DC92
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Posts posted by DC92
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3 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:
I don't really understand why everybody to a man thought a guy with 7 starts in 18 months was going to get picked over a guy playing every week who has been a squad mainstay for years.
The squad contains two players, Jack and Hanley, who are both in the twilight of their careers and have hardly played this season, particularly in the last few months. They have both been picked based on performances from over a year ago and the same question marks exist over whether they are still as good. In fact, there are probably bigger question marks over their fitness given Gordon has been fit and available since December in contrast to the repeated breakdowns we've seen in the other two.
It doesn't seem a big leap to suggest Clarke would apply the same logic to Gordon, particularly when the drop-off in ability to the alternative is so drastic.
3 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:Basically Stevie Naismith has had 5 months of watching both Clark and Gordon play and has clearly decided Clark's the better.
It's a bit more complicated than that.
Firstly, since Gordon has returned to fitness Clark has done basically nothing to deserve being dropped.
Naismith was also explicitly aware that both players had ambitions of getting into the squad and implied that he'd be dividing their game time to maximise their chances of both getting in.
The compromise was that Clark would continue as the league goalkeeper and Gordon would play the cup games. This resulted in Gordon starting our biggest game of the season against Rangers at Hampden, something he was very unlikely to do if he wasn't confident in his abilities. I'm certain Gordon would've also started the final if we'd got there.
Anyway, it's done now and there have been rumours that Clarke was leaning Kelly's way for a few weeks, so it's not a massive surprise. Hopefully we don't need him.
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Any chance it's the usual formation with McLean at LCB?
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7 hours ago, SlayerX said:
When has Clarke used a false 9? Never. Doesn't mean he won't or can't.
When did he play a three at the back as a club manager? Never. At international level your system is usually always dictated by the players you have.
Our strikers couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. The solution? False 9 and flood the midfield.
Dykes, Adams and Shankland scored three goals combined in the qualifiers.
I didnt say that Christie has played as a false 9. I said that he has often played as a 10 for Scotland.
Could he play as a false 9? Definitely. So could Forrest, McGinn and Doak.
McTominay has played as a false 9 for Manchester United three times, including once in the FA Cup final.
The squad are now in Portugal. There's no chance of a striker being called up.
Right. He might do something he's never done before. I don't see why you're so confident that he will.
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8 minutes ago, SlayerX said:
He's not replacing Dykes. We have two out-and-out strikers to fill one spot.
Christie and McTominay and McGinn have all played the number 10 role for the past few years.
Even if we did play the aforementioned as strikers, they would be played as a false 9, so it would actually strengthen the midfield.
No. Steve Clarke isn't calling up anyone else. I'd be amazed if he did. He probably would if Shankland or Dykes pulled out. Hopefully that doesn't happen.
When have McTominay or Christie played as "false 9s"? When has Clarke used a "false 9" in preference to an actual striker? When was the last time he selected a squad with fewer than three strikers in it?
A third striker is much more likely to see action than a seventh CB.
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32 minutes ago, SlayerX said:
Scotland only really play with one striker anyway.
We have Adams, Shankland and then McTominay and Doak, McGinn, Forrest and Christie who can all play as a number 10.
Steve Clarke isn't going to call up a replacement for Dykes. No chance.
What this means is Clarke will cut a goalkeeper and leave the outfield selection as it is.
Clarke is screwed if two or four players who are carrying little niggles end up pulling out of the squad.
He should've named a 33 man squad, especially because of the amount of players carrying knocks.
It's a 26 man squad. Taking a 7th central defender instead of replacing Dykes, ensuring we are one injury away from being massively reliant on one striker, would be mental.
There's no evidence Christie or McTominay or whoever can lead the line better than the reserve striker options, and moving them there would further weaken us in areas already weakened by the loss of Ferguson.
Surely Clarke is just taking the extra time to consider who that replacement is.
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6 hours ago, Irrational Behaviour said:
It's terrible and this is most typical Hearts response going.
Remove the results from the Lance Armstrong era too.
Of the results I mentioned, only the one-off win over Zagreb in 2009 (which barely made the list) could remotely be considered to be in the "Lance Armstrong era" I'm afraid.
We've only been humbled by lower level opposition once ever and usually get beaten by better opponents despite some notable exceptions and near misses. That's mediocre, not terrible. Feel free to articulate an alternative view.
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7 minutes ago, Tony Wonder said:
Real shame that. Think overall he's done an excellent job. Recruitment has been good, but he's improved lots of areas behind the scenes. The academy, the women's team, the infrastructure and contract handling all miles better and more professional than when he joined.
