Encouraging the diddy teams to play football

B10P

Well-Known Member
First off, the way St Mirren played is probably the correct tactic for them, but it makes for a brutal watch and teams setting up like this is the single biggest reason Scottish football has such a bad reputation.

Are there ways to encourage less of this? Perhaps award 0.5 points to a team if they score in a game, even if they end up losing. In modern football is seems teams can more easily be drilled to kill a game, so maybe this change would counteract that.
 
You'll never encourage Aberdoom to play football, it's beyond any ability or coaching they have or get.
 
Sadly it's just the way it is. I have a degree of sympathy for the teams we come up against. It's like us playing Barca, stifle them and make your objective to not concede.
 
If I were a St boo fan, I wouldn’t want them to play any other way.

They frustrated us today, they got a draw with the mentally challengeds last season.

Quite simply, it’s up to us to find a way past them. I wouldn’t complain if we got a top team in the Europa league and got a point by playing the same way.

There’s no “right way” to play football. all that is guff from people who talk about “philosophies”
 
I can see the OP's frustration, but defending is an art in itself and can often be admired in its execution.
Today I thought St Mirren defended well.
They didn't always depend on last-minute fouls as a matter of strategy and they never resorted to falling over on every occasion to dupe the referee.
Indeed they were less guilty of this than the Poles were last week.

But if there was a way to encourage more attacking football it should be looked at.
St Mirren losing 5 -3 might have been a far better game.
Although I just cannot see this Rangers team ever losing three goals to any St Mirren side.
 
It's such a tough one. If they had opened up today it's quite conceivable we would have taken 5 or 6 off them. What incentive is there for them in that?

Italian football used to be admired for the defensive side. It wasn't good to watch, but it's effective. There's no comparison in quality, obviously, but if (God forbid) I'm a St Mirren fan I'm probably pretty happy today, same as we were on the road to Manchester.
 
Sad to think that we'll play around 34 league games like that this season.

The Scottish Professional Anti-Football League.
 
It's one of the very few times I've seen 11 men behind the ball (rather than the stock 10).

It's utterly fu*king hideous to watch, and they must've had 9 men in their own box when we had them pinned back.

However, it is their prerogative to play how they feel will get them a result. It's our job to break them down and Defoe should have netted after just 2 mins.
 
Defoe scores his early chance then we’d probably have took 4 or 5 off them today. Early goal is always key for us.
 
They fancied their chances in Rangers teams under McCoist, McCall, Murthy, Warburton and Pedro because we had a soft belly!
I take it as a compliment and Gerrard seemingly does also, it's a massive challenge and compliment for him and his backroom team to overcome. I also like how fans and the manager alike don't moan about it in a bad sense. I also used to enjoy Big Sam sticking it to a bleating Wenger for not 'allowing' them to play football! Earn the right!!
yes it's boring, yes it's a shite spectacle, yes it can undervalue the Scottish game (which at times is as exciting and action packed as any of our peers across Europe)
It s a sign we're back, an angry beast! Superiority is about to be resumed folks
 
I know what you are saying mate but we did the same for years in Europe under Walter.

Defending is part of football and it is our job to find a way through.

Correct, we are far superior to most teams in the league and on another day they steal a draw.
 
This is us just looking to make it easier to break teams down. More shots on target and make their keeper work a lot more is how you do it. Do that and you get the odd little break that even the most defensive sides can't plan for.
 
There needs to be a shift in the mentality of the general supporter in Scotland in order for it to work.

The 8 games against us and them are not going to make or break St Mirren's (or similar) season. If Scottish football were to focus on developing young footballers instead of wanting players who can smash into a tackle (and our own fans are as guilty as anyone for that), Scottish football would be in a much better place.
 
I thought we broke them down quiet a lot especially down the right, Tav was whipping in some great crosses, problem was no-one was in the box to get on the end of them.
 
It was the fact that they didn’t change anything when they went behind that got me. Had they not practised an alternative for when they were getting beat? They still had six men strung across their own box with another four behind them.
 
Not knocking how they approached the game at 0-0, but even when they went a goal behind they didn't seem to alter their approach.

Bizarre to see a team sitting with 10 men behind the ball holding on to a 1 goal defeat.

They had a gilt edge chance to take a point.
 
It was the fact that they didn’t change anything when they went behind that got me. Had they not practised an alternative for when they were getting beat? They still had six men strung across their own box with another four behind them.
Then it's about keeping the GD down. It could make the all difference in a relegation fight
 
Then it's about keeping the GD down. It could make the all difference in a relegation fight

That's why I think 0.5 points for scoring a goal could work. When it goes to 0-1 they're then better to open up to try and get something (even if it risks them losing 1-4) than continuing to only try and limit goals conceded.
 
Defending is part of football.

St Mirren don't have the budget or quality to go at us in an attacking football Sense. It's down to use to dismantle these sides.
 
