It’s been a pretty miserable season for Killie. Poor product on the pitch, poor results and a playoff decider they could definitely have done without. Injuries have played their part, but Allan Johnston struggled to find a settled team and there has been a real regression since last season under Kenny Shiels. Add fan unrest into the mix and you complete a pretty dismal picture. In all of this, however, there was Kris Boyd scoring goals for fun and the return of the mercurial Alexei Emerenko. Here’s how they and the rest performed. Written by Alastair Mitchell.
Goalkeeper
Craig Samson and Antonio Reguero – Craig Samson is Craig Samson. A keeper capable of stunning saves and schoolboy errors. For some he’s a good Scottish Premiership keeper and for others a liability. The truth is somewhere in between. What’s truly strange, however, is that Reguero hasn’t started a Premiership game. Perhaps some competition would be good for the team. It worked with Hart and Pantilimon, maybe it could work for us.
Defence
Jeroen Tesselaar – I never imagined that the single best piece of skill I would see from a Killie player this season would come from a masked left back, but here it is. Tess was expected to kick on this season but hasn’t developed and has let games pass him by. Left back will be one of the areas that most needs improvement for next year.
Darren Barr – Barr was brought in as our main centre back and did pretty well there until an injury ruled him out for the rest of the season. Much like at Hearts, Barr had mistakes and a red card to his name, but he looked composed and settled in the heart of defence. Missed for the rest of the season and will feel like a new signing when fit.
Manuel Pascali – Pascali is probably the most popular player at the club and has brought some much needed spirit at times this season. That said, he’s clearly dwindling and might be coming to the end of his use in the Scottish Premiership. Pascali has always been somewhere between a centre back and a defensive midfielder player and at times this season we’ve had better options in both positions. He is still capable of a fantastic performance though and I’d love to see him stay at the club for another season.
Lee Ashcroft – Injuries accelerated young Lee’s rise to the first team but he has really taken his chance. Now a fixture in the team, he is a no-nonsense centre back who routinely puts in last ditch sliding tackles that are as good as goals. Still raw, as you would expect for a young player, but an exciting talent.
Ross Barbour – Barbour signed a new contract this week, something which would have seemed impossible early in the season. Frozen out for months, Barbour eventually managed to establish himself in the final third of the season and showed plenty of attacking threat and passion. Still liable to make a mistake, and better going forward than defending, but when on his game he’s a real prospect.
Vitalijs Maksimenko – A January signing, Maksimenko eventually emerged as an important player, filling in at left back and centre back. Our continually changing formation meant a lot of swapping, but in the final games of the season he had some very good performances. Versatile and useful back-up at Scottish Premiership level.
Mark O’Hara – O’Hara was a fixture of Shiels’ team last season but Allan Johnston clearly didn’t see the same potential. Limited opportunities this season, but even when given the chance he struggled to make his mark. The potential is there and it would be good to see him make the next step next season.
Sean Clohessy – An inconsistent season for Clohessy that ended in him totally disappearing from the first team. Clohessy had a good run but never looked better than average. His high point included scoring and momentarily playing like a world class winger in the 2-5 defeat to Celtic, but he never convinced at the back and was often hampered by injury.
Midfielders
Jackson Irvine – Our Australian loanee has had a truly bizarre season. It’s always been clear that he is a technically adept player, but time and again early in the season he lost the ball or made the wrong decision. Things got no better when Johnston made the incomprehensible decision to give him a run at right back. He (perhaps harshly) became a figure of ridicule, jeered mercilessly at St Mirren when blasting a shot into a stand full of Killie fans. Then it all changed. In a more settled midfield he became defined by his effort and has been our best player in many matches post-split. The passion he had in the last few games of the season was tremendous and he’s gone from laughing stock to a player many would like to keep around.
Alexei Eremenko – Can’t write this without bias – my favourite ever Killie player – so he could have sat on the pitch cross-legged for ninety minutes and I’d still have applauded him off. Eremenko was, to put it mildly, carrying a few extra pounds when he arrived but slimmed down dramatically and looked close to his old self in the bottom six games. The difficultly, as ever, is his lack of pace, which requires building a midfield around him, but I’d love to see him around next season. His ridiculous passes make Killie worth watching.
Craig Slater – A breakthrough season for Slater who was fantastic. Slater looks like he could be our next Bryson, a dynamic midfield player with technique and composure beyond his years. In a team that often struggled to get forward he was the link between the midfield and Boyd. Like most of our youngsters he blew hot and cold, but he is definitely one that fans are excited about for the future.
Rory McKenzie and Chris Johnston – I’m going to look at these two together: both wingers, both nippy and skillful, but one has come on this season and the other has faltered. McKenzie has been really effective, beating players and scoring a few goals. He has improved from last term and has looked particularly good when playing closer to Boyd.
Johnston, on the other hand, has drifted in and out of games and failed to make his presence known. There’s still bags of potential, and the odd run that gets the fans off their feet, but he will need to show more if he is to progress next season. Like much of the midfield, both players haven’t been well used, often watching balls fly over their heads in the vague direction of Boyd.
Michael Gardyne – Gardyne is the sort of player who looks great on the highlights and maddening over ninety minutes. Always busy, always moving – always doing very little. Started his loan spell very brightly, looking able to pull the strings and create, but soon tailed off. It was a surprise when the loan deal was extended past January and he was even less effective from then on. Flashes of brilliance, but the flashes are far too infrequent.
Sammy Clingan – Injury meant losing Clingan for much of the season but Allan Johnston didn’t seem to fancy him anyway. Sparingly used, but looked good when given the chance. Clingan is thought to one of our higher wage earners and that might see him leave this summer.
Barry Nicholson – The fans were massively underwhelmed to hear that Nicholson had signed and his performances did little to turn that around. He’s been a largely peripheral figure, but his experience has been useful in certain games and he did well in the crucial encounter against Hibs on the final day. A squad player that did his bit but it would have been nice to see one of our youngsters given a chance in his place.
Attack
Kris Boyd – With 22 league goals Boyd has pretty much kept us up this season. He’s scored important goals again and again, often getting us points we didn’t deserve. The formation has sometimes left him isolated, but even then he’s taken the few chances given to him. There’s a maturity and leadership that has been really impressive and he even speaks well on the radio. Advertising mattresses in America clearly has its advantages.
Robbie Muirhead – Still very young, Muirhead has had plenty of opportunities this season and looks like one for the future. Like Boyd, he has little else in his locker other than goal scoring, but he has caused problems for defences. Ill used sitting behind Boyd, but could come into his own if Boyd leaves.
Willie Gros – A bit of a cult figure with some of the fans, Gros returned for a second spell and basically did nothing. Plenty of bustle and pace but very little to show for it and failed to score. Will probably be off in the summer.
The Flops
It’s easy to forget we started the season with Kyle Jacobs and Mark Stewart in the squad. Both offered nothing whatsoever and quietly slipped out of the first team and out of the club. David Moberg-Karlsson, who (we’re told) cost Sunderland £1.5 million came in on loan in January and failed to nail down a place in the squad. Ismael Bouzid seemed a decent punt at centre back but injury meant just four appearances. Rabiu Ibrahim failed to shine in the few appearances he got and was also released, but David ‘not that one’ Silva was the most pointless of all. Wasn’t good enough first time around, even worse second time around. Oh, and the less said about Reuben Gabriel the better.
This was written by our resident “news” reporter Alastair Mitchell. Check out some of the truly unbelievable stories he has uncovered in our series “Why Should Tabloids Have All the Fun?“
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