International break: Opportunity

[NeoGeo7 10,502]

We all hate international breaks and coming off the back of two home losses it makes it seem twice as long but Murty has a chance to do something productive.

The reason we have our worst home record since 1914 isn’t down to players being afraid of Ibrox or the flat atmosphere on days like Saturday.

Its down to our opponents setting up against us knowing exactly how we’ll play and they know exactly how to frustrate us.

Murty to me is Warburton v2.0. He plays one way and one way only, he wants to be respectful and friendly with everyone but in particular his squad and he isn’t learning from his mistakes.

Lets start with the obvious. 4-2-3-1 is what he likes to play whether it’s home or away, against Fraserburgh or the scum. Now it’s fine for a manager to have a favoured formation, I get that and I see why we’ve signed who we did in January (with the exception of Cummings who really isn’t suited to playing the lone striker role) but when you setup the same way with nearly the same XI every week you may as well have done a Pedro and announce your first team days ahead of the match because we are predictable.

If Murty wants the job then he has to make changes. I don’t think he’s capable of tactical adjustments during a game so if that’s the case let’s see if he can do it with a 2 week gap between matches.

Imagine the scenario where Clarke is expecting 4-2-3-1 with perhaps the only question mark is whether Cummings plays or Morelos to then see we have gone to a 5-3-2 WB. Now I’m not saying this instantly wins you the match but it gives him something else to deal with. He was expecting a lone striker and wingers where if he packs the box and sits a bank of 4 in front that you can pretty much deal with anything provided your players remain disciplined. Now he has 3 in the middle and two up top. He’s not used to seeing us play this way and will have to wait to see how to adjust his tactics. Ok so it means you drop Murphy and Candeias to the bench but that means you have two really effective wide players on the bench so that you can react as the game changes.

This is what we need to do in order to break down defensive teams at Ibrox. We need options in our approach and keep them guessing rather than just doing the same thing over and over and just trying to do it better. As predictable as we are so too are our opponents at Ibrox yet we have failed to plan for this.

I don’t believe Murty has any notion of doing something like the above or he lacks the balls to drop certain players. Either way if he keeps doing what he is just now he shouldn’t get the job permanently.

As for the respect comment I feel he’s too soft on the squad. Ask yourself this. What would a Souness or a Smith said after Saturday, “Guys you need to keep believing”? No, they’d have launched into them because results and performances like that are not what made us who we are. This is why I feel he’s best suited to working with youth players so that you keep that positivity going rather than knocking lumps out of them emotionally to build them back up and build character.

Learning from mistakes was my last point. Murty said of Cummings “I thought it was a good game that would fit him, but he doesn’t play in isolation”. For me this shows two things. Firstly. He says he thought it would be a good game that would fit him. So this suggests that he thought Killie were going to give us space in and around the box to give Cummings clear chances to score. If this is the case then he’s alarmingly off the mark tactically. Secondly, he doesn’t play in isolation. Well true to form Murty plays one up top and given Killie’s tactics he was always going to be isolated whereas if Morelos was alongside and able to ruffle some feathers in the back line then Cummings may have had something to work with. Surely he saw from other games previously that Cummings needs a partner up top? I just don’t think he is actually learning he just knows that it sounds good (or at least he thinks it does but we are wise to the bullshit that we get fed after every poor result/performance).

So it’s up to Murty to do something here. If we simply line up the same way and try the same things game after game then the board really need to do what’s right and let him go or demote back to u20s. He’s an inexperienced manager therefore some leeway is given but that period of leniency is over in my mind. 5 home defeats out of the 7 have been under Murty and we’ve seen the losses to Hamilton, St Johnstone and Killie have the same hallmarks of a well organised defensive unit frustrate us and hit us on the break. He’s not learning, he’s not adjusting things during or in between matches and for me unless he manages to win the Scottish cup and not lose again in the league he’s not going to be our manager next season.

[Courtyard Bear 41,357]

He could do something productive and step down. 

[K.A.I 36,183]

Nah not for me. This ridiculous international break has came at the wrong time. There's no opportunity in it. The best opportunity would be to have another league game and win it and try to get back to some sort of normality.

In fact this upcoming international break - there's nothing good about it - it just reminds me further how much I hate international football.

I don't really think breaks from playing competitive football are helpful in any way. Players need to keep ticking over and stay in the zone.

Murty's comments on Cummings are really worrying. He's saying he can't play as a lone striker, so that tells me he's a 1 up front man. Why did he even bother bringing him here if he's not going to play? did he even bring him here or was he an Allen signing despite Murty's complimentary words about Cummings at the time of signing? it looks like that way and would make Murty an absolute cuck(hold) of a manager. Just happy being here with no influence or responsibility.

[KingKirk 25,633]

I think Saturday killed his chances of getting the job tbh. 

[Smile 26,600]

This is the time we should be dumping Murty he's been a failure get someone in now.

[NeoGeo7 10,502]

49 minutes ago, KingKirk said:

I think Saturday killed his chances of getting the job tbh. 

I suspect that may be the case though with this board who fucking knows.

[jackrfc95 4,255]

It's an opportunity to give the likes Dorrans and McCrorie time to recover and hopefully work up some fitness but that's about it. 

Quicker they are back the better. 

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,715]

Time for us to raise our spirits, work hard in training, get Rossiter closer to fitness blah blah fucking blah.

At least we're not getting beat and ruining 3 weekends in a row.

[Inigo 32,526]

I'll be going to the Leg Ends game. Not that productive, but it'll be a hawf decent way to spend an afternoon.

[hammer93 15,057]

We should be playing morelos and cummings together....fuck me its scottish football we play in....lets stop showing to much respect to the shite round about them and get back to good old fashioned 442....if teams come to ibrox and play 1 up top then fine all you do is push 1 full back into the middle of the park....if this is the norm then we have to start thinking about 352 for future home games

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,418]

Take the whole international break to read the OP FFS.

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,715]

1 hour ago, Drunk and disorderly. said:

Take the whole international break to read the OP FFS.

Reformation bear says it's hardly even an intro.

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,418]

11 minutes ago, Sportingintegritymyarse said:

Reformation bear says it's hardly even an intro.

Refo takes longer to clear his throat.

[NeoGeo7 10,502]

3 hours ago, Drunk and disorderly. said:

Take the whole international break to read the OP FFS.

Gives you something to do then