Stirling Observer

Haha. Torch protest. Is the protest that we were good for a couple of seasons and now we are back to below average. 

Thats football, unless we muster up 50,000 fans get used to it, we made some very shrewd signings who developed well with game time here, we brought a few gems through the youth system. They left for more money,  mostly play for the top 2 teams in Scotland or down in England. Our wages is circa 1,000 a week or a bit more. If players are successful they will move on to bigger and better things, which is fair. We didn't replace them well, there was never a guarantee we would, otherwise it would be boring. Our Senior players are ageing quicker than we thought. Things are bad, but hopefully its temporary. Its what footballs all about. Lows make the highs even higher. 

On the whole our club is pretty well run, we have experienced europe and a scottish cup win and are the envy of many teams. The board have made some bad choices, but should be given the opportunity to turn it round. 

It could be worse, you could support a basket case club like Dundee, have your ravenellis and odd good season but also have the administrations, and no cup wins for donkeys and...Neil McCann!

25 minutes ago, HawkeyeTheGnu said:

Every week, after our result, I think "well that's it", and yet when I look at the table I think I can see a way out. I wish the inevitable would come quickly now. 

Yup, I am the same. Been feeling pretty miserable every Saturday night after the games. Then by the following Saturday morning I'm full of hope!

Even for County, I have hope that this is the game where the season turns. Although deep down, I know we are gone.

So Davies is definitely out, Shalk probably but Boyce can play?

I think the 3 year player deal to Foran was intended to be transferred into a coaching position. It probably came sooner than intended with Yogi's antics. I'm sure financially the 4 year deal was essentially the equivalent of his 2 year playing deal. The whole point was to give the club sustainability and a medium term plan with the club trusting Foran. I don't blame the club for this idea but it does seem we have backed the wrong horse. Two options remain, we ditch the plan and turn to someone else on a short contract or continue with the plan however painful it may be in the short-term that with time and more experience beside him, someone he chooses, that Foran will succeed and return us to the top flight.

I'd much rather be a Inverness fan than a County fan. We have dominated them since we joined the national set up. First up through the leagues, we have the Scottish cup, we have been in Europe. Despite them lot throwing a lot more money at it. When planning the criteria for the spl was 10,000 seats so we had to plan for that. County benefited from us getting there first, highlighting the ridiculousness of the rule and it being changed.

After 33 games the stats become slightly skewed. Our final 5 games will be against the weaker opponents within the league. Chances of picking up points are far greater. Hopefully we play Killie/county towards the end of the 5 games once they have secured safety by beating the others (I'm clutching!) 

I forgot to say bar the Celtic game. Which most see as a freebie given their domestic form. 

I am more hopeful than I was after the Hamilton debacle. Since then we seem to have tightened up at the back considerably. We were conceding 2 goals a game. Not sure what the stats are like now. Presently we are giving ourselves a chance in every game. If we continue as we are, we will finish bottom but a slight improvement going forward will see us with a good chance. A lot depends on the teams around us. Firstly we MUST beat them. If not and they pick up unexpected points we are goosed. I believe its a bottom 3 of us, Dundee and Accies. I think county will pull away, as will well to a lesser extent. Im a positive person, one bonus is; at least its exciting!

I think that is harsh.  After conceding so many goals earlier in the season he seems to have settled on two systems, 4-2-3-1 and 5-3-2. I think he picks depending on his players available and the opposition we are about to face. 

The 5-3-2 is a lot more direct and counter attacking, but is reliant on tremarco and raven being available as no-one else is really able to play the wing back positions. The substitutions in this formation are limited, the wingers are pretty useless, whilst your strikers on the bench are more likely for a run out.

The 4-2-3-1 is a more patient style, attempting to control the game more. We are reliant on the 3 attacking midfielders supporting Billy. The wingers are required here and will get game time, billy is number 1 so the other strikers will rarely be involved.

Wouldn't be surprised if we resorted to 5/3/2 since we are away again an inform side.

What I think Richie will do.

                        Fon

raven warren laing mccart McNaughton

                     draper

               tansey  polworth

                      mckay

Tremarco replacing McNaughton early in the second half.

What I would like to see

                Fon

Raven Laing Mccart  McNaughton

         Draper Tansey

Polworth   Cole    Mulreaney

               Mckay

In this game the midfield is crucial, hoping Aberdeen may rest a few boys ahead of there rangers fixture but cant see it. Shinnie and Jack behind Mcginn, Hayes and McLean is a hardworking and creative midfield. Really need draper, polworth, tansey (if they play) and the full/wing backs to be on top of their game.

Interesting with tremarco out whether it forces Richies hand into changing back into the 4-2-3-1 formation. 

I think he would have liked to continue with 3-5-2 but without tremarco it may not work. Mckay would be the obvious replacement but he probably isnt forward thinking enough. 

Therefore i imagine it will be....

         Fon

raven laing warren mckay

      draper  tansey

king    polworth    anier

        mckay

I would prefer 

           Fon

raven laing mccart mckay

        draper polworth

mulraney tansey cole/king

           mckay

Im not sure what the significance of the announcement is....to unsettle the player ahead of our fixture....to please the dons support.....not much benefit for ICT, although he may want to prove his commitment and respect to the club by giving his all for final few games....unless he returns for a third time!!

Yes, definitely a massive rebuilding job, and very defendant on which league we find ourselves.

The more recent signings have been better than the early ones. 

Jake - took a while to settle. could be a star player with a good run of games/ stays fit.

Cole - took ages to get up to fitness and physicality of the game, can be brilliant but lacks the defensive know how.

Boden - lets not talk about it...

