Sticking with the seniors many comments voiced
1) Forwards should be scoring even converted midfielders. We see Joe OC doing this for Kerry so ours should be doing the same or else play natural scorers
2) Loftus positioning. I think he’d be better as a half forward and drop either Carney or Flynn to make way. That said we can’t go on just 1 game. Agree Flynn worked hard but conceded the 3 scorable frees. Some were marginal and the next day’s ref is the best in the Country so maybe stick with him and drop Carney.
3) Experimenting with ROD at 11. Agree as teams can target him more inside and he kicks long points and never afraid to kick again after a miss. One caveat though, what to do with Darren Mc on return, his best position is probably 11.
4) Talk of Dawson at RHF. Didn’t stand out in the club finals and as a county player would expect him to. By comparison Eoghan Mac was a beast for any minutes he played. Played well on the loop vs Donegal last year and young so probably plenty of potential but while I’d give him minutes the jury is still out. Main plus is his two footedness which can’t be understated.
5) Midfield problems. We have no natural fielders of the Glass Rodgers Conroy standard. We have lads who can do a job there sometimes fielding well and other times not or same lads played in HF line. Glass has put up big scores in some games, ditto Conroy. Ruane could be used for 40-50 and then spring someone. He works like a dog and can kick points. Loftus could do a job although not very tall for a midfielder, very intelligent on the ball. No easy solution bar coaching clever kickouts and disruption tactics as best we can. Thornton caught some great ones last year, no idea yet if his overall play is good enough to start.

On to Monaghan and we will need to see a much improved performance on Sunday. This has the appearance of a must win to stay in Division 1,as there are no easy points going in remaining games. I spared myself from watching the recording of the game back-once was enough. We were outplayed in every aspect, and, even if we had taken some of our goal chances, I always felt Donegal were in control. And I don't fully buy in to this "heavy training" or Andy giving up on this one as not winnable. Our lack of scoring is a problem, as 14 points would win no games, even under the old rules. But I am also very concerned about our defending and the fact that we still hav'nt nailed down the vital 3 and 6 positions and still wonder if it's worth robbing Peter to pay Paul, by moving McBrien to midfield. I am blue in the face saying that, for the last good few years, we are one of the easiest top tier teams to score against. We shadow, Shepherd players along, in pass the parcel fashion, paw at attackers and stand too far off them. Our defending lacks tenacity, physicality and aggression, especially compared to Donegal, Galway, Kerry, to mention a few. I'm old school and I want my defenders to be good man markers, first and foremost, and anything else is a bonus. A defender needs to put pressure on his opposite number, restrict his movement and options, try to overturn possession and, at the very least, make him earn any score-no easy scores. Proper man markers are even more important now, with the new rules. We need tight markers, especially in the full-back line. Surely there must be some in the county-people with better knowledge of the club scene might have some idea. Our Ireland manager, Heimar H has said that he is looking for a "bastard" to play midfield-we need a few bastards in the full-back line, instead of the nice lads we have there.

Good man glasagusdearg. Some great points.

It was a tactical error in the first half v Donegal that cost us. Long poor quality ball into the ff line didn't work and Carr paid the price for the lack of quality service. The second half was pretty even though you never felt that Donegal were not in control.
What I like about Andy and co. is that they are identifying shortfalls and adressing them 0from game to game. Our retention from kickout stats for example were very good v Donegal and we are also managing the last quarter much better.
We are likely to get a 'breeze' in monaghan and a chance to replay the Donegal game tactically.

This is a huge game for monaghan and mayo. Loose it and we are dragged into a relegation dog fight. Hopefully a big mayo support will travel and make themselves heard supporting the team. We really need our defenders to be sticky and stay tight to their men.

Last year was a strange one in the way Tyrone went down with 7 points but that's not a regular occurrence. It's premature to be talking relegation with 2 wins from 3, or even from 4. Obviously nobody wants it but it's not relevant yet. I believe I read somewhere Banty dismissing the chat about relegation and his team pointless.

Clones is a fine venue but could be heavy after all the rain
Monaghan were excellent against Dublin for long periods and will be hard to beat.
Getting near time to have a settled team as championship approaches.
We have a terrible habit in Mayo of changing the spine of our team each year.
Hard to make progress that way.
I don't buy in to a 3 year build, you approach each year with the aim of winning and hope to learn from losses.