Having said that he has nothing lined up apparently so you'd like to think the club have known about this and have an idea of who we want. We'll also be a much more attractive proposition than we were a few years ago. It's a credit to him as well that things like recruitment have proper teams and structures in place so hopefully it's just a case of ticking along without any major issues.
That's how I see it. The work he's done over the last few years should ensure we're less reliant on individuals.
Hopefully the club have known for a while and we can get someone in quickly.
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That's Joe Savage away apparently.
Disappointing news and disappointing timing unless we've got a replacement lined up.
You'd have to say he's done a very good job overall, although it's hard to gauge how much of that is down to his day-to-day management abilities and how much of it is down to him modernising the recruitment structure when he came in.
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On 29/05/2024 at 23:52, craigkillie said:
The UEFA coefficient isn't actually meant to be a historical measure of all-time performance in Europe though, or even a relative ranking of who is better than who now - it's purely for seeding.It is impossible to consider Hearts' record in Europe anything other than terrible for the size of the club.
It could obviously be better, but "terrible" seems way over the top.
Hearts have generally performed exactly to expectation in Europe, with a few near misses and good one-off results against better opposition. Birkirkara is probably the only real shocker. I don't even think there's been another instance of us losing over 90 minutes to a lower seed, let alone a two-legged tie?
In the 21st century I've seen us knock out Braga and Rosenborg, get one-off wins against Stuttgart, Basel (away), Bordeaux (away) and Dinamo Zagreb, and be minutes away from taking Liverpool to extra time at Anfield. I've also seen us take a few doings, but I don't think we'd been pumped home and away by anyone until we played Fiorentina and Basaksehir with a makeshift defence.
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This video probably sums up the multitudes of Uche quite nicely.
- Risible attempt at scoring into an empty net
- Booked for diving (probably harshly on this occasion)
- Bulldozes his way through to score the winner
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On 23/05/2024 at 12:50, topcat(The most tip top) said:
Hearts not wanting to get in the Europa League would be like Dundee not wanting to get into the top six
Obviously we'd have more chance of winning a few games but we should be wanting to compete at the highest level we canNot sure about that analogy.
The point of finishing top 6 is that you've proven yourself worthy over 33 games. Doing so is the achievement and the post-split matches themselves are often an afterthought. The team in 6th is also inherently unlikely to be massively outclassed by the teams in 4th or 5th.
For us, securing guaranteed league phase football in either competition is an achievement. Getting a bye to the Europa League rather than Conference League because of some random results in Italy wouldn't have enhanced that achievement or represented genuine progression. There's also a question over whether we'd be able to "compete" in any meaningful sense at that level and whether that would be as beneficial for players or fans compared a more manageable competition.
To be clear, I'm not turning my nose up at the chance to play 8 class teams and when the playoff comes round I'll be desperate for us to win. Regardless of what comes after, it'll be a successful and memorable campaign if we manage to do that. It was the possibility of having a campaign where we played 8 and lost 8 that was unappealing compared to the other permutations.
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Jack looked miles off the pace when he came on against Norway. Doubt that's improved given he's barely kicked a ball since.
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41 minutes ago, Ric said:
I think this game showed what we all knew all along, we are a better team than Hearts and they need to rely on Shankland just to get themselves a point. Them using the same song for one of their players as the song used by us for a player that doomed them to relegation shows how much we live rent free in their heads.
Actually it showed us we are a better team than St Mirren without James Scott.
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2 minutes ago, afc_blockhead said:
Neither have we.
We also gave a good account of ourselves against the best team in Scotland in the semi final.
Your team however did your usual capitulation to Naismith/Shanklands favourite team
7 of the games were against the bottom 5. The other 3 were against St Mirren and Dundee x2, where you took 1 point from a possible 9.
Well done for giving a good account of yourselves against Celtic, a team we have beaten twice this season.
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22 minutes ago, afc_blockhead said:
Over the last 10 games Hearts are mid table.
A more familiar place for you lot!
Then again, we've not exclusively been playing the worst teams in the league in that period.
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15 minutes ago, houston_bud said:
I'm not having that Shankland has meant that goal.
What did he mean to do?
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2 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:
Well. you'd know more about bottom 6 than we would.
And you're also ahead on administrations...
Aberdeen hold a comfortable 9-4 lead on bottom 6 finishes since the split was introduced, so I'm not sure about that.
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6 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:
His quotes certainly seem like someone who is sticking around. Fucking great news if true. He makes such a huge difference to the team.
