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*** Betfred Cup 2018 - Raith Rovers v Heart of Midlothian ***


tartofmidlothian

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7 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

 

You're right, Mulraney is a perfect example of what is wrong. 

 

Fans thinking past underachievement is a good excuse to underachievers now is also a problem. 

 

It it was supposed to be better than this. We had the infrastructure, we had the finance, we had the youth and we had the support. And yet, here we are, two games into the season and we are one clerical ****** up and a dire performance at a 3rd tier team away from elimination from one of two trophies we can win...before the end of July. 

 

Its such a waste. 

 

If you want to talk about underachieving then attention has to go towards the experienced members of our squad. Not Mulraney. He didn't have a good game but he tried to get forward at every chance and certainly worked hard, shame his end product wasn't great but that is where his development lies. We know he is fast and is good at attacking, his end product is where he has to step it up.

 

A lot of our team just never turned up though. Naismith and Lafferty should be ashamed of that performance. 

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1 minute ago, Mikey1874 said:

 

Not at the defeat at Dumbarton in 1975 then. 

 

http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/games/197508091.html

Before my time... I can only remember the group stages when they brought them back in the early eighties. Was the win against Aberdeen while we were still in the first division not the same season we made the semi final against Rangers?  The win a house and car semi final. 

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2 minutes ago, Escobar PHM said:

Could’ve been or should’ve been ?

 

Both are correct.

 

 

 

 

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3fingersreid
9 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

No it won't be but that's not the point you made.

 

Edited to add that if we are going to approach all this season's away games the same way then that'll do for me.

 

55% possession

17 shots

10 on target

10 corners.

Good stats but unfortunately didn’t get us a victory that was desperately needed given our hearing on Monday I’d guess 

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portobellojambo1
2 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

Could've been but football is not played on paper or we could just hand out the prizes now.

 

Surely you aren't trying to defend that performance yesterday Graygo, or look to make excuses for it. The reason we didn't win yesterday was simple. We had played a style only three days earlier which had been successful, got us three points. We chose not to replicate that three days later, against a side who aren't far away from the same standard as Cove, and it wasn't down to the game not being played on paper, it was down to decisions the back room team made by changing away from something that had worked. And it wasn't down to injuries, one of our best, if not the best, player three days earlier was fit to play, and when he did eventually come on the impact was almost immediate.

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1 hour ago, davemclaren said:

Lafferty didn’t look fit to me. 

Agree but surely management should be assessing that in training throughout the first half u could see he was struggling big time went down before half time and was sent back out for the second half Kenna looked decent when he came on.

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19 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

5 points out of 6 but Levein has to carry the can?  

 

Ok.    :confused: 

 

It will very likely be 2 points from 6 by the end of tomorrow, which means we are in effect out.  A win yesterday would have increased our chances significantly.

 

8 minutes ago, Escobar PHM said:

Shouldn’t it have been 6 out of 6 against that standard of opposition really ? That dropped point is massive.

 

Spot on.

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Nookie Bear
3 minutes ago, Bauld said:

 

If you want to talk about underachieving then attention has to go towards the experienced members of our squad. Not Mulraney. He didn't have a good game but he tried to get forward at every chance and certainly worked hard, shame his end product wasn't great but that is where his development lies. We know he is fast and is good at attacking, his end product is where he has to step it up.

 

A lot of our team just never turned up though. Naismith and Lafferty should be ashamed of that performance. 

 

Naismith and Lafferty have proven themselves over their careers and with Heart that they have quality. With Mulraney  we got exactly what we paid for and I can’t fathom why we would expect anything else. 

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2 minutes ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

Surely you aren't trying to defend that performance yesterday Graygo, or look to make excuses for it. The reason we didn't win yesterday was simple. We had played a style only three days earlier which had been successful, got us three points. We chose not to replicate that three days later, against a side who aren't far away from the same standard as Cove, and it wasn't down to the game not being played on paper, it was down to decisions the back room team made by changing away from something that had worked. And it wasn't down to injuries, one of our best, if not the best, player three days earlier was fit to play, and when he did eventually come on the impact was almost immediate.

