Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[PSJ.84]

 

8 minutes ago, DavidSJFC01 said:

Do we reckon BBC will show the game again this week?

Would be surprised with both Rangers and Aberdeen also due to play on Thursday. At an uneducated guess I’d imagine Premier will take the Rangers game, and if the BBC do take either of the remaining two, it’d be Aberdeen

[PauloPerth]

15 hours ago, Sh*teAndMuck said:

A striker won’t solve all our problems if we play like today.

We’ve totally changed from passing the ball around comfortably on the flanks etc and not creating enough, to punting it from back to front and creating even less. 

We also look more likely to give away an easy goal and are collectively more hesitant when we do get a chance in front of goal than ever. How many times did we dither and let their defenders get blocks in?

And the tactically aware manager puts big Rooney up front for a fair portion of the game. Wtf was that?

If LASK had anyone watching that they won’t believe their luck they’ve to play us on Thursday. 

Note - these are observations from today’s game only. Hope it was a one-off cos it’s given me the fitba depression.

Agree we have gone long a lot the past two games, but I think that was more based around the opposition. We passed it into midfield constantly against Motherwell, and even in Istanbul.

Against Galatasary at home we were doing so much work without the ball that when we won it back there were few options and we inevitably just lashed it away to clear our lines as they put pressure on immediately.  I think only McCann showed the composure to look to keep it, but even he ended up just playing it long into space once or twice.

Against Arbroath, it was obvious they were out to rapidly close down everything in midfield, but more or less left our defenders on the ball.  They scrapped for everything in midfield and won a lot of challenges.  It looked like we were going for long diagonals to try to get in behind but we barely won an attacking header all day. McCart especially seemed to spend most of the game playing that ball.

We needed players who could drive forward with the ball to open up space; when Rooney did that a couple of times we got into great positions.

 

[Valentino Bolognese]

40 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Agree we have gone long a lot the past two games, but I think that was more based around the opposition. We passed it into midfield constantly against Motherwell, and even in Istanbul.

Against Galatasary at home we were doing so much work without the ball that when we won it back there were few options and we inevitably just lashed it away to clear our lines as they put pressure on immediately.  I think only McCann showed the composure to look to keep it, but even he ended up just playing it long into space once or twice.

Against Arbroath, it was obvious they were out to rapidly close down everything in midfield, but more or less left our defenders on the ball.  They scrapped for everything in midfield and won a lot of challenges.  It looked like we were going for long diagonals to try to get in behind but we barely won an attacking header all day. McCart especially seemed to spend most of the game playing that ball.

We needed players who could drive forward with the ball to open up space; when Rooney did that a couple of times we got into great positions.

 

Going back to the comment I made about this last week, without doubt long ball was the gameplan. I think if we had Zander in goals it would have been long kicks / kicks from hands all day, but Paris loves a long throw (and he's good at it to be fair). Unfortunately a lot of the time the throws seemed to end up with Brown. Without evidence, my thinking on all this is that it's because the best 3 players we have to create something by playing out the middle of the park are Spoony, McCann and arguably Bryson. So I see it as we've been forced into it by absences rather than it being a choice - that would make little sense based on what we've seen of CD as a manager.

We certainly don't have the forwards for it and yesterday that was brutally apparent. May seems half-done, Hendry's a disaster and simply cannot win a header. At least he didn't get himself sent off. Without Spoony if we must play a front 3 I'd be tempted to try Middleton, Kane and MOH. Can see the risks but could be chaotic.

Other observations from yesterday would be that to me, Brown is still very much a full-back and struggles as a wing-back. I don't think he's good enough (yet). Middleton should start and probably finish every game. Craig needs to get those coaching badges asap and transition to a backroom role. It's still early and that was a tired, rag-tag team, but we absolutely need Wotherspoon and the Finn asap but even at that we'll need better strength in depth. Positive: Devine looked good again, decent competition for the LWB spot.

Lots to worry about based on yesterday if you happen to be of a knicker-wetting persuasion, but far too early for that. What will give me a leaky gusset is if we lose 2 or more of McCann, Kerr, McCart, Rooney without adequate replacement.

Final thought, would have been good to see Gilmour in action. Suspect we might have been if it had been more comfortable.

[PauloPerth]

17 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Going back to the comment I made about this last week, without doubt long ball was the gameplan. I think if we had Zander in goals it would have been long kicks / kicks from hands all day, but Paris loves a long throw (and he's good at it to be fair). Unfortunately a lot of the time the throws seemed to end up with Brown. Without evidence, my thinking on all this is that it's because the best 3 players we have to create something by playing out the middle of the park are Spoony, McCann and arguably Bryson. So I see it as we've been forced into it by absences rather than it being a choice - that would make little sense based on what we've seen of CD as a manager.

We certainly don't have the forwards for it and yesterday that was brutally apparent. May seems half-done, Hendry's a disaster and simply cannot win a header. At least he didn't get himself sent off. Without Spoony if we must play a front 3 I'd be tempted to try Middleton, Kane and MOH. Can see the risks but could be chaotic.

