Nicky Devlin

Now...

You know, Shaden Morris wouldn't have made such an impact at the start of that 24-25 season without Nicky Devlin bombing up to give opposition defenders a different problem to think about on Shaden's inside.

And I think that relationship between fullback and winger is really important, especially when we're asking the fullbacks, as we had been as part of the four, to be so involved in an attacking sense.

Now, why do I say it needs to be soon? Because I do believe, maybe proved completely wrong, but I do believe in the next couple of home games, we will see Robinson try and revert to that four, because clearly it's an issue.

Arimu, we spoke last week about how much Arimu is capable of doing.

We obviously have Richard's man, Tony Yogan.

so I think it's too early to tell because if you just look at last year's squad based on the guys with the most appearances you'll have guys like Mitov, you'll have Keskinen obviously Nicky Devlin played lots then and not this season Graeme Shinney and these are guys who were coming off of winning us a major trophy so I think it would be unfair to really say this year's squad is no better than last obviously we lost people like mid-season, we did lose people like Paul Vara, we did lose Clarkson went as well.

So I think it's kind of hard to say.

Mitchie and Tello dropped out of the squad as well.

Then Nicky Devlin also came back into the squad for the first time in quite some period of time.

Let's just be brutally honest and call a spade a spade.

There's not an awful lot to talk about in this match.

Um, and the reason I kind of wanted to come back to is, uh, for, for all that we're about to talk about a result like we had yesterday, really gelling that bonding and togetherness with the squad, I wouldn't want that to take away from the fact that there have clearly been some individuals in that squad that for whatever reason have been frozen out of that completely.

And the ones that are really baffling me in this context are nominally our next choice right backs and, and left backs in Nicky Devlin and Mitchell Frame.

I, I thought it was a real miss that i- if they're so frozen out of the, the, the, the first team thinking that they're not even sitting on the bench, and in a game when you're drawing nil-nil against the bottom table in the league, and you could have had the option to have an attacking wing back like Mitchell Frame coming in, and instead you're basically putting in a center back come left back in Gavin Malloy, which is no knock on him, but he's a square peg in a round hole.

Um, I think that's something that you'll really need to have to look at and address because, um, again, if he's expecting those players to carry that level of minutes and they're suffering with cramps and their legs are going from them, you know, early September, that, that's a red flag to me.

Uh, certainly beyond the League Cup matches, um, I'm not sure we've seen Mitchell Frame even in those League Cup matches, to be honest with you.

And, um, you know, that, that is a surprise because he did feature quite heavily for him at the end of last season.

In fact, looking at the numbers, Nicky Devlin made a substitute appearance at Brora, uh, and that's been it.

That's been it for Nicky Devlin this season.

Finlay Marshall coming off the bench and being really positive, I suppose, is the main thing I take away from Saturday.

Conversely, though, Chris Caden's performance compared to letting Dylan Wobbin go or not even giving Nicky Devlin a sniff in if he's fit enough, it just feels...

The squad just feels so imbalanced and it feels like they're almost fed up already as well as the fans, to be honest.

There just seemed to be no fight or drive at all.

And I think there's a bigger question mark about Nisbet's role in the team, and we've talked about that already to death, about the fact that potentially...

Robinson's kind of like hamstrung himself a little bit here by giving him the captain's armband because I don't think he can play in the type I was going to say the type of football we're meant to be doing I don't fucking have a clue what we're trying to do from a footballing perspective actually this moment in time so maybe I'm the one who's wrong here but yeah I think when you look at experienced players in the dressing room now as well with like say Nicky Devlin who's just been bombed out completely Antipal Versa was a surprise back on the bench today.

Mitchell Frames has been bombed out.

Obviously not an experienced player or an experienced pro or anything, but people see this, right? I mean, the squad sees this.

more is that we haven't moved some of these guys on Mitchell Frame I mean that must be an expensive squad we've got yeah

yeah

yeah but but these are all players who clearly have no no

It'd be interesting to see with Mats Knuster returning to the bench at the weekend, do we integrate him back into the squad at some point? The right-hand side of defence is still a concern for me.

If Caden gets injured, Nicky Devlin's not featuring.

Who comes in there? Is it Jack Milne, Lewis Mayo, Brad Lyons? Centre midfield, I think you're absolutely right.

That is a concerning part of the pitch.

Kasini Yenge has... left the club to go to Japan on loan.

That club retained the option to sign Cusini on a permanent basis.

Likely departures are probably going to come in from the way of Mitchell Frame, Nicky Devlin, Ante Palaversa between now and Thursday evening when we hope to reconvene again on the podcast and do another reaction to that Celtic game and discuss maybe what's happened in terms of comings and goings transfer window-wise.

If Mitchell Frame is to leave the club between now and the deadline, would you want that to be a lone move? Or would you rather see him stay and fight for his place in the team?