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

[SS77]

41 minutes ago, AW saint said:

Our performances against Hibs first half, Brann and now today give me the fear. 

We miss MOH and Kiltie. 

It is glaringly obvious we need a striker. Apart from Olusanya the rest just don't cut it.  

We also need a leader in the midfield. CBM etc good ball players but not leaders. If Ryan Jack is a possible signing then go get him. 

It is going to be a slog this season unless we find a goalscorer. 

 

I know its early days in the season but our form is a worry. 

Our form is a worry? 

We’ve beat Hibs 3-0, knocked Valur out in our first European tie in nearly 40 years and drew with a very good Brann side.

[Road Dogg]

47 minutes ago, AW saint said:

I know its early days in the season but our form is a worry. 

[medals]

2 minutes ago, SS77 said:

Our form is a worry? 

We’ve beat Hibs 3-0, knocked Valur out in our first European tie in nearly 40 years and drew with a very good Brann side.

You are spot on but -

We are riding a bit of luck and last gasp defending/goalkeeping too. 

I didn't think Aberdeen had better depth in their squad today but 3 v 1 is not a good result for us.

We have more aerial threat than previously, winning 19 to their 9 duals won, but we need to use that more at set pieces in their box and we need a better shot to goals strike rate too.

Of course we miss O'Hara and Kiltie, and it's still very early and we will improve,  but losing 3 goals is never great.

Let's roll on, but hope we find another good player to sign on.

[Ric]

11 minutes ago, medals said:

We have more aerial threat than previously, winning 19 to their 9 duals won...

See with the revamped BBC Sport pages, it shows you that stat and in our previous games (sure.. Hibs, Valur) we were streets ahead. I see the Aberdeen game is the same.

Obvs, it's a Hendrie-ism to rely on stats ("we had more corners") but it's an interesting stat and if it was reversed I think we'd be concerned.

[Torfason]

Aberdeen have brought in a a manager who actually knows what he is doing and have signed players to fit a style, with an £800K player to come in, so not exactly a shock result to lose away to them.

I expect Hibs to be dug meat but the Aberdeen definitely look good candidates for top six.

We have been punching above our weight and probably will do again this season but teams like Aberdeen are bigger and better funded so onwards and upwards. 

[Norrie82]

St Mirren have made tremendous progress under Stephen Robinson. You only need to attend a game and see how busy and vibrant things are. It’s incredible to be now in Europe. Of course there are better funded teams in our league but for many many years St Johnstone and Kilmarnock were pushing for too six and indeed made it. So let’s hope that we have now moved on from worrying about relegation to always being a team that’s chasing top six and being competitive in all games. I happens to think we are that and I think in my 37 years following this feels like the best time in my life 

[brannfakkel]

I'm sorry for this wall of text, but I think some of you might find this quite interesting. Otherwise skip right past

Quite a few people have been puzzled by the small away numbers Brann had (183 i think?), especially when you factor in that St. Mirren are bringing 750–1500 to Bergen though having less than half the home crowds of Brann. I answered why that might be over in the other St Mirren european thread (are there two european threads? I don't get the difference but I'm new here). I'll answer it here also as this seems to be the main thread and so many have asked. Again, skip if you don't care.

To summarize quickly before I expand:

• Short notice.
• ...which makes it expensive, especially right after an international away day against Go Ahead Eagles.
• Away day in Drammen which is 6–7 hrs away, the Sunday just days before.
• Away day culture is kinda strong, but not as strong as in the UK. In part due to extremely long distances, which makes it time consuming and expensive.

The long and very interesting answer:

Take a look at this map (link to Google Maps view of Scottish Premiership clubs) and then take a look at this map (link to Google Maps view of Norwegian Eliteserien clubs). Then set the zoom level to the same on both maps and compare. You probably already know, but as you see distances in Norway are long. Very much longer than in Scotland. And between cities there are basically no connecting motorways with high speed limits (except 1–2 hrs radially around Oslo), and except of Oslo no cities really have radial train service. This means we take buses for hours which is the cheapest, or we fly which is usually extremely expensive if the game is somewhere else than the Oslo area. Then add it all up over the season.

Look again and you'll see many clubs in Norway sit kinda alone on the map, including Brann in Bergen. You're either crossing the mountains going east, or the fjords going north/south.

Today you played Aberdeen, approx. 6 hrs roundtrip by car from Paisley (according to Google Maps). I have understood this is your second longest away day, the longest being playing against Ross County in Dingwall (correct me if I'm wrong). This is the same as our closest away day vs Haugesund, which also includes one ferry crossing. Our second closest is the «derby» (lol!) in Stavanger vs Viking which is 5 hrs one way in car/bus. This includes two ferry crossings. And from here on it just gets worse. Molde is 8,5 hrs and 3 ferries, Kristiansund is 9,5 hrs. That is, if we catch the ferries perfectly, and you never do that. And from here on out we just have to take the plane.

