ICTJohnboy Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Back at the top of the SPL Where we belong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvery tay Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Back at the top of the SPL Where we belong. OYF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saintee Posted September 20, 2014 Author Share Posted September 20, 2014 Sounds like we were very poor again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Was better than last week, to me anyway. First half was dreadful, aimless, gutless football where we struggled to get any sort of gameplan going and Frazer Wright was on the ball more than anyone else. Second half started along the same lines, but once we scored and made our subs we started to look a much better side. Shame it took us so long to change things and to gain the momentum to press Caley, as if the game had been another 10 minutes long I think we would've snatched another. First goal was a tremendous counter from Caley, you can lay the blame wherever you want, but in reality its hard to stop a team with so much pace up front in that situation. Second goal was an odd one, looked like there was no danger until a bit of wrestling broke out and it looked like two of our players ended up tackling each other and the Caley player got free, cracking finish from Christie though. Our goal was a well worked bit of play between Mackay and Croft on the right before a decent ball, seemed to lack pace but Graham got up and steered it beautifully into the corner. We obviously still lack some cohesion going forward, but I mean we've lost May and MacLean in a short of space of time, signs are we're getting there slowly. Wotherspoon was abysmal and deserves dropped, while Morgan looked much better, still a bit slow on the ball but far more physical this week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarraJag Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Watkins must be close to being the fastest player in the league. The way he breaks is amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radford Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Poor from Saints (for 75 minutes at least) but was impressed by Inverness. Familiarity of players who as a team have a good balance about them with pace, strength etc... Moved the ball nicely and picked their moment to play it forward. They found it pretty easy against us in truth although didn't create too many chances, certainly don't feel Mannus had many tough saves to make. Another mistake from him for their second goal though, he's not having a great start to the league season after good showings in Europe. Would be surprised if they aren't top six again. Up against a better side, we struggled but then Aberdeen are a better team than us as well, so it isn't unrealistic to expect us to compete better than we did for most of today. Millar was the only of the midfielders to get score above average and with no grip in that area, Graham got nothing to work with. Defence were ok and Wright looked more like himself with some good blocks etc... Lappin looked miles off it, Wotherspoon was poor again and McDonald failed in both his tasks. Time for Mike Bassett on Tuesday night I feel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 We did look better 4-4-2, but it left us incredibly exposed. I do sort of miss the unpredictable, baws oot style we had under Lomas at times though, the last ten minutes were a hark back to that. in a way. We simply have to start O'Halloran every game, even when he's playing poorly he's always got the ability to beat a man and cause some panic in the defence, no other player does that just now, also feel Croft should be on the right wing every week, he links up better with Mackay than anyone else and is completely wasted anywhere else. Where that leaves Wotherspoon I don't know, I know he wants to play central but I don't think his game suits that role myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radford Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Wotherspoon (or Caddis) would have been better than McDonald in that furthest forward of the central three today. McDonald didn't support Graham and didn't pressure their deep midfielders in possession. Wotherspoon might not have done that second part but he'd surely have got closer to Graham but with the added bonus of being better on the ball, able to move with it and capable of hitting a shot. Wouldn't have solved the problem of Lappin being a passenger right enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saintee Posted September 20, 2014 Author Share Posted September 20, 2014 Very frustrating to hear that Lappin was a passenger on his first start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiG Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Completely unforgettable first half. Second half we seemed to inject a bit of urgency into our game. You don't normally see us counter attack as quick as we did for Doran's goal today but it was a refreshing hark back to older ICT sides. Really rapid attack down the left hand side and his pin point cross found Watkins about 8 yards out who took a touch and poked it underneath the body of Mannus who rushed out to close him down. Second goal was a bit of a cock up from a Saint Johnstone point of view. Bit of a tussle in the Saints right back area, I was a bit surprised when no foul was given to be honest, and the ball quickly found its way to Christie at the right edge of the box and he whipped a shot in beyond Mannus. At this point we were cruising. Thereafter we slowed the pace of the game right down and struggled to retain possession allowing Saints right back into things. I didn't see the goal as I was too busy looking at my feet. Last few minutes were somewhat panicky as we struggled to deal with crosses and there were some fairly hurried clearances from our defenders desperate to scramble the ball away to briefly relieve the pressure. Overall I think we deserved the win but it should have been more comfortable than it was. We allowed Saints back into things by taking our foot off the pedal and becoming somewhat negative when we had the ball. Mckay continues to cut an isolated figure up front. At least three times today he made an excellent run off the last man only for his team mates to play the ball to the other side of him and the chance was gone. It looked like he was getting a bit frustrated to say the least. Something just isn't clicking between Mckay and the rest of the team when it comes to bringing him into play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radford Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Very frustrating to hear that Lappin was a passenger on his first start. He looked very much a guy that had started just 13 league games in the three seasons before this one. That some of those matches were