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Dundee Utd -V- Inverness C.T.


Scotty

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Well Folks, a happy clappy here and hey ho, what absolute rubbish!

Watched it on the telly and it did not make good viewing or should I say it made excellent viewing of the bad football played by us!

Shinnie, I thought, was not up for this game. He appeared to be hesitant in most of his play and yet he was our best.

FORAN I thought was a good captain, yes Brill good a good talking to from him but we saw shortly after the reason why.

The defence were tip tapping the ball when a) clear the ball away from your danger area and b) you can only score at the far end from their position should have been the order of the day. In fact this lack of urgency in defence resulted in the second goal and bad passing created the first aided by, I think, Shinnies poor clearance back into the ruck of players when it should have been sent out for a corner.

So sad tonight as I felt all day that we could have beat them and I still think that that was an easy chance missed for three points!

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Just watched it on Alba without knowing the score.   All in all, a bit of a wasted evening with no TV or computer before 10pm in case I accidentally heard/saw the score. 

 

Yet more gifted goals cost us again.  How many is that now where ****-ups between a defender and Brill have just gifted the opposition a goal?  I thought Brill was shaky all night and should have done better with the poor pass back from Meekings.  He is not the keeper he was earlier in the season.  His kicking especially is shocking.  Personally, I think he needs a rest.

 

We probably shaded possession in the match but seemed to be trying to walk the ball in instead of having a pop at goal.  Until Polworth showed everyone how to do it. A real cracker.

 

Mckay missed his only two good chances.  The one near the end for the equaliser was especially bad.

 

With Europe now out of the equation, time for Yogi to ring the changes.  I feel Ross should start, and why not give the youngsters Christie and Polworth more match time to see what they can do.

 

Foran should have been subbed long before he was tonight.  I'd leave him out for a couple of games, along with Vincent and probably Watkins.  Mckay too, now that he has lost the scoring knack looks very average.  Maybe a rest will sharpen him up again.

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Hughes is trying to get us to recycle possession and keep it but I think we need to revert to being more direct. Direct doesn't mean long ball but we need our quick players to get hold of the ball and run at there men, we need quicker passing from front to back because without it Billy Mckay does not get a lot of space do anything. We don't have many players in the team that can unlock the defence when the tempo is slow but our early season form was because we stretched teams with good passing but pace that teams couldn't cope with. Hughes is attempting the right formula as we all want to see an entertaining team on the park but i think he has to also mix in our fundamental strength which is to be physically strong. I don't want to see Meekings and Warren be passing the ball about the box i want to see them dominate attackers and get the ball forward to more creative players. In our short history we have been hard to beat because we have had strong players and we need that combined with neat passers of the ball. Maybe its worth pushing Shinnie further forward and play tremarco at the back and without making excuses i dont think the fixture pile up has helped. We have a small squad and i think it is showing which is why i agree that we should be allowing the younger players more of a chance to play and maybe add some fresh and youthful exuberance to the team. Lastly we have great options in the centre of midfield and unless he starts playing Vincent back in behind Billy before his injury then we drop one of him Draper or even Foran   because we cant accommodate all 3 as one will be out of there best position and therefore will disrupt the balance of the team  

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Is Brill getting the blame again. from the sounds of it Meekings under hit the back pass and gave his keeper a lot to do. He's not good with backpasses, just hoof it out, either defender or keeper.

Neither will be looking in mirror anytime soon both made poor decisions.

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Team is tired. 30 minutes into first half we were defending on edge of our penalty box when vincent broke out. He looked for a pass to one of his team mates who were all still standing in formation for defence much to annoyance of our small band of visiting fans urging them out. Looks like fatigue is affecting our technical play too. And when we are not trying to pass it across the edge of the our own or opposition box it gets dinked up the middle for poor billy to get clattered in the back by a big centre half again. Disappointed we didn't really test united defence enough. Disappointed verbals aimed at John Hughes from some of our own fans although get the frustration.

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If Brill had booted that ball into touch really hard instead of trying to tap it to our player would that have saved a goal.

 

Around the goal area you simply can't take any chances.

 

Also, it does seem as if passing back to Brill is putting far too much emphasis on courting danger to us when the ball should be played up the park, making it farther  away from our goal and closer to our objective of scoring.

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Disappointing result and performance tonight, but IMHO there could be several reasons involved.

Fatigue definitely seems to have set in, and things need to be freshened up.

Tactically it was poor. Draper, Foran, and Tansey in the middle are all one paced and this showed when we were trying to break, also Vincent out wide just doesn't work. Vincent is a good player but needs to be played in his best position. Dundee Utd put the shackles on Shinnie very well, something we never managed to reciprocate with Robertson, and Raven was exposed to him most of the evening.

Foran had a stinker,with poor first touch and distribution all evening. As soon as he was hobbling he should have been hooked, as no person is bigger than the team. Foran is a fantastic ambassador for the club, but some of his rants were OTT last night. the Brill incident, and saw him giving Shinnie a talking to for not throwing the ball to him right? When clearly his touch was crap.

