Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[ATLIS]

On 07/11/2020 at 08:35, RandomGuy. said:

Sacked my attempts at working a rating system, realised it was likely a lot of shite, as it seems impossible to make a fair one.

Instead working on a "comparison" tool.

Using position relevant stats, narrowing it down by value (transfermarkt, don't agree with it completely, but otherwise its a mess), age, and nationality (Melamed aside, we sign Brits almost exclusively).

 

Theres yer attempt at finding a potential replacement for McNamara. Forgot to narrow it down to players with only 1 year left on their deals, so unsure whos available etc, but pretty chuffed I can do this now. No idea about most, but I know Devlin is a similarly aggressive, more attacking than defensive, full back, so thats promising he scored so close. 

Next step I guess would be filtering out those playing at a clearly low level (looking at you, Irish and Welsh leagues), and those in too high a league (QPR).

Just now I'd be saying, as obvious as it sounds, that Nicky Devlin is the best, realistic, direct replacement for McNamara in our system. 27yo and free next Summer.

Caveat on this is obviously it depends on you wanting a similar player. 

We have an option to extend his deal by a year, which we definitely will

[The Marly]

Callum Davidson is hopeful of tying down Chris Kane, Liam Craig and Callum Booth on extended contracts. The trio penned six-month deals prior to the manager's appointment in May.

Makes sense

[Valentino Bolognese]

23 minutes ago, The Marly said:

Callum Davidson is hopeful of tying down Chris Kane, Liam Craig and Callum Booth on extended contracts. The trio penned six-month deals prior to the manager's appointment in May.

Makes sense

It does, but would imagine that they will all be until the end of the season only?

Craig to transition to a coaching role (think I read he's been doing his badges). 

If Melamed kicks on I'd imagine Kane will be off, despite the 15  minutes of wonder last week. Even with Hendry not firing lately he's still 4th choice striker, although he does have qualities the others don't. 

Would be happy for Booth to be here longer, seems a useful player to have around if we're changing shape, need a Tanser swap or maybe even fill in at CB in a push. 

If the vaccine gets rolled out there might be the start of a return more normal football finances in spring but who knows what the longer term effects will be. We've got quite a few players out of contract the end of this season so will be very interesting to see what Callum does during the summer. 

[tree house tam]

Chris Kane isn't the worst striker at Mcdiarmid this season, which is something I thought I'd never say. I'm  also not convinced about Rooney as a footballer at all at the minute but willing to give him a wee bit of time, or until he fucks up Brad McKay style. 

[The Marly]

Chris Kane isn't the worst striker at Mcdiarmid this season, which is something I thought I'd never say. I'm  also not convinced about Rooney as a footballer at all at the minute but willing to give him a wee bit of time, or until he fucks up Brad McKay style. 

Kane is the ideal kind of striker to bring on when we're a goal up with 10 minutes to go. Haven't seen enough of Rooney to judge him, but he needs to be better than we saw from him at Kilmarnock.

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

6 minutes ago, The Marly said:

2 hours ago, tree house tam said:

Chris Kane isn't the worst striker at Mcdiarmid this season, which is something I thought I'd never say. I'm  also not convinced about Rooney as a footballer at all at the minute but willing to give him a wee bit of time, or until he fucks up Brad McKay style. 

Kane is the ideal kind of striker to bring on when we're a goal up with 10 minutes to go. Haven't seen enough of Rooney to judge him, but he needs to be better than we saw from him at Kilmarnock.

Defensively he certainly didn't look up to playing in the back 3. Square peg, round holes as they say... Although not surprising considering the kind of player Caley fans and even how he described himself as a football that he'd look quite uncomfortable in a back 3. 

I think he'd do fine for us in the current shape, particularly in games where were having our fair share of possession. Not a world beater but athletic and will run all day, get to byline etc. McNamara has been great overall and certainly looks like a much better footballer all round but certainly has a long way to go to improve in his final ball etc. 

Time will tell though!

Edited November 10, 2020 by Mr Positive, sometimes.

[RandomGuy.]

Rooney should be fine as a RWB, but I doubt we'll see the interplay between him and Kerr/Conway as we get with McNamara.

Might not be a bad thing in this game tbf.

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

Our inability to show ANY convinction or composure in front of goal is starting to get a bit pathetic now. Its not bad luck.

We're a quarter way through the season now and its been fairly consistent throughout.

[nelsjfc]

So Melamed. Injured or shite?

[Valentino Bolognese]

18 minutes ago, nelsjfc said:

So Melamed. Injured or shite?

Or simply not fit enough yet?

However my money is on shite, and I'll be delighted to lose that bet.

[Dick Van Dyke]

40 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Or simply not fit enough yet?

However my money is on shite, and I'll be delighted to lose that bet.

Surely fit enough for 10 minutes when we needed a goal 

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, Dick Van Dyke said:

Surely fit enough for 10 minutes when we needed a goal 

Maybe, but that was a frenetic game and CD may well have thought it wasn't ideal for him to come straight in to such a fast pace? Maybe he saw something in the game that he thought MOH could exploit better? 

Either way we made a host of changes tonight and were the much better team generally, but it really served to highlight just how much we're reliant on Stevie and to an extent Spoony for the important games. 

Personally, I would have liked to see Melamed on for Kane at around 70 minutes, but understand that CD might have preferred the option of a more defensive striker based on the fact that we didn't 'need' a goal in the same was as Utd did, who are now almost certainly out the competition. It puts a bit more pressure on us for Saturday, but losing  tonight would have made that  a must win rather than must not lose and also ended our unbeaten run. 

