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Play Off Inverness


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38 minutes ago, a f kincaid said:

Whatever qualities Billy Dodds has a manager, I don't think putting two men on Tiffoney required much thought. Most teams have done this all season.

Agree, but at least he did it. Lumping high balls and crosses into Devine and Clubfoot was never going to create a positive result.

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34 minutes ago, laukat said:

I think Mayo was a big miss last night. Over the last few weeks we've had to adapt our style when playing at home on a poor surface and having him in midfield is key to that. If we can get Mayo back for Friday he does have a bit more pace so would be better equipped to deal with someone like Samuels.

Also think Foster is a miss. I'm hoping the reason he didn't play last night was because 2 games in 1 week would be too much and if he can only play one then play him on the better surface and the game which matters most.

A lot is made of our form and results disappearing due to Rudden leaving, the state of the pitch and injuries to Tiffoney and Graham. Losing Graham statistically looks the most important as we lost every game he was out but we seem to miss that since Foster has been injured and McKenna has been a regular choice at right back our results have gone down the pan.

McKenna hasn't played badly but he's just not a natural rightback or in the class of Foster. Hendrie looks a decent leftback but he and Tiffoney don't appear to be on the same wavelength. 

So for Friday I would like to see the following

Sneddon

Foster-Akinola-Mayo-Holt

Crawford-Docherty-Bannigan

Jakubiak-Graham-Tiffoney

If we are in the tie we can hopefully bring on Turner to see if his deadball expertise can get us over the line.

Nothing against that line up tho' maybe I'd keep Hendrie in and move Mayo over to replace Tunji and partner Holt at centreback.

My main point tho', taking your line up as an example, is on last night's evidence how they might actually line up.

.........................................................Sneddon

Foster...........................Akinola.......................Mayo.........................Holt

........................................Docherty...................Bannigan

...................................Crawford

.................................................Jakubiak................................................Tiffoney

..........................................................Graham

Put another way Crawford and Jakubiak will both come off the right flank (when they're ever even near it) to join Graham in chasing the ball about. Foster (McKenna) either has to stay put in the right back position or if he gets forward and we lose possession, inevitably risk drawing Akinola out of position in. Also virtually all opponents stick two on Tiffoney, but with no one threatening down the right we just make it that much easier for them.

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The skill levels on display last night were not great - even allowing for the effects of the pitch.  That suggests that luck and chance will play a big part on Friday.  I don't think that tinkering with the team will achieve much given the alternatives.  That said we need to score at least 2 goals and there must be a young striker we could use who would provide a risk free option.  Players' commitment last night was fine and if repeated on Friday may give a surprise.  The first goal is critical, and if we score it, would put much more pressure on Inverness than us.  We still have a good chance of going through.

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2 minutes ago, eljaggo said:

The skill levels on display last night were not great - even allowing for the effects of the pitch.  That suggests that luck and chance will play a big part on Friday.  I don't think that tinkering with the team will achieve much given the alternatives.  That said we need to score at least 2 goals and there must be a young striker we could use who would provide a risk free option.  Players' commitment last night was fine and if repeated on Friday may give a surprise.  The first goal is critical, and if we score it, would put much more pressure on Inverness than us.  We still have a good chance of going through.

We can win 1-0 and still go through on penalties.

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15 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Nothing against that line up tho' maybe I'd keep Hendrie in and move Mayo over to replace Tunji and partner Holt at centreback.

My main point tho', taking your line up as an example, is on last night's evidence how they might actually line up.

.........................................................Sneddon

Foster...........................Akinola.......................Mayo.........................Holt

........................................Docherty...................Bannigan

...................................Crawford

.................................................Jakubiak................................................Tiffoney

..........................................................Graham

Put another way Crawford and Jakubiak will both come off the right flank (when they're ever even near it) to join Graham in chasing the ball about. Foster (McKenna) either has to stay put in the right back position or if he gets forward and we lose possession, inevitably risk drawing Akinola out of position in. Also virtually all opponents stick two on Tiffoney, but with no one threatening down the right we just make it that much easier for them.

I get you point and I think you're 'actual line-up' is a very decent representation of the problem in playing McKenna i.e. he will naturally sit in line with the other central defenders because he is a natural central defender. Foster would tend to be a bit higher closing the gap to Crawford. That can leave a gap in behind Foster but he does tend to have the pace, positional sense and experience to deal with the danger.

I can see the sense in keeping Hendrie over Akinola and arguably its not a huge difference in playing Hendrie at leftback over Holt. On balance I would be tempted to put Holt back in at left back so we retain height for defending and attacking set pieces but I wouldn't argue if Hendrie started and Holt played alongside Mayo.

The lack of threat of the right flank has been an issue all season. McAllister was the big hope there but its just not happened. Crawford was trying to stay slightly wider last night but he is a natural central mid.  Unfortunately Turner has the same positional instinct. Murray is perhaps the only other wide option but we would need to sacrifice Jakubiak to play Murray as Murray is just not strong enough in midfield. If we really need to chase the game I think we may need to sacrifice a midfielder and put him on but we couldn't start like that.