The zip seems to have gone out of our passing, and everything is very laboured, with no quick threat on the counter. The second goal is being blamed largely on Meekings and Brill (with some justification), but during the 5 or 6 passes prior to the goal, there was no movement ahead of the defenders and not an out ball in sight. I know you have to clear your lines at time, but punting the ball aimlessly is not what you want to see.

On a more positive note I thought Polworth made a difference when he came on, and was passing the ball in the right direction. I have criticised him in the past but he looked decent last night. Christie was also good when he came on, and it was great to see someone so young want the ball all the time, without any fear. look forward to seeing more of him.

All in all disappointing, but still plenty to play for.

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The team is playing in the manner that every team ever managed by John Hughes has ever played and with much the same consequences.

 

I suspect we can expect much the same for the rest of the season and for the whole of next. I do agree that fatigue is also a factor but, given the unlikelyhood of reaching the latter stages of cup competitions next year, that should not be an issue and results and performances in the league may not be quite so disappointing as the second half of this.

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Too many similar players in midfield who all want to do a 360 degree pirouette before passing the ball backwards.

What a breath of fresh air when Polworth and Christie came on with some direct play and a goal that was worth freezing the nuts off for.

If we'd had a few more shots from distance instead of trying to walk it in this result could have been very different.

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Manfer, that's out of order. At the second goal, Brill had to deal with about three back passes in succession, the last of which had half of United breathing down Meekings neck. He underhit it, end of. A mistake, but anyone could have done that. The first goal was a result of a pass across midfield, not defence, from Draper and Robertson skinned Raven. Brill actually had a few decent saves last night.

In the first half, we had width from Watkins and Shinnie, but that decreased as Marley tired. He had a decent game up to that point. Vincent did some really good break up and linking work - exactly what he's there for - and provided an out for Raven and Marley. What no one seems to have mentioned was that we really should have levelled this game with Mckay's diving header and if we hadn't come bearing gifts at the back we would have won that game. There was nothing between the sides for most of it, so I look forward to us getting back on it on Saturday.

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Quite simply we were rubbish, we play so narrow it's ridiculous. This passing it about the back works if the midfield are able to create space and get on the ball, yet we insist on playing so narrow that there's no out ball meaning a long ball towards Billy.

Time to get some natural wingers on the park and start stretching teams across the pitch. Vincent was rubbish, don't think I've seen someone who naturally plays in the middle receive a pass, look at a simple pass, take another 3 touches then run into trouble and give the ball away. Also worrying that none of our midfield look like they want the ball, our goal came as a result of Christie playing a pass and demanding it back on 2 or 3 separate occasions.

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This sounds a wee bit off topic but I remember an analysis of Wright- Philips after he had moved clubs and was performing at a higher level and they did a before and after look at his game and the main difference was ....... He had been taught to be aware of his fellow players by looking up when he was receiving or potentially receiving the ball and this allow him to make a more telling contribution.

Now, Brills goal ... if Meekings had been aware that Shinnie was standing, in the clear, immediately behind him his pass back would never have been attempted but he was not aware of his fellow players and this lost us a goal but also stopped an attacking move that would have at least reduced the pressure and allowed us to regroup at the back.

Now Brill, ... I feel he is unhappy with the ball at his feet and therefore a period at training where he is played as a outfield player in tight situations, could help.

As a keeper I feel he is very good but with the ball at his feet ... just a bomb scare!

For older folk on here I offer the two top keepers in Scotland in the early 80s .... Hamish MacAlpine - a goalkeeper who also provided Dundee United with an extra sweeper as he strode around his box and contrast that with Jim Leighton playing in goal for Aberdeen at the same time, who was a Brill, dodgy with the ball at his feet and showed this (row B in the South Stand was a dangerous place to sit!) Both excellent keepers but had different strengths in a pass back situation. Incidentally Leightons understudy Bobby something (senior moment) played centre half for Aberdeen when not required in goals so he was in the McAlpine mould.

From the foregoing maybe it is not easy to teach a goalkeeper to be happy with the ball at his feet and if this is the case maybe pass backs should be kept to a minimum when Brill in goals or Brill should be encouraged to do a Jim Leighton and hit it out of the park.

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Not sure the Draper/Tansey/Foran/Vincent combo quite works: too much solidity and not enough pace. But, the hope will be for solid start and maybe go for it later.....?

Hate to say "I told you so", but I did! There is no need to play people out of position (Vincent), when we have players (Ross/Williams) who can do the job. Likewise, Polworth got stick earlier in the season for poor performances, but he was playing deep alongside Draper - this is a specialist role and not one that everybody can adapt to. Last night, we saw what he's capable of in his natural, more advanced position.

 

Brill's ****-up was a shambles - should have gone the other way (into touch if necessary!) Meekings did leave him short, though.

