Rebuild this Summer or Not?

[Joe DiMaggio]

Inverness CT boss Terry Butcher wants to build next season's team around out-of-contract goalkeeper Ryan Esson. (Record)

Hmmm...building a team around a goalkeepr!!

[AJS]

Inverness CT boss Terry Butcher wants to build next season's team around out-of-contract goalkeeper Ryan Esson. (Record)

Hmmm...building a team around a goalkeepr!!

More like building the team around arguably your best player. Had it not been for Esson this season could be a whole lot worse.

[old caley girl]

Im all for this. What a novel idea giving our excellent goalie a decent defence in front of him!!!! Does this mean Jonny Tuffey is moving then?

[Alex MacLeod]

Every team needs a good keeper. They also need a good number two. Tuffey is still very young and will learn a great deal more from Esson so I'd be advising him to stay. Mike Fraser had his critics on here but showed he had something and as the years have gone on he is now coming to his full potential and doing very well. Very few of the great keepers showed there true form until they got to very late teens/early thirties.

[Scarlet Pimple]

In a sense, very smart.

Provided he continues by concentrating on building up a stronger defense immediately.

If the defence is rteally strong everybdy castart to relax more and confidence begins to build int he whole team. Then growing confidence leads to a more relaxed and productive output, more enjoyment for both players and fans and ....before you know it..."we're top of the League and you're no". :love02:

This will give him breathing room to be more selective, as time goes on, to recruit new strikers or re-train and improve existing forwards or promote younger boys from within the club's own ranks.

If that does not work, then he has to be even more selective in who he brings in from outside.

[Council Juice]

Should the team stay the same and we dont lose any 1st team regulars then I'd say we only really need a centre half. I think once Hogg is back we'd then have 3 and could maybe get a loan too. I dont think we need a striker as with Sutherland, McKay and Tade we look ok and with Shinnie to come back also it will be enough. Not to mention we have Foran too.

[AJS]

Gotta disagree with you there. Yes we have those boys that can play up fron but Foran, Shane and McKay have only scored once all season. Tade i think has done well for his 9 goals this season considering most times he's been on the wing and Shinnie probably would have got more goals. But i think we need another option up top, someone who's a decent finisher, i'd be looking at Farid El Alagui and Falkirk, 25 goals this season is a good record, 15 in the 1st Division, with us probably having Gillet and Tade here next season he may see this place as somewhere decent to step up to.

Edited March 25, 2012 by ajsict92

[lukemackay]

I'm happy with our squad right now. Im not going to mention any names but there's 1 or 2 who should be replaced IMO were an Adam Rooney away from being a top six side ( adam was yet again ignored for brum today by the way).

I say sign an extra physio to take the pressure off the other 2 who have had their hands full this season

We can always dream about Adam coming back next season but in all honesty I doubt it'll happen. We should look to players like el alagui and Rory Donnelly from lower divisions and try get McGowan from Ayr if Hayes decides to go across the border next season.

[lukemackay]

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Midfielder-hopes-to-repay-Caley-Thistles-faith-26032012.htm

Sounds like owain wants to stay

Good news imo think he brings a real balance to the midfeild

[Yngwie]

OTJ is simply keeping his options open. He wants to earn the offer of an extension, why wouldn't he, and he'll happily consider staying if the terms are right, but I'm sure he'll happily consider what sort of offer he can get from elsewhere if we can't meet his expectations. He's rumoured to be right at the top of our pay scale, the dilemma for Terry and Grassa is whether we can risk extending on similar terms when our club's revenues are declining and the player also has a poor injury record.

But at least it's pretty positive that OTJ is open to the idea of staying.

[absent friend]

I have no doubts we have to rebuild this summer.

We have a goals for/against stat that is NOT ICT!!

Last year 52/44 this year already after 31 matches 34/50 (projected 42/61 after 38 games)

Whilst we are down on the goals scoring front, the rebuilding MUST come from the back. We have a super goalkeeper so the problem is right in the area our management excelled in!!

Don't give me Grant was so good we could not replace him, rubbish - he is in a lower division now and should be able to hold his own in there after all his time in the SPL and he has gone. A passing thought on Grant, would you swap him for the current player holding down his position?

