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Real test begins for Clarke


CathcartKillie

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Today in The Times - Michael Grant , "Sports Feature Writer of the Year"  - 

"Steve Clarke came across as pretty grumpy and contrary after Kilmarnock had been beaten at Rugby Park by Aberdeen: a bit waspish with replies to some of the media questioning.

Rose petals were being scattered at his feet when Clarke, left, began with away draws against Rangers and Celtic, and rightly so, but now things stand at just one win from his six games in charge. Five of those were against the five biggest clubs in the Ladbrokes Premiership so he can be cut plenty of slack, but the honeymoon is over and Kilmarnock are still only one point off the bottom.

They play St Johnstone, Partick Thistle and Ross County next. That’s when having an English Premier League-grade manager should make a difference."

 

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Add the facts that he should know better the squad's strengths and weaknesses, and that he's had six weeks to work with them and you can't disagree with that. 

These are the unglamorous, gritty matches in front of small crowds which will show how he has adapted to life in the SPFL. 

The team selected on Saturday and the response from them will be interesting to see. 

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28 minutes ago, Zorro said:

Aww are the poor wee journalists upset with Clarke for failing to blow smoke up their arses and not pandering to their idiotic questions?

He did come across as a total prick to be fair in his interview. He twice spoke about mentality and then denied that he was the one who mentioned it.

I appreciate he is proper angry, but the journalist hardly was prodding or saying anything controversial. 

If that had been Lee McCulloch or whoever these forums would be in meltdown about him losing the plot.

It was discussed on the Boydie Sportsound 'fred' that it may have been a clever way of getting his message across to his players as to how angry he is and if it generates a reaction then it's good management.

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My thoughts and expectations at the time were that we would be doing well to not be adrift at the bottom of the league after our recent run of fixtures. The issue was always going to be keeping the momentum up going into St Johnstone away. More or less every fixture in December is winnable if we show up and play well.

St Johnstone (A)

Partick (H)

Ross County (A)

Motherwell (H)

Rangers (H)

Hamilton (A)

Hibs (A)

Edited by Fletch
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25 minutes ago, Bullitt said:

He did come across as a total prick to be fair in his interview. He twice spoke about mentality and then denied that he was the one who mentioned it.

I appreciate he is proper angry, but the journalist hardly was prodding or saying anything controversial. 

If that had been Lee McCulloch or whoever these forums would be in meltdown about him losing the plot.

It was discussed on the Boydie Sportsound 'fred' that it may have been a clever way of getting his message across to his players as to how angry he is and if it generates a reaction then it's good management.

He didn’t look like a prick to me. He looked like a man who sets professional standards and isn’t going to accept anything less. In case you hadn’t noticed, having managers who can organise a great social event or is BFF’s with the players, didn’t really work for us. 

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Real test comes when he is able to bring in his own players. Not his fault he is left with 2 unfit strikers & another who couldn't get a game at one of our bottom 6 rivals, a powder puff midfield & defenders that couldn't tackle a fish supper. Hopefully he can pick up the odd win but far too early for the press to be judging him now.

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14 minutes ago, harley said:

Real test comes when he is able to bring in his own players. 

I "liked" your post but, in reality, is the standard of the squad going to improve greatly? 

I can't see the board dramatically increasing the budget - we all agreed that they had "pushed the boat out" this season as it was. 

We can only hope that Clarke's contacts and eye for a player enable us to wheel and deal within the existing constraints to improve the quality and that his coaching can get an extra 5% out of what we have. 

Of course, some new external investment would help. 

 

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Clarke probably told them to keep it tight for the first twenty minutes, don't give Aberdeen time to play their passing game. Instead we started the same sloppy way we did against Hibs when we could also have been two nil down after ten minutes. He’s right to be mad, bloody mad. The fans need to do more too. In some ways Pedro Jnr.’s build up only highlights the silence that takes over once he stops. 

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1 hour ago, skygod said:

Add the facts that he should know better the squad's strengths and weaknesses, and that he's had six weeks to work with them and you can't disagree with that. 

How much does he have to see to conclude that Broadfoot and Erwin are out of their depth at SPFL level and Greer is a bit borderline, neither Burke nor Boyd has 90 minutes in him, Frizzel may have quick feet but he is too wee for a physical battle and MacKenzie just hides on the plastic astroturf.  

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Well, people were singing the praises of Broadfoot only a week or so ago; even Burke and Boyd were getting good reviews. 

So the answer would seem to be that the longer he gets a chance to see them, the more complete his opinion will be. 

I get the "height should be no barrier" argument but, unless you are exceptional, lack of inches is going to be a disadvantage. 

I like Frizzell and he should have a good career at our level but he is always going to be a bit lightweight in the centre of midfield, I feel. 