 

Just playing Devil's Advocate PJ.

 

No I'm not happy with the way things are going but it is only 2 games in and we have 5 points out of 6, what happens tomorrow will happen and has no bearing on whether we should sack our manager or not which some are calling for.

 

I suppose I just like to think positively about Hearts where possible, saves a whole load of stress and makes the upcoming games something to look forward to rather than moaning my pus of about it. Not a dig at you btw.

 

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8 minutes ago, Elmore said:

Before my time... I can only remember the group stages when they brought them back in the early eighties. Was the win against Aberdeen while we were still in the first division not the same season we made the semi final against Rangers?  The win a house and car semi final. 

 

82-83 was season of Rangers 2 legged semi as you say in 1st Division 

 

Here's the season fixtures 

http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/sea/1982-83.html

 

And another thread

 

 

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6 minutes ago, frankblack said:

 

 

It will very likely be 2 points from 6 by the end of tomorrow, which means we are in effect out.  A win yesterday would have increased our chances significantly.

 

 

Spot on.

 

Someone fuxup behind the scenes and that means that our club cannot afford a draw in a match and that's Levein's fault?

 

What would you have been posting if the fuxup hadn't happened? We'd be sitting pretty in the group with 2 home games to come.

 

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Escobar PHM
10 minutes ago, frankblack said:

 

 

It will very likely be 2 points from 6 by the end of tomorrow, which means we are in effect out.  A win yesterday would have increased our chances significantly.

 

 

 

Yep. A 3 point deduction puts us out IMO. Winning yesterday was essential given what’s probably coming. Winning by a distance was probably essential too

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26 minutes ago, Ministry MK2 said:

If we somehow do not progress from the League Cup Group Stage for the 2nd season in a row. Levein has to fall on his sword. 

 

No chance of that happening. Even if he fails as head coach he will revert back to his DOF role so  we are stuck with him for the foreseeable future.

 

If he does revert back to DOF then Daly and Fox will be running the first team and he will still be pulling the strings.

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26 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

No it won't be but that's not the point you made.

 

Edited to add that if we are going to approach all this season's away games the same way then that'll do for me.

 

55% possession

17 shots

10 on target

10 corners.

 

Great stats against complete and utter shite teams.  We needed a big win yesterday and failed to turn up!  That’s the facts.  We knew the error had happened prior to the game and knew what we had to do and played shit against shit.  

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Escobar PHM
5 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

Someone fuxup behind the scenes and that means that our club cannot afford a draw in a match and that's Levein's fault?

 

What would you have been posting if the fuxup hadn't happened? We'd be sitting pretty in the group with 2 home games to come.

 

We knew we couldn’t afford a draw yesterday. The admin mess up dictated we couldn’t afford a draw. The fact that we drew is down, in large part, to Levein 

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portobellojambo1
14 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

Just playing Devil's Advocate PJ.

 

No I'm not happy with the way things are going but it is only 2 games in and we have 5 points out of 6, what happens tomorrow will happen and has no bearing on whether we should sack our manager or not which some are calling for.

 

I suppose I just like to think positively about Hearts where possible, saves a whole load of stress and makes the upcoming games something to look forward to rather than moaning my pus of about it. Not a dig at you btw.

 

 

So do I, which is why I was relatively glowing in my comments after getting back from the game at Cove on Wednesday. I genuinely believed from that game that those things I'd witnessed on the road for too long had been consigned to the bin and we had come up with a style of play that worked and was good to watch. When I then had to sit through yesterday's game and watch a style of play which took me back to those bad old days I was both confused by and disappointed with why. Yesterday's game was one we just had to win, given what might happen tomorrow night. Now if ICT beat Raith Tuesday night, and I think they will, comfortably, that is us out of another competition again. The players looked as if they were enjoying themselves Wednesday night as well, it appeared they were enjoying the opportunity they had to both run at the opposition and get the ball down and spray it about from the middle of the park. Yesterday, we just looked pish, with elements of the dreaded hoofball drifting back in. Even if we do go out of the tournament I would much prefer to witness at the two games coming up a performance more like that versus Cove than that versus Raith.

