Pre Season 2016/17

It has been a busy couple of weeks since we got relegated, new players signed and pre season games arranged.

Pre Season Games

Dunfermline- 2nd July Sat

Morton- 5th July Tues

St Mirren- 9th July Sat (cancelled)

New Signings

Liam Watt- Midfielder (Pre contract Airdrie)

Nicky Cadden- Left Midfielder/winger (Airdrie)

Sean Crighton- Defender/ CB (Airdrie)

Alan Lithgow- Defender/CB (Airdrie)

Jordan Sinclair- Left Midfielder (Hibs)

Shaun Byrne- Midfielder (Dunfermline)

St Mirren friendly is now cancelled.

Makes sense with the cup tie against them. No point getting thumped by them twice, better to put every effort into not getting thumped by them once.

At last it looks like club serious with under 20's team Ian Little appointed manager

They did say they were planning to get serious about it again. For a club like Livi, IMO, it is essential that we develop our own players.

Gary Maley is listed as a trialist today despite his name being on the squad page, strange. One of the other trialists is Kudus Oyenuga, striker who was at Cowdenbeath a couple years ago.

Good start.

Lulling the rest of the league into a false sense of security IMO.

EdinburghLivi wrote:Good start.

It actually was, then they scored. Thought our defence looked quite solid and we had some nice play putting Buchanan through on goal, everything looked pretty good, then Dunfermline scored and it all went pear shape.
Looked like DJ should've come for the first goal, stayed on his line and bang, headed goal, defence at fault for the next two, Pars no 11 tore us a new one and fired it across for a tap in, stood off them for the 3rd allowing the bounce and shot at goal, same problem we had last season, we need to get tight on players to stop them getting time to score goals like that

2nd half looked a bit better, we got a good goal and wee Knox coming on looked good, first time I've seen him playing so well, ran at players and got past them, shots at goal. hit the bar with a free kick after being fouled, looking really good. He'll prob get kicked about all over the place but he'll give us a good attack with his direct play and is dangerous from free kicks. Again we gave away a goal from DJ's distribution getting defenders into trouble, losing possession and being punished, when will we learn!!

Ok it was our first pre season game and better to make mistakes here than in competitive games but it's the same mistakes as last season and we have a lot of new players so why are we still making them?

Still a lot of work to do from what I saw today but a few players looked good, Liam Watt no10, Nicky Cadden no11, Alan Lithgow no4 and Halkett all looked good. Longridge was a bit shaky but got better, Currie looked alright when he came on and Knox was a surprise star player for us today.
Mullin is decent going forward but terrible at getting the ball across into the box, really needs to work on that but maybe he can cause problems against League One teams. Wasn't impressed by the Trialist striker, we're still woefully short in that dept.

Couldn't go today and probably wouldn't have as I have long hated pre-season games as they usually depress me as I think we can only get better...and then we don't.

Read the team sheet after the game on the OCS and saw the score which shocked me given Alloa drew 1-1 with them and I saw something that, assuming it is accurate, tells me everything I need to know about how inept the management team is....presumably there were unlimited subs today but even if there wasn't, why was a triallist the only unused sub? Surely you want to see all you triallists play to see if they are worth signing????

Bertie Bassett wrote:Couldn't go today and probably wouldn't have as I have long hated pre-season games as they usually depress me as I think we can only get better...and then we don't.

Read the team sheet after the game on the OCS and saw the score which shocked me given Alloa drew 1-1 with them and I saw something that, assuming it is accurate, tells me everything I need to know about how inept the management team is....presumably there were unlimited subs today but even if there wasn't, why was a triallist the only unused sub? Surely you want to see all you triallists play to see if they are worth signing????

The unused trialist was Gary Maley, the 'keeper from Broxburn. Apparently already signed so a bit weird he was listed as a trialist.

The trialist that was used wasn't up to much so doesn't fill me with confidence about the other one when he wasn't even given a game.

DJ-FFS come off your line for crosses. And just kick it long if defenders are going to be pressed as soon as you give them the ball.

Defenders-Get tight on players around the edge of our box.

Strikers-Need to get some signed.

That's the main problems we have that needs to get sorted.

Two trialists came on; one was Kudus Oyenuga who had previously been with Tottenham Hotspur; Dundee United and Cowdenbeath; he looked okay but doesn't have a particularly auspicious scoring record -The other guy who came on we don't know the name of and frankly it was difficult to work out what position he was meant to be playing.

As for the game obviously we are not meant to take much from a friendly result but I am mindful that pretty much all our starting defence was playing; also DJ looked seriously short of match sharpness.

On the positive side I thought Lithgow looked a better than we'd been led to believe from others and Matthew Knox had one of his best games for us and we did create a fair amount of goalmouth action.

