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Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread


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44 minutes ago, Radford said:

Other clubs will make excuses and try to justify it but although we are tight in numbers, I'd prefer that to being bloated and having boys kicking around that have no prospect of playing. That can't be a healthy environment. 

Virtually every player we have has only one player between them and a jersey if they aren't playing and are working under a manager who keeps the team fresh with two systems. 

GK: Clark (24), Parish (9).
RWB: Rooney (23), Brown (N).
LWB: Tanser (27), Booth (15).
CB: Gordon (32), McCart (30), Kerr (24).
CM: McCann (28), Davidson (24), Craig (21), Bryson (15), Gilmour (N).
WF: Wotherspoon (32), Conway (27), O'Halloran (21), Middleton (N).
CF: May (30), Kane (24), Melamed (9).

Whilst I think we're a couple short and have been all season, I can see why we've done it. Looking at Motherwell and Livingston, they're running with squads of 28/30 senior players, that's totally uneconomical especially right now. I don't agree with us not bringing in a few more bodies, but equally the squad are all fairly versatile and used to playing lots of games. There isn't anyone in the squad who you'd worry about actually playing in a match, other than maybe Brown based on not seeing him and O'Halloran based on recent form.

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10 minutes ago, Widge said:

 There isn't anyone in the squad who you'd worry about actually playing in a match, other than maybe Brown based on not seeing him and O'Halloran based on recent form.

We've no real idea about Gilmour either but fairly relaxed on that. As you say that's the senior team, there's some youth we can use in an emergency. 

Think that was as good a window as we could realistically have asked for. Did have a wee hope that the money from getting the LC final was unbudgeted and would have made it's way to a player upgrade but that was a long shot. I'm sure it will be needed to keep us relatively solvent. 

The squad is good enough for a top 8 finish, which is what we should have been budgeting for. Being honest if the offer on the table in December was that we'd have re-signed the key players and nothing else would probably have taken that. 

I think Middleton could be really good for us. Not despondent at all. 

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6 minutes ago, perthsaint1977 said:
10 minutes ago, Widge said:
28 senior players I think?

Surprised at that.

Yeah a little, but of that squad 24 are midfielders. It's a really imbalanced squad, since selling Stewart, they've only got 2 recognised strikers. 

3 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

We've no real idea about Gilmour either but fairly relaxed on that. As you say that's the senior team, there's some youth we can use in an emergency. 

Think that was as good a window as we could realistically have asked for. Did have a wee hope that the money from getting the LC final was unbudgeted and would have made it's way to a player upgrade but that was a long shot. I'm sure it will be needed to keep us relatively solvent. 

The squad is good enough for a top 8 finish, which is what we should have been budgeting for. Being honest if the offer on the table in December was that we'd have re-signed the key players and nothing else would probably have taken that. 

I think Middleton could be really good for us. Not despondent at all. 

Gilmour is a punt to be honest, don't think anyone at saints is expecting him to waltz into the first team and play like prime Pirlo, so there's little risk of it I'd say.

I think I saw on WAP that the likes of John Robertson are back from their loans, if we're struggling up top, then he can't offer any less than Hendry did for parts of this season as a fourth choice striker. The only area that is a slight concern is centreback if we get injuries/suspensions. I think the hope there is, Brown simply slots in at right centreback and Rooney is never played centrally again!

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25 minutes ago, Widge said:

 

Yeah a little, but of that squad 24 are midfielders. It's a really imbalanced squad, since selling Stewart, they've only got 2 recognised strikers. 

Gilmour is a punt to be honest, don't think anyone at saints is expecting him to waltz into the first team and play like prime Pirlo, so there's little risk of it I'd say.

I think I saw on WAP that the likes of John Robertson are back from their loans, if we're struggling up top, then he can't offer any less than Hendry did for parts of this season as a fourth choice striker. The only area that is a slight concern is centreback if we get injuries/suspensions. I think the hope there is, Brown simply slots in at right centreback and Rooney is never played centrally again!

Agree. CB is the only position that gives me a bit of fear. Kerr is sailing close to a suspension on points I think and Gordon's had a few injuries. If Gordon is out at the same time as Kerr we'll have a bit of a problem, as the only option off the top of my head would be Rooney or Brown on the right (one a known risk, the other unknown) McCart central which I'm not sure about at all and Booth left CB. And no cover. Covering RCB with a young unproven RB is not a situation we want to find ourselves in again given what happened last time. 

Or, of course, we can play a back 4.

Edited by Valentino Bolognese
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Rolling the dice in terms of squad depth again, but covid/no guaranteed income etc. etc.

If Gilmour is good then that's a step forward, but really we'll go into this Summers window with no improvements to our squad since last Summer.

Hope they've already started making moves for next season, as there's a few clubs (Aberdeen/United/Motherwell) who'll be looking to have rebuilds and after similar players.

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30 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Hope they've already started making moves for next season, as there's a few clubs (Aberdeen/United/Motherwell) who'll be looking to have rebuilds and after similar players.

After we win the cup this month we are the only realistic chance out of those mentioned for trophies. Deal breaker imo.

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6 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Rolling the dice in terms of squad depth again, but covid/no guaranteed income etc. etc.

If Gilmour is good then that's a step forward, but really we'll go into this Summers window with no improvements to our squad since last Summer.

Hope they've already started making moves for next season, as there's a few clubs (Aberdeen/United/Motherwell) who'll be looking to have rebuilds and after similar players.

Your such a bed wetter😉

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2 hours ago, Zamora Fan said:

Livi in the final is looking pretty intimidating, isn’t it?

They’re on fire right now. 8 wins and 3 draws with no losses since the start of December. Plus two wins against premiership sides in the Betfred during that run.

Thats 10 wins and 3 draws with NINE clean sheets along the way in 13 matches.  Incredible stats.

So yes, if we’d been offered Livi in a final at the start of the season we’d have jumped at it, but they’ve been hard to break down most of the games we’ve played them since they came back up anyway before you throw in the ridiculous form they’re currently in.  A hard working, well organised machine who hardly make any mistakes.  

Would like to see them lose a game or two before the final to knock their confidence a wee bit. Saturday would be a good start..
 

 

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