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Scottish Premiership Game 22: Ross County (H) 24/01/18 19:45


Yabba's Turd
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If Cadden were to move to a Championship club I think hed more than likely end up playing as a wing back (or even full back). Hes big, strong and can run up and down that wing all day long. Hes nowhere near good enough technically at the moment to be an effective winger in that league. He needs to improve his final ball, goal-scoring and ability to beat a full back with something other than just knocking it by them and running if hes to make it in that position.

 

He may well improve all those things either here or elsewhere (it certainly sounds as if hes a conscientious and hardworking trainer), but wing back may be the best option. These 352 formations are all the rage just now!

 

Been saying this for a while now...hes built to play right-back/right wing-back

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Theres more to running our football club than being concerned over caddens transfer fee. For what its worth the formation we have deployed recently appears to be to get the best out of Craig tanner, and for me hes the better player.

Wasnt suggesting that his transfer fee is the priority what I should perhaps have said is playing him in a defensive rather than offensive position is not getting the best out of him and I think it was his capabilities going forward that benefited us right now and would have benefited us if he were to move on eventually to another club

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A must win game and absolutely massive 3 points. That was the main thing.

 

I thought all the new signings looked decent enough and should improve the team. Main in particular. Whether hell hit the heights of Louis Moult remains to be seen but I was certainly impressed enough with his play.

 

However.....

 

Absolute kick and rush stuff for most of the game. Awful to watch and not particularly effective either. The ball spent most of the time in the air and passing and basic ball retention was awful with Dunne in particular being unable to execute even the simplest of passes.

 

Ciftci and Tanner are the guys that are going to make things happen in this team so we have to find a way to get them on the ball more, preferably to their feet.

 

As I said, the main thing is we got the 3 points, but against the better teams those tactics just wont do. Although in fairness to Robinson he did concede we didnt play well.

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I must be missing something. I thought we won tonight but reading a lot of comments you would think we had got humped 3-0. Aye it wasn't pretty but after a horrendous run I am happy to take a cup win and league win with 2 clean sheets and playing poorly.

My view too. Given the players we have and our budget we're not going to play flowing open football anytime soon. The important thing last night was that we won and halted the pre break slide in the process. Look round about us and which teams outwith the big city clubs can win consistently and play good football at the same time? Last night we won because we didn't make any critical errors and produced a fine footballing move which we finished off. Ross County didn't do either. Our failure to do exactly this before the break is the reason we lost so many points.

 

Last night was never going to be a classic given the weather and our opponents style of play. I was quaking in my shoes when I saw the size of the Ross County team and I wasn't playing. Owen Coyle obviously likes very big physical teams. 8 of their players last night were 6 foot or over with 4 of them being 6-3 or over. That instantly tells you a lot about how they'd play and how we'd play. Over the 95 minutes (where did the 5 come from???) they outfought and outcompeted us. They had the bulk of the pressure but didn't look dangerous apart from high balls. It took us all of the first 8 minutes before we could get out of our own half. I felt sorry for the likes of McHugh and Campbell who simply struggled to compete against guys far bigger and heavier.

 

As a team we played well and importantly, solidly. Cifti and Main are linking up well, with the latter looking to be a find. Tanner had a reasonable game but suffered from our tactics. Cadden stuck to his task well, despite not being fully fit, and snuffed out Gardyne, who has been a thorn in our flesh in the past. The last thing we wanted last night was him pinging cross after cross into our box. The defence looks good with Kipre and Aldred doing well. I liked Aldred's attitude when he went off.

 

We got our tactics, which were geared to nullifying County's strengths, just about right. My only concern was that at times we played too much in the air and that was never going to be successful. Maybe Soutar's late signing caught us out; it certainly caught out McCarey!

 

One final gripe was Kevin Clancy. From start to finish he was overly picky and totally inconsistent.

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As I said, the main thing is we got the 3 points, but against the better teams those tactics just wont do. Although in fairness to Robinson he did concede we didnt play well.

 

To be fair to Robinson his career was in the balance last night. Lose against County and the chance are he would be sacked in the next few weeks. Getting canned from us and Oldham in the space of 12 months wouldn't have left him many options. He was under extreme pressure.

 

Now we have earned a bit of breathing space he has to try and get the team playing some football even if the results don't go our way in Edinburgh.

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Absolute kick and rush stuff for most of the game. Awful to watch and not particularly effective either.

 

Ciftci and Tanner are the guys that are going to make things happen in this team so we have to find a way to get them on the ball more, preferably to their feet.

 

As I said, the main thing is we got the 3 points, but against the better teams those tactics just wont do. Although in fairness to Robinson he did concede we didnt play well.

Those tactics were effective enough to win us the game, although I admit we played the ball in the air too much.

 

Agree about Cifti and Tanner and indeed Main. As Robbo says though before you can play football you have to battle to win the ball. Its hard to score if you don't have the ball. Our tactics will change against better teams, but we are limited by the players we have.

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We knew the style of football we were signing up to when the club gave Robinson the job and subsequent contract extension. Its jusy something well need to get on with and to be fair to Robinsons approach, hes provided a good few memorable nights (which have been few and far between in recent years) thanks to his desire to win at all costs.

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...for me having McHugh and Campbell in the mid field has made a big difference

 

Campbell aye, but McHugh? No chance.