Edited by portobellojambo1
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Escobar PHM
7 minutes ago, wavydavy said:

 

No chance of that happening. Even if he fails as head coach he will revert back to his DOF role so  we are stuck with him for the foreseeable future.

 

If he does revert back to DOF then Daly and Fox will be running the first team and he will still be pulling the strings.

We are highly unlikely to progress now. Levein wont be sacked on the back of it. No chance and it would be both too early AND too late to do so anyway.

Edited by Escobar PHM
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2 minutes ago, Juanjo15 said:

 

Great stats against complete and utter shite teams.  We needed a big win yesterday and failed to turn up!  That’s the facts.  We knew the error had happened prior to the game and knew what we had to do and played shit against shit.  

Someone should have told Raith and maybe they wouldn’t have defended so well. It’s a bit disrespectful to call them shit, they had a game plan and they stuck to it. We had to break them down and we all saw in the WC how hard that can be.

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2 minutes ago, Rabgee said:

Someone should have told Raith and maybe they wouldn’t have defended so well. It’s a bit disrespectful to call them shit, they had a game plan and they stuck to it. We had to break them down and we all saw in the WC how hard that can be.

 

They lost 2-0 to Cowdenbeath - they are shit.

 

They also didn’t defend really well, they didn’t have to. 

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3 minutes ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

So do I, which is why I was relatively glowing in my comments after getting back from the game at Cove on Wednesday. I genuinely believed from that game that those things I'd witnessed on the road for too long had been consigned to the bin and we had come up with a style of play that worked and was good to watch. When I then had to sit through yesterday's game and watch a style of play which took me back to those bad old days I was both confused by and disappointed with why. Yesyerday's game was one we just had to win, given what might happen tomorrow night. Now if ICT beat Raith Tuesday night, and I think they will, comfortably, that is us out of another competition again. The players looked as if they were enjoying themselves Wednesday night as well, it appeared they were enjoying the opportunity they had to both run at the opposition and get the ball down and spray it about from the middle of the park. Yesterday, we just looked pish, with elements of the dreaded hoofball drifting back in. Even if we do go out of the tournament I would much prefer to witness at the two games coming up a performance more like that versus Cove than that versus Raith.

 

No arguments with any of that.

 

Maybe apart from the ICT winning against Raith on Tuesday bit, they should, but then so should (© Escobar PHM) we have yesterday. There's my positive side again. ;) 

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What clearly pissed Levein off - and wasn't lost on us either, is the fact we swapped fringe and young players, who did well against Cove, out for our experienced big guns. 

And played much, much worse. No disrespect to Raith but they were there for the taking. 

The likes of Lafferty and Naismith know how to win home and away from playing with the old firm, yet their mentality yesterday was all wrong, particularly Lafferty who seems to be all or nothing, ie if he's fit and switched on he's deadly, otherwise anonymous. Naismith still looks like he doesn't know if he is a striker or sitting in advanced midfield.

Lee froze for some odd reason and the 3 at the back didn't work, it just exposed Mulraney who, raw or not, did work his arse off at least but is clearly a winger and not a wing-back. 

You either pick players that suit a formation, or you pick a formation to suit who you prefer to play. We seem to want to do both and, as a result, end up with a team that is less cohesive than it could be and far less certain of how it wants to play.


 

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Lord Beni of Gorgie
48 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

 

You're right, Mulraney is a perfect example of what is wrong. 

 

Fans thinking past underachievement is a good excuse to underachievers now is also a problem. 

 

It it was supposed to be better than this. We had the infrastructure, we had the finance, we had the youth and we had the support. And yet, here we are, two games into the season and we are one clerical ****** up and a dire performance at a 3rd tier team away from elimination from one of two trophies we can win...before the end of July. 

 

Its such a waste. 

