Renegade

Credit to Hughes for making changes and they worked a treat! Simply, we're a better team playing wingers and using, not a long ball approach, but attacking with direct forward passing on the deck. Mckay is a far better player with tricky wingers either side of him. I can understand Hughes wanting to play passing football, but what we did tonight is the way to go, and not actually that different to what Hughes wants. We kept the ball well and moved it forward into dangerous positions, not passing it around our own box and back the way. That's what we all want to see. I'm not quite sure Vincent is 100% sharp yet and I'd like to see Christie start next time in behind Mckay and also having Tansey press a bit more, but other than that, a great performance. We've always been a better team playing that way and credit to Hughes for implementing it.

Remember when Mowbray said the same when he was at Celtic? That didn't go well. Hope we have more success playing that way than they did!

Is that the next level up or the next level down?

Hughes wanting to punt certain players would certainly explain his tactical stubbornness. He'll keep plodding away at this rubbish and punt the ones who don't like it or fit into the system. No doubt they'll be replaced by journeymen and other harlequins such as Derek Riordan and the like. Nick Ross will surely be one and maybe Watkins and Williams as well. Hughes has been a disaster for this club. Maybe in the long term, losing the cup final wasn't such a bad thing at all.

That was also from the Daily Star!

I haven't put Vincent into the team I would play!

He/she/it has got to be a troll definitely. Every post is an attack on the fans or at fellow posters, some of the stuff they're coming out with as well is beyond belief! Got to be someone on the wind-up.

Oh dear, sounds to me like someone's got a terrible case of small man syndrome! Accusing someone of not having any genuine knowledge about the club, yet spell both Mckay's and Doran's name incorrectly in the other thread! It's also your, not you're. Got the last one right though. Well done you!

Dingwall is very narrow, so an all out attack 4-3-3 for me - Brill Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie Tansey Draper Ross Watkins Mckay Christie Subs - Esson, Devine, Tremarco, Vincent, Polworth, Williams, Evans What I think Hughes'll go with - Esson Raven Warren Meekings Tremarco Draper Tansey Polworth Shinnie Vincent Mckay!

We end at home to St Johnstone, just as we did a decade ago.

Bennett was quoted as saying at the time, words to the effect "I don't like the way the board want the club to go" IIRC. It was also days after Butcher went, so I can only presume what he heard from the board in regards to the new manager was one of the final straws. I've also heard rumblings on the grapevine, that he left in the end due to being informed that he would have no role in the interview or recruitment process. Remember, this was the first time the manager's job was empty since his role was changed from 'Director of Football' to 'Vice Chairman', after Butcher wished to combine the former with the management job. If there's one thing he has, it's at least some background in football. He was a player, a manager of Clach for a short time and was obviously the aforementioned 'Director of Football' for over a decade. He's a football man. What football background does Kenny Cameron and the gang have? Cameron might be a good chairman, but what involvement with the game did he have before that? From what I gather, most of the board have previously far more background in shinty than they do football. As they probably didn't know much better, it's possible that they were mesmerised by Yogi's talk of philosophy, hard work and all that stuff. Maybe a football man, would have seen right through it.

The equivalent of us appointing Hughes when we did, would be the equivalent of Aberdeen losing McInnes and replacing him with Ian MacCall or Dundee United losing McNamara and replacing him with Jim Duffy! What I thought was interesting was Ryan Esson starting last night. It's been pretty clear for a while that Brill isn't comfortable with the style of football, yet had a much improved performance on Saturday. Why was Esson in? Has Brill told Hughes was he really thinks of his tactics and they've had a bust-up? I wouldn't be surprised. The fans aren't happy with the tactics. The players aren't happy with the tactics. How long before he properly loses the dressing room? I've heard two players in-particular are really at their wits end with the tactics. I'm not going to give away their identities just yet, but unsurprisingly they're both wingers. Hughes's tactical problems existed at all his clubs. They didn't score goals at all and kept the ball for what seemed like a matter days, passing the ball round the defence and doing nothing with it.....and often losing it. Maybe they were all tired as well? I remember when Hughes first came in, he did seem to make a few tactical changes, which paid of. The defensively solid and swift counter-attacks in our 1-0 win over Aberdeen is a prime example. That was great to watch and sussed Aberdeen out perfectly. Why's he being so stubborn now? When he first came in, he said "he wouldn't change too much". What rubbish. He also told the players to go out onto the field and "express themselves". They like they're doing anything but at the moment. Many look devoid of confidence and being forced to rigidly stick to a system they're not comfortable with and don't want to play. And what's this trash about "educating the players"?! These are professionals, not schoolboys. One final thing I find interesting, is the lack of happy clappers on here after last night's debacle. You know the kind; the ones who sound all smug and attack their fellow fans loyalty to the club, while telling us that we know nothing as we're nothing more than footballing paupers when it comes to tactical knowledge. I believe their silence this time is deafening and long may that continue. Viva the realist revolution and all who follow it!