There is a more radical option that I would have liked to see us try earlier in the season. We could move to 3-5-2 and move Tiffoney to striker and let him run at Broadfoot so we line up like the following

Sneddon

Akinola-Mayo-Holt

Foster-Crawford-Docherty-Bannigan-Hendrie

Graham-Tiffoney

To my mind it gets our best 11 on the park and deals with lack of a right sided winger. It also means you have better options on the bench to change formation. Most of the subs we make are like for like (Crawford for Turner, Smith for Jakubiak) or minor tactical changes (Moving from 4-3-3 to 4-3-1-2). However unless McCall has been secretly working on that formation on the training ground I don't think he will consume enough brave pills between now and Friday to do that.

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39 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Nothing against that line up tho' maybe I'd keep Hendrie in and move Mayo over to replace Tunji and partner Holt at centreback.

My main point tho', taking your line up as an example, is on last night's evidence how they might actually line up.

.........................................................Sneddon

Foster...........................Akinola.......................Mayo.........................Holt

........................................Docherty...................Bannigan

...................................Crawford

.................................................Jakubiak................................................Tiffoney

..........................................................Graham

Put another way Crawford and Jakubiak will both come off the right flank (when they're ever even near it) to join Graham in chasing the ball about. Foster (McKenna) either has to stay put in the right back position or if he gets forward and we lose possession, inevitably risk drawing Akinola out of position in. Also virtually all opponents stick two on Tiffoney, but with no one threatening down the right we just make it that much easier for them.

That's a pretty accurate depiction of how we end up setting up on the field - largely posted missing on right side, occasionally see either Crawford, Docherty or Jakubiak randomly appear there, but apart from that it's left to McKenna (or Foster). Then on left hand side, very little by way of combination between left back (Hendrie or Holt, a bit more when it's Foster), Bannigan and Tiffoney. However we very rarely attack through the middle, so we are dependent on the flanks. It's just so unbalanced.

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3 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

For me, the difference last night was not on the pitch, but in the dugout. Player for player there was not much between the sides, but Dodds had done his homework and knew our strengths and weaknesses. 2 men on Tiffoney and 2 big defenders to dominate all the high balls and crosses that they knew would be coming (our goal came from one of the few times we went down the middle on the deck). On that. Broadfoot must be one of the least skillful players I've ever seen, but while you might hate him as a player, wouldn't you like a thug like that on your side ? (How his hand ball - was it 4 times he touched it ? - wasn't given is beyond a joke). In attack, they targeted turning Akinola  who doesn't like having his face towards goal and the space behind McKenna when he gets forward. 

In contrast, McCall just set us up to play the way we always do. It hasn't worked since January and it is unlikely to work now. I don't know if he has run out of ideas to change things, or if the players are not taking his directions and just default to playing their own way (both are issues). Something needs to change for Friday and I just don't see McCall as the man to do anything different.

As for players, I think this is Graham's last season as a starting striker. He may be a good man to have on the bench, and for occasional starts, but we need a new target man. I suspect that Tiff will also be off at the first offer that comes in and that leaves us in a dire situation to start next season. Allegria is so bad that I don't even have a fear of him coming back to haunt us !

I am sure it wont be Grahams last season as a striker - I can see why it should, but he has a contract for next season and has stated in an interview yet he wants to be here for 2 more years playing.  Now based on his performances since january you know and I know there is no way he should get a new contract (maybe a summer to rest and pre season will help him) and hes contracted for next season but he should definetly not be getting an extra year, though I fear he and Bannigan will get new deals regardless of whether they should or should not

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Pretty sure the final decision on selling Rudden lies completely with Directors.

Regarding Zak himself I can sort of see where he is coming from - at a guess I would say he was on £800 per week with us.  Dundee could be paying him £1600 a week on a 3 year deal.

Now we can laugh at him going to Dundee who are going to be in the championship and so are we.  But he has effectively doubled his wage regardless so he although he chose the wrong club he has still in essence doubled his wage which lets face it for a relatively short career is a bit more security

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The Rudden deal looks stranger every time you look at it. 

To have loaned him to Dundee rather than transferred him is strange. I've seen comments that this is because we get a training fee and deny Sevco a cut of the transfer fee but that seems strange. I despise Sevco but why would Sevco do similar business with us again (i.e. Mayo) if we are going to undermine the spirit of any deal agreed?

Getting Jakubiak as his replacement didn't look right. Don't believe he was who McCall wanted as his style is not what we needed . I don't think McCall is the sort of manager who doesn't have 2 or 3 options lined up so when Irwin fell through I find it hard to believe that Jukubiak became the sole focus of McCall's attention.

Don't think Dundee would have extended Jakubiak's contract if he hadn't been a make weight in the Rudden deal but why allow that to happen?

Surely if we wanted Jakubiak it made better sense to take him on loan to the end of the season without him being extended. That way his Dundee contract  would have expired at the end of this season and if he was any good we could have signed him without a transfer fee. If he wasn't someone we wanted we would have lost nothing. 

