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

[Div]

1 hour ago, aldo_j said:

Anyone had a whiff of who the mystery man is?

We could really do with a bit of positivity heading into Saturday. Someone like Doidge wouldn’t do that…

It's not going to be Doidge, or Main for that matter.

Neither fit the profile that Robbo described last week.

[Buddie Holly]

12 hours ago, AW saint said:

Wonder if any of them will play tomorrow in the closed doors game

who are we playing tomorrow?

[smellthepaw]

11 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

Teams failing to prepare properly for the League Cup and going in half fit or not taking it seriously is down to the managers of those clubs, not the format.

There was Motherwell on Saturday. Played two 16 year olds in midfield and won by a couple of goals and a clean sheet. May not have been their strongest starting lineup, though we're able to compete against a lower league club and get the 3 points

[AW saint]

5 minutes ago, Buddie Holly said:

who are we playing tomorrow?

Queens Park in a closed doors game

[elvis]

11 minutes ago, AW saint said:

Queens Park in a closed doors game

Today is it not.

[pozbaird]

12 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

Teams failing to prepare properly for the League Cup and going in half fit or not taking it seriously is down to the managers of those clubs, not the format.

OK then, we might as well tell players not to enjoy their close-season, they must keep match fit. We must tell guys who want to leave for other clubs not to do so. We must make all our new signings the week after the last season ends, so they will A. Be fit, and B. Can fully integrate into their new team both on and off the pitch.

St Mirren, for example should not be waiting on international clearance for one striker, and waiting on the paperwork to be dotted and crossed for an as yet un-named striker. We should have got rid of Carson and Main feckin’ ages ago. We should simply not have guys like McMenamin and Mandron still learning their new team-mates names. We should not have a manager trying new players in new formations in early July. Robinson should know his best team, his best formation, and how the new signings fit into that right off the bat.

Finally, fcuk the transfer window still having ages of time to run - that just fcuks things up even more. 
 

Look, I admit St Mirren fully deserve an arse kicking for meek losses to (no offence) Montrose, but as has been pointed out, we were guff in this LC Group pish last season, but went on to have a good Top 6 season where we even managed to get results against the uglies and were sniffing Hibs for Europe. Why is that? 
 

It is down to the format, IMHO. In great part. I want Robbo’ to have us ready for it, but when it transpires (again) that we look in re-build mode, trying to gain match fitness mode, and so on, I won’t demand his sacking over it. I get it, and he’ll have us ready for the league season, for sure. I don’t like it, I won’t apologise for not liking it, so ya boo sucks, etc.

[AW saint]

10 minutes ago, elvis said:

Today is it not.

Yes

[Shuggie_Murray7]

9 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

OK then, we might as well tell players not to enjoy their close-season, they must keep match fit. We must tell guys who want to leave for other clubs not to do so. We must make all our new signings the week after the last season ends, so they will A. Be fit, and B. Can fully integrate into their new team both on and off the pitch.

St Mirren, for example should not be waiting on international clearance for one striker, and waiting on the paperwork to be dotted and crossed for an as yet un-named striker. We should have got rid of Carson and Main feckin’ ages ago. We should simply not have guys like McMenamin and Mandron still learning their new team-mates names. We should not have a manager trying new players in new formations in early July. Robinson should know his best team, his best formation, and how the new signings fit into that right off the bat.

Finally, fcuk the transfer window still having ages of time to run - that just fcuks things up even more. 
 

Look, I admit St Mirren fully deserve an arse kicking for meek losses to (no offence) Montrose, but as has been pointed out, we were guff in this LC Group pish last season, but went on to have a good Top 6 season where we even managed to get results against the uglies and were sniffing Hibs for Europe. Why is that? 
 

It is down to the format, IMHO. In great part. I want Robbo’ to have us ready for it, but when it transpires (again) that we look in re-build mode, trying to gain match fitness mode, and so on, I won’t demand his sacking over it. I get it, and he’ll have us ready for the league season, for sure. I don’t like it, I won’t apologise for not liking it, so ya boo sucks, etc.

Of course Montrose are famous for having had the same squad and manager, with no comings and goings, since 1879.

It works both ways, Montrose are also in "pre-season" and shaping a squad and working on shape and tactics. It's no excuse for slipping up to a third tier outfit.

