***Official Ross County vs Heart Of Midlothian Match Thread***

[Arthur Morgan]

I know we had loads of chances today but imo you don't change a successful team. Robbie has to take part of the blame for us not winning today.

[Tom Hardy’s Dug]

5 minutes ago, mitch41 said:

Sod the past. I can see your a white flag waver at the games. Shame on you.

We are never going to challenge for the league having just got promoted FFS. Even Rangers took way more than one season back to challenge properly. 
 

Our aim has to be 3rd this season (NOT every season - we can build and aim higher if things go amazingly well) and we are well placed and look good compared to our rivals for that so far.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Tom Hardy’s Dug

[SectionDJambo]

9 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

I watched it. We missed a couple of good chances but their goalie also saved a couple. Ross County only had a couple of half chances aside from their goals. Good dominant performance from us - extremely attacking. Didn;t get the 3 pts but again not for want of trying to attack, which is what people have been screaming for us to do for months if not years now.

Sounds more promising than we’ve been watching for a few years. Maybe the team just need to gel and, in a few cases for the later signings, get match fit.

Given the fixtures we’ve had, it’s not a bad start.

[Big Slim Stylee]

 There’s a ceiling when someone like Robbie Neilson is in charge. Having a managerial philosophy which hinges on “I like wingers and fast stuff” is not guaranteed to have us dismantling teams week in week out. Especially when the standard of crossing is so average. It’s no good piling up above average SPL players if you’re management and coaches are so tactically limited, tbh.

[jr ewing]

11 minutes ago, hearts00 said:

Thing is GMS has more contributions that led to a goal (assist for a goal or scoring)  than any one else in the team. He is enfuriating at times but it was his pass for Boyce’s goal. He has also scored and won us two penalties. 
 

Missed a sitter today though and it was costly. 
 

 

Sums up his career in one game really. 

[frankblack]

1 minute ago, Tom Hardy’s Dug said:

We are never going to challenge for the league having just got promoted FFS. Even Rangers took way more than one season back to challenge properly. 
 

Our aim has to be 3rd this season (NOT every season) and we are well placed and look good compared to our rivals for that so far.

 

You are wasting your time here.  Someone that clearly has lost any grip of reality with his expectations.

[Riccarton3]

5 minutes ago, SectionDJambo said:

Sounds more promising than we’ve been watching for a few years. Maybe the team just need to gel and, in a few cases for the later signings, get match fit.

Given the fixtures we’ve had, it’s not a bad start.

The ability to convert, make right decisions, execute a cross. These are all training ground issues you practice until you have a level of competency to take into games. Yet to see evidence of this. Yet clear as day to everyone with no coaching experience

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Riccarton3

[jr ewing]

6 minutes ago, mitch41 said:

Hearts do have some very good players it's a pity we don't have a very good manager.

Imagine if we had.

[DS98]

2 points out of 6 from Hibs at home and Ross County away. You’d be hard pushed to put much of a positive spin on that. Really frustrating.

[Tom Hardy’s Dug]

2 minutes ago, DS98 said:

2 points out of 6 from Hibs at home and Ross County away. You’d be hard pushed to put much of a positive spin on that. Really frustrating.

Look at it another way. We have 7 points out of 9 away from home so far. When was the last time that happened in the top league?

[Jamhammer]

3 minutes ago, DS98 said:

2 points out of 6 from Hibs at home and Ross County away. You’d be hard pushed to put much of a positive spin on that. Really frustrating.

Didn’t lose either and could have 

After that I’m out

 

Our crosses/corners are absolutely hairy baws! What do they do in training f’n box soccer?

Sort it out!!!!

Edited September 18, 2021 by Jamhammer

[The Real Maroonblood]

9 minutes ago, mitch41 said:

Sod the past. I can see your a white flag waver at the games. Shame on you.

 

2 minutes ago, DS98 said:

2 points out of 6 from Hibs at home and Ross County away. You’d be hard pushed to put much of a positive spin on that. Really frustrating.

Exactly.

A pish result except if your a happy clapper.

[Hearts1975]

The thing is that as much as that should have been a game that we should be winning, our possession stats are good, we are creating a lot of chances and we have much better attacking options in the final third. That all augers well as we can get better and the more the players gel with each other 

 

Sick as a dug at that result but as much as I ain’t RN No1 fan, I am ten times more confident this season than last season and have came round to him a bit more. I’m not saying he is perfect, far from it, but we are like night and day and in a far better place now than compared to last season. We still need to see this consistency over a whole season, granted 

 

If we can just sort out our final ball then I reckon before long someone is going to be on the end of a right drubbing from us. 

