Taxi for Rankin!

[porcupine]

This, too, deserves a new thread, IMO

Yet again we see pointless & confusing substitutions in a game that we fully controlled for most of the play, but failed to see out even with a narrow 1-0 score-line, until very late on.

Whatever footballing skills John Rankin has, it is not in tactical management of players.

We are in this League for another season, (at least), as it's quite clear that this team, with some talented individuals, cannot be blended into a consistently winning unit under JR's capabilities.

Dare I suggest that we get the Chuckle Brothers now that they have left Arbroath? The continuation of Rankin & McKinnon will bring us nothing but more misery. I fear for another bad result from our trip to Dumfries next Saturday.

Time to go, John. You've had your chance, and it's clearly not working for everyone's benefit.

[Beckford]

Needs to go I agree but the problem is who could we get and who would take it. Not the duo you suggested please!

[StewartP]

Agreed

[Stevie Clarke]

I would take the remaining Chuckle brother ahead of Rankin. Pity Stewart Petrie doesn't seem to want to manage full time otherwise I would take him, done a brilliant job at Montrose. Gary Naysmith at Stenny?

[AccieDownUnder]

Madness but before he took the Clyde job I thought McCall would have been perfect short term. He knows this league very well and would have recruited far better.

Is Rankin afraid to sign experienced players? I feel we have zero leaders or characters within the side. Full of absolute wet wipes.

This could become toxic in Dumfries if we fail to win.

[Nike01]

Sorry, but don’t agree. He has until the end of the season. He doesn’t strike me as the complacent type. Are we the fans perhaps the complacent ones? The atmosphere was crap. BTW credit where credit is due. Rankin stood by Ohara when others wouldn’t. And he’s the best striker in the league now.

[Theaccie1]

Sorry, but don’t agree. He has until the end of the season. He doesn’t strike me as the complacent type. Are we the fans perhaps the complacent ones? The atmosphere was crap. BTW credit where credit is due. Rankin stood by Ohara when others wouldn’t. And he’s the best striker in the league now.

What did you see today that still gives you confidence in the manager and the teams approach/tactics?
I’m not one for panicking and calling for the manager to go, I’m just realistic in what I saw today vs start of season and I honestly can’t see any improvement despite all the investment.
We are still seeing strikers on the bench not being given a decent chance also.

He will definitely get to the end of the season, doesn’t mean it’s the right decision though or that he will achieve promotion.
I really think you’ll be hard pushed to find many fans that believes promotion is realistic now!? I’d love to be proven wrong though of course.

Atmosphere was poor as the team never gave us anything to get excited about!
There was a lot of effort within the team but not enough chances created apart from the goal and O’Haras missed chip over the keeper early on.
I’ve never had any issue with O’Hara myself (like a lot of fans also), I always felt you’d get a decent goal return from him in this league, and his effort can never be questioned. If he scored anymore, he wouldn’t be with us tbh.

[monkeybones]

Said it a few weeks ago on this forum. He is the weak link in the squad. In March we willlook back at Dec and Jan and think why did we delay…
Make the change now. He is outsmarted by canny managers with poor teams.

[glasgow accie]

He should go , but let’s be honest, it’s not going to happen.
Playoffs will not be easy and we could well be still in league 1 next season …if we don’t go up will the board sack him ?
I’m not too sure ….

[Red and white hoops]

“Playoffs are not good enough for us, I want to win the league”.

Above a quote from Serif at the fans forum held back in September. We are not going to win the league. So now what Serif? Are the playoffs good enough now?

At the last fans forum, Gerry Strain told us John Rankin was on course to meet his key performance indicators (KPI’s) so all was good and the management team had the backing of the board. If we beat Falkirk in the next game he would have met the KPI’s for the second quarter.

Since the forum we have:
Lost against Falkirk
Drawn with Kelty
Won at Edinburgh
Won at home to cove
And drawn with Montrose

We were beaten by Falkirk. So he didn’t meet the set KPI’s for thesecond quarter. Both drawn games we have been winning and lost a late goal due to negative defensive tactics rather than pushing on and trying to score more. We are the full time team who should be scoring late on when part time teams are tiring.

I don’t see a squad or management team with the mentality or ability to see us go on an unbeaten run (which it absolutely HAS to be now) if we have any chance of winning the league, or to get us through the playoffs.

[Theaccie1]

Needs to go I agree but the problem is who could we get and who would take it. Not the duo you suggested please!

Alex Neil short term deal to the end of the season please

[smc4761]

John Rankin, a man who would be out of his depth in a puddle.

By our standards big money has been spent, we have a decent if somewhat bloated squad of players, but Rankin quite simply cannot get the best out of them.