Anyway, players are just players until they are taught the finer arts of the game and then they become artists. Why are our defenders only players?? We have the best coaches - well, the best players to play in that position, as coaches - so what is the problem? Inability to teach? Players inability to retain knowledge? Players inability to put the training into practice on the day?

Whatever it is, we need to revert to what we were doing correctly in the past, defending well and this will give the forwards a platform for launching attacks.

Our need is three fold, coaches to get a grip of the defence, a true midfielder, happy with the ball at his feet and good use of wing men to supply our forwards. Simple!

[Alex MacLeod]

If only things were that simple

[Ronaldo]

I think the current squad is fine and all we need is three things, a striker, a centre forward and a goal scorer.

[Caley]

I think the current squad is fine and all we need is three things, a striker, a centre forward and a goal scorer.

And if we can't manage that we could always follow the example of the FC Magdeburg fans who felt the need to show their misfiring forwards where the goal is!

[bdu98196]

Rebuild, probably not although after a season back in the SPL and surviving TB will see where we need to strengthen and where was under-estimated. Its clear we need 2 players - a commanding centre back and a goal scorer.

Look at the table and our opponents tonight - St J, overall the squad isnt much better than ours but they have in Sandaza, Sheridan and possibly soon Riorden players that get goals, the difference in the SPL between fighting relegation and getting UEFA spot is almost as simple as who has strikers that score. While Tade has done a decent job this season - he needs a strike partner capable of providing a similar number and supporting.

[kencar]

Look at the table and our opponents tonight - St J, overall the squad isnt much better than ours but they have in Sandaza, Sheridan and possibly soon Riorden players that get goals, the difference in the SPL between fighting relegation and getting UEFA spot is almost as simple as who has strikers that score. While Tade has done a decent job this season - he needs a strike partner capable of providing a similar number and supporting.

They've only actually scored 7 more goals than us but there defence is obviously much more resilient having conceded 16 fewer!!

[bdu98196]

Yeah, but you need to consider 6 of those we scored were in 1 game against Killie - consitency, spread and quantity of goals. When St J need a goal there are options of where it may come from - when we need a goal its Tade maybe or nothing.

[AJS]

bdu makes a good point. If anyone remember's back to last season St Johnstone couldnt buy a goal so they solved this by signing 3 strikers in Sandaza, Sheridan and Haber who are all very good players on top form. We in a similar situation lost our top scorer in Adam Rooney but never replaced him properly. Tade has done a good job, 9 goals is not bad for a player who is not a recognised poacher and spent alot of time on the wing and Andy Shinnie was showing some real quality up until he broke his foot but we dont have anyone up front you could refer to as a natrual finisher.

Also worth bearing in mind we have gone almost a whole season without a penalty. A rather damning statistic when you look at the claims we've had over the season.

Edited March 28, 2012 by ajsict92

[Libero]

bdu makes a good point. If anyone remember's back to last season St Johnstone couldnt buy a goal so they solved this by signing 3 strikers in Sandaza, Sheridan and Haber who are all very good players on top form. We in a similar situation lost our top scorer in Adam Rooney but never replaced him properly. Tade has done a good job, 9 goals is not bad for a player who is not a recognised poacher and spent alot of time on the wing and Andy Shinnie was showing some real quality up until he broke his foot but we dont have anyone up front you could refer to as a natrual finisher.

Also worth bearing in mind we have gone almost a whole season without a penalty. A rather damning statistic when you look at the claims we've had over the season.

Veering slighty off topic but i would love to see a video clip containing all of our rejected penalty appeals, from what i can remember there were quite a few stonewallers that we didnt get.

Back on topic, for me i think the squad needs tinkered with. If we keep roughly the same squad, in terms of players on 1 year deals extending then we need another striker and a couple of defenders IMO. We really need to be running with 4 players capable of playing centre half. Our scoring has been a low this season but it has been made ten times worse by the fact we have conceded so many!

