Dorrans

[Rengade Master]

I think it is all down to expectations from a 35 year old player.

Playing him to his strengths in positions where speed is not essential is the main one.

Having the right players close to him that he can build up an understanding with, his reading of the game, encouraging the younger ones to do the running into space or back as required.

With a chance to work with consistency and the same players in a settled squad he will do well I'm sure.

I think in older, better players if you are surrounded by dross you end up trying to do more than you are capable of in fear of passing to someone who is going to waste the ball or lose it. Then you end up getting caught making you look the bad one.

To be fair that is worklife per se.

[Al k]

14 hours ago, kelty_par said:

Or he was asked to come in and refused, and wanted a 4 week holiday before he joined 

Is that fact?

[rosythpar]

Can we afford to pay dorrans in league one and if he stays will that have a big effect on our budget?

I thought he would have moved to a coaching role.

[livipar2]

Given his age and fitness/injury issues it’s a big risk to give him an important role next season surely?

[GG Riva]

5 hours ago, Digs said:

Same thing happened with Brewster, he was 38 when we signed him....

I'm pretty sure he was 35, Digs. He was with us for 3 and a bit seasons, so he'd have been nearly 39 when he left us. He scored in his last game, a 4-1 win v Killie.

Maybe you can tell he'd walk into my all time Pars XI? 🙂

[Digs]

2 minutes ago, GG Riva said:

I'm pretty sure he was 35, Digs. He was with us for 3 and a bit seasons, so he'd have been nearly 39 when he left us. He scored in his last game, a 4-1 win v Killie.

Maybe you can tell he'd walk into my all time Pars XI? 🙂

I bow to your superior knowledge. It's even more relevant then as the comparisons are similar because I don't remember many Pars fans being delighted about the signing at first, myself included. 

[SanguinePar]

28 minutes ago, GG Riva said:

 He scored in his last game, a 4-1 win v Killie.

Not just in his last game, but with his very last touch for the Pars (yes, I'm sad enough to have rewatched the next two minutes of play after the goal to check he never touched it again!)

[GG Riva]

1 hour ago, Digs said:

I bow to your superior knowledge. It's even more relevant then as the comparisons are similar because I don't remember many Pars fans being delighted about the signing at first, myself included. 

Nothing superior about my knowledge, mate. My memory is decidedly patchy. I've just googled the Brew. He was born in Dec 66, joined the Pars in the summer of 2002 and left in Nov 2005. 

I returned from holiday in 2002 in time to watch the Pars annihilate Livi 2-1. I'm deadly serious. Livi scored in added time and Stevie Crawford missed a hat trick of sitters in the first half alone. Livi had qualified for Europe, if memory serves. 

I thought I was back in the 60s. 😃

[Grant]

22 hours ago, Rengade Master said:

I think it is all down to expectations from a 35 year old player.

Playing him to his strengths in positions where speed is not essential is the main one.

Having the right players close to him that he can build up an understanding with, his reading of the game, encouraging the younger ones to do the running into space or back as required.

With a chance to work with consistency and the same players in a settled squad he will do well I'm sure.

I think in older, better players if you are surrounded by dross you end up trying to do more than you are capable of in fear of passing to someone who is going to waste the ball or lose it. Then you end up getting caught making you look the bad one.

To be fair that is worklife per se.

How do you do that then? Where do we play Dorrans? 

I'm not convinced any of our strikers have it in them to play the lone striker role effectively, however where do you play Dorrans then? Can he play in a two? If he did it would be as the deepest of the two, you're then putting in a hell of allot of emphasis on the wingers to supply the strikers. 

Dorrans might be a good player, is he good enough to merit building the team around him? As we seen last season, no. When you couple that with his wages, are we getting enough bang for our buck? 

Talk of McPake transforming Dorrans doesn't marry up, he was the manager of Dorrans at Dundee and he looked poor. 

[Number Eleven]

I think expectation plays a big part. It’s generally accepted that Dorrans is on a huge wage for League 1 and he delivered practically nothing last year. He was expected to raise the team with his quality and experience but was unable to. For me, the ideal solution is for him to leave and be replaced by a player who can actually influence a game.

Having said that, if he stays perhaps James McPake can get the best out of him, but he looked past it last season.

[Berry]

I don’t think Dorrans is past it, I don’t think he did any better or worse than the rest of the squad last season.

He hadn’t had a proper pre-season, had some bother as mentioned with injuries/illness, below par season for everyone I’d say.

He’s an influential player but he still needs support and others chipping in, he can’t do it all, he’s not a Gareth Bale who can single-handedly drag Wales over the line.

Just think we need to manage expectations a bit, to have a player like Dorrans in our squad when we’ll be playing teams like Alloa, Kelty Hearts, Edinburgh etc, no disrespect but with his career and experience he should stroll it if his mindsets right and possibly one big plus with bringing McPake in is that they’ve worked together and hopefully they have that mutual respect that he’ll want to stick it out with us.

As for the financial side of things, can’t really comment but if he sticks around I’d be happy.