CYRILLRIP

Ha ha - don’t think anyone’s posted or wanted to see a form table since Steve Clarke days😁

Weather made it very difficult to assert any kind of control. Genuinely thought Polworth and Donnelly made as good a fist of it as possible. County especially just wanted the ball in the air and to try and take advantage of the battles, scraps and mistakes.

Thought yesterday was the sharpest he’s looked since he came back. At the end it looked more like “the guys who contributed today are over there” and probably a bit pi**ed with Innes too!

Yes - no doubt earlier in the season that was the case. Many were saying to give Dallas a chance as Vassell looked like he was toiling his way back to fitness. So why after signing the much better options is Vassell still probably one of the first names on the team sheet? We’ve had decent form since December and there’s likely a bit in not wanting to disrupt a settled and pretty successful team. We’ve had to do a lot of that with Polworth and Donnelly. To be fair to them they have really stepped up to the plate, but it puts extra load on the front 2 in terms of pressing and running. I don’t think that’s either KVV or Stewart’s game. on the one hand, they were strange signings, as neither have the attributes that DM stated that he wanted to add to the front line, but I guess when they became available and viable options he had to go for it.

Grossly unfair on the guy. This is closer to the crux of the matter. We’ve got a lopsided defensive set up regardless of whether we play with full backs or wing backs. We’ve created a way to play that has made us pretty effective despite losing our 1st choice midfield. It does depend on Vassell and Watkins doing a power of running. Vassell can be hugely frustrating, but I think he always plays because he is massive in making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. I had also hoped KVV and Stewart would have been fit by now and we’d have found a way to incorporate them into a system, but neither are the type of workers like Vassell and Watkins. It can all change quickly, but at the moment it’s looking like neither may play much of a part.

How many feckin breaks of the ball did they get in that move 😡😡😡

All true, but personally I’d be gutted if we don’t finish 4th now. When you’re in the mix you have to seize the opportunity especially when Hibs and Aberdeen have not had great seasons. It always pained me that we were rubbish in the period when Hearts, Hibs and Rangers were out the league and the likes of Inverness and StJohnstone were occupying the higher places.

My thoughts exactly. It would be wild just when we think we have a bit of a midfield deficiency if now was his time.

I suppose it’s OK. Makes me long for the days of the Osman Sow January though.

It’s a bit moot now as we’ve signed Stewart, but just a reminder of how difficult it is to get decent signings let alone a striker. I was rewatching a bit of the Class of 92 docu. There was a section featuring their chief scout from the back end of 2022. He was out watching a non league game specifically to look at this guy - Andrew Dallas playing for Solihull Moor. At the time he said 16 teams in League 2 and 15 in League 1 were looking for a striker. Probably all these teams would be paying more than we would and some massively more, yet this was the quality they were looking at. He was likely a much better player than we saw, but I feel we’re pretty lucky to have Vassell, Watkins, Stewart and Cameron as central options.

The calibre of striker we sign during the window will be a clear indication of availability and our budget. We are not going to be signing a game changing striker in January or ever. We are in the position where we might have a gamble on someone with injury issues in order to get someone of better quality; or we get a Vassell type who has other useful attributes.

Echo that - a huge thanks to all behind the scenes- getting all the chat, opinions and spurious rumours is a big part of following Killie. Don’t realise how much it’s appreciated until it’s not there. Love the home games, getting back up the road and reliving it (good or bad) via the forum.

Definitely leggy in the first half and the formation didn’t help. Understand that injuries might have been a part of setting the team up that way but I thought it was so obvious that we needed an extra man in midfield. Did so well to just keep at in the 2nd half and when Rory struck I just had this feeling of immense pride in the team; that despite fatigue and not been at our best we had stuck together and found a way to win. Disappointed, but not totally gutted that we didn’t see it out - tempered by the December points haul, the feeling that progress is being made and the fact that a draw was probably the least Dundee deserved. Decent side - it’ll be a tough cup tie.

Maybe not on this thread, but it’s been discussed plenty. We don’t have proper full backs and we don’t have specialist wing backs. Square pegs round holes. Couldn’t believe the subs yesterday either - seemed to be a case of just get forwards on which rarely works. SSC would have had Vassell off and bolstered the midfield.

Pretty much agree with that - the recruitment seemed clear at the time and we were signing better players than we had. We’ve too many centre backs of a similar quality. I don’t know how much planning there was around Findlay or whether he just became available and we couldn’t resist. With him signed it looked like we would always play a 3/5, but we never signed any specialist wing backs for that system. I don’t think that system suits either Armstrong or Kennedy, 2 of our best players. It worked with Ndaba, but he is not fully a wing back either, but we miss him when he’s out. Rather than keep the system and just even play 1 player out of position, we seem to have gone for more of a change and ended up with the dreadful 4 centre back defence with all the issues you’ve mentioned.