Scottish League Cup 1st Round Draw

[sbcmfc]

It's the 1st time he's said anything since the cup final, and it sounds a bit like an excuse.

Just to go back to the main discussion, you have to draw a line somewhere on where you can add players to your squad for a cup final. The semi final seems fair enough.

[theweestevie]

8 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

It's the 1st time he's said anything since the cup final, and it sounds a bit like an excuse.

Just to go back to the main discussion, you have to draw a line somewhere on where you can add players to your squad for a cup final. The semi final seems fair enough.

The part of the interview before he started talking about this he said that Hibs deserved the win, they played better, Rangers players and staff were not good enough that day. After that the question was put to him why he didn't have a full bench, he said he couldn't as the squad was stretched with injuries, suspensions and these players were unable to play. If you take the comments on their own, fair enough, it can sound like an excuse. But in the context of the interview he (at least imo, but I may have blue tinted glasses on) he was just answering the question. The excuse/reason he gave for us not winning the final was that we HIbs were better than us and we were simply not good enough to win it, not that these guys couldn't be in the squad.

I kind of agree with your point re adding players to the squad. But when do the squads for the semi final have to be determined, the quarter final? And what about the squads for the quarters, the last 16? For players like Hardie who had played in previous rounds to be not allowed to be involved in the final because they weren't involved in the semi seems kind of harsh. It was a rule that I wasn't aware of tbh. and is not one that I necessarily agree with, but it is there and like I said I don't think it was used as an excuse, just an explanation of why these players couldn't play.

[sbcmfc]

I don't know what the rule is to be honest, but on the face of it, it doesn't seem unreasonable.

Seems fair enough comments in context.

Amazing it's taken until July to get any word from him on the cup final given every word he spoke last season was "news".

[DoonTheSlope]

18 hours ago, sbcmfc said:

Amazing it's taken until July to get any word from him on the cup final given every word he spoke last season was "news".

And about good sportsmanship 

[adamntg]

21 hours ago, theweestevie said:

I don't see why we shouldn't be able to stick them back in the squad if their loan spell had ended. And we would have been able to if we were still playing league games. 

Dundee Utd were docked three points for playing young boys who'd come back on loan in league games. 

[theweestevie]

4 hours ago, adamntg said:

Dundee Utd were docked three points for playing young boys who'd come back on loan in league games. 

Fair enough. Like I said I wasn't aware of the rule before so assumed it would have just been like loans for the first half of the season where after their loan spell ends they would be able to come back and play for the rest of the season and like when players are reaclled from loan spells where the can then play of their parent team.

[sbcmfc]

2 hours ago, theweestevie said:

Fair enough. Like I said I wasn't aware of the rule before so assumed it would have just been like loans for the first half of the season where after their loan spell ends they would be able to come back and play for the rest of the season and like when players are reaclled from loan spells where the can then play of their parent team.

I think in the Dundee United case there was a cut off point (in April iirc) where even development loan players couldn't come back.

[Kirk]

On 04/07/2016 at 10:08 AM, theweestevie said:

Granted they were players that we had out on loan as you said but given that our squad was stretched and we couldnt name a full bench the options would have been handy to have. I think of Hardy had been he would have been brought on for at least 15-20 minutes.

Of course we will take a strong team to motherwell. His comments about we won't be playing the strongest team until closer to the start of the league season will partly down to not knowing what the strongest 11 is. Especially when you have some of the players starting training a bit later, e.g. Barton, McKay. They might not be ready for the first few games.

Why wont they be ready? Its their job ti be ready

[theweestevie]

9 hours ago, Kirk said:

Why wont they be ready? Its their job ti be ready

Ready with respect to the rest of the squad. The rest of the squad will be a week or so ahead of them in terms of pre-season fitness. Barton/McKay started pre-season a few weeks after the rest of the squad as McKay had an extended dealy due to the international call up, Barton had media commitements and  his contract didn't start until July. They might be ready, but the other players may be ahead of them fitness wise so that may play a part in team selection.

[Rory]

First round if fixtures are this weekend. Who's all heading along to a game?

 

Will be interesting to see what kind of attendances the group stage gets, can't imagine Clyde will have much of a support (no jokes please!). We've got Killie on Saturday & if it was a knockout match I could see a healthy support but with our chances of progression from a group being rather slim I can't see it.

 

Our main focus this season is trying to win the league & if we get a decent run in the Scottish cup then it's a bonus. So these group games will be an indicator of quality within squad & more than likely used to get us up to match sharpness for league campaign kicking off in a couple of weeks.