DC92
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Posts posted by DC92
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Given what was at stake and the quality of the opposition (absentees notwithstanding), that was easily the best Scotland performance I've seen in the flesh. Our big wins in the last couple of decades have usually been defined by desperate defending and a bit of luck, but we showed last night that we're a proper team who can keep calm, soak up pressure and make intelligent decisions on the ball. Even at 2-0 I wasn't completely sure we'd win the game, but that's probably my own neurosis - objectively it was a very comfortable win which was never really under much threat.
The fact Souttar came in and put in that performance just makes it even sweeter. Only a few months ago, one poster on here claimed he was comfortably the worst defender we've capped in the last 5 years and he wouldn't get a game for a top 6 club. It was a dreadful take even at the time and he's still got a bit to go before he proves himself as an international defender, but what a brilliant turnaround in that time.
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I know we beat them a year ago, but I definitely wouldn't have fancied drawing Serbia again. I think we caught them on an off day and I doubt they'd underestimate us this time.
I wouldn't necessarily prefer Portugal, but we'd be going into the game with minimal expectation and they've definitely got a f**k-up in them.
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15 minutes ago, Donathan said:
However it likely hands second place to Turkey who would be above us if we don’t meet Denmark so moot point really
Turkey would still need to beat Montenegro away to overtake us, which is hardly a guarantee given that they didn't beat them at home.
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33 minutes ago, craigkillie said:
It would take a pretty unlikely set of results for any team not to finish in the top two with 20 points. Even with Austria and Israel both taking 6 points from Moldova and the Faroes we've still ended up miles clear of them.Obviously I'd have bitten your hand off for 2nd place a few months ago, but if you'd told me at the start of the group that we'd be sitting on 20 points at this stage I'd be a bit disappointed that outright qualification wasn't possible.
32 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:I didn't say it was. Allowing Austria and Israel to take only one point each from us was the key. The point being discussed related to the margin ultimately being quite large.
Fair enough.
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47 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:
The strong team beat everyone this time, not just us, so that was helpful. We also failed to slip up against the minnows as so often happens.
These facts allowed our 4 points against our rivals to be decisive.
If Austria and Israel had taken points off Denmark we'd still be ahead of them and quite possibly have it in our own hands to win the group on Monday.
I don't think other teams doing us a favour is really the story here.
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12 hours ago, BFTD said:
Now that Austria have beaten Israel, it looks like we've absolutely skooshed second place
Despite most of our wins being pretty narrow, I kind of feel we have skooshed it. If you looked at each of the last 4 games in context, a draw wouldn't have been a disaster in any of them, but we won all of them and qualified with a game to spare. There was a fair bit of margin for error in this group, even after a couple of early draws, but we didn't need it.
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31 minutes ago, Martin_T said:
Seen a few comments along these lines. Woodburn was playing wide left, Ginnelly played at centre forward in place of Boyce. See Hearts Twitter feed for comments from Ginnelly on asking Boyce for advice on how to play as a centre forward before the game.
Yeah, Woodburn was pretty much playing the role he always plays, although there was definitely more pace and fluidity about the front three in general.
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Very glad to see Devlin back to his jimmy-rustling best. He was brilliant yesterday.
If he could finish like McEneff he'd be some player (probably for someone else).
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No VLs waiting until right on the full-time whistle to post pictures of Martin Boyle this week I see.
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A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of cinch.
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4 minutes ago, ZX1886 said:
Nisbet and O’Donnell. Clarke just picking at random?
It's the opposite I think. He picks pretty much the same squad every time and those two are always in it.
O'Donnell isn't very good but we know he can do a job in the system we play. The alternative is probably Ralston who looks to have improved this season but is still a bit shite and unproven in this team. The other alternative is probably Ramsey, but we've already got Patterson who is similar and slightly more experienced. If either of them continue to improve and show form over a sustained period then they'll eventually take O'Donnell's place.
I wouldn't have lost any sleep over Nisbet dropping out but it's also not as if we've got great alternatives waiting to take his place. I wouldn't expect Brophy/Watt/Stewart to offer more and I'm not sure Grant has committed to Scotland.
Clarke clearly values continuity and known quantities over having potentially marginally better but unproven bench options. Given recent results, it's hard to argue with that approach.
