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Butchers biggest mistake has been getting shot of Grant Munro and replacing him with his personal favourite .

There are problems within this club. The cause of such I dont know but I do know that, having watched two games back to back, one away and one at home, I have witnessed a very disjointed team. Indeed I'd go so far as to say this is not a team. There are eleven players on the park but none are displaying any sort of teamwork and the leader on the park is not displaying any sort of leadership. These are all professional footballers, paid entertainers, who I would expect have ambition and desire to get as high up the chain as they can. The way to do that is to do the job to a high standard and sell themselves to the highest bidders. In the last two games I've not seen anything that suggests a desire among those players. Yesterday we were bad against a very mediocre Dunfermline. Dunfermline had far more chances than us to score but by luck and good goalkeeping they didn't. They didn't play all that well yet they got the chances. We took the lead and instead of being fired up and going for the jugular we froze. We didn't run at them. We didn't look for space and work the ball. Indeed we didn't do very much. We looked like a team thrown together for the first time. I was one of those angry at Richies gesture at the end. Was he being sarcastic? Was he genuinely congratulating the fans? I dnk know but I do know that he should have been apologising for the way his team, and indeed himself, performed. Which beggars another question. We play well against a decent St Mirren side and get a win yet we cant do that against two mediocre teams. Whats happened to change things from Saint Mirren to the next two games? All I can see is that the contracts of the management team have been extended.

Personally I feel Foran gets far too much stick on this forum, one thing the man could never be accused of is hiding. He gives his all week in week out and if he bawls at players it's because it's his job to get them working on the park. The man's been carrying injuries all season however keeps plodding on and I take my hat off to him. Another who does'nt shirk and gets stick is Andrew Shinnie, in my opinion our best midfield player yesterday and unfairly "hooked" when Tansey (Pansy) was hiding for the duration. I had an 'exchange of views' with Mr. Butcher on that one, his retort was for me to shut up, my reply being FU i pay my money. Personally I fear for our position come May if he keeps faith with his recent buys and favourites. Young Shane is dying to be given a starting chance, what's the story with Mackay, the only recognised striker he's signed and does'nt get a sniff ?? There would appear to be many inhouse problems and unanswered questions for the loyal fans, over to you Mr Butcher.......... PS. To the morons in the North Stand who booed and jeered Foran when he came and applauded you all at the end of the game yesterday, how do you feel today?? I can imagine what Richie is thinking and feeling

You feel we're not missing a solid, reliable and committed centre half? GM not good enough for the SPL, but how many seasons has he played there? Shame Proctors tackle was in the box - PMSL thats a bit like shooting someone in the head with a gun and then in court claiming I never did anything wrong it's just a shame his head was in the way! . Foran played a poor game (not for the first time this season) although to be fair he set up the goal. But he's not the only one under performing, not by a long shot and that includes the management teams as they have brought these players in. I felt Foran was only clapping at the end and thanking the fans for sticking with the team, at least that's what I saw. People would be moaning if he just walked straight off saying that 'he isn't showing the loyals fans any gratitude' so he's damned either way. Never mind all will be well when- We start to gell, get injured players back, find the system that works for us, play a passing game etc etc. Not to mention the stability brought from giving TB & MM the contract extensions so early, that will hopefully kick in soon too.

