Round Two - Black and Blue

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Here we go again - Black tells Brew what he thinks of his tactics and has a gob off at some of his colleagues - Brew - the consummate leader - decides to flex his muscles and ridicule Black by hooking him - and losing us a game at the same time - Black applauds the away support who react in kind - Brew totally ignores Black as he comes off - Black throws his shirt into the ground.

Who do you blame ? Me - Brewster. Black is a player who plays better on adrenaline. He may be too outspoken at times but as a professional he must despair at Brews lack of tactical awareness at times. Brew is supposed to be the person who harnesses the personalities - unfortunately his personality disallows this !!

So - I suspect that this time Black may be offski - that is a disgrace in itself. Still I reckon he will grace the Scotland shirt one day and he has to move on to better things.

Will Brew now bench him again ? That would be typical arrogance and if it happens - I will be so Anti Brew as he - and our mangement - are dragging us into the SFL.

[Caley Stan]

Brew totally ignores Black as he comes off - Black throws his shirt into the ground.

Definitely saw Brew pat Blackie on the back as he came off. Spoke to Hearts fans after the game who were sitting above the tunnel and they say that Blackie changed his shirt without any sign of tantrums.

No doubt, Blackie should never have been hooked (he was our best player again) and he looked p1ssed off about it but he just about kept a lid on it.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Spoke to Peter Paul after the game and he probably has the photogrphic evidence.

[Glebeict]

WillBrewster last much longer?

[Alex MacLeod]

Blackie definitley threw down his shirt inside the dugout

Edited September 22, 2008 by Alex MacLeod

[buckett]

I really wanted the substitution of Black for Wilson to turn out to be a tactical masterstroke, just to get it right up the eejit sitting behind me who started ranting at Brew as Black came off.

As time wore on, however, I realised the eejit behind me was right, and probably not an eejit at all!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Well - perhaps he is a right eejit then.

[buckett]

Well - perhaps he is a right eejit then. :thumb04:

Aye, you could say that.

Funny thing was, he looked vaguely familiar from my old IRA days - ugly fellow with a bit of a beard.

But they didn't have eejits in the IRA in those days, did they?

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

The Academy was the Oxford / Cambridge of Scotland in those days - It would appear that the only significant difference in your aging process is yer eyesight - or perhaps it is jealousy that a mature man can maintain his good looks.

Have to admit I lost it fer a second but I didnt keep it going. It was the gloss on a bad tactical day at the office - I was really quite confident pre match but when I saw the team and the formation I couldnt believe it. It was clear we had to change but we didnt until far too late and the changes were rank. That was so different to Falkirk that it was untrue.

But why was it ?

[Yngwie]

he looked vaguely familiar from my old IRA days - ugly fellow with a bit of a beard.

That'll be Gerry Adams.

[Kingsmills]

If it come down to a straight choice betwen Brewster and the ever improving Ian Black I know where my vote would go. Pity, like the vast majority of us, I have no say in the matter !

[buckett]

Well I agree with IHE and I think his rant was spot-on.

I'd also say that we were playing very entertaining football for about 15 minutes right up to the point when Black came off.

And that was the defining moment. Up till then we looked the more likely team to score - wave upon wave of attacking football but with an unfortunate inability to finish. Suddenly, with the absence of Black we seemed to lose direction and any threat we may have carried. It was all a bit insipid from then on and I noticed we seemed to favour the long ball "tactic".

I also agree about the mature man maintaining his looks. He was ugly back then too. Only, he didn't have a beard.

he looked vaguely familiar from my old IRA days - ugly fellow with a bit of a beard.

That'll be Gerry Adams.

:thumb04:

[dunco]

WillBrewster last much longer?

I think one of them will be off sooner rather than later, Black off in januray or brewster sacked at end of season. i hope it will be brewster's head as i have been anti-brew since his return to the club. Brewster u know where the door is just go

[Brian]

I too hope Balck does stay as he is a brilliant player with temprament but then again how many good players have this bad side to them, it seems to go hand in hand with brilliance.

He is a stand out and a very creative player and would worry if he was allowed to go.

I realise every player has his price but struggle to think of who would fill his boots - not even sure anyone out there we could buy as a replacement and why should we anyway, better not to keep what we have and know!!

Brewster has struggled in all games to change tactics properly, I can remember back to playing 'tic, we were 1 up with not long to go, we ended upplaying 3 centre forwards and lost 2 - 1.

Says it all.

We just seem to replace like with like and at times with no time to even have any effect

[Yngwie]

Brewster has struggled in all games to change tactics properly, I can remember back to playing 'tic, we were 1 up with not long to go, we ended upplaying 3 centre forwards and lost 2 - 1.

