Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[Widge]

I’m not against going a bit mental with away kits, if it’s out there and unique we’re more likely to sell more. Yellow gets boring if it’s the same every year, mind you we haven’t had a decent white one with blue trim for a while, best one we had in that combo had bloody stagecoach on the front I think!?

[The Marly]

I’m not against going a bit mental with away kits, if it’s out there and unique we’re more likely to sell more. Yellow gets boring if it’s the same every year, mind you we haven’t had a decent white one with blue trim for a while, best one we had in that combo had bloody stagecoach on the front I think!?

We win games in the yellow strip though [emoji3]

[Dick Van Dyke]

1 hour ago, deej said:

Colour?

Yellow at the top, blue at the bottom. The colours merge in the middle 

[saint pogo]

Three football podcasts listened to today, Sportsound, Totally Football podcast and Talking Football Courier

Sportsound are generally quite fair to Saints i think.

JJ Bull on Totally Football started by saying that both KIlmarnock and St Johnstone would be fighting it out in the bottom six. He then mentioned Saints were playing a new system he hadn't seen us play before. I was impressed he noticed our new shape until he said 3 5 2 ....   Guess he really didn't watch us last year.     Andrew Slaven at least liked how we played and continues to push Calum for fantasy football

I like Jim Spence and they are much better informed...   as they should be.   

[RandomGuy.]

5 minutes ago, saint pogo said:

Three football podcasts listened to today, Sportsound, Totally Football podcast and Talking Football Courier

Sportsound are generally quite fair to Saints i think.

JJ Bull on Totally Football started by saying that both KIlmarnock and St Johnstone would be fighting it out in the bottom six. He then mentioned Saints were playing a new system he hadn't seen us play before. I was impressed he noticed our new shape until he said 3 5 2 ....   Guess he really didn't watch us last year.     Andrew Slaven at least liked how we played and continues to push Calum for fantasy football

I like Jim Spence and they are much better informed...   as they should be.   

If you enjoy podcasts maybe worth giving this a go...

 

[Valentino Bolognese]

55 minutes ago, saint pogo said:

Three football podcasts listened to today, Sportsound, Totally Football podcast and Talking Football Courier

Sportsound are generally quite fair to Saints i think.

JJ Bull on Totally Football started by saying that both KIlmarnock and St Johnstone would be fighting it out in the bottom six. He then mentioned Saints were playing a new system he hadn't seen us play before. I was impressed he noticed our new shape until he said 3 5 2 ....   Guess he really didn't watch us last year.     Andrew Slaven at least liked how we played and continues to push Calum for fantasy football

I like Jim Spence and they are much better informed...   as they should be.   

Never listened to the Totally Football one. It pish then?

[saint pogo]

1 hour ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Never listened to the Totally Football one. It pish then?

Tries to be light hearted which is fine but no substance. Aye, pish

[Widge]

A thought has crossed my mind, whilst I'm not panicking in the slightest I think the lack of transfer movement is interesting. 

We've seen the likes of St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Livingston (in particular), Motherwell all bring in a lot of new players and are able to field a strong team, plus have 9/10 senior players in reserve for their bench. Livingston especially, there was a post by one of their fans who stated he thought their bench was weak despite it containing 9 players, all of whom were senior and that included the 3/4 players they had injured. 

Now I'm very much an advocate for quality over quantity, I think, using Livi as an example again that they've got a lot of deadwood who don't bring anything to a top flight team and I'm glad we're not in that position. I wonder if this is a sign of saints continuing to move towards the youthful approach. Robertson has been trusted so far this season to provide an option off the bench, will Ballantyne and Hamilton step up at points, you'd maybe think so. My only worry is that it's still the senior guys who're influencing games and winning us points. 

Anyway I went off on a tangent, essentially I'm happy with the new approach we're taking, no point in signing players who don't add anything. I'm also happy to wait for the right players to bring in. We all know that we need to bring another couple in at some point and that there's almost certainly the budget for it, but a lot of Scottish teams appear to have taken the approach that they need to fill their squad now, as if the window closes in a week. Given it's open way past that I think it possibly puts saints in a very strong position to get the players they want that become available, simply by virtue of the other teams we'd compete with not having the budget, or being able to promise game time due to boated squads.

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, Widge said:

A thought has crossed my mind, whilst I'm not panicking in the slightest I think the lack of transfer movement is interesting. 

We've seen the likes of St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Livingston (in particular), Motherwell all bring in a lot of new players and are able to field a strong team, plus have 9/10 senior players in reserve for their bench. Livingston especially, there was a post by one of their fans who stated he thought their bench was weak despite it containing 9 players, all of whom were senior and that included the 3/4 players they had injured. 