For my Thesis I conducted a study on pre-match training methods for team sports and the physiological responses from it. There are plenty of studies published providing evidence of the best training methods / warm ups. Ten years ago, athletes of all sports were doing static stretches during warm ups. I'm sure you all had it in PE as a child. The teacher telling us to do our stretches. Within the last ten years or so, just about all the evidence points to static stretching as a warm up protocol increasing the chance of tears and strains and significantly reducing various performance factors such as repeated sprint ability and vertical jumping. Football however is sgnificantly behind the times. Take any other sport in the UK - cricket teams have exercise physiologists working for them. If you play squash at a high level you have exercise physiologist, sport psychologist, dietician etc etc. In football however, the people that take the training are ex players turned managers. They may have football badges but no real scientific understanding of what they are doing in terms of phsyiologically getting the best out of players. Some clubs have started to cotton on though and have employed full time Strength and Conditioning coaches or Physiologists. I have no idea what the players do in training or if they are being given the most up to date scientific training methods. I don't know if MM or TB sit at night researching studies on the most effective training techniques - if they don't, then I hope thet have employed someone who does! Peter Davidson was S+C coach part time during the Brewster era, although I do think he got some things wrong as they appeared over trained at times. Richard Hastings brother was a fitness coach after him I believe, working as a gym instructor at JJB. What professional football teams need (they do it in every other sport) is some one much more qualified. PhD level and an expert in Physiolgocial training. ICT used to have a sports psychologist named Donald McNaughton on the books part time. As a professional sports club they should aim to have an expert sport / exercise physiologist at the club as well. The job would be to work with and/or advise TB / MM on creating training routines that would best prep for performance AND strengthen the players in a way that decreases injury. i don't know if we have someone like that on our books. Maybe if we did, we wouldn't have as many injured players (certainly nothng could have been done abiut Doran and Hayes injury). But Gillet collapsing in agony at East End Park with a muscle injury? Maybe, just maybe with the right physiological training throughout the season, players would strenghten various phsyioloical factors and injuries like that would not occur. If Butcher is correct in using the injured players as an excuse, then the benefit of this is very simple. less injured players = higher up the table. Not being relegated would probably pay for the physiologists wage.

I haven't been at the past few games so I can't comment on how we played. I haven't said much on here recently but I want to give my two cents as to what seems to be going on. I am seeing some worrying similarities between this season and the season we were relegated. In both instances we lack success in front of goal and we are persisting with young inexperienced players (in 2008-2009 we were playing the likes of Duff, Wood and Vigurs). When I saw on Saturday?s team line up that we were remaining unchanged. I feared the worst. As much as I admire Foran?s loyalty to us I fear that he is being kept in the team because Butcher is scared to drop him. I?m sorry but if you are going to have him in the team then do not play him up front. Foran and Tade have managed 6(?) goals between them in a round of fixtures. It clearly isn?t working. We have other options on the bench who haven?t been given a chance. Why did Butcher even bother signing them? I think Tade is a great worker and I admire his passion and commitment but he can?t be expected to carry the burden of getting all our goals. He should be played along side McKay or Sutherland, an actual striker NOT Foran. Defensively it is hard to escape that we let Granty go. I highly rate Hogg, Gillet, Shinnie and Roscoe has calmed right down in recent years. Thomas seems to be the liability that Tokely used to be. He gets booked every game, my namesake can do a job but I wouldn?t be starting him. Last year our defence let us down a lot. This year I fear it could even be worse. Although it has been mentioned too many times before, getting rid of Munro and Duncan was the stupidest most illogical thing we could have done. I can understand Terry wanting to build a team for the future. Who are these young lads supposed to learn from? Even if Butcher wanted keep both of them on the bench their presence as mentors would be very valuable. McBain and Golabek hardly got a game for us in the SPL but in any team you need a mixture of youth and experience. Rooney and Hayes had the guidance of these two. Over the past few months I have tried to justify why these two stalwarts were let go and I?m sorry but it can?t be done. So what are we left with now? A group of teenagers who have not grown up in Scotland let alone Inverness so they have little connection or pride in the area, who know they probably are not going to be here for long and who have few people to instil the ICT passion that got us up the leagues, that kept us in the SPL for five years or even that got us back up first time. David Davis? Twitter summed it up for me earlier on. Your team is bottom of the league, you throw away 3 points yesterday and your last two games have been shocking performances and you complain about being called in? In some work places that?s enough to get you a disciplinary. It certainly doesn?t fill me and other fans with confidence that these loan players are playing with any sort of passion. I can think of plenty of players plying there trade in the Scottish lower leagues who are just as capable as them who would jump at the chance to play for ICT instead of them. I wouldn?t in a million years suggest that we get rid of Butcher because I think he is one of the best things to happen to ICT. I can?t think of anyone who could do a better job. I do think his plans to change the club were too sudden and ill timed and I feel letting Munro and Duncan go is one of the stupidest things he has ever done. If he doesn?t make radical changes to the team line up in the next few weeks then I fear it could be too late for us.

