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The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread


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Great news about Cody. Could actually help us in terms of being forced to bring in more than 1 striker now.
Do we have any players apart from McGinn and Erhahon that can deputise at left-back and play comfortable there, if we do bring in Waters? I Still think its a risk only having one natural left-back when he arrives.

I think we’d still require another striker to challenge Mullen & Obika and allow us the option to go with 2 up top some games with adequate backup/options. Mullen & Cooke both had spells out injured last season and seem to pick up niggling injuries every now and then. Cooke should be used as 4th option behind the current 2 strikers & a new signing. We got rid of enough players over the summer to free up the budget for a left back, winger & striker.
Would punt Erhahon out on loan as well, similar way to Kenny McLean was. Did him the world of good back then.
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1 hour ago, buddie06smfc said:


I think we’d still require another striker to challenge Mullen & Obika and allow us the option to go with 2 up top some games with adequate backup/options. Mullen & Cooke both had spells out injured last season and seem to pick up niggling injuries every now and then. Cooke should be used as 4th option behind the current 2 strikers & a new signing. We got rid of enough players over the summer to free up the budget for a left back, winger & striker.
Would punt Erhahon out on loan as well, similar way to Kenny McLean was. Did him the world of good back then.

You play the striker who is on form not who you think will be on form. Most games it will be one up front with an attacking midfield as such the forward line will be chopped and changed a lot. I'm not overly worried we have a solid team. Fingers crossed I think Goodwin will have us safe. 

 

 

 

 

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Still think its a risk only having one natural left-back when he arrives.

 

As per my earlier post, we didn’t have a natural left back from 1981 to 1987.

 

Despite this we still managed to win the Scottish Cup, reach 4 other major Semi Finals, qualify for Europe twice and finish top 6 several times!

 

On that basis I think we’ll manage with just the one natural left back!

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2 hours ago, Div said:

Deal is done, guess they want to announce it tomorrow. Will definitely be in the squad for Sunday, 100%

Double announcement tomorrow I’m told, we should hear of 1 early morning.

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2 minutes ago, AW saint said:

Any chance of a striker coming in addition to those 2

The word is that after we announce two tomorrow then that’s us done. I would hope that means permanent signings, and that we still have some loans or free agents to consider.

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I keep seeing posts about us needing another striker.

We play with 1 striker up front. We have 3 on the books, albeit 1 is injured.

Obika and Mullen would appear to me to be the 2 guys who will be competing for that 1 starting slot.

Do we really need another striker just to sit on the bench or just in case all 3 of the strikers we currently have are missing?

If we had a situation where all 3 were out then I’d imagine we could use Durmus, McAllister or Djorkaeff as a striker.

Even Celtic only have 2 recognised strikers on the books yet our fans want us to have 4?

I think the real issue is that fans just don’t believe that Obika will be very good and they don’t rate Mullen. If we’d signed some top prolific goal scorer then I don’t think anyone would be calling for a 4th striker.

Fans will just need to accept that Obika and Mullen are the 2 strikers we have fighting for that 1 position!

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9 minutes ago, Jeremiah Cole said:

I keep seeing posts about us needing another striker.

We play with 1 striker up front. We have 3 on the books, albeit 1 is injured.

Obika and Mullen would appear to me to be the 2 guys who will be competing for that 1 starting slot.

Do we really need another striker just to sit on the bench or just in case all 3 of the strikers we currently have are missing?

If we had a situation where all 3 were out then I’d imagine we could use Durmus, McAllister or Djorkaeff as a striker.

Even Celtic only have 2 recognised strikers on the books yet our fans want us to have 4?

I think the real issue is that fans just don’t believe that Obika will be very good and they don’t rate Mullen. If we’d signed some top prolific goal scorer then I don’t think anyone would be calling for a 4th striker.

Fans will just need to accept that Obika and Mullen are the 2 strikers we have fighting for that 1 position!
 

