Is the gap with us, them and rest as big as ever

foxinthebox

foxinthebox

Well-Known Member
This season is going to come down to us and them as usual, but every team we face in league seems to be all about damage limitation much more than usual, we have all seen teams come to play us and put ten men behind the ball but more
Often than not, when they went a goal or two down, they would remove the shackles and at least try and change shape to get something back, the odd one or two would just try and stop more goals going in…but it seems that every single team now, against us and that lot, turn up with a game plan that consists of defend until the 90 minutes are up.

The gap in the later 90’s early 2000’s between us, them and the rest was big but i can’t remember team turning up and not at least trying to have a go, has the gap ever been bigger, has the gulf in class ever been wider in Scotland than it is now or is it just a case of shitebag managers crossing their fingers and hoping to get more points than other teams in the league and staying up?

The standard is terrible and it is pretty crap to watch, not just for us but it must be brutal for the opposition fans (and players) as well.
 
foxinthebox said:
This season is going to come down to us and them as usual, but every team we face in league seems to be all about damage limitation much more than usual, we have all seen teams come to play us and put ten men behind the ball but more
Often than not, when they went a goal or two down, they would remove the shackles and at least try and change shape to get something back, the odd one or two would just try and stop more goals going in…but it seems that every single team now, against us and that lot, turn up with a game plan that consists of defend until the 90 minutes are up.

The gap in the later 90’s early 2000’s between us, them and the rest was big but i can’t remember team turning up and not at least trying to have a go, has the gap ever been bigger, has the gulf in class ever been wider in Scotland than it is now or is it just a case of shitebag managers crossing their fingers and hoping to get more points than other teams in the league and staying up?

The standard is terrible and it is pretty crap to watch, not just for us but it must be brutal for the opposition fans (and players) as well.
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Sorry to disagree here but teams set up against us to defend and boot us off the park, they do not put the same effort in against timbo as proven today
 
I actually thought that some of these teams had done some good business over the summer, early days I suppose but it's very much looking like there's going to be another huge gap between us, them and the rest in terms of points again.
 
The refs play too big a part in games. The tactics of the opponents are 50% defending and 50% getting soft free kicks to launch into the box. Scottish football needs to get rid of the race to the bottom that the 19th Century Terrorists thrive on.
 
You can normally tell when you can look at a team and think he’d do a job, now there’s not one player over 21 that we’d take for our squad.

Hearts will put up a challenge but won’t have the consistency and fall away, Aberdeen love being the bheasts bitches, Hibs don’t look to have improved and Utd are probably wondering if Ross will see out September.
 
Pretty much. I expect both us and Celtic to get over 90 points this season.

Even some of the ‘bigger’ clubs outside us and Celtic (I’m thinking Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee Utd) all seem relatively weak at the moment.
 
Yeah, the gap is massive and I think it was obscured by our inconsistency when we came back up. Look at most leagues in Europe though and the general trend is towards a few clubs at the top being in a different stratosphere to the rest, it's what makes a Super League type idea inevitable in the medium to long term.

As an aside I think we'll also see Hearts openup a gap between 3rd and the rest over the next few years too as they will move into a different level financially with European group stage access
 
The Pontiac Bandit said:
Hearts aside the standard is awful.
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Even with Hearts the standard is pretty poor. Look at last season's SCF, we'd just come off the back of Seville and ET a few days before (as well as other ET games in the weeks preceding) and they couldn't lay a glove on us, their best chance was on 2 mins with Simms and then they did nothing.

Aside from Gordon they don't have a single player that you could even argue would make it into ours or their squad and yet they're still streets ahead of the rest.
 
I think it's us and the bheasts, then Hearts on a level themselves.
Then the rest are just tragically inept.
 
The gap in quality is widening but as long as they manage to train full time and are big physically fit fuckers they are going to be hard to break down,If a team decides to line up ultra defensive with the intention of spoiling creativity it’s not the most entertaining stuff,Idon’t blame teams who try to shut up shop nobody wants a tanking and it works sometimes.
 
