rossthejambo Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 How lightly are the players getting off in all of this by the way? We can go on about plan b/c/d as much as we want but if the fringe players who have had to come in recently don't have it in them to show they are good enough, what exactly can the management do about that? I agree with this as well, I don't mean to single out JJ but I think his tactics don't help matters and it has to be remembered that he picks the same players weekly when there are other players who could be getting a chance to show what they can do. But players like Stevenson, Thomson, Templeton and to an extent Elliott need to play better. I don't want to be too hard on Elliott though because I think he is a major victim of the tactics we persist with. He needs a strike partner and at the very least he needs the ball to be played on the deck, not lumped up to him to attempt in vain to win headers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hearts_crazy Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 The point we all seem to be missing here is that our downfall yesterday was largely due to our players simply not being able to do really basic shit like pass the ball, beat a man, when we get a throw throw it to one of OUR OWN players, when we get a corner or a free kick, kick the ball to one of OUR OWN players. I don't think JJ can be fully held accountable for professional sportsmen being unable to master stuff that they should have a mastery of at the age of ten. How do you legislate for that? On paper the team we put on the field last night was the best team available (with the possible exception of Rudi on the bench and Stevenson on the pitch). How is JJ supposed to know they are going to play like they've never played Football before? How can he change it with what we had on the bench? As I said in an earlier post you can only piss with the ****** you've got. Granted, JJ should shoulder a large chunk of the blame, he is the Manager ergo his fault, it goes with the job, but you simply can't ignore the fact that it was the PLAYERS who were ultimately to blame for last night. It was them who played the way they played, it was them who let their heads go down as soon as Utd scored, it was them who let us down and it's them who will have to pull their ******* socks up at the weekend and turn this around quick smart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debut 4 Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Correct, the players must take a long hard look at themselves, but it also must be noted thst it is the manager who continues to pick these same players week in week out. who else has he got to fill in ffs??? its not like the old days when you could go out and buy at any time. He inherited a squad, inspired the better ones to a decent season and has carried the lightweights which you can only do so for so long. There`s still alot of weeding to do in the squad and of course recruiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leginten Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 JJ's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But his major crime this season has been to hit Scottish football's glass ceiling in record time. And like most people who hit glass ceilings, the team has gone off the boil and looks a bit directionless. If only we were still involved in one of the cup competitions that have yet to be decided. (Sorry, I'll stop going on about that some time soon.) In case that sounds like defeatism, I have to say I think the squad is a long way off being able to challenge for the title. We're still sadly lacking in midfield and, in Kyle's absence, powder-puff up front. I was jumping up and down like everyone else when Stevenson scored against Rangers, but realistically a squad containing a fair number of mediocre to weak players isn't currently going to beat the OF over the season and was always going to come back down to earth with a bump. Normal service in terms of getting results against all the rest will soon be resumed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaun.lawson Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 JJ's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But his major crime this season has been to hit Scottish football's glass ceiling in record time. And like most people who hit glass ceilings, the team has gone off the boil and looks a bit directionless. If only we were still involved in one of the cup competitions that have yet to be decided. (Sorry, I'll stop going on about that some time soon.) In case that sounds like defeatism, I have to say I think the squad is a long way off being able to challenge for the title. We're still sadly lacking in midfield and, in Kyle's absence, powder-puff up front. I was jumping up and down like everyone else when Stevenson scored against Rangers, but realistically a squad containing a fair number of mediocre to weak players isn't currently going to beat the OF over the season and was always going to come back down to earth with a bump. Normal service in terms of getting results against all the rest will soon be resumed. I was thinking precisely that this morning. Word for word, in fact! As a result, despite us still being likely to cruise 3rd in his first full season back, he'd probably better win a Cup next season, or else. Daft really - but then, this is why many football managers are scared of their team improving too quickly. It raises expectations to an at times unsustainable level. The other point is that, quite simply, the players realised they weren't good enough to challenge the OF over a whole season. Even the win against Rangers may have ended up contributing to this feeling given we were outplayed almost throughout. In three acid tests after a magnificent run, we were the inferior side on each occasion - which presumably left them wondering what else there was to play for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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