Yip. And mistakes will be learned from but yet we are to be kind and not question incompetence. Because I think mistakes are being repeated. Too nice a place to work to be successful 

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portobellojambo1
2 minutes ago, Rabgee said:

Someone should have told Raith and maybe they wouldn’t have defended so well. It’s a bit disrespectful to call them shit, they had a game plan and they stuck to it. We had to break them down and we all saw in the WC how hard that can be.

 

By that I hope you mean play in the same way we did 3 days earlier, with two wide men running freely at the opposition and the midfield stretching them here, there any everywhere. I'm also going to guess that given the way both the players and the fans seemed to enjoy the style of play on Wednesday it wasn't the players who decided we had to throw that style away and revert to something else yesterday, which history showed didn't work. I'm also guessing we didn't receive a communication from Raith telling us that they intended playing really well defensively so it was pointless us trying to attack them down the wings and/or trying to play football in the middle of the park. What you are coming up with can be summed up in one word, excuse and that word is becoming feckin boring as it has been getting trudged out for too long now.

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Lord Beni of Gorgie
12 minutes ago, Barack said:

What time are we scheduled to have our arse smacked on Monday?

Maybe do us a favour and expel us permanently. Save us the embarrassing event pre season is becoming. 

Just not a team to score goals 

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Lord Beni of Gorgie
2 minutes ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

By that I hope you mean play in the same way we did 3 days earlier, with two wide men running freely at the opposition and the midfield stretching them here, there any everywhere. I'm also going to guess that given the way both the players and the fans seemed to enjoy the style of play on Wednesday it wasn't the players who decided we had to throw that style away and revert to something else yesterday, which history showed didn't work. I'm also guessing we didn't receive a communication from Raith telling us that they intended playing really well defensively so it was pointless us trying to attack them down the wings and/or trying to play football in the middle of the park. What you are coming up with can be summed up in one word, excuse and that word is becoming feckin boring as it has been getting trudged out for too long now.

2 1 at Cove as well. Maybe we should have scored more, fact we didn't is a problem 

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7 minutes ago, Juanjo15 said:

 

They lost 2-0 to Cowdenbeath - they are shit.

 

They also didn’t defend really well, they didn’t have to. 

I suppose it’s all about opinions but from what I saw they set up to stop us in the final third, stifle play and play on the break. They did that, it didn’t help our cause that both Lafferty and Naismith played poorly, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that they defended well.

 

Obviously didn’t see the Raith Cowdenbeath game but I would imagine that they had a go as they would have thought they could win and left themselves open.

 

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Maroon Sailor

If we miss out on qualifying by one point it will be down to the ref yesterday.

 

Doesn't matter how shit Hearts were or how shit the opposition are rated that ref cost us a point by making a howler of a mistake.

 

The Raith keeper knew he ran in to his own player. You can tell by his theatrics as he went down and the ref bought it.

 

Been a rough few days as a Hearts fan but that goes with the territory. It is never plain sailing following this club.

 

 

Edited by Maroon Sailor
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portobellojambo1
1 minute ago, Sir Gio said:

2 1 at Cove as well. Maybe we should have scored more, fact we didn't is a problem 

 

It could have ended up any score in our favour at Cove, but the finishing wasn't great. But that is something that could and can be worked at on the training pitches. But if you don't create the chances in the first place that is a big problem.

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Geoff Kilpatrick
12 minutes ago, Barack said:

Best no-one starts the match thread, until after the outcome, I'd propose...

Better tell tart then...

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Lord Beni of Gorgie
10 minutes ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

It could have ended up any score in our favour at Cove, but the finishing wasn't great. But that is something that could and can be worked at on the training pitches. But if you don't create the chances in the first place that is a big problem.

6th is looking like an achievement on evidence thus far.

Looking to Berra and Naismith to kick arses. Can already see why Lee has frustrated previous coaches.