Will he be sacked in the next few days, no chance. We are lumbered with him until end of season. We will be in play offs but once again we will fail at last hurdle and we shall spend another year in this league

Only then will he be sacked. I dont think there will be a shortage of applicants for the job

[AccieDownUnder]

Looking at the players I don’t think some of them are as good as they think they are either. We’ve recruited far too many of the same types of player and many of which don’t have the quality required. None of our centre mids have the ability to go and create anything which I feel is a major issue.

I’ve just watched Falkirk's highlights from yesterday and it looked like they could have scored 10 with creating 22 chances in the game away from home. All 5 goals are different goalscorers as well. They look streets ahead of us defensively, offensively and tactically. This is going to be an absolute slog to the end of the season and I fear we will be totally shot of confidence when the playoffs come around. A defeat next week and a new manager isn’t even up for debate imo.

[ggr]

We have better players than last season, but Rankin and McKinnon are the weakest link.
They have to go, preferably now rather than waiting till the end of the season.
Manager fell out with our only creative midfielder.
I'd rather have kept Tait and lost Rankin.

Iain McCall's a good shout. Give Clyde free rental of the stadium as compensation.

[smc4761]

Rankin coming out with his usual bull shit blaming everyone but himself again. he is like a broken down record trotting out the same excuses week after week

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/loc ... s-31983989

[porcupine]

Well! Plenty of good discussion on this thread. Almost no-one with confidence that JR can do any better than what he has achieved to date.

However, we are still easily the second best defensive team in the division. Our problems are, as said, no creative mid-fielders. I do like McDonald. He works his socks off, but he's more of a defensive mid-fielder than a creator. There's currently no-one else, but we've still to see what the Williamson/Mackezie/Hastie signings can produce.

Our striker O'Hara again shows he can finish on most occasions providing he is supplied with enough chances. Yesterday he was back at the halfway line many times to try to get his ammunition. That's NOT where he should be, but I appreciated his desire to get on the ball.

The next couple of games have to show that we have turned this corner of unproductive midfielders, combined with constantly passing the ball across the park to each other. Where is the pressing team that we saw at the start of this campaign? Everyone seems to be terrified of making a mistake by pushing either the ball or themselves forward.

[YeOldeHamiltonian]

Sadly we always take too long to change Manager and by then the damage is done.

A good shout for me would be Owen Coyle who took over a Queens Park side struggling to reach the Play Offs and not only won the Play Offs but was unlucky last season not to go up again.

His sides played good football and he brings young guys through giving them a chance.You only need to look at how Queens Park have fallen apart since he was unfairly sacked.

[porcupine]

Good Shout!

[Theaccie1]

Well! Plenty of good discussion on this thread. Almost no-one with confidence that JR can do any better than what he has achieved to date.

However, we are still easily the second best defensive team in the division. Our problems are, as said, no creative mid-fielders. I do like McDonald. He works his socks off, but he's more of a defensive mid-fielder than a creator. There's currently no-one else, but we've still to see what the Williamson/Mackezie/Hastie signings can produce.

Our striker O'Hara again shows he can finish on most occasions providing he is supplied with enough chances. Yesterday he was back at the halfway line many times to try to get his ammunition. That's NOT where he should be, but I appreciated his desire to get on the ball.

The next couple of games have to show that we have turned this corner of unproductive midfielders, combined with constantly passing the ball across the park to each other. Where is the pressing team that we saw at the start of this campaign? Everyone seems to be terrified of making a mistake by pushing either the ball or themselves forward.

All good points, I think the best hope we have is that the new signings make a real difference, that's assuming they are chosen to start and get a decent run of games.
Best that could happen is that we gain some momentum and see improvements for the play offs.

[porcupine]

I've kicked this thread off again after today's performance v Annan for updated comments.

It looks as if we have a first team squad of 31 players, far too many for this Division, but with plenty of permutations to get consistent results. Why can't they blend into a successful unit and win games? And how that is a financially viable business model? I cant be the only one questioning that?

We have a pedestrian eleven players without any motivator or driver on the pitch, without Scott Martin. We are turned over by yet another part-time set of players, who had more urge to win the game than we had.

Whatever is being done during full time training during the week, it sure as hell isn't working on a Saturday. It HAS to be done to the coaching and tactical ideas of the manager & staff. This was not a one off blip. It's too consistent, IMO.

We are looking at zero improvement, despite being "the second best team in the league". On these performances, can anyone see evidence that we will beat the second bottom team in the Championship, if, we managed to beat the third placed League 1 team in the first of those play-offs?

Maybe a nice guy, but John Rankin's had all the time in the last 18 months to show what he can produce as a football manager. Now time expired, as many are saying elsewhere. An experienced manager required NOW.

Oh, and can John Rankin take us back to his old stamping ground at Falkirk next week and get us a result?