All the clubs in the Oslo and central eastern region is about 6–8 hrs away with car or train. Now here it is a bit cheaper to fly to, our one and only cross-regional train line goes there, and combined with a lot of ex-Bergeners living in this area as well, away days here are usually well visited with between 500–2000 people depending on where. This is pretty good by Norwegian standards.

Tromsø is just as far from Bergen as Prague and Paris (!!), and Bodø just as far away as Manchester and Amsterdam, so there is no other reasonable way to get there than to fly. As makes sense, these are the least visited away days for Brann. I myself have never even been to northern Norway at age 30, and this goes for many in southern Norway. (A shame though, I have to go one day)

Isolated, it wouldn't be a big ask to get a big following anywhere if the occasion is big (we brought 15–20 000 to Oslo and the cup final last year), but when you take into account all of the above you'll understand that away days in Norway are first and foremost for the ones especially inclined to make Brann their whole life, economically and time-wise. It's not like you can just hop on the train for an hour or two for 5–20 quid each direction.

It just drains your wallet when you do it all year, and you really have to commit your personal schedule. 

When you then also have sold out the away section in the Netherlands, then have just 7 days notice, in addition to an away day in Drammen the sunday before the St. Mirren game (we brought about 1000), I find the visiting numbers in Paisley to be quite respectable.

So having 5 away days in a mere month, 2 of them international and the other 3 in Bodø, Drammen and Sarpsborg, what more can you really ask for?

Edited August 11 by brannfakkel
Grammar

[buddie06smfc]

2 hours ago, AW saint said:

Our performances against Hibs first half, Brann and now today give me the fear. 

We miss MOH and Kiltie. 

It is glaringly obvious we need a striker. Apart from Olusanya the rest just don't cut it.  

We also need a leader in the midfield. CBM etc good ball players but not leaders. If Ryan Jack is a possible signing then go get him. 

It is going to be a slog this season unless we find a goalscorer. 

I know its early days in the season but our form is a worry. 

You talk some amount of cliche-filled pish.

[Lex]

2 hours ago, AW saint said:

 

I know it’s early days in the season but our form is a worry. 

We’ve played four competitive games and lost one of them, where’s the worry with form? We’ve had a good start to the season. 

We lost today because we got leggy second half, unsurprisingly when you look at the exertion levels chasing the ball for 90+ minutes on a heavy pitch Thursday night. 
This was always likely to happen.

[AW saint]

16 minutes ago, Lex said:

We’ve played four competitive games and lost one of them, where’s the worry with form? We’ve had a good start to the season. 

We lost today because we got leggy second half, unsurprisingly when you look at the exertion levels chasing the ball for 90+ minutes on a heavy pitch Thursday night. 
This was always likely to happen.

Can only hope you called it. It's about opinions I hope mine is wrong

[Ric]

"If you make those mistakes, you lose football matches so we didn't deserve anything."

Fair play to Robinson, he always plays it straight with media comments. I didn't watch the game, by the time I caught up with the scores we were 2-1 down about to go 3-1 down so I really can't comment, but I feel that while we've had managers who would pull out the cliches "the boys done well, it's a learning experience, etc, etc.." I feel Robinson knew were were shit and said so.

[zildjian]

We weren’t great today and we didn’t really have many chances to score either. Not going to get too down and out about it this early on in the season. However, ‘the boys getting up to speed playing games’ patter will only be able to be used for so long.

Balcombe not great and had some wobblers. 

My heart sank when I thought gogic was injured! 

Midfield seems to lack any grit without MOH there. Despite his two goals against hibs, I’m not sold on Smyth just yet. 
 

Idawu was getting rings run round him to the point he was clearly just pulling Aberdeen players back even in their own half!

Set Pieces were woeful. Last season CBM was clinical with his crossing.  However, they have been poor this season. Surely our stats guys can see 3 out 4 of his crosses never actually go near a player! MOH when CBM was out injured was a breath of fresh air.

Toyosi and Scott have done well recently But I was genuinely surprised they both started together. Not as they don’t deserve it, but surely the tactic is to keep one to go against tired defences towards the end. If we are going to play direct balls to strikers we do need an Ayunga or Mandron on the pitch imo. 

Overall, a pretty poor performance. Need to be much better on Thursday to stand a chance.