You feel we're not missing a solid, reliable and committed centre half? GM not good enough for the SPL, but how many seasons has he played there? Shame Proctors tackle was in the box - PMSL thats a bit like shooting someone in the head with a gun and then in court claiming I never did anything wrong it's just a shame his head was in the way! . Foran played a poor game (not for the first time this season) although to be fair he set up the goal. But he's not the only one under performing, not by a long shot and that includes the management teams as they have brought these players in. I felt Foran was only clapping at the end and thanking the fans for sticking with the team, at least that's what I saw. People would be moaning if he just walked straight off saying that 'he isn't showing the loyals fans any gratitude' so he's damned either way. Never mind all will be well when- We start to gell, get injured players back, find the system that works for us, play a passing game etc etc. Not to mention the stability brought from giving TB & MM the contract extensions so early, that will hopefully kick in soon too. Ok IMO he was anything but solid or reliable, ill give you committed because the boy really did try. But no matter how many seasons he played in the SPL doesn't mean he was good enough for it! Far to slow and gave possession away every time with his 'hoof ball' tactics stop backing up a highly over rated and below average defender! He is gone to a a lower division which suits him best. and with the proctor situation i meant he should have made the tackle outside the box when he had the chance 'SHAME IT WAS INSIDE'. 'never mind all will be well' excuse me for being negative but i am really worried for us right now. we were outplayed by Dunfermline at home, i fear the worst for next week as Motherwell can actually play a little bit of football! Oh dear, did Grant steal your sweeties or something? Seriously though is GM Puyol? Is he Maicon? No. Did he ping inch perfect passes out of defence every time? No, but he played to his strengths and was a solid reliable player to suggest otherwise is nonsense, also the reason I believe he chose RC was family. Regardless you clearly think he was a terrible player for ICT, I don't and I think 99% of folk would agree with me and that's the last I'll say as I don't wanna labour the point. Your point on Procs tackle never made sense to me the first time and it still doesn't, from what I saw he wouldn't have made such a tackle at all had his positioning been better. Though he was maybe left a little exposed. My last paragraph regarding 'all will be well when...' was some what tongue in cheek and I would have thought most folk reading it would have taken it in that manner, perhaps it was too subtle for you. Out of curiosity who do you think are our strongest centre halfs this season, bearing in mind we are the only SPL team who have not had a shut-out so far (I think)? Edit: Spelling.

forans our top assister this season hes set up about half of our goals so with tade on 4 goals and foran on 4 or 5 assists we have a decent strike force how often does foran win a header against a tall defender about 60-70% of the time? yes hes not been the best leader this season but hes chipped in he loves this club and thats why he gets frustrated the pressure gets to him as captain sometimes we need someone with a cooler head at times to captain the side i think cox or esson should get the arm band and see how it benefits foran to have the pressure lifted off him

Yesterday's match report - uncanny!

