The General Ross County Chat Thread

[Comrie]

38 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Is it?  County are hardly known for giving youngsters a chance.  They all end up at Brora or Elgin.

We can get good youth sides together, we just don't do anything with them once they're viable for the first team. Caley have a far better record of recent youth development than we do.

[TheScarf]

Just now, Comrie said:

We can get good youth sides together, we just don't do anything with them once they're viable for the first team. Caley have a far better record of recent youth development than we do.

It's probably easier to blood them into the first team in tier 2 than it is tier 1.  

[Matty-RCFC]

It was some achievement to win that league, but how many off those lads were actually local guys? Off the top of my head I’m thinking Greg Morrison, James Wallace, was Ross MacIver still there at that point. I think the vast majority of them were boys who had been dropped by bigger academies and then given a second chance by County. Again, take nothing away from the achievement but it was hardly giving local lads a chance.

[Comrie]

That's brutal reading:
 

 

[central staggie]

Dylan Smith called up for the U17s

[bunglebonce]

On 04/10/2022 at 09:50, TheScarf said:

Is it?  County are hardly known for giving youngsters a chance.  They all end up at Brora or Elgin.

Indeed, but I think any other club would have given some of the players more of a shot. It always seems the way at County. I thought McIntyre gave up on Greg Morrison too quickly. Grivosti had the best chance under Kettlewell but injuries did him in.

 

22 hours ago, Matty-RCFC said:

It was some achievement to win that league, but how many off those lads were actually local guys? Off the top of my head I’m thinking Greg Morrison, James Wallace, was Ross MacIver still there at that point. I think the vast majority of them were boys who had been dropped by bigger academies and then given a second chance by County. Again, take nothing away from the achievement but it was hardly giving local lads a chance.

James Beeston and Russell Dingwall was the captain. It was a mix of local players and cast-offs from elsewhere. That doesn't make it any less of an achievement - there were genuinely only half a dozen players in the squad when Kettlewell took the team over.

[Matty-RCFC]

James Beeston and Russell Dingwall was the captain. It was a mix of local players and cast-offs from elsewhere. That doesn't make it any less of an achievement - there were genuinely only half a dozen players in the squad when Kettlewell took the team over.

Forgot about those two, Tony probably played a bit too. No no, I’m not taking anything away from it at all. Still think there were a few players from that team that were hard done by not to get more of a shout in the first team. Keillor-Dunn and Tumilty have both made a decent career thus far.

[Matty-RCFC]

Purrington out for a while; huge miss.

[Rosscubed]

12 days posting gap - is that a record for this thread? A bit of a sign of the general state of low level apathy - results not bad enough to get full pitchfork mob out, but not much positive to celebrate either..

[Savage Henry]

On 03/10/2022 at 17:20, bunglebonce said:

Going by Whoscored, there were seven starting outfielders who completed <50% of their passes at the weekend. Three played for County.

Doidge 28.6%
Akio 33.3%
Van Veen 36.4%
Johnson 41.2%
Penrice 44.4%
Cornelius 45.5%
Purrington 46.4%

County's two full-backs being in that list is a contrast to Hibs' full-backs, who each completed >80%. County launch balls down the channel for percentage balls more than most teams in the league, it seems. Yet they play with two sitting midfielders in a 4231 who should be there to get passing combos going. A dysfunctional team quantified.

Akio only had nine(!) touches. Three of those were passes, so he completed one pass in his 56 minutes.  As far as I can see, Celtic's Kyogo had the next fewest touches with 16, including scoring a goal, but even that is low compared to the rest of the league.

The amount of touches of course aren't the be-all and end-all for a forward - just look at Erling Haaland at the moment - but you'd want a winger to get on the ball a lot. Edwards had 42 touches. Watson had 21 touches as a 56th-minute substitute at right-back (it felt like many of those were him and Callachan passing square to each other with nowhere to go).

Hiwula managed only three touches in 56 minutes vs Kilmarnock. The new Haaland? 

 

I don’t think those statistics are especially surprising.  County have been a well drilled long ball team since Mackay took over - pretty much like his Scotland age teams.  Which is all very well, as far as it goes.  But it does beg the genuine question: when did County last score a well worked team goal, from a sustained period of possession.  Saturday’s goal came from Dundee United not clearing their lines, albeit a very decent finish.  I’m reminded of a game against Dundee towards the end of the Owen Coyle fiasco where County thumped them by four or five, but every single goal was as a result of slapstick defending.  We can’t keep relying on the opposition defenders being utter dugshite every week.

