ICTRoughi

Cheers CaleyD!

If we finish 4th and Aberdeen or Rangers win the cup then we are in Europe. That's how I understand it after it was pointed out to me that only the runners up get the European place if the cup winners are qualified for the Champions league.

I never really thought of that aspect of it CaleyD however Nick Ross and Danny Williams have featured for U20s so struggling to see where the lack of fitness is coming into it but it could be plausible they get an injury in training even still I would have imagined it would have been mentioned in some form in a pre match interview they were struggling with something.

Yeah but surely you could understand when Nick Ross, Danny Williams and Marley Watkins were all on the bench last Tuesday vs Motherwell and the former 2 weren't even used. Being on the bench does not always mean a player is fully fit. Of course not but there's been no suggestions that Nick or Danny aren't fully fit. I am a big fan of Nick Ross and I am just frustrated he isn't featuring much at the moment.

Yeah but surely you could understand when Nick Ross, Danny Williams and Marley Watkins were all on the bench last Tuesday vs Motherwell and the former 2 weren't even used.

He actually gave back a sarcastic clap back to them to say "Aye, good one" etc.

Who should be relegated ? Hibs purely for the Terry Butcher saga or Ross County for the laughs. Who will it be ? I think it will be a tight finish with Partick Thistle going down unfortunately. St Mirren usually survive especially after today's result vs Motherwell I think they will. If it was up to you ? Killie is a bit of a trek from Inverness so in that respect I wouldn't be sad to see them go down but I do like their team and I think they will stay up. Who should be promoted ? During the pre season, I went to the Raith friendly and it was my first time at Stark's park and I would love to see them in the premiership Who will it be ? Dundee or Hamilton If I was up to you ? I would like Dundee and Falkirk to come up this year.

The next U20 home game is Tuesday 8th of April vs Hearts. The game is back at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium with a 6pm kick off.

I felt tonight we were playing with a fast tempo with both width and narrow and battered County for it. As you can see my posts above this is what I wanted and this is what I got so I am a happy ICT fan tonight. Play like this and I think we will beat Aberdeen at home. One thing I will say is that we need to cut out the unnecessary pass backs to the keeper.

I love Tremarco. No nonsense defender! Allows Shinnie to play attacking football which he's good at!

Just in from the game and what a game it was! All players involved had a tremendous game and have much more fight and desire than Ross County did. Credit to John Hughes for playing two wingers tonight and what an absolute joy it was to have Aaron Doran back in the side. Marley Watkins played superb tonight and pretty much turned Ross County 'Greek God' inside out. The most thing I was happy about with tonight is that we were playing narrow and wide. There was another thread today and I went on to say that we need the happy medium of both narrow and wide - tonight I felt we got that. I really can't wait to see Aaron Doran's goal again. ICT love a good goal outside the box these days! After restarting the second half and we conceded, I was thinking back to the St Mirren game and mindful of the Motherwell game only being a mere 3 days ago, I said to 'Old Caley Girl' "I don't think we are going to score again" couple minutes later Billy Mckay pops up and scores a brilliant goal. I was left with egg on my face but I don't care because ICT got the three points tonight and deservedly so! Listen, tonight was really good and the fans were superb as always. We totally outsang Ross County for 90 mins tonight, let's keep up this unity because end of the day the players are fighting tooth and nail every game and they deserve this. Let's get rid of the Yogi bashing and push the team forward for the fourth spot and possibly enter Europe via the back door. Superb tonight, great 2-1 win, also not forgetting it's 2-1 in the series of Highland Derbies too! Down with the Jambos! :ictscarf:

While I wholeheartedly agree with majority of what you have said Davie but where I have highlighted is what I have to disagree with. At our recent home games especially I feel that that team are getting into great spaces but then they play it through the middle leaving great spaces in the edge of the oppositions box (I highlight this on the Motherwell match thread with screenshots to back this up) Now, during the Butcher reign a lot of the time, we would see Shinnie and Raven for that matter overlap the wingers, exploiting the flanks and getting a good cross in for Billy Mckay, Richie Foran and Ross Draper to get a head to. By playing the narrow style of play, we are simply trying to walk the ball into the net and ocassionly have belter of goals like Christie's and Polworth's for example. The tactics that are being employed at the moment will take time to master because it's the complete opposite to how they lads have played the last season and a half. I am not saying the tactic will fail far from it but I think there should be a happy medium of both narrow and wide play especially at home. With all due respect Davie, I don't agree when you say we don't have the striker needed to convert them. Billy Mckay converted them during the Bucher reign, what's changed that he can't convert them now?

In all honesty, I don't think any of the players have been poor as such. The current style of play that has been asked from them needs time for them to adapt to and understand which in time might work or might not who knows. What I am disappointed in with Yogi's tactics is that you have Nick Ross who has been a right good talent under Terry Butcher on the wing and Yogi's put James Vincent wide left where you can see he is uncomfortable with it. Marley Watkins being on the bench to me is a good idea. If you recall to the game over in Dingwall last Feburary, we were cruising 2-0 and needed a bit of a spark and up steps Marley Watkins to the scene and we are 3-0 up. So in that respect, Watkins could be used as an impact sub when the opposition is tiring, same could be said for Danny Williams. Regardless for Ryan Christie being a local lad and stuff, he MUST be a regular starter playing behind Mckay. The kid's passing is tremendous and looking back to the Motherwell game, he was the only guy that was looking to play attack passing and getting the ball forward. I have said in the one of the match day threads that Graeme Shinnie should be played wide left purely because he has a great left peg on him and while Yogi wants us to play like "Barca" I'd love to see Graeme play like Gareth Bale and I think he could go places if he did that. We have a great left back in Carl Tremarco and you could see on Tuesday night that Carl and Graeme link up very well but Yogi's style of play is surrendering too much space on the wings maybe it won't work but if it did, I wouldn't be surprised to see Mckay scoring regularly again. So my team for the rest of the season:- Brill/Esson Raven Warren Meekings Tremarco Draper Tansey Ross/Doran Christie Shinnie Mckay

That one baffled me, too! I have no idea what game he's referring to! Probably got mixed up between the Inter and Man United, easy mistake to make.

