LFC Squad - 2020-21

Bertie Bassett wrote:The Facebook shirt looks like a reverse of last season with the sleeves darker than the body & it looks terrible

And a buttoned up collar, like a polo shirt style. Shorts look a better fit, though hardly got a decent look from that video, last season's ones were a bit tight round the crotch.

Dykes hair looks more rainbow than plain blue now, is he signing for the NHS.

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:The Facebook shirt looks like a reverse of last season with the sleeves darker than the body & it looks terrible

And a buttoned up collar, like a polo shirt style. Shorts look a better fit, though hardly got a decent look from that video, last season's ones were a bit tight round the crotch.

Dykes hair looks more rainbow than plain blue now, is he signing for the NHS.

Officially it’s his way of paying tribute... but....

https://twitter.com/BlairOHanlon1/status/1281550761848180736/photo/1

With Marv getting the captaincy I reckon that'll be Lithgow away - Shame, but the injuries last season have finished him. Same as Raffa who I reckon could be away in this window as well.

I notice Poplatnik has taken Pepe's number 15, so wonder if he's off as well.

forzalfc wrote:With Marv getting the captaincy I reckon that'll be Lithgow away - Shame, but the injuries last season have finished him. Same as Raffa who I reckon could be away in this window as well.

I notice Poplatnik has taken Pepe's number 15, so wonder if he's off as well.

Think someone mentioned Lithgow needed another operation and was unlikely to be playing again this season.

Apparently Raffa's not exactly impressed with his last two loan outings; unlikely he'll get a move; possibly a loan.

With who we've got as options for defence; it is unlikely we'll see Pepe turn out for the first team again. The suggested fallout with Devlin probably didn't help his case either.

The interesting case, with the quality of players coming in, there are some first team player who were virtually guaranteed a starting berth at the beginning of last season where its possibly not the case this year.

Welcome, Salim Kouider-Aïssa.

Durnford wrote:

forzalfc wrote:With Marv getting the captaincy I reckon that'll be Lithgow away - Shame, but the injuries last season have finished him. Same as Raffa who I reckon could be away in this window as well.

I notice Poplatnik has taken Pepe's number 15, so wonder if he's off as well.

Think someone mentioned Lithgow needed another operation and was unlikely to be playing again this season.

Apparently Raffa's not exactly impressed with his last two loan outings; unlikely he'll get a move; possibly a loan.

With who we've got as options for defence; it is unlikely we'll see Pepe turn out for the first team again. The suggested fallout with Devlin probably didn't help his case either.

The interesting case, with the quality of players coming in, there are some first team player who were virtually guaranteed a starting berth at the beginning of last season where its possibly not the case this year.

Like who? I don’t think anyone was guaranteed a starting berth, Holt gave some guys a chance to impress, they didn’t & they were replaced, either by a new signing (Pepe out Guthrie in) or a loan signing (Stewart out Sarkic in) all within a couple of league games after the early cup matches.

McCrorie probably starts as 1st choice keeper just as he ended last season
ATS is probably LB
Ambrose probably starts
Guthrie picks himself
Devlin probably goes back in at RB
Marv is the captain
Pitts is unlikely to be replaced
Perm any 2 from Crawford, Sibbald, Lawson, Robbo,  Keags & possibly (although highly unlikely) DeVita
Forrest probably takes Lawless’ place ahead of Souda
Dykes is up front unless he leaves

Or if he wants to go two up top then perm any 2 becomes - pick a Player, any player
If it’s 2 up top then Poplatnic probably partners Dykes or SKA if Dykes goes
Fitzwater probably begins life on the bench unless they go to a back 3
McMillan might oust ATS but we’ll see, ATS tended to get the nod
I suspect Jack Hamilton will be out on loan again
Neither Odofin nor Pepe particularly impressed last season so will possibly be back ups, on loan or moved on.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Durnford wrote:

forzalfc wrote:With Marv getting the captaincy I reckon that'll be Lithgow away - Shame, but the injuries last season have finished him. Same as Raffa who I reckon could be away in this window as well.

I notice Poplatnik has taken Pepe's number 15, so wonder if he's off as well.

Think someone mentioned Lithgow needed another operation and was unlikely to be playing again this season.

Apparently Raffa's not exactly impressed with his last two loan outings; unlikely he'll get a move; possibly a loan.

With who we've got as options for defence; it is unlikely we'll see Pepe turn out for the first team again. The suggested fallout with Devlin probably didn't help his case either.

The interesting case, with the quality of players coming in, there are some first team player who were virtually guaranteed a starting berth at the beginning of last season where its possibly not the case this year.