He's right, y'know. The issue is that nobody - even seasoned football people/industry types - can let go of 4-4-2. Hardly anyone plays it any more, and even then, one of them is usually in the Sheringham role. Yet the number of times you hear 'we need someone to partner X up front'. Andreu is clearly, and rightly, going to be first choice, so we just need to work out who's partnering him.

If anything, we need extra wide cover, even with McAllister coming in. Based on Goodwin's desire for two in each position, we currently have Djorkaeff (who will rarely start, IMO), Durmus, McAllister and, probably, Magennis. Flynn could play there at a push but would be wasted.

That said, I don't think we will bring in anyone else. It's a compact squad, and we'll need to ride our luck with injuries, but after last season's absolute farce, I think it's preferable.

Edited by Coventry Saint
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27 minutes ago, Jeremiah Cole said:

I keep seeing posts about us needing another striker.

We play with 1 striker up front. We have 3 on the books, albeit 1 is injured.

Obika and Mullen would appear to me to be the 2 guys who will be competing for that 1 starting slot.

Do we really need another striker just to sit on the bench or just in case all 3 of the strikers we currently have are missing?

If we had a situation where all 3 were out then I’d imagine we could use Durmus, McAllister or Djorkaeff as a striker.

Even Celtic only have 2 recognised strikers on the books yet our fans want us to have 4?

I think the real issue is that fans just don’t believe that Obika will be very good and they don’t rate Mullen. If we’d signed some top prolific goal scorer then I don’t think anyone would be calling for a 4th striker.

Fans will just need to accept that Obika and Mullen are the 2 strikers we have fighting for that 1 position!
 

Mullen is a wee bit underrated as well I think. We missed him badly last season when he was injured. His scoring record wasn't amazing, but it wasn't shit either and he was living off some pretty meagre scraps. If he stays fit and scores at the same rate this season he should get 8-10 goals this season. Not world beating, but actually not that bad either if you compare him to the main striker at other clubs around the same level. The goals he scored were all important as well, and he tends to do the business against the teams around us in the league. We could do a lot worse.

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38 minutes ago, Jeremiah Cole said:

I keep seeing posts about us needing another striker.

We play with 1 striker up front. We have 3 on the books, albeit 1 is injured.

Obika and Mullen would appear to me to be the 2 guys who will be competing for that 1 starting slot.

Do we really need another striker just to sit on the bench or just in case all 3 of the strikers we currently have are missing?

If we had a situation where all 3 were out then I’d imagine we could use Durmus, McAllister or Djorkaeff as a striker.

Even Celtic only have 2 recognised strikers on the books yet our fans want us to have 4?

I think the real issue is that fans just don’t believe that Obika will be very good and they don’t rate Mullen. If we’d signed some top prolific goal scorer then I don’t think anyone would be calling for a 4th striker.

Fans will just need to accept that Obika and Mullen are the 2 strikers we have fighting for that 1 position!
 

I think Obika will be good, if he stays fit. That is the issue, both him and Mullen have had recent injury problems.

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9 minutes ago, GAD said:

Mullen is a wee bit underrated as well I think. We missed him badly last season when he was injured. His scoring record wasn't amazing, but it wasn't shit either and he was living off some pretty meagre scraps. If he stays fit and scores at the same rate this season he should get 8-10 goals this season. Not world beating, but actually not that bad either if you compare him to the main striker at other clubs around the same level. The goals he scored were all important as well, and he tends to do the business against the teams around us in the league. We could do a lot worse.

Agreed. He’s a pest.

He’s great at getting us up the park and winning free kicks. some people may call it diving, I’ll call it ‘cute’.

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I’m not having any of that guff about playing a right footed player at left back. Why would you not want a proper left footed player filling the role at left back. 

Gary Irvine did the job for us in the championship, but when he was involved in any attacking movements all the pace and momentum were lost as he had to stop then switch to his right foot before crossing the ball.

Why do we struggle to find decent left backs.

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I'm starrting to think/hope we might get Popescu back on loan before the window shuts and hopefully he can sign a PCA in January because the boy wants to be here.

Unfortunately for him in the transcript of am instagram conversation I saw ,it would appear we don't appear to be able or willing to give him what he wants in terms of finance and/or conditions.

