Confidence Levels for 2013/14 Season?

[CaleyD]

As the question says....how confident are you that ICT will have a successful season?

 

Not intended as a question on what we each might consider "successful"...as opinions will certainly differ on that.  Just looking to find out if people are confident that the team will achieve what they, as individuals, think would be a success.

[Kind of Blue]

Compared with how I felt at the start of the last 2 seasons I feel confident that we have a squad capable of competing well next season.  The team may have its work cut out to match last season's high finish but I don't think we'll have to worry about a relegation battle.

[Renegade]

Making the top six - Fairly Confident

 

Not being relegated - Very Confident

 

Slightly confident overall from me.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Renegade

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

If we can keep the bulk of the first team free from injuries then fairly confident we will have another decent season. May be difficult to surpass last season's league finish but you never know might be offset by a cup final appearance this time around.

[Sneckboy]

Obviously, avoiding relegation is the objective. With potentially 2 to go down this season there will likely be a real battle to avoid the drop. Keeping clear of that and pushing for top 6 would be good. I think we'll do fine.

[Council Juice]

I think a lot will depend on how we adapt to life without Shinnie. We usually adjust pretty well when key players leave and it's mainly a matter as to whether the new lads can step up to the mark. But having lost Rooney, Hayes and now Shinniesta in 3 consecutive years on a free and having previously been able to cope I see no reason as to why we cant this time. Its a subject that grates me as to how so many good players are able to leave for free but that's an entirely different subject.

Aim top 6 and 1 good cup run.

[SMEE]

Well...for me....as with every season in SPL...to me....a sucsessfull season would be staying up. Anything beyond that is a bonus. So im fairly confident we will have a good season, in that we wont get relegated and maybe a wee run in a cup.

I do think tho, we will not repeat the highs of last season....that (IMHO) was a one off.

[TopSix]

We were top six last year and I fully expect us to be top six this year. A piece of silverware would be nice to. (Preferably the SPFL trophy.)

[bdu98196]

Survival - hugely confident

Top 6 - very confident

Least 1 cup semi - optimistic

A cup win - ever hopeful

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

If anybody is actually looking for anything less than a Top six finish the they are having a feckin laff

[clacher_holiday2]

first half of the season, top 6.

second half, bottom 6.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Confident! ;   Terry will continue to pull rabbits out of the hat and, assuming he stays, things will be fine.

[LundavraJag]

I chose the very confident option. Im very confident we wont be in the mix for relegation, slow start or not. We should be thinking about a top 6, we may have lost a couple of good lads but unlike seemingly every other season we've retained a huge part of our squad and this should show this time around so for me, to be on the good side of the split will be a very successful season and we can def achieve that. 

[AJS]

Very confident that survival will be achieved which is the first priority. 

 

Im excited by the potential in this side and what it could achieve and after the success of last season i have a lot of faith in what the management team are trying to do by blooding a combination of potential gems and local talent, im all for it. 

 

Cant wait for the season to start. 

[Alex MacLeod]

To me success has to be to go that little bit better than last season and I feel very confident we can. That success may just be one point more than last season. One win more, one loss less, one step further in cup games, one goal more, one lost goal less. That little bit better shows success.

[JockWatt]

Survival - hugely confident.

Top 6 - hugely confident.

Least 1 cup semi - hugely confident.

 

A cup win - hugely confident.

Edited July 17, 2013 by JockWatt

[+bughtmaster]

Having watched the Brora game I was a little concerned at first but by the end of it I am pleased to say my expectations are now high for a top three place.

 

Once the league gets underway and the opposition gets tough this team is going to shine.

[Laurence]

We have to learn to keep 11 men on the pitch

We have to learn not to go gung ho when we are leading

The defeat against Dundee United towards the end  last season highlighted our ability . or lack of it, to hang onto a lead.

Parking the bus is not against the rules.

 

A good season must be finishing above County, It would be devastating for our  fans if  ICT don't

Edited July 17, 2013 by Laurence

[Caley Stan]

Wow, lots of confidence on this thread.

I've voted 'not sure' because I think the there's too little difference in quality between most SPL squads for us to be confident of almost anything. Last season there was almost nothing between 2nd place and 11th place for the whole season, and I don't see that changing greatly this year.

I worry a little about the fans being too confident - we've never been the most realistic support (something I think stems from our quick rise through the leagues under Pele) and that definitely transmits onto the pitch. If we struggle against St. Mirren in the first game, will the fans start getting impatient because we are expected to beat a team that we finished 8 places above last season? We may have done that but we also took only 2 points from 3 games against them and they looked a decent side on each occasion. They may be well be better than us this year, I have no idea. The New Firm might be different propositions under new management with lots of new faces - again, no idea.

So I'm not confident or concerned, just clueless.

[The Mantis]

So I'm not confident or concerned, just clueless.

I'm sure I heard that mentioned last time I was up Burn Brae

[dead_ball_specialist]

I honestly believe we can push Celtic for the title this season.

[Scarlet Pimple]

If ICT can hold their own in the first  ten games or so then maybe they can get better and better. But enthusiasm against some of the teams like Motherwell and Celtic might not be quite good enough.

 

This does seem to be a young team and not much experience it seems. Foran will have to set the pace by example 

 

Comments from those of you who have watched these players in action?

[clacher_holiday2]

We have to learn to keep 11 men on the pitch

We have to learn not to go gung ho when we are leading

The defeat against Dundee United towards the end last season highlighted our ability . or lack of it, to hang onto a lead.

Parking the bus is not against the rules.

A good season must be finishing above County, It would be devastating for our fans if ICT don't

the reason we dropped more points than every other team in the league last year, from a winning position, was because we did try to park the bus. even in your own example we dropped points because we were parked too deep.

we need to be more patient, it won't happen, butchers sides have always defended leads with a ridiculous siege mentallity.

foran is as much too blame as terry is, whenever he's at the back leading the line, everyone else around him gets desperate. players can't get rid of the ball quick enough, they'll pass to anyone to avoid taking responsibility during the self imposed siege, including the opposition.

[lukemackay]

 

anyone mentioned how many points we gained from losing positions last season rather than lost from winning positions no? same old on here though. and somehow forans partly to blame too.  

[Renegade]

Something that overall played a large part in killing our European hopes, was this 'playing for a draw' mentality we'd see from time to time.  I've just finished reading Butcher's autobiography, in which he claims that as a manager he counts draws and wins as essentially one and the same.  Well, they aren't.  There were a few times where we settled for the draw, which in the end killed our hopes.  The Hibs 2-2 game, where we'd gotten back from two down and the momentum of the game had swung massively in our direction.  Ten minutes to go, we decided enough was enough and just gave up.  The Aberdeen game (the one where OTJ tried to batter someone), drawing 1-1 at home with ten minutes to go and both teams down to ten men - we just stop trying.  The St Johnstone 0-0 draw, Philip Roberts comes on and watches the game go on around him (no surprises there...) and we plod to a halt ten minutes from time.  And perhaps most worrying of all, we did the same thing despite being 1-0 down to Saints towards the end of the season, in the game in which Raven was sent off.  After the game, Butcher heralds a "great" performance.  How momentous those latter two results in particular turned out to be.

 

Of course it could be argued that had we not done it, we could've have gotten beat, but that's a chance you take and had going for it failed once and worked once (and in some occasions the latter seemed far more likely), then it wouldn't have made a difference but at last we'd have tried.  We should be trying to win matches over ninety minutes not eighty.  In hindsight, this mentality was a bad one and cost us big time.  We shouldn't be repeating it this season.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Renegade