What are our big options as who is fit....

Goalkeeper i am lost. Cammy Mackay if no ofw but is he available?

I would say chalmers at lcb with warren.

At least he listens is a lot quicker than  brad and can tackle.  He can head the ball distribution could improve but think mackay needs dropped. Have supported him but think he is part of the problem. Think we need warren. Cant put elsdon in (no jason brown should never have got rid) and dont trust donaldson.  Only other option is to go three at back with raven. 

Obvious lwb in tremarco. Rb in raven or seedorf when fit. 

Trafford (who is backup)

Vigurs polworth is there any better options?

Mulreany                   bell

                      Foy

Oakley not fit. Baird missing chances susan.........

Cant see any other big changes we can make.

Anyone else have ideas?

 

 

2 hours ago, RiG said:

For me though his all round game doesn't seem to have come on at all. As mentioned above he often looks quite disinterested when he comes on. His passing is slack, he spends more time falling over on his backside trying to win a free kick than actually doing anything meaningful to the benefit of the team.

I'm hoping he'll come good but he really needs to improve rapidly. Whilst he's still quite young at 21 a lot of players are really hitting their stride at this age and Mulraney seems as far away from kicking on as a player as he was when he first signed for us though perhaps he didn't receive the best of coaching last season...

Rather than kicking on, Mulraney seems to have gone backwards.  When he first came here, Foran was clearly very excited that he had signed a young, attack minded player who was going to be a bit special.  Early signs seemed to justify that and he would beat defenders all ends up and leave them in his wake.  Sure there was a lack of end product and some rough edges but I think we all shared in the optimism and he got voted as POTM on more than one occasion I think.  His decent performances then might have been a reflection of his confidence then - a confidence which will have totally evaporated now.  

I doubt that his failure to kick on is due to poor coaching because you don't need to be a coach to see what he does wrong.  I think he's so busy looking at the ball at his feet that he never clocks what's going on around him.  If you are the sort of player that can pull defenders out of position (which he is) then you create space for team mates to run into.  But he doesn't see that.  His decision making is very poor..  I'm sure there is an attitude problem too but the main issue might be that he simply doesn't have a footballing brain.

I thought Chalmers was one of our better players on Saturday.

In my uninformed opinion we need to go with a more defensive setup. I would go with a back 5, at least for the time being to shore up our position. We have the pace to hurt teams on the counter attack and score more than our fair share from set pieces. As such, we should be quite content to sit back, allow our opponents to dominate possession and put the impetus on them to break us down.

Ridgers

MacKay  Raven   Warren   Chalmers   Tremarco

Vigurs

Mulraney                 Polworth                  Calder

Bell
 

Get rid of Chalmers, pop Trafford into midfield with Vigurs, swap Raven and Mckay around and that would probably be a reasonable line up.

Dropping Trafford yet keeping Chalmers.  Eh?!

I like to cut new players a bit of slack for the first few games but from what I've seen of Chalmers so far, he does not seem to have the ability to play at Championship level and doesn't appear to have the potential to improve.

Then again, given his previous form, that is hardly a surprise. What was a surprise is that we recruited him in the first place even taking into account our limited finances.

The man is garbage.  He's actually worse than Djebi-Zadi.

19 minutes ago, Renegade said:

The man is garbage.  He's actually worse than Djebi-Zadi.

Oh dear that bad 

Yes that bad.  At least Lionel was fast, Chalmers doesn't even have that!

He hasn't looked great but I wonder how much that has to do with the tangible lack of confidence and trust in each other in the back line.  I didn't have great expectations for Chalmers but I was expecting more from Elsdon.  He is still a young lad but has done well in the youth set up at Middlesborough and has caps for England at U17 level.  His poor performances can't be down simply to being rubbish, rather it seems to be that he simply doesn't seem to know where he is expected to be at anyone time.  He looks as though he is someone used to playing in a well drilled and cohesive set up who is now being thrown into a situation where there is little organisation or leadership.