 

His distribution is absolutely appalling. Continually gives the ball away, and a fair share of needless free kicks. He's hopelessly ineffective offensively, and a liability defensively. Would happily see him relegated to the bench.

 

3 points though...

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A good three points, if not a good game of football itself.

 

The opening goal was fortuitous of course but I'm certainly not going to feel guilty at that. Plenty has gone against us with no little sympathy. It did raise a hint of a smile that it was Rose who crossed the ball, when only a few days earlier he was being absolutely caned by some for a lack of crossing and attacking ability.

 

The second was however very good. From the work done to win the ball back, the perfectly placed pass and the deft finish.

 

Throw in Carson's (weekly) jaw-dropping save and Main's clearance off the line and that's about your whack really.

 

I'm fairly excited about the potential the Cifti-Main partnership offers. Considering that they've only played twice together and are still building up an understanding; and that neither of them are 100% fit that they've already combined twice to win the penalty on Saturday and again for the second goal last is pretty encouraging. I read of some who said you couldn't attribute December's results down to the absence of Moult alone and whilst I couldn't disagree with that at all the significance of a finisher or at least a striking partnership that delivers goals between cannot be understated. Moult was the difference that raised us above the likes of Hamilton, Ross County and Dundee. If we can get a similar return from these two I would hope that at worst we can maintain a double figure gap between us and any relegation concerns.

 

On the style of play I don't actually object much at all to the apparent vision of getting the ball to wingers who send in inviting crosses for our strikers to attack. I've seen those aims labeled as pre-historic or inferred to be backward anti-football. I don't know about that. I had no qualms enjoying John Gahagan firing over balls for Willie Irvine, Davie Cooper for Nick Cusack or Chris Humphrey for Michael Higdon; and I sure as hell won't be upset at seeing Tait, Cadden, Frear or whoever pinging them in for Main or Cifti to work with in the box.

 

I despair as much as the next punter when the plan falls down due to lack of ability to pass or cross or the easy option is taken just to launch the ball forward as was often the case last night the principle of getting the ball wide to deliver into the box, particularly at pace as perhaps was evidenced with the goal against Hamilton in the 3-1 loss isn't just as bad an idea as is sometimes made out.

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Rotten game but at the end of the day as bad as it was we simply needed to grind out a result last night.

As some have mentioned i'd like to see us play a lot more football rather than lumping the ball long. I actually think we play some decent stuff at times when we put our mind to it. I think it's a clear tactic from Robinson to direct but can't really criticise it too much given the first half to the season. I can recall a good few games where the ball has barely touched the deck. Results come before fancy football for us though I'm afraid.

 

In terms of positives I thought Aldred was excellent, looks like a no nonsense defender. It will be interesting to see who will be first choice when Hartley is back. Aldred and Hartley could be some partnership although Kipre was a stand out for me last night too. Perhaps a 3 of Hartley, Kipre and Aldred when going 352? Dunne moving to LWB.. Depends on the system we play I suppose but atleast we have some good options now.

 

Ciftci was really bright and worked hard throughout. I can see Nadir banging in a good amount of goals this season, technically he is very good and he is better than I remember in the air. As well as this it looks like he is going to chip in with quite a few assists. From what I have seen thus far I am optimistic this move could be a big success.

 

Good to see Main chip in with a goal, I don't think he is a natural poacher but will hopefully get a few to his name. He looks very powerful and will upset defences. I did think he would be more of an aerial presence though given his size however he didn't look to be very good in the air. Could be more in the Bowman mould tbh.

Conflicted about Charles Dunne, I think his pace bails us out quite a lot of the time but techincally he is appalling. His passing ability is none existent. I sometimes think this contributes to our long ball from the back approach. Defensively he is OK though so I don't want to be too harsh on him.

I still see something in Demi, I don't think he is as bad as some have made out. Raw, but his pace could open doors as he nearly done towards the end of the match. Good to see Maclean get a run out too, hopefully he start to blood him and a few of the youngsters in over the rest of the season.

 

Tough game on Saturday, Hearts are on fire just now. Would bite your hand off for a draw at this point.

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Robinson admitted himself he wasnt happy with the way we played so would expect him to be trying to improve our quality going forward.

 

However, lets be realistic. We were on a rotten run. Just as winning becomes a habit. So does losing. We have stopped that rot, got 2 wins and 2 clean sheets on the bounce. Lets just be thankful for that and leave the manager to fix the problem he has already identified.

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Campbell aye, but McHugh? No chance.

 

His distribution is absolutely appalling. Continually gives the ball away, and a fair share of needless free kicks. He's hopelessly ineffective offensively, and a liability defensively. Would happily see him relegated to the bench.

 

3 points though...

Genuinely though McHugh has a really good game. Hes properly become a target for the moany fuckers in our support very quickly. I counted one misplaced pass last night that led to a breakaway for Ross County and folk were on at him as though he was having a nightmare.

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Wasnt suggesting that his transfer fee is the priority what I should perhaps have said is playing him in a defensive rather than offensive position is not getting the best out of him and I think it was his capabilities going forward that benefited us right now and would have benefited us if he were to move on eventually to another club

When making direct comparisons, it will be Chris Caddens physical presence and ability to play wing back that will get him a move south as opposed to the likes of Elliott Frear who is an out and out winger who has better delivery but struggles defensively and by consequence, is unlikely to play at a level higher than what he is now.

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