Ross County v St. Johnstone - Sat, 26th Feb

[Pete the Jakey]

I was surprised to see Watson at right back, thought Malky had made a tactical error there as he can’t cross so the overlapping was pointless, especially as we have Ramsay and Vokins in the bench. I think it was maybe a way of shoehorning the skipper into the XI.

Saints kept Cookie and Hungbo quiet in the first half, but give them space and they will hurt you. As the game went on they got more space.
 

The Saints subs did nothing to change the outcome. Some very good individuals, likes of Crawford, but team unity and cohesion is badly missing. 

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

Charlie Cook is quality tbh - all I have to say about today’s game. FCU v decent as usual. Ross County’s wee young team could take notes.

[The Saintee]

26 minutes ago, Pete the Jakey said:

Some very good individuals, likes of Crawford, 

Nope.

[PauloPerth]

Well played County, thoroughly deserved win. We were completely devoid of a midfield after it went 1-1 today. Hallberg, Butterfield and Crawford were all completely outplayed and dithered on it, losing possession continually. Add in County's danger men in RCC and Hungbo who were clinical against a woeful keeper.

Surely Sinclair is worth a shot if that's the level Parish is going to produce?

Our tactic of humping the ball forward hoping to catch County on the break was obviously not working, yet we persevered with it. Our football looked primitive compared to County's at times.

For a team fighting relegation we sure lack intensity at times. Similar to st Mirren away, we go 2-1 down and you'd expect the home side to have a few nervy moments as they have to defend to see out the win, but the opposite happens.. we turn into a shambles and are hanging on to not lose by more.

Our inability to string wins together looks to be sealing our bottom two fate. We really need to be looking for a point at least off rangers, and should no longer see it as simply one to write off.

[StoneThrowAway]

I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a stauner when RCC’s second went in!

 

Crazy to see how far St J have fallen since selling Kerr, McCann and even losing Melamed…

[RandomGuy.]

14 minutes ago, StoneThrowAway said:

Crazy to see how far St J have fallen since selling Kerr, McCann and even losing Melamed…

Line up today was down Clark, Kerr, Booth, Rooney, Bryson, Davidson, Wotherspoon, Melamed, Kane from what we used in "big games" last season.

I still think every side in the league struggles if they lose that amount of quality player in one season. 

Issus is the club done absolutely nothing to protect us against that in the Summer so we were left trying to fix the squad in January while stuck at the bottom. Managers inability to get the squad working in any shape except a back 3 still an issue. County turned the game in the first half by putting their FBs wide and high, we couldn't cope and ended up with strikers and CMs being dragged all over the shop as County went side to side. 

If he wanted to change it then matching up out wide would've stunted County and forced them to change things, maybe disrutping their early momentum. Instead we once again wait until the game is dead and randomly chuck players on the park.

We're trying to get back into the game with....

Parish

Sang - Cleary - Gordon - Middleton

Crawford - Gilmour - Hallberg - Ciftci

Bair - Hendry

While taking Gallacher off and leaving O'Halloran on the bench. 3 players out of position, including the entire left side, full backs pushing high.

Why not go...

Parish

Brown - Cleary - Gordon - Gallacher

MOH - Sang - Hallberg - Middleton

Hendry - Ciftci

at 2-1? Everyone in a position they're comfortable in. Brown prone to sitting deep to stunts Charles-Cook sitting high, which frees O'Halloran to go 1v1 with Randall. Plenty of energy in the middle, two strikers comfortable going short or long. Can still chuck strikers on in the last 10 minutes if nothings changed but for 20 mins that side gives you a base to build on IMO.

Guess its easy to think these things in retrospect, and you can do f**k all if your keeper cant save anything on target, but the moment we put Middleton LWB you could see Davidson had lost the plot again. Just totally cracking under the pressure this season when his Plan A doesn't work.

Edited February 27, 2022 by RandomGuy.

[tree house tam]

8 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Line up today was down Clark, Kerr, Booth, Rooney, Bryson, Davidson, Wotherspoon, Melamed, Kane from what we used in "big games" last season.

I still think every side in the league struggles if they lose that amount of quality player in one season. 

Issus is the club done absolutely nothing to protect us against that in the Summer so we were left trying to fix the squad in January while stuck at the bottom. Managers inability to get the squad working in any shape except a back 3 still an issue. County turned the game in the first half by putting their FBs wide and high, we couldn't cope and ended up with strikers and CMs being dragged all over the shop as County went side to side. 

If he wanted to change it then matching up out wide would've stunted County and forced them to change things, maybe disrutping their early momentum. Instead we once again wait until the game is dead and randomly chuck players on the park.

