What has happened to Dougall

T

tangysider

Well-known member
Firstly I really rate him as a DM, but he has gone from first name on teamsheet to being on the bench.
I do not think it is just down to Appleton preferring others, as he is not playing well when he comes on. He needs to roll up his sleeves and fight for his place again, as there are many games where we are forced to be defensive and need him at his best
 
Probably last season catching up with him. Not much rest after playoff final. Long season with lots of travelling to sit on the Aussie bench, which continued well into June.
Lavery is probably suffering from having International duty too. Especially as he's just moved up from NI football league.
 
Loco said:
Lavery is probably suffering from having International duty too. Especially as he's just moved up from NI football league.
Click to expand...
Don't really rate Lavery since his last injury.
He looks overweight and well off the pace, his touch seems to be missing and hasn't been doing the surging runs he once did.
Behind Bez and Jerry on pre season showings, bench at best unless we have no other options, could go for me.
 
Dougall has come in for some stick but pretty much held our midfield together last season as others were out injured and Critchley constantly meddled. Add to that the long season with the Play Offs and international call ups and it isn't so surprising his performances levels dropped. Hopefully he has had a bit of rest and ditches the national side off if he's not going to get any game time. I'm also hoping under Appleton, Kenny will be given a bit more opportunity to shoot. A fully fit Dougall is a massive asset to our team.
 
I’m not looking into it too much because it’s pre season but I expect him to start on Saturday. If he doesn’t and Virtue starts in the holding role I’d say MA doesn’t fancy him.

I’d play Stewart ahead of him based on ability but we’ll be lucky if we get 10+ games out of him before he’s released.
 
It could just be that MA doesn't feel the need to give him game time in the pre-season, he already knows him well enough, has no doubts about his fitness, and he's played a lot of games in the last couple of years, with international duties on top perhaps he just wants to give him a lighter pre-season and have a good look at others as well.
 
I disagree with the OP as I don't think he's ever been close to first-name-on-the-team-sheet status.

He's a steady squad player who benefited from both his immortalising brace at Wembley as well as a distinct lack of CM cover elsewhere in the squad.

It was always going to be the case that, as soon as we started getting more heads, he'd slowly sink back to the subs bench.
 
TheRealKingKenny said:
I’m not looking into it too much because it’s pre season but I expect him to start on Saturday. If he doesn’t and Virtue starts in the holding role I’d say MA doesn’t fancy him.

I’d play Stewart ahead of him based on ability but we’ll be lucky if we get 10+ games out of him before he’s released.
Click to expand...
We have a major problem If Virtue starts ahead of anyone in midfield. Great attitude, but chasing shadows at this level.

Stewart is a multi-million player, if it wasn’t for his injury profile. He’s different class when fit, but as has been said, Kenny has held things together in the middle. He’s a definite starter for me.
 
DonCorleone said:
I disagree with the OP as I don't think he's ever been close to first-name-on-the-team-sheet status.

He's a steady squad player who benefited from both his immortalising brace at Wembley as well as a distinct lack of CM cover elsewhere in the squad.

It was always going to be the case that, as soon as we started getting more heads, he'd slowly sink back to the subs bench.
Click to expand...
Absolute rubbish! A "steady squad player"? He played 37 league games for a team new to the Championship, who were always going to be up against it.

Defensive MF are always under rated and as TAM said, his ball retention and breaking up play is crucial.
 
Rotterdam+Sussex_Seasider said:
Absolute rubbish! A "steady squad player"? He played 37 league games for a team new to the Championship, who were always going to be up against it.

Defensive MF are always under rated and as TAM said, his ball retention and breaking up play is crucial.
Click to expand...
He is a good squad player but wouldn't (and in my opinion shouldn't) be in the starting XI had our midfield recruitment (famously bad of late) and rotten luck with injuries been better.

Stewart & Wintle for example were / are far better and more rounded midfielders and would've leaped ahead of KD in terms of appearances had they been available for longer periods.
 
Rotterdam+Sussex_Seasider said:
Absolute rubbish! A "steady squad player"? He played 37 league games for a team new to the Championship, who were always going to be up against it.

