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TheGoon

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Starting this early, would like to see what folk want the starting XI to be. Obviously no idea who’s going to be available at this stage so a bit of guesswork required.

 

Gaston

 

Tumilty Waddell Buchanan Iredale

 

Telfer McAlister Tidser

 

McLean Johnstone Tiffoney

 

Or

 

Gaston

 

Tumilty Kilday Buchanan Waddell Iredale

 

Tidser McAlister Tidser

 

Oliver Johnstone

 

These are assuming Millar’s out. Not keen on Tiffoney playing given his shitebag antics, but if we do need a left winger he’s a better option than Oliver there. 5-3-2 would suit us quite well I think but I’d be surprised to see it deployed. Gaston & Waddell definitely have to come in though. McKeown had a nightmare on Saturday but if he starts over Iredale (suspect he will) I wouldn’t be too disappointed.

 

If it’s the same team as Saturday, god help us.

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Starting this early, would like to see what folk want the starting XI to be. Obviously no idea who’s going to be available at this stage so a bit of guesswork required.

 

Gaston

 

Tumilty Waddell Buchanan Iredale

 

Telfer McAlister Tidser

 

McLean Johnstone Tiffoney

 

Or

 

Gaston

 

Tumilty Kilday Buchanan Waddell Iredale

 

Tidser McAlister Tidser

 

Oliver Johnstone

 

These are assuming Millar’s out. Not keen on Tiffoney playing given his s***ebag antics, but if we do need a left winger he’s a better option than Oliver there. 5-3-2 would suit us quite well I think but I’d be surprised to see it deployed. Gaston & Waddell definitely have to come in though. McKeown had a nightmare on Saturday but if he starts over Iredale (suspect he will) I wouldn’t be too disappointed.

 

If it’s the same team as Saturday, god help us.

I do like the sound of a team with 2 Tidsers in it.

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I think the first line up is more likely but in a Duffyball 4411 to grind out a point. Tiffoney clearly can't be trusted with any defensive responsibilities so he can't be risked out wide.

 

Scully has made some properly outstanding saves mixed in with a few clangers which have gone mostly unpunished. On the whole I'd still say Gaston is the slightly better option.

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We're in an awkward position where we're in desperate need of a win, by with the way we've been playing I'd bite your hand off for a draw here.

 

It goes without saying that it would be churlish in the extreme to write Johansson off after only three games, but the fact is that we're sitting with just two points from four winnable games while the next four games are considerably more difficult. It's hopefully just the case that Johansson needs time to find his feet, but if it is going to be seven or eight games before we start winning that's more than enough to put us in the bottom two before the turnaround.

 

The Dunfermline game was like watching us under James Grady. Ayr was considerably worse than even that. It was natural to focus on the 4-4-2 as the source of the problem after Dunfermline when anyone with even a basic knowledge of the squad knows that a flat four in midfield cannot and will not work for our two best players by a mile in Millar and Tidser, but I think we all got sucked in to focusing too much on the formation.

 

With the 4-3-3/4-5-1 that we've seen these players perform superbly in they were every bit as listless and unimaginative, coughing up acres of space and being overrun in midfield in just the same way. It's not the shape that caused it - it's the players not having a clue what their role is as whatever messages are coming from the management team just aren't getting through to them, they don't know where they're supposed to be at any given moment and no change of formation will make a difference until that more essential piece of instruction from the manager starts getting through.

 

Take the full-backs, who have rightly come in for massive criticism for their performance on Saturday. Chucking goals away due to failing the absolute basics of positional sense and marking a man is always the player's fault, but at the same time neither McKeown or Tumilty had a bad game under McKinnon. Tumilty was always at least decent and McKeown had been excellent. Is it a coincidence that they've both gone to shit within a couple of weeks of a new manager taking over, while players in every area of the park who previously looked good now look ineffective at best, with more looking hopeless?

 

With this in mind I don't have a clue how to set up on Saturday. Anything that brings Waddell into the defence and keeps Tiffoney out of the team will have to do. Like I said it would be ridiculous to write Johansson off and maybe the reaction to such a humiliation at the weekend will be exactly what we needed to kickstart the season, but we're going to need a massive improvement to take anything from this.

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Oh Lord, Brian Wake

 

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We're in an awkward position where we're in desperate need of a win, by with the way we've been playing I'd bite your hand off for a draw here.

 

It goes without saying that it would be churlish in the extreme to write Johansson off after only three games, but the fact is that we're sitting with just two points from four winnable games while the next four games are considerably more difficult. It's hopefully just the case that Johansson needs time to find his feet, but if it is going to be seven or eight games before we start winning that's more than enough to put us in the bottom two before the turnaround.

