The European football level St. Mirren FC 2024/25 thread

[Captain_Sensible]

7 hours ago, btb said:

The Financial Reports issued by the club are deliberately opaque so it's silly to try and read too much into them but last season included a Top6 finish in the league and an away cup tie to Sellick resulting in revenue by up by well over £1M from the previous season, are we likely to do much better this season?

We'll probably have the dilemna of trying to cash in on at least one of our better players in the January transfer window while maintaining our current league position. 

We also sold Ethan Erhahon 

[medals]

Dire tonight

1 shot on target over 90 minutes.

Got what we deserved though they were just as bad.

[Hendo]

37 minutes ago, medals said:

Dire tonight

1 shot on target over 90 minutes.

Got what we deserved though they were just as bad.

Time to change things - i'd change to a back 4 with Strain out, as i think the 3-4-3 only works with him on one side and Tanser on the other. 4-3-3, hopefully give  us more control in central midfield and would have everyone playing in their natural position. Bolton in to partner Gogic at the back with O'Hara, Baccus and Boyd-Munce all in midfield. Has to be worth a try given the turgid shite we've served up the last few weeks.

[Bastian Pigclimber]

I think our squad is hard working, athletic and has a fair bit of pace but is lacking in guile going forward. I suspect McMenaman was meant to provide this and did so fairly well in the early part of the season. However he has either gone off the boil or the others have worked out how to keep him quite so we have become much more functional.

We are still third but not playing as well as we did earlier in the season. I think we need some tweaks to try to stop us sliding down the league.

 

 

[AW saint]

We have not played well for weeks. We were actually poor for 35 minutes against St Johnstone before they fell apart. 

Our game relies on Strain simple as that. He is our creative spark. If he doesnt play or is off it we struggle to find ideas. 

O'Hara is not playing anywhere near as good as he did last year. 

McMenamin has to do better. Get him away from defence and play him where he is supposed to play. 

We have Small and Bolton who surely can play defence. 

We have options time to use them. 

We are in danger of a slide down the table unless we get our form back. 

 

 

[Norrie82]

Our big players aren’t performing at present 

[MenstrieSaint]

We miss a Gogic type player in midfield , we are too easily bullied . 

[Arch Stanton]

1 hour ago, AW saint said:

We have not played well for weeks. We were actually poor for 35 minutes against St Johnstone before they fell apart. 

1. Our game relies on Strain simple as that. He is our creative spark. If he doesnt play or is off it we struggle to find ideas. 

2. O'Hara is not playing anywhere near as good as he did last year. 

3. McMenamin has to do better. Get him away from defence and play him where he is supposed to play. 

4. We have Small and Bolton who surely can play defence. 

We have options time to use them. 

We are in danger of a slide down the table unless we get our form back. 

1. No it doesn't. He has contributed with assists and a goal but so too has Tanser.

2. Agreed

3. Agreed, he has be played further forward. 

4. Agreed, use the whole squad.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Arch Stanton

[bishoptonbuddie]

8 hours ago, AW saint said:

We have not played well for weeks. We were actually poor for 35 minutes against St Johnstone before they fell apart. 

Our game relies on Strain simple as that. He is our creative spark. If he doesnt play or is off it we struggle to find ideas. 

O'Hara is not playing anywhere near as good as he did last year. 

McMenamin has to do better. Get him away from defence and play him where he is supposed to play. 

We have Small and Bolton who surely can play defence. 

We have options time to use them. 

We are in danger of a slide down the table unless we get our form back. 

 

 

Strain was arguably our most 'off the boil' player prior to his injury, and I thought his absence may have been a blessing in disguise for both parties. Unfortunately that has resulted in us shoehorning McMenamin in at wing back, which he is clearly not comfortable doing. There is clearly an issue with Bolton, he hasn't been given an opportunity apart from a couple of shaky substitute performances, so willing to give Robinson the benefit of the doubt as he works with him every day and appears not to trust him. 