Now I'm very much an advocate for quality over quantity, I think, using Livi as an example again that they've got a lot of deadwood who don't bring anything to a top flight team and I'm glad we're not in that position. I wonder if this is a sign of saints continuing to move towards the youthful approach. Robertson has been trusted so far this season to provide an option off the bench, will Ballantyne and Hamilton step up at points, you'd maybe think so. My only worry is that it's still the senior guys who're influencing games and winning us points. 

Anyway I went off on a tangent, essentially I'm happy with the new approach we're taking, no point in signing players who don't add anything. I'm also happy to wait for the right players to bring in. We all know that we need to bring another couple in at some point and that there's almost certainly the budget for it, but a lot of Scottish teams appear to have taken the approach that they need to fill their squad now, as if the window closes in a week. Given it's open way past that I think it possibly puts saints in a very strong position to get the players they want that become available, simply by virtue of the other teams we'd compete with not having the budget, or being able to promise game time due to boated squads.

So far I can't think of anyone that's been taken out the market that would represent a missed opportunity for us. I agree that there's probably a wait and see policy as the deadline approaches. It's what we normally do anyway. 

Also think that recent injuries and the MOH suspension have put a lot more focus on how shallow the bench is. We've been stretched, but we've not been down to our Duffy's yet, and it seems like we're getting back to close to full strength or at least a 'normal' injury level.

What I don't like is that having the bench we do means less opportunity to get developing players out on loan, and there's no other games happening for them to play in.

ETA we also went into the season with a pretty full squad, but other teams had to make signings just to have a viable number of players. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Valentino Bolognese

[RandomGuy.]

Our squad is in a good place in terms of build, IMO.

Ideally graphs like that peak in the middle (in the peak area, ha ha), and have an even number either side, dependent on how your club wants to operate.

All that's lacking us numbers. Id quite happily see us spend the first month or so giving the youngsters a chance to step up, as it could save you a wage and help get higher quality in another position.

Only worry is we go down the Hamilton route of forcing young players into the squad because they're young players, there needs to be a balance. Sure the club and manager know that better than me though.

[The Marly]

A thought has crossed my mind, whilst I'm not panicking in the slightest I think the lack of transfer movement is interesting. 
We've seen the likes of St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Livingston (in particular), Motherwell all bring in a lot of new players and are able to field a strong team, plus have 9/10 senior players in reserve for their bench. Livingston especially, there was a post by one of their fans who stated he thought their bench was weak despite it containing 9 players, all of whom were senior and that included the 3/4 players they had injured. 
Now I'm very much an advocate for quality over quantity, I think, using Livi as an example again that they've got a lot of deadwood who don't bring anything to a top flight team and I'm glad we're not in that position. I wonder if this is a sign of saints continuing to move towards the youthful approach. Robertson has been trusted so far this season to provide an option off the bench, will Ballantyne and Hamilton step up at points, you'd maybe think so. My only worry is that it's still the senior guys who're influencing games and winning us points. 
Anyway I went off on a tangent, essentially I'm happy with the new approach we're taking, no point in signing players who don't add anything. I'm also happy to wait for the right players to bring in. We all know that we need to bring another couple in at some point and that there's almost certainly the budget for it, but a lot of Scottish teams appear to have taken the approach that they need to fill their squad now, as if the window closes in a week. Given it's open way past that I think it possibly puts saints in a very strong position to get the players they want that become available, simply by virtue of the other teams we'd compete with not having the budget, or being able to promise game time due to boated squads.

I agree with most of that. The one thing I would say is about your point of it being the senior players who are influencing games - I see that as a good thing as we're not relying on the youngsters to do too much therefore allowing them to develop without too much pressure. Also the senior players just now are a fair bit younger than the senior players of 2/3 years ago.

[sergie's no1 fan]

A thought has crossed my mind, whilst I'm not panicking in the slightest I think the lack of transfer movement is interesting. 
We've seen the likes of St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Livingston (in particular), Motherwell all bring in a lot of new players and are able to field a strong team, plus have 9/10 senior players in reserve for their bench. Livingston especially, there was a post by one of their fans who stated he thought their bench was weak despite it containing 9 players, all of whom were senior and that included the 3/4 players they had injured. 
Now I'm very much an advocate for quality over quantity, I think, using Livi as an example again that they've got a lot of deadwood who don't bring anything to a top flight team and I'm glad we're not in that position. I wonder if this is a sign of saints continuing to move towards the youthful approach. Robertson has been trusted so far this season to provide an option off the bench, will Ballantyne and Hamilton step up at points, you'd maybe think so. My only worry is that it's still the senior guys who're influencing games and winning us points. 
Anyway I went off on a tangent, essentially I'm happy with the new approach we're taking, no point in signing players who don't add anything. I'm also happy to wait for the right players to bring in. We all know that we need to bring another couple in at some point and that there's almost certainly the budget for it, but a lot of Scottish teams appear to have taken the approach that they need to fill their squad now, as if the window closes in a week. Given it's open way past that I think it possibly puts saints in a very strong position to get the players they want that become available, simply by virtue of the other teams we'd compete with not having the budget, or being able to promise game time due to boated squads.

