Tekel Towers » Hearts vs Utd

Tek · 12/8/2022 4:07 am

We will see on Sunday what players want to play for the badge. Maybe learn a bit about Jack Ross too.

Massive game all of a sudden.

Last edited by Tek (12/8/2022 4:08 am)

japanarab · 12/8/2022 8:49 am

Yep. Losing I can accept but if it's another drubbing then Ross will be under huge pressure and a cup exit to Livi will have his coat on a shoogly peg already. Unbelievable turn around in just a week.

kiwiarab · 12/8/2022 9:11 am

I agree, massive response required. I am gutted for the fans who travelled and had to sit through that.

I am wondering who we play in goals. The aussie keeper was badly at fault several times last night, and probably needs rested to rebuild his confidence. However, Ericson was brutal in the Sunderland game, so it's not an easy decision.

Arab99 · 12/8/2022 9:24 am

kiwiarab wrote:
I agree, massive response required. I am gutted for the fans who travelled and had to sit through that.

I am wondering who we play in goals. The aussie keeper was badly at fault several times last night, and probably needs rested to rebuild his confidence. However, Ericson was brutal in the Sunderland game, so it's not an easy decision.

I'm not sure singling out the keeper is a good thing. It's classic falling off the bike stuff. He probably does need to play but the managemt need to judge where he's at.

kiwiarab · 12/8/2022 9:34 am

On the keeper, my concern is that after he was at fault for the second goal, it appeared to affect the rest of his game. The third goal is an absolute shocker, he didn't even try and save the fourth goal, it looked like his mind had totally gone.

It's tough being a keeper, one of the hardest things is being able to recover from a mistake, put it behind you and play well. I really hope he goes on to have a good career at united.

Finn Seemann · 12/8/2022 11:06 am

For me the keeper needs a lot of training. There was one point in the first leg that he decided he was playing left back and I thought WTF have we signed. He then did go on to have a decent game.

Last night however was brutal for him. Nothing he could do for the first. Second, you'd expect your keeper to get something on but it was a well placed shot from a cracking position with absolutely no pressure put on the scorer by the defence. Third, horrible, truly horrible. First Edwards loses the scorer (their biggest threat at a corner) and then the keeper has a brainfart and comes to punch thin air. The Greek boy couldn't believe his luck. After that we totally shit ourselves and nobody seemed to have any confidence in each other.

One thing I will say, if we had had Siegrest in goal there is no way we are losing 7 (seven) goals.

I like a keeper to be tall and the Aussie looks too short.

japanarab · 12/8/2022 11:51 am

"I like a keeper to be tall and the Aussie looks too short."

He's 6'2".

Finn Seemann · 12/8/2022 12:50 pm

japanarab wrote:
"I like a keeper to be tall and the Aussie looks too short."

He's 6'2".

He doesn't look that. If he is then 6'2'' is too short!

Hen Broon · 12/8/2022 12:56 pm

6'2 is tall enough, but he looks on the weak side physically for a modern keeper.

Hopefully yesterday was just a bad day at the office for him and the team will give him better protection too. Also, we're not playing teams the quality of AZ every week.

Finn Seemann · 12/8/2022 1:03 pm

Hen Broon wrote:
6'2 is tall enough, but he looks on the weak side physically for a modern keeper.

Hopefully yesterday was just a bad day at the office for him and the team will give him better protection too. Also, we're not playing teams the quality of AZ every week.

This is true. I felt for the lad to be honest. He just had a total mare of a game. Hopefully he has the usual Aussie thick skin trait - not an easy one to bounce back from.

Arab99 · 12/8/2022 4:24 pm

United Arab Emarite wrote:
Eriksson was not 'brutal' in the Sunderland game.
Where does this stuff come from?
If your opinion is based on Mulgrew's own goal then forget it, that was nothing.
Then somebody else commented his 'slide outs' weren't very good! What a load of sh!te.
I thought he did very well & looked the part.
It was his debut too & handled it well.
He's an international goalkeeper.
He was not & is not 'brutal'.
Give the boy a break.

I'm a wee bit with you here, First game and it was a friendly but there's stuff to work on I accept, Just feel there was some S### being thrown about on social media and some of it stuck. The next taxi off the rank is the 18yo laddie, we could always give him a go.

Finn Seemann · 12/8/2022 4:51 pm

The boy Eriksson is a bit of a mystery to me. Didn't see the Sunderland game. I've no idea why he didn't get a bit of game time last season. Playing Siegrest was clearly right in most games, but to bring in the lad and nto give him a sniff when the current goalie is offski is bizarre.

Arabdownsouth · 12/8/2022 5:37 pm

So 4 games in and the Fletcher - Watt partnership has contributed 0 goals. Meanwhile our top scorer from the last two seasons has sat on the bench. Now I get that people don't rate Nicky Clark for whatever reason, but he's scored goals at least when given a chance. If Fletcher and Watt are going to be our first choice strikers then this will be a long, hard and forgettable campaign.

kiwiarab · 12/8/2022 10:30 pm

Fair points about Ericson, he was on debut and it was only a friendly.

Several times in the first half, I noticed his positioning was wrong. And for the first goal, he mistimed a punch on a cross ball. Second goal, I'm just glad it happened in a friendly.

He did make a couple of good saves, one when their big striker was through on goal and he blocked it with his legs, and one from a header that was going in the bottom corner.

I will re assess when he gets a run of games in the team.

