DOC OUT

[Taipei]

TD has bought himself time after the derby win. However, I’m flummoxed at people saying he is the best manager that we’ve had in ages, that’s an incredibly dubious opinion. 

His subs are very strange, his in game management is very poor, his defensive record is quite frankly appalling. The excuses afforded to him by some just grow every week. 

I think St Johnstone are now too far behind to catch us hopefully. So we should get 11th at least, frankly that isn’t something to be applauded. If he does survive this season, next season has to be so much better. 

[Reverend Lovejoy]

37 minutes ago, Bobby Dee said:

However the manager could have stiffens us up Rev - to continue to attack at 3-1 seemed mad at the time and it proved so . His bench to be fair is poor however there were options to make it harder for them especially in midfield area 

Without trying to get into an 'I'm right, you're wrong' type debate I'm struggling to see which midfielder we could've brought on who'd have changed the way we play out games in these situations. Playing more defenders would just have more players getting shot of the ball but any of our players can do that whether they be defender's, midfielder's or striker's. We either needed like for like replacements in the forward areas, or a cool head in the middle who could take ball and dictate the tempo, we had neither so stuck with the all out attack and the same players who'd got us to within touching distance of a very good win. 

[Billy Campbell's Ghost]

Are we fit enough?

[thepole]

The issue all season is having a haopy medium with being very offensive, scoring goals and being pleasing on the eye with being more rigid and winning games 1-0 or keeping clean sheets. Obviously we can't do both so something has to give 

[Reverend Lovejoy]

1 hour ago, StobbieDee said:

Defence is definitely the problem in my humble opinion. The goals against column tells you that , this season and last....I had hoped the one place in the team that he would strengthen at the start of the season was the back 4 but the doc neglected it and we are suffering the consequences. 

If I'm an opposing striker facing our back 4 I know beforehand I'm going to be getting chances due to the brain farts our defence consistently perform and it because of this our team has to score 3 goals most weeks to get anything from a game.

We've got more defenders than anything else, good defenders with International experience, I'm just not of the opinion that were signing bad players from the English Premiership. It was clear last night that Rangers were cutting through us like a knife through butter once the legs started to go, in the first half and early stages of the second the front three were closing down and the midfield was compact, once we tired we were wide open right through the middle of our team and the defence was under constant pressure, we tried to attack it out but couldn't get back to fill in the obvious gaps. 

Signing more defenders won't change things imo.

[Reverend Lovejoy]

1 hour ago, brh206 said:

When on it going forward we are exciting to watch, there is no doubt about that at all. Defence has been poor for a while now as we all know, I don't understand why TD went to 3 (5) at the back last night given our past record I really don't. I would have brought Astley on for Donnelly, take Fin off with McGhee going into midfield and Ingram going to the right. I possibly would have changed Tiffoney for Reilly a lot earlier but that would have meant a slight problem at the end with Murray I suppose. I do believe we are in trouble, I appreciate many believe that if we keep playing as we have the last 2 games we will stay up, I wish I had your faith. I think we can score in all of our remaining games, but other than maybe St. Johnstone I am just not confident that we will win the rest, a lot of that is down to TD's game management. I would not get rid now, there is no point, but whichever league we are in next season I would be seriously thinking about it. I really don't blame the owners, they have backed managers every season with the resources they have, of course they have made mistakes with appointments in the past, and it will always be a challenge for any manager at Dundee but TD has had money to spend, possibly has the best squad that any Dundee manager has had for a long time, and yet we seem to be going backwards. Why sign Samuels, Ingram, Lopez, in particular and not give them consistent game time, esp when we have been playing as we have been just does not make any sense to me at all. 

We played a back 4 last night.

[rossco]

5 minutes ago, Reverend Lovejoy said:

We played a back 4 last night.

We did but changed to a 3 after the disallowed Rangers goal.

[Bobby Dee]

21 minutes ago, Reverend Lovejoy said:

Without trying to get into an 'I'm right, you're wrong' type debate I'm struggling to see which midfielder we could've brought on who'd have changed the way we play out games in these situations. Playing more defenders would just have more players getting shot of the ball but any of our players can do that whether they be defender's, midfielder's or striker's. We either needed like for like replacements in the forward areas, or a cool head in the middle who could take ball and dictate the tempo, we had neither so stuck with the all out attack and the same players who'd got us to within touching distance of a very good win. 

There is no right or wrong however taking off an offensive player , keep Mulligan in the middle and Ingram in a RWB would have been an option . He effectively ran the last quarter of the match with garza and Mo 

[Gonk]

18 minutes ago, Reverend Lovejoy said:

Without trying to get into an 'I'm right, you're wrong' type debate I'm struggling to see which midfielder we could've brought on who'd have changed the way we play out games in these situations. Playing more defenders would just have more players getting shot of the ball but any of our players can do that whether they be defender's, midfielder's or striker's. We either needed like for like replacements in the forward areas, or a cool head in the middle who could take ball and dictate the tempo, we had neither so stuck with the all out attack and the same players who'd got us to within touching distance of a very good win. 

How about bringing on Ingram at RB, putting McGhee into midfield?

[Reverend Lovejoy]

2 hours ago, Gonk said:

How about bringing on Ingram at RB, putting McGhee into midfield?

Because I don't think playing a defender in midfield would be the answer, we needed to retain the ball not give it back.

[darkbluecheshire]

14 minutes ago, Reverend Lovejoy said:

Because I don't think playing a defender in midfield would be the answer, we needed to retain the ball not give it back.

Thought McGhee, looked knackered too. We needed to flood the midfield and if we were to go with 5 at the back then the centre should have been Sylla or Billy. Both quick and strong players.... 

[Ludo*1]

3 hours ago, Taipei said:

TD has bought himself time after the derby win. However, I’m flummoxed at people saying he is the best manager that we’ve had in ages, that’s an incredibly dubious opinion. 

His subs are very strange, his in game management is very poor, his defensive record is quite frankly appalling. The excuses afforded to him by some just grow every week. 

I think St Johnstone are now too far behind to catch us hopefully. So we should get 11th at least, frankly that isn’t something to be applauded. If he does survive this season, next season has to be so much better. 

It's not necessarily a compliment to say Docherty is the best manager we've had in ages when you consider the competition. Hartley is the only one that surpasses him in terms of accomplishments at the club (promotion and top 6) and he's currently struggling to get a full time team out of League One. 

Bowyer is incomparable as he had his hands tied behind his back, succeeded and then was promptly punted.

The rest? Going as far back as Jocky (at the very least) who was deemed to have failed then I don't think there's a single one that's been as good as Doc.

But again, that's not necessarily a compliment and more an indictment on the managers we've employed over the years.