Valentino Bolognese
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Posts posted by Valentino Bolognese
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13 minutes ago, Jamie_Beatson said:
Is Mitchell carrying a knock or something? First name on the team sheet for me so can't understand why we'd bench him when he's available. Phillips can probably feel a bit aggrieved to have been left out in favour of Crawford.
On Mitchell, call me paraniod but the repeated articles with the theme of 'Mitchell is definitely not being recalled' struck me as a bit odd. Something you'd mention in passing rather than make it the headline of more than one story?
His spell on the bench might well indicate he's heading back south half way through is loan, like Danny MacNamara?
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7 minutes ago, Jamie_Beatson said:
Is Mitchell carrying a knock or something? First name on the team sheet for me so can't understand why we'd bench him when he's available. Phillips can probably feel a bit aggrieved to have been left out in favour of Crawford.
I'm honestly begining to think Callum Davidson reads supporter forums in order to troll us with his team selection.
As I said above, he's clearly been itching to start Crawford for the last month.
Wonder who he things is going to stand up to Cammy Devlin in that tackle-averse midfield?
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Had my doubts but that's getting on for an hour before KO and not even a pitch inspection.
Maybe the relay during the summer did some good.
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54 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:
I guess its the worry the more players become available, really.
Absolute certs to start should be Matthews, Mitchell, Considine, McGowan, Wright, Wotherspoon, May and Clark.
So really it should be a choice of LWB from Booth, Gallacher or Montgomery.
Then a choice of 2 CMs from Carey, Hallberg and Phillips.
I have a feeling we'll see Brown and McLennnan wedged in somewhere though.
I'd be surprised if he drops Gordon and I don't agree that Wotherspoon is a certain starter, but do agree with the others and he'll surely start Hallberg. Think this is the wrong game for them though with the pace and quality they have up front. LWB will be Monty I'd imagine.
I don't think he'll start McLennan, as he just seems much more effective off the bench but you've got to think we'll try to exploit the weakend Hearts defence and his direct running at full-backs would be useful.
A Callum classic with Brown, Crawford and McPherson all starting I reckon, you can tell he's itching to start the latter two.
I'd prefer Remi, Wright, McGowan, Mitchell, Considine, Montgomery, Carey, Phillips Wotherspoon, Clarke, May.
WB's and wide midfielders important in this game, need to get Zander under pressure with crosses but also with the ball on the ground. He was never great with the ball at his feet so for that reason I could maybe see the logic in swapping out Nicky for someone that would press more, which I guess would be Bair?
Thinking this will be a score draw but also get the fear that this will be one we lose to a Hearts penalty.
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4 hours ago, Dav nan Gael said:
Don't know what DM saw in him,not the 1st time either he's brought some goat in,that couldn't kick his arse from his elbow.
Not sure that's a fair ask on a football player. A contortionist maybe?
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2 hours ago, PSJ.84 said:
Could be recency bias, but James Brown genuinely makes Scobbie look exciting. However, nowhere near as many heart attack moments with Brown.
True IMO. Brown and Hallberg really seem to slow us down in moving the ball up the park, which I think we've show some promise in this year with the Stevie Nicks up front. Even Bair is starting to show some potential and MacLelland has a bit of pace and directness in getting ito good wide positions, Drey looks fit and can drive from deep but withtout Montgomery we don't have that option of an outball on the other side. If we can move the ball quick through the middle we look like a football team.
Wotherspoon, Carey aren't quick but they can find space / a pass with thier quality. Melker just seems ponderous.
To me it looks like Davidson would like to build the middle of the park around Phillips and MacPherson types that can break up the play and help with quicker transitions. I'd like to see Max in that mix too.
There is one big advantage to Hallberg being on the park which is that it should stop MacPherson taking right-footed free kicks.
Anyway, merry Christmas everyone. Time to start cooking.
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3 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:
I agree about Hallberg. Good technically but often there’s an element of the Gary McDonald about him.
Max must feel a bit hard done by, did well in his limited showings and today would have been the ideal chance to give him 25 minutes or so.
Yes, agree about Max. Not even on the bench today.
Phillips could be something or nothing, but to me, either his creative passing needs to improve or he needs to look for the easy ball more often if he's not going to / asked not to drive out himself.
