26/27 football thread

[RedTwoster]

I n light of recent events, I take my previous post back. Fuck.

Edited 9 hours ago by RedTwoster

[westlondonmist]

Didn't see that coming, honestly wasn't even confident Celtic would come away with a point. 

 

[RedTwoster]

1 minute ago, westlondonmist said:

Didn't see that coming, honestly wasn't even confident Celtic would come away with a point. 

 

Honestly, I expected a Celtic win. I didn’t expect them to score seven. And frankly, it could have been more if not for the goalkeeper. 

The most alarming part after was Vrancken’s interview, where he seemed completely unwilling to acknowledge or understand that his tactics may have been an issue here. Also, why the fuck is he so unwilling to play Stuart Findlay given how sloppy his defence has been at times this season?

[westlondonmist]

9 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

Honestly, I expected a Celtic win. I didn’t expect them to score seven. And frankly, it could have been more if not for the goalkeeper. 

The most alarming part after was Vrancken’s interview, where he seemed completely unwilling to acknowledge or understand that his tactics may have been an issue here. Also, why the fuck is he so unwilling to play Stuart Findlay given how sloppy his defence has been at times this season?

I think he will struggle with his tactics playing 3 times in 8 days. It looks fairly high intensity. But he stuck with it post Benfica and Graz while there was pressure to change and it probably turned out ok. 

Actually think they play fairly similar to Celtic, which leaves them vulnerable on the counter. The difference today was probably Celtic just have better players. 

[RedTwoster]

8 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

I think he will struggle with his tactics playing 3 times in 8 days. It looks fairly high intensity. But he stuck with it post Benfica and Graz while there was pressure to change and it probably turned out ok. 

Actually think they play fairly similar to Celtic, which leaves them vulnerable on the counter. The difference today was probably Celtic just have better players. 

Which is exactly why managers adjust. It was a needless routing. Maybe Hearts can play an intense style against lesser opponents but if the ambition is, as Tony Bloom has stated, to win the league within a decade, you have to have it in you to adapt to the circumstances. I don’t know if Vrancken is the right person for this project, but we’ll see.

[Devon Malcolm]

3 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

I don’t know if Vrancken is the right person for this project, but we’ll see.

He's done alright though, considering? Losing all those players and having to cobble together a team. Today might have been awful but they're doing a fair bit better than I expected after that team was broken up and McInnes left.

[westlondonmist]

10 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

He's done alright though, considering? Losing all those players and having to cobble together a team. Today might have been awful but they're doing a fair bit better than I expected after that team was broken up and McInnes left.

I think getting Hearts through the qualifiers was a pretty decent. Rangers had a easier route, larger budget and failed. Can't remember the last time a side outside of Celtic and Rangers navigated qualifying. 

Wracken might not be the guy to win Hearts the league but is he expected to? I think the ten year aim wasn't necessarily Bloom saying it's a failure if it doesn't happen. He's still in the cups and I think that's a better expectation and I think the league cup this year is definitely winnable. Hearts not win anything since 2012 (St Johnstone won 3 trophies since then) , I think concentrate on regular Europe with cup trophies. 

I also think any manager doing well with Hearts will be poached fairly quickly. So success will bring about some instability too. 

[RedTwoster]

9 hours ago, westlondonmist said:

I think the ten year aim wasn't necessarily Bloom saying it's a failure if it doesn't happen.

He specifically said last week he’d be very disappointed if they didn’t achieve that goal.

9 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

He's done alright though, considering? Losing all those players and having to cobble together a team. Today might have been awful but they're doing a fair bit better than I expected after that team was broken up and McInnes left.

They lost some key players for sure, but I don’t think they’re in a worse state than they were last year, far from it. They’ve spent good money on their players; not quite Rangers/Celtic level, but still more than any other team in Scotland.

The thing that concerns me about Vrancken isn’t that he can’t achieve results in certain circumstances, it’s his utter inflexibility, which leads to routings like that. He reminds me of Ange in a way, in that he thinks attack is the best form of defence, while I personally think there’s a happy medium that he seems unwilling to target. I’d point to the way Steven Pressley is approaching games with Dundee, or John McGlynn at Falkirk. There’s a level of tactical nuance that I’m not sure we’re getting here.

