Frankly I thought today emphasised how suddenly important Calum Butcher has become in a very short period of time. There was nobody winning the ball and dominating the opposition in his absence. Bouhenna may have therefore been a better alternative than Fyvie today. But hey ho, life goes on and because we beat them on Tuesday night when it properly mattered then this nonsense today will be quickly forgotten after we hopefully win our next couple of league games and ICT have been scudded 6 zip by Sevco in the semi.
Agree with most of that but Robbie started Fyvie who is clearly miles off the pace and 100%not match ready (will he ever get up to speed?)
We have absolutely no width which is our biggest problem imo. Our best wide player (Pawlett - who has no pace) was fkn stinkin today.
That was fkn woeful today so where do we go from here? I'd give pass marks to the goalkeeper and Robson and that it.
The game was definitely lost in midfield today but imo the lack of width is killing us.
Butcher has done ok for us since his return without being spectacular but that's definitely better than what Fyvie is offering just now. Is he finished? He looks like he's eternally towig a caravan.
As above absolutely no width, we seem to try and play in a 10 yard wide pitch, when there was acres of space on the flanks. Nobody wants to shoot, instead another pointless pass. Bottom line not good enough. Credit to ICT, they played to win and looked fitter, we seemed just to want to bore the opposition to death and the fans! we know the league is the priority but play like this and we won't be worrying about promotion either!
I agree being out the cup is not end of world bt We were awful again yesterday.
Robbie did well in jan window bt the last few games including Tuesdays game we have not played well. If Robbie can’t get the team motivated enough to play in front of good home crowd, and can’t get the basic team selection ie playing fyvie or basic tactics right, then questions will eventually have to be asked. I can’t see new owner managing director and co accepting this giving their aspirations.
There's a lot of expectation on the players, we're expected to get promoted, we were expected to get past ICT in the quarters.
Are the players nervous & not dealing with the weight of expectation?
I think there is a lot of truth in this. Basically, by being the biggest Club in this league the pressure is all on us to do well. This pressure will continue to build. Yesterday, ICT were incentivised and highly motivated. Probably the expectations on United took the wind out of our sails. Mind you, Celtic face the same problem week in week out and it is no big deal. However, they have quality players who can still do good on a bad day. The standard of player we have is little better than those we are competing against, so the pressure and expectations can be like a 12th or even 13th man for the opposition.