Defensive MF are always under rated and as TAM said, his ball retention and breaking up play is crucial.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, the midfield gets overrun without him in the side. He also got more assists than any other player for us last season, not bad for Defensive midfielder. It doesn't take long does it.
 
Kenny seems very reluctant to turn when he gets the ball from the keeper or centre backs. Like he has no awareness of opposing players and is scared of getting closed down. Be much more effective if he played a forward pass more.
 
I think we over-relied on Dougall last season.
He had an off-period near the end of the season and should've been rested.

It would be ideal if he was partnered with a player who can make forward passes so that he can focus on the dirty work.
 
Perhaps Kenny would be a more consistent, energetic player, if he pulled out of international football.
He's always on the bench for Australia, having to travel many thousands of miles for that 'luxury'.
I would like to see Kenny pushing forward more often, so that he takes more shots on goal - we know he can shoot, but how often did it happen last season?
One thing's for sure, our chosen midfielders need to provide more creativy for the forwards this season 🍊 🧡
 
585 = never give up said:
Perhaps Kenny would be a more consistent, energetic player, if he pulled out of international football.
He's always on the bench for Australia, having to travel many thousands of miles for that 'luxury'.
I would like to see Kenny pushing forward more often, so that he takes more shots on goal - we know he can shoot, but how often did it happen last season?
One thing's for sure, our chosen midfielders need to provide more creativy for the forwards this season 🍊 🧡
Click to expand...

He is going to the World Cup though.
 
I was thinking about this earlier today and came to the conclusion that he's probably a few weeks behind the others in terms of pre-season work. Based on the available squad, he's comfortably our best option as a defensive central midfielder. People are suddenly keen on Connolly, but as much as I like Callum's attitude and honesty, he's weak on the ball and is a makeshift CDM rather than a full time CDM.
 
tangysider said:
Firstly I really rate him as a DM, but he has gone from first name on teamsheet to being on the bench.
I do not think it is just down to Appleton preferring others, as he is not playing well when he comes on. He needs to roll up his sleeves and fight for his place again, as there are many games where we are forced to be defensive and need him at his best
Click to expand...
Scored twice against Lincoln 🤔
 
DonCorleone said:
He is a good squad player but wouldn't (and in my opinion shouldn't) be in the starting XI had our midfield recruitment (famously bad of late) and rotten luck with injuries been better.

Stewart & Wintle for example were / are far better and more rounded midfielders and would've leaped ahead of KD in terms of appearances had they been available for longer periods.
Click to expand...
Wintle played WITH KD for most of his time with us.

Stewart is not even worth discussing. He's never going to be fit and should be released.
 
Lost Seasider said:
KD actually played a couple more games than RW during his time with us.




What's the betting that Stewart suddenly finds a run of fitness now that he's in the last year of his contract?
Click to expand...
Well i'd have no issues if he did and we got 30+ games out of him. We'd be better for it. Then i'd offer him a reduced terms deal.
 
phill said:
Defensive midfielders are only underated when they are not actually any good at it like dougall. Seeing as his ball retention is a 5 yard side or back pass he is a passenger .He makes backpass henderson look like platini
Click to expand...
Have you ever rated a player?
 
TwelveAngryMen said:
I don't get these criticisms of Dougall

Game per game he's always been one of our most consistent performers and crucial to both ball retention and breaking up the oppositions play

If Virtue starts ahead of him I'll be shocked
Click to expand...
OK, not the be all and end all but his distribution can go badly awry.
 
Pauls_Boutique said:
Anyone who thinks Dougall isn’t our best midfielder doesn’t really know football
Click to expand...
Different players bring different things to the table.
If we are forced on the defensive for 90 minutes Dougall would just shade Connolly
But if we spend most of game attacking other players would be more important
 
People talking about goals from Kenny, I’m more disappointed with his ball retension. For me he his passing so far this pre season has been really poor. I want us to look after the ball better.
 
From Lancs Live:

Central midfield is a key discussion point after the Seasiders had a bid rejected from Sheffield Wednesday for midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and failed in their attempts to bring Cameron Brannagan to the club from Oxford United - the latter seeing League One as his preferred destination. With those failed attempts, Blackpool remain short on quality options in the middle of the park.