If the Jakubiak extension was someway of preserving Dundee's ability to enforce a transfer fee or allow both players to return to their parent clubs why didn't we insist Rudden signed a matching 1 year extension with us? 

Why was our negotiating hand so weak? We had what Dundee wanted not the other way about.

Yes, Rudden could have been annoyed if we had veto'd a transfer but it wouldn't have been in his interest to down tools. Another few months scoring goals for us and being our of contract in the summer would have increased what he could have got as a wage as no transfer fee would be due. 

 

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As i left the John Lambie stand last night i noticed the ICT players celebrating with their fans. I thought the amount of celebrating was a bit ott as the match is really only at half time. Our players should not need any extra motivation, but i hope that somebody from our club noticed it and lets the players know.

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10 hours ago, eljaggo said:

The skill levels on display last night were not great - even allowing for the effects of the pitch.  That suggests that luck and chance will play a big part on Friday.  I don't think that tinkering with the team will achieve much given the alternatives.  That said we need to score at least 2 goals and there must be a young striker we could use who would provide a risk free option.  Players' commitment last night was fine and if repeated on Friday may give a surprise.  The first goal is critical, and if we score it, would put much more pressure on Inverness than us.  We still have a good chance of going through.

Do away goals count double? I thought that was scrapped 

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9 hours ago, Third Lanark said:

Pretty sure the final decision on selling Rudden lies completely with Directors.

Regarding Zak himself I can sort of see where he is coming from - at a guess I would say he was on £800 per week with us.  Dundee could be paying him £1600 a week on a 3 year deal.

Now we can laugh at him going to Dundee who are going to be in the championship and so are we.  But he has effectively doubled his wage regardless so he although he chose the wrong club he has still in essence doubled his wage which lets face it for a relatively short career is a bit more security

Zak Rudden might be on slightly more money playing with Dundee when he actually signs his contract with them , inserted within his contract will be a relegation clause when/if Dundee get relegated .

Not a chance he’ll be getting anything like £1600 per week even if he was in the Premier League with Dundee , my friend played with Killie in the Premier League and they were on circa £850.00 per week.

It was a ridiculous decision by our Club to let Rudden go with no goalscoring replacement and there wasn’t even a loan fee involved.

If I was Zak Rudden, I would sack his agent for such a ridiculous move , James McPake was always going to be sacked and it’s pretty obvious that Mark McGhee doesn’t rate him as his lack of playing time shows . 
Ridiculous move for all concerned.

 

Edited by jlsarmy
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2 hours ago, Auld Jag said:

As i left the John Lambie stand last night i noticed the ICT players celebrating with their fans. I thought the amount of celebrating was a bit ott as the match is really only at half time. Our players should not need any extra motivation, but i hope that somebody from our club noticed it and lets the players know.

I thought the way Dodds celebrated the goals with the fans during the game was a bit OTT. At best its the winner in a tie that gives you the chance to them try and get past Arbroath and then probably St Johnstone but he was celebrating it like they just secured their place in the premiership.

That sort of behaviour has a habit of coming back to haunt you.

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33 minutes ago, jlsarmy said:

Zak Rudden might be on slightly more money playing with Dundee when he actually signs his contract with them , inserted within his contract will be a relegation clause when/if Dundee get relegated .

Not a chance he’ll be getting anything like £1600 per week even if he was in the Premier League with Dundee , my friend played with Killie in the Premier League and they were on circa £850.00 per week.

It was a ridiculous decision by our Club to let Rudden with no goalscoring replacement and there wasn’t even a loan fee involved.

If I was Zak Rudden, I would sack his agent for such a ridiculous move , James McPake was always going to be sacked and it’s pretty obvious that Mark McGhee doesn’t rate him as his lack of playing time shows . 
Ridiculous move for all concerned.

 

Agree because surely Dundee had a relegation clause in his contract that would lower his wage. I think he would have had the pick of 4th to 10th in the premier league had he stayed and bagged another 10 goals.

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10 hours ago, Auld Jag said:

As i left the John Lambie stand last night i noticed the ICT players celebrating with their fans. I thought the amount of celebrating was a bit ott as the match is really only at half time. Our players should not need any extra motivation, but i hope that somebody from our club noticed it and lets the players know.

The tie isn’t over until the final whistle blows - just need to look at Real vs Man City last night too.

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Big Brian Graham has been getting pelters, but hes not going to score with a high ball 40 yards out. The Raith Rovers game a few weeks back, I cant remember a real chance being created. The best chance other than the goal we scored on Tuesday came from an Inverness player putting it on a plate only to see it catastrophically put over the bar. That is what needs addressed if we are to progress, and if it cant be done now, needs to be in the summer. 

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Comparing players who play for Real Madrid with our shower of failures is pointless. They are champions league winners. They know how to get the job done. They don’t understand defeat. We are the 16th best team in Scottish football. It’s like comparing rocket launchers with pea shooters

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