 

The Dunfermline game was like watching us under James Grady. Ayr was considerably worse than even that. It was natural to focus on the 4-4-2 as the source of the problem after Dunfermline when anyone with even a basic knowledge of the squad knows that a flat four in midfield cannot and will not work for our two best players by a mile in Millar and Tidser, but I think we all got sucked in to focusing too much on the formation.

 

With the 4-3-3/4-5-1 that we've seen these players perform superbly in they were every bit as listless and unimaginative, coughing up acres of space and being overrun in midfield in just the same way. It's not the shape that caused it - it's the players not having a clue what their role is as whatever messages are coming from the management team just aren't getting through to them, they don't know where they're supposed to be at any given moment and no change of formation will make a difference until that more essential piece of instruction from the manager starts getting through.

 

Take the full-backs, who have rightly come in for massive criticism for their performance on Saturday. Chucking goals away due to failing the absolute basics of positional sense and marking a man is always the player's fault, but at the same time neither McKeown or Tumilty had a bad game under McKinnon. Tumilty was always at least decent and McKeown had been excellent. Is it a coincidence that they've both gone to s*** within a couple of weeks of a new manager taking over, while players in every area of the park who previously looked good now look ineffective at best, with more looking hopeless?

 

With this in mind I don't have a clue how to set up on Saturday. Anything that brings Waddell into the defence and keeps Tiffoney out of the team will have to do. Like I said it would be ridiculous to write Johansson off and maybe the reaction to such a humiliation at the weekend will be exactly what we needed to kickstart the season, but we're going to need a massive improvement to take anything from this.

 

I have to say that I disagree with quite a few things here. 

 

I don't think it's true to say that there weren't the same poor performances under McKinnon (especially from Tumilty, who has been awful all season). We were terrible in the opening game against QotS. We served them up with six clear goalscoring opportunities, six. Not half-chances but clear chances, and only two of them were taken. Buchanan was the main culprit for a few of them, Tumilty was awful at both goals, but what was true of all of them was the slow and ponderous back line. There were clear warning signs and some awful individual performances which were covered up by a scoreline helped by a goalkeeping blunder to help us go 2-0 up. A draw was the best we deserved that day, but in truth were lucky not to lose convincingly. Those frailties were still evident against Alloa, but again we got away with it at the back. Despite giving away an early chance, we were far more resolute against Ross County without creating very much at the other end. We've almost thrown away the poor defensive performances in the League Cup because of the tinkering of McKinnon, but there was plenty to be worried about there as well. The defence being shaky (at best) is nothing new. We're seeing the fruition of the clear and obvious warning signs which were especially evident in the League Cup and QotS games (but have been present throughout). 

 

I actually think the midfield worked well on Saturday for a large portion of the match. After an inconsistent start to the match, we began to dominate and dictate the tempo of the midfield play. Millar especially was very good at injecting some pace when needed. This helped us score the equaliser, win the penalty, and create a good chance for MacLean in a long period of the match when Ayr looked pretty ineffective. But the defensive frailties remain, and once we stopped dictating the game those frailties were laid bare against a side who have become very effective at creating chances.

 

We have a defence problem. It has been there all season. And I am very worried that it is an individual as well as a collective problem.

 

How anyone could rate Tumilty on any of his performances this season is beyond me. It's like Doyle at his worst towing a caravan. 

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I have to say that I disagree with quite a few things here.

 

I don't think it's true to say that there weren't the same poor performances under McKinnon (especially from Tumilty, who has been awful all season). We were terrible in the opening game against QotS. We served them up with six clear goalscoring opportunities, six. Not half-chances but clear chances, and only two of them were taken. Buchanan was the main culprit for a few of them, Tumilty was awful at both goals, but what was true of all of them was the slow and ponderous back line. There were clear warning signs and some awful individual performances which were covered up by a scoreline helped by a goalkeeping blunder to help us go 2-0 up. A draw was the best we deserved that day, but in truth were lucky not to lose convincingly. Those frailties were still evident against Alloa, but again we got away with it at the back. Despite giving away an early chance, we were far more resolute against Ross County without creating very much at the other end. We've almost thrown away the poor defensive performances in the League Cup because of the tinkering of McKinnon, but there was plenty to be worried about there as well. The defence being shaky (at best) is nothing new. We're seeing the fruition of the clear and obvious warning signs which were especially evident in the League Cup and QotS games (but have been present throughout).

 

I actually think the midfield worked well on Saturday for a large portion of the match. After an inconsistent start to the match, we began to dominate and dictate the tempo of the midfield play. Millar especially was very good at injecting some pace when needed. This helped us score the equaliser, win the penalty, and create a good chance for MacLean in a long period of the match when Ayr looked pretty ineffective. But the defensive frailties remain, and once we stopped dictating the game those frailties were laid bare against a side who have become very effective at creating chances.