against the likes of Arsenal in the Premier League suggests there is a player in there but it could take a time to get up to speed I fear. Manager will also need to figure out where his best position is. Not sure it's as a deep midfielder. Maybe see him on the left in a four on Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saintee Posted September 20, 2014 Author Share Posted September 20, 2014 He looked very much a guy that had started just 13 league games in the three seasons before this one. That some of those matches were against the likes of Arsenal in the Premier League suggests there is a player in there but it could take a time to get up to speed I fear. Manager will also need to figure out where his best position is. Not sure it's as a deep midfielder. Maybe see him on the left in a four on Tuesday. There is definitely a player there. I'd convinced myself he was the answer to "the left sided problem" and was going to free up Wotherspoon to play through the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Woolshed Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Not going into negatives as the drive back was depressing enough. Positives for me - Morgan looked hungry and lively (albeit with a couple bad passes) and he had one good effort not far wide. Great to see Muzz back on the bench. Graham while looking lost with no support in that system added another, hopefully his confidence will continue to rise. As already mentioned, last 15 was a massive improvement. Just took us too long to give it a proper go IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 I actually thought Lappin was alright tbh, was willing to take the ball off the defenders and moved it well once he got the ball, the lack of movement in front of him didnt help matters though. Got stuck in aswell and only the pace of Caley caught him out, but he won't face that problem every week. Feel Radfords being slightly harsh on him here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewh Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 I actually thought Lappin was alright tbh, was willing to take the ball off the defenders and moved it well once he got the ball, the lack of movement in front of him didnt help matters though. Got stuck in aswell and only the pace of Caley caught him out, but he won't face that problem every week. Feel Radfords being slightly harsh on him here. Disagree. Of our starting midfield 5 only midge got pass marks. The rest were poor, disjointed, losing possession, and off form - all in the same match! Thus the defence were under pressure and Graham was coming so deep to get a touch he was almost a sixth midfielder. This has been our problem, after a good start to the season, the midfield look at times like they've never met. It doesn't matter who is playing up front, with such a lack of creativity from the midfield we are going to struggle. Obviously I hope we can find a solution to our current malaise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiG Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Just watched the highlights - how on earth did Saint Johnstone not get a free kick before the second goal? Clear foul by Doran on Mackay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Disagree. Of our starting midfield 5 only midge got pass marks. The rest were poor, disjointed, losing possession, and off form - all in the same match! Thus the defence were under pressure and Graham was coming so deep to get a touch he was almost a sixth midfielder. This has been our problem, after a good start to the season, the midfield look at times like they've never met. It doesn't matter who is playing up front, with such a lack of creativity from the midfield we are going to struggle. Obviously I hope we can find a solution to our current malaise. I wasn't saying he was good, I'm just saying he wasn't abysmal, and wasn't our worst performer. I'd put Wotherspoon and McDonald ahead of them in that stake, while everyone else was pretty similar apart from Millar. A massive problem for me is the fact we refuse to just hit and hope around the box, even my girlfriend, who holds no interest in football, told me she was getting furious the amount of times we refused to shoot when we had the chance and that "it might hit someone and the keeper won't save it". Our creativity problems are simple really, of the three best chance creators from last season, ones been sold, ones injured and the other is playing some of the worst football he ever has for us. We're relying on the unpredictable O'Halloran and the very predictable Lee Croft to create chances, after them two theres nothing, which is probably why so many people want Caddis in the side. I'd like to add the ref was brutal yesterday, every time two players went near each other a free kick was given, consistently ignored the ball being kicked away after the whistle and didnt even attempt to stop the time wasting at the end. Didn't affect the result in any way, but still infuriating to watch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Just watched the highlights - how on earth did Saint Johnstone not get a free kick before the second goal? Clear foul by Doran on Mackay. Not for me tbh, Mackay could easily have booted that away but Wotherspoon got in his road before both left the ball to the other, dreadful defending Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Woolshed Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 As much as I won't criticise Mackay and Easton as they are clearly two of our better players, watching Shinnie break from left back past our winger/fb makes it so apparent how little pace we have breaking at pace. I appreciate that we have obvious strengths elsewhere people will no doubt highlight but it would be nice to posses a Shinnie (or Hayes as an example) for countering fast. Our counters yesterday were nullified and invariably ended up stopping, cutting back and starting again. Which didn't work at all yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 As much as I won't criticise Mackay and Easton as they are clearly two of our better players, watching Shinnie break from left back past our winger/fb makes it so apparent how little pace we have breaking at pace. I appreciate that we have obvious strengths elsewhere people will no doubt highlight but it would be nice to posses a Shinnie (or Hayes as an example) for countering fast. Our counters yesterday were nullified and invariably ended up stopping, cutting back and starting again. Which didn't work at all yesterday. Yeah it was embarrassing that, by the time the ball hits the net we've still not got more than one player in the box by the looks of things. Thats where Scobbie would've come in, just a shame Miller had such a poor start to the season aswell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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