If anyone (including A96) thinks that Russel Duncan or Grant Munro would have made any difference yesterday, they are deluded. All Granty would have done would be to contribute to the very aimless punting upfield that others are accused of, and what people on this forum moaned incessantly about when he was here. TBH I didn't see too much of that yesterday, but what I did see was a team that is desperately short of the width needed to create openings in the middle for Tade and Foran. They don't have the ability to create these for themselves, but they are getting hold of the ball (which just makes it more frustrating) We really need Hayes and Doran back. Now. Defensively, Meekings has given us a choice and surely to God Hogg will be back at some point. If not, it's time to rehabilitate Golabert and put Proctor in a position where he isn't as exposed as he was yesterday. Piermayer being outy next week will create that opening. I think his only fault yesterday was not taking Buchanan out before he reached the area. The real fault lay with the two players who lost the ball in midfield when the game should have been shut down. Midfield wasn't great either yesterday TBH, Tansey and Davis seem too much alike. Cox should make it better. Onwards & upwards. edited - spelling

Firstly, Foran did not have the best game yesterday but let's be honest who did. The booing of him at the end from The North Stand, if that is what happened is unnacceptable and if that is what some of our fans think is supporting the team, then shame on them. Too many so called supporters of this club never seem to be happy unless they are moaning. That said, team selection and substitutes were wrong yesterday. I appreciate that Butcher wanted to give the team a chance to atone for last weeks performance but some now need to be dropped pronto to gee them up.

Going by the fact I have very very rarely seen him pat a team mate on the back or give a thumbs up, but have instead very regularly see him waving his arms about and pointing and shouting at players, I'm going to have a guess and say that he's not offering encouragement. I even recall an article in the paper a few weeks back, i think it was after the utd match(could be wrong), where he basically said the lads weren't playing well. No mention of his own poor performance at all, and it actually read very much as if he had no part in our poor performances. Now, in my opinion, if you're not willing to put your hands up and admit you yourself are playing poor, then how can you possibly be able to motivate others?

IHE is on the right track here, IMHO, and I had similar feelings after reading what IHE says. There is no denying that terry has great spirit and a dogged determination to win and succeed; admirable qualities of persistence and survival. But my first love are the memories of Caledonian F.C which go back almost 60 years,closely followed by my love of ICT because ICT is the child of the former club. So these feelings will always be my prime motivator and cannot be supplanted by emotions about Terry's life, personal comfort or ambitions. That's not to say that he has no deep feelings for the club but a lifetime's loyalty and devotion can't be won over by what Terry has to offer. This season he has the right to expect support,though,come what may in repayment for rescuing ICT from the depths of the relegation morass in Div 1. After that, the Manager is strictly paid to get results and keep the club afloat and we must not forget that his salary is still probably very high indeed and exceeds that of the average supporter by many pounds. --this is not a labour of love, only, for him but a JOB. This is a business to those who put sums of money into it and they expect a return on the investment,regardless of their love for Caley Thistle, otherwise they do have the right to NOT to renewthe Manager's contract--and he knows that!

Foran could have had 2 or three goals himself today if he put in a least half the effort that we have seen him produce. He was a liability from the start (not for the first time this season). He was over critical on more than one occasion (not for the first time this season) and he himself was probably the worst player on the park (and not for the first time this season). For him to clap the fans at the end and try to get us all behind the team really p***** me off, because for a full 90 minutes he did nothing but stroll around the pitch and not once try and gee up the lads. There was no praise, no passion, no desire, no encouragement. Just lots of critisism to other players, even if it was he who played the initial bad pass in the first place. We all know how close Butcher and Foran are, and for that reason I will slag off Butcher. But Foran is the club captain and should show the desire and passion in every single game, not just at the end when the fans are on his back!!! I don't disagree with most of what you're saying. I think that he is clearly Butcher's golden boy and the manager can't see past him and will play him no matter what, but that's not Foran's fault. I do believe that unfortunately Foran is learning his leadership technique/skills from Butcher i.e. shout/moan, not really a good thing! He should be encouraging other players more yes, that would be one of the aspects I would like to see in an ICT captain, but that only goes so far. Ultimately all the players on the park are professional footballers and need to take responsibility for their own performance. Was he really the worst player on the park or has his form just dipped more noticably due to previous good form? I have no idea why of course, is it injury, pressure, confidence or his upcoming fatherhood? Who knows. Tade has missed plenty of sitters too and has the touch of an elephant but because he runs and runs he seems to get away with most of the criticism. People used to moan about Grantys captancy style- that he didn't say enough, was too quiet with the players etc and it would seem that people feel that we have gone from one extreme to the other which is fair enough. At the end though (unless I missed something) I saw nothing wrong with what Foran did, as I said before if he just slinked away with his head down people would be gurning about that too. At least it was a bit more dignified than the 'fans' lining up to boo him and the other players off the park.

