Matchday Thread Inverness CT -V- Ross County

[Sir C the 3rd]

He gets loads of praise Yogi and rightly so but.... what on earth was the thinking of playing Greg Tansey on the right of midfield. He looked completely lost and totally ineffectual. Tansey himself looked annoyed when he came off as well, I think he knew he shouldn't have been playing their. On reflection it would have been better to drop Tremarco have Shinnie in their, play Greg where he normally does and have Doran on from the start.

[+DoofersDad]

 

OK, so the pitch was soft, but let's not make that an excuse for a very poor performance.  These are professional footballers who spend hours practising their passing skills and who should have been able to pass the ball on that surface.  For a team that professes to have an ethos of possession football it is disappointing to say the least that playing at home against the the side rock bottom of the league, we had less possession than County did. 

 

The stats were a reflection of a kick and run game; aimless punts upfield in the vain hope that it might land at Marley's feet.  There were a few occasions when they tried to string a few passes together and when they did that it looked as though they had the potential to pull County apart.  County are a pretty makeshift side at the moment with players who still need to develop much better understanding between them.  They were there to be taken apart but rather than do that we change the game plan because the pitch was a bit soft!  Why?  Hughes is forever talking about the need for the players to be brave in playing the passing game he's drilling into them, and yet just because the pitch is a bit soft he changes the game plan thereby showing no faith in his players to play the passing game on that surface.  It was time for him to be brave and show some faith in his players but he bottled it.  The pitch might not have been great but it was pretty windy as well and therefore a good day to keep the ball on the deck.  Of course we could expect the ball to bobble occasionally but we have better players than County and could surely have coped with that better than them.

 

Someone else commented that the County subs were quite effective.  Why Hughes did not make better use of his subs I don't know.  With a heavy pitch it is obvious players are going to tire and surely there is a need to make best use of the fresh legs on the bench.  With all the chasing Watkins did he must have been shattered at the end.  He could have gone off with his head held high with Doran coming on earlier.  Williams impressed in the first half but was much less involved in the 2nd half.  By the way, why no Ali Sutherland on the bench?

Glad to see you back to your encouraging best DD! You obviously didn't walk on that pitch on Saturday but it was glutinous and heavy. As I 've already said, it's a miracle Tommy and Mattie got it playable in the fiirst place. Brave? If we had attempted to pay the usual passing game beginning with Esson playing short balls out, it would have been suicidal. Although County are a side getting to know each other, they are fighting for their lives and will pull out results such as Saturdays. I would have preferred to see subs used earlier, but I can quite understand why an inexperienced boy whose game is reliant on pace wasn't put anywhere near it.

 

The key point here is that the pitch was playable.  In making that decision the referee is checking that the ball is able to roll on the surface.  The pitch was soft and heavy but there was not lying water nor were there large patches of glutinous mud. Balls passed crisply and acurately would run true most of the time.  And, yes, I am genuinely being encouraging because I think our players have the quality to be able to pass the ball on a pitch like that.  From time to time they did play some decent passing football - indeed the goal came from a neat passing exchange.

 

What was needed was a modification of tactics and not a massive change.  I agree with you about the passing from the back.  As the pitch cut up a bit, occasional balls would be likely to hold up, particularly if played a little too tentatively and that would be risky at the back.  So at the back, there would have been a need to get the ball upfield quicker but once upfield we should have been looking to keep hold of it and pass it around a bit.  Where the conditions were likely to have an effect was in playing the ball in the air when it would be affected by a strong wind and then, coming down from a height with more vertical momentum it would be more likely to hold up in the pitch.  So, we revert to tactics more prone to being affected by the conditions than our normal game!

 

And I don't buy the bit about not wanting to risk a young player whose game relies on pace.  In his interview Yogi claimed to have changed his team when he saw what the pitch was like and put in runners instead.  That would seem to me to be exactly the situation where you would want a young lad with pace (not to mention one who would undoubtedly have relished the opportunity to show everyone what he could do. 

 

And County are fighting for survival.  So what!  Does that mean they are trying harder than our team?  I sincerely hope not.  Are we not fighting for a European place or even the title itself? 

 

Incidentally, on the keeper front I always wonder why our keepers rarely throw the ball out.  Craig Gordon was using that technigue very effectively for Celtic yesterday on a poor Hampden pitch.

 

Yogi's interview is really pretty depressing.  On the back of a great run of form he is signalling a change of tactics in the coming weeks with a view to keeping clean sheets and hoping to snatch a goal or two at the other end.  When pitches are sticky it is the goal mouths that cut up the worst.  Even the best of defenders will get caught out and you simply can't rely on clean sheets.  Billy may be gone but we have a midfield stuffed with players who can score.  It would be good to see a much more positive attitude demostrating faith in the ability of the players that we've got rather than making these lame excuses.

[RiG]

I thought it was a poor game played on a poor pitch in poor conditions. Boyce and Dingwall had good chances for County in the first half. Good finish by Watkins to open the scoring. We had some reasonable efforts saved / cleared off the line and we paid for not killing the game off. The County goal definitely came off his hand but I am not so sure it was deliberate. We certainly made an arse of trying to defend the cross from Irvine regardless and we should have done better. Can see why we didn't get a penalty for the oh so slight clip by Reguero on Watkins. At the time I didn't think it was a spot kick. Definitely two points dropped for us with some lackadaisical finishing. Worrying signs post Mckay. Hughes will need to get a striker in before the transfer window shuts.

[Row S]

That's another 2 points Beaton cost us. We would be top if it wasn't for him.

 

BBC highlights attrociously short - less than their own website. Yet we had to endure more from the League Cup semis after full highlights of the first one on Saturday night and a live game between the dark forces of evil yesterday. More bias against the clubs in the Highlands.  

[+Fraz]

I see on Twitter the stadium announcer has stated he has resigned.

[Sneckboy]

I don't normally like to criticise referees but I thought the whistler at Hampden yesterday was poor. I imagine the SFA put their 'top' ref in for the potentially heated Celtic-Rangers game but I thought he made some basic errors and strange decisions. I dislike both the Glasgow teams so was able to observe it from a neutral perspective.

Perhaps the assistant-refs (linesmen or lineswomen, nowadays!) should also be held to account, as they can raise their flag if they spot something the ref has missed).

 

As for our own 'penalty' incident with Watkins - after seeing it last night on TV, particularly the behind-the-goals angle, I apologise if I inferred in a previous post that I thought Watkins had 'made a meal of it'.

I assume the ref would have awarded a penalty if Marley had gone down instantly at the contact. But, in an instant, he had to make a decision and in his mind 'played advantage' to give Marley the chance to slot the ball in, but after he tumbled, the 'advantage' had gone.

 

Interestingly, in rugby, (I think), when the ref signals a penalty, he allows the attacking team to play-on for the current passage of play, allowing any advantage to stand - like a try, for example. But, if the move comes to nothing, they go back and take the penalty.

In yesterdays prominent incident, (Rangers-Celtic), when Brown was fouled but still managed to release Griffiths one-on-one with the 'keeper, he could have allowed the move to play-out - and if Celtic hadn't scored or in his opinion hadn't gained and advantage, brought play back to the half-way line and a free-kick to Celtic.