Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[tree house tam]

3 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

I'd imagine there might some fans unable to go because they've just shelled out four figures to sort out their garden.

About fucking time. I'll be up to watch the dancing fountains and laser show when it's finished. 

[jamamafegan]

Which is piss poor if you ask me.
Suppose it leaves us without the Jamama types who don't know the players names from sitting in and around us, every cloud and that.

Rather not know the players names instead of quarrelling with youngsters [emoji6]

It’s an awful turn out for our first cup semi that we’ve been able to attend for years. Recent form certainly hasn’t helped. I think everyone who is going is prepared to see us take a doing.

[tree house tam]

52 minutes ago, The Real Saints said:

Just watching the Northern Ireland match and I’m raging already. We let that boy leave us for peanuts. PEANUTS.

 

37 minutes ago, saint in exile said:

I know quite unbelievable when he still had such a long contract left.I thought that was the whole point of a contract.

Ali wanted to leave lads, we've promised not to stand in anyones way, especially one who's getting offered 10k a week, get over it.

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, The Real Saints said:

Just watching the Northern Ireland match and I’m raging already. We let that boy leave us for peanuts. PEANUTS.

Ah but we'll get untold riches in sell-on fees eh?

Not that it matters. If we got £20m it's not going to be spent on the squad. We had what can only be considered a massive windfall last season. Astonishing money and profile for a club of our size. Once in a century stuff. We bought a lad for £30k that might never kick a ball in anger and have more depth, but less quality. 

The St Johnstone way is to trade off stability against ambition. It's the price we pay.

[nelsjfc]

Agree with you, but i think the issue is more what the manager sees as the priority in his strikers. I think for Callum it is their ability to close down and be our first line of defence. .

Which is fine. This time last season I felt we'd be fine as as you could see what we were trying to do with the pressing and we were on top in most games. The last three or four games have not had that and the signing, and persistence with, Crawford. He really doesn't seem to fit in with what the side has been about during Davidson's reign. You can't have the front two pressing and next guy behind being unable/unfit/unwilling to do the same. Crawford is undoubtedly talented but I really can't see where he fits in this system. I've not been overly impressed by McPherson but at least he can sort of see how he fits the side.

Also this time last year Rooney, Melamed, and Booth were on the bench and still to prove themselves. This year we've got guys like Devine, Crawford and Brown. Lots of time then to prove themselves too but feels like a big drop off from the first choice 11 currently.

[RandomGuy.]

Its probably not that important, but as it stands James Brown will be our most experienced U26 player, in terms of games for the club, next season.

McCart, Rooney and Hendry all have more appearances just now but you'd expect them all to leave this Summer. Gordon turns 26 in January. Brown on 10 appearances for the club I think. We barely have any other U26s who've played for the club beyond token appearances.

Edited November 12, 2021 by RandomGuy.

[mizfit]

Ali wanted to leave lads, we've promised not to stand in anyones way, especially one who's getting offered 10k a week, get over it.

Aye this.
We could’ve put a stop on it and told them to f**k off, but what would’ve happened? He’d have maybe sulked for a year before fucking off for less. It’s a gamble.

[steviemay17]

Ticket sales are poor but not a massive surprise, Hampden's horrible to get to, Saturday night kick-off seemingly no good for the youth of today as failed to convince the kid brother to come along despite paying for his ticket. Tie that in to horribly uninspiring football where we'll just let Celtic have the ball, shut them out for 40 mins, lose 3-0 but give it the "oh but we started organised and it might have been different if we got to half time", then having to listen to their fans will be sh*te too. 

It's an impossible sell to casual fans and we've done nothing on the pitch "this season" to really complain, would be great if somehow win though

[PauloPerth]

1 hour ago, nelsjfc said:

 

 

Which is fine. This time last season I felt we'd be fine as as you could see what we were trying to do with the pressing and we were on top in most games. The last three or four games have not had that and the signing, and persistence with, Crawford. He really doesn't seem to fit in with what the side has been about during Davidson's reign. You can't have the front two pressing and next guy behind being unable/unfit/unwilling to do the same. Crawford is undoubtedly talented but I really can't see where he fits in this system. I've not been overly impressed by McPherson but at least he can sort of see how he fits the side.

Also this time last year Rooney, Melamed, and Booth were on the bench and still to prove themselves. This year we've got guys like Devine, Crawford and Brown. Lots of time then to prove themselves too but feels like a big drop off from the first choice 11 currently.
 

 

Agree. Crawford has a great eye for goal as a midfielder, and I think the point’s been made that when we score so few it’s a valuable asset to have.. but he is poor at keeping the ball and, from what I’ve seen so far, very poor defensively.

His energy is deceptive in that he runs around looking like he’s pressing, but always arriving just after an opponent plays the pass not really looking like he’s ever going to win the ball.  I’d be interested to see what he did if a defender just stood with his foot on the ball.. would he actually think I might be able to take this here or just stand there confused?  