Tansey at right back, Shinnie in the middle and Vincent wide left. What?! Says it all.

I've been to quite a few games this season and have also been impressed by his versatility and work rate. Hence I was surprised to hear about his supposed attitude in training (if that's true of course). Disappointing hearing a player talk about the town so negatively though.

I heard rumblings in the past that he was showing a poor attitude in training. I too liked what I saw when he did play, but maybe his disappearance says it all. Has been offered a new deal by Hughes though I'm led to believe and Greenhalgh has too.

Could you hang them up between the floodlights opposite the Main Stand?

How many matches have you attended in order for you to form that opinion? The problem isn't just "errors at the back", it's that Hughes' tactics are fundamentally flawed and his unwillingness to change them that is leading us into problems. It doesn't help that his "pass at all costs" mentally has lead to goals drying up, just like at all his other clubs. I honestly doubt that we'd be able to sign any players in any position that are better than what we have just now, they just need to be utilised better.

Brill Raven Warren Devine Shinnie Draper Polworth Watkins Christie Williams Mckay Subs - Esson, Tremarco, Vincent, Cooper, Ross, Evans, Pepper

I'm hearing that Conor Pepper wants away. Doesn't like Inverness apparently.

I still find it absolutely bizarre that despite the "high quality of candidates" (the chairman's words, not mine) we went for John Hughes, a man not even mentioned in the running, until days before he was appointed. What I find even more bizarre, is the man who came second....you know, the man we'd have offered the job to had Hughes turned it down for some reason. Out of the shortlist of six, five names leaked out prior to the appointment, one did not. That man, the one whose name didn't leak, was who came second. That man was Paul Telfer.....I repeat PAUL TELFER! A man who came second for the job of the club then in two cups and second in the league and whose only coaching experience is as player/coach of Sutton United, a team in the sixth tier of English football! There's a good interview with Brian Clough where he says that when he was being interviewed for managers jobs, it was clear that the people interviewing him, hadn't a clue about the game. Is that one of our problems? I think I'm right in saying that most of the board have more of a background in shinty than they do football. We went for the cheap option, it's as simple as that. Essentially everyone wanted Hartley to some degree and if he wasn't most people's first or second choice, he was their third. Hughes I highly doubt came up on hardly anyone's lists - he certainly wasn't on mine and I didn't even consider him getting the job at any point whatsoever. I re-iterate what I said - he was cheap. Telfer probably would have been cheap as well. Hartley interviewed very well (his own words quoting the chairman), but wanted to bring a couple of his own staff with him, along with having to pay compensation to Alloa. For what it's worth, he did want the job, he did not pull-out, we turned him down, he was willing to move and this was story about not wanting to leave his son in Hamilton was quite simply not true. Ryan Esson getting a new dual role I think also shows that they didn't want to part with too much cash. Anyway, now we're stuck with Hughes and the fact our goals have dried up, should come as no surprise. His Falkirk side did not score goals. His Livingston side did not score goals. His Hartlepool side did not score goals and in fact went at one point eight games without scoring. It's no coincidence that we've stopped scoring as well and that's with one of the league's most deadly strikers up-front. Hughes doesn't have to abandon his philosophy, he just needs to be a little more direct (direct, not long ball) and encourage the team to pass the ball forward and get it into positions to score. Keeping the ball for the sake of it and then passing it back to the keeper for the inevitable hoof up the park when the defence have kept it for so long that they've drawn pressure onto themselves, is of no use to us whatsoever and certainly does not conjugate "good football". I think a few small changes like that, could lead to Hughes being a successful manager for us. Whether he'll do that or not though, is another matter.

As a natural-born, handsome and charismatic Invernesian, I for one am shocked at these revelations that many of the people who sit around me on a Saturday are not natively born Invernesians such as myself! I had no idea so many unclean non-Invernesians attended ICT games and I am shocked and saddened that even people from England (insert screeching violin sounds here!) attend matches! How I have survived this long without coming down with some terrible disease, such as rickets or the plague, is quite simply a miracle! Henceforth I shall be rounding up all non-Invernesian ICT going people, Dog the Bounty Hunter-style forwith and hand them into police where I'm sure they will be fairly but sternly dealt with by Chief Constable Dougal!

Why's Duncan Shearer not down there anymore? We've gotten worse since his disappearance IMO.

Has anyone else heard the guy in Section D (I think)? He speaks with a broad Invernesian accent and seems to go on rants that last a good few minutes! Classic entertainment!

What an ignoramus! Football genius? What's someone's level of football knowledge got to do with anything? I was just reporting what I was told, which came from someone who would know. If you had some knowledge of my posts in the past, you'd realise I don't advocate the long ball at all Butcher was more direct this and last season than the dull and lifeless (and unpopular) stuff being served at the minute, but it wasn't long ball and nor are many other football approaches not played by Hughes. Maybe you should calm down to a frenzy and actually posted something of note instead of attacking posters whose opinions you don't like or toe the party line but before ranting off at them about things you clearly don't know about.