Jump to content

Harry Wraggs Vs Caley Jags


jagfox
 Share

Recommended Posts

Naturally gutted at the end but this was because we were by far the better team and played some great stuff.

 

I agree that our strikers and attacking mids with the exception of Doolan need some coaching on their movement in the box. I thought Ade held the ball up brilliantly but was nowhere to be seen when the ball arrived in the box. Booth played a lovely right footed cross straight into the 6 yard box which a predator would have buried. Nobody in sight. Nobody got on to Muzzy's crosses because they were bloody dreadful but Amoo delivered a few great balls.

 

Lawless was playing well with a great attitude ie that he knows he is better than the opposition and this affected our play when he went off. Booth is one of my favourites but thought he had a nightmare 1st half. Far better 2nd with Erskine assisting. He needs to be consistent as Penrice will be breathing down his neck next season.

 

Ok, result wasn't great but loads of 'positives'. We really do have some super footballers in our team which makes the Dons display all the more disappointing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have been thinking this for a while. We have a goalkeeping coach, 2 defenders in the management team, but no forwards coach. A new job for Geree maybe ?

 

Logic in that. Archie & Shaggy being centrebacks has to be of great value when you consider the ages of three of our centrebacks and, even if older, the relative inexperience of Barton in defence. The attacking side of the squad are maybe neglected. Ryan Stevenson apart, and keeping Dools aside, we've not really had any older head in attack since we came up. In our promotion season we had Craig who's presence I can imagine was more than useful. Prior to that I believe we did have a "forward coach" in Darren Jackson but that might we'll have been a sinecure.

I know over the years we've had older forwards training with us. Guys we've had little intention of signing but I've heard Archie/Shaggy saying with their experience they were just good to have around. McFadden & Beattie spring to mind. So it's not as if Archie doesn't recognise the value experienced forwards could bring to the table. Perhaps we already have forward coaching on some sort of ad hoc basis? Archie is after all a meticulously minded manager. Or certainly appears to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As gutted as we all were when that goal went in, on this occasion I find it very difficult to level too much criticism at the team, and from the other posts on the thread it would appear I'm not alone in this.

 

We played very well against a team who were set out for a 0-0. I realise they had a goal (correctly) disallowed in the first half but that was the only attack of note I can remember.

 

At the time I thought Cerny should maybe have came for the cross but on 2nd viewing that is maybe harsh on him. Edwards and or Booth need to do better in stopping that cross, as it was a 2v1 situation in their favour. However, we're talking about 2 of our star performers this season so very difficult to be too critical of them. Dumbuya should also not have been left to mark one of the biggest guys on the pitch at the back post - naivety there from the admittedly very young and otherwise excellent centre halves.

 

The situation currently is this - we remain in the top 6 with a very winnable away game next week followed by an even more winnable home game. 6th place is still very much in our own hands and I think we would all have been happy to accept our current predicament at the start of the season. considering we lost 2 players to injury in the first half I thought we coped very well in midfield. I never thought I would see the day when we would be short of midfielders but that's what injuries can do to a small squad.

 

I also cannot make the game next week so hopefully we can grab a win without Dools scoring, although given his record at Rugby Park I'll be sticking a few quid on him anyway.

Edited by ian_mac
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our crossing must improve, the number of crosses we put in excluding corners per ratio of goals is shocking. This needs to be addressed.

 

If all our attacking play is based on floating high crosses in to Doolan and Lawless, that's all we can expect. It's not the crosses but the fact that they are used instead of more productive tactics that would actually give an advantage to the players we have.

 

^^

Maybe we need someone who isn't on the current coaching squad - an outsider - who might be able to see something the current guys are not seeing because they're too close to the problem?

 

No need: plenty of us in the Jackie Husband Stand can see it: we have full-backs and wingers who always take the ball to the byeline to float in high crosses for the opposing towering centre-backs or goalkeeper to gobble up. Only rarely does a full-back or winger cut in, even where it seems easier, and as for cutbacks for a runner from midfield..... They seem to be beyond our footballing ken. (Does nobody in the club watch European football?)

 

The attack only really started to work once Azeez came on, because hitting a speculative ball over the top of the defence for a strong target-man to shield counts as advanced tactics in this sceptred isle. (No wonder the national team fares so badly.) Apart from that we were largely dependent on Doolan's poaching. Distance shots are similarly rare. (Contrast that with how Aberdeen beat us midweek.) Admittedly, Edwards tried a wild miskick for goal, but Barton didn't even attempt it once, although he, Edwards, Erskine, Fraser and Welsh - when available - are all capable of it.

 

None of these points is difficult to see, nor do they need a professional to be paid to point them out.