Lewis Fiorini figured at the base of the midfield three against the Royals, despite predominantly playing in the eight role in his pre-season outings. However, Appleton maintains the eight is his strongest position but felt he wasn't in a place to play others in the six over the Manchester City loanee.

"Potentially (on Fiorini remaining as a six) but Lewis is one of them where he is much better and he will play a bigger part in the game in terms of being an eight than a six. Obviously, he's shown his range of passing skills today, but when he gets in those sorts of positions 20 yards from goal, he's a real threat, a real goal threat," Appleton added.

"It's one of them where at the minute we haven't got the luxury, we could quite easily have gone with Kenny (Dougall), Kenny's had a mixed pre-season I think that's fair to say, and I think he admits that as well. But when he came on today I thought he did a great job and that's something I can be aware of now."


Appo starting to catch up then! Kenny started pre-season late having travelled with Oz, and hasn't fully got going yet but he will strengthen the midfield when he's back to his best. Mr Consistency-Reliable. Who wants a place in the Oz squad so is going to be fully motivated.

I noticed that Dele-Bashiru got two goals for Wednesday yesterday against Pompey, and Bishop scored too.
 
Loco said:
Probably last season catching up with him. Not much rest after playoff final. Long season with lots of travelling to sit on the Aussie bench, which continued well into June.
Lavery is probably suffering from having International duty too. Especially as he's just moved up from NI football league.
Click to expand...
It’s also to do with the fact that he was dreadful second half of the season and he appears to have carried that form into pre season. Very average in the pre season games he has played in.
 
Dougall will return folks.Its when not if.He has more then enough in the bank from previous.Appleton just needs convincing he has 90mins in him at full throttle.

Who did we turn to yesterday when we were under the cosh?Keep the faith.

Not only that with a better balanced midfield around him and goals up the other end he might not expend so much over the 90.

The role he had in Pool's set up under Critchley I'm not surprised he ran out of fuel.
 
voyeur said:
From Lancs Live:

Central midfield is a key discussion point after the Seasiders had a bid rejected from Sheffield Wednesday for midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and failed in their attempts to bring Cameron Brannagan to the club from Oxford United - the latter seeing League One as his preferred destination. With those failed attempts, Blackpool remain short on quality options in the middle of the park.

Lewis Fiorini figured at the base of the midfield three against the Royals, despite predominantly playing in the eight role in his pre-season outings. However, Appleton maintains the eight is his strongest position but felt he wasn't in a place to play others in the six over the Manchester City loanee.

"Potentially (on Fiorini remaining as a six) but Lewis is one of them where he is much better and he will play a bigger part in the game in terms of being an eight than a six. Obviously, he's shown his range of passing skills today, but when he gets in those sorts of positions 20 yards from goal, he's a real threat, a real goal threat," Appleton added.

"It's one of them where at the minute we haven't got the luxury, we could quite easily have gone with Kenny (Dougall), Kenny's had a mixed pre-season I think that's fair to say, and I think he admits that as well. But when he came on today I thought he did a great job and that's something I can be aware of now."


Appo starting to catch up then! Kenny started pre-season late having travelled with Oz, and hasn't fully got going yet but he will strengthen the midfield when he's back to his best. Mr Consistency-Reliable. Who wants a place in the Oz squad so is going to be fully motivated.

I noticed that Dele-Bashiru got two goals for Wednesday yesterday against Pompey, and Bishop scored too.
Click to expand...
This from Lancs Live / Appleton helps - King Kenny is our best defensive midfielder when in form, combative, good engine and would always be in my starting eleven. Those saying he's only squad player have not been watching Pool games this last two years, sorry.
 