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12 minutes ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

By that I hope you mean play in the same way we did 3 days earlier, with two wide men running freely at the opposition and the midfield stretching them here, there any everywhere. I'm also going to guess that given the way both the players and the fans seemed to enjoy the style of play on Wednesday it wasn't the players who decided we had to throw that style away and revert to something else yesterday, which history showed didn't work. I'm also guessing we didn't receive a communication from Raith telling us that they intended playing really well defensively so it was pointless us trying to attack them down the wings and/or trying to play football in the middle of the park. What you are coming up with can be summed up in one word, excuse and that word is becoming feckin boring as it has been getting trudged out for too long now.

Reason or excuse are two sides of the same coin I suppose.

 

Excuses / reasons we didn’t win for some people:

1. players who had played well in the previous game played poorly

2. Pitch was awful

3. Perfectly good goal chopped off

4. Poor finishing

5. Resolute defending by opposition

6. Smith didn’t stretch them enough on the right

 

Excuses / reasons we didn’t win for some others:

 

1. Levein’s a ******, I hate him, a mean a really, really dinnae like him, he never wants to win, he’s a coward, never won anything, didnae huv the bottle to play against Dundee, left us in our oor  o need in Europe. He signs shite players (unless they’re actually good, in which case it’s because they wanted to come back to Scotland and has nothing to do with him), he relies on youth too much he’ll burn them out, He should play the young laddie who had a good game last time. He tinkers too much, he ****in plays the same way aw the time.

 

Have I got this right? I’m clearly in the first camp and I guess your in the second. Not really sure we’re going to change each other’s mind.

 

 

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Eldar Hadzimehmedovic

Terrible performance. Just looked to me like we've looked for the best part of three years now. Players over-coached and controlled to within an inch of their lives, every decision an instruction rather than the result of creativity, cagey, wary of the opposition, five yard pass, five yard pass, five yard pass. We could sign 115 players and it would be hard to see that changing given who's leading them. 

 

Not a promising start. Not seeing much tbh to suggest it'll change. 

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portobellojambo1
10 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

6th is looking like an achievement on evidence thus far.

Looking to Berra and Naismith to kick arses. Can already see why Lee has frustrated previous coaches.

 

I thought Lee done well on Wednesday night, but htere agin I also thought the other midfielders did well that night as well. And again it was down to the way we lined up. I thought Lee, like others looked lost yesterday in a poor formation with no outlets available for the midfield, whic inevitable meant more passes were played backwards rather than forwards. Again, you cannot blame the players for that yesterday, it was down to how we lined up, it wasn't the players who decided on the formation yesterday nor do I suspect did they come to the conclusion that it was wrong the way they did have freedome to express themselves on Wednesday and we needed to revert to much more hoofball style football with long punts aimed at anyone and no one.

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4 minutes ago, Eldar Hadzimehmedovic said:

Terrible performance. Just looked to me like we've looked for the best part of three years now. Players over-coached and controlled to within an inch of their lives, every decision an instruction rather than the result of creativity, cagey, wary of the opposition, five yard pass, five yard pass, five yard pass. We could sign 115 players and it would be hard to see that changing given who's leading them. 

 

Not a promising start. Not seeing much tbh to suggest it'll change. 

 

I sadly agree. Everything is slow and disjointed. If it continues like this Tynie will be utterly poisonous come Christmas. 

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12 minutes ago, Rabgee said:

Reason or excuse are two sides of the same coin I suppose.

 

Excuses / reasons we didn’t win for some people:

1. players who had played well in the previous game played poorly

2. Pitch was awful

3. Perfectly good goal chopped off

4. Poor finishing

5. Resolute defending by opposition

6. Smith didn’t stretch them enough on the right

 

Excuses / reasons we didn’t win for some others:

 

1. Levein’s a ******, I hate him, a mean a really, really dinnae like him, he never wants to win, he’s a coward, never won anything, didnae huv the bottle to play against Dundee, left us in our oor  o need in Europe. He signs shite players (unless they’re actually good, in which case it’s because they wanted to come back to Scotland and has nothing to do with him), he relies on youth too much he’ll burn them out, He should play the young laddie who had a good game last time. He tinkers too much, he ****in plays the same way aw the time.

