Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[PSJ.84]

20 hours ago, tree house tam said:

Who we wanting as brothers next?

Criteria is they have to be complete diddies and somewhere Saints fans have been on a piss up. We need another side to make up the numbers in our save ESES tournament. 

Dundee?

[tree house tam]

1 hour ago, PSJ.84 said:

Dundee?

They'd absolutely relish the  chance of playing against 'European' opposition since there's only about 2 alive that can remember Perugia. They qualify through being absolute diddies, speaking a foreign language and Dundee being Scotlands sunniest city, but they're just too manky in my eyes.

 

So sadly it's a no from me. 

Edited October 24, 2022 by tree house tam

[RandomGuy.]

15 hours ago, PauloPerth said:

 

A midfield 4 and front 2 of:

Wright-McGowan-Hallberg-W’spoon

                  May  Clark

is surely fairly competitive against most sides.  I’d definitely keep McGowan in midfield as he’s been our best midfielder by a mile this season, and would provide cover for two centre backs.  You’d also have Murphy, Carey and Kucheriavyi to bring on.

Sticking with 5 at the back just feels like it leaves us short in midfield.

 

Guess the argument would be whats the difference with that mid/attack set up (if Brown is at RB), to us simply played 5-3-2 with Brown at RCB, Wright RWB, and the Wotherspoon in the middle with Hallberg/McGowan?

[PauloPerth]

1 hour ago, tree house tam said:

It has felt like that for years. It can be a necessity in games in which you have to defend 90% of the time but against any side from 3rd down? Wouldn't be my choice.

Yeh it has. It feels like there’s little chance of moving away from the comfort blanket of the 5.  Fear of losing is the underpinning factor in everything we do.
 

[PauloPerth]

5 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Guess the argument would be whats the difference with that mid/attack set up (if Brown is at RB), to us simply played 5-3-2 with Brown at RCB, Wright RWB, and the Wotherspoon in the middle with Hallberg/McGowan?

Yes they look similar, but I feel it would give us an extra body in midfield, as our wing backs are basically part of a back 5 when we are out of possession, and often when we’re in possession as well.  

We’d basically be swapping a centre back for a ball playing midfielder (Wotherspoon starting ahead of Gordon or Considine).

Whilst McGowan would sit, he’s forward of the back two to pick up scraps and any striker dropping off, and build play from there.  As there’s no player stepping out with the ball from centre back, this is the next best thing to build play.  He’s also very good at it.

Probably not the right game to judge, but I thought against Celtic it showed clearly that Wright was crying out for someone out wide in front of him to play the ball out to, but he generally had to go central as there was no one there, and invariably lost possession.

It feels that the way we set up is allowing the opposition to get on top of us by dominating midfield. The big exception was the powder puff midfield of Utd for the first hour or so at Tannadice.

Aa Tam said, for matches against OF then it’s completely understandable, but do we really need to be so cautious against everyone else? Let’s be honest, there really isn’t much between the other 10 teams.

All just my opinion. I do think we are trying to pass the ball far more than last season and the players have to take their share of criticism for a lot of carelessness on the ball the past 4 games other than  v 10 man Hibs.

[Widge]

I think the centreback thing that @Radford has picked up on is quite key here. The back 5 does only work if you can get support to your wingbacks. An example of this was on Friday night, when for the first time McGowan who'd been moved back there went up to support McLennan and as a result it freed up the cross and ultimately we scored from it. Now I get that this was against 10 men; however the point is still the same. McGowan is the only one of the centrebacks with a willingness to get involved. Considine of 5/6 years ago would have, but he doesn't have the legs anymore and has to play conservatively. 

It's genuinely frightening the number of times our wingbacks receive the ball with nobody within 30 yards and are simply expected to take 2/3 men on. I can understand why Stevie May does end up wide half the time, since he's actually one of the players trying to help. What was also noticeable on Friday was when Spoony came on, the ball got played that must faster into attacking areas, which we've missed. It meant Hallberg wasn't on the ball as much, but actually that worked in our favour as it meant he got up the pitch and when he did get it, he was more effective.