It's rank rotten whichever way you look at it.

I'm all for remaining positive and upbeat and the team will have my full backing come the first league game. But I can't get onboard with the happy clapping and hearing about how similar it is to last season when Montrose are in the same boat - if not an even more difficult position than us - and can still beat us.

It's a horrific result and we can't blame the format. All clubs in the cup at this stage are in the same poisition.

It's not good enough.

[Drooper]

9 minutes ago, Shuggie_Murray7 said:

Of course Montrose are famous for having had the same squad and manager, with no comings and goings, since 1879.

It works both ways, Montrose are also in "pre-season" and shaping a squad and working on shape and tactics. It's no excuse for slipping up to a third tier outfit.

It's rank rotten whichever way you look at it.

I'm all for remaining positive and upbeat and the team will have my full backing come the first league game. But I can't get onboard with the happy clapping and hearing about how similar it is to last season when Montrose are in the same boat - if not an even more difficult position than us - and can still beat us.

It's a horrific result and we can't blame the format. All clubs in the cup at this stage are in the same poisition.

It's not good enough.

No, it isn't good enough, but I don't believe Pozbaird was suggesting it is.

The point is, the format is flawed.  Close and pre-season are traditionally periods for rest, regrouping, and rebuilding. To schedule the early phase of an important cup competition at this time is ill-judged. Its an opinion, and one I agree with.

I can't really see any advantages in this format, aside from saving clubs having to schedule more friendly matches.

[medals]

1 minute ago, Drooper said:

No, it isn't good enough, but I don't believe Pozbaird was suggesting it is.

The point is, the format is flawed.  Close and pre-season are traditionally periods for rest, regrouping, and rebuilding. To schedule the early phase of an important cup competition at this time is ill-judged. Its an opinion, and one I agree with.

I can't really see any advantages in this format, aside from saving clubs having to schedule more friendly matches.

So we cannot beat Morton and Montrose and its a cup format issue?

Whatever their preseason set up is, it works better than ours.

We need to be more professional and that means having players fitter than they obviously have been so far for the 2nd year running.

At our level we need to have real depth in the squad at the start of every new season - even though we still have others to bring in.

I get assessing the younger lads but Motherwell had 4 of those in their 1st competitive match and still managed a comfortable win.

If its broke, and it is, it needs to be fixed.

[Div]

11 minutes ago, Drooper said:

No, it isn't good enough, but I don't believe Pozbaird was suggesting it is.

The point is, the format is flawed.  Close and pre-season are traditionally periods for rest, regrouping, and rebuilding. To schedule the early phase of an important cup competition at this time is ill-judged. Its an opinion, and one I agree with.

I can't really see any advantages in this format, aside from saving clubs having to schedule more friendly matches.

I think it's been done with good intentions, but it is quite hard on the players to be back playing competitive football already.

It's also quite hard on teams who are going through a squad rebuilding process and I think that's certainly the case with the likes of Dundee Utd who had an even worse result than we did at the weekend.

With us I'm not so sure that's a valid excuse though. We started with 8 players on the pitch who played regularly last season and should have been far better than we were. I don't think we have too many excuses for turning in such a lacklustre and disjointed display.

For me the most alarming thing was that there didn't really seem to be any sort of game plan whatsoever other than give the ball to Dec or Chilli D then fucking hoof it up the park. We should be better than that. We are better than that!

 

[AW saint]

We have glaring problems with creating chances. We rely on hoof ball or Strain too much. Our midfield creates nothing. We don't have a player who makes killer passes or sets up chances. Was hoping Conor would add to our playmaking but he won't if stuck at LWB. 

Until we address this we will struggle. McAlistair is one of the best finishers around even at his age. We don't have a player who can sniff out a half chance and score. 

Grieve, Mandron etc are not real goalscorers. They will run about but can't put away half chances. 

I hope we can address this. Lack of goals cost us European football. I am yet to see goals in this team. 

[Drooper]

15 minutes ago, medals said:

So we cannot beat Morton and Montrose and its a cup format issue?

Whatever their preseason set up is, it works better than ours.

We need to be more professional and that means having players fitter than they obviously have been so far for the 2nd year running.

At our level we need to have real depth in the squad at the start of every new season - even though we still have others to bring in.

I get assessing the younger lads but Motherwell had 4 of those in their 1st competitive match and still managed a comfortable win.