If he’s used as back up to Wotherspoon then fair enough.

On the flip side, it’s a new system and team for him and will take a bit of getting used to, but like you I don’t see that his style fits well into the way we play. 

Callum obviously rates him, and clearly knows exactly what he wants in his players, so hopefully there’s much more to come.

[RandomGuy.]

I think the issue is we lack creativity, but don't play with wingers, and regularly play with one up front. This means you're forced to sign creative CMs.

Wotherspoon is a unicorn. He works like f**k, creates from open play, and creates from set plays. The majority of creative CMs we can get are going to be flawed, most of them will probably be poor defensively/work rate wise.

Up to the manager to figure that puzzle out.

[steviemay17]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

I think the issue is we lack creativity, but don't play with wingers, and regularly play with one up front. This means you're forced to sign creative CMs.

Wotherspoon is a unicorn. He works like f**k, creates from open play, and creates from set plays. The majority of creative CMs we can get are going to be flawed, most of them will probably be poor defensively/work rate wise.

Up to the manager to figure that puzzle out.

I noticed against St Mirren that the lack of any threat in behind means teams can sit as high as they like against us, Neither Kane or May even pretends to run in behind, Middleton did once but that was it, so they were able to squeeze us really high.

That led to the difference when midfielders had the ball, for as sh*te as Main is, he tried to run in behind, so our defence had to sit off a bit, it left a gap and their midfield had space to run into.

When Crawford was getting the ball and trying to drive forward, he had his forward players in wide areas making no movement, and was immediately confronted with the St Mirren midfield and back three who were close in behind, so he had 3/4/5 players to take on to even create some space, while also having no outlet at all - I would guess that's the most obvious explanation for why the game worked out the way it did.

St Mirren were able to play on the front foot and push us back because that's where the space was, but often the only option we had was to go backwards, which just led to eventual panicked clearances and failing to get up the pitch.

We lack creativity, movement and attacking intent, so it's becoming easy to play against

Edited November 13, 2021 by steviemay17

[Radford]

This last page is the sort of buzz I kick off on a Friday night, so disappointed to miss out. 

8 hours ago, PauloPerth said:

His energy is deceptive in that he runs around looking like he’s pressing, but always arriving just after an opponent plays the pass not really looking like he’s ever going to win the ball.

This is a great analysis though. 

Does anyone with tickets in the South Stand have them outwith P1 and anyone in West Stand outwith A1/A2? 

[tree house tam]

3 hours ago, Radford said:

Does anyone with tickets in the South Stand have them outwith P1 and anyone in West Stand outwith A1/A2? 

Look it's a really bad show but you know, let's spin at as "we're boycotting this as a stand against bigotry in Scotland " line.

f**k knows what we'll do when we get the other bigots in the final.

[Zamora Fan]

I can’t really see a way for us to become a better and more entertaining team with this set of players aside from ditching the back five in most games tbh. We don’t have the CMs or the wingers or the strikers for the 5-2-3 or 5-3-2 to work.

After Celtic would like, but don’t expect, to see something like this. Let Wotherspoon/Crawford worry more about creating than pressing.

[Sh*teAndMuck]

I don’t understand any Saints fans who don’t want to go to this semi final. 

We missed our team winning a historic cup double last year, we’re at Hampden again for a semi final and folk don’t want to go?

Makes absolutely zero sense to me.

Hopefully it’ll turn out like the Ibrox semi in 2014 when there wasn’t great belief we could win, the proper Saints fans went and we all had a great time. 

[RandomGuy.]

19 minutes ago, Sh*teAndMuck said:

the proper Saints fans went and we all had a great time. 

Let's not start this again.

Semi finals are generally all day affairs that cost 3/4 times as much as normal away days and require a lot more planning. I'm not sure it's fair to claim folk aren't "proper supporters" if they're not able to go.

[Widge]

I’ve never seen saints win at Hampden, do I expect us to, absolutely not, but I ain’t gonna miss the chance to! I get why many won’t want to go, kick off time in Glasgow being the first and it’s close to Xmas, probably still people not confident in large crowds, etc. 

[Sh*teAndMuck]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

Let's not start this again.

Semi finals are generally all day affairs that cost 3/4 times as much as normal away days and require a lot more planning. I'm not sure it's fair to claim folk aren't "proper supporters" if they're not able to go.

Start what again?

Folk have had ages to save up and plan for the biggest game of the season.

Why wouldn’t they go?
 

Edited November 13, 2021 by Sh*teAndMuck

[RandomGuy.]

46 minutes ago, Sh*teAndMuck said:

Start what again?

Folk have had ages to save up and plan for the biggest game of the season.

Why wouldn’t they go?

Plenty of reasons.

I'm just wanting you to confirm that anyone not going to this game isn't a "proper fan" before I move on to the next part tbh.

[Bato Loco]

Start what again?
Folk have had ages to save up and plan for the biggest game of the season.
Why wouldn’t they go?
 

My son's birthday party [emoji848]