Scottish football really hasn't moved on for these teams they are happy to win 1 in 3

Doesn't matter if its any good or not

Refs are a big part of the problem allowing the fouls the dives the time wasting doesn't encourage them to lpay football

But it's only part of the problem its the size of the league and the fear of going down that partly cause it.

A bigger league c would see some battering for teams but it would allow a bit more freedom for coaches to be more open.

Which brings us on to coaches there is no interest to play football is about keeping themselves in the top league... that then has a knock on effect of not paying younger players keeping standard journeymen players.
 
Batigol said:
Even with Hearts the standard is pretty poor. Look at last season's SCF, we'd just come off the back of Seville and ET a few days before (as well as other ET games in the weeks preceding) and they couldn't lay a glove on us, their best chance was on 2 mins with Simms and then they did nothing.

Aside from Gordon they don't have a single player that you could even argue would make it into ours or their squad and yet they're still streets ahead of the rest.
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We signed their best player in the summer and he’s looking like our 4th choice centre back behind Sands, Davies and no doubt Hellander. That says it all!

Sakala who hasn’t had a single minute with us would be the leading player in any of the other teams.
 
I agree 100% with Struth 1872....it is not a level playing field here. There is no way the dross in this league play against them compared to how they play against us. We saw it last season and we are already seeing a repeat this season. No one is doing us any favours. I honestly think we are going to have to beat them four times to have any chance of making it 56.
 
DylanGer said:
If it turns out that way it wouldn't be a massive surprise but we are 2 games in ffs.
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This. Folk getting way too ahead of themselves. Hearts, Aberdeen, Motherwell x2, and the scum all took points off us at home last season as well as Dundee United x 2, Aberdeen, Ross County and the scum took points off us away from home all this after we were going to conquer all before us after 55.

We've got a very hard run coming up on paper. We'll see how we do with that first.
 
Batigol said:
Yeah, the gap is massive and I think it was obscured by our inconsistency when we came back up. Look at most leagues in Europe though and the general trend is towards a few clubs at the top being in a different stratosphere to the rest, it's what makes a Super League type idea inevitable in the medium to long term.

As an aside I think we'll also see Hearts openup a gap between 3rd and the rest over the next few years too as they will move into a different level financially with European group stage access
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If they do I hope they start chipping in with coefficient points. It's not sustainable having it rest entirely upon our performances
 
HandsomeHead said:
Why do you feel this is true?
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Well just to compare for example kilmarnock with the shitebag as manager played with 11 men behind the ball for almost 90 minutes and kicked us off the park last week, out of curiosity i watched their game today and it was embarrassing watching killie morph into aberscum and just allow the timbo to play dance floor football, i hope this is helpful
 
I'm not sure. We've both won 4-0 and 5-0 this weekend but against probably the 2 worst teams in the league. Our game at Livi and theirs at Dingwall could easily have been points dropped.
 
I know there's been a few signings amongst the 'also ran' clubs & maybe there's a one or two who'll turn out to be half decent -
But ultimately the gap is as wide as it ever was & it's getting wider IMO

The standard of player outside ourselves & the beasts rarely exceeds average at the best of times - but if anything it's regressed in the last few seasons

That leaves managerial & coaching staff to develop tactics & team spirit in their squads - to try & obtain success without necessarily having the quality of player to pull it off

But what do we get ?
10 men in their own 6 yard box & hammer-throwers ready to injure opponents if required

Boards & directors at the chasing clubs don't seem to want to encourage managers or coaches without a 10 man defence mentality either

Much as I'm no fan of his - I'd concede that Heckingbottom at the hiv's is a good example of this
I know there were many circumstances that were involved with his sacking - but not being negative enough for the hiv's board was up there I'm sure

Under different circumstances (especially leading up to 2012) part of me may have given other clubs some sympathy- or respect for their predicament- not now though
Seems to me they bring all their troubles on themselves
 
Yes, the other Clubs standards might improve if they concentrated a bit more on playing football rather than hoofing players out the park.
Blood 'n' Snotters is all that their fans crave.
 