 

Have I got this right? I’m clearly in the first camp and I guess your in the second. Not really sure we’re going to change each other’s mind.

 

 

 

Ffs :lol: 

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Captain Scarlett
11 minutes ago, Eldar Hadzimehmedovic said:

Terrible performance. Just looked to me like we've looked for the best part of three years now. Players over-coached and controlled to within an inch of their lives, every decision an instruction rather than the result of creativity, cagey, wary of the opposition, five yard pass, five yard pass, five yard pass. We could sign 115 players and it would be hard to see that changing given who's leading them. 

 

Not a promising start. Not seeing much tbh to suggest it'll change. 

That about sums it up.Spare me it’s effectively pre season pish.Truth is it’s a competitive cup we should be aiming to at least reach last four but the signs are there for another season of mediocrity and a struggle for top 6.I only hope no more money is wasted by Harry Potter in January 

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2 minutes ago, Juanjo15 said:

 

Ffs :lol: 

You laugh but every thread on here ends up like that. Before Levein it was Cathro (who was pish and he was Leveins fault!!), before that it was Neilson, before that Locke, and so on and so on. It’s like a broken record. We won our first competitive game this season and got a draw in the 2nd and people are calling for him to resign or be fired, Jesus wept!

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Levein..Daly...MacPhee..Fox..Gallacher...et al....do these people see what we see? Last season the management got the benefit of the major doubt re team set up...instruction...style etc...

 

There are NO excuses now...no mittigating circumstances....so how can we serve up such a boring bland uninspiring 80 mins in a game we knew meant a lot due to the paperwork error only days before?

 

I simply dont know but MacPhee for example - he is considered an effective coach and someone who has a bright future...he has seemingly turned down a lucrative gig elsewhere to stay put....sooo how on earth can he sit there after a pre season and signing policy he has played a major hand in, and think thats acceptable yesterday? (im using him to illustrate the point about it not all being down to CL) Because the managment team's DNA is all over this squad...it reflects upon them as professionals and people....would love to ask them and get a straight answer back ?

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1 hour ago, Eldar Hadzimehmedovic said:

Terrible performance. Just looked to me like we've looked for the best part of three years now. Players over-coached and controlled to within an inch of their lives, every decision an instruction rather than the result of creativity, cagey, wary of the opposition, five yard pass, five yard pass, five yard pass. We could sign 115 players and it would be hard to see that changing given who's leading them. 

 

Not a promising start. Not seeing much tbh to suggest it'll change. 

Good post.

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Ministry MK2
1 hour ago, wavydavy said:

 

No chance of that happening. Even if he fails as head coach he will revert back to his DOF role so  we are stuck with him for the foreseeable future.

 

If he does revert back to DOF then Daly and Fox will be running the first team and he will still be pulling the strings.

It would be the honourable thing to do. Levein loves the club just as much as anyone on this board. I hope his ego wouldn’t get in the way of that fact. 

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4 minutes ago, Gambo said:

How many of these shots troubled the Raith Goal?

 

Are you just going to keep drilling it down until I give in?

 

I'll save both of us the time, it's all Levein's fault and nothing will change until he is gone from our club.

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portobellojambo1
10 minutes ago, Rabgee said:

Reason or excuse are two sides of the same coin I suppose.

 

Excuses / reasons we didn’t win for some people:

1. players who had played well in the previous game played poorly

2. Pitch was awful

3. Perfectly good goal chopped off

4. Poor finishing

5. Resolute defending by opposition

6. Smith didn’t stretch them enough on the right

 

Excuses / reasons we didn’t win for some others:

 

1. Levein’s a ******, I hate him, a mean a really, really dinnae like him, he never wants to win, he’s a coward, never won anything, didnae huv the bottle to play against Dundee, left us in our oor  o need in Europe. He signs shite players (unless they’re actually good, in which case it’s because they wanted to come back to Scotland and has nothing to do with him), he relies on youth too much he’ll burn them out, He should play the young laddie who had a good game last time. He tinkers too much, he ****in plays the same way aw the time.

