First things first...90 minutes viewing at Tannadice on Sunday offered sufficient proof that, if Garry Kenneth is an international defender, then I am a baked potato.
Yes, Caley Thistle were simply fantastic when they demolished Dundee United 4-0, but one must take into account that, well, the Arab performance was a great big pile of steaming s****. It really was. And at the centre of it all was Kenneth, who showed a complete inability to deal with the ball other than when it was six feet in the air. I've seen double decker buses with smaller turning circles, and they were less lumbering as well.
It's only two matches into the SPL season, but there is an awful lot of hype flying around about ICT on the back of that one performance (plus a good first half against Celtic too). Suddenly, our strikers are being lauded as dynamite, our relegation credentials have been revoked, and there is talk of the Top Six being thrown about with more recklessness than a BMW being driven on the A9.
After two games. And only three points. Let's not get carried away, folks.
It was back to normality at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium on Wednesday night, with the home side huffing and puffing for the first half hour before eventually breaking down second division Peterhead on the way to a routine 3-0 win; the most important thing to take from match is that Irish centre forward Adam Rooney is a man on fire right now, even if two of his four goals in four days were from the spot. Such is the importance of confidence in this sport - Kenneth looks he's been destroyed by the criticism he suffered following his Scotland debut, while Rooney can do no wrong right now.
Rooney got more praise than anyone after the United game, and rightly so - even if the opposing defence offered less resistance than a row of traffic cones. The Irishman was lured north two years ago from Stoke City for £50,000 (actually a tidy sum for a club like ours) and the then-manager Craig Brewster talked him up massively - before constantly rotating him in and out of the team as we dived towards the drop that season. Even when Terry Butcher replaced Brew, Rooney saw action mostly as a sub, and he started the last campaign on the bench as well. But when he got a run in the side the goals started coming - 24 in the first division - and any fears that he might not be able to score at SPL level were at least partly allayed by his brace at the weekend.
Even if he stops hitting the net, he has made himself almost indispensible to the Caley team with his ability to successfully operate as a lone frontman in a 4-2-3-1 system where, inevitably, there will be times when he is very isolated. In the SPL, his 6ft 2in frame means he still often lscks inches on centre-backs, but he has the bustle to hold off defenders, and hold up the ball, when it comes to him at neck height or below. Moreover, his willingness to run the channels, and press defenders, is admirable and offers an outlet when his own backline are beleaguered. In short, he has a work ethic and engine that makes him a very, very good lone striker, and one whose presence will lead to goals for others, even if he loses his current scoring touch.
That said, it is worth noting that Inverness' best finish in the SPL came into 2006/07, spearheaded by 16 league goals from Craig Dargo. 2008/09 was the first SPL season where Caley's top scorer had fewer than 9 league goals - it was Rooney himself, with just 5. The last striker to be relegated despite scoring double figures was Dundee's Steve Lovell in 2004/05 - which tells you that your chances of surviving are a damn sight better if you have a centre forward hitting the target regularly.
So if Inverness are to be allowed to believe the hype, they need Adam Rooney's stonking form to continue. Not only that, but they need to avoid tripping up in matches like the upcoming home game with Hamilton - having failed to win any of the four previous SPL encounters with Billy Reid's side. But win that, and win some more, with the no.10 still striking rich, and Caley might quickly find themselves a long way away from any relegation dogfight.
L.
No comments:
Post a Comment