWD
White
Mullen

Bench

Gould
Sives
Hippo
Cole
Spas
Sheeryn
Buchanan

I'd want that team to defend and play on the break using White and Mullen as the foils with the wing backs bombing forward at every oppurtunity. 3 in the centre of midfield to win the midfield battle with Pittman to be the support man going forward.

FWIW

I think we were awful on Saturday. We looked tired and were playing at training ground pace rather than match pace. It broke down too often in midfield. Cole looked lost, Faria looked bereft of match fitness and we sorely missed Pittman in that midfield.

I thought that both White and Mullen worked hard but were kicked about and they had little to no support from the midfield.

Hippo played well on the wing but didn't do great as fullback. He's not a fullback, I wish Burchy would stop playing him there. Spas looked promising but was too light-weight and was often bullied off the ball by Grangemouth

spiggle wrote:Personally I'd like to see us go back to the Davie Hay style of play.

We have an abnormal amount of defenders, lets put it to use. We have 2 full backs who can also bomb forward.

I'd play

GK

Jamieson

CB's

Gallacher
Gordon
Neill

WB's
Millen
Longridge

Mid
Faria
Gibbons
Pittman

FWD
White
Mullen

Bench

Gould
Sives
Hippo
Cole
Spas
Sheeryn
Buchanan

I'd want that team to defend and play on the break using White and Mullen as the foils with the wing backs bombing forward at every oppurtunity. 3 in the centre of midfield to win the midfield battle with Pittman to be the support man going forward.

FWIW

I think we were awful on Saturday. We looked tired and were playing at training ground pace rather than match pace. It broke down too often in midfield. Cole looked lost, Faria looked bereft of match fitness and we sorely missed Pittman in that midfield.

I thought that both White and Mullen worked hard but were kicked about and they had little to no support from the midfield.

Hippo played well on the wing but didn't do great as fullback. He's not a fullback, I wish Burchy would stop playing him there. Spas looked promising but was too light-weight and was often bullied off the ball by Grangemouth

Actually quite like the look of that team with a couple of provisos.

Longridge needs to learn about pressing forward down the wing rather than stopping whenever he gets the ball and passing it back to Sives/Cole

Cole? Why is he even in the team let alone captain? I never saw the great quality that others seemed to laud him with last season; true he showed commitment by agreeing a renewal to his contract so early, even before we could actually sign players I believe, but he's never captain material. On Saturday when they scored their second goal the whole team trooped back up field with their heads down - we'd lost the game then. At this stage you would want you captain to be balling his lungs out shouting encouragement; clapping his hands and trying to gee people up. Not a peep from Cole as far I saw. Also he did more short or robbed passes than Liam Fox.

DJ  - Don't just hump the ball up to White every time; a total waste and it only serves to give the ball back to them. On Saturday Gallagher was in acres of space on the wing; Burchill and his team were yelling to give the ball to him but DJ just thumps it straight up the park again giving the ball straight back to Falkirk.

Mullen - the young man runs himself into the ground; I really question whether he has the stamina to remain on the field for more than 45 minutes and be fully effective. I might be tempted to use Buchanan in the first half and introduce him in the second once the opposition have tired.

White - stop tracking back to defend at every opportunity. He offers very little to the defence and is missing if/when we get the chance to break. Likewise he's only going to score goals if he in or around the opposition's area; not ours.

Hippolyte (when he comes on) - apart from dropping the show-boating, particularly when we're a goal down, his long throws into the area are too easily defended against. Their tall defenders know its coming and its easily cut out. Have the majority our players standing outside the area; timing their run in to gain height and to get the ball moving towards the goal rather than bobbling hopelessly in the air.

We badly missed the bite and inventiveness that the Jacobs brothers offered last season - The midfield of Gibbons and Pitman with Faria playing the O'Brien role could actually offer a proper replacement. Too often this season we've simply lost the midfield. Having done that its too easy to simply resort to the long ball game.

'Show-boating sand-dancer' - I think that's the perfect way to describe Myles Hippolyte.

Aye he sand danced his way through the last 5 games and in the cup final, if he gets played in the right position he'll rip teams apart and puts in a good ball from the wing/byeline too. As well writing Gallagher off because he's average playing RB too, and White because he can't score being up front getting no service.

I'm glad everyone is coming to a similar consensus about the game and the way our season is panning out. I don't think we're as bad as the games have shown but the team is in pretty desperate need of organisation and creativity. The one thing I don't agree with is dropping Sives as he's been one of our best players this season (not saying much I know). I actually don't even think the defence needs changing, we're making the best of what we have there and it's not the problem area.

That goes to our pretty diabolical midfield. I don't see the point in playing both Faria and Cole, especially when they were doing their jobs pretty horrendously anyway. Georgiev looks painfully lightweight and just can't pose a potent threat because of that. Hippolyte didn't have a good game either but it's clear he's capable of better. I'd get Gibbons back in as it's clear the guy can make a pass which is more than can be said for the rest of them.