 

[houston_bud]

I thought the first half we were OK, Aberdeen maybe shaded it. Second half they were much better and we never really laid a glove on them. 

Last season taking 7 points from 9 against them (and it should've been all 9) was unlikely to be repeated. I'm not going to get too worked up over losing at Pittodrie, it won't define our season, and there were some positives to take from the game; Adeniran looked good, Iacovitti getting a start, Tanser getting up to speed, Olusanya gets more important to the team every week it seems.

Aberdeen look better than last year but difficult to know how good they'll be. Top 6 probably, but the fans will be calling for Thelin's head if they're any lower than 4th.

[smellthepaw]

14 hours ago, SS77 said:

Our form is a worry? 

We’ve beat Hibs 3-0, knocked Valur out in our first European tie in nearly 40 years and drew with a very good Brann side.

Add into that, yesterday was our first defeat in opening 5 competitive games. 2 of which were before the season officially started.

It shows how far we have come if people are complaining about not taking 3 points at a difficult place like Pittodrie. But it's the usual reaction from a minority who can't see past some things. Back to back weeks with 2 games a week.

[NorthBank]

Thought the defence was terrible yesterday. Not only the shocking marking for all 3 goals but the continuous side and back passing eventually ending with a Gogic lump up the park to no one. We really missed Taylor's positivity out of defence and bringing the midfield into play.

And we need another striker who at least will work their socks off.

 

[Eddie Hitler]

Would agree with those saying that calm heads are needed. We've had one game where we were heavily outplayed at, frankly, a higher level of football which isn't going to be something we spend all season facing, and another disappointing result. However, losing at Pittodrie is not a disaster in isolation imho, albeit I accept these are games we do need to get the odd result from if aiming at top half again. 

I also think people are being a bit harsh on the forwards, as I think they are all useful in certain situations (I don't really think Ayunga and Mandron complement each other at all well, though).

This said, looking at what could happen if certain players get hurt does give me some pause.

If Gogic gets hurt, do we have someone who can be that lynchpin in the centre? I am not talking about someone who can be "shoved there and do a job" but an actual replacement. I think some fans are too ready to say "just shove Rooney there" or whatever, without considering that means a lack of cover in that guy's position.

If Toyosi were to get hurt, we would lack pace up front imho. I think Scott shows signs of reading the game very well but isn't as quick and post-injury Ayunga has (unfortunately) seemed to lost a yard. Mandron is there as a foil to lay the quick guys on. I believe Robbo himself has suggested he wants a pacy forward and I don't think it's hard to see why. You have to look forwards but this is one reason why I was not thrilled to see Greive go - he was also quite quick and could make a nuisance of himself. Can't go backwards, as I say, but we want someone like that with maybe the ability to be more than a super sub.

Edited August 12 by Eddie Hitler

[aldo_j]

56 minutes ago, NorthBank said:

Thought the defence was terrible yesterday. Not only the shocking marking for all 3 goals but the continuous side and back passing eventually ending with a Gogic lump up the park to no one. We really missed Taylor's positivity out of defence and bringing the midfield into play.

And we need another striker who at least will work their socks off.

 

From the games I’ve been to this season, teams are definitely targeting the space between Fraser and Gogic - possibly given Fraser isn’t the quickest? It’s been a bit of theme this season and back end of last season, from memory. 

Iacovitti is an interesting one - he’s definitely not going to add the same as Taylor from a ball playing or pace perspective. So is left of a back 3 the best place for him?

in terms of attacking threat, we’ll see a player or two coming in. There’s probably two lists and it depends on whether we progress in Europe or not.

[billyg]

I really hope that Thursday nights game is not an occasion I'll be watching through my fingers , I'm really fearing the worst. We are desperate for a mobile sitting midfielder , and leaving our backline exposed to the ability that Brann have will only have one outcome. Aberdeen had their two old plodders in the midfield yesterday but we had nothing closing them down . 

[AW saint]

30 minutes ago, billyg said:

I really hope that Thursday nights game is not an occasion I'll be watching through my fingers , I'm really fearing the worst. We are desperate for a mobile sitting midfielder , and leaving our backline exposed to the ability that Brann have will only have one outcome. Aberdeen had their two old plodders in the midfield yesterday but we had nothing closing them down . 

Totally agree. Our midfield 3 sits off teams. We miss O'Hara and Kiltie who press players. 

Still think we need a more dominant player to sit in the middle. I thought Smyth might do that job. 

CbM has not started well. Could the transfer talk affected him? His performances have been poor

 

[RagaRocker]

Brann got their best CB back in full training now, he was not in the squad in Paisley, but hard to say if he is replacing the bald guy or not. I guess not.