[westlondonmist]

I think then maybe he's getting ahead of himself because of USG. While winning with USG was an achievement in the 10 years prior 5 different clubs won the league, so more competative. Average attendances are pretty similar amongst the top clubs there too (15-24k), so chances for similar income from match days and merchandise sales. 

 

I actually think if Hearts can keep coming 2nd or 3rd (which I think they will achieve this year) then that's perfectly acceptable for the first five years. Regular third place, cup wins and European football will allow you to sell and make a profit (as it seems Hearts took barely anything this summer).

Coming second last season may have skewed your expectations but I think Hearts seem on a solid path. It's actually been a while since a team finished in the top 3 two seasons running (not Celtic and Rangers obviously). Even more rare that the other team has the two clubs looking over their shoulders, which happened last season. 

25-26- Hearts 2nd

24-25-Hibs 3rd

23-24 Hearts 3rd

22-23 Aberdeen 3rd

21-22 Hearts 3rd

20-21- Hibs 3rd

19-20 Motherwell 3rd

18-19 Killie 3rd

17-18 Aberdeen 2nd

16-17 Aberdeen 2nd

15-16 Aberdeen 2nd, Hearts 3rd

14-15 Aberdeen 2nd, ICT 3rd

 

[RedTwoster]

One for Scottish Football fans that perhaps won't mean much elsewhere - but former Dundee midfielder Giorgi Nemsadze has sadly died at 54 (link to Daily Record). 

If you're not a Scottish football fan, he was a great player - but the most interesting part of his story is the era in which he played for Dundee. The club took a massive punt, ousting boss Jocky Scott to bring in a little-known Italian player-manager called Ivano Bonetti. Although it was Jocky who brought Nemsadze to the club, he stayed there for one of the craziest times for any club in Scottish football, where the club brought in a string of genuinely brilliant signings including Julian Speroni (who'll be familiar to Palace fans), Zurab Khizanishvili (would go on to play for Blackburn Rovers), Temur Ketsbaia (formerly of Newcastle and Wolves) and, most notably of all, Claudio Caniggia. I still find that last one utterly insane. Caniggia was Diego Maradona's best friend, and the wee man himself came insanely close to lining up for Dundee in a friendly (link to The Guardian).

I'm super nostalgic for that period of time, it was so fun - and led to even more insanity when the convicted fraudster and fake lawyer (who somehow swindled his way on to Saddam Hussein's legal team and also represented Moors Murderer Ian Brady) Giovanni Di Stefano bought his way into the club, almost stamping them out of existence through not having the money he claimed to, while bringing the likes of Fabrizio Ravanelli and Craig Burley to the club (briefly) and claiming that he was about to sign Edgar Davids. 

It was a crazy time for that club. 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Manchester United off to Como tonight in the Champions League. No big deal as only Yoro, Martinez, Shaw, Heaven, Mazraoui, Dorgu, Mainoo, Rashford and Sesko are missing.

Baleba and De Ligt also havent played 90 mins but are in the squad.

Sure it'll be fine. There are 4 keepers travelling just to make up the numbers. Maybe play them all as a back four and stick Zirkzee in goals. 

[TheBurningRed]

Jack Fletcher on the bench. Who already played 70 minutes today, and scored, in the youth loss to Como. If we were going to bring someone from the U21s, I'd rather Jim Thwaites. That boy is great at set pieces. We need someone better at whipping a ball in.

[Devon Malcolm]

Liverpool were great fun last night. Walked around for half an hour, woke up, scored 4 goals and played incredible football, and then nearly pissed two points away at the end. Ngumoha's performance was early Ryan Giggs level, he was unplayable. Nyoni also looks really good. They're must see at the moment.

[SuperBacon]

46 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Ngumoha's performance was early Ryan Giggs level,

They probably won't as they have 400 million players but Chelsea should really regret letting him slip away, looks a superb talent.

We have one in Luca Williams-Barnett that if we fuck up (we will) I'm taking Chirpy hostage and dangling him off the skywalk.

[Mr_Danger]

Turns out Michael Carrick’s greatest attribute was not being Reuben Amorim. Who’d have thought eh. No need to crash the coefficient mind.