If its broke, and it is, it needs to be fixed.

Where did I suggest our failure to defeat Morton or Montrose is a format issue. 

There are two separate issues here. The LC format, and the team's recent performances.  The fundamental point being made is that ALL clubs are still in the process of building for the season so there is no level playing field.  This diminishes the competition.

None of that is an excuse for abysmal showings in matches we should be winning regardless.

[Drooper]

18 minutes ago, Div said:

I think it's been done with good intentions, but it is quite hard on the players to be back playing competitive football already.

It's also quite hard on teams who are going through a squad rebuilding process and I think that's certainly the case with the likes of Dundee Utd who had an even worse result than we did at the weekend.

With us I'm not so sure that's a valid excuse though. We started with 8 players on the pitch who played regularly last season and should have been far better than we were. I don't think we have too many excuses for turning in such a lacklustre and disjointed display.

For me the most alarming thing was that there didn't really seem to be any sort of game plan whatsoever other than give the ball to Dec or Chilli D then fucking hoof it up the park. We should be better than that. We are better than that!

 

I agree that it isn't an excuse. I don't think anyone is suggesting that, tbf.

[medals]

6 minutes ago, Drooper said:

Where did I suggest our failure to defeat Morton or Montrose is a format issue. 

There are two separate issues here. The LC format, and the team's recent performances.  The fundamental point being made is that ALL clubs are still in the process of building for the season so there is no level playing field.  This diminishes the competition.

None of that is an excuse for abysmal showings in matches we should be winning regardless.

You believe the cup format is an issue - I don't. 

As professionals, and knowing this format, we ought to be ready for it though, eh!

Getting beat by Arbroath and Airdrie ought to be a very rare thing for us given the gulf in League positions and budget, and here we are again with Montrose and pre L cup game against the Ton.

We have no control over the cup format, so moaning about that is a dead end.

Getting our preparations and fitness, match and physical, is a management task and that we can do sometime about.

[houston_bud]

I can see the argument about the format devaluing the competition. Im not sure I completely agree but it's an interesting point.

I wonder what the smaller clubs think of the format. Take Spartans or Elgin (or indeed Montrose) they got a game against a bigger side where they could test themselves, and they saw a much bigger crowd than would've been there had it been a friendly. This would've brought in a nice wee sum for them. The Spartans might just have had their biggest home crowd of the season. 

Should we get rid of this format? Maybe but there might be a lot of teams down the ladder that benefit from it.

[medals]

1 minute ago, houston_bud said:

Should we get rid of this format? Maybe but there might be a lot of teams down the ladder that benefit from it.

All teams can benefit from it by going further in the competition.

[medals]

https://twitter.com/saintmirrenfc/status/1680895304466419712/mediaviewer

[Drooper]

13 minutes ago, houston_bud said:

I can see the argument about the format devaluing the competition. Im not sure I completely agree but it's an interesting point.

I wonder what the smaller clubs think of the format. Take Spartans or Elgin (or indeed Montrose) they got a game against a bigger side where they could test themselves, and they saw a much bigger crowd than would've been there had it been a friendly. This would've brought in a nice wee sum for them. The Spartans might just have had their biggest home crowd of the season. 

Should we get rid of this format? Maybe but there might be a lot of teams down the ladder that benefit from it.

I think that's a decent counter position. Horses for courses, etc.

[Eddie Hitler]

42 minutes ago, Drooper said:

Where did I suggest our failure to defeat Morton or Montrose is a format issue. 

There are two separate issues here. The LC format, and the team's recent performances.  The fundamental point being made is that ALL clubs are still in the process of building for the season so there is no level playing field.  This diminishes the competition.

None of that is an excuse for abysmal showings in matches we should be winning regardless.

I am sorry but this seems like a logical fail.

You admit everyone is affected by need to rebuild but then say that's "not a level playing field".

It is a level playing field.

All the teams in the group stages needed to be ready to compete by 15 July 2023. That's a requirement which applied to all, and couldn't BE more of a "level playing field".

I don't know whether you mean, instead, that it's more "level" if it's later on so we are ready to thrash lower league opposition but, if we weren't as ready as we should have been v Montrose, that's our problem. But that sounds perilously close to demanding that a competition is bent to our needs and a wee bit entitled.