Tom061087

Great man management I thought. Would be understandable if Watson felt a bit deflated by being left out for a couple of days. Giving him the armband when he came on must be a massive boost

It would be kind of strange to see if Lyons had jumped with his arms by his side. total calamity from Hemmings and that’s all there is to it. Looks like he is trying to catch the ball at stomach level and not in a particularly committed way at that. Should have had his hands stretched a foot above Lyons head as much as hemmings had a decent season for us in the championship, I never thought he was totally convincing, there were 3 or 4 flapping type incidents directly leading to goals and perhaps the same number of low shots from distance that you felt he should really save. Every keeper makes mistakes but on reflection I think he makes a fair few too many

A few questionable aspects of the performance for me today but by far the biggest issue was the lack of numbers in midfield. Lyons actually did pretty well but often he seemed to be up against two or even three players. Magennis was pushing on, Kennedy didn’t seem to be interested in running except in an attacking sense and Armstrong has never provided a great deal of defensive cover. Their number 7 in particular seemed to be able to burst through the midfield area unchallenged over and over. Lyons was clearly getting very frustrated and being on a booking it had to be a direct swap with Watson who came on and had the same problem as Lyons but got through it with his energy. hopefully next time it goes to a back 3, more to add numbers to the centre of the park than anything

If you are interested in how it all works this is a good video based on the system from 15 years ago but it’s still the same one they use, refined of course, but I think if reliability is what you are concerned about then that’s a good thing

Have you looked into Toyotas? I think their hybrid system is very clever when you look into it - seems complicated at first but the more you learn about it it’s actually quite a simple and very effective way to mate electric and petrol power together . It seems to perform a fair bit better than most other manufacturers systems too- I get 65mpg in summer and 55 in winter from a 1.8l estate, and the fact they will give you a ten year warranty as long as you service with them is a mark of how confident they are in its reliability I think. Ive noticed over the years when in London that Toyotas are very very popular as taxis, and starting to see them here too, which is a good sign of a sensible choice I think!

Haven’t seen the hibs red card but enjoyed Alan Preston on radio Scotland…. first he interrupted screaming “WHOOOOAAAA, HAS TO BE A RED, GOT TO BE, YES IT IS, HORRENDOUS TACKLE”, etc. just a couple of mins later he was piling criticism on the ref “far too quick making his decision, didn’t stop to think, no way that’s a red, what was he thinking” etc. some brass neck

Having watched the zoomed out incident I am even more of the opinion it’s not a red. I’m not sure McKenzie even knows where the hearts player is exactly - he is sold a short pass, stretches for it, clears the ball, just standing leg slips and yes he contacts the hearts player in a way that could have injured him - but i think it’s accidental, not excessive force or brutality or anything like that. It’s not a needless clearance either if the hearts player breaks through it’s a dangerous situation. anyway at least the team held out for the win.

That looks a harsh red. Won the ball fairly and slipped for me. Not a wild or reckless challenge and not excessive force. Only going on a 1 second clip though to be fair. Was it a straight red or second yellow? Wasn’t at game and don’t know where on the pitch this happened but I’d think you would be disappointed if he didn’t go for that

I took it that what they were saying is that if the lines drawn by the software are touching then the attacking team gets the call, even if their line is ahead of the defending team maybe the thickness of the line represents the accuracy of the system so unless there is daylight you can’t be sure who is ahead of who. That would make sense. But unless explained clearly it does open up all sorts of possible debates about how thick the line is etc.

I don’t get why they have to take two or three minutes to decide if the red should have a look on the screen. It would have been quicker to call the ref over as soon as they realise there’s something he potentially missed. or if they are going to take that long why doesn’t var just make the decision. rory loy made a good point on the radio after. VAR is not supposed to “influence the referee” but surely taking minutes to deliberate puts huge pressure and influence on the referee and this is borne out when referees almost never go against the implication of the referral. Personally I don’t think it helps in either case when I heard the chief of referees explain that he wouldn’t expect to see many if any referees sticking to their original decision, because var is only supposed to highlight obvious errors. ive not been to many games since it came in and that’s the first that has had more than one var check and it was even more frustrating than I had feared. If that carries on it really will ruin the game.

To be fair I thought every player gave their all today. A bit unfair to hear the booing at the end I thought. Instinct when Donnelly lost the ball was a foul, may be wrong as no one else in the team was claiming for it, playing to the whistle is a basic requirement, inexcusable to sit on the deck for precious seconds and quite probably allow the acres of space for Wright to get his shot away. Donelly is a strange player, physically I think he’s actually pretty mobile but he seems to have a knack of being about half a second too late for everything. I don’t think McInness said he played well at all in his interview, he alluded to the mistake and a poor reaction running up to the goal. McKenzie as usual was taking pesters but I thought he did a good job today, for me he was there to hassle and break up the play and not to do anything silky and he did that well. Defence looked more assured without Taylor too, Dorset did well getting to the ball first and Mayo I always think looks very composed and not only wins the ball back but uses the ball well too. Two decent long throws in the team today as well - makes a change from everyone taking up positions for a Taylor attempt and the ball then falling about ten yards short!