Like who? I don’t think anyone was guaranteed a starting berth, Holt gave some guys a chance to impress, they didn’t & they were replaced, either by a new signing (Pepe out Guthrie in) or a loan signing (Stewart out Sarkic in) all within a couple of league games after the early cup matches.

McCrorie probably starts as 1st choice keeper just as he ended last season
ATS is probably LB
Ambrose probably starts
Guthrie picks himself
Devlin probably goes back in at RB
Marv is the captain
Pitts is unlikely to be replaced
Perm any 2 from Crawford, Sibbald, Lawson, Robbo,  Keags & possibly (although highly unlikely) DeVita
Forrest probably takes Lawless’ place ahead of Souda
Dykes is up front unless he leaves

Or if he wants to go two up top then perm any 2 becomes - pick a Player, any player
If it’s 2 up top then Poplatnic probably partners Dykes or SKA if Dykes goes
Fitzwater probably begins life on the bench unless they go to a back 3
McMillan might oust ATS but we’ll see, ATS tended to get the nod
I suspect Jack Hamilton will be out on loan again
Neither Odofin nor Pepe particularly impressed last season so will possibly be back ups, on loan or moved on.

At the start of last season several players were almost a shoe in for a starting berth e.g. Stewart (league games); Lithgow; Crawford; Devlin; McMillan etc. Many will find themselves on the bench this season.

Depending on how they perform preseason; SKA could possibly replace Forrest. Both of who came from lower leagues so who knows.

Don't know much about Fitzwater at the moment but I strongly doubt he'd have made the move north unless he was relatively confident of having a fair shot at a place. Devlin didnt exactly impress me last season; good going forward but somewhat slow to react and get back into defence.

As for Pepe; frankly I doubt we'll see him back in Livi colours.

Stewart lasted 7 games before being replaced by Sarkic, like I said, he was given the chance to impress, didn’t & was replaced. Not exactly a surprise that he won’t be first choice from the get-go this time.

Devlin & Lithgow were first choices at the start but of the two only Devlin stayed the course until his injury; Lithgow was captain so expected to be a starter but quickly lost form & then got injured. Again no surprise that he’s unlikely to be first choice now.

The rest were never certain starters, especially when we had a full squad to pick from.

So I’m still unclear about which certain starters are being replaced by which quality signings?

Forrest is likely to start ahead of SKA as he was doing well in the second tier while SKA was lower down the league.

Lithgow was never properly fit last season, he had problems with his appendix, then finally got an op, he never got back up to speed before getting an injury and still hasn't had an op for that yet. Might get his op once hospitals are back up and running from the covid situations but doubt he'll be back before xmas.

Read on P&B that Fitzwater was rated higher than Guthrie when they played together, must be some player if he is better than our PoTY, would be absolutely delighted if he is. We may well go back to a back 3 with Fitz, Guthrie and Ambrose.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Stewart lasted 7 games before being replaced by Sarkic, like I said, he was given the chance to impress, didn’t & was replaced. Not exactly a surprise that he won’t be first choice from the get-go this time.

Devlin & Lithgow were first choices at the start but of the two only Devlin stayed the course until his injury; Lithgow was captain so expected to be a starter but quickly lost form & then got injured. Again no surprise that he’s unlikely to be first choice now.

The rest were never certain starters, especially when we had a full squad to pick from.

So I’m still unclear about which certain starters are being replaced by which quality signings?

Forrest is likely to start ahead of SKA as he was doing well in the second tier while SKA was lower down the league.

Seven matches is a pretty substantial start of the season; particularly when you consider how short our season was.

I never actually said that players had been replaced by "quality signings" but it could be argued that Pepe and Lithgow (the original centre back pairing) were replaced by Guthrie (a quality signing); Lamie and others.

In my honest opinion the only player we have who was a starter at the beginning of last season, who is a virtual guaranteed starter for this, is Scott Pittman. Devlin was okay but not so amazing that his place is guaranteed; after all we now have several options for right back.

Last year I dont think Lawless was a definite starter but his game certainly picked up as the season went on and ended up possibly fourth name on the sheet.

In actual fact the only player who left who i regret not being fully replaced was Brown and that was purely down to his amazing long throw; but also to the fact that, without him, the team often resorted to using Dykes to take the long throw-ins - a real waste in my opinion.

Yeah Dykes until it was discovered that Brown could throw the ball even further than Lithgow, guess we'll go back to Dykes now, but he's around 5M short on his throw ins and we'd need a target man to flick the ball on, which makes it easier to defend against.

Bartley is also a def started, as is Guthrie, & Dykes if he's still here, and as has been mentioned, Pittman & McCrorie*. The rest are well covered to be fighting for their places.

One of the best things about our squad is the quality we have, there are so many equally good players waiting to come in and get their chance to play, oh and the balance we have is really good for covering each position (except GK).

