Caley Thistle manager John Robertson has sympathy for his recently-relegated Partick Thistle counterpart Alan Archibald having been in the same situation 12 months ago.
Archibald made 14 summer signings following Thistle’s relegation from the Premiership, with the Jags having picked up six points from their opening four games so far.
Robertson sees parallels with the sweeping changes he was forced to make last summer, when he inherited a side that was fresh from suffering the drop under Richie Foran the previous season.
He said: “Although Partick managed to keep the vast majority of their squad, it is finding the right people at this level. Ourselves and the likes of Thistle have had to cut our cloth accordingly.
“They’ve had two good, solid wins at home and lost both on the road.
“I’m sure Alan will still be searching for his favoured formation and first 11. The reports we’ve had say they change formation quite a lot during the game.
“We were quite similar last year where we couldn’t quite find the settled formation and settled side. That would appear to be where Thistle are.
“But what they have done is win their home matches and they’ll see it as a solid start, but we want to get our home form up and running.”
Robertson watched a Caley Jags side containing a mixture of first team fringe players and youngsters defeat Forres Mechanics 4-0 on Tuesday to reach the final of the North of Scotland Cup, where they will face Ross County next month.
The Inverness boss, who still has midfielder Angus Beith sidelined for the visit of the Jags, has challenged those involved to force their way into his starting line-up.
He added: “It was encouraging to see our highly-regarded youngsters do so well, and while we have praised them, we also told them it was down to the diligence, performance and attitude of the senior pros.
“Jamie McCart and Riccardo Calder needed a run out and Charlie Trafford and George Oakley needed an hour just to keep up to speed.
“Right now we’ve not got the biggest squad, but we’ve got a real tight-knit group who really work hard and look after each other and look after a bunch of highly-talented young players.”