I'd have him or McGowan as defensive mid ahead of Melker just now.
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Montgomery being back for Wednesday at least takes one issue away from the starting lineup today.
Might be controversial but I don't think our best 11 includes Hallberg or Gordon right now.
Big game on Wednesday.
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Ah well.
So, who's starting the thread for the Hearts game then?
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I think that the last couple of posts illustrate it took a lot to undo the goodwill of the double, so it will take a lot to bring back confidence.
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9 minutes ago, The Saintee said:
Can't think of too many players from recent years I'd want back.
Scenes when we announce Jahmal Hector-Ingram.
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5 hours ago, Valentino Bolognese said:
Curious to know, are these fans likely to come back when the place is purged of racists or is there not a concern they'll be lost to the club for good? Have to assume that some of them will be.
Thanks for all the responses to this.
Interesting to hear that folk think that the Chairman is damaging the 'community club' vibe. I've always thought that's a strength that Saints have and with new ownership likely it's something I hope and expect we'll be protective of. It's very important when you don't have a big population to pull support from.
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20 hours ago, big al said:
All the fans who were greeting for Davidson (double winning manager) to be removed all seemed to have vanished.
I think this is wishful thinking I'm afraid, I'm not seeing or hearing anyone munching on humble pie.
For me there have been 3 massive areas of concern; the ability to motivate the players, squad building and tactics.
On the first I'm delighted to since that day in Kelty he does seem to have strength in the dressing room. No shortage of spirit in this team, although bringing in old, experienced pros and vocal leaders (Mitchell) has probably played a part too. As others have said the squad is far from convincing although we do have better quality in some areas, and did better than expected in replacing Zander. As @tree house tamsaid we've ridden our luck a couple of times and got some breaks we might not have last year, and I'll also admit that we're marginally better to watch as we're scoring more.
So better, but the jury is still very much out for me. It would be interesting to see what a new owner would to if we have a season like last year.
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11 hours ago, Comrie said:
Trying to hide that swathes of the support have not come back still.
Curious to know, are these fans likely to come back when the place is purged of racists or is there not a concern they'll be lost to the club for good? Have to assume that some of them will be.
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Thinking of travelling through from Perth for this today and looking for some guidance.
1. Is the game likely to be on?
2. Decent pre-match pub?
3. Also assuming it must be cash/card at the gate?
Any help appreciated!
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43 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:
I wonder they imagined the aesthetic to be.
Eccumenicalism
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Those subs baffled everyone. I honestly, perhaps naively thought that he'd moved on from the Crawford experiment but apparently the bromance is still strong.
First half we should have had it wrapped up or at least have been going in one up. The players (both teams to be fair) looked leggy and overall it was a poor game between two tired teams.
As others have said our subs just killed us. God alone knows what pictures Crawford has of Davidson.
@RandomGuy.think that's a bit unfair on Bair, he was hardly on the pitch.
Still, a good time to take stock and it's obviously a big improvement on last year and we do at least look like a team that are playing for the manager and know what they're expected to be doing.
Great to see Spoony back but I don't think that was a performance to get him to a world cup (much as I hope I'm wrong). He looks a few games short of fitness and sharpness to me.
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6 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:
I'm pro-split and find most of the arguments against it pretty weak.
Good to see Europe finally getting in line with its greatest division.
You can't have a division without a split
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How do Motherwell fans think Moult has been doing since coming back?
The returning hero trick is one that seems to fail more than succeed IMO but I've not been paying much attention.
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2 hours ago, craigkillie said:
I don't remember specifically saying it was the worst in the league (doesn't mean I didn't, I say a lot of stuff), but I do genuinely think your squad is quite poor, and the manager is doing well to get a tune out of it at the moment. Saints finished 11th last season and the squad has on paper got a lot worse with the loss of Rooney, Hendry, Clark and McCart, albeit McCart didn't play well at all last season.Mitchell and Matthews have been good replacements in their positions, the latter making the biggest difference given what the goalkeeper situation looked like up until he arrived. McGowan and Carey have never been anything other than bottom six standard players, even at their peak in Scotland, and Murphy was good but injuries have limited his usefulness.