Sibbald got himself onto the starting line up too with a strong finish to the season, hopefully his form continues into this season.

*For now anyway, unless we get another keeper in that can compete for his place, because Stewart certainly can't.

Ciaron Brown coming back to Livi again, that's the long throw ins sorted then. https://www.teamtalk.com/news/exclusive-cardiff-starlet-ciaron-brown-livingston-bound

Not been on for a while so hear goes.Not a fan of the new strip but will probably end up getting one of them,the away top looks odds on for me.The new signings look decent but may take time to bed in.Great to see Ciaron back,makes our defence look even stronger albeit hes only here till January so we might not get to see him in the flesh cause of this virus thingy.On the whole its been been totally frustrating waiting for the new season to begin but i guess we are all used to watching closed doors games from our armchairs by now.My neighbours are gonna be wondering what all the racket is about when we finnally get to see the Lions live on the telly,especially if we score,cant see me throwing my pint glass in the air,the wife would chuck me oot.Anyway the squad is looking better than i anticipated and if we can hit the ground running who knows what we can do when its up and running for real.So stay safe fellow posters,its just around the corner.T.

Who was wearing the No4 against Dundee United yesterday ? Ambrose ??

New keeper signed on a 3 year deal - https://livingstonfc.co.uk/max-stryjek-is-a-lion/

So the following players featured on Sat: McCrorie, McMillan, Ambrose, Fitzwater, Guthrie, Taylor-Sinclair, Bartley, Pittman, Sibbald, Souda, Dykes, Stryjek, Devlin, Crawford, Pignatielo, Robinson, Forrest, Kouider Aissa, Hamilton.

Gives a clearer indication on who else might be leaving, as we could've had unlimited subs. So out of the first team players who didn't feature:

Lithgow/ Keaghan/ Poplatnik/ Lawson - Injured
Stewart/ Odoffin/ Tiffoney/ Raffa/ Dolly/ Pepe - ??

Don't think that means Poplatnik isn't wanted, we've just signed him.

Think Keags is injured, and Lithgow is still waiting on an op for his injury last season. No idea what's happening with Dolly, rumours saying he's heading out and isn't at Livi, would punt Stewart, Pepe and Odoffin.

livikev wrote:Who was wearing the No4 against Dundee United yesterday ?  Ambrose ??

Dunno about Utd game but Rae Irvine's pics of the Killie game nobody was wearing the No4 shirt. Devlin 2, Brown 3, Guthrie 27, Fitzwater 5, Marv 6, McMillan 21, ATS 29, Ambrose 25, Forrest 11, Dykes 9, Robbo 17, Pittman 8, Crawford 16, SKA 19, Pignatiello 39, Sibbald 10, Hamilton 38.

Souda is 20, Keaghan 7.

Just had a look of her pics of the Utd game and it's Ambrose with a 4 on his shirt, but he's back to having 25 against Killie.

1M offer from Barnsley reportedly knocked back by Livi, looking like Dykes will be heading offski before long. Would be good to get a bidding war going if it is to be though.

Ideally would've liked him to have stayed till January, to give us time to get the new strikers bedded in, and have us pretty much safe from relegation again, wonder if we could maybe even get a loan back to Jan in any possible deal. The English Championship wont be starting back till Sept anyway.

New squad numbers now on the website and no Stewart, Dolly, Pepe or Hakim, so guessing they've been released.

Would love to see Lithgow get back to full fitness at some point, he's been a stalwart for us, so good to see him still in the squad.. maybe if he can get fit then a loan move later in the season would do him well.

I'd expect Raffa/ Tiffoney/ Schwake to be loaned out when the lower leagues start, as they've not featured at all in the friendlies. Maybe Hamilton as well, but expect a lot of that will depend if/ when Dykes goes.

Hakim is apparently on trial with Accies

Dolly has left - he's currently without a club
Cece Pepe - contract was until May 2021

Livingston trying to sign Monaco left back Julien Serrano before the quarantine deadline which is 4.00am tomorrow.

italion wrote:Livingston trying to sign Monaco left back Julien Serrano before the quarantine deadline which is 4.00am tomorrow.

Do we need another left back?

Do we need another left back? We currently only have one actual left back in ATS & he is usually getting played as a left sided centre back/lwb. So it would actually make sense to have another identifiable left back.

We have a plethora of centre backs that can play left back but I don’t think we actually have a single player who is a recognised left back. Devlin is a recognised right back. McMillan is a utility defender & I think he’s better on the right. Brown can play left back but is much better in the centre, Ambrose likewise can play there but I think I’d rather see him in midfield where there is time to make amends for any defensive errors.

No indication this morning that we got him, so can only assume he didn’t beat the curfew.