[+MrCaleyjag]

There's a lot of ifs and buts to be answered before we can really say to what extent TB will change the current squad

- where we finish in the league, every place brings with it an extra £80000 or so which is one/two players wages for a year

- the possible introduction of this under 20 league that has got TB in such a fury, with the prospect of not having a reserve league can a team like ourselves afford to have as many fringe players as we do and not have them playing at any level week in week out

- whether we can keep certain loan players for another year or not? I would think he would be looking to try and keep Golabart for another season

- how many of our out of contract players stay

If we managed to keep the current crop of players which is highly unlikely we need to definately look at getting in another striker as the return this season isn't anywhere near being good enough and another central defender.

[PandB]

After tonight's showing definately!!

[Guest Mahonio]

I agree BDU, as i mentioned a while back, Saints were like us last season in which they couldn't score OR keep out goals, now look at them!!

I think Tel already knows that the Defence needs looked at this Summer especially as he "wants to build next seasons squad around goalie, Ryan Esson".

I would also like an out and out goalscorer, a Sandaza type player and there will be good Strikers available in the Summer.

Out of the loans, only Golobart will be worth keeping imo, rest can go.

I really hope that Tel gets it right this mid-season because i don't want to go through another season like this one, thats for sure!!

[lukemackay]

in our spl years we have had 2 strikers with good strike ratios that havnt cost us an absolute bomb.

rooney and dargo which to me suggests that a goalscoring striker isnt exactly easy to come by.

but when you look at both those strikers dargo had bayne and rooney had foran. for me its not about finding 1 striker its about finding the right partnership up front which we seemed to have for a while with shinnie and tade before shinnie got injured.

sandaza has sheridan

daly has russell

and jelavic had naismith

Edited March 28, 2012 by lukemackay

[Northern_jaggie]

Players to get rid off in red, players to keep in blue.

Name / Rank /10

Aldred, Tom

1

Not featured

Doran, Aaron

6

Shows potential, should be retained.

Esson, Ryan

7

Essential part of a top 6 team

Foran, Richie

7

Although played deep, more effective with good supporting players. Must retain.

Gillet, Kenny

6

Shown enough to keep his place, not as good as Greame though.

Gnakpa, Claude

3

Journeyman. Get rid, 25 years old and he has been to 10 clubs.

Golobart, Roman

5

There are more proven defenders who would outclass this lad.

Greig, Andrew

4

Not featured

Hayes, Johnny

9

Essential we retain him if we are to reach top six.

Hogg, Chris

6

Injury worrys plague him, an unneeded financial burden if he keeps on getting injurys however well worth keeping him if he is fit.

Laing, Martin

3

Not featured

Mathison, Scott

3

Not featured

McKay, Billy

6

If played in a wingers role, effective. Not as a target man. Poor man mangement but retain him next year.

Meekings, Josh

3

Get rid.

Morrison, Gavin

5

Not featured. Keep to see potential.

Piermayr, Thomas

4

Not top 6 material.

Polworth, Liam

4

Not featured

Proctor, David

3

Get Rid

Ross, Nick

7

Could be a potentially great player in my eyes, must retain and has demonstrated in the past his potential. With the right man mangement, he could go far.

Shinnie, Andrew

9

Best player at this club. Must retain.

Shinnie, Graeme

7

Decent player, potential to be a top 6 player.

Smith, Greg

5

Not featured

Sutherland, Shane

4

Sorry shane, I think you are a first division player.

Tade, Gregory

4

Get rid. Getting goals this season, but I don’t know how. There are more effective strikers, first division at best.

Tansey, Greg

3

Never rated him. Looses posession and doesn’t contribute going forward enough. Get rid.

Tokely, Ross

3

Sorry ross, times up. There are better defenders.

Tudur Jones, Owain

4

Journeyman.

Tuffey, Jonny

6

Decent back-up keeper.

Williams, Steve

5

Not enough from him. Get rid..

Winnall, Sam

4

Not featured

So that leaves us with;

Esson

Missing Missing Missing G Shinnie

Doran Ross Missing Hayes

A Shinnie Foran

Oh aye. Butcher, get rid.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Northern_jaggie

[Caley]

Players to get rid off in red, players to keep in blue.

Name / Rank /10

Aldred, Tom

1

Not featured

What has happened to Tom Aldred anyway? Is he injured?