Faria and Gibbons holding, Pittman or Glen ahead of them. Hippolyte on the left and why not give Duckrell a shot on the right, the boy has pace from the limited amount we've seen of him.

Buchanan needs a better shot up front for me as well. It won't work if we keep punting the ball but if we get back to passing but I think there's some potential for fluid football where we can cause problems. White is a decent option as are Mullen and Sheerin if we want to mix things up.

It was definitely better on Saturday than the previous week so you just have to hope there's small progress continuing to be made.

Burchill simply has to try something different on Tuesday as it's simply not working at the moment.

Liviforever wrote:Aye he sand danced his way through the last 5 games and in the cup final, if he gets played in the right position he'll rip teams apart and puts in a good ball from the wing/byeline too. As well writing Gallagher off because he's average playing RB too, and White because he can't score being up front getting no service.

I agree that Hippolyte shows signs of being a good Championship player, he's got a great left foot and can take the ball past players when moving forward. The thing that frustrates me about him is that he often gets himself into the right position to make the best of his abilities, but instead tries tricks and flicks, which are of no use and never come off. Saturday was a classic example, there was no urgency or pace from him and instead just flicked the ball about in the middle of the park a lot. Someone like Glen is better suited in that position for now.

Gallagher is a centre half, and White isn't given the ball often enough so you can't compare their contributions.

EdinburghLivi wrote:I'm glad everyone is coming to a similar consensus about the game and the way our season is panning out. I don't think we're as bad as the games have shown but the team is in pretty desperate need of organisation and creativity. The one thing I don't agree with is dropping Sives as he's been one of our best players this season (not saying much I know). I actually don't even think the defence needs changing, we're making the best of what we have there and it's not the problem area.

That goes to our pretty diabolical midfield. I don't see the point in playing both Faria and Cole, especially when they were doing their jobs pretty horrendously anyway. Georgiev looks painfully lightweight and just can't pose a potent threat because of that. Hippolyte didn't have a good game either but it's clear he's capable of better. I'd get Gibbons back in as it's clear the guy can make a pass which is more than can be said for the rest of them.

Faria and Gibbons holding, Pittman or Glen ahead of them. Hippolyte on the left and why not give Duckrell a shot on the right, the boy has pace from the limited amount we've seen of him.

Buchanan needs a better shot up front for me as well. It won't work if we keep punting the ball but if we get back to passing but I think there's some potential for fluid football where we can cause problems. White is a decent option as are Mullen and Sheerin if we want to mix things up.

It was definitely better on Saturday than the previous week so you just have to hope there's small progress continuing to be made.

Burchill simply has to try something different on Tuesday as it's simply not working at the moment.

'Fraid I don't share your confidence about the defence; there were far too many unhindered balls put across the goalmouth on Saturday; just waiting for a Falkirk play to stick a toe in to poke it over the line. It is fortunate that this Falkirk side weren't very good and didn't have anyone there; a more active side could have put away a barrel load.

I agree that Sives has done okay generally but I do worry that he is often posted missing when doing one of his forays up-field and is simply too slow in getting back.I liked what I saw of Neill and would like to see him given a change.

Agree about Gibbons; apart from getting involved in the mix all the time he shouts himself horse getting the best from his team-mates and trying to get things moving. Cole is just too casual and careless with his passing.

We certainly missed Pittman.

Lexi Collector wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Aye he sand danced his way through the last 5 games and in the cup final, if he gets played in the right position he'll rip teams apart and puts in a good ball from the wing/byeline too. As well writing Gallagher off because he's average playing RB too, and White because he can't score being up front getting no service.

I agree that Hippolyte shows signs of being a good Championship player, he's got a great left foot and can take the ball past players when moving forward. The thing that frustrates me about him is that he often gets himself into the right position to make the best of his abilities, but instead tries tricks and flicks, which are of no use and never come off. Saturday was a classic example, there was no urgency or pace from him and instead just flicked the ball about in the middle of the park a lot. Someone like Glen is better suited in that position for now.

Gallagher is a centre half, and White isn't given the ball often enough so you can't compare their contributions.

Absolutely, which is why he needs played in a forward position, pref on the left wing. He has a knack of stumbling through everyone doing his twirls etc and coming away with the ball, when he's doing it around the opponents box it causes panic to defenders and opens space for other players too. He can over-elaborate at times i'll grant you, and it is frustrating when we're desperate just to win a game. But like I kept saying last season when he was being written off as an impact sub, give him a run of games playing in the proper position and he'll thrive.

EL; nothing wrong with Sives per se, but Gallagher is better than him and I'd prefer Gordon and Gallagher as our CB pairing. Sives is actually the only outfield player to have started every game this season, if only we had another 8 that had done so too we'd perhaps have a settled looking team playing decent looking football, scoring freely and winning games.

Hippolyte strikes me as one of those classic players who have the skill set to succeed and really stand out in teams, but lack the football brain to fully put it into use. Maybe it'll come in time but in the mean time, Burchill really needs to tell him to help us get forward, because every time he's getting the ball at the moment he's slowing the pace down big style, and usually ends up going nowhere with it. I feel sorry for him to a degree in that he's being punted to LWB now - hopefully his mediocre stint there on Saturday puts paid to Burchill planning on him being in that position.

