crispy Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 I’ll be reserving judgement until after the first round of games. We drew a blank against a team expected to finish around top 6; and have taken points against teams expected to be in the bottom half. We’ve yet to be tested, the defence in particular, against any of the big guns. All I’m taking from it so far is that we are not as stick on relegation favourites as we were predicted to be. We had half a dozen players out injured at the weekend and managed to cope with it. If Dykes gets injured we’ll be in that same position as most of last year with no striker/focal point; we are yet to see the defence demonstrate just how effective it can be. The early indications are good but I don’t think we can rule out seeing us in a similar final position to last season. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LIVIFOREVER Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 1 hour ago, LiviLion said: What a coincidence A coincidence that's been fucking brilliant for 2/3 seasons Aye, teams were poor against Livi seems to happen an awfy lot, wonder if it has anything to do with us making them so, nah, canny be. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 There's just a bad smell off St Johnstone at the moment. If all you knew about Scottish football is what you'd seen so far this season, I think you'd make St Johnstone favourite to finish bottom. Everyone else is scrapping away and the main relegation candidates are at least on par, but there's something wrong at McDiarmid Park. The only positive is that it's very early in the season, they have a good manager and can definitely get sorted, put a few results together and crack on. But it could easily not happen for them. They're at more risk of going down than they have been since they came back into the top flight 10 years ago, and unlike St Mirren and Accies, they've no experience of scraping out wins down there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddie06smfc Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 Aye, teams were poor against Livi seems to happen an awfy lot, wonder if it has anything to do with us making them so, nah, canny be.Difference between our first half and second half performance showed that it wasn’t Livingston stopping us performing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScarf Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 I'm very much in the 'bottom 6 Premiership would would still paste the top 3 in the Championship 9 times out of 10 camp'. But there's 2 or 3 Premiership teams this season who look genuinely dreadful and would lose half of these 10 games I mention. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 It seems as if almost every team in the Premiership looks worse than they did last season. What a time to be alive. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 7 hours ago, GordonS said: There's just a bad smell off St Johnstone at the moment. If all you knew about Scottish football is what you'd seen so far this season, I think you'd make St Johnstone favourite to finish bottom. Everyone else is scrapping away and the main relegation candidates are at least on par, but there's something wrong at McDiarmid Park. The only positive is that it's very early in the season, they have a good manager and can definitely get sorted, put a few results together and crack on. But it could easily not happen for them. They're at more risk of going down than they have been since they came back into the top flight 10 years ago, and unlike St Mirren and Accies, they've no experience of scraping out wins down there. Worth mentioning we've had spells of playing County, Hibs and Kilmarnock off the park, and have five potential starters to come into things still (Ralston, Holt, Wotherspoon, Wright, May). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durnford Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 8 hours ago, crispy said: I’ll be reserving judgement until after the first round of games. We drew a blank against a team expected to finish around top 6; and have taken points against teams expected to be in the bottom half. We’ve yet to be tested, the defence in particular, against any of the big guns. All I’m taking from it so far is that we are not as stick on relegation favourites as we were predicted to be. We had half a dozen players out injured at the weekend and managed to cope with it. If Dykes gets injured we’ll be in that same position as most of last year with no striker/focal point; we are yet to see the defence demonstrate just how effective it can be. The early indications are good but I don’t think we can rule out seeing us in a similar final position to last season. Its been a really strange start to the season, of several of the teams I've seem already, they still seem to be on holiday mode. Generally the overall standard has been that much lower than this time last season; several teams have been pretty poor compared to how I expected them to be. The one exception there was St. Mirren who were marginally better but that's only because I was measuring them on their performance this time last year. Going forward I think squad depth is going to be quite telling. Currently I feel we have one of the smallest squads in the league (with the possible exception of Hamilton) so keeping players fit and injury free will be really key. Obviously other sides that may have started quite poorly (e.g. Hearts and Hibs) won't have that restriction and, even if it did get to be a problem, have a fat wallet come the winter transfer window. At the moment I want us to get as many points on the board as possible to help cushion the impact of injuries later on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tree house tam Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 15 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said: Worth mentioning we've had spells of playing County, Hibs and Kilmarnock off the park, and have five potential starters to come into things still (Ralston, Holt, Wotherspoon, Wright, May). Ssshhh. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 25 minutes ago, nsr said: It seems as if almost every team in the Premiership looks worse than they did last season. What a time to be alive. I would agree with this which is why i'm finding it so hard to place us. We definitely look better than we were in the first half of last season and, even then, we were never in any real danger from what I remember. As a Motherwell fan I would be happy with anything from 5th - 8th. The (very) early evidence would suggest Livi will be fine, Hamilton have had good results mixed with poor results, St. Mirren haven't had the best start but then haven't lost heavily either. Hearts and Hibs will both be fine. It's been said already but, at the moment, there's just something about St Johnstone. For me, they already have an air about them similar to the season Dundee United were relegated in that most will just assume that because they've been consistent over a number of seasons they won't go down. However, their recruitment looks to have been poor and they obviously haven't had the best of starts. Regardless of how bad they may/may not be, when we play them they'll still beat us 2-1 after we go 1-0 up... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valentino Bolognese Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 9 hours ago, crispy said: All I’m taking from it so far is that we are not as stick on relegation favourites as we were predicted to be. The early indications are good but I don’t think we can rule out seeing us in a similar final position to last season. I think this is spot on. Livi should be fine and will replace Hamilton as of next year as that team that folk always predict for relegation but never actually get relegated. You will replace Hamilton because Hamilton will be relegated this year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 1 minute ago, Valentino Bolognese said: You will replace Hamilton because Hamilton will be relegated this year. Unlikely. Hamilton continue to benefit from geographical proximity to our own aura of unrelegatability. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingscot Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 I think this could be one of the years where a number of the bottom 6 end up fairly close in terms of points. There just seems to be the lack (so far) of an obvious detached club like Dundee became last year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewh Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 There's just a bad smell off St Johnstone at the moment. If all you knew about Scottish football is what you'd seen so far this season, I think you'd make St Johnstone favourite to finish bottom. Everyone else is scrapping away and the main relegation candidates are at least on par, but there's something wrong at McDiarmid Park. The only positive is that it's very early in the season, they have a good manager and can definitely get sorted, put a few results together and crack on. But it could easily not happen for them. They're at more risk of going down than they have been since they came back into the top flight 10 years ago, and unlike St Mirren and Accies, they've no experience of scraping out wins down there. Bad smell? Bad smell? We’ve had some good discussions about the women’s game, but this? I’m not having it. You should stick to the women Gordon. You’re completely off with that analysis. Don’t listen to [mention=31296]RandomGuy[/mention]. The clouds are gathering. The vultures circling. We’re putrid and toxic. You can all rest easy. Going straight down we are, with room to spare. Don’t get me started on [mention=2194]Ron Aldo[/mention] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 19 minutes ago, andrewh said: Bad smell? Bad smell? We’ve had some good discussions about the women’s game, but this? I’m not having it. You should stick to the women Gordon. You’re completely off with that analysis. Don’t listen to [mention=31296]RandomGuy[/mention]. The clouds are gathering. The vultures circling. We’re putrid and toxic. You can all rest easy. Going straight down we are, with room to spare. Don’t get me started on [mention=2194]Ron Aldo[/mention] Cant believe we got compared to Dundee United in their relegation season. It's certainly not us who's replaced our manager with a foreigner, and replaced a chunk of a successful squad with loanees, that's for sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LIVIFOREVER Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 6 hours ago, buddie06smfc said: Difference between our first half and second half performance showed that it wasn’t Livingston stopping us performing. Nah mate, you were just shite first half, and we still scored a goal in the 2nd and should really have got another couple to win more comfortably, never mind though it was nothing to do with how Livi played. We've heard the same patter from opposition fans for the last 3 seasons. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 I think this could be one of the years where a number of the bottom 6 end up fairly close in terms of points. There just seems to be the lack (so far) of an obvious detached club like Dundee became last year. To be fair, Dundee didn't become detached until later in the season, but the bottom three were cut off from the rest by around December. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 2 hours ago, andrewh said: Bad smell? Bad smell? We’ve had some good discussions about the women’s game, but this? I’m not having it. You should stick to the women Gordon. You’re completely off with that analysis. Don’t listen to [mention=31296]RandomGuy[/mention]. The clouds are gathering. The vultures circling. We’re putrid and toxic. You can all rest easy. Going straight down we are, with room to spare. Don’t get me started on [mention=2194]Ron Aldo[/mention] Sorry bud. FWIW I like St Johnstone and hope you stay up. What do St Johnstone fans think of Tommy Wright? I've always liked him but sometimes, after a while, it can just go a bit stale for any manager and group of players. I don't see enough of them to know if that's the case, I'm just wondering from what I see in highlights. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estragon Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said: Cant believe we got compared to Dundee United in their relegation season. It's certainly not us who's replaced our manager with a foreigner, and replaced a chunk of a successful squad with loanees, that's for sure. Aw Jesus, not a foreigner! Brexit thread for this xenophobic pish IMO. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valentino Bolognese Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 8 minutes ago, GordonS said: Sorry bud. FWIW I like St Johnstone and hope you stay up. What do St Johnstone fans think of Tommy Wright? I've always liked him but sometimes, after a while, it can just go a bit stale for any manager and group of players. I don't see enough of them to know if that's the case, I'm just wondering from what I see in highlights. He's managing a team through transition, it will take a bit of time for him to get to where he wants it to be. It's a team that's been transformed in the last 2 years but I would say that he and us fans are probably reasonably comfortable now from a squad perspective, and he's proven that he can take players to perform above where they probably should on paper. I might agree with the concern about staleness if (a) there wasn't much change in the personnel and (b) we hadn't shown against Livi and Hibs that the team has a lot of heart still and is willing to put in a shift for the jersey/manager. Far be it for me to criticise but he does still default to setting us up defensively in games where we really should be on the front foot, and there is a perennial problem of us always seeming slow starters (in games and in the leauge). So to answer your question aside from the usual nutters that every club has I think he very much has the support of the fans. Interesting to compare the sentiment around him and Heckingbottom right now. Of course this might change if we keep shipping cheap goals, which is possible as the defence is the weakest part of the squad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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