[OldGorgie]

41 minutes ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

This team is growing together and bonding and we've improved as a team and a squad almost out of all recognition. This squad will get better and better as they get to know each other. Today was disappointing but in no way a disaster. Onwards and upwards. 

Nurse!

[andydog]

Frustrating result. Overall a good, entertaining performance. There were times in the game, particularly fist half, that we were a joy to watch. Some sloppy defending but I’ll take that if it means we are as attacking as that. McKay and GMS both missed sitters and that’s what’s cost us. 

[J.T.F.Robertson]

6 minutes ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

 

Exactly.

A pish result except if your a happy clapper.

 

I've never been called a "happy" anything.

 

[GinRummy]

25 minutes ago, Bongo 1874 said:

Do you not think, the players not having a regular style of play and formation could be hurting us at times, quite obvious that playing a back three wasn't going to get us scoring lots of goals, now we seem to be rather hoping that other formations work for us. 

 

I don't know maybe just me, but i think the players would benefit playing in a formation that they can get used too. 

 

1st half was good and we didn't deserve to be losing, but i thought the second half was rather crap tbh, but then again it's a different game all together if we take our chances. 

If I’m honest I think the 3-4-3 won’t ever get the best out of the players.
 

For me, he had to change from the 3-4-3 before it cost us points, I’ve no doubt that it would have, we just weren’t scoring enough. If I were RN I’d continue with something similar to today’s formation and give it some time. 
 

It was sloppy at both ends of the park today.  That, rather than the formation was the problem. Our defence shouldn’t need two defensive midfielders to look after it and we shouldn’t be relying on our wing backs to put quality crosses in the box because that isn’t really our full backs game. 
 

I’m not going to blame Neilson for changing something BEFORE it goes wrong as that’s what he should be doing. The players let him down a wee bit today rather than the other way around. 

[Boab]

5 minutes ago, Tom Hardy’s Dug said:

Look at it another way. We have 7 points out of 9 away from home so far. When was the last time that happened in the top league?

Under the bold CL !

9 points from 9. Three years ago.

[BackOfTheNet]

24 minutes ago, bobskeldon said:

No, scoring two today would not change my opinion that he is a donkey. He is Uche (another donkey) without the brawn.   Simply not good enough and him being in the team lends itself to playing for ‘seconds’! 

If you think Gnanduillet is even remotely like Ikpeazu in any shape or form then you’re clueless. Other than both being forwards their games have zero similarities. I’m hoping what is coming across about you is not in fact the case, is all I’ll say to you right now.

[wattie exploited]

16 minutes ago, Hearts1975 said:

He is a great player. Some folk were calling for him to get hooked and he was being played out of position at the time! Enjoy him while he is here. 

thought that was his worst game today he was hardly in the game I always thought a number 9 was there to score goals and am thinking he has had one shot on goal since he has started ,

dont get me wrong he looks a good player but i don't think he is getting played in his right position  

[CJGJ]

31 minutes ago, SectionDJambo said:

Not a good result and we are fortunate that Hibs and Aberdeen are not as good as their media pals make out. Despite the ambitious talk of getting close to Rangers and Celtic, it’s not going to happen this season. Our competitors seem to be Hibs and Aberdeen, with an eye to be kept on Motherwell and St Johnstone. 
I didn’t see the game today but it seems that good chances are being missed, which usually comes back to bite any team.

Probably the best we can say about us for now is that we are hard to beat, which is certainly an improvement on our last season in this league.

Maybe playing with two holding midfield players, who in fairness do attack a fair bit too, isn’t such a bad idea if it stops us having to score two goals to draw against Ross County.

We need two wins from these home games coming up, with Ibrox to come soon.

Why are you worried about Ibrox ?

 

All the Robbie haters will expect us to win as they do in every match home or away and if we lose they can fire away whether it is sensible or not.

Results are important but some seem to forget the quality of football on show and it has been pretty good compared to recent seasons.....lessons have clearly been learnt.

 

We are a lot more than just being 'hard to beat'

[Hearts1975]

1 minute ago, wattie exploited said:

thought that was his worst game today he was hardly in the game I always thought a number 9 was there to score goals and am thinking he has had one shot on goal since he has started ,

dont get me wrong he looks a good player but i don't think he is getting played in his right position  

He was definitely played out of position for most of the game. He can play attack midfield and either side but I don’t think he is a CM. I doubt if Neilson will play him there again. Hopefully he won’t. I don’t think he is a goal scorer who will net you 15-20 a season but more a creative type. 
 

we need to remember he fell out the game for a while. He has loads of talent (IMO) I think if we persevere he will get better and better for us. I like him and happy he is with us. If we could sign him at the end of the season, even better but that’s doubtful unfortunately 

[Francis Albert]

38 minutes ago, Tom Hardy’s Dug said:

Most people are completely ignoring the fact that this squad and team are still bedding in.