Tangerine Trev said:
This from Lancs Live / Appleton helps - King Kenny is our best defensive midfielder when in form, combative, good engine and would always be in my starting eleven. Those saying he's only squad player have not been watching Pool games this last two years, sorry.
Click to expand...
I’ve watched him home and away last season and second half of the season he was shocking - passing awful, ball retention awful and in pre season he has been very very average
 
Seasidedaz said:
I’ve watched him home and away last season and second half of the season he was shocking - passing awful, ball retention awful and in pre season he has been very very average
Click to expand...
A number of his misplaced passes and loss of possession led directly to goals
 
I have a long running rib with Voyeur about Dougall, he loves him and wants to have his babies so I like to be the devil on his shoulder about Dougall so you will have seen me berate Douglas at every opportunity, when really I think he is a decent player, certainly a very good league 1 player and an average Championship player. So it was interesting yesterday that when he came on he played well, better than Virtue, and I wonder if, with this more attacking midfield tactic we were actually too light on defensive cover and having Carey and Fiorini with someone like Dougall would give us more protection but still having 2 creative midfielders instead of none, like last season!

I think Dougall should come in for Virtue next Saturday especially as we are away from home. Once Gabriel is back I would put Connolly in that role with Dougall on the bench and, and it's a massive and, we can get Stewart back you would have to have him in there as he will do the defending but he will drive the ball forward,

I am not sure Carey is ready yet for playing every game, he needs game as he clearly has lots of skill, but I think he would benefit from someone more solid behind him and I can see why we went back in for Brannagan and I think we will get a more experienced midfielder in before the end of the transfer window.

It's an exciting formation tactically but it will take time for it to gel, so getting 3 points like that yesterday is important. It's an attacking look and it looks like the Liverpool tactic of 3 up front who will all get a chance to score, it's all about the speed of getting the ball forward and getting the ball into the front 3 and also getting players into the box, like Connolly did yesterday for his goal.
 
hertfordseasider said:
I have a long running rib with Voyeur about Dougall, he loves him and wants to have his babies so I like to be the devil on his shoulder about Dougall so you will have seen me berate Douglas at every opportunity, when really I think he is a decent player, certainly a very good league 1 player and an average Championship player. So it was interesting yesterday that when he came on he played well, better than Virtue, and I wonder if, with this more attacking midfield tactic we were actually too light on defensive cover and having Carey and Fiorini with someone like Dougall would give us more protection but still having 2 creative midfielders instead of none, like last season!

I think Dougall should come in for Virtue next Saturday especially as we are away from home. Once Gabriel is back I would put Connolly in that role with Dougall on the bench and, and it's a massive and, we can get Stewart back you would have to have him in there as he will do the defending but he will drive the ball forward,

I am not sure Carey is ready yet for playing every game, he needs game as he clearly has lots of skill, but I think he would benefit from someone more solid behind him and I can see why we went back in for Brannagan and I think we will get a more experienced midfielder in before the end of the transfer window.

It's an exciting formation tactically but it will take time for it to gel, so getting 3 points like that yesterday is important. It's an attacking look and it looks like the Liverpool tactic of 3 up front who will all get a chance to score, it's all about the speed of getting the ball forward and getting the ball into the front 3 and also getting players into the box, like Connolly did yesterday for his goal.
Click to expand...
Bit of honesty wouldnt go amiss! And a bit of consistency. Change your mind about players more often than you change your bamboo underpants. FACT.

And youve wanted us to get rid of Dougall loads of times and now you want him back in the side again. And Carey was fhe answer to everything. You just go off the last 5 minutes all the time! And then go into full exaggeration mode and stop watching!

I think Appo is realising the value of Sir Ken. 👍
 
Kenny's not a squad player to us because we know what he can do. But he could be to Appleton as he's got the final say. He's got a history of not caring who you do or don't like when he inherits a squad. So time will tell if KD is just catching up and he's managing that with him. Or if he'll be the first big difference that we see of a head coach change. But I don't think you can afford to give anyone the cold shoulder here with the injury record and inability to get the big deals over the line where a player has a choice. If he's fit he could end up last man standing at some point the way things are.

I don't know what role Dele-Bashiru plays for the Massive but he looks like a brick-built shithouse so if he can do the 6 role of holding a midfield together whilst pinging passes about like Fiorini was yesterday then you can see what he's probably thinking about within his preferred formation and tactics.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top