Other observations from yesterday would be that to me, Brown is still very much a full-back and struggles as a wing-back. I don't think he's good enough (yet). Middleton should start and probably finish every game. Craig needs to get those coaching badges asap and transition to a backroom role. It's still early and that was a tired, rag-tag team, but we absolutely need Wotherspoon and the Finn asap but even at that we'll need better strength in depth. Positive: Devine looked good again, decent competition for the LWB spot.

Lots to worry about based on yesterday if you happen to be of a knicker-wetting persuasion, but far too early for that. What will give me a leaky gusset is if we lose 2 or more of McCann, Kerr, McCart, Rooney without adequate replacement.

Final thought, would have been good to see Gilmour in action. Suspect we might have been if it had been more comfortable.

Agree about the missing personnel, players you want to get on the ball usually.

Said similar about Brown, he's very average. Positionally he's disciplined, seems defensively okay so far and i guess that's why he's been signed, but if we still have possession after he's been on it I'm relieved.  He did have a great run and 1-2 with McCann but delayed the shot too long.  Hopefully he's just still finding his feet and confidence, as he's not played a lot of football in his career.

Strange performance by Hendry, it's like he's been told to calm down and be more disciplined and he went too far the other way and was really passive.  He's not going to win every header, but you can at least be close to the defender to make it harder and so he gets less distance if you're there challenging. Callum looked a few feet away a lot of the time. I'm one of the few who still have hope for him, but was very disappointed on Sunday. He does get a lot of grief compared to May on here who is probably one of our highest earners, and let's be honest if he hadn't had that great season in 13-14, folk would be raging at his contribution.

Think Liam Craig still has a bit to offer. Poor the past couple of games but he often starts slowly as was mentioned previously, then gets in his stride. He played most of the game on Thursday chasing Galatasary players the whole time, and a full game yesterday, so understandable he wasn't at his best against a very up for it midfield.

Don't have any major worries, our issues are the same as they've always been, even when winning the two cups.  We're a brilliantly well organised team who work like mad, defend superbly all over the pitch and are generally good in possession.  But we're poor in the final third.  I just think that's the trade off with the workload all our attacking players are asked to take on. Look at the closing down Stevie May and Chris Kane do all game every game.  Even MOH used to jog back to recover sometimes after some of his attacking drives forward, now he's constantly working for the team and his output is maybe suffering as a result.

Quarter finals of the cup, unbeaten in the league and still in Europe! 

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

the Livi fan explaining it took 3 months for them post January to get a work permit gives me the fear. 

Absolute shambles. Although nearly everything post Brexit has been so hardly surprising.

 

Every word relating to the visas a complete fallacy. Specific to elite sport as well.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Mr Positive, sometimes.

[stevensanph]

Everyone better get used to dealing with the Home Office.  My wifes last visa renewal took 8 months despite paying the "super priority fee".  She is still awaiting the refund of her "NHS surcharge" which was promised, very publically, to all key workers when the government realised they were being embarrased.  Of course, what they say and what they do are two completely different things.

[Bankfoot Saints]

Premier sports on Thursday 

[PSJ.84]

5 minutes ago, Bankfoot Saints said:

Premier sports on Thursday 

Oops

[PSJ.84]

5 hours ago, PSJ.84 said:

 

Would be surprised with both Rangers and Aberdeen also due to play on Thursday. At an uneducated guess I’d imagine Premier will take the Rangers game, and if the BBC do take either of the remaining two, it’d be Aberdeen

[tree house tam]

Here's a wee video about Max and his unorthodox passage into football, he's the wee Ukrainian lad on loan at Brechin from us.

PM me if you need help understanding the lingo.

[FrankChickens1]

Think Galatasary might have learned more about us from video scouting prep than we thought - Marcao just got sent off for punching his teammate

[mizfit]

Courier reporting on Dundee United having work visa issues with the Finnish player they’ve also signed.

[RandomGuy.]

11 minutes ago, mizfit said:

Courier reporting on Dundee United having work visa issues with the Finnish player they’ve also signed.

And Hearts with an Australian CM.

Anyone any idea if you can start this process before the window opens?

Like if it's going to take a month every time could we agree a deal with someone halfway through December, start the work permit process, and have it all done during the January window?

[tree house tam]

It was just under a month that Motherwell had to wait for their Scandinavian to get the relevant paperwork in place and he had full international caps.

[double deluxe]

Finnally finnished

[glenrothes 1884 saint]

13 minutes ago, double deluxe said:

Finnally finnished

Hope you’re No teasing now ! 

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

32 minutes ago, double deluxe said:

Finnally finnished

Hopefully that'll stop every c**t tweeting "Announce Eetu"

[glenrothes 1884 saint]

1 minute ago, Mr Positive, sometimes. said:

Hopefully that'll stop every c**t tweeting "Announce Eetu"

Not until Saints say ok then 

[perthsaints99]

 

[Dvorak]

2 minutes ago, The Real Saints said:

Will it be finnished today?