 

We have a defence problem. It has been there all season. And I am very worried that it is an individual as well as a collective problem.

 

How anyone could rate Tumilty on any of his performances this season is beyond me. It's like Doyle at his worst towing a caravan.

 

Admittedly I missed Queen of the South so as I can't comment there I probably don't have enough of a sample size to fairly judge Tumilty's performances under McKinnon v Johansson - I thought he was absolutely fine at Firhill in the League Cup and against Ross County though. While warning signs were there over the quality of the defence, other than playing an experimental line-up when McKinnon was foolishly treating the Legaue Cup games as friendlies there was no sign that we were prone to an abject embarrassment like Saturday.

 

I'm not saying we were brilliant or had properly got going under McKinnon, but 3-5-2 expermiment at Somerset aside we weren't close to being as bad as we've been the last two games. Saturday was our worst performance and result since Spartans: you really can't overstate how unacceptable it was.

 

I can't agree about the midfield looking good. Tidser and Millar had individual moments of quality, the pass for the penalty the most obvious example, but I still think the game was largely passing them by. Two players of their quality will always have good moments, but I still felt neither of them really had the platform to properly influence the game. They weren't finding enough space and the defence was still being forced to go over their heads too often as a result - not helped by McAlister continuing to be utterly anonymous, which is one thing that hasn't changed from manager to manager.

 

Obviously the collapse only came after both of them were off injured, no team in this division would cope with losing two players of their quality and the abject lack of depth we have in midfield is entirely McKinnon's fault which Johansson can do nothing about, but I think that fact is obscuring the reality that we weren't very good in the first place.

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Oh Lord, Brian Wake

 

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Admittedly I missed Queen of the South so as I can't comment there I probably don't have enough of a sample size to fairly judge Tumilty's performances under McKinnon v Johansson - I thought he was absolutely fine at Firhill in the League Cup and against Ross County though. While warning signs were there over the quality of the defence, other than playing an experimental line-up when McKinnon was foolishly treating the Legaue Cup games as friendlies there was no sign that we were prone to an abject embarrassment like Saturday.

 

I'm not saying we were brilliant or had properly got going under McKinnon, but 2-5-2 expermiment at Somerset aside weren't close to being as bad as we've been the last two games. Saturday was our worst performance and result since Spartans: you really can't overstate how unacceptable it was.

 

I can't agree about the midfield looking good. Tidser and Millar had individual moments of quality, the pass for the penalty the most obvious example, but I still think the game was largely passing them by. Two players of their quality will always have good moments, but I still felt neither of them really had the platform to properly influence the game. They weren't finding enough space and the defence was still being forced to go over their heads too often as a result - not helped by McAlister continuing to be utterly anonymous, which is one thing that hasn't changed from manager to manager.

 

Obviously the collapse only came after both of them were off injured, no team in this division would cope with losing two players of their quality and the abject lack of depth we have in midfield is entirely McKinnon's fault which Johansson can do nothing about, but I think that fact is obscuring the reality that we weren't very good in the first place.

 

Even in the game against Ross County, Tumilty shows no interest in defending the back post when crosses come in. 

 

My point about the League Cup games was that the defending on an individual level was also poor. They could hide behind the formation or positions not suiting them if they actually looked solid the rest of the time. Ayr were constantly cutting through us in the League Cup game as well. I know McKinnon's approach to those matches was poor, but individually the defensive performances weren't good enough. 

 

Watch the highlights of the game against QotS:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giDLWo5TlRQ&t=152s

 

There's no defence for the defence. It's basic stuff. The defence didn't have to handle all that much more than that, but it failed every time to do its job. 

 

Watch the start pf the highlights against Ross County for another example:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3po5kgTNSKE&t=16s

 

No pressure on a cross, no marking in the box. Very much like goals conceded against QotS and against Ayr. 

 

I agree that McAlister needs to take some of the blame as well. There have certainly been times when he has not done enough, but when the defence haven't been protected they've crumbled all too often. 

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Not convinced there are any easy answers. The onus is on the management duo to find solutions. 

 

Couple of other rambling comments. Much as I like McAlister, Saturday only confirmed he is a downgrade on the man he replaced - Murdoch. As for the substitutes at half-time, what a waste of time!