For all we played poorly on Friday for 70 minutes, you could actually see more of a positive game plan as a result which is interesting. 

[PauloPerth]

4 minutes ago, Widge said:

when Spoony came on, the ball got played that must faster into attacking areas, which we've missed. It meant Hallberg wasn't on the ball as much, but actually that worked in our favour as it meant he got up the pitch and when he did get it, he was more effective.

 

Agree. A criticism I have of Hallberg in possession is he usually wants to take as many touches as possible and kills any attacking momentum.

[The Saintee]

1 hour ago, PauloPerth said:

Yeh it has. It feels like there’s little chance of moving away from the comfort blanket of the 5.  Fear of losing is the underpinning factor in everything we do.
 

And yet we lose more consistently than anything.

[monkfish]

What's most depressing is that these same points re the non-preferred system have been obvious for around 12 months now. My last hope was that the new players would spur a change, but it hasn't happened. 

On the one hand it's good that Davidson acknowledged the first half performance was rubbish. On the other...what did he expect? 

The grounds for optimism that he is ever going to shift from the default approach of 'shitfest and sneak a goal' are slim.

[tree house tam]

Callum "it's not my preferred system" Davidson. 

6 windows later......

[PauloPerth]

On that note, here is our record for each ‘half’ season under Callum. The first (covid) season had no break so I’ve just used the turn of the year, last season upto and after the winter break:

Our current record of 13 goals in 12 matches so far is the best we’ve had under Davidson compared to the four previous half seasons.

 

 

[The Marly]

On 23/10/2022 at 15:12, PauloPerth said:

I’ve never been, take it it’s a shitehole? 

Yes.  Visited on a cruise.  Worst cruise port I've ever been to.  Like Blackpool but hotter and smelliest.

[SJFCtheTeamForMe]

#LadsOnTour

 

 

[Fife Saint]

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

[The Saintee]

7 minutes ago, SJFCtheTeamForMe said:

#LadsOnTour

 

 

Looks like the chairman is interested again. Never seen him smile so much.

[SJFCtheTeamForMe]

Paul Mathers is leaving Saints. 

Bring Alki Dad home. There's a campaign the Dogger lads can get going!

[Chefki Kuqi]

As annoyed as I am about Friday night its nice to see things going well for Saints after last season. Lots of doubt on a manager who'd previously done great things with the club, given the depth of despair at the time I can't blame anyone for that.

However its nice to see faith being given and it seems to have been rewarded thus far this season.

[tree house tam]

9 hours ago, Chefki Kuqi said:

As annoyed as I am about Friday night its nice to see things going well for Saints after last season. Lots of doubt on a manager who'd previously done great things with the club, given the depth of despair at the time I can't blame anyone for that.

However its nice to see faith being given and it seems to have been rewarded thus far this season.

Read the fucking room mate.

How anyone could say that performance and tactics by St Johnstone was anything but complete shite and just the same as last season is beyond me. It took until Hibs actually capitulated with the sending off for Saints to look remotely threatening, then you still need to add some clownshoes defending on top for us to score.

[tree house tam]

10 hours ago, SJFCtheTeamForMe said:

Paul Mathers is leaving Saints. 

I've previously let my feelings be known on here about the standards of goalkeeping coaching at Saints so won't go into it again. I'm okay with a change in direction being needed, change can be a good thing.

[Chefki Kuqi]

8 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

Read the fucking room mate.

How anyone could say that performance and tactics by St Johnstone was anything but complete shite and just the same as last season is beyond me. It took until Hibs actually capitulated with the sending off for Saints to look remotely threatening, then you still need to add some clownshoes defending on top for us to score.

Well my impression was based on a Friday night where I was fairly pissed and generally seeing your results over the last couple of weeks rather than any in-depth analysis so on the topic of reading the room you're right, not really taken the time to do that. Just a casual observation/musing.