McMenamin's price tag was always going to lump pressure on him. He's never played full time football before so could see past a clear lack of fitness at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, he hasn't look like he is any closer to getting up to speed, and for all that his deliveries are decent, his chop inside is all too predictable and is another that has been way off it for a while now.

The performance levels of O'Hara are another concern. Part of me wonders if he was rushed back from his injury because he hasn't been the same player since. Its probably old fashioned but I love a captain to grab the game by the scruff of the neck when we are struggling but O'Hara doesn't currently seem to have that in his locker. You also have players like Gogic seemingly trying to do too much at times and playing himself int danger over the last few games.

Hemming was glued to his line for goal last night – which goes back to the fact that he is a great shot stopper but some of his decision making at crosses is suspect. He was trying to punch everything in the first half.

As AW said, we have Small there and we should use him. He looked dangerous in his short time on the park against Hibs in the cup. He's the sort of chaos factor that we need right now – considering he doesn't know what he's going to do with the ball half the time.

A lot to reflect on after the last four or five performances, and I'm not trying to single any players out but when we were struggling to even make five yard passes when chasing the game last night, iy can be a bit concerning.

Watch us win at Ibrox now. If we did, it would sum up this team perfectly. And I look forward to it.

 

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

Whilst the result last night was disappointing, it wasn’t the worrying thing for me. Any sensible Saints fan knows this league is tight enough that we can lose to anyone in a one off game if we have an off day/night. 
The worrying thing was the performance on top of other recent performances. In my opinion last night was the worst yet. People saying things like “we’re just not at it” or words to that effect. Let’s be honest, that really doesn’t cover it at all. We are absolute horseshit and let’s not make any bones about that.

Positives? Struggling. In the first half the defence was solid again, but even they fell apart on a few occasions in the second half. Hemming made some decent saves and someone earlier made a comment about him trying to punch the ball all the time. I have no issue with that. He is an excellent puncher of the ball and gets really good distance on them. However, ultimately his poor decision making was a major factor in us losing the game last night. 
Don’t know about anyone else but I have the absolute fear about what (even an average) Rangers will do to that team at the weekend. Doesn’t bear thinking about. 

[medals]

I'm getting a bit fed up with "We didnt do the basics right"

3rd in the league you'd think we ought to have a good handle on the basics - right.

Loads of room for improvements but we need to learn to move the ball to feet and pass quicker. 

Teams sussing us out and better teams rise above the opposition.

[meadowroadsaint]

Well done to the Saints fans who came up last night  Can't remember being so cold for years at a match....

Saints were very poor, and as has been said, several players are not at levels they achieved earlier this season. We passed poorly, constantly gave the ball away and had absolutely no thrust from midfield which lumps pressure on the Defence, who I thought  coped with most of County's efforts.

McMenamin at where we are playing him is not working, wrong footed all the time. Switched to the left mid second half and immediately skinned the full back and sent in a delicious cross. That was what we were missing. Could'nt get Scott Tanser into the game  enough either which blunts us considerably. I guess I'm disappointed because I felt we could have got at least a point as County were not in great form. The constant shelling a high ball up to Mandron/Ayunga is very limited in success, especially with facing three giants..... I was hoping Olusanya's raw pace may have been utilised late on to pressure those three but never transpired. Oh Well, at least I can feel my toes are still functioning now 

Chance lost and all that.

[houston_bud]

We were always going to hit a sticky spell. So, as disappointing as we've been recently I'm not going to get too worked up.

We've got a lot of guys playing a lot of games, 6 or 7 internationalists that have been flying all over the world as well. They're bound to pick up knocks and the truth is we don't have a squad strong enough to rest some of these guys without noticing it.

Also, the other teams in the league have good players too. We can't expect to not be in a game in places like Dundee or Dingwall, or indeed anywhere.

[Div]

Just 2 wins in 8 now for us, and it's clear we've lost a bit of our early season mojo.

I genuinely don't think there is very much between ten of the teams in the division, as always games are decided on very fine margins.