Ever the Optimist...

That's mental thinking back on it that Tyrone dropped with 7 points, often times over the years you'd be comfortably safe on that (even in the mix for a final), in fact for many years winning 2 games would have kept you up.
Its gotten very competitive between the top 8-12 teams with all capable of beating each other.

Doesn't help that somd teams are throwing their arse at it in the final 3 rounds depending on the toughness/timing of their opening championship game

All that being said sooner we get onto 6 points the better as we really need to try more new players in the latter rounds, Beirne aside I fear we could find ourselves heading into championship with the same 20 odd players who have been there and largely underperfoming the past 4 years, we need to establish new players, not just bring old teammates back from the cold

Supermac, I'm fairly sure Mayo will survive the drop. Have a look at the teams most likely not to escape... it's not that bad as of yet. Dubs and Monaghan or Armagh are my two picks, for what that's worth. I'd be sure Kerry will go all out to burn Dublin considering the run the dubs had etc etc. I saw Andy laughing after McGuiness probably threw his usual platitudes+on the TV replay of the game) and, I said to myself, I'd much rather have a brand new manager laughing now than the summer. It's hardly desperation stakes in February.

Yeah i reckon its monaghan and dubs for the drop.

Armagh have shown enough in defeat to suggest they are still a serious outfit. Even if monaghan get a result against us I can't see them picking up 3 wins.
I really think Dublin are way down the pecking order now, really nice impressed with them at all. Gervais brennan has a huge job on his hands there,I don't even put them in my top 8 teams in the country at the minute. A reliance on con, serious goalkeeping issues, no 2 point kickers whatsoever, no allstar level talent coming through. I don't see them winning leinster this year

...unintentional typo on Ger Brennan there lol

I dont know why we'd be worrying about Dublin. Results in league can be very upside down, the only team not dropping down is Donegal.
I agree with JR, we should be nailing down our spine, but I do think Andy is trying to do that in fairness. Let's wait and see.

There’s no need to look elsewhere — it’s in our own hands. There’s every chance we can take at least two wins from the games against Monaghan, Armagh and Roscommon, particularly with two of those at home. If we beat Monaghan, we move to six points and would hold the head-to-head advantage over Galway, Dublin and Monaghan. Kerry and Galway are both sitting on three points, and I don’t see either of them being overly concerned about relegation at this stage.

Just hoping we get around to picking forwards to play in the forwards and a full back line of man markers

Hennelly
Coyne
McHugh
Morahan
Callinan
Durcan
Plunkett
McBrien
Touhy
Dawson
O DOnoghue
Flynn
Cian McHale
Irwin
Beirne

Subs:
Livingston
Brickenden
Hession
Hugh O'Loughlin,
Coen
Thornton
O Connor
Loftus
Carney
Boland

Forget the Donegal game, history now. We were highly unlikely to win that anyway. On to Monaghan I agree it's most likely a must win in terms of retaining D1 status next year. Wont be easy however, Monaghan, a team capable of a performance at any time, need the points and will see this game, at home, as one of their best chances. So no sure thing here!

Is there not a trend of a lack of genuine midfield power? Would we play John Maher or knock a few kgs of old school power off him with long distance running? Apart from Aidan, we've had no powerful midfielder since Tom Parsons and Seamus O'Shea. What kind of training are lads on that they don't have nowhere near the Donegal, Tyrone or Kerry bodyshape? Look at the legs under all those teams. Look at the ability of the two Tyrone midfielders to turn, twist and power forward at pace. All with the size and power to knock regular sized folk out of the way.
I won't name players but we're a few years now looking at lads coming out of U20s and they've no legs under them or power. We're talking about 19/20 year olds like they're delicate youths that can't have a progressive muscle gaining program. I actually don't think we're powerful at all. We can run all day, but very little power in contact.

Age doesn't matter to Jim McGuinness, Roarty was started as a minor, Cahill played against us last week there should be more problem starting Kobe because of his age.

Ah Jeez steady JP, the sun isn't even rising in the sky, the suck calf isen't even off the Maverick and your expecting our lads to be up to top speed. Wait till we smell the fresh cut grass.