 

Have I got this right? I’m clearly in the first camp and I guess your in the second. Not really sure we’re going to change each other’s mind.

 

 

 

You are horribly wrong by putting me into the 2nd camp. I don't hate Levein and never have. He is the best defensive footballer I've seen at HMFC. I also enjoyed his first spell as our manager, although believe, and possibly understand why some disliked it. First time round I think he was intent on having a strong defensive line, but that didn't mean we were always intent on defending. I'm aware of the comments made by some about him opting out of the game at Dens Park, but that game would have been irrelevant if more goals had been scored in the previous game played at Tynecastle. You've got me totally confused in terms of signing shite players unless they are good, it honestly doesn't make a lot of sense when written down so it is difficult to even comprehend what you are trying to get across. I have never had any objection to young players coming into the side. To me when a player is good enough they should be ready to move up, irrespective of age. Similarly I'm not sure if in the next part you are talking about Morrison, in terms of the younger lad who played in the last game (Cove) and should have played yesterday. If you are then those who are going down that route are correct and you are horribly wrong, and I agree with them. There was absolutely no reason for us to move away from how we had played in the opening league cup tie. By doing so, the performance of the team was much poorer, and no one should ever be using that as reason to support those who decided on changing the way of playing The one thing it did cause was us to play much poorer yesterday, and anyone at both games would have recognised that. As for the surface, I didn't see anything yesterday which suggested to me that the quality of the surface impacted on the game any more than the surface did on Wednesday. I did witness quite clearly that by not using width yesterday, not the players decision I'm guessing, but instructions given to them, this allowed Raith Rovers to be much more compact both in defence and midfield and stop us playing. After 10-15 minutes all the folk sitting in the stadium could see this yet we just don't have the experience of our coaching staff, but they must have seen it as well. It wasn't resolute defending by Raith, we made it easy for them to defend. And as for your comment about Michael Smith, I'm guessing you threw that in for a laugh. I just cannot imagine any football fan ever coming out with something along the lines of "We played really well on Wednesday and had a forward player playing wide right and he ripped the defender to pieces, had a very good game. 3 days later we left the attacking player out and I was very disappointed by the performance of our right back, he just didn't perform to the same level in that position as the attacking player taken out had in the previous game".

 

Which, brings us back to the point I, and many others, have been making about the difference between the two games. In a game we really had to win by as many goals as possible, to lessen any impact the decision to be made on Monday night will have on us, we sacrificed a good attacking line up and as a result failed to win over 90 minutes who were little if any better than the team we'd played a few days earlier.

 

If you can convince me it was a sensible decision as the performance and result yesterday showed I will reluctantly accept I shouldn't question such things and just accept it. Because we really do have to show total respect to irrelevant teams and not expect us to be set up in a way which will win the game, as show only a few days earlier.

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13 minutes ago, Gambo said:

How many of these shots troubled the Raith Goal?

The ones on target, presumably

 

:gocompare:

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Enzo Chiefo
1 minute ago, graygo said:

 

Are you just going to keep drilling it down until I give in?

 

I'll save both of us the time, it's all Levein's fault and nothing will change until he is gone from our club.

Levein picked Cathro and was involved, as DOF, in all the signings he made. We finished that season in 5th and failed to qualify from our LC group  before IC was sacked. CL took over and made several signings in both August and January and finished 6th. He has now signed another 13 players and there is no real tangible sign of improvement . Again, partly due to an admin error, we are struggling to qualify from our LC group after a dire performance against a League 1 team . Who exactly do you suggest is to blame???

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25 minutes ago, Cade said:

The ones on target, presumably

 

:gocompare:

 

Not sure they troubled him much tbh. Half of them trickled towards the keeper and he certainly didn’t make any great saves from what I recall.

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18 hours ago, sadj said:

imo subs today made the difference. Morrison and McDonald were like Mulraney and Morrison on Wed and Keena for Laff was a straight replacement

 

Morrison played well 

 

Edwards and Garruchio would have been my choices. What was the point in signing these lads then not playing them.

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