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18 hours ago, gudge1903 said:
Baningime and Boyce wouldn't make it into an AFC team ahead of Brown and Watkins or Ramirez. Strange even trying to even suggest otherwise. I'm sure league table will show conclusively in May for any doubters.
Running out of steam after the first quarter of a season and found out after the "surprise package" bit has worn off. Always the same story with their scattergun signing policy and collection of misfits they collect.
Gordon makes that team look a lot better than it is. Could have been 5 for AFC** not in top gear yet. Best keeper in league.
Classic overreaction to one or two results post here.
Our recruitment set-up and approach is completely different to before, so that comparison to previous seasons doesn't really ring true. As for scattergun, Aberdeen signed about twice as many new players as we did this summer and look sure to have a worse hit rate than us.
What does a team "not in top gear yet" mean by the way? How is a team "not in top gear yet" distinguishable from a team that is in top gear but just isn't that good? Did you think "I can't wait for this team to reach top gear" earlier in the season just before they started getting pumped every week? And as good as Gordon's save from Ramirez was, it would have been some achievement for Aberdeen to score 5 from 5 on target with any keeper in there.
For the avoidance of doubt, we were horrific on Saturday and were well beaten. If that was an indication of how we'll play for the rest of the season then we will plummet down the table. There's been no other indication of that though, especially since August, and our performances have generally been good even when results haven't. Either way, we might still finish behind Aberdeen because they've got a decent squad and we struggle to kill teams off when we're on top.
As for the question in the OP - probably not. The lack of a standout striker would probably be the biggest problem.
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11 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:
Was it not that Baningime that was beaten in the air by Cummings for our goal?
It was, but he's got more than enough credit in the bank to forgive him for that mistake.
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Just now, Ludo*1 said:
We let you pass it from side to side because you didn't have a clue what to do with the ball. If that's 'domination' then 'dominate' all you like.
Letting us have the ball and going direct is the obvious and perfectly legitimate tactic against this Hearts team, as I've said plenty of times. The current system has plenty of benefits (hence our current league position) but the drawback is it doesn't feature many attacking players and it's very reliant on the front three and our not-very-attacking wing-backs playing well for us to win. Aside from McKay, they were all off it last week.
That doesn't mean Devlin and Baningime didn't do their job (which is winning the ball back and moving it forward) well. When Dundee beat us in January, Adam ran the show. Last week he did very little in an attacking sense and our best two chances in the second half came from Devlin and then Baningime harrying him and winning possession back deep in your half. That's where they're most effective and it's been a big part of our successes this season.
3-4-3 has served us well so far but the flaws are starting to bite us a bit now. I've really liked how cohesive we've looked in most games and I'm not sure I'm giving up on it yet but it feels like those flaws can't really be overcome until January. I've no idea what the answer is in the meantime but swapping out a defender for an extra attacker must be worth another go if this run of results continues.
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1 minute ago, Ludo*1 said:
We had 70% possession and plenty of it in and around your box. We didn't win because our final ball and finish wasn't good enough and because we couldn't defend a throw-in. No question we dominated the midfield though.
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2 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:
Is this Devlin boy supposed to be decent? He was absolutely anonymous against ourselves as well.
His game is about bringing energy, making tackles, interceptions and giving the ball to the more attacking players and he's been brilliant at it so far. He and Baningime have really helped us dominate the midfield in the large majority of our games this season - including against Dundee last week - and that's been a big part in why we're sitting 3rd just now with 1 defeat in 12. He's not the type of player to be getting goals and assists.
It was probably inevitable he wouldn't do much today given someone bigged him up on this thread but tbf Rangers and St Johnstone fans got very wound up by him in our previous two away games and he's an annoying wee shite so it was a reasonable expectation.
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30 minutes ago, RawB93 said:3 minutes ago, Merkland Red said:
Strange one. Don't know why they didn't try the away end as there was loads of empty seats.
Loads of empty seats that weren't for sale. The allocation was sold out in a few hours.
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6 hours ago, Dons_1988 said:
Meh. I think in the 18/19 season you beat us at tynecastle and went 10 points clear and it was thought that was insurmountable.
We finished 16 points clear of hearts and that was when we weren’t particularly good.
Not predicting it to happen again, my point is merely that we’re still very early.
It is going to happen again.
Absolutely brutal stuff today, by miles the worst we've played this season. The other Aberdeen performance was probably our second or third worst so maybe they've got our number a bit.