Apologies if I misremembered.
As already said I think a lot of fans thought that we'd downgraded this season, but it's not really turning out that way.
Taking the players you mention, Rooney was a talisman and a unique goal threat, but him and McCart in the team effectively forced us into being a one-trick pony team with the long diagonal. It was predictable, prone to fail when as you say McCart was in poor form and frankly we were soon found out and had nothing else in the locker to create problems for ether defenders or managers. Which is why we scored virtually zero goals until we recalled Hendry. On that, most would say that the versatility in attack that Nicky Clark has brought, unlocking Stevie May, has more than replaced his presence.
I think you underestimate Carey and McGowan has been far better than we would have expected, with Murphy adding a different dimension.
Finally I think most fans would concede that so far, Matthews looks if anything an upgrade on Zander.
But I also agree with the general point that that recent performances have probably been more than the sum of our parts.
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Hold on, let's back up minute here.
Hibs aren't diddies?
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15 minutes ago, SJFCtheTeamForMe said:
Wonder whether Parish will be back in goal for this one. He was limping for large parts of the game from moments in the first half onwards on Wednesday. I also noticed him taking a goal kick on his left foot as well and regularly avoiding using his right leg when he could.
Can see Davidson sticking with Brown if he's fit.
0-0.
I'd play Remi even if his leg's been amputated.
Expect that CD will indeed go with Jamie's team but with Brown instead of Monty. Not what I or most fans would do but there you go.
With Motherwell seemingly having a lot of injuries all over the park including KVV, hard to see where their goals come from against that back 3. Sean Goss possibly the biggest threat?
Must be the fact it's a Friday but despite the fact they seemed to do well against Celtic I'm feeling fairly confident that a draw would be a bad result for us here.
2-1, and Saints to head to the WC break with 13 points from 15 under VAR.
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9 minutes ago, Widge said:
Agreed, he’s the only player we’ve got in the squad who can go past a couple of men on the turn and get you on the counter. He’s a bit hot and cold, but then again that could be his career in a nutshell. Either way I’d rather have Murphy playing than O’Halloran!
I thought Drey Wright looked surprisingly quick on Wednesday night (against Tanser, who's admittedly not that quick). Thought he'd looked more sluggish than his first spell for us this time around but the other night I thought he was more rapid. Was also good to see him going in full-blooded for 50/50s, showed a lot of heart given how bad his injury was before he left for Hibs.
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7 minutes ago, Radford said:
Before his injury I thought he'd probably been our best player and am a little surprised he's been used so little recently.
He was always gonna be a bit of a square peg with system Davidson uses but simply his technical ability, vision and ability to turn and carry the ball makes him an asset for me.
Have to agree. He sort of typifies how I'm feeling about the squad generally.
Someone (I think it was @craigkillie) was saying on the terrace podcast a couple of weeks ago (and was pretty adamant about it) that we had the worst squad in the league, which I though was a bit wild. Not saying it's a nailed on top 6 bunch of players but I'm going to swallow my pride a bit and admit that what I thought was a bloated, resource-draining collection of too-old players is proving its' worth as we move into the time of the season for injuries and totting-up suspensions. On any given Saturday we've got a better bench than most of our immediate rivals and players like Murphy that give a bit of quality and flexibility.
Of course it's by no means perfect. Still too old, still relying on a loan keeper who's been nothing short of excellent and worth more than a few point for us, still some money wasted and/or players that we don't really have much of an idea of (Mahon, Phillips for example) but it's a squad that's doing a job for us.
Definitely need to developing sellable assets though.
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Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
Think @Jamie_Beatsonpretty much covers it. We have a better, bigger squad than last year, are scoring more goals and seem to have great spirit. Credit for that has to go to Davidson in some measure. He's generally playing with a front 2 and has shown some willingness, under pressure and when losing, to very occasionally move to a back 4.
But massive frustrations remain with his inflexibility and utterly baffling selections. Last night was peak Davidson. Absolutely every single Saints fan could have written the script as soon as that team sheet was announce and that's the issue we all have. If we can see the issues, watching the team for 90 minutes once a week, we can't understand how someone whose actual full time job it is can't.
We're much better than we were, but not as good as we could be.