Thought he looked more than at home in the first team , great to see, and even when shifted out to right back he still looked extremely comfortable. If he keeps that up he should definitely be starting every week.

That really was atrocious. I know these aren’t the best set of players in the world but I still can’t understand how they seem incapable of really basic things like controlling the ball and picking a team mate to pass to or move towards the ball

That really was atrocious. I know these aren’t the best set of players in the world but I still can’t understand how they seem incapable of really basic things like controlling the ball and picking a team mate to pass to or move towards the ball

Doesn’t sound a bad idea to me. A big part of the appeal of football is its flowing nature I think and the more that can be done to discourage time wasting the better entertainment we will have. remember one game at Hamilton where it seemed the players must have been told to count to twenty at every dead ball right from the off. If that wasn’t what was happening it was uncanny how pretty much every goal kick and throw in took almost exactly 20 seconds to take. If that’s not a negative approach to the game I don’t know what is.

Has any ref ever not changed their mind yet in Scotland? I don’t remember one, but it may have happened. Saw it happen in England once. the head of referees effectively said in an interview that it should almost never happen because only clear and obvious errors are to be flagged. In which case why doesn’t the team of however many video refs with slow motion replays just tell the on field ref what the decision should be and at least save all the waiting around.

Isn’t VAR supposed to be used only where the VAR team feels the referee has made a clear and obvious error? Going by the overwhelming majority of pundit and fan reactions and the “victim” of the incident then this does not seem to be a clear error by any means.

That centre mid is almost as if McIness is trolling certain people on here. If polworth out then I can probably see why he has gone with that though. Alston is starting to get treated a bit unfairly though I think. He’s not had a great season but I’m not fully buying into the thought that he can’t play at this level. People seem to forget he has had over 100 games in the premiership and he’s not particularly old. For me he looks best when he can be forward minded, at his worst when having to cover a lot of defensive ground, maybe Lyons will actually help him with his energy, That all said I wouldn’t be too surprised to hear he looks miles off the pace!

Made a good go of that, couldn’t ask for too much more but disappointing at least one of those chances didn’t go in. Surely that was a penalty at the end too.

A lot of people calling that a rugby tackle but even in that sport I think this would result in a spell in the sin bin, not that I am too familiar with the rules. It would be an unusual red card but it certainly looked dangerous and totally over the top, Shaughnessy could easily have stopped Chrisene with far less force.

I am really quite surprised at most of the comments on here. I’ve hardly made it to any games this season but I came away from that one thinking it was a solid, competent and fairly competitive, if a bit toothless performance against a team who have done well recently. Yes it was frustrating not to do more against ten men but it certainly wasn’t anywhere as near as bad as I had feared based on the comments on here most weeks, and I think we looked good enough for the league.

Maybe not, but I think you are missing my point a bit. I don’t know about the technology in any detail but I am well aware it will have a level of accuracy and won’t be perfect down to the nearest millimetre or whatever. My point is that I think that for offside calls, any attempt to apply a margin of error, or allow a human to decide if the error is clear and obvious, would either make no difference or add to the potential controversy. im not arguing for or against var being used, but if it is in use then I think the way that offsides are currently managed is the best way. I’m quite sure the system gives more accurate decisions on average than any linesman could in real time. Yes the interruptions to the flow of the game are very frustrating.

Was having a look at the stats the other day and we are top 3 for both tackles lost and won which certainly indicates scrappy games. I’d think the reason is a combination of how we have been set up but also I am sure other teams put a bit more pressure on because they know our players will panic and give the ball away. yes a player or two who can hold the ball a few seconds and pass it to a team mate would make a big difference. Whether that is achieved by controlling and protecting the ball or by taking it a run. Polworth is definitely the closest and hopefully he gets a run in the team after the break. Not sure about mcinroy, I would have thought he deserves more of a chance than he’s got but at the same time, he gives the ball away quite a lot.

I thought in the first replay the Hibs offside looked quite comfortably the right decision, the line drawn onto the screen then showed that the decision was very tight indeed (the right one). Although the pixel perfect lines seem to annoy some people, I don’t think there’s ever really any controversy over whether VAR are getting the offside calls right or wrong. Technology means they can get it right every time (even if one of the two cameras fails, apparently). If you start saying it needs to be “clear and obvious” then you are going to do nothing but add to the controversy we already have, in my opinion.

I think if we went down that path it would cause even more controversy. How far offside does it need to be to be “clear and obvious”. Offside is nearly always a factual decision - so I think if the technology is available, it has to be treated that way. Sure there could sometimes be different interpretations as to who is interfering with play. Of all the issues that VAR throws up, I think the application of off side is one of the least of concerns. It is frustrating however to have to wait after a goal to be sure it counts so i would agree that the emphasis needs to be on the check being made quickly. Total automation would be the only way to counter this - eg a red light flashes when the system senses an offside, but the rule is probably too complicated to programme a computer to make the decision (maybe someone knows better than me on that)