 

Watch Christie's role in the build up to the goal - great movement and always looking for it. These guys are definitely deserving of their chance, and we now have the opportunity to experiment with them in the remaining games to get the system right. europe is a goner, I'm afraid,

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First of a thank you to Peter Paul for the tickets to get in last night. Would have been a sore one if I'd paid to see that. I dont know how easy it would be for Esson to step in but I do think Brill would benefit from a wee rest. The sharpness he displayed in first half of season just isn't there at the moment. At times last night we played quite well. We won plenty of ball and we strung together some good passing but then a misplaced one or a lump it forward just gave the ball away again. Stupid schoolboy errors and a lack of forward thinking cost us the game. DU didn't play well but they capitalised on our mistakes. They kept things tight and we just didn't have any idea's to combat them. We have to get back to using the whole pitch. To running at opponents and to making movement of the ball.

I dont think we're in a bleak position and we'll likely win a few of our remaining games but I do think we now need to forget about europe and just concentrate on getting the best finish in the league. I that means resting regulars and starting fringe players and youngsters then thats what needs to be done.

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In our 13 league games since Christmas, we have scored just 8 goals. That includes 3 v County, which was the only time we scored more than 1 goal in a game.

 

We are so poor going forward these days, and whilst there's not going to be any miracle solution, giving Christie more game time increasingly looks like it has to be part of the answer.

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The post that sums up D U's goals most accurately from my perspective is Davies. Big mistakes caused  I would add by mental and physical tiredness.

First half I thought how the hell did this team hammer us five nil a few weeks ago.........we were at every ball first and they were just not in the game it was ours to win and win comfortably ............... second half where did ICT disappear to 'cause it just was not the '' same '' team, we were nervous, lackadaisical at times and downright naive in defence.

 

Where we did show up well were on the few occasions we ran with the ball into the box and threatened them........ they got to used to our passing game, knew what was going to happen and read it well enough to make us look as If we didn't know what to do with it.

 

Always easy to blame the keeper ( I've said this before ) but how exasperating it must be for Brill after so many bad experiences of bad pass backs over the last few games to experience yet another needless catastrophic example.

Short passing in and around the box is asking for trouble also dallying there instead of pushing up to midfield as quickly as possible is another grave mistake.....get the ball out of the danger area then they wont score is always good philosophy.

 

Time to set horses for courses, school the players in their best positions. We have a strong enough squad to be able to rotate now . We need goals.............. get our sharp shooters in there............... put our wing men in there to feed them.............Keep our midfield sharp and take the pressure of our defence holding a high line. 

 

Tiredness lost us the game.................. use the squad ................ it is good enough to win most of our remaining games.

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One thing on the 2nd goal, apart from that I blame Meekings more than Brill: A German goalkeeper let back passes roll under his foot twice in the last 9 months, resulting in own goals. His name: Marc-Andre ter Stegen. This guy not only still has all chances to be called up for the World Cup, but will most certainly move to Barcelona this summer. Why should a keeper in the SPFL be treated like here if another who gets 100 times his salary makes the same mistakes?

Edited by Rainbow
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Manfer, that's out of order. At the second goal, Brill had to deal with about three back passes in succession, the last of which had half of United breathing down Meekings neck. He underhit it, end of. A mistake, but anyone could have done that. The first goal was a result of a pass across midfield, not defence, from Draper and Robertson skinned Raven. Brill actually had a few decent saves last night.

In the first half, we had width from Watkins and Shinnie, but that decreased as Marley tired. He had a decent game up to that point. Vincent did some really good break up and linking work - exactly what he's there for - and provided an out for Raven and Marley. What no one seems to have mentioned was that we really should have levelled this game with Mckay's diving header and if we hadn't come bearing gifts at the back we would have won that game. There was nothing between the sides for most of it, so I look forward to us getting back on it on Saturday.

Davie, dress it up any way you want. Nothing out of order apart from Brill kicking the ball into the United player. Don't forget he did very similar thing in cup game, except that time it came off Meekings' legs.  He also got lucky when he rushed to the edge of his box. He dropped the ball against Partick first time out. He was also fortunate against Partick that he never got closed down, we clenched our cheeks every time the ball went near him, but overall he was my MotM against Partick. Listen, I'm all for Brill, but he made mistakes. His kicking is and was awful. The first goal should have been cleared by the defender in the box, Shinnie, but he knocked it straight back to Gauld. I thought we more than matched United for most of the game and it was two glaring errors that sealed our fate despite a corker from Polworth. I'm no convinced by Vincent I'm afraid, we need more from him.

 

Anyway, too busy to go on.

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One thing on the 2nd goal, apart from that I blame Meekings more than Brill: A German goalkeeper let back passes roll under his foot twice in the last 9 months, resulting in own goals. His name: Marc-Andre ter Stegen. This guy not only still has all chances to be called up for the World Cup, but will most certainly move to Barcelona this summer. Why should a keeper in the SPFL be treated like here if another who gets 100 times his salary makes the same mistakes?

So what has that got to do with Brill making his mistake,  :blink:  let's just wash it all under the carpet. Blame Meekings :ohmy: ffs I despair.

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