Widge
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Posts posted by Widge
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The fact we’ve got a 16 year old who’s actually an attacking midfielder as our best option at right wing back currently tells you the state the squad is actually in. For all Fran has been excellent you just wonder what he could do further forward. Still I’ve got no doubts that Levein knows this and a right wing back will be sorted well before the end of the window since Drey Wright isn’t going to be back any time soon.
Anyway hopefully a good game tomorrow, but I can totally see it descending into the Willie Collum show with both sets of supporters probably booing him off the pitch. Either way a win would be massive for us and a draw would be perfectly acceptable, be good to get the away win hoodoo off our back though.
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Having been there last night, Craig Levein is spot on with what he’s saying when interviewed. We’re not looking forward enough (if at all), especially down our right hand side. Brown is being asked to do a job he’s simply not capable of doing and because of that teams block us off down the left and make us easy to play against on the right meaning we’re going backwards 90% of the time. The only times we got in behind Livi were on the left where we have some (not much) form of attacking intent. I’d actually have played Dare at RWB instead of Brown to be honest and let him just run, chances are we’d not have gotten anything but at least it would have caused some chaos and allowed more space for the likes of Smith and Carey to work in. The above comment also applies to Max, once again he was too passive and needs to look forward at every opportunity.
It was staggering how badly that pitch played last night actually, the only person on both teams who I thought looked like they could control a ball was Matt Smith and even then you could see he wasn’t sure what his passes would do. That being said we didn’t create anything and a point was probably the fairest result.
I don’t think the TV would show this, but in the first half the wind was brutal and it meant that we were penned in big time since Livis sole tactic of launching the ball forward was always going to be effective in that weather. I’d hoped that the second half would be the same, but it definitely died down a little which meant we didn’t get the same advantage not that we can play long ball football with our forwards. Just a pretty brutal game of football from two poor bottom 6 teams.
Special mention to Kevin Clancy, who seemed to get almost everything 100% wrong. The Max booking was mental and at one point he gave a foul for Phillips cleanly taking the ball without even touching the man. He’s usually alright (in a 3/10 way) but tonight him and his assistants were clearly still on the bevvy, absolutely hopeless.
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Sounds like we’ve been hit by a sickness bug in the squad which has meant that we’re forced into playing Brown and Olafunwa. Not ideal by any means, but shows that we need to bring someone in on that right hand side asap.
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34 minutes ago, Squalor Vic said:
The St Johnstone no 34 was honking. Who is he? Game changer taking him off
That’ll be Dan Phillips, who has been very good for us this season on the whole, but funnily enough seems to ever play well on a plastic pitch. No idea why, but regularly has a stinker on them.
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Just having a player capable of finishing is massive. We can work on a lot of things, but finishing isn’t ever going to be one of them with the players we have currently. He’s a goal scorer and always has been, even if we weren’t sure about the deal to bring him in, it’s certainly not been a bad deal so far when he’s been fit.
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A think today shows that we’ve still got to improve, the fact we won’t be bottom at Xmas was the goal and we’ve achieved that. Should also remember it’s our third game in a week and we played for an hour with 10 men on Wednesday night. We don’t exactly have a lot of choice to switch it up in the squad.
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38 minutes ago, SJFCtheTeamForMe said:
Kane Ritchie-Hosler I think???
He’s contracted to Dunfermline and very much injured I believe, so I doubt it?
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18 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:
Really not a fan of Jaiyesimi up front.
Got to agree with this wholeheartedly. We’d look so much better with an actual striker on the pitch. Not that we have any fit ones.
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5 minutes ago, Steve McQueen said:
I didnt realise the chance in the 1st half was so clear till i saw sportscene but not sure i would say it was a sitter.
Think Levein was happy with 0-0 or maybe he doesnt trust anyone else on the bench.
I think that last statement is 100% true. You’ve got supporters in the East stand demanding a substitution, but once again I think Levein is showing that he doesn’t have faith or trust in any of the bench bar Sprangler and Kane (Costelloe too, but suspect he had a knock). The fact we had 5 other outfield players on that bench and none were deemed good enough to come on is an indictment of the lack of depth we have.