Hearts look decent and tbf I thought dundee utd with some experience added and guys like Middleton would be better, but across the board all SPL clubs are just so badly coached.

Not a ten minute spell of possession in any games against us or them to date. Biggest worry is teams largely chuck it against them.

Killie always play a cup final against us at rugby park and hey Presto get done by 5 today. That's often the difference.
 
The tragedy of the Scottish game is that the lesser clubs had a chance to develop their squads during our forced absence. None of them landed a glove on Celtic. They have regressed definitely
 
Guy I went to college with, big sheep supporter says after there 2nd game
This is the best team we've had in years ,texts me last night after their doing from an abysmal well team,bloody hell it's the Worst team we've had ha ha ha ha.
As always us and the unwashed miles clear again.
 
foxinthebox said:
This season is going to come down to us and them as usual, but every team we face in league seems to be all about damage limitation much more than usual, we have all seen teams come to play us and put ten men behind the ball but more
Often than not, when they went a goal or two down, they would remove the shackles and at least try and change shape to get something back, the odd one or two would just try and stop more goals going in…but it seems that every single team now, against us and that lot, turn up with a game plan that consists of defend until the 90 minutes are up.

The gap in the later 90’s early 2000’s between us, them and the rest was big but i can’t remember team turning up and not at least trying to have a go, has the gap ever been bigger, has the gulf in class ever been wider in Scotland than it is now or is it just a case of shitebag managers crossing their fingers and hoping to get more points than other teams in the league and staying up?

The standard is terrible and it is pretty crap to watch, not just for us but it must be brutal for the opposition fans (and players) as well.
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I’d say so.

It’s an awful league and I’d love to see more if and even standard, which would help us in the long run.

How that can be done I don’t know.
 
foxinthebox said:
This season is going to come down to us and them as usual, but every team we face in league seems to be all about damage limitation much more than usual, we have all seen teams come to play us and put ten men behind the ball but more
Often than not, when they went a goal or two down, they would remove the shackles and at least try and change shape to get something back, the odd one or two would just try and stop more goals going in…but it seems that every single team now, against us and that lot, turn up with a game plan that consists of defend until the 90 minutes are up.

The gap in the later 90’s early 2000’s between us, them and the rest was big but i can’t remember team turning up and not at least trying to have a go, has the gap ever been bigger, has the gulf in class ever been wider in Scotland than it is now or is it just a case of shitebag managers crossing their fingers and hoping to get more points than other teams in the league and staying up?

The standard is terrible and it is pretty crap to watch, not just for us but it must be brutal for the opposition fans (and players) as well.
Click to expand...
Hearts can cause us and them problems in a one off game and are well ahead of the rest. Miles behind sustaining a league challenge to us and them.
 
struth 1872 said:
Well just to compare for example kilmarnock with the shitebag as manager played with 11 men behind the ball for almost 90 minutes and kicked us off the park last week, out of curiosity i watched their game today and it was embarrassing watching killie morph into aberscum and just allow the timbo to play dance floor football, i hope this is helpful
Click to expand...
Sorry, the idea that most of the makeweights in the SPFL don’t put anything like the same effort into games against them as they do us is just conspiratorial nonsense.

I’m not denying some Yahoo sympathising players or even managers may care less about losing to them, but this would be to suppose there’s considerably more of them in the SPFL than those of a blue persuasion and I’d need to see some hard facts and figures before I was ever buying into that.

McInnes is an ex Rangers man so by the same reasoning he should be busting a gut to try and take some points in games against that lot, instead his teams are almost always dreadful.

Sometimes they just win well - there doesn’t need to be any greater reason than that.
 
IIRC us and them both finished on 98 points in the 02/03 season, so the gap must have been pretty big then. I remember reading in Arthur Numans autobiography, he got the impression that when teams came to Ibrox they generally seemed happy to only lose by 3 or 4 goals
 
This theory will only stand up if we get a routine win more or less every week. I think whoever wins the league will need to get a high 90s points total.

If we start dropping silly points to bottom 6 sides and getting stuck in a quagmire like last season, we’ll toil.
 
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