Ok, ok. I don’t mean to instil panic amongst the Arabian community, but it is a raw FACT that after only two games we are in fact bottom of the league. Doesn’t mean that much of course, Hibs are currently joint top, and with respect to them, they are unlikely to stay there.
So what are the positives that we can take from this? Well, we played well for 70 minutes against Hibs in our opener, only to do what is becoming an alarming habit, ie throwing games away at the death – death being an appropriate word, as football suicide would be an apt way to describe these capitulations.
This is not new either. Many times last season we did the same thing, sometimes throwing away a two-goal advantage to lose! And the season before!
So what is wrong at Tannadice? It surely can’t be personnel, as we have new blood from top to bottom. Some are saying that our goalkeeper needs to be more commanding, others say we can’t take our chances up front, more say our defence is sometimes shambolic. All true sometimes, to an extent.
If the players have the ability, and the manager is getting his tactics right (is he??) then surely the problem lies in motivation, and/or belief? Heads go down too easily at Tannadice. How many teams fear a 5-0 drubbing after losing a single goal? Well we do. The fans are the same. We go a goal down, and we all fear the worst. But why? We are a Football Club. It’s a game. What have we to fear?
We certainly seem to have the same problem as last year. We need to stop trying to play textbook football and attack the other team as if our lives depended on it.
Of McCall. I have to question some of his tactics. Some of his substitutions have been very questionable, taking off influential players in favour of giving someone a ‘run-out’. These are not practice games. These are not games with which to assess the squad. These are games where the best player should be played in every position in every game. The time for experiments is over. That was pre-season (and the end of last season). I repeat – the best player, in every position for every game. Substitutions should NOT be made because someone who would be considered second for a position needs a run out. We need to win these games NOW, not be testing the strength or depth of the squad.
There’s a long season ahead, and we’ll not get a tougher opening than we’ve had this season (Hibs, Celtic, Hearts and Rangers). There’s still a long way to go. What I’d like to see is the best players played – AND PLAYING THEIR BEST! That is Ian McCall’s job.