Was it not the case though (and I probably will be mistaken) that StJohnstone pretty much had the squad signed up for the new season and didn't lose too many bodies in the summer? I know yous lost Anderson and McMillan but they weren't even squad players and Wright was always leaving.

StMirren lost 13 from our squad, Killie lost a good whack too as did Livi.

[Widge]

Was it not the case though (and I probably will be mistaken) that StJohnstone pretty much had the squad signed up for the new season and didn't lose too many bodies in the summer? I know yous lost Anderson and McMillan but they weren't even squad players and Wright was always leaving.

StMirren lost 13 from our squad, Killie lost a good whack too as did Livi.

Anderson
McMillan
Swanson
Callachan
Wright
Butcher
Ralston
Holt
Jones

That’s 8 players on first team wages we’ve lost, admittedly only 4 actually played any part in the squad last season. Add in Matty Kennedy in January and he was never replaced either.

We did have a good chunk of our squad signed up, but there’s this myth we only lost a couple of players, now whilst we only lost a couple of first teamers, the squad as a whole has been affected without doubt. I don’t have an issue with some of them being replaced by youngsters stepping up its only natural. However we’re now lacking senior players in comparison to every team in the league bar Hamilton I’d say.

[sergie's no1 fan]

Anderson
McMillan
Swanson
Callachan
Wright
Butcher
Ralston
Holt
Jones

That’s 8 players on first team wages we’ve lost, admittedly only 4 actually played any part in the squad last season. Add in Matty Kennedy in January and he was never replaced either.

We did have a good chunk of our squad signed up, but there’s this myth we only lost a couple of players, now whilst we only lost a couple of first teamers, the squad as a whole has been affected without doubt. I don’t have an issue with some of them being replaced by youngsters stepping up its only natural. However we’re now lacking senior players in comparison to every team in the league bar Hamilton I’d say.

Anderson
McMillan
Swanson
Callachan
Wright
Butcher
Ralston
Holt
Jones

That’s 8 players on first team wages we’ve lost, admittedly only 4 actually played any part in the squad last season. Add in Matty Kennedy in January and he was never replaced either.

We did have a good chunk of our squad signed up, but there’s this myth we only lost a couple of players, now whilst we only lost a couple of first teamers, the squad as a whole has been affected without doubt. I don’t have an issue with some of them being replaced by youngsters stepping up its only natural. However we’re now lacking senior players in comparison to every team in the league bar Hamilton I’d say.

Forgot about the loanees.

That's a fair chunk too then. You'd imagine most clubs will be going with a smaller squad with the cost of testing and no crowds ect but you'd like to think your gaffer will be able to bring in one or 2 more experienced guys.

Going to be interesting come January, injuries will play an even more vital part than previous seasons, will be harder for teams to get rid of duds and sign replacements too.

[Dick Van Dyke]

I think most agree that we definitely need another centre midfielder, but what other areas do people think we need strengthening in? If we’re going to be playing 3 centre half’s all season then I think we could do with another option in there. Wouldn’t like to see Rooney in that position again. 

[SteveAn]

How has Shaun Rooney done for you guys so far? I notice he's on the bench tonight. Has he had much game time?

Edited August 20, 2020 by SteveAn

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

3 minutes ago, SteveAn said:

How has Shaun Rooney done for you guys so far? I notice he's on the bench tonight. Has he had much game time?

One start. In a back three (odd I know)

It was a bit of a Trainwreck and he was hauled off after Killie went down to 10 men to bring on another attacking player. 

[SteveAn]

4 minutes ago, Mr Positive, sometimes. said:

One start. In a back three (odd I know)

It was a bit of a Trainwreck and he was hauled off after Killie went down to 10 men to bring on another attacking player. 

Playing in a back three wouldn't suit him at all. His real strength is going forward and attacking. His defending is really poor. Not surprised it was a bit of a train wreck. 

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

Can we get a fucking midfielder signed and get the extra man back in the middle of the park. 

I've never watched a team so consistently incapable of crossing past the first man as well. 

[PauloPerth]

Dreadful , got what we deserved. We have no method whatsoever in the final third, it's get it to a wide player standing still in line with the 18 yard line and hit a cross off the first man.

Our new formation might be decent (questionable) for stopping the opposition from playing, but it's even better at stopping us from playing when we're on the ball.

We'd found a formation that really suited this group of players in the second half of last season, yet we are completely ignoring that to persevere with a concept rather than the reality.

I find it hard to have much sympathy for Managers who are too stubborn to react to what's happening in front of their eyes.

I desperately want Davidson to do well, and we're only 4 games into the season, but ffs wakey wakey, we've been so devoid of any decent play or creativity in the final third when it's 11v 11 it's frightening.