They increased it from 2 points to 3 points for a win, as they thought the extra point available would encourage teams to go for a victory, rather than playing for a draw.

That hasn't worked, as many teams won't risk losing 1 point to gain 3, so I doubt they'll risk losing 1 point to gain 0.5.
 
Just do away with points completely and decide the league on goals scored only. 4-4 games would be the norm, absolutely no penalty for losing the game if you bag a few, incentive to go out and attack. And then turn up in Europe and take some absolutely beastings
 
I know what you are saying mate but we did the same for years in Europe under Walter.

Defending is part of football and it is our job to find a way through.

Don’t think that’s quite the OP’s point. Encouraging the opposition to come out and play would favour us being able to score more easily so we’re not without bias but I think the OP was meaning more about the good of the game. Turgid dross is not good for paying customers. Finding a way to make games more open makes it more entertaining for everyone. There is always a fairly high likelihood that St Mirren will lose to us, even if they do park the bus. Say a 70% chance of 0 points, 25% chance of sneaking a 1 point draw and 5% chance of getting a really lucky 3 point win. If they were given an extra 0.5 points for scoring then they might have a 60% chance of getting those points if they actually attacked. That could well be worth it for them over a season.

Looking at a closer game of St Mirren vs an Aberdeen say then the odds might favour it even more.

Don’t think it’s a bad idea. Though, as it would favour us (and Celtic to be fair), not a chance of the SPL considering it.
 
If we actually want the game to be respected here and to go to the next level, having a bigger minimum size for pitches would be a start, so there aren't small, congested pitches with little in the way of actual football being played.

Make all top flight referees full time, and add VAR to help them too; that should help cut out a lot of their mistakes.

Relax the work permit rules for talented players from outside Europe - this would give us an advantage over English teams, and allow us to get players the likes of Ajax, Benfica and Porto can attract for relatively cheap from South America then sell on at a big profit.

Get rid of the split, and have a 10 team league with 36 league games a season.

Start the league earlier, before European qualifiers begin, meaning our teams aren't as rusty in Europe and perform better in the earlier qualifiers, bringing more money into the game. That way, we can still have a winter break and not have to deal with ridiculous congestion when games are postponed and there are still extra cup games to be played.
 
First off, the way St Mirren played is probably the correct tactic for them, but it makes for a brutal watch and teams setting up like this is the single biggest reason Scottish football has such a bad reputation.

Are there ways to encourage less of this? Perhaps award 0.5 points to a team if they score in a game, even if they end up losing. In modern football is seems teams can more easily be drilled to kill a game, so maybe this change would counteract that.
An 18 team premier league might help. Less risk of relegation.

Obviously financial greed comes first though
 
I know what you are saying mate but we did the same for years in Europe under Walter.

Defending is part of football and it is our job to find a way through.
Does nothing for the entertainment value though and the ramifications of this in terms of better sponsorship are obvious.
I accept this isn’t a problem for us but what does a neutral think?
 
They weren't quite Tommy McLean's Motherwell
Funnily enough mentioned them in this kind of discussion yesterday. Christ, they were torture to watch!

Anyway, a team plays to it's strengths. This has been the way in football since day 1.
 
Even when Barasic went off for a short time with blood in his mouth they still sat behind the ball and never tried to take advantage of the extra man.
 
The term is "Anti-football" as coined after the Barcelona game where we used similar tactics.

It's part of the game. Its ugly to watch sure but had they got a 0-0 they would have done their job well.

Awarding an extra half point for scoring a goal is nonsense, a team could be 4-0 up and allow the other team to score so they can move out of the relegation zone by half a point to get one over rivals for example.
 
First off, the way St Mirren played is probably the correct tactic for them, but it makes for a brutal watch and teams setting up like this is the single biggest reason Scottish football has such a bad reputation.

Are there ways to encourage less of this? Perhaps award 0.5 points to a team if they score in a game, even if they end up losing. In modern football is seems teams can more easily be drilled to kill a game, so maybe this change would counteract that.
The very first line of your OP is why things wont change. The Diddy teams don't have the quality in their teams, or the budget to acquire it, to play attacking, expansive football.

Their best bet is to sit in, frustrate and hopefully nick something. In recent years it's actually been successful v us for most of them.
 
Historically, aside from a few exceptional periods, the OF have dominated Scottish football. Because of their large fan base and the revenue both clubs were capable of generating - at least in a domestic context - the OF could always sign better quality players thereby reinforcing their local dominance.

But despite the reality of this situation, it was by no means always the case that other teams simply 'parked the bus' when playing against us. Just look at some of the old youtube footage of Scottish football games and you can clearly see teams attempting to make a decent game of it. Why has this changed?
 
As people have said we played this way against Barca and Man Utd in Europe. Teams have to play to their strengths. It's boring but we just have to break them down. I watched Spurs v Newcastle and it was like watching us, Spurs passing side to side and struggling to break them down. I don't see it changing sadly. I just hope St Mirren play the same against the Tim's
 
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