As others have said, Matt Smith is a genuinely talented footballer and is showing exactly why he had 19 caps for Wales. But he ran his heart out once again last night and was clearly burst, yet we have nobody to replace him with. Things will improve when we get both Wright and Clark back, McCelland and Considine too, but there’s still a fair bit of deadwood in this squad.
Special mention to Liam Gordon last night, that’s hands down the best he’s played in about 18 months. Won every header, made blocks and clearances and has eliminated the silly long balls from his game. Hopefully he keeps the form up, maybe he’s just someone who feels better in a back 3.
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45 minutes ago, Jamie_B said:
The reverse angle posted on Saints’ social media also shows a fairly massive shirt pull on (I think) McGowan in amongst it all.
Theres nothing there that’s worth disallowing a goal for, it’s just rotten defending and goalkeeping all round.
I think that was why the cheer for the goal was so subdued. Everyone in the saints end expected it to be ruled out for something based on the way Hart reacted. So it was a surprise it wasn’t.
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I think there were positives yesterday. Firstly, we once again tried to play football against a better side than us, yes we got caught high a few times, but Phillips and Smith's ability to take the ball in a tight area and spin a man is something we've missed since Chris Millar. Add to that, the fact that Jaisaymi appears to be able to play football as well it helped us get up the pitch quickly which was great to see. Secondly, not sure I can fault the back 3 or keeper at all. Luke Robinson is fastly becoming a very very important player for us and it's easy to forget he's still really young, he's improving every game either at centreback or left wing back. Gordon deserves praise as well for his recent upturn in form, he's gone back to the basics and testament to him that Kyogo didn't get a sniff all game essentially.
No as easy as it is to be positive about the game, there are clearly still issues. Costelloe is not a wing back and the moment Johnston came on he was on toast the whole game. The biggest failing by the management team was not changing it, although I'm not entirely sure we had the options to. One that struck me was bring Dare on at RWB and shuffle everyone across one. I also would have brought Sprangler on in the midfield yesterday for Max after about an hour. He needs to work on his fitness, as he drops out of games, with Sven coming in we could have let Smith push up a little more and been more stable in the middle, as Sprangler's ability to shuffle side to side would have been effective against the Celtic onslaught.
A final word on Max, he needs to be more positive. He's got ability and a lovely touch, but a couple of times yesterday he simply turned back into trouble and got crowded out, whereas nobody will fault him if he faces up a single defender in front of him and loses it. He may not have the pace to outrun a player, but he can learn from both Smith and Carey on how to use his body to swerve a man and go round them.
Lastly, we desperately need a new striker based on both May's and Kane's recent performances. I know they've always been streaky and equally I'm not righting them off, but Kane doesn't look interested right now (wonder if he's off?) and May needs a goal to kick start his season. The sooner Nicky Clark is back the better, but we can't rely on him to stay fit and it doesn't seem like Jephcott is fancied at all.
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22 hours ago, cb_diamond said:
Stinking draw, they'll bring a crap support, we're more likely to lose than win. Rubbish.
What counts as a crap support? Saints regularly bring a really good away following in the Scottish cup and I don’t see this being any different. First game after the winter break, ground we’ve not been at in a while and a winnable/interesting tie.
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24 minutes ago, tree house tam said:
I think a lot of what was produced by Kane and May yesterday was due to tactics. To not even press the defenders hasn't been seen in a good few years from St Johnstone. It HAS to be that, they're surely not that bad?
I think saints were happy for Kent and Rowles to have the ball tbh, the only one playing progressive passes was Kingsley on his wrong side. For the most part it was working as well, the amount of times the Hearts centrebacks looked up and had no options was quite telling. Doesn’t distract from the fact Kane couldn’t trap a bag of cement yesterday and May doesn’t pose any attacking threat any more.
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2 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:
What's happened with his brother? Think he was expected to kick on when he moved down south but I see while he played about 30 games per season for Preston in the last 2 campaigns he's only on 9 this term and while I'm not ah avid Championship Watcher, I don't hear his name mentioned much?
On Edwards, I think he's a decent left back of the modern type who likes to get forward. He's set up a few and scored a few and if he can improve this side of his game further he's got every chance. He'd be worth a punt for a smaller Scottish Premiership or English League One club who can then sell him on if he kicks on and keep him if he doesn't.