Had we got the penalty we should have got last night at 0-0 we may well have gone on to win the game, even though we did not deserve to.

Had Livingston's header gone in at 0-0 on Saturday we might not have went on to win that game.

Paper thin margins.

 

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

Thinking about this a bit deeper, have we just been kidding ourselves a bit.

When we talk about “when we were playing much better earlier this season” does that actually stand up to scrutiny?

I thought the home game against Aberdeen was the best I’ve seen us play for a very, very long time. I also thought we were excellent at home to Hearts. You could argue that the first game of the season against Hibs was a good old cavalier type performance but let’s not pretend we weren’t ropey as f**k at the back that day as well.

Numerous other performances tho were not great. Dundee home. Livvy, Motherwell and Killie away. Motherwell at home in the LC. In all of those games we got results, but I’d suggest that was down to the paper thin margins Div refers to above, not because we were great. 

So other than a couple of games, is this early season 1970s Ajax team a bit of a figment of our imagination?

I think the main difference now from early season form is the style of our play rather than the quality. Gone is the fast paced passing game and ferocious high press that caused teams problems (whether we always capitalised on them is another matter) and they have been replaced with a more predictable, lethargic, long punt game that other teams just gobble up. 

[Div]

Just now, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Thinking about this a bit deeper, have we just been kidding ourselves a bit.

When we talk about “when we were playing much better earlier this season” does that actually stand up to scrutiny?

I thought the home game against Aberdeen was the best I’ve seen us play for a very, very long time. I also thought we were excellent at home to Hearts. You could argue that the first game of the season against Hibs was a good old cavalier type performance but let’s not pretend we weren’t ropey as f**k at the back that day as well.

Numerous other performances tho were not great. Dundee home. Livvy, Motherwell and Killie away. Motherwell at home in the LC. In all of those games we got results, but I’d suggest that was down to the paper thin margins Div refers to above, not because we were great. 

So other than a couple of games, is this early season 1970s Ajax team a bit of a figment of our imagination?

I think the main difference now from early season form is the style of our play rather than the quality. Gone is the fast paced passing game and ferocious high press that caused teams problems (whether we always capitalised on them is another matter) and they have been replaced with a more predictable, lethargic, long punt game that other teams just gobble up. 

Still think we're a good team with plenty very good players and a fantastic spirit, but I wouldn't say we're miles better than any of the other ten teams we are realistically competing with.

At home I'd fancy our chances against any of them. Away from home, not so much.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

I'm not sure why we even bothered bringing Small back. Strain is out and SR prefers Flynn and McMenamin on right, over moving Small to right full back. 

McMenamin is never a defender and is absolutely wasted there.

 

[meadowroadsaint]

8 minutes ago, Shuggie_Murray7 said:

I'm not sure why we even bothered bringing Small back. Strain is out and SR prefers Flynn and McMenamin on right, over moving Small to right full back. 

McMenamin is never a defender and is absolutely wasted there.

 

Seeing this happen last night at close quarters watching the game really brought it home. He isno comfortable on the right, that far back especially.

[NorthBank]

Earlier in the season we played a high press and passed through the midfield. An effective tactic which worked for us. However we are now sitting back more allowing the opposition to dictate with no high press. And with one or two big strikers playing we now miss out the midfield by just lumping high balls from the defence. Think we need a reset and get back to what once worked.

[Captain_Sensible]

While I agree that McMenamin isn’t comfortable at RWB, I’m not so sure that he’d be comfortable on the left wing

He played right wing at Glentoran where he scored 39 goals in 80 games. He scored his only goal for NI playing in the right

Not saying that we shouldn’t play him on the left, just pointing out that we signed him based on his performances on the right wing

As for the team in general, we’re sitting 3rd and there isn’t much between any of the sides after the OF. I’ve watched years of shite where we were struggling in the First Division. I’d expect a defeat away to Ross County anytime and anything else is a bonus!