Cant really sat much more that hasnt been said already. Dunfermline should have been gone by the time Tade hit the back of the net. Defensively we look more lost than the dark days of Djebi-Zadi and Phil McGuire, we're feckin useless there right now. Esson deserves credit, he did what he could to organise and made some terrific saves to keep us in the game, at half time he look very discontent with our display...get a feeling any new offer he is given will be rebuffed. Also plaudits to Tade and Davis who both gave tireless displays. 2nd half started with an improved display, Tade, Ross and Davis all coming fairly close but at the same time there were moments where Dunfermline looked threatening, paticuarly on the left hand side with Piermayr carrying a booking. Thought young Meekings looked solid when he came on, settled into the game very quickly and made a terrific challenge on Cardle towards the end who was looking to shoot. No qualms about the penalty, more dire defending, G. Shinnie not getting back quick enough and Proctor being far too rash in the challenge, didnt have to be made and was executed poorly. I symapthise with Richie Foran, he had a poor game today i agree, despite setting up the goal but the booing directed at him at full time for acknowledging our support i felt was out of order, imo he shouldve gone instead of Tade, Foran was done after about an hour. I get the feeling that many showed up today just waiting to jump on the backs of players...i know folks get frustrated but it dosent help, especially against such a young team which we are now.

If we were in 6th position and ONLY 4 points above the bottom side it wouldnt make that a huge difference to the grand scheme of things - so yes we can grumble & criticise individuals - yes we are still only 4 points off the top 6 unbelievable, so its showing so far any of the bottom 7 are still scrambling for consistency not just us - also 1st time for Meekings & Cox so some positives !

Lets do first things first, that was awful - really really terrible. How ICT escaped with a draw from that is one of the great mysteries of life as the Pars could have won that by three or four goals - and no-one could say they didn't deserve it. Lets first talk about the manager - I believe when the players and fans look towards the dugout they need to believe in who's there and it certainly doesn't look like they do, I know I certainly don't. It was evident from the beginning that they didn't seem up for it, as the feeling permeated the stadium that something was a-miss. Tactically, it was awful. Long hoof, after long hoof, after long hoof. Dismal dismal style there - no ideas, no nothing. What was the deal with that formation? It was just bizarre. When has Nick Ross ever been a winger? He was rubbish today. Proctor was appalling as well. How anyone, particularly an ex-England centre-half can say that Munro wouldn't have been as good there as Proctor was today is astonishing! They must have an IQ that struggles to reach 15! And Tansey.......I have no idea what he was supposed to be doing today and evidently neither did he. Butcher seems to have good rid of good team players who really wanted to be here in Munro and Duncan and has replaced them with medicore nobodies, some of whom won't even be here come 2012 and it certainly showed - far too many passengers. Butcher needs to stop picking his favourites every time as well - Foran, Proctor and Ross are not undroppable. And then we have Foran. He was utterly utterly abysmal. Just all round useless. Apart from his cross for the goal, his touch was poor, his tackling was poor, his passing was dreadful and zero leadership from the captain whatsoever. Only Tade, Esson, Davis and maybe at times Andrew Shinnie really seemed to have some idea at what the were doing out there. Tokely of course was as usual his steady self. And what's the deal with these stupid short corners. Every single time it was silly short corner after another silly short corner. Did it work? Of course not. I'm now scared that it really could be Armageddon 2012 for ICT. Say what you like about luck, officials and all the rest but you get what you deserve in the end. And if the unthinkable is possible if things don't change - and change fast.