 

In the end, against a much poorer team, because of the attacking tactics, we were lucky to come off the park with 1 point. The earlier chalked-off goal could so easily have counted, and out tactical naivety would have left us dominating but losing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saying we were lucky to come off the park with 1 point is ridiculous.

 

Off the top of my head recently, goals we've scored from crosses (of various kinds) include:

 

- Saturday's goal (overhit cross then short cross inside the box)

- Doolan v Hearts (long free kick)

- Lindsay v Hearts (free kick followed by cross from the wing)

- Doolan v Hamilton twice (full back/winger hitting the byline)

- Barton against St Johnstone (winger cutting the ball back for onrushing midfielder.

 

In fact I make that every goal we've scored in 2017 excluding the goals against Formartine. Add in the fact that Lindsay has another 6 goals this season (all from crosses?) and I think we're doing OK in that department.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry Fearchar, but to say we were lucky to get a point is frankly ridiculous. The Inverness goal was correctly ruled out, I haven't heard or seen anyone suggest otherwise.

 

As for your other points, when you are actually involved in game of football it's really not as easy as it looks from the comfort of the Jackie Husband stand. You make it sound like the management team are incompetent and we are bottom of the league. When the reality is we are punching well above our weight yet again, for the 4th season in a row at least.

 

You are yet another poster who only seems to appear when you have something negative to say about the management team.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry Fearchar, but to say we were lucky to get a point is frankly ridiculous. The Inverness goal was correctly ruled out, I haven't heard or seen anyone suggest otherwise.

 

As for your other points, when you are actually involved in game of football it's really not as easy as it looks from the comfort of the Jackie Husband stand. You make it sound like the management team are incompetent and we are bottom of the league. When the reality is we are punching well above our weight yet again, for the 4th season in a row at least.

 

You are yet another poster who only seems to appear when you have something negative to say about the management team.

 

The view from the Jackie Husband Stand is way better than from a dugout. All management teams that don't use someone with a better view deserve a slating. (Not a mistake made by Brian Clough, for example.)

 

The fact that despite being dominant the team could only manage about half of the possession (BBC stats) shows an inability to retain the ball. Fewer than half of the attempts on goal came from our team. These stats say something about our shortcomings in both midfield and the final third, but instead of considering the evidence, an element of hubris kicks in. We are assuming that because our team plays better, then the thought of an inferior team scoring is laughable. A 1-goal lead can be lost by the best of defences, and for as long as the team gives away possession cheaply and passes up the opportunities to score, that slim chance is going to open up for any opposition, even an apparently inferior team.

 

There is not one of us following these games who has not seen clearly offside goals allowed to stand. If that had happened on Saturday, the mood on here would have been much worse, but it's up to the management team to ignore the feelings and go by the evidence - and the evidence does not suggest that was a comfortable home win, as it should have been against a team struggling at the bottom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is not one of us following these games who has not seen clearly offside goals allowed to stand. If that had happened on Saturday, the mood on here would have been much worse, but it's up to the management team to ignore the feelings and go by the evidence - and the evidence does not suggest that was a comfortable home win, as it should have been against a team struggling at the bottom.

 

There's not one of us that hasn't seen a penalty given (re Doolan first half).

 

The mood on here would've indeed been much worse if ICT had won the game. Much of that bad feeling would've been generated from those who rarely have a good word to say about the team/manager. They would undoubtedly have dismissed from their minds any doubt about a blatantly offside goal just to get their tuppence worth.

 

I'm disappointed with a home draw against ICT but nothing more. I know you've been following the Jags for many a decade, and I don't want to get embroiled in semantics, but to suggest Saturday's match should have been a comfortable win because ICT are "struggling at the bottom" sounds a bit smug. Firstly the gap between their away form and our home form is and was not too different. They'd lost 8 times away and we'd failed to win 10 times at home. Certainly nothing in our home record that suggests we should be winning any league game, no matter the opposition, "comfortably". Secondly we are Thistle. All those decades of following the Jags surely tells us that the words "should", "win" and "comfortable" are effectively redundant when used in conjunction with any game we play?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fearchar, how do you know that Archie doesn't have someone in the JH watching the game for him? I take it you have evidence to the contrary, otherwise why are you slating the manager when we are currently sitting 6th place in the league?

 

Again, why even mention the offside goal? It was CORRECTLY disallowed.

 

You suggest we should be comfortably beating a team at the bottom. I assume you are basing that on not only their league position, but ours as well. So you have formed this opinion partly based on our success this season, but then go on to slate the management team that have overseen this success? It's a very inconsistent argument.

 

We have no right to be comfortably beating anyone in this league. To say otherwise is just plain ignorance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...