I think Esson might start tomorrow night.

None so blind etc!! Meekings pass back, Brills kick outs,, Billy's one on one misses, Shinnies clearance into the ruck of players instead of out for a corner, a crap pass on the half way line leading to an easy goal loss, etc I accept your point ..... not the players fault, all the managers!! AYE RIGHT!! From a Happy Clapper who is less happy at the moment. As I said in my previous post is that I go on to say that I understand Yogi's style of play and if I was manager I would use it myself but only for games where I would be more keen on playing for a draw rather than getting a win because it keeps the fans entertained while playing for the draw. Now, the drawbacks of employing this now is that we have employed it during a period where we have played 13 games in 46 days. I have said on personal conversations with others that I see Pre Season as the time where the tactic should be learned and mastered because at the the moment, the players have played a certain way for nearly 2 whole seasons and now a new manager has come in, he in my opinion has tried to get his own style of play in too quickly in a period where there's not much time for training. I watch ICT a lot and I can see the players are finding the narrow style of play uncomfortable. Why? because it's not what they are used to and they are used to Butchers 'attacking width play'. Pre season will make or break the Yogi style of play. I can understand why Yogi wants to play his way, well firstly it is his team and he wants to be recognised on his own merits rather than Terry Butchers. I personally wish he stuck to what he said when he joined 'Business as usual' especially during the gruelling schedule that we have endured. In a sense I can see why he has tried his own tactic during this busy schedule because you'd think going to places like Tannadice and Fir Park a draw would be a fantastic result but the players are mentally and physically tired and I am 100% sure that they will be glad of the 2 week break coming and we might even see a fight for fourth place depending on the result tomorrow night and Dundee United vs Celtic this weekend.

Teams in the premier league have money to throw about, we don't.

I think what the media team could look into doing is a Q&A video with John Hughes and possibly Richie Foran (players point of view) where we either make a thread full of questions on here and/or on official ICT twitter feed and then the media team can get the more popular questions asked and it may clarify a lot of uncertainty and frustrations.

What I want: Brill Raven Warren Meekings Tremarco Draper Tansey Vincent Ross Shinnie Mckay What I think Yogi will pick: Esson Raven Meekings Devine Warren Tremarco Draper Tansey Vincent Shinnie Mckay

In no circumstance do I blame the players. I feel that they are doing what they are told to do and this is the result of it. I feel that Yogi has tried to go and change too much too soon and he's trying to do this with tired players too - a recipe for disaster. Yogi should make these changes during pre season and not a period where we are playing 13 games in 46 days. I can understand Yogi's style of play, he is trying to play nice football but the ulterior motivate is to try and restrict the opposition scoring and keep the clean sheet. At this current moment, I feel that the tactics are designed to keep a clean sheet rather than go and win a match which we were used to under Butcher.

I am sat above the ICT dugout and a good view of it and I definitely do recall Russell Latapy making a brief appearance.

As I said in another thread that I wouldn't be surprised if we go to Parkhead again and low and behold we are going to Parkhead again on a Sunday too, least it's a 3pm KO though. I would have been at the end of my tether if it was a 12.15 KO. Rest of the fixtures are fine and I am looking forward to Sheep up here on a Friday night.

The only positive with Robbo coming in would be that he's done his homework on ICT. He is usually at the TCS every home game with the BBC and can see what our strengthes and weaknesses are. It's never good to go back and just look at Craig Brewsters second reign. I personally think the board missed a massive opportunity by not appointing Paul Hartley and his back room staff at Alloa considering how easy and professional they were to deal with.

I have finally made myself watch the highlights on the on the SPFL youtube and I just want to 'highlight' some of the issues that have been discussed about lack of width at the moment. First Example: Look at how much space is being sacrificed - at home too! To be fair to the lads, moments later Greg Tansey cracked it off the post but I was amazed that we went through the middle and if Tremarco was allowed to exploit the flanks then Billy Mckay would have been supported. What should have happend: The annoying thing is that if Butcher was here then the above would have happened and we could have scored. Second Example: Granted that Ryan Christie did go on to score in this example but look at the right hand side of the pitch, Billy is crying out for the ball and he was a break away from a goal. Third Example: As you can see again, the wide right is empty and you can see that the narrow style of play has drawn Motherwell in and this was at a point where David Raven could have been wide right looking for the ball and getting a cross into the box and create a goal scoring opportunity and again support for Billy. Sadly Raven was taken off and a central midfielder was placed at Right Back - ridiculous. Final Example: Not just attacking, defensively we are leaving too much space for the oppostiton to get into spaces and they utilise them and are more clinical with the ball. The most annoying factor about the missing space in the wings is that you have Nick Ross on the bench that would love to exploit the flanks but he isn't getting a look in.

He was there tonight and made a brief appearance. Must of been sitting in the dugout. Oh well apologies to RL. Every time I looked it was only Scott Kellacher I saw To be fair to you it was that brief if you blinked you missed it. Kellacher was very active last night.