Says it all.

Two things you need to know :

1) A couple midfielders went off injured in that game leaving the manager with no choice.

2) Brewster wasn't the manager at the time.

[AJS]

Lot's of players seem to lack respect for Brewster...then again who would have any for him after walking out a few years ago. I always thought that may be an issue when he came back...the majority that were there when Brew was here first time round are still here. And the likes of Wyness and Hart who didn't like him much first time round have all been put out.

[CaleyD]

WillBrewster last much longer?

I think one of them will be off sooner rather than later, Black off in januray or brewster sacked at end of season. i hope it will be brewster's head as i have been anti-brew since his return to the club. Brewster u know where the door is just go

Brewster's out of contract at the end of the season so no need to sack him if we waited that long.

It's really frustrating because we've all seen Brewster get things (in our view) spot on, but the longer time goes on, the more it seems to be by luck than good judgement. SOme Managers seem to have this thing that doing the unexpected can throw your opponent and give you an edge (we've all seen situations where a manager will throw a centre back on up front etc). When it works your considered a hero, when it doesn't your considered a fool.....do it consistantly and unsuccesfully then you should be heading for the dole queue.

There's a number of things we see on a consistant basis which are doing us damage amd being exploited by other teams IMO.

- This attempt to play the offside trap all the time...we're being torn a new one every week by forwards/wingers with pace who can easily beat it and we don't have enough pace at the back to recover the situation.

- The long ball forward.

- Playing players out of place....be it on the wrong wing or whatever, and even though some players may not be considered out of position they do have positions where they are stronger. Cowie and McBain are prime examples, we see the best from these players when they are played inside in a 5 man midfield.

- Constantly changing partnerships up front. We saw us hammered last year because Niculae never had the same person playing alongside him 2 weeks running...how are players suppose to get an understanding between each other going in order to play these clever flicks and through balls if they are constantly being chopped and changed.

- Tokely without Wilson in front of him and/or a centre back who understands that when Rossco goes forward someone needs to fill the hole and cover until he gets back. Either stop Rossco going forward or deal with the situation when he does...it's not a difficult concept to get a grasp of.

As to Black on Saturday....I don't like to see any player throwing the club shirt around. That shirt does not represent Brewster, it represents the club and the fans and should be respected a bit more. However, I can fully understand Black's frustration...he's been head and shoulders above anyone else out there this season and to find himself being hooked when others around him aren't pulling their weight is baffling to say the least.

Some might say that having the title of manager commands respect but I'm somone who says that it is something you earn and Brewster isn't going to be earning much when making decisions such as that.

[StockholmSyndrome]

Some might say that having the title of manager commands respect but I'm somone who says that it is something you earn and Brewster isn't going to be earning much when making decisions such as that.

I agree, Don. He certainly hasn't earned much respect from me, and I don't even have to work for the guy. In some ways he reminds me of someone I worked for a few years ago. She was brittle, inconsistent and had an unerring knack of rubbing people up the wrong way. She got to me so much I ended up leaving to get away from her. Maybe Brewster's not as cack-handed as she was but his seeming lack of management skills worries me.

[Yngwie]

The manager's decisions, some right some wrong, have got us to a satisfactory mid-table position.

We are ahead of teams including Aberdeen, Dundee Utd and Motherwell, all of whom have bigger budgets and better players than us. The obvious conclusion is that Brewster must be a better manager and tactician than Levein, McGhee and Calderwood. Discuss.

[CaleyD]

I don't think you can draw comparisons so easily as the personnel playing under tha manager play a big part in it also. i.e. You could take someone who has never seen the game of football and put them in charge of Celtic and be reasonably confident that they'd be able to get to a mid-table position....and in the same manner we, ICT, have in the past had groups of players who, on paper, would never have been expected to do as well as they have, but the right management has brought out the best in them and made them better than the sum of their parts.

On paper we've got some great individuals in the squad, but on the pitch we aren't seeing performances which reflect that. Something is wrong...be it tactics, motivation or whatever you have to admit that, although we are doing ok in the league the results and team display haven't exactly been inspiring, especially at home.

I don't think anyone is knocking our league position, but as I said elsewhere, it's hard not to believe that we should have done a bit better than what we have. That's not any delusion of grandeur or thinking we have a right to win games...it's seeing the display and listening to the comments of many people who agree that we aren't playing as we should be, it's looking at the fact that every goal we have lost has been the result of a defensive error and the fact that we aren't scoring goals because we aren't creating chances.