Ask IHE for his assessment since he's the expert on body language being a hottie medical psychological assessor an' all. Knees -up-Mother Brown means he is chirping. Neck stuck forward like a Canada Goose on his migration run to Europe, travelling flat out with these beautiful, powerful wings of his beating non-stop, and you can be sure he is mildly concussed or pretty angry or even just determined to go somewhere fast. Hands up in the air, knees bent and head tilted upward and a banshee yell of joy coming out of his mouth and no doubt he is quite chuffed. Unless you heard the Rebel Yell of criticism being directed at the offending player,frankly how can you tell? :werenotworthy:

Great guy, grand person, full of charisma, personality and the likeability factor - but that article wholly smacks of egotistical self centred overoptimism to me - a wee bit of "I am alright Jack". It worries me that he 1)says he knows where the club is going and 2) that he appears that he is protected by the new contract. Please, please dot me but this is about the safety and security of Inverness Caledonian Thistle and not Mr Terry Butcher - you have to prove yerself on the pitch, through performances and results not by gushing emotionally in a rather narcissistic fashion. Perhaps someone should tell Terry that he is becoming Maradonna'ish.

4-4-2 GK: Tuffey LB: G. Shinnie CB: Gillet CB: Tokely RB: Meekings LM: Ross CM: Cox CM: Tansey RM: A. Shinnie ST: Tade ST: Sutherland Give tuffers a chance, get gillet back in so he can cover shinnie when he goes for a run, cox a starter for def. and give foran a rest so sutherland can get a start, the boys dangerous whenever he steps foot on the pitch and maybe foran could rally the troops as a sub in the 70th min.

The man is a pure bread donk. maybay if he practised his finishing rather than gobbing off in the press bout how we can still get top 6 we mite have a chance of the odd win. how many times does has he broke away,only the keeper to beat,then ballooned it over the bar, or no where near the goal? think its funny that people are just starting to realise what a pretender he really is

You feel we're not missing a solid, reliable and committed centre half? GM not good enough for the SPL, but how many seasons has he played there? Shame Proctors tackle was in the box - PMSL thats a bit like shooting someone in the head with a gun and then in court claiming I never did anything wrong it's just a shame his head was in the way! . Foran played a poor game (not for the first time this season) although to be fair he set up the goal. But he's not the only one under performing, not by a long shot and that includes the management teams as they have brought these players in. I felt Foran was only clapping at the end and thanking the fans for sticking with the team, at least that's what I saw. People would be moaning if he just walked straight off saying that 'he isn't showing the loyals fans any gratitude' so he's damned either way. Never mind all will be well when- We start to gell, get injured players back, find the system that works for us, play a passing game etc etc. Not to mention the stability brought from giving TB & MM the contract extensions so early, that will hopefully kick in soon too. Ok IMO he was anything but solid or reliable, ill give you committed because the boy really did try. But no matter how many seasons he played in the SPL doesn't mean he was good enough for it! Far to slow and gave possession away every time with his 'hoof ball' tactics stop backing up a highly over rated and below average defender! He is gone to a a lower division which suits him best. and with the proctor situation i meant he should have made the tackle outside the box when he had the chance 'SHAME IT WAS INSIDE'. 'never mind all will be well' excuse me for being negative but i am really worried for us right now. we were outplayed by Dunfermline at home, i fear the worst for next week as Motherwell can actually play a little bit of football!

Getting fed up of people with their love for Grant Munro and how he is what we are missing. He was a poor leader, below average overall defender and not good enough for the SPL. Today i thought Proctor played ok had to make the tackle, shame it wasn't made outside the box, but doesn't deserve the pelters he is getting today. Richie Foran was the worst player on the park today and has been like that all season, for him to come up to the fans after todays performance and tell us to keep our heads up is a joke! ill start to keep my head up when the team pulls their fingers out and start looking like they give a F**k!