If it is true that OFW may now be available for selection, then I think the defence would all benefit from that and as the unit begins to develop a bit more confidence and trust, Chalmers may not look quite so bad.  Mind you, with Tremarco back, Chalmers is unlikely to feature much in any case.

OFW
 

Raven McKay Warren Tremarco

 

Trafford Vigurs

 

Doran Polworth Elbouzedi

 

Bell

 

Other options: Ridgers, Esson, Chalmers, Elsdon, Baird, Oakely, Mulraney, Calder, Seedorf, Susan, Cooper, Donaldson

Think its almost unanimously agreed that OFW, Raven, McKay, Warren, Tremarco, Vigurs, Doran, Polly would form part of our best 11 - which in some ways is quite worrying as ones a crock and 3 are the wrong side of 30 yet for all our recruitment season on season its guys who have been here for years through various management regimes are still the core. Its also noticeable that the remaining players nbody can decide who is better than anyone else - which suggests the quality is very similar and seems to be no standouts from the mediocrity. 

10 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

Think its almost unanimously agreed that OFW, Raven, McKay, Warren, Tremarco, Vigurs, Doran, Polly would form part of our best 11 - which in some ways is quite worrying as ones a crock and 3 are the wrong side of 30 yet for all our recruitment season on season its guys who have been here for years through various management regimes are still the core. Its also noticeable that the remaining players nbody can decide who is better than anyone else - which suggests the quality is very similar and seems to be no standouts from the mediocrity. 

'Guys who have been here for years through various management regimes' have been the bedrock of our success over the last two decades or more. Part of the problem is that there are so few of them left in the current squad and all those who are fit should be on the team sheet unless and until the more recent recruits manage to prove that they are better.

Apart from stating that Doofers Dad  has a gift of seeing right into the heart of matters and has rang  my bell more than once, I regret that Pimpledom only catches spies,  robbers and rats but has little insight into this season's team having never seen them in person and has been stopped from viewing overseas punters' special videos by a cash-strapped management. But we soldier on as we should.

And thank you very much indeed  to whoever has gifted us the "after the match, U Tube videos,"   

Over and out.

I wouldt pin much hope of seeing Doran this season. I actually wonder if he will ever regain fitness. I was led to but it was a career ending injury. I really hope that isn't the case.

11 hours ago, Bronson said:

I wouldt pin much hope of seeing Doran this season. I actually wonder if he will ever regain fitness. I was led to but it was a career ending injury. I really hope that isn't the case.

Not according to the man himself...

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Two-years-of-injury-hell-and-becoming-a-father-has-helped-Caley-Thistles-Aaron-Doran-grow-up-20092017.htm

Would be a fantastic addition to the first team, hope he's back sooner than later. Really missed having a wide man that not only creates chances but also gets amongst the goals .

Billy King, Mulraney, Cole and even Polworth(reluctantly) have all played out wide and failed miserably.   

 

  

When I look deep into my soul , I see players not good, but who can play at times. Against Livingston and Morton or even Dundee United had spells where they matched the opposition. I saw some good approach play , but poor finishing . I saw players make mistakes, but is that just down to lack of confidence.  I have said before, and I will repeat. We need to play a simple game. watch the passing,  Do not give the ball away. Close down the opposition runs , get close so they struggle to pass or shoot.  Cover the corners better and clear the lines when in trouble.  We should take a Big Sam lesson and respect the point. Most of all keep tight at the back .

Our players  are not superstars , nor are the opposition, but from what I have seen in the 3 home games the opps have been better organised, have better team work and fight for their own team right to the end of the match.

