ICT have made a Hughes mistake

John Hughes' interview with Radio Scotland after the 2-1 home defeat by Motherwell was quite remarkable.

The cliches weren't remarkable, of course.  Soundbites such as "we have to regroup" and "test of character" are par for the course, and somewhat frustrating for a support who were spoilt for a few years by the eloquence and humour of his predecessor - though at least there was nothing as cringeworthy as last week's infamous "too much water kills the plant" speech after a loss to Dundee United (please, just don't ask).

The jollity, and the jokes about the playing ability of people who were interviewing him were less palatable, given that, in 90 minutes of action, Caley Thistle had failed to create any chances other than shots from distance, and that the only reason to be positive was a spectacular goal from youngster Ryan Christie.  But this writer literally spat out his coffee when the manager responded to criticism of the style of play with the comment "it takes time, you need to give them time and educate them".

Educate them how, exactly?  Caley Thistle were second in the league when he was appointed, and are now fifth.  They have won only 1 out of 9 home league matches under his tenure.  A few months ago, they were a side which scored goals in abundance, were exciting to watch and who defended as if their lives depended on it; now they can't score, can't stop other teams scoring, and their play is so boring that the NHS are thinking of marketing their games as a miracle cure for insomnia.

I can only assume that Hughes teaches the specialist subject "how to make a good football team into a rubbish one".

Against Motherwell, Caley Thistle lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation.  The first choice left-back, Graeme Shinnie, was in central midfield.  On the left side of the midfield was James Vincent, a central midfielder.  On the opposite flank was Greg Tansey...also a central midfielder.  Similar tactics were employed against St. Mirren on the weekend, and in the first half of the previous home match against Partick Thistle.  They didn't work in those games and they didn't work this time either.

Einstein once said that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".  Someone should tell Hughes that.  In fact, forget Einstein; there was perfectly good tactical advice from behind his dugout, from two particularly astute spectators that sat near me.  One was a ten year old girl, who, less than a quarter of an hour into the game, said quite loudly "there's much too much passing".  The other was my own fiancee, who can't stand football and who was cajoled into coming on the premise of getting a free ticket.  She turned to me at half-time and said "they keep trying to play down the middle."

For the team has about as much width as Kate Moss.  Fellow fan Andrew Sutherland memorably quipped on Twitter afterwards that "you could plant flowers down the sides of the park and no-one would trample them".  With the team chasing an equalizer, Hughes turned to the bench and, to general relief, summoned a winger, Marley Watkins...who he then told to play up front.  Tansey got switched to right-back, where Hughes claimed he showed more energy than David Raven did.  From my viewpoint, Tansey's energy was mostly used in gestures of frustration about being stuck at right-back.

The attempts to play a passing game are so painful to watch that, according to my other half, I spent about half the game pulling at my own hair.

The obvious limiting factor is the ability of the players, none of whom are capable of doing what Hughes wants them to do at a speed quick enough that it opens up the opposition.  There are two inevitable outcomes - either they do it at the pace that they are capable of, in which case the build-up is slower than a week in jail and there is no attacking threat, or they do it faster , in which case the ball is lost.  When our central defenders have the ball, it takes about fifteen passes before we reach the halfway line; more often that not, we have lost possession, and in a dangerous area too.  On the rare occasions that we reach the final third, the typical outcome is that, after another fifteen passes, we have either given the ball away, or it is back with the central defenders again...and the cycle begins once more.

I racked my brains trying to think of teams who have succeeded playing like this, with tons of central midfielders and no width.  Spain, maybe?  Of course, they have Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Thiago, Alonso, Silva...the list goes on.  Caley Thistle have Tansey, Draper, Foran, Vincent, Polworth...the list really doesn't go on.

Certainly my instinct is that, Celtic apart, Scottish Premiership footballers are simply not talented enough to succeed with the tippy-tappy stuff that is being imposed on ICT.

Of course, this squad is not Hughes' squad.  It is Terry Butcher's squad, with the exception of Greg Tansey (back for his second spell in the Highlands, but who was first brought to the club by Butcher).  It is a squad built very much with Butcher's 4-2-3-1 system in mind, based around pace and width in the final third, and with its main (if not sole) objective being to maximize the strengths of striker Billy Mckay.  The success enjoyed during the last 18 months of Butcher's reign in Inverness confirms that this system works, and that there are some talented players at the club.  I'd say they have a damn good attitude as well, as no-one could fault their workrate last night even though the frustration was unmissable.  In the sole home league win against Partick Thistle, Hughes restored the 4-2-3-1 at the break after an utterly woeful first half, with spectacular results.

And, following that experience he has...gone back to his own way of playing.  With the same consequences as before.  How can that be justified?  Is it simply incompetence?  Or is it related to ego?  Does he feels he has to make changes so that he can claim credit for results?  For whatever reason, Hughes would rather fail with his own methods than succeed with someone else's.

But the players are not in the slightest bit suited to the way their boss wants them to play.  Nearly all of them never will be - these are mostly players well into their twenties at least, who are hardly going to improve their technique much more.  Yet, incredibly, the manager made it a priority to get the entire squad under contract for next season.  They will all be here in 2014-15.  There is no scope for new signings at all.  He is utterly determined to play his way with someone else's players, players who clearly cannot do it.

It's like trying to put two pieces from different jigsaws together.

Given how poor results have become, god knows where we'll be when the players stop trying...which is certain to happen if they keep being forced to go out and play like that.

The Motherwell defeat saw the first significant dissent from the supporters since Hughes' appointment.  The fans still believe in the players - given what they've achieved in recent times, we owe them that.  But belief, and patience, in John Hughes is wearing very thin indeed - almost as narrow, in fact, as the starting eleven that he keeps sending out.  In the event of defeat in the local derby on Friday night, expect the natives to get very restless indeed.

L.