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I'd broadly agree with Dunning's two posts. Over the last couple of games we've resembled the last days of the countless failed managerial regimes we've had over the last decade, it's been so bad on so many levels that it's hard to see how it gets fixed. It's too early to be calling for the manager's head, but at the same time the club can't afford to be squeamish about replacing him if there's not a serious improvement over the next few games. Even allowing for poor individual performances, the obvious lack of belief and understanding between the players as a unit is seriously concerning and should not be happening at any point in a manager's regime; for all that the squad has deficiencies, it's absolutely nowhere near being so bad as to excuse the last two games.

 

I live in hope that the presence of Houston will help to steady things, but we can only wait and see what happens.

 

As far as this Saturday goes I'd put Gaston in for Scully, Waddell in for Kilday, Iredale for McKeown, McLean for Tiffoney and Johnston for Oliver. That's probably about as many of the failures from Saturday as we can possibly drop and not one can have any complaints. If fitness allows, there'd also be a case for putting Millar into the middle of the midfield three in place of McAlister with Tidser and Telfer beside him 

AWMSC

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Not convinced there are any easy answers. The onus is on the management duo to find solutions.

 

Couple of other rambling comments. Much as I like McAlister, Saturday only confirmed he is a downgrade on the man he replaced - Murdoch. As for the substitutes at half-time, what a waste of time!

Management duo?

 

I think you'll find Anderson and Sutton are still stinking out the first team dugout. 👎

<span style='font-size: 14px;'><em class='bbc'>"That LinwoodTon's a c*nt, eh?"</em></span>

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You could argue that every single one of our back five are worse than their counterparts last season, although in my opinion Scully and Gaston are much of a muchness. If you replace such a key area with worse players, who play worse as a collective than last season's defence then you're asking for trouble.

 

Tumilty is the worst of the lot. Unfit, uninterested in defending and bang average with the ball at his feet. He's going to cost us so many goals this season and we have no one else in the squad to replace him. 

 

It's going to be a long season as we can't keep clean sheets and look lacklustre in attacking areas. The lack of pace all over the pitch is startling and Saturday won't be the only time a team picks us off almost at will this season.

Good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but only with religion do good people do bad things!

 

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We made a mistake letting Doyle go when all we had to do was find someone decent to play in front of him. Ditto with the signing of McAlister, he's a ghost and even when he is on the ball he contributes nothing. Andy Murdoch is a much better player. JJ will be relying on the transfer window to prove he can make a go of this. He's inherited a pile of shite, that much is becoming apparent with each passing week. So cheers for that, McKinnon. Ya cunt.

"CORNBEEF IS A BELLEND"

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We made a mistake letting Doyle go when all we had to do was find someone decent to play in front of him. Ditto with the signing of McAlister, he's a ghost and even when he is on the ball he contributes nothing. Andy Murdoch is a much better player. JJ will be relying on the transfer window to prove he can make a go of this. He's inherited a pile of s***e, that much is becoming apparent with each passing week. So cheers for that, McKinnon. Ya ****.

The snake would point to the fact that he had seven points on the board from three league games and had turned over the strongest team in the division so the squad couldn’t have been that bad.

 

September was a piss-poor month but I think people are overreacting after Saturday in progressively writing the squad off as a crock of shite. Getting trounced in a one-off game is not unheard of in league football. We stuck five without reply past a Queen of the Soith side that made Jamie McDonagh look like Carlos Alberto at around the same time two years ago - that didn’t reflect their season as a whole and there’s no good reason to assume that a one-off result will define ours.

 

If the manager puts the players in a system that works and focuses on the basics as stated in his interview then there should be little reason for alarm. Saturday’s result massively reduces the time frame that he and the players have got to get it together though, which is only right after they collectively brought disgrace upon this once-proud football club.

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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My big concern is the sports science side. Hopefully they get in someone as we’re back to pinging the ball about at half time again and not doing drills. Also, the sports science influence impacts on their nutrition etc aswell so maximising all this was a big positive from the hissing pricks appointment.

 

Also if we had someone in then when players aren’t pulling their weight, tracking runners, not putting the work in then the data is all for them to see. I’m not sure whether we invested in all the gear or it was brought in by the boy Henderson who’s away now. If we haven’t we should be investing in this pronto, and flush out the lazy fuckers and protect the players over the season who do put the work in.

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My big concern is the sports science side. Hopefully they get in someone as we’re back to pinging the ball about at half time again and not doing drills. Also, the sports science influence impacts on their nutrition etc aswell so maximising all this was a big positive from the hissing pricks appointment.

 

Also if we had someone in then when players aren’t pulling their weight, tracking runners, not putting the work in then the data is all for them to see. I’m not sure whether we invested in all the gear or it was brought in by the boy Henderson who’s away now. If we haven’t we should be investing in this pronto, and flush out the lazy ****ers and protect the players over the season who do put the work in.

It was said in hospitality at the weekend that we are interviewing to replace Henderson.

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