Interesting to hear Donaldson saying this week that we've offered Shankland a package worth £14k a week. Certainly seems to be money available, and we're building from a position of strength just now. Keeping Beni would be a really good step.
We could have a good team next season.
He's been a big part of our upturn this season and he'll be particularly useful in Europe if he can stay fit for those games this time.
Looking at everyone under contract and the pre-contracts coming in, it would also put us in the position where we've already got a stronger squad going into the window than we've finished this season with. Nobody is long-term injured (yet), nobody of value is leaving for free, and we've got millions coming in from Europe. Fantastic.
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Sounds like Beni is re-signing?
Brilliant news if so.
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4 hours ago, Tony Wonder said:
Ah I see what you mean.
I think though, given we'll not be seeded, the chances of winning the PO are slim anyway, so would more than likely be the same amount with the ECL. And yeah, on paper it should be more competitive, but as it's projected now you could end up with a group including Napoli, Betis and Hoffenheim in the Conference so there's a high chance of a few scuddings in there too. I'd be keen to go into the EL, guarantee of more cash and hope for a kind draw.I think the Conference League has the right balance of glamour ties and winnable games along with a genuine chance of getting through to the knockouts. Even in the projected 4th pot for the Europa I'm seeing teams like Bilbao, Lens, Nice, Besiktas, Anderlecht etc. popping up in there.
Obviously when the playoff comes round I'll want us to win and it would represent a brilliant achievement for the club in itself. Getting a bye and then potentially taking 0 points doesn't hold the same appeal.
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11 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:
It’s he same number of guaranteed games either way with a bit more money from UEFA for the EL. Having said that the chance of getting out of the league stage are better in the Conference
But that’s not the point. Hearts fans wanting the Europa Conference where the games are slightly easier than the Europa league would be like Dundee fans getting annoyed at missing out on the Bottom six.
we should be looking to compete at the highest level Possible
The EL "league phase" has 8 games compared to 6 in the ECL.
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1 hour ago, Tony Wonder said:
Youd play the same amount of home games. 8 in the EL, 6 in the Conference league group stage, plus the 2 PO games beforehand.
You'd also get 2 games against teams in our pot so while we'd take some doings we'd have a chance of some wins as well and it's more prize money.However, that permutation is pretty unlikely to happen.
If we qualify for the Europa League via the playoff we'll play 10 games in total. If we qualify automatically we'll play 8. That's the extra home game I'm talking about.
The financial dividend of EL v ECL is therefore reduced in the scenario where we qualify automatically rather than via the playoff. There's a decent chance we'd make as much money via the ECL while actually watching some competitive games. So I'd probably rather not see this scenario come to pass.
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7 hours ago, Craigie Jambo said:
8 horsings without the financial benefit of an extra home game compared to the conference. Not for me.
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8 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:
The European comparison is silly. It's like us losing 2-1 to Celtic at full strength, then Hibs losing 5-0 to them the following week missing seven players and using that as a valid comparison. Still, we get another go.
Our transfer activity in the last few years has been strange in general. Shankland and Kent the obvious stand-out successes, and I don't rate the opinion of anyone who doesn't see how good Beni is or how important he is to the team, but aside from them we've just signed generally good but not great Premiership-level players.
I think Devlin and Atkinson typify this. Neither are brilliant, but both are perfectly competent and have proven to be good enough in this league to contribute to a team that's significantly better than our peers. Ideally, I'd like to see both moved on this summer, as I don't think there's evidence of progression with either, and I think from where we are now we should be looking at getting a bit more quality in.
We've got a few like that. It won't all be done in one summer, but the challenge now is to gradually start to upgrade from what has been a solid base.
I think there are some signs of progression with Devlin in recent weeks. He got a goal against Livi and was unlucky not to score against Killie and Celtic in the last couple of games. He'll probably never be a great striker of the ball but he doesn't necessarily have to be if he can keep getting on the end of chances in the box. Regardless, I think he's a good player to have in the squad.
Atkinson has improved to become a passable defender but his end product is poor and his habit of picking up niggles and illnesses undermines his value as a backup. I'd happily see him go if we can't get a couple of RBs in.
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Who’s on the plane?
in Tartan Army Ramblings
Posted
You can say any old guff on here and it'll get greenies if it alludes to diddy club bias. Most Hearts fans would happily admit to not being arsed about Clark now, let alone 2 years ago when we had clearly better options (Gordon, Marshall, McLaughlin).
"They're both shite!" from Well fans is its own form of bias given it's an attempt at obfuscation. Some options are shiter than others.