 

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38 minutes ago, skygod said:

I "liked" your post but, in reality, is the standard of the squad going to improve greatly? 

I can't see the board dramatically increasing the budget - we all agreed that they had "pushed the boat out" this season as it was. 

We can only hope that Clarke's contacts and eye for a player enable us to wheel and deal within the existing constraints to improve the quality and that his coaching can get an extra 5% out of what we have. 

Of course, some new external investment would help. 

 

A couple of decent loans, with the addition of Dicker, Kiltie and Mulumbu should see us right.

There's no chance he would have taken the job if he couldn't bring a few players in. 

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20 minutes ago, skygod said:

I like Frizzell and he should have a good career at our level but he is always going to be a bit lightweight in the centre of midfield, I feel. 

I am becoming more impressed with Frizzel as a football player as the weeks go by, the goal he scored against Hearts was outstanding. However he needs some big muscle in there beside him as in several games we have played I have seen him just brushed off the ball like a rag doll. As for Broadfoot he seems to blow a bit hot and cold so I can see how Clarke is confused, the problem is when he is cold he is costing us goals we cannot afford to loose.   

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1 hour ago, Fletch said:

My thoughts and expectations at the time were that we would be doing well to not be adrift at the bottom of the league after our recent run of fixtures. The issue was always going to be keeping the momentum up going into St Johnstone away. More or less every fixture in December is winnable if we show up and play well.

St Johnstone (A)

Partick (H)

Ross County (A)

Motherwell (H)

Rangers (H)

Hamilton (A)

Hibs (A)

I'd be very disappointed if we can't get 10 points from that lot.

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1 minute ago, gdevoy said:

I am becoming more impressed with Frizzel as a football player as the weeks go by, the goal he scored against Hearts was outstanding. However he needs some big muscle in there beside him as in several games we have played I have seen him just brushed off the ball like a rag doll. As for Broadfoot he seems to blow a bit hot and cold so I can see how Clarke is confused, the problem is when he is cold he is costing us goals we cannot afford to loose.   

Broadfoot did the necessary dirty foul and was booked, he was unlucky that the freekick took a double deflection and resulted in a goal anyway. McKenzie could and probably should have waded in before the first Aberdeen goal but was back to his annoying hesitant self on Sunday and held back, Aberdeen broke away and scored.  

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2 hours ago, skygod said:

I "liked" your post but, in reality, is the standard of the squad going to improve greatly? 

I can't see the board dramatically increasing the budget - we all agreed that they had "pushed the boat out" this season as it was. 

We can only hope that Clarke's contacts and eye for a player enable us to wheel and deal within the existing constraints to improve the quality and that his coaching can get an extra 5% out of what we have. 

Of course, some new external investment would help. 

 

I don't think it's 5% more like starting a game like they want to be out there!

Not sure how you express that in percentage terms?

This has been going on for far too long under several managers.

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1 hour ago, gdevoy said:

It is true the Sheep have better quality players than us although not by much.

I think the fact that the attitude had clearly slipped back to the McCulloch era was the most disturbing part of Sundays game.

Not by much?

Come on mate... they've finished second the past three years. We've scraped survival. I think the gulf in class between Aberdeen and the rest of the league, Hibs aside, is huge.

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1 hour ago, gdevoy said:

It is true the Sheep have better quality players than us although not by much.

I think the fact that the attitude had clearly slipped back to the McCulloch era was the most disturbing part of Sundays game.

They got almost double our point total from last season. They scored more than double the goals we scored. They won almost treble the amount of games we won.

They were closer to winning the league, than we were to catching Aberdeen.

Their players are better than ours all over the park. Not just by a bit but by a considerable bit.

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5 minutes ago, Bullitt said:

Not by much?

Blue and white tinted specs. Chris Boyd vs Stevie May ... aye O.K. Still no excuse for the players hiding.

I watched Rory run himself into the ground at Firhill chasing lost causes, get right in their faces when they had the ball and give them no peace at all. On Sunday he was wandering about like a fart in a trance.

 

Edited by gdevoy
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19 minutes ago, gdevoy said:

Blue and white tinted specs. Chris Boyd vs Stevie May ... aye O.K. Still no excuse for the players hiding.

I watched Rory run himself into the ground at Firhill chasing lost causes, get right in their faces when they had the ball and give them no peace at all. On Sunday he was wandering about like a fart in a trance.

 

It still amazes me that folk still get Boyd's name wrong.

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54 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

They got almost double our point total from last season. They scored more than double the goals we scored. They won almost treble the amount of games we won.

They were closer to winning the league, than we were to catching Aberdeen.

Their players are better than ours all over the park. Not just by a bit but by a considerable bit.

Spot on SH.

Edited by CBFC
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