Tree

Adams showing what a bellend he is as usual.

Quality comments from Charlie.

Any suggestions how to play a fast accurate passing game when the pitch is in the state ours is in??

As mentioned before, this is just the same as he peddled at his previous teams where it did not work either. How this has been missed by the Board is beyond me (will have to start dusting off IHE's "Muppets" quote shortly )

According to the SPFL website our pitch dimensions are the same as those in Dingwall.

Dimensions inflated just like their crowds!!

It is time for him to go and whats all this "we can't afford to", what about Cup run money and compensation money from traitors move to Easter Road plus, surely relegation would be more costly.

 

At the moment a significant loss in income resulting from a reduction in season ticket sales appears more pressing.

Radio interview after match when your team has just been beaten - the perfect time to laugh and joke re Gordon Marshall's abilities

Clearly Richard Gordon has picked up on the issues and his comments suggests that he is, privately at least, just as baffled at the mess the team is now in.

Also not renewing a season ticket after a few losses. You can't have been supporting the club very long if the thought of losing will turn you away.

I don't think the issue which many have is simply due to just losing games.

I don't think I have ever been at a ICT game when the crowd started showing frustion at players after only 5 minutes (even in the darkest Brewster and Baltacha days) . This frustration is really due to perceived tactical issues and also I believe reflects the fact that just 6 months ago we were feared by just about every team in the league. Not we are soft at the back and have to rely upon long shots for goal chances.

Many (in spite of what you, I or anyone else says to convince them to the contrary) will simply not attend to watch the current style of football.

IHE, and I am sure others, seems to be picking up the same vibe from people he knows and it is appearing inevitable that our core crowd will drop from 3,000 downwards. The people I am talking about have in most cases been season ticket holders for over 15 years.

Why is any of this a surprise? Same story as before. Why did the board give him the chance to destroy things with the same style which has failed elsewhere?

Interestingly (probably should read worringly) out of the dozen or so people I have spoken to only three may renew their season ticket if Hughes is here next season? Possibly a very expensive mistake and raises questions regarding the direction the club is looking to go.

Sneckboy, you are quite entitled to form your own opinions....but you are not entitled to form your own facts, especially erroneous ones.

 

Tomorrow nights match will be the 13th game in 46 days for ICT.  No other team has had a schedule that comes anywhere close to that.

 

What makes it even harder to swallow is that it was not a situation of our making.

This forum will be much less fun if we have to stick to facts Don

Under 12s on a school night! They should be in bed

His lack of games for the last 15 months suggests an attitude issue anyway

Brill needs some competition but I'm not sure whether Ryan is in a position to improve things overall.

Whilst it would probably be harsh to blame Dean for the second goal on Saturday he did wander off and got caught out of position.

Not sure if I would like to get back passes on the farce of a pitch we have at the moment. The investment last summer has not improved things.

Someone help me out here. There must be at least one reason which justifies Vincent's selection (compounded by playing him out wide)? Is anonomous for most of every game he has played in.

He should be sacked just to stop this thread!

Getting worse than Bannerman and Oddquine's ramblings about the referendum

I think we are suffering at the moment from trying to fit Draper, Vincent, Foran and Tansey into the side and this is skewing the system being played. This is not being helped by losing goals leading us to be more defensive than previously, however the Partick game showed the need to be pressing high up the park and also being able to have outlets once we have regained possession.

In the first half we were too deep and when we got the ball Billy was so isolated that we immediately conceded possession. This allowed Partick to commit even more players forward and hence why it looked like the had more players on the pitch than us at moments.

If we assume that our two deeper midfielders are Richie and Draper (though Richie has been poor the past couple of games!) then we need natural wide players and not Vincent who looks out of sorts when wide but a different player when he comes off the wing. A fit Doran picks himself (I would look to have him on the right side where he is more consistent) and on the left I would go for Ross (though his best position is in the hole behind Billy) or Williams (who needs to have more confidence in the attacking side). Christie is obviously one for the future (though again he can play in the hole.

This then leaves a decision on the advance midfielder in the hole behind Billy, with a call between Nick, Tansey, Vincent or Christie, At the moment I would look to Tansey or if Williams played wide left it is a call between Nick or Tansey. Ross is our best player at linking the game together but Tansey offers potentially more in terms of goals / shooting.

Polworth is sitting in the wings for future seasons and his best position is in the deeper midfield positions. He is probably our best passer of the ball and offers more for set pieces (crossing more than shooting) and is good under pressure. He does not have the physical pressence of Draper and Foran though.

In my view if Watkins is to push into the starting line up he has to start offering an end product to his game.

More imbalanced tactics! At moment matter of time for Partick to score and we are only able to muster long shots.

How to ruin a team in four months!