Kev - Surely finished

Brad - looked good at full back, lost his way a bit when he starting changing his positions

Lonsana - very ofere, scored goals, but Billy contributes way more

Laing - really impressed, hope he stays

McCart - seems to get better each game, big future maybe, would love to sign if we could

King - meh for me

Anier - strong, not a scorer, meh

Billy - so much love

The chances of signing any of the loan players could be slim, 0% if we drop.

1 hour ago, RiG said:

Some interesting points being made on Twitter regarding this kind of comment. Does a good servant jump ship twice having failed to do so another time?

I'm not so sure.

I class anyone that is a first team player contributing to the most successful period (or at least at the highest level) the club has experienced to date deserves some credence within the club. Perhaps its the wrong expression to use. However, they were both integral along with others to that success. 

Fans are loyal (well mostly), players not so much. They continually want to progress their ability and make as much money as possible in a career than can nosedive at any moment.

Tansey leaving and coming back, is not a problem in my eyes. Tansey being courted by a bigger club, is recognition of his form and talent. I dont think he has engineered this move. He has never requested a transfer, or publicly criticised the club about tansey-gate. He just stated he was happy with Inverness. He was honest this season, never giving the fans false hope he may sign. He has acted professionally throughout in my eyes.  

You could say his form has dropped this season, until recently, perhaps this was more to do with tactics/positioning rather than anything else. Only the player himself knows. I bear no grudge against him. As long as he puts in 100% until the last game. Thereafter, he is simply an opposition player who i have no concern about.  

He has improved drastically in recent games by playing a bit further forward. I think dropping him due to this is a bit old fashioned. This pre-contract era has been on the go for a while.

Both Tansey and Meekings have been clear for a while they were not interested in signing new deals. This is good for the club to have clarity, both players have been good servants and deserve respect until their contract runs out.

As long as Tansey gives his all in training and games he will start. If this standard/effort drops, then he shall be dropped. The same goes for any player in the squad.

I see your point. I think going forward we would be more threatening, however, which centre midfielder drops out? Draper seems to be playing on top of the defence and looks pretty knackered unable to push up the park, perhaps he is just following instructions. Does he drop out? He is playing well in my opinion. Surely with only two in midfield we need mobility? So i guess could only mean polwarth and tansey. Vigurs isnt mobile enough. Natural wingers struggle with the defensive side of things, so in a 4 man midfield you really leave your full back exposed. In essence every formation has its postives and negatives. I prefer richie approach which is build from a solid base. Barring the recent celtic game, our defence has gone from losing 2 goals a game on average down to 1 goal a game. That makes a massive difference when you are trying to pick up points.

I think as the players get used to the 3-5-2 we can only improve, if raven and tremarco can push forward, if tansey and polwarth can hold possesion long enough or our wing backs to join the attack, we will see us pinning teams back, a bit like the county game for the first 20 mins of the 2nd half. Well, hopefully!

Quote

 

Unless i was to go to training and watch each striker in every session, i feel ill informed to comment.

I thought anier improved as the game went on and started to link up a bit better with Mckay. I would expect him to start again against Killie if we play 3_5_2.

Rest should say fear

I think it's important to realise our improvement in recent games. We look alot more solid. Little has been made of the signings of mccart and laing. Both have become regulars immediately and have helped stem the flow of losses. So hats off to Richie for that. Today we paid the price for not scoring when we were on top. 3 points against Killie is a must. I have no rest of county for the next game, although they probably are saying the same

He lacks the raw pace that Hayes has, but is a talent. I can't see him coming back from all these injuries. I have no proof but carrying some extra weight has always been a problem which may not have helped his cause to stay injury free.

Jake has the pace. His performance against The Rangers was Johnny-esqe, hopefully he will be fit for Partick.

For partick is tremarco is fit then

raven Laing mccart tremarco.

If not replace tremarco with McKay or macnaughton.

Warren is done unfortunately. Meekings should retain his starting place when fit ahead of mccart. Raven finally starting to find his form again. Laing looks good. Good distribution, decent pace, he's slotted in very well.

1 hour ago, Alan Simpson said:

Fair play to yogi if the board had matched his ambition ie push the boat out for storey i believe wed have been pushing for europe rather than a relegation scrap true saying u only realized what u had when its gone

We will never know I guess but i cant see how you can come to that conclusion. He took us from 3rd place to 7th (only after a good post split run). Inverness should never push the boat out for any manager. The budget is the budget. Work within it. Simples. A club of 3,000 fans will never be able to sustain a decent team for more than a couple of seasons. Any talented players we produce or unearth will be poached by bigger clubs with more money. It is disappointing, but it is the nature of the business/sport.

He was Man of the match against Partick

Richie has clearly tried to be positive and show belief in his players to prevent a spiral of negativity when confidence will naturally be low. Hamilton was the final straw for this approach and he clearly has changed his tact. Some arse kicking is in the post! Let's see how it goes. Our Warren's, tanseys and drapers are letting us down. Let's make them right for their place.  All ready this season we have had hartely, McIntyre and canning under pressure. Now it's Richie's turn but he needs a chance to sort it out. 

His stats don't surprise me. Its contradictory but hes not really a goalscorer, more of a 'fox in the box'. Give Billy time he will fluff it, rush it or overthink it. Fizz in a cross, or a loose ball pops up he will score. His movement was what impressed me the most, he would run the channels and drag defenders out of position. However due to our lack of players who run beyond the striker in the current team (a massive problem in my opinion) into that space created will mean we shall be pretty toothless, I fear.

So nervous for tonight. This is like the first time we played county in years. I was so scared of us losing. The consequence of defeat was unbearable. Give me another win lads!