We're trying to get back into the game with....

Parish

Sang - Cleary - Gordon - Middleton

Crawford - Gilmour - Hallberg - Ciftci

Bair - Hendry

While taking Gallacher off and leaving O'Halloran on the bench. 3 players out of position, including the entire left side, full backs pushing high.

Why not go...

Parish

Brown - Cleary - Gordon - Gallacher

MOH - Sang - Hallberg - Middleton

Hendry - Ciftci

at 2-1? Everyone in a position they're comfortable in. Brown prone to sitting deep to stunts Charles-Cook sitting high, which frees O'Halloran to go 1v1 with Randall. Plenty of energy in the middle, two strikers comfortable going short or long. Can still chuck strikers on in the last 10 minutes if nothings changed but for 20 mins that side gives you a base to build on IMO.

Guess its easy to think these things in retrospect, and you can do f**k all if your keeper cant save anything on target, but the moment we put Middleton LWB you could see Davidson had lost the plot again. Just totally cracking under the pressure this season when his Plan A doesn't work.

This is exactly what I said yesterday. We can go on about injuries or referee decisions all we like but Davidsons being utterly clueless in transfers and in being able to read/change games in his favour have cost us. The boy is a decent coach who's out of his depth.

[The Saintee]

1 hour ago, tree house tam said:

This is exactly what I said yesterday. We can go on about injuries or referee decisions all we like but Davidsons being utterly clueless in transfers and in being able to read/change games in his favour have cost us. The boy is a decent coach who's out of his depth.

There's a Head of Recruitment though? 

[RandomGuy.]

2 hours ago, tree house tam said:

This is exactly what I said yesterday. We can go on about injuries or referee decisions all we like but Davidsons being utterly clueless in transfers and in being able to read/change games in his favour have cost us. The boy is a decent coach who's out of his depth.

Aye. The Summer window was a farce before we sold Kerr/McCann. The lack of permanent signings we made over his first 3 windows a genuine disgrace and he's still rejecting signing other CMs because he believes Charlie Gilmour is our future.

The inability to get us back into games is a damning indictment of him as a manager. Just incapable of positively reacting to what's happening on the pitch. After 60 minutes he either just chucks on every attacker we have or he gets us to camp inside our own box.

[tree house tam]

53 minutes ago, The Saintee said:

There's a Head of Recruitment though? 

There is but if you think Callum let's him bring in who he wants without having a major and last say then you are mistaken. The signings that are holding us back started before we had a head of recruitment anyway. The Eetu situation tells you all you need to know about what Callum thinks of the head of recruitment choices, personally I think everyone but Callum Davidson should be making signings because he is fucking hopeless at it.

[tree house tam]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

Aye. The Summer window was a farce before we sold Kerr/McCann. The lack of permanent signings we made over his first 3 windows a genuine disgrace and he's still rejecting signing other CMs because he believes Charlie Gilmour is our future.

The inability to get us back into games is a damning indictment of him as a manager. Just incapable of positively reacting to what's happening on the pitch. After 60 minutes he either just chucks on every attacker we have or he gets us to camp inside our own box.

I dunno he has signed McPherson, Crawford, Butterfield and Hallberg for the centre of midfield, all after signing Gilmour. I just think he's not very good at it, a bit like 90%of his signings.

Tactically lacking, shite signings, really shite game management, speaks like Harry Kane and has the charisma of a park bench all the while looking like a hobbit that's been dragged through a hedge. f**k knows how we managed to fluke last season. 

[Radford]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

After 60 minutes he either just chucks on every attacker we have or he gets us to camp inside our own box.

We can talk about the bigger picture every week but it's just repetition; we know it's not been good enough in the market and there has been a lack of direction and strategy. That can't be changed between now and May. 

What can is the management of men and trying to impose upon teams tactically and the quote above seems worryingly accurate. 

The stats back it up. We get ourselves in the lead but then invite so much pressure we can't hold it, or we fall behind and throw everything out the window making us easy to defend against. 

For a coach that is good at drilling a team (we've seen enough evidence of that) his in-game reactions and alternative plans are basically non-existent. 

There's been plenty examples of the camp-in aspect but this throw-the-kitchen-sink-at-them approach is relatively new and equally as worrying. 

It didn't work in Paisley, yet he just repeats it yesterday. The choice of player(s) to substitute seems dependent on their role/standing within the squad, rather than what is in the best interests of the team. 

Liam Gordon was fine yesterday and I appreciate he's captain but he should have been the first sub off. Leaves the right balance at the back, gets a proper wide threat if you move Middleton there and hopefully means the striker brought on doesn't need to drop (very) deep looking for the ball. 

