Harsh on Hopkin

Just been reading some posts on forums and some people saying he is clueless etc.

Well as everyone knows I love my stats and so I had a comparison of all teams points tally in their last six games.

Hopkin and Livi fare very well as only Raith and Rangers have a better points tally.

Raith 14
Rangers 13
LIVI 11
St Mirren 10
Falkirk 9
Morton 8
Dumbarton 8
Queens 4
Hibs 4
Alloa 2

So yes yesterday was disappointing but Alloa are now relegated.
It's obvious that Hopkin and the squad are working hard together to gain the points at the business end of the season as above table shows.

Clueless was the comment but the manager is not clueless as the stats above would prove.

Mon the Livi

I could just copy and paste my match post to you Smithy.

It's pretty simple, his tactics against Sevco, Hibs & Falkirk were spot on, he learned from his first Sevco debacle where we were being slaughtered 4-0 going on 9-0 at HT and has done really well since.
Sevco 4-0/0-0 2nd half when he changed formation A
Falkirk 1-1 (D) H
Hibs 0-0 (D) H
Falkirk 1-2 (W) A

That's pretty good going against the top 3 teams, undefeated in 4 games against them so far.

Even when he played away to Alloa we've been more attack minded and won 3-1 as we drove at them using the wings on their narrow pitch.

At home to St Mirren and Dumbarton we were pretty good too and again used the wings and went at them, if it wasn't for Cole in that game we'd prob have won it and been ahead of Dumbarton. But then that was Hopkin's choice keeping him on as long and sticking with him after a couple of other poor displays costing us points, wont be the last game this season Cole costs us.

I'm happy enough with Hopkin's results since the first Sevco game, he was on a bad run after his initial first game in charge where we pumped St Mirren away, but he's on a decent run now. However a few things still bug me about him, Raith and St Mirren were games we would've taken something from if it wasn't for him sticking with Cole, hell even Dumbarton at home could've turned disastrous with his first half nightmare but we got lucky in that one.

Putting White in midfield against teams we should be going with 2 up front annoys the feck out of me, and not using wingers on both wings also does my head in.

Kakay has shown he's decent in midfield playing opposite Mullin, why wasn't he put on yesterday?

Why did we play so negatively at home to Alloa when we play far more attacking away and have easily taken them apart twice?

I'm perplexed by Hopkin's decisions at times but on the whole he's done a lot better than Burchill and over a season wouldn't have had us down where we are.

Brilliant summing up Lf

Felt we should be more adventurous at times but his record at picking up points recently has been excellent.

Still think we have the players suited to 352 with Buchanan and White up too

As much as I was a critic with his appointment, he has kept us in the hunt for finishing eight even though I don't think we'll finish there. Throughout this season when Burchill was in charge, we were an organised mess and Hopkin has improved that noticeably.

When it comes to the post mortem after the final game this season, the biggest reason we will finish ninth/eight is because we got four points from our first ten games of the season which is just straightforward relegation form.

Whilst I agree that he has done well to have us still in contention for 8th given the horrendous start we had, I'm not actually sure he's any improvement on Burchill as a manager. As a coach, yes, but tactically, he's still showing the same problems as before, in that we can't win games when the impetus is on us to dictate play and attack. Given the difference in quality we signed in January compared to the Summer, even with the ban affecting our business, I wonder why such connections weren't so readily apparent last year. All water under the bridge now, of course.

In any case, I don't think Hopkin is the man to take us forward after this season. Hasn't shown enough to suggest that we could avoid the same scenario which we are currently embroiled in for the third season on the trot, and the one which will inevitably be the most difficult given Dunfermline's promotion.

Definitely agree with Afro but I am 99.9% certain that if we stay up he will still be in charge.

Hopkins' downfall has to be his continued support of Cole who has played poorly for weeks and gifted teams goals that has resulted in us dropping points.

We cannot pick up points with Cole in the team.

Like Afro said, a good coach, but no clue about tactics.

It's just a shame that if he were to leave/get sacked, we'd just end up with Martindale in charge, and absolutely nothing would change.

LiviLion wrote:Like Afro said, a good coach, but no clue about tactics.

It's just a shame that if he were to leave/get sacked, we'd just end up with Martindale in charge, and absolutely nothing would change.

Sadly, I can see this actually happening. And unless Martingale proves to be the second coming of Pep Guardiola, it would probably be the end of me watching this team for a long time.

You know how the club are doing this ST holder getting picked to have a Boardroom experience, they could maybe pick a fan every week to take charge of the team for a game and the best one at it gets the job. Couldn't be any worse than what we're getting.