 

They are also ignoring that we couldn’t completely transform every position for the team in one window back in the SPL.

 

So yes we need someone in addition to Boyce who will also score nearly a goal every second game; yes we need a better CB to partner Souttar etc

 

The key is though for me that we get 3rd place this season which will potentially start to transform us properly - from the players we can attract to the income we could potentially make.

 

We have started the season excellently for a great chance of third. Winning the league may take another season or two of building the squad 😉

It must be at least a decade since we had a squad that wasn't "bedding in". Hope this is the first one to succeed but not yet convinced.

[GinRummy]

18 minutes ago, Arthur Morgan said:

I know we had loads of chances today but imo you don't change a successful team. Robbie has to take part of the blame for us not winning today.

I disagree. He’s hardly ripped up the squad and started from scratch. We have some very good attacking players yet weren’t scoring goals. Nothing wrong with trying to improve on how we are playing. Mixing it up a bit until he gets the balance right rather than settling for what we have is exactly what he should be doing.

[Jambof3tornado]

56 minutes ago, Jambos1983 said:

We made loads of chances. Couldn't take them today. Another day we score 5. Would get Devlin in next to benni for the next game and let the front 4 go and play

Who makes your front 4? Still think we look a bit light numbers wise. Not enough quality crosses from gnando, gms wasteful, boyce ok , mackay I think looks great considering game time in the last 6 months.

 

Would Gino have helped today?

 

Does nobody hit the byline before cutting a cross back anymore??

[chrystaf]

1 hour ago, Selkirkhmfc1874 said:

Enough chances to win 3 games which positive we making plenty chances but we need to get practicing crossing and finishing 

In a nutshell.

[Jambof3tornado]

26 minutes ago, Hmfc1965 said:

It's hard to blame the manager today.

Its not hard, it's impossible

 

 

Believe me if I could find blame I would but he put out an attack minded side, we missed numerous chances and failed to close down well enough for their goals, thats down to individuals not Robbie.

 

 

[Paul Shark]

Messing about with the defence cost us 2 points today. Halkett can't play in a back 4. He really needs 2 other centre backs covering for him and Souttar is so much better playing right side. 

[The Tackle]

I like the balance Beni and Devlin give us in the middle rather than the 2 defensive mids

[Hearts1975]

3 minutes ago, GinRummy said:

I disagree. He’s hardly ripped up the squad and started from scratch. We have some very good attacking players yet weren’t scoring goals. Nothing wrong with trying to improve on how we are playing. Mixing it up a bit until he gets the balance right rather than settling for what we have is exactly what he should be doing.

It was a completely different formation today with the attacking midfielder playing off the front 2 rather than having the 2 wingers and 1 up top 

 

I ain’t going to criticise Neilson for that as it was only last week when we played the vermin that I thought having an attacking mid and 2 up top would get more support in to Boyce rather than having the 2 wingers. 
 

Hindsight is a great thing at times. It’s fine to change things as long as you don’t change back to things that just won’t work rather than persevere with something not working initially but just needs practice to make it work 🤷‍♂️

[Hearts1975]

4 minutes ago, jonnothejambo said:

How did Cammy Devlin play?

Loads of energy and commitment. Extremely vocal. Think he could very well be one of our best signings although it’s still very early days. 

[comradejambo]

Bit of perspective required today. A frustrating result against poorer opposition, yes. However , 12/18 points so far isn’t bad. Could it have been better, yes. However, we’re a million miles from where we’ve been. We look a threat in attack and most games have looked ok in defence. 2 points dropped today but our biggest rivals ( Hibs and Aberdeen) also dropped points. Some wins against livi and Motherwell and we’re in a good position. 
 

HHGH 

[spacerjoe]

45 minutes ago, Leveins Battalion said:

🤣🤣 mate dont take life so seriously

😄

[GinRummy]

1 minute ago, Hearts1975 said:

It was a completely different formation today with the attacking midfielder playing off the front 2 rather than having the 2 wingers and 1 up top 

 

I ain’t going to criticise Neilson for that as it was only last week when we played the vermin that I thought having an attacking mid and 2 up top would get more support in to Boyce rather than having the 2 wingers. 
 

Hindsight is a great thing at times. It’s fine to change things as long as you don’t change back to things that just won’t work rather than persevere with something not working initially but just needs practice to make it work 🤷‍♂️

It’s a fair post. One of the many problems with the 3-4-3 was it didn’t appear to be two wingers and one up top. All too often Boyce was further back than the wingers. It just wasn’t working in an attacking sense. We didn’t get enough men in the box after creating dangerous situation. 
 

Today was far from perfect but I’d rather see us trying to play attacking football because with this squad I believe a more cavalier approach will get us more points. 

