The Crimson King
Well-Known Member
Something that's been bugging me for a while and Kevin Thomson actually touched on it in commentary. Firstly this isn't a downer or complaint post because we're top of the league and talent wise the best team in the country, but if there's one thing I wish I could change it would be for us to do the 'dark arts' a bit better.
There have been so many times I've felt we let the opposition put muscle on the game, without someone to bite back and let them know we're stronger than they are as well as more talented. Maybe Arfield and Morelos (when he's on one) aside, I can't think of many in the team that would put a marker down at the beginning of a game, or even just get in the faces of the opposition if they start going in hard on team mates. There's been a frustrating number of times someone has been subjected to a bad tackle and instead of showing their displeasure en masse, everyone just sort of walks away.
Which is another thing this team doesn't do a lot of - pressure the referee. Not so much tonight but again there have been loads of times when we've had very, very good penalty shouts or possible opposition red cards, and instead of everyone shouting for it, at most a couple of hands go up and then everyone walks away. Even if you don't get it we should be trying to get under the referee's skin - our opponents are certainly not shy in doing so. Prime example would be Aberdeen last week.
I don't doubt we have what it takes to win without it, but I also don't think a bit of a bad streak would hurt this team at all.
There have been so many times I've felt we let the opposition put muscle on the game, without someone to bite back and let them know we're stronger than they are as well as more talented. Maybe Arfield and Morelos (when he's on one) aside, I can't think of many in the team that would put a marker down at the beginning of a game, or even just get in the faces of the opposition if they start going in hard on team mates. There's been a frustrating number of times someone has been subjected to a bad tackle and instead of showing their displeasure en masse, everyone just sort of walks away.
Which is another thing this team doesn't do a lot of - pressure the referee. Not so much tonight but again there have been loads of times when we've had very, very good penalty shouts or possible opposition red cards, and instead of everyone shouting for it, at most a couple of hands go up and then everyone walks away. Even if you don't get it we should be trying to get under the referee's skin - our opponents are certainly not shy in doing so. Prime example would be Aberdeen last week.
I don't doubt we have what it takes to win without it, but I also don't think a bit of a bad streak would hurt this team at all.