Ali, he's injured right now. He was playing week in, week out in the Preston midfield when he was fit and arguably they've struggled slightly since he's been out the team. He also captained Northern Ireland earlier in the year so he's certainly having a decent career. The issue he has is that he's very unflashy in his play. If he scored goals, or was a creative force he'd get so much more hype, but he's just very very good at what he does.
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Having seen it from an unbiased point of view, it’s as close to a red card as you’ll get without it actually being one of that makes sense. Rubezic is clearly going for the ball the whole time; however he’s slightly late and comes in with some amount of force which is why it’s probably borderline. Where it falls within the reckless category is probably pertinent to this. I don’t want to see football ever stop being a physical contest, but equally what Rubezic did was fundamentally endangering another player because of the force used. Whilst the ball was there to be won 100%, sometimes you just can’t be as aggressive, then it doesn’t appear he’s got less aggressive in his locker.
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The change of date doesn’t bother me so I’m not affected and don’t mind it. I can totally understand why the clubs have done it though, it eases the very busy period and gives the players a little more time off over Xmas and new year to spend with their families which from a morale point of view is probably a good thing.
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So I’d refrained from posting since I was trying to think the best way to describe the game and then someone nailed it, it was “Tommy Wright” in a nutshell. That is by no way a bad thing and I suspect Levien is cut from the same cloth which gives me hope this year again.
To a man the team were good, there were no failures. Dan Phillips was having a shocker in the first half, almost gave away a goal at the start of the second but from that moment on he was excellent. Others have mentioned Matt Smith, that was a really assured and promising performance, his ability on the halftime is going to be a real asset. The three centrebacks didn’t put s foot wrong and the fact we didn’t even know Simon Murray was playing was testament to that. Special mention to Graham Carey who despite going through a horrible situation at home has somehow managed to improve his performances and up his levels, which is a show of true mental strength and I know the fans and the club will all be behind him and I think he knows that.
As for County, that was rudderless. You’re playing a poor team with a shaky defence and it’s long ball stuff 95% of the time and the other 5% was get it to Dhanda and hope he can curl a cross into the box from the left hand side.
Dont get me wrong, that first half of football would get football itself stopped, but we thoroughly deserved our win from the second half with the chances created alone.
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Aye the narrative that he once played without a striker and that defines him as a manager is mental. Fucking hell, we basically played with no striker for an entire season under McInnes yet he’s still highly thought of amongst saints fans. I just think that there’s still a general lack of support and empathy around the club right now that supporters are just gonna be more negative that is actually warranted.
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5 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:
Does Martindale live in Livi? I suppose if he doesn't want to move house (and won't get either the OF or Edinburgh jobs) then it's probably us, then St Johnstone in terms of bigger clubs that would suit his commute.
Aye he lives in Edinburgh, so commuting wouldn't be an issue since it's about 15/20 mins more to Perth at most.
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Just now, The Marly said:
I'm not so sure on the "far more money" tbh. I think Davidson saw to that.
I dunno, we're still able to offer more than Livi and I'd wager quite a bit. It's not that Martindale wants to sign all these unknown journeymen I don't think he just doesn't have a choice. We now he wanted to sign the likes of Robbie Deas, but couldn't get close at all, neither did saints in the end, but we had more of a shot for sure.
I'd take Martindale for sure, not just cause I see him a couple of times a week where I work and he does seem like a properly nice guy. I think he's also up there with the best man managers in the league and as others have said, would be allowed time even if we were relegated to sort the shit show out.
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Think I said it last time as well, but I’d be looking at Rhys McCabe. I think we know we’re going down already, so may as well bring in someone young with ideas and who plays attacking football.
Not sure he’s ready to hang up his boots just yet though so probably the only issue.
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17 hours ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:
Winking or only one eye?
Top cat.
Thank you.
Oh she has two eyes, not that you'd ever guess from the amount of times she bashes her head on stuff!
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No, you’re not going out for the third time today in the howling wind. No, you’re not getting more food and no I do not want to join your cult of the void!
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13 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:
Izzy Jones going from unable to get into our side as a winger, to one of the most in demand wing backs in the EFL, within a few years is one of the weirdest things i can remember happening.
He never even missed the chance at Ayr really, he just fell over when clean through.
Did show that Tommy Wright could spot a player when he had to!
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All things Dundee FC
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
Play is very, very generous to say the least, but he’ll stand out wide for the majority of the game.