Rate the Manager: Hearts (Home, 09th March 2019)

[TheDarkBlues]

How did you rate Jim McIntyre's team selection, substitutions and performance today?

[Budgem]

Okay, I'll play.

Probably played the strongest team for a battle versus an anti-football outfit like Hearts.  Only change I would make, and it is with a bit of hindsight, is Andreas on for extra height and midfield presence.

Subs, I thought were the right call, all offensive to try & win or get something out of the game.

[barkblue]

Voted 3, but only because there wasn't a 2.5.

With the players available, that's the 11 I'd have chosen, but hooking Wright rather than Dales was a proper head-scratcher. And much though he contributed when he came on I still don't think McIntyre quite knows how/where to play Gowser. 

Over and above that, we did show that when we played the ball with pace on the deck, that we could break Hearts down, so he should have had us doing that more but then Hearts did everything they could to break play up and make it a battle (I love that Levein made it sound afterwards that the game turned out that way because of us!!!), so it's really not that easy.

I don't think McIntyre is some sort of tactical genius, but, as it has all season to be fair, it's individual moments of utter ineptitude that are undoing us and yesterday was no different. 

[Parcbara]

The Wright sub was terrible. Dales did nothing all game as did Robson. Two/three

[barkblue]

14 minutes ago, Parcbara said:

The Wright sub was terrible. Dales did nothing all game as did Robson. Two/three

Totally agree. O'Sullivan looked decent when he came on.

[chomp my root]

43 minutes ago, barkblue said:

Totally agree. O'Sullivan looked decent when he came on.

To be fair, I thought Jesse Curran looked decent when he came on too. He's been someone who gives me the fear at times but looked alright yesterday.

[barkblue]

Just now, chomp my root said:

To be fair, I thought Jesse Curran looked decent when he came on too. He's been someone who gives me the fear at times but looked alright yesterday.

The moment that summed Jesse Curran up to me was when the ball broke out of the Hearts box and he was so slow in reacting that he presumed he wouldn't get there. Then he realised he had a chance and dangled a foot in the challenge that ended up getting him hurt entirely through his own inability to anticipate the game and then have the nerve to really go and win the game.

That the lad is clearly talented makes it all the more frustrating that he simply seems so slow to react to almost everything going on round about him. 

That said, at least he was more positive and direct when he came on, so I don't actually disagree with you. 

[chomp my root]

30 minutes ago, barkblue said:

The moment that summed Jesse Curran up to me was when the ball broke out of the Hearts box and he was so slow in reacting that he presumed he wouldn't get there. Then he realised he had a chance and dangled a foot in the challenge that ended up getting him hurt entirely through his own inability to anticipate the game and then have the nerve to really go and win the game.

That the lad is clearly talented makes it all the more frustrating that he simply seems so slow to react to almost everything going on round about him. 

That said, at least he was more positive and direct when he came on, so I don't actually disagree with you. 

Going off on a tangent but I found myself 'zoning out' yesterday through apathy so maybe missed the finer detail on that one. If I didn't have a ST I'm probably at the stage of missing more games at the moment.

[barkblue]

11 minutes ago, chomp my root said:

Going off on a tangent but I found myself 'zoning out' yesterday through apathy so maybe missed the finer detail on that one. If I didn't have a ST I'm probably at the stage of missing more games at the moment.

I certainly questioned how much I was enjoying going to games during yesterday's 'entertainment'.

That's as much a dig at Hearts as it is Dundee, I may add. 

[chomp my root]

15 minutes ago, barkblue said:

I certainly questioned how much I was enjoying going to games during yesterday's 'entertainment'.

That's as much a dig at Hearts as it is Dundee, I may add. 

My dig was more Hearts based, I didn't think we were great but I'd hate to go and watch that Hearts team week in, week out the way they play. I know they've got a load more points than us but its not for me. I had a sort of mini epiphany yesterday, I now get why a lot of people would rather watch a good game of foreign football on the TV than go to the effort of going to watch dross in inclement weather. Might sound stupid as I enjoy watching football on the TV but always preferred going to live games, even as a neutral at Juniors or whatever. I just found myself very un-entertained yesterday and it wasn't because we got beat, I didn't think we were awful, I've seen us play a lot worse, it was poor refereeing and the anti football that probably iced the cake for me.

[barkblue]

5 minutes ago, chomp my root said:

My dig was more Hearts based, I didn't think we were great but I'd hate to go and watch that Hearts team week in, week out the way they play. I know they've got a load more points than us but its not for me. I had a sort of mini epiphany yesterday, I now get why a lot of people would rather watch a good game of foreign football on the TV than go to the effort of going to watch dross in inclement weather. Might sound stupid as I enjoy watching football on the TV but always preferred going to live games, even as a neutral at Juniors or whatever. I just found myself very un-entertained yesterday and it wasn't because we got beat, I didn't think we were awful, I've seen us play a lot worse, it was poor refereeing and the anti football that probably iced the cake for me.

I understood where you were coming from Chomp. The entertainment levels from us have improved a wee bit since McIntyre came in, but I thought that was two rubbish football teams again yesterday. I'm thoroughly bored of the playing teams 4 times a season format, especially when more than a couple are so bereft of any actual, well, football. 

I'm not one for football on the TV. I don't pay for Sky Sports, BT, or anything else. I'll watch a lower league Scottish game on the telly if I've nothing else to do and stuck Palace against Brighton on before I left for Dens yesterday on the "free" sports channel on Sky, but I get very bored, very quickly watching football on TV and ended up going and doing other stuff after about 20 minutes. Today I've watched Formula E and the Rally Mexico highlights and got more excitement from then than the entire season following Dundee has provided. 

I did do a year of going round the grounds a long time ago (nearly 30 years ago....bloody hell, how did that happen???) and loved it. Going to games as a neutral is enjoyable in a way that the nail biting, teeth gnashing investment of following our team isn't, but there are no massive highs doing that, just as there are no huge lows. I've only done a few neutral games since and do consider it when we are away form home, but never do. The cost as well is an off putting factor. 

The last two/three years have been a sense of duty, more than anything else for me. I still can't see myself stopping anytime soon and yet I've already moaned today at the prospect of their being a game next Sunday, because I have a ton of other stuff that I'd rather be doing, to be honest. 

[Dondeh]

Another defeat. Another defeat at home. Another game with zero points and against an eminently beatable team.

A very generous 2 stars.

Edited 10 March 2019 by Dondeh