[Spellczech]

What do people do there? If I lived in a small town that had a top league team, even if I didn't like football I'd get into it...

[bobskeldon]

21 minutes ago, BackOfTheNet said:

If you think Gnanduillet is even remotely like Ikpeazu in any shape or form then you’re clueless. Other than both being forwards their games have zero similarities. I’m hoping what is coming across about you is not in fact the case, is all I’ll say to you right now.

What exactly about me is coming across? Please explain!

[Leveins Battalion]

This pish about having to play 5 at the back is for one reason,Halkett is gash,he needs cover.

 

 

We really need a partner for Souttar,he is the weakest link in our team by a mile. 

 

 

Most important job for January

 

[Unknown user]

1 minute ago, comradejambo said:

Bit of perspective required today. A frustrating result against poorer opposition, yes. However , 12/18 points so far isn’t bad. Could it have been better, yes. However, we’re a million miles from where we’ve been. We look a threat in attack and most games have looked ok in defence. 2 points dropped today but our biggest rivals ( Hibs and Aberdeen) also dropped points. Some wins against livi and Motherwell and we’re in a good position. 
 

HHGH 

 

We're averaging 2 points a game, if we keep that up, that's 76 points over a season.

That's pretty decent, 1 point behind second place Celtic last season, and that means our form's pretty decent.

 

3 draws in a row but we're disappointed in the last 2. I'm very happy with the progress this season and I think we'll see more

 

[GinRummy]

2 minutes ago, Spellczech said:

What do people do there? If I lived in a small town that had a top league team, even if I didn't like football I'd get into it...

There’s only 5000 people live there. Seems likely a seriously big proportion of them do go. 

Edited September 18, 2021 by GinRummy

[Spellczech]

2 minutes ago, GinRummy said:

There’s only 5000 people live there. Seems likely a seriously big proportion of them do go. 

Got to figure some come from surrounding areas though...What are the rest doing? guarding the houses from burglars?

[kingantti1874]

On another day would have won comfortably.. just wasn’t to be today.  Decent start to the season - smash livi at home next week

[GinRummy]

Just now, Spellczech said:

Got to figure some come from surrounding areas though...What are the rest doing? guarding the houses from burglars?

😂 burglars probably at the match, or at least the successful ones. 

[Hearts1975]

2 minutes ago, GinRummy said:

It’s a fair post. One of the many problems with the 3-4-3 was it didn’t appear to be two wingers and one up top. All too often Boyce was further back than the wingers. It just wasn’t working in an attacking sense. We didn’t get enough men in the box after creating dangerous situation. 
 

Today was far from perfect but I’d rather see us trying to play attacking football because with this squad I believe a more cavalier approach will get us more points. 

Fully agree with that. We definitely have the players to set up more attacking. I, like u, would like to see us set up to give the front 4-5 players autonomy to go and play as player wise, our attacking options are better than what we have had in a long long time

 

I get it’s a balance but it’s still early days and the new players have only played a handful of games together so they should get better 

I just hope when Neilson finds what he is looking for he sticks with it and doesn’t change it again. Not criticising but that was one of my biggest criticisms of him last season.
 

I’m just not a big believer in playing one system for the sheep, another for the vermin, another for Ross County etc etc 

[jr ewing]

It's on now. Bbc alba 

[Diego10]

7 minutes ago, Smithee said:

 

We're averaging 2 points a game, if we keep that up, that's 76 points over a season.

That's pretty decent, 1 point behind second place Celtic last season, and that means our form's pretty decent.

 

3 draws in a row but we're disappointed in the last 2. I'm very happy with the progress this season and I think we'll see more

 

I'd suggest it's a lot better than pretty decent,being more than we got in 97/98 or 05/06.

[...andFulton'sBaggio]

59 minutes ago, jr ewing said:

No brainer. GMS never played consistently well enough for every team he's been with. Didn't see him play in America though. 

Yeah, he's been a first pick of Robbie's pretty much since he arrived. He can be very effective when he's on his game, but maybe a wee spell on the bench would do him good. He'd be desperate to fight his way back in then, y'know?

[Joey J J Jr Shabadoo]

50 minutes ago, mitch41 said:

Hearts do have some very good players it's a pity we don't have a very good manager.

Completely agree.

[Ked]

1 hour ago, Leveins Battalion said:

 FFS 🙈🤣

That's 3 but abbreviated.

[Ked]

I'd have taken a draw before game.

Should have taken 3 points.

I dont think County will go down.

 

[Spellczech]

4 minutes ago, Diego10 said:

I'd suggest it's a lot better than pretty decent,being more than we got in 97/98 or 05/06.

But to keep it up we either have to win more games or stay undefeated...