Taking the positives, that's 2 consecutive clean sheets at home, this time against a team with decent quality up front that had to win the game and with 2 regular defensive players out the team. 

Edited November 11, 2020 by Valentino Bolognese

[Kyle]

4 hours ago, Mr Positive, sometimes. said:

Our inability to show ANY convinction or composure in front of goal is starting to get a bit pathetic now. Its not bad luck.

We're a quarter way through the season now and its been fairly consistent throughout.

Indeed. We’re well past the point where we can call it bad luck. We’re 3 and a half months into the season and we’ve only scored 2 home goals against other top flight clubs. 

[kingjoey]

5 hours ago, Kyle said:

Indeed. We’re well past the point where we can call it bad luck. We’re 3 and a half months into the season and we’ve only scored 2 home goals against other top flight clubs. 

You’re spot on there. Your attempts at goal last night had absolutely nothing to do with bad luck.

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

8 hours ago, Kyle said:

Indeed. We’re well past the point where we can call it bad luck. We’re 3 and a half months into the season and we’ve only scored 2 home goals against other top flight clubs. 

Since in life right now we need to take any positives we can....

At least we're not going along to watch it!!!!

I'd be losing my collective shit watching that in person. Particularly at the likes of Hendry's effort last night and some of the decision making around the box. 

Only 2 convincing penalties last night as well. Team really lacking overall belief and conviction. 

Edited November 11, 2020 by Mr Positive, sometimes.

[RandomGuy.]

Numbers wise we're still at a "keep the process going and results will come" stage, tbh.

When Hendrys missing a few chances he should be scoring each game, you replace the player rather than change way you're playing.

Its a bit shit but we're at the mercy of our strikers. May is the only who's not costing us in terms of goals. Hendry is a massive issue just now.

Edited November 11, 2020 by RandomGuy.

[tree house tam]

47 minutes ago, Mr Positive, sometimes. said:

'd be losing my collective shit watching that in person. Particularly at the likes of Hendry's effort last night and some of the decision making around the box. 

Which in turn would either make him shape up or want to ship out, which is exactly the way it should be. Do the coaching staff actually get these c***s told? Too much molly coddling imo. If they cant hack it find another club to hide in.

[The Marly]

Maybe, but that was a frenetic game and CD may well have thought it wasn't ideal for him to come straight in to such a fast pace? Maybe he saw something in the game that he thought MOH could exploit better? 
Either way we made a host of changes tonight and were the much better team generally, but it really served to highlight just how much we're reliant on Stevie and to an extent Spoony for the important games. 
Personally, I would have liked to see Melamed on for Kane at around 70 minutes, but understand that CD might have preferred the option of a more defensive striker based on the fact that we didn't 'need' a goal in the same was as Utd did, who are now almost certainly out the competition. It puts a bit more pressure on us for Saturday, but losing  tonight would have made that  a must win rather than must not lose and also ended our unbeaten run. 
Taking the positives, that's 2 consecutive clean sheets at home, this time against a team with decent quality up front that had to win the game and with 2 regular defensive players out the team. 

Saturday is must win. A draw and lose on penalties and we're likely out. Even a penalty win might not be enough.

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

16 minutes ago, The Marly said:

10 hours ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Maybe, but that was a frenetic game and CD may well have thought it wasn't ideal for him to come straight in to such a fast pace? Maybe he saw something in the game that he thought MOH could exploit better? 
Either way we made a host of changes tonight and were the much better team generally, but it really served to highlight just how much we're reliant on Stevie and to an extent Spoony for the important games. 
Personally, I would have liked to see Melamed on for Kane at around 70 minutes, but understand that CD might have preferred the option of a more defensive striker based on the fact that we didn't 'need' a goal in the same was as Utd did, who are now almost certainly out the competition. It puts a bit more pressure on us for Saturday, but losing  tonight would have made that  a must win rather than must not lose and also ended our unbeaten run. 
Taking the positives, that's 2 consecutive clean sheets at home, this time against a team with decent quality up front that had to win the game and with 2 regular defensive players out the team. 

Saturday is must win. A draw and lose on penalties and we're likely out. Even a penalty win might not be enough.

If we draw and win on penalties we're through as we'd win the group. 

Finishing second on 8 points though I reckon we'd be in trouble compared to other 2nd placed teams. 

[Kyle]

46 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Numbers wise we're still at a "keep the process going and results will come" stage, tbh.

When Hendrys missing a few chances he should be scoring each game, you replace the player rather than change way you're playing.

Its a bit shit but we're at the mercy of our strikers. May is the only who's not costing us in terms of goals. Hendry is a massive issue just now.

I'm not sure I agree with this to be honest. We dominate pretty much every game we play at home, certainly in terms of territory, but we don't really create *that* many chances. Maybe one or two in a game. The good chances we do create get fluffed on a frighteningly consistent scale. I can't imagine we'll continue to play as well as we have done at home - which we have for the most part - and we're still not really picking up results. It's easy just blaming the strikers but I don't think they get that much support from the rest of the team. How many times have we seen a decent looking cross being swung into the box, with only 1 player in there for Saints attacking the ball, even when we have had a decent period of possession leading up to it?

We play good football for the most part but I think the jury is still out on the shape. The players seem to have bought into it so maybe it does just need more time but I can't say I'm convnced.