 

We have gone from a 'top six' team which scored regularly with a system which allowed us to have one of the most regularly scoring strikers in the league to one which creates few chances, scores very few goals, has bottom six form (or worse!) form and a striker who looks less than average in a system not designed for a player such as him!

 

We had in season blips under Butcher however we normally still created chances even during these periods.

 

If we are to continue to move away from the old system we will need to find a different striker from Billy. The support is so far away on occasions that we need a player who can hold a ball up and bring others into play. For all of Billy's strength this is definately his weakness. Four months ago he was a Million Pound player. In this system.................?

 

Billy McKay was never a million pound player. 

 

I am referring to the price tag placed on him by club in the January window. The point is that he is not the same player and is not getting scoring chances

We have gone from a 'top six' team which scored regularly with a system which allowed us to have one of the most regularly scoring strikers in the league to one which creates few chances, scores very few goals, has bottom six form (or worse!) form and a striker who looks less than average in a system not designed for a player such as him!

We had in season blips under Butcher however we normally still created chances even during these periods.

If we are to continue to move away from the old system we will need to find a different striker from Billy. The support is so far away on occasions that we need a player who can hold a ball up and bring others into play. For all of Billy's strength this is definately his weakness. Four months ago he was a Million Pound player. In this system.................?

 

 

 

 

 

Christie is a must for the bench. Not so sure about Williams.

Did you even watch the game yesterday. Williams was superb.

??? Care to elaborate your point? I assume it is your statement that Williams was superb. He wasn't! He was better than most but he was far from superb. Had he been superb I think we would have had rather more that just 4 attempts on goal. Collectively our attacking midfied was very poor last night. Williams was simply the best of a bad bunch. On an individual performance I thought Danny Williams was ICT man of the match. He was bursting with so much energy and put in a decent shift. Fair enough, superb was probably over exaggerating it but certainly no way I would have him miss out the final. Sure Ryan Christie done well when he came on but I'd rather see Danny Williams on the bench or even starting - remember our last game vs Aberdeen.

 

I don't disagree regarding Williams being more deserving (if this is the correct description) than Ryan of a place.

Bursting with energy perhaps but in the middle of the park he tends to run around a lot and achieve very little. Definately not superb last night - adequate perhaps (just?).

For what its worth I would start with him wide left.

 

Christie is a must for the bench. Not so sure about Williams.

Did you even watch the game yesterday. Williams was superb.

 

???

Very much a 4-1-4-1 system set up not too lose goals.

Pitch is a disaster area and the number of sliced clearances from both defenses showed how tricky it was.

Clearly there was an emphasis on keeping a shape (though Doran twice in the first half failed to track his man!) and there was too much a gap between Billy and anyone else for most of the game. Billy is not suited to this system as it needs a front man capable of holding the ball up until support arrives.

Positives - Nick Ross who showed composure and a bit of quality and Polworth also played well in the second half. Richie added a bit of bite in the middle again. Both Evans and Christie showed up well when they came on also.

Have to say that crowds are unlikely to improve if the home form under Yogi and equally the lack of goals continues. Don't fully understand the desire to move away from 4-2-3-1 which fits the players we have and more importantly is the system which allows Billy to actually score, That said, a lack of composure on a few occasions and the pitch put paid to several potential opportunities.

 

 

 

HIAL.bmp

Good suggestion Alex but this company is owned entirely by the Scottish Government, so there is no chance of them giving over taxpayers money as sponsors. The company is owned by the Scottish Parliament but is run as a Private Ltd Company and I believe the taxpayers money that went into saving the company and the airports has been recovered long since. This company operates in the black and is making decent profits. Bearing in mind that advertising generates income I dont think the parliament would object to some of the profits being used for such purposes. Besides advertising budgets are tax deductable so it would mean a little less going to the UK treasury.

The Scottish Parliament is a legislature. It doesn't "own" anything. IIRC, HIAL is a quango.

 

HIAL is a publically owned corporation accountable to the Scottish Ministers (and by definition therefore to the Scottish Parliament) and sit in the same way that Scottish Water do. Whilst lumped in with Quangos they are actually slightly different, but lets not split hairs.

There is no direct reason why a public corporation cannot sponsor any event or entitiy, however the articles of association or company procedures are likely to place restrictions on what can be sponsored or DLAs may be highly restricted requiring Board or Miniterial approval for certain types of sponsorship. I am aware of at least one public corporation having DLA to CEO and Executive Teams for Sponsorship Activities.

In any case I would have thought that there would have to be demonstrated gain to the wider public for this to be acceptable.

Will chip in £20

Don't rate him in the central areas however he was better than Draper today

I think that unless he can appoint a clued up Assistant then the next Taxi should have his name on it!

Embarassing that we have to think like this after only a few games, however I think that the Board also need to look at themselves. The first time we have ever been in the position of being a "catch" for good Managers and we end up with this