Zamora Fan

The Enckelman slander on there has pissed me right off.

Mitov (and Sinclair) ... Robinson ... McGowan ... Wright ... Smith (just) ... Franczak ... Sprangler ... Carey ... Sidibeh ... Kimpioka I'd keep Phillips too but seems pointless to even suggest he might stay Sign some defenders who can actually play in a back 4, some non-gutless CMs and find a manager not scared of his own shadow — and we could have a core of players that could probably finish about 8th. Mitov New RB (new RB) ... New CB (McGowan) ... New CB (Robinson) ... New LB (Robinson) Sprangler (McGowan) New CM (Smith) ... New CM (New CM/Franczak) Wright (Carey) Carey (new winger) Sidibeh (Kimpioka/Clark) Sadly given what we're currently lumbered with and the difficulty of recruiting an entirely new defense, Levein or Kirk will struggle through with another season of a stinking back 5. The entire purpose of which seems to be to try and offer protection to CBs who aren't good enough for the top flight.

Nice work to get some momentum going, @HibsFan @VincentGuerin and all. I've sent just a couple of pars to Saints making clear I think it should be scrapped, not tweaked, and saying they will lose my money if they continue to back VAR. Took about 10 mins max. I've long wondered about the viability of doing a proper, representative poll of Scottish top-flight season ticket holders. Having some data to point at would be very useful I think — I suspect most would say it isn't working, and maybe at this stage you could just about get, say, a narrow plurality who think it should be scrapped altogether (though I might be being pessimistic: maybe 80% want it scrapped! If that was the case finding out might force some hands ..) If you asked whether fans would consider binning their season tickets if VAR continued, that would be a good way of making the point about lost income to clubs ... especially as I imagine no one is giving up their season ticket if VAR got scrapped. The problem is, polls are expensive. A poll of season ticket holders would be especially expensive to organize since there representatively aren't that many in Scotland. But polling companies often do freebies for media outlets for the sake of the free publicity ... so if any pollsters are reading, a Scotland only, season ticket only poll would make you a national topic of conversation for weeks. I imagine those at the top of the game in Scotland reckon our opinions will roughly line up with those of the weirdo English premier league fans — YouGov found in October that only 16% of them would scrap it. I think they're wrong.

Phillips could be a star if he was managed right, there’s a lot of untapped potential there. It’s another case in the post Tommy Wright era where the player is completely right not to extend their contract since their career progression has stalled here — if you compare how he’s playing now to a year ago there’s been little improvement, even though he’s a young player who should be coming toward their best years. See also Melker Hallberg, Cal Hendry. I get why no one is upset about Phillips leaving, but just to offer a counterintuitive view: does anyone really expect us to replace him with someone better or at least at the same level? Our record on that front in recent years is not good. We’ve eventually upgraded on Zander Clark, but I can’t see any other areas where we’ve managed to get close to the varying levels of quality that keep leaving us. Could make a case for a couple of the loanees. It’s just been a steady decline in the quality of the squad since Tommy Wright left, without some miracle work from Levein that will continue this summer with Phillips out, and some of the ageing types like Considine and Carey who have helped paper over the cracks either also gone or declining further.

We’re a bit fucked, aren’t we? County have much better players than us (plus a couple of the best players in bottom six) and are no longer managed by a clown, all the other teams around us look better too so struggle to see how we escape 11th. After that I’d fancy United in a play off, and Rovers/Thistle I’d say would be 50/50. Also ending up in the play-off is an absolute nightmare for squad planning for the next year too, so we’ll be miles behind the rest of the top flight teams even if we do stay up. We’ve become Hamilton Accies 2015-2020, a turgid shite floating in the toilet just waiting to be flushed.

Because I’m already in a shit mood I had a look back at our 17 league goals this season to try and learn something. It wasn’t fun. We’ve scored 9 goals from open play, 8 from set pieces Probably 2 or maybe 3 max you could say came from a nice passing move rather than just someone lumping it in the box or a chronic defensive error. (Carey v Ross County, Keltjens v Aberdeen [debatable], Smith v Dundee) Carey, who megamind Levein has decided should play as a defensive midfielder, has scored or assisted 8 of them (I’m being kind and counting his corners that resulted in a goal in the first phase) 12 goals since the Levein era began. Only game we’ve scored more than one in since he took over is the very first game before he got the chance to make his mark on the players … total of 5 goals from open play in the Levein era. In 17 matches. Think about how much you’d have to pay over the course of a season to see all of this. And with the rotten VAR — which our club, like all the others, waved through without asking any of us — hanging over it all too. Something has to change at this football club.

Even James Brown looked okay in a back four with a winger ahead of him. It’s not a difficult position to play as long as you have some ability as a defender - just overlap the winger and put the ball into box.

Decent idea. Could even go with him on the left (I like Carey best on the right) and see if he can cut inside and cause problems with his pace. I hope that’s the type of thing Levein and Kirk are at least mulling over but the lack of effort at trying new things when it’s not been working is worrying and very Davidson-esq. Banged this drum before but when we were in bad spells under King Tommy he would throw shit at the wall until something worked.

The squad is so unbalanced and Levein is the third manager in a row who’s not tried to address this (granted, he only had the January window .. but he still made lots of signings.) All of our centre-backs only look comfortable in a back 3. But all of our wing backs are actually full backs best in a back 4. All of our centre midfielders would be best in a midfield 3 with a destroyer type CDM behind them to mop up and do the defensive work. The only player in the squad who fits that description is out of favour. None of them are Millar, McCann, Davidson or even Bryson type players who can do the work of two men in there. The squad’s main creative player is best as an attacking midfielder. We have one fit winger, who has shown no signs of being anywhere near good enough for this level. There is not a single natural left winger in the squad. We had one striker suited to playing up front on his own. He now plays for Dunfermline. The rest are untested or much better in a partnership. Add all of those issues together and it’s very difficult to get a passable and competitive team together from the shite we’ve got to pick from. But it is worrying that Levein’s (Kirk’s?) answer to these difficult Qs is a back five full of square pegs, Carey playing deep, and a team with absolutely no presence or threat in the wide areas. And to sideline the players who might be able to help make it work. Mitov Keltjens McGowan Considine Gallagher Sprangler Smith Phillips Jaiyesimi (Wright) Carey Kimpioka IMO.