Agree with Spiggle's great post at the top of the page. We've had 3 or 4 formations this season already (usually all in the same game, now), dunno if it's poor squad planning on MB's part or whether the signings he's made are meant for a 3-5-2 formation, but it's definitely the way to go IMO. It's frustrating to see us play Gallagher at RB the now, too - either he's trying to be shoehorned into the team given Gordon and Sives seem to be the CBs, or there's a lack of faith in Millen. Not right either way for me, Millen's still relatively young and seems to have a great delivery on him, albeit defensively he's suspect. Longridge isn't too dissimilar in that he's a young guy still learning the game - I think he'll be a good player for this level eventually, in terms of getting forward he's still got a lot to learn and his delivery is nowhere near as good as Millen's.

Ultimately, I think it whittles down to intensity though. We looked disinterested and lazy most of the time on Saturday, and mentally we were beaten with 20 minutes to go. There's no reason why we shouldn't be one of the fittest teams in the league, I don't think anyone will dispute that in terms of quality we're at the lower end of the spectrum, but being fit, both mentally and physically, could well be the difference between us finishing in 10th or 8th this season.

Afro wrote:Hippolyte strikes me as one of those classic players who have the skill set to succeed and really stand out in teams, but lack the football brain to fully put it into use. Maybe it'll come in time but in the mean time, Burchill really needs to tell him to help us get forward, because every time he's getting the ball at the moment he's slowing the pace down big style, and usually ends up going nowhere with it. I feel sorry for him to a degree in that he's being punted to LWB now - hopefully his mediocre stint there on Saturday puts paid to Burchill planning on him being in that position.

Agree with Spiggle's great post at the top of the page. We've had 3 or 4 formations this season already (usually all in the same game, now), dunno if it's poor squad planning on MB's part or whether the signings he's made are meant for a 3-5-2 formation, but it's definitely the way to go IMO. It's frustrating to see us play Gallagher at RB the now, too - either he's trying to be shoehorned into the team given Gordon and Sives seem to be the CBs, or there's a lack of faith in Millen. Not right either way for me, Millen's still relatively young and seems to have a great delivery on him, albeit defensively he's suspect. Longridge isn't too dissimilar in that he's a young guy still learning the game - I think he'll be a good player for this level eventually, in terms of getting forward he's still got a lot to learn and his delivery is nowhere near as good as Millen's.

Ultimately, I think it whittles down to intensity though. We looked disinterested and lazy most of the time on Saturday, and mentally we were beaten with 20 minutes to go. There's no reason why we shouldn't be one of the fittest teams in the league, I don't think anyone will dispute that in terms of quality we're at the lower end of the spectrum, but being fit, both mentally and physically, could well be the difference between us finishing in 10th or 8th this season.

I agree with the thought on Hippo, how often though has he been out of position. He's looked most effective on the left wing for us, Saturday he played on the right wing and at left back, if he was played on the left wing or as a striker, we'd see more from him.

Thank you for liking my post. I'm a firm believer in working your formation round your team and this is screaming out to be the 5-3-2 (defending) and 3-5-2 (attacking). As you rightly point out, both full backs look decent going forward and both have a good cross, they remind of young McNamee and McAllister when they were in the Davie Hay team.

I agree on intensity but disagree on disinterested and lazy, I honestly think its fitness and that the later pre-season start and in some cases (Faria) no pre-season has come back to bite us in the ass and the guys are struggling for fitness in the first few games. The extra-time didn't help midweek.

If Burchill can find a formation that works and get the guys to a proper fitness level, then we'll do ok, it may take a couple of weeks for us to get there though plus the squad still looks like they are gelling and getting used to how each other play.

Can't disagree with any of the comments made over the last few days. Although I hope we win tonight if we loose I'd be far happier if I saw a good performance from us. I noticed on Saturday Ian Murray stopprd taking notes after 30 minutes - does that say something?

Jeeze our marking for their 2nd goal was criminal. I froze the vid just before the ball was put across to Vaulks who was in acres of space and Cole & Gallagher are marking nobody, both doing heehaw to stop any danger from happening. TBF to Gallagher he's stuck in between keeping an eye on Baird in the 6 yard box and leaving him to go out to Vaulks, Cole however is standing marking nobody and is of no use to anyone where he is. Hope Burchill has something to say about that.

Annoying too that both Faria and White were taken out going for the same ball from the corner and neither came back into the box to pick up players, White should prob have stayed where he was and left it to Faria.

How the equaliser was given to Mullen is a mystery, his attempt is going across the goal. Clear OG.

What I notice about the winner is Gordon's abysmal attempt at heading it clear; he could have knocked it out for another corner which we could regroup & set up to defend but he just knocked it as if trying to get it away from the goal but handed it straight to them with our defence in disarray very poor defending.