Grant McCann

[John Ex Aberdeen now E.R.]

Lucky it's uphill all the way home.

Exactly, would have been much more difficult the other way round. I did, however, drive through the night so the traffic was light, which was a help.

 

[dazzar86]

I think he's used the gap between seasons well - he's effectively used it as a reset button. After Bowen and Grosicki were sold, the rest of the squad clearly adopted a mentality of "well if the owners have given up trying to achieve something, why shouldn't I?"

Bringing in the players we needed to compete at this level has been a big help with the reset, and I hope (IF we're promoted) we're planning on buying up the best of what we've seen in League One to help consolidate our place in a league above.

Callum Camps at Fleetwood, Scott Fraser and David Kasumu at MK Dons, Siriki Dembele at Peterborough (if they don't go up, even though he's a diving little ****!) the stand outs so far.

Any recruitment in January needs to add to the quality, not just come in as squad player to make up the numbers, otherwise they become redundant if we go up.
Eamonn Brophy at Kilmarnock would be a good one to look at - out of contract at the end of the season, wants to get back into the Scotland squad and has been in and out the Kilmarnock team due to a change in formation, so could get a decent player at a good age and a good price.

 

[DMD]

There's a chant in here somewhere.

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[askewshair]

Credit where credit is due .. McCann has turned it round at the moment and is getting the results. I look at our squad that has been built and am certainly more confident now then at the end of last season .. however there is a but (yup there's always a but) as I said recently .. managing a team full of confidence and winning is much easier then working out whats going wrong if you're losing games and being flexible enough to change systems to combat that. He has already shown a couple of times that he may be learning .. Tuesday night for example he made the changes at the right time .. albeit like for like .. but it did the job. But I still have this worry that teams and in particular coaches/managers may work us out .. Will he continue to learn and alter the formations accordingly or will he still stick blindly to his preferred plan A. This season so far B+ ... last season U and major fail

I'm not sure of any evidence of him coming up with a Plan B. Recent changes have all been about rotating front and midfield players, which I like (keeps everyone hungry) but no evidence of him showing any newly acquired tactical nous. Now we are allowed five, barring injuries we know the front three (Eaves for Magennis, then which ever two wide players) are likely to be changed plus two of the midfield three.

 

[Gone For A Walk]

We struggled due to his insistence of playing a 3 man midfield and a 3 man attack .. teams worked us out .. everyone saw the problem apart from him. There were options there .. play 5 at the back .. play two banks of 4 .. get legs in the middle of the park etc. The quality this season is lower then that of last season and yes as I have previously said the spine of the team has improved immeasurably.. but I remain cautious as to the quality of McCann and his ability to evolve his tactics during a game.

First sentence is undoubtedly true. But, in full reality it was actually often a 4 2 4 as Honeyman was everywhere, even often more advanced than the front 3, with the supposed midfield '3' then being all over the shop. On top of that, the wide men in the front 3 not working hard enough meant massive gaps in midfield to exploit and the back 4 exposed time and again. As you say, most everyone could see it .... not least the opposition.
It now looks to me like it's set up as 4 2 3 1, with Honeyman still buzzing everywhere but coming from the middle of the 3 with security of 2 holding midfielders behind him. And the 2 wider men in the 3 are working harder than previously. And the full backs have been a revelation (Emmanuel, what a signing), defensively sound and contributing going forward as they should. And importantly he now has decent options & depth all round, including for the holding 2 (in Smallwood, Jones, Docherty, Batty, Slater, even Coyle if needed).
Fair play. He has changed (or tweaked) things. And it's working. I just don't understand why it took so long, even into this season. And for that, for me he has a lot further to go before he comes out of the relegation zone of worst managers we've ever had. But, current state viewed in isolation is looking pretty damn good (relatively speaking).

 

[balkan tiger]

There's a chant in here somewhere.

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Do you think he drives a van?

It's the man in a van yeh
It's grant mc cann

 

[Evington]

There's a chant in here somewhere.

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Possibly, but is this sufficient to keep him? At least the supporters could clap along I guess whilst the North Stand sang. He still wouldn't wave though so it's a NO from me.

 

[frankbanksneck]

I think he's used the gap between seasons well - he's effectively used it as a reset button. After Bowen and Grosicki were sold, the rest of the squad clearly adopted a mentality of "well if the owners have given up trying to achieve something, why shouldn't I?"

Bringing in the players we needed to compete at this level has been a big help with the reset, and I hope (IF we're promoted) we're planning on buying up the best of what we've seen in League One to help consolidate our place in a league above.B

I think he's used the gap between seasons well - he's effectively used it as a reset button. After Bowen and Grosicki were sold, the rest of the squad clearly adopted a mentality of "well if the owners have given up trying to achieve something, why shouldn't I?"

Bringing in the players we needed to compete at this level has been a big help with the reset, and I hope (IF we're promoted) we're planning on buying up the best of what we've seen in League One to help consolidate our place in a league above.

Callum Camps at Fleetwood, Scott Fraser and David Kasumu at MK Dons, Siriki Dembele at Peterborough (if they don't go up, even though he's a diving little ****!) the stand outs so far.

Any recruitment in January needs to add to the quality, not just come in as squad player to make up the numbers, otherwise they become redundant if we go up.
Eamonn Brophy at Kilmarnock would be a good one to look at - out of contract at the end of the season, wants to get back into the Scotland squad and has been in and out the Kilmarnock team due to a change in formation, so could get a decent player at a good age and a good price.

Selling 'The Crown Jewels' should just have inspired the rest of the squad to step into the vacant spaces.

 

[cheshireles]

Are we starting to believe in Terry? I think its time we started to have some faith in him. Forget last season, and look at where we are now.

At the end of the day, all we need from him is results and we're getting them.

Or is it too early to judge?

The lads taken a bit of a battering on here ever since he took charge and to be honest, until this season, he probably deserved it. But he does seem to be turning that around.

I like him.

Absolutely not!!

 

[TIGERSCAVE]

I think that unless **** is lucky. Had there been a crowd second half of last season he'd have been gone... today, those there would have let them know..