Looks like Gordon, Considine, Robinson CBs and Smith/Gallagher wing backs to me

Are they fucking joking?

A genuine delight to see a St Johnstone striker go through on goal and not shit their pants.

Maybe it’s Fran at RWB with Keltjens in midfield?

That’s a really strange team. Feels like square pegs in round holes everywhere.

?

I couldn't be arsed, but @VincentGuerinhas basically done that below Q: "What should we go back to when all we had before VAR were 'Sportscene replays'?!" A: Exactly what we had before VAR was introduced. Happy to help.

The ref or linesman should spot it in real time and blow for the foul. Maybe he does if there isn't VAR to cover for him. If he doesn't spot it, then as we did for 100+ years everyone should play on and who cares? It really isn't an equivalent of Maradona hand of god or whatever. It's a travesty it was allowed to continue and then we're retrospectively robbed of a lovely goal, something which is a rarity in our league.

400 words of complete nonsense. To answer your last point — yes, back to what we had before, which was great. Why on earth would you fundamentally change the game for the worse to appease dipshit Sportscene pundits and those eternal victims who can't take a defeat?

I think it's a very soft reason to retroactively disallow a goal. If the ref spots it in real time and gives it there is no issue, happens all the time. I doubt it would have been much of an issue if it wasn't spotted and the goal was given in a non-VAR world either — look how much Aberdeen still have to do to score at the moment when he accidentally clips the player. Hearts only start appealing for it once ball is in the net... But because it isn't spotted at the time, play continues, Miovski scores a peach etc ... the fact it's then disallowed at that point is just a travesty. And (though I'm not pretending to have watched the game, just talking generally) it also changes the game by giving Hearts that boost/kick up the backside you get when you have a big-let off and the opposite for Aberdeen — think Spain V Scotland after the McTominay free kick was disallowed.

Miovski’s brilliant finish at Tynecastle being disallowed for an innocuous trip in the build-up is yet another example of VAR basically taking away what would have been a great memory and moment for fans. These aren’t being replaced with new fond memories of VAR taking 5 minutes to award a penalty for the ball grazing someone’s hand. Even though this benefited Hearts in the moment, it’s something that affects every single team and every single match-going fan, and is gradually chipping away at what made all of us fall in love with the game. What is football without the magic moments of quality and spontaneous celebrations you still talk about years later? We’re getting less and less of those thanks to VAR. And unfortunately, this is a feature of having a VAR, rather than a bug. “Getting better refs to operate it” (from where?) or “running it more like in Germany” (its shit there too) or “eliminating referee bias” (Alex Jones-level bullshit) will not make VAR any less of a complete shit show that is ruining the game.

Came off the bench in both of those games right? I think we’ve seen him positively impact games from the bench a few times - but I can’t think of him doing anything in any of his many starts against top flight opposition so far. Need a lot more or you might as well chuck Ali Crawford back in there …

Max is going to have to do something at some point, surely

Think even I would take that move if it was offered. Bye bye Dan. Connor Smith is a very uninspiring signing. Do we even need any more midfielders? I would love us to become a team that signs and plays wingers again but I guess that’s too much to ask. Back 4, 2 or 3 in midfield and someone with even half the quality of a Matty Kennedy/Swanson/Wotherspoon/O’Halloran or even Lee fucking Croft on each wing. A selection of hard working haddies up top to tap it in every so often. Full backs who overlap. Centre mids who tackle and get the ball to the wingers. Maybe some of our games and play could actually be exciting? Is that too much to ask? But nah, 3 immobile centre halves, full backs at wing back and 4 CMs it is. Average half a goal a game and one goal VAR’d out every week. Life is full of joy.

Two more for the subs bench: Marcus Haber and Cillian Sheridan. Maybe Drey Wright could shuffle into the defence?

Some Saints fans are way too harsh on Davidson IMO. He gave us an incredible season, then a dreadful one, then a mediocre one where some signs of improvement started to fade in the second half. He was rightly sacked at this stage when it looked like the dressing room was gone and results/performances went off a cliff. But people forget it was his first full managerial job and I think it’s also harsh to blame the bin-fire behind the scenes on him too. I can see why he’s judged harshly considering we got used to having excellent managers who all left on a high - Coyle, McInnes, Lomas and then Tommy Wright who is the best manager in our history. But even though Davidson wasn’t a complete unqualified success like those four he still delivered two cups and left without relegating us. I think at other clubs more used to hosting poor managers that would be enough for him to be more fondly remembered. He clearly shown he’s a good coach and has particular aptitude for setting up a side to get a result against better/ more expensively-assembled teams in big games - two wins and a draw against Rangers in 2.5 seasons, owning Hibs at Hampden, draw in Istanbul. But on the other side, he assembled really poor squads despite having lots of money to spend, he talked us down constantly, he played low scoring football from the start and pretty awful football in 2 seasons out of 3, and struggled to be flexible when teams worked out his first plan and system. I think his biggest issue was judging player quality as he signed rafts of complete shite who are still stinking the place out to this day — and any fan could have told him lots of those signings would have worked out like that. He also didn’t seem to learn from his mistakes, you’ll have to hope he’s changed in that way during his time out of the game.