Despite leading we were awful in the first half. Aberdeen weren't much better but they vastly improved after half time and easily deserved to win. I switched it off when Neilson's response was to chuck Halliday on. Utterly baffled by what he sees in him.
The Dundee result had me wavering a bit but I was pretty sure Aberdeen were much better than their league position suggested and they're showing that now. I fully them to be in contention for 3rd.
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Probably our worst performance of the season so far. Eye-bleeding stuff. Fortunately Aberdeen haven't been any better so far.
Great penalty by Souttar.
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15 minutes ago, Kyle Reese said:
Hope Boyce is back.
He's out. Confirmed by Neilson.
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Our performance levels have generally been very good this season and we again played some good stuff the other night, but I don't have a great feeling about this game. It seems Aberdeen had a lot of success pressing Rangers and that's something we struggled with in the first half-hour against St Johnstone. We also tend to like to dominate the ball and their better results have come when they've had less possession.
I'm pretty sure we'll need to be much more clinical than we have been recently so hopefully Gnanduillet brings his shooting boots this time (assuming he owns some).
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1. Rangers (1-1) - apparently one of their better performances of the season, we really struggled against them in the first half and they had enough chances to win the game before we came back into it.
2. Celtic (2-1) - dominated possession and territory but were pretty toothless and vulnerable at the back. Clearly improved since and if the League Cup game counted they'd be top of this list.
3. Aberdeen (1-1) - our game against them was a bit of a midfield battle with few clear chances. They looked decent and finished the game strongly.
4. Hibs (0-0) - I think we had most of the play against them but they still looked dangerous and chance-wise it was about even.
5. Ross County (2-2) - a bit of an odd game to judge on because it's the only one where we deviated from our 3-4-3 in favour of an ultra-attacking formation and it didn't work. Regardless, they created good chances and were probably worthy of their draw.
6. St Johnstone (1-1) - pressed us well in the first half hour but fell away as an attacking threat after that. Seemed reasonably solid defensively.
7. Motherwell (2-0) - hard to judge because we were 2-0 up after 20 minutes and if we hadn't missed a penalty we might have pumped them, but I thought they came back into the game well in the second half and created a few chances.
8. Dundee (1-1) - nothing particularly impressive but they've got some dangerous players and took their chance when it came.
9. Dundee United (2-0) - really poor against us aside from a spell in the second half where they got a few shots on target from range. Seems like it was an off-day for them based on subsequent results.
10. St Mirren (2-1) - I don't think either team had really come into their own when we played. Had some pressure in the second half but didn't create much.
11. Livingston (3-0) - the worst by miles. I think they had one (very weak) shot in the game and we're well beaten.
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I've often thought we haven't created enough clear opportunities for our possession but I didn't think that in this game. Gnanduillet had 3/4 good chances himself: the header saved at the end of the first half, the shot turned wide by Clark early in the second, the free header straight at Clark on about 65 minutes and the shot just wide from the angle. I also thought Ginnelly's chance at the back post where he tried an acrobatic volley was a good chance and although Souttar's two attempts from range can't be classed as clearcut chances they were very close (one of them very similar to his goal on Saturday).
The dilemma for us is whether we keep the 3-4-3 which has us playing nice football up to the edge of the box but probably leaves us an attacker light, or whether we try make 4-2-3-1, a formation we've usually looked considerably worse in, work.
The most bizarre moment of the match (aside from the blatant corner given as a throw) was early in the second half when St Johnstone swung a free-kick in from the right and McCart, all on his own, put the ball wide. Despite being a great chance it seemed to elicit absolutely zero reaction from the crowd and didn't make the Sportscene highlights. Did I dream this?
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5 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:
Didn't even show arguably the most controversial moment of our game anyway. Looked for all the world like Gordon handled out the area at 1-0, and assumed they'd show it tbh.
I watched it on the stream. He 100% did not.
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OFFICIAL HEARTS JUGGERNAUT THREAD 2020-
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
The quantity of the donation also pretty much exactly matches the loss in revenue from the previous season. I'd expect the increase in turnover this year to exceed last season's donations, meaning they'll no longer be necessary.
I've no idea what the arrangement with the benefactor(s) is but my impression has always been that the money has gone towards 1) building the stand and 2) getting through COVID - not about chucking money at wages. That's reflected in the fact our wage bill under Budge has always been <60% turnover, with the obvious exception of last season.