Of course the caveat to everything is that County haven’t had a decent centre forward in about three years.  Centre forward is our new left back.

Edit:  Hiwula is basically Samuels who is basically Samuels who, it would appear, is basically dead.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Savage Henry

[Comrie]

Hiwula is faster than Samuel, at least. He's looked pretty mediocre post a decent league cup effort (admittedly against lower level sides).

The days of us being blessed with Boyce, Curran, Schalk and Graham feel so long ago.

Huge game at the weekend too against a Killie side who appear to be far better at home than away. Really could do with not losing this.

[Matty-RCFC]

I think Hiwula is our best option up front. Whether he is a premiership level striker is a completely different question - and I’m unsure if he is. He’s quite neat and tidy but for his size I find he gets knocked off the ball fairly easily and he’s shit scared of a ball coming at him above his head.

[central staggie]

I'd keep Jordi on the right for a while rather than through the middle. I threw out the suggestion of Samuel out wide before the Livi game on the basis that we revert to long punts forward pretty quickly if we are pressed at all - at least it would give us more of a presence than our other wide options. Turns out it was Jordi who came on and done well, so I'd keep him there and play White/Samuel (goals goals goals) through the middle.

Not that I want to see us hammer the ball forward at every opportunity, but if that's what's likely to happen then at least try and make it productive. 

[bunglebonce]

Dom Samuel wide right doesn't work IMO, he doesn't get involved in the game and tends to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Hiwula has looked better wide-right when County are in possession, but you could tell from the Dundee United game that it isn't a position he is used to. He got involved on the ball way more than when he is the centre-forward with his back to goal, but he didn't know whether to mark the left-centre-back or the left-wing-back when United were in possession. It gave United an easy way to play out, even when Malky was encouraging him to push up and mark the LCB.

Akio had the same problem as Hiwula when he came on there, which is more of a concern since that is his role. Hopefully a bit of coaching will improve that for both of them.

[Sensible Soccer🏴]

I hear that Callachan's injury is as bad as feared, looking like he's going to be out for a while.

I know he's not popular with many County fans on p&b but imo he'll be a huge miss to the team.

[Savage Henry]

On 21/10/2022 at 16:53, bunglebonce said:

Dom Samuel wide right doesn't work IMO, he doesn't get involved in the game and tends to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Hiwula has looked better wide-right when County are in possession, but you could tell from the Dundee United game that it isn't a position he is used to. He got involved on the ball way more than when he is the centre-forward with his back to goal, but he didn't know whether to mark the left-centre-back or the left-wing-back when United were in possession. It gave United an easy way to play out, even when Malky was encouraging him to push up and mark the LCB.

Akio had the same problem as Hiwula when he came on there, which is more of a concern since that is his role. Hopefully a bit of coaching will improve that for both of them.

Could be that none of them is any good at all, and that they’ll be remembered for posterity as firmly in the  Marc Klok envelope.  

[Comrie]

If we play 2 up front we'll need to have three at the back. Any combination of two in our midfield would be overrun by any competent top flight side. 

[forkboy]

On 17/10/2022 at 11:26, Rosscubed said:

12 days posting gap - is that a record for this thread? A bit of a sign of the general state of low level apathy - results not bad enough to get full pitchfork mob out, but not much positive to celebrate either..

There's only so many times I can say "Malky out" before it gets deeply irritating, and let's be honest, I hit that point about 2 months into his first season 

[Savage Henry]

On 17/10/2022 at 11:26, Rosscubed said:

12 days posting gap - is that a record for this thread? A bit of a sign of the general state of low level apathy - results not bad enough to get full pitchfork mob out, but not much positive to celebrate either..

Looks like the East Stand will be almost entirely comps this weekend.

[Sensible Soccer🏴]

On 02/11/2022 at 17:45, Savage Henry said:

Looks like the East Stand will be almost entirely comps this weekend.

What a great performance they witnessed from Ross County.  Other than maybe 5-10 mins after ht County were dominant throughout.