 

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5 minutes ago, FTOF said:

Unfortunately for him in the transcript of am instagram conversation I saw ,it would appear we don't appear to be able or willing to give him what he wants in terms of finance and/or conditions.

 

I think that ship has sailed and we all need to move on, his agent shifted the goalposts at the last minute, and became greedy as they so often do. I imagine some of the budget has already been set aside for other players already here, so we won’t have enough left in the pot for Popescu.

Edited by glenburn bud
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Jim wants competition for every position so entertain me and let's see what we will have available once Waters and McAllister complete their moves. Some of these might be a stretch of the imagination but there are reasons behind them all.
 

GOALKEEPER

Vaclav
Lyness

LEFT BACK

Waters
Erhahon

RIGHT BACK

P. McGinn
MacPherson

CENTRE HALF

MacKenzie
Baird
McLoughlin
N.McCallister
P.McGInn

CENTRAL MID

S. McGinn
Foley
Flynn
Kellermann
MacPherson
Magennis
Erhahon

LEFT MID

Durmas
Flynn
Foley
Djorkaeff
Breadner
K. McCallister

RIGHT MID

K. McCallister
Magennis
P. McGinn
Breadner
Foley
Djorkaeff

FORWARDS

Andreu
Obika
Mullen
Cooke
Breadner


Some of that is really pushing it (McCallister and Flynn left mid for example) but you can hopefully see what I'm getting at. It's a squad of 21 but it's pretty versatile.


 

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1 minute ago, Div said:

Jim wants competition for every position so entertain me and let's see what we will have available once Waters and McAllister complete their moves. Some of these might be a stretch of the imagination but there are reasons behind them all.
 

GOALKEEPER

Vaclav
Lyness

LEFT BACK

Waters
Erhahon

RIGHT BACK

McGinn
MacPherson

CENTRE HALF

MacKenzie
Baird
McLoughlin
N.McCallister
P.McGInn

CENTRAL MID

McGinn
Foley
Flynn
Kellermann
MacPherson
Magennis
Erhahon

LEFT MID

Durmas
Flynn
Foley
McCallister

RIGHT MID

McCallister
Magennis
McGinn
Breadner
Foley

FORWARDS

Andreu
Cooke
Obika
Mullen
Breadner


Some of that is really pushing it (McCallister and Flynn left mid for example) but you can hopefully see what I'm getting at. It's a squad of 21 but it's pretty versatile.


 

Breadner played left mid for most of the game on Tuesday night Div.

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1 minute ago, weebud said:

Breadner played left mid for most of the game on Tuesday night Div.

I've never seen the boy play, but I had him down as a right sided midfielder. I'll add him to the options on the left!

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10 hours ago, Jeremiah Cole said:

On that basis I think we’ll manage with just the one natural left back!

 

39 minutes ago, glenburn bud said:

I’m not having any of that guff about playing a right footed player at left back. Why would you not want a proper left footed player filling the role at left back. 

I think a natural correctly-sided fullbacks become important if you lack width in front of them. If you're playing with narrow/inside-out wingers, then you want a full back who can get around them and offer true width.

With luck, we will be playing with Durmus all season long and he'll be an absolute revelation, so having an attacking FB behind him isn't the most important thing in the world.

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I’m not having any of that guff about playing a right footed player at left back. Why would you not want a proper left footed player filling the role at left back.  Gary Irvine did the job for us in the championship, but when he was involved in any attacking movements all the pace and momentum were lost as he had to stop then switch to his right foot before crossing the ball.

Why do we struggle to find decent left backs.

 

 

As most wingers these days are inverted and cut inside to shoot as opposed to going down the wing, a right footed left back would be better able to defend.

 

Full backs are primarily defenders and this should be the main focus rather focusing on their attacking abilities.

 

It seems that football has evoked in an attacking sense by using inverted wingers but is still stuck in the past with regards to defending against them.

 

Even in an attacking sense though, cutting inside to deliver an inswinging cross is more dangerous than an outswinging cross.

 

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