Gilmour over Craig I don't understand as a straight swap either. Surely the latter is capable of giving you 15-20 mins? 

And are we still at an early enough stage to just gloss over our new striker? Wow. Obviously hope I'm wrong there. 

We will have a big enough squad/enough room for movement that things can be ripped up tactically in the summer and I think that's required. 

[Jamie_B]

1 hour ago, Radford said:

And are we still at an early enough stage to just gloss over our new striker? Wow. Obviously hope I'm wrong there.

No.

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, Radford said:

For a coach that is good at drilling a team (we've seen enough evidence of that) his in-game reactions and alternative plans are basically non-existent. 

There's been plenty examples of the camp-in aspect but this throw-the-kitchen-sink-at-them approach is relatively new and equally as worrying. 

It didn't work in Paisley, yet he just repeats it yesterday. The choice of player(s) to substitute seems dependent on their role/standing within the squad, rather than what is in the best interests of the team. 

Liam Gordon was fine yesterday and I appreciate he's captain but he should have been the first sub off. Leaves the right balance at the back, gets a proper wide threat if you move Middleton there and hopefully means the striker brought on doesn't need to drop (very) deep looking for the ball. 

Gilmour over Craig I don't understand as a straight swap either. Surely the latter is capable of giving you 15-20 mins? 

And are we still at an early enough stage to just gloss over our new striker? Wow. Obviously hope I'm wrong there. 

We will have a big enough squad/enough room for movement that things can be ripped up tactically in the summer and I think that's required. 

Agree with all of this. We went behind yesterday largely as we have a deputy keeper that's nowhere near good enough against one of the most potent attacking lines in the division.

But when we did, we were absolutely ragdolled by nothing more dangerous than competent passing team good movement. As others have said it was a carbon copy of Paisley. The players that seem to care panicking and losing composure, playing balls to nothing or overplaying and losing the ball, and others that look like they've chucked it. Unfortunately they were in the middle of the park, exactly where we needed to battle. 

Everyone knows their main threats are wide and that Paris is a cross-flapper, but we seemed to make ourselves narrower when we went behind? 

 

[tree house tam]

We ALL knew how shite Parish was before he signed.

[Radford]

50 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

We ALL knew how shite Parish was before he signed.

Tommy Wright literally gave the best reason for signing him as the fact he lived locally. 

Kevin Cuthbert and Scott Findlay must not have fancied the role. 

I thought Parish was getting a hard time at the start of last season but was comparing him against the sort of standard that Clark had been performing at. 

With Clark back resembling a goalkeeper again, Parish looks pretty inadequate, despite the fact he has pulled off a few decent saves. Obviously not yesterday: three shots on target, three goals. 

[PauloPerth]

4 hours ago, tree house tam said:

There is but if you think Callum let's him bring in who he wants without having a major and last say then you are mistaken.

Of course the manager’s not going to let him bring in who he wants.. ‘I need a left back’ never mind that, I’ve found you a brilliant winger, starts training on Monday’. It has to be guided by what the manager feels we need, position and type wise.

I’d heard from Davidson’s previous time at the club that he was an excellent coach, but had a really poor eye for a player. Not sure how accurate they is.

Most of our new signings are fine in isolation, they would contribute something to a mid-table squad.

The issue is we didn’t sign many roll your sleeves up and get stuck in types suited to a relegation scrap, outwith the two Irish centre backs possibly and the return of Hendry.  An Alan Power or fit Murray Davidson.

Hallberg, Butterfield, Crawford, MacPherson, Gilmour, Bair .. not one scrapper in there, so you’re still having to look to Davidson or Liam Craig for the fight in midfield.  

[tree house tam]

3 hours ago, PauloPerth said:

Of course the manager’s not going to let him bring in who he wants.. ‘I need a left back’ never mind that, I’ve found you a brilliant winger, starts training on Monday’. It has to be guided by what the manager feels we need, position and type wise.

Most of our new signings are fine in isolation, they would contribute something to a mid-table squad.

First bit I was replying to someone. 

Second bit? Oaft. Aye they'd contribute, most likely to a relegation battle. The signings are mince, Hallberg and Cleary apart.

I think folk are forgetting even before we sold Kerr and McCann this season we never won any game, not one. The rot starts at the top and with the men in charge.

[yoda]

Watson's pass in the build-up to Hungbo's goal was maybe, probably, the greatest pass ever played by any footballer in the history of the sport.

[Comrie]

42 minutes ago, yoda said:

Watson's pass in the build-up to Hungbo's goal was maybe, probably, the greatest pass ever played by any footballer in the history of the sport.

Second behind Liam Fontaine passing to Schalk for a cup winner.