Rick Dagless · 12/8/2022 11:52 pm

Arabdownsouth wrote:
So 4 games in and the Fletcher - Watt partnership has contributed 0 goals. Meanwhile our top scorer from the last two seasons has sat on the bench. Now I get that people don't rate Nicky Clark for whatever reason, but he's scored goals at least when given a chance. If Fletcher and Watt are going to be our first choice strikers then this will be a long, hard and forgettable campaign.

Agree. I feel like I'm in the minority but I don't really rate Watt that much. He was brought in as the top scorer in the league to get goals and he's scored 1 in 20 odd games but seems loved by a large proportion of our support meanwhile Nicky Clark gets a hard time but seems to be the only striker we have who knows how to put the ball in the back of the net.

Tek · 13/8/2022 1:06 am

Hearing Levitt is bandaged up and a big doubt for Sunday.

I'd freshen things up a bit in both terms of personnel and formation for Tynecastle.

My team would be -

.............................Birighitti...................
............Edwards...Graham....Mulgrew
Freeman...................................Niskanen
...........McGrath....Harkes....Sibbald.......
.....................Fletcher....Clark..............

Subs - Eriksson, Smith, Behich, Cudjoe
Watt, MacLeod, McMann, Middleton, Meekison

Arabdownsouth · 13/8/2022 1:25 am

Tek wrote:
Hearing Levitt is bandaged up and a big doubt for Sunday.

I'd freshen things up a bit in both terms of personnel and formation for Tynecastle.

My team would be -

.............................Birighitti...................
............Edwards...Graham....Mulgrew
Freeman...................................Niskanen
...........McGrath....Harkes....Sibbald.......
.....................Fletcher....Clark..............

Subs - Eriksson, Smith, Behich, Cudjoe
Watt, MacLeod, McMann, Middleton, Meekison

Swap the keeper I'd say, and Cudjoe in for McGrath

Tangy · 13/8/2022 1:44 am

I wouldn't start clark for my 5 a side team, let alone united ...otherwise mostly agree

Tek · 13/8/2022 1:47 am

Arabdownsouth wrote:
Tek wrote:
Hearing Levitt is bandaged up and a big doubt for Sunday.

I'd freshen things up a bit in both terms of personnel and formation for Tynecastle.

My team would be -

.............................Birighitti...................
............Edwards...Graham....Mulgrew
Freeman...................................Niskanen
...........McGrath....Harkes....Sibbald.......
.....................Fletcher....Clark..............

Subs - Eriksson, Smith, Behich, Cudjoe
Watt, MacLeod, McMann, Middleton, Meekison

Swap the keeper I'd say, and Cudjoe in for McGrath

Think wee Cudjoe is a better option from the bench at this point in time.

Canadian Arab · 13/8/2022 3:58 am

5-3-2
Birighitti
Freeman Graham Edwards Mulgrew Behich
Moore
Middleton Harkes
Fletcher Clark

Would like to have started wee Erch and Chalmers but expecting this to be a bruising game.

Canadian Arab · 13/8/2022 4:10 am

Watt starts on the bench for me.
People regularly say Watt has a good footballing brain. When he gets the ball, he can see creative options that are on. But I’m beginning to think his game awareness is not very good, and often it’s only after he gets the ball that he then decides what he is going to do with it. Contrast that with Fletcher or Levitt. This would explain why play slows up when the ball gets to Watt - he almost never moves it on quickly.
IIRC, Celtic signed him from the juniors when he had already been playing for a while. He would get away with strength and good ability to finish there. But did he spend many hours when he was young doing the sorts of sessions that teach kids to get their head up, shoulder-check every few seconds and be aware of player movement and changing space around them? I’m not sure he did.

Danzaa · 13/8/2022 8:45 am

A few weeks ago I said on the transfer thread our team looks unbalanced and soft which gave me the fear. This unfortunately is still the case, maybe JR will be knee jerk and demand more newbies but personally I cant see much more happening in this window. It will probably be a formation change at best and this will take time and Jack has to be brave and leave out some of the higher earners.
We'll all have our own opinions on the best 11 and without further newbies, I would guess 10 of us could pick a team and none would match.
For me despite the recent and indeed the inevitable upcoming bumps in the road, the only real measure will be where we are at the end of Oct and by that stage the team has to be hard to beat and picking up points regularly.
Last season we had around 20 points, but, being real I dont see us achieving that however we do need to have at least 15 or we will already be in a battle against the drop. My fear is we could have 12 or less and in a small group cut adrift.
For what its worth without any further striker signings I would have Watt up front with Fletcher and swop with Clark if that doesnt work. Currently Watt on the left is a hinder. Edwards needs to go back to his free role at set pieces.

SuperMario · 13/8/2022 3:00 pm

Birighitti
Edwards mulgrew Graham
Freeman harkes levitt/meekson sibbald niskanen
Middleton Fletcher

Midfield is soft as shite- zero options to make it tougher a signing in there need ASAP or we’re in big big bother , watt needs dropped, will mulgrew even be able to play after Thursday?

Worried about this game, I cannot see anything other than a very comfortable hearts win

Trouble is brewing at tannadice I feel

Shakey Isles Arab · 14/8/2022 7:20 am

Still shell shocked.

Biggest tester of professional career for some.

Rick Dagless · 14/8/2022 11:51 am

Tangy wrote:
I wouldn't start clark for my 5 a side team, let alone united ...otherwise mostly agree

Harsh. Clark might be a squad player for us be he's proven he can still score goals in this team unlike our other forwards.