I have seen better teamwork in Dog and Duck Sunday league matches,. These are aspects the management and coaches have to work on.   No-good the manager blaming the players, it is his job to organise the team, work on the basics. I am sure all the lads  have had their moments in the past, They have not got a job with ICT because they don't have a level of skill that most young men don't have. Lets see an improvement to moral and a work for the common good. The manger complains about players not picked banging on his door to get a game, surely that is a good thing. It would be a poor state of affairs if they were not asking  oto play. It shows they are wanting to get out there and improve things.  I expect the manager and coaches to get the team properly organised.  For goodness sake we are not playing at the top level anymore.

Managers and coaches can tell players what they should be doing till they are blue in the face, but they can't do it for the players on match days.Only the players can do that.  The players need to have enough of a footballing brain to understand what they need to do at any one time, they need to be motivated to do it and fit enough to do it.  With one or two of our players at the moment, I wonder if they possess any of those 3 qualities.

And in fairness to players, they can be made to look bad when team mates get caught out of position.  A scenario here is that your team mate over commits elsewhere and leaves the player he should have been marking free.  That player looks the most likely player for the ball to be played into and if it is, then he will be unchallenged on goal.  As the nearest defender you go to close that down only for the ball to be played to the player you had correctly been marking at first .  You are caught in no man's land, looking a complete idiot but yet it wasn't actually your fault.

I think this is why Robertson was talking about involving all the team in addressing defensive frailties.  Other players need to get back and help covering runners etc, they need to not give the ball away in dangerous positions and they need to make themselves available to receive out balls to prevent defenders being put under unnecessary pressure.

I don't think Robertson was in any way complaining about players knocking on his door to get a game.  Far from it - I'm sure he wants that.  What he was criticising players for was showing a desire to play when off the park and then showing precious little interest when brought on.  I am sure we will see plenty of desire from Tremarco and Doran when they return to the starting line up.

9 hours ago, ict247 said:

Not according to the man himself...

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Two-years-of-injury-hell-and-becoming-a-father-has-helped-Caley-Thistles-Aaron-Doran-grow-up-20092017.htm

I bet the roof will come off both the main & north stands when Aaron's name is next announced on the team lines....

Hmmm!. We do have a lot to consider don't we?

I have only seen a few games last season on the Overseas video link so am reluctant to pass judgement.

And also, since I can't see the newbies in action now because there are no more videos for us Overseas persons, I can't honestly  say that I could put a name to the players' faces apart from  the older established ones at least. 

As for John Robertson, when I was watching his last online video comments after the game, I began to cringe realising that what is being handed to him is not his bag at all and he seemed to be squirming to find adequate words to express his frustration and disappointment. Also, I got the impression that unless something drastic happens in the very near future to change things he could run out of ideas. You know, you can't make a whistle out of a pig's ear and how many times can he change things around with no very positive result  but accompanied by huge disappointment. Sadly, this team does seem to lack real depth and experience  and ICT is not the only option open to him. I'm not suggesting JR is a quitter but how much utter frustration can he absorb without thinking more and more about  going back to Edinburgh?

 

On 17/09/2017 at 10:40 PM, Renegade said:

The same Jason Brown who was garbage at Arbroath?

Scored today I see... 

23 hours ago, Council Juice said:

Scored today I see... 

Jason brown has been playing in a winning team pretty well. I just gave up talking about him as elsdon donaldson and chalmers seem to be preffered by renegade.....

 

Who cares who he scored for. He wasn't good enough for us and not the type of player we need to take us forward. 

Edited September 24, 20178 yr by Renegade

22 hours ago, Renegade said:

Who cares who he scored for. He wasn't good enough for us and not the type of player we need to take us forward. 

How do we know that? He never got a chance to prove himself.

Interesting, though that Sutherland and Ferguson seem to always be on the bench at Elgin.

We do need to up our development activity.

53 minutes ago, Robert said:

How do we know that? He never got a chance to prove himself.

 

He played regularly in our garbage U20 squad and was nothing special and was garbage at Arbroath.  We can't just keep people on in the hope they come good.  He isn't any better than Donaldson or Elsdon anyway IMO.

Edited September 25, 20178 yr by Renegade