The defence is the biggest concern

Just watched the highlights, our defence looks awful, not helped by a keeper doing his best Joe Hart impressions.

I try not to take pre season games seriously, but what worries me is Hopkin saying the team look ready. Based on that game the only thing we look ready for is another relegation battle.

Trying to remain positive, it was a game against a team who have played a few games so will be a bit sharper, have a much bigger budget and will be aiming for a top half finish in the league above us, and it was a pre season game.

Apparently trying to get a game lined up against a top flight club down south for the day we're not playing in the League Cup. Do we have a game next week to replace the St Mirren friendly?

Hopefully Hopkin will use those highlights to tighten up our defence, we left players unmarked and were standing the wrong side of them for several of the goals.

Was it Cardle who turned us inside out for their 3rd, good player. Could actually have been 7 with them cutting us open and hitting the post when they had an open goal and a late effort that DJ managed to get his foot to.

Liviforever wrote:The trialist that was used wasn't up to much so doesn't fill me with confidence about the other one when he wasn't even given a game.

DJ-FFS come off your line for crosses. And just kick it long if defenders are going to be pressed as soon as you give them the ball.

Defenders-Get tight on players around the edge of our box.

Strikers-Need to get some signed.

That's the main problems we have that needs to get sorted.

So we have a clown in goal (we knew that but we hoped he might have learned something from his time on the bench last season); defenders who can't defend, no strikers worthy of the name and as you didn't mention them, literally no midfield to speak of (taking liberties with your post to make a pun, I'll get me coat). Oh..and two imposters in the dug out.... Division 4 (in real terms)here we come

Take it Darren Cole was nowhere to be seen? That can only be a good thing.

Was fearful of how Crighton and Lithgow would perform given the reviews of them as a partnership from Airdrie fans; having seen them in the flesh, I wasn't impressed at all. The pair of them are very limited footballers, and were caught out several times yesterday from pretty straightforward situations. I think their deficiencies are amplified by the lack of a true holding midfielder in the team. Miller and Byrne were fairly anonymous for the most part, although the latter did spread the play quite well at times but faded as soon as Dunfermline took control. Halkett is wasted at RB, such a problematic position for us which seems to have had endless CBs filling in. Longridge looked out of sorts and I'm hopeful like most of the team that it is just rustiness. Mullin looks a better player than last season, and I was impressed with Watt and Cadden. A run of games for the pair of them and I think we'll see a good attacking unit behind the striker(s) for the most part. Buchanan toiled, and I don't think he suits being up front on his own. Another striker is an absolute necessity because the prospect of Buchanan, Mullen and Knox for the season just compounds the defensive frailties that were apparent.

Quite worrying as well, is that Hopkin thinks we are ready. He is going to get a shock in the League Cup games because if we play like that we'll end up bottom of the group.

EDIT: Just seen as well that we're at home to St Johnstone on July 12th. All fine and dandy playing superior opposition, but as of right now, we're heading into the league season playing only one team "worse" than us - Edinburgh City. Surely the first friendly should've been somebody like Bo'ness, Linlithgow, or Spartans? Good competitive run out, likely win, and a morale booster to kick us off after the horrific end to last season in the play-offs.

SO even worse than I imagined then...

Linlithgow would prob beat us too.

Afro wrote:Longridge looked out of sorts and I'm hopeful like most of the team that it is just rustiness.

I heard that Longridge had been getting over a lung infection which probably accounted for why he was looking totally knackered by half time.

LiviLion wrote:Take it Darren Cole was nowhere to be seen? That can only be a good thing.

DJ and Cole playing together sends a shudder of dread through me.

Agree with Afro in that we could have possibly chosen our pre season games against teams where we could have built up a bit of momentum going into the start of the season proper.Saturdays game was the classic example of watching a team who mostly havent played together before and looked a wee bit overawed by a half decent Pars side.The way they swept us aside was alarming after the management spouting that they were ready and raring to go.Lack of strength up front is going to be a major factor as to how well we will do this season because at the moment im affraid with what weve got wont be good enough to challenge at the right end of the table imo.Yes early days i know but worrying times ahead i fear unless Hopkin and co can get it sorted out!

Spoke to a Cowdenbeath supporting friend of mine who mentioned that the trialists, Kudus Oyenuga, who played for them two seasons ago is a waste of space. According to him he's the kind of player who tried hard in a trial but once he gets a contract he cant really be bothered. Frankly looking at his stats for Dundee United and Hartlepool that would seem to be the case.

Actually he also mentioned that they, Cowdenbeath, currently have Jimmy (Martin) Scott on trial

Didn't rate him anyway, didn't look up to much in the Pars game, so we'll prob sign him.

Can we not get DeVita, he's been released by County.