The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[RossC93]

6 minutes ago, Torfason said:

Ask any RC fan and they will tell you Fraser is a car crash at centre half.

The only way we’d have Fraser at CB is if we had at least two of Shaughnessy, McCarthy, Tait, Foley & Nick McAllister all ineligible & a few additional variables in the full back positions. 
 

As I said previously, a Foley CM/CB type player would be ideal - possibly a LB squad player, but there’s definitely no reason to be worrying at this stage. It’s the classic “St Mirren da’” type scenario to be getting stressed about the situation we’re in - we’re in our best shape in years in terms of squad depth. As long as we keep a squad in our preferred formation and not change it like we did on Saturday, we’ll be absolutely fine. 

[FTOF]

3 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Always like looking at "average position" maps, as good teams generally recognisable shapes and a clear system.

Yours was not good at McDiarmid.

FWIW you're one of the worst sides in the league in terms of "creating xG", and have been massively overperforming in terms of points, which isn't sustainable. Presumably this is a reason why Goodwin seems to be focused on improving your attack.

You really, really need to get a life.

[Coventry Saint]

3 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Always like looking at "average position" maps, as good teams generally recognisable shapes and a clear system.

You literally make this shit up as you go along, don't you?

 

[RandomGuy.]

2 minutes ago, FTOF said:

You really, really need to get a life.

Proper "yer da" response.

Its takes, literally, 2 seconds to look up and helps me understand one of my interests (St Johnstone) better. Do you tell folk who try and figure out what car they want to buy to "get a life" if they look up MPG figures?

A quick look and you'd see your sides issues and why the manager is looking to add attackers rather than defenders. Alternatively you can stay uninformed and have a meltdown over the wrong thing.

[RandomGuy.]

Just now, Coventry Saint said:

You literally make this shit up as you go along, don't you?

 

"Generally".

Even then, you can quite clearly see Barca playing a 4-3-3. 

[Coventry Saint]

15 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Do you tell folk who try and figure out what car they want to buy to "get a life" if they look up MPG figures?

I dunno, do those folk go round the internet telling people who didn't ask and don't care how much "better" their MPG figures are?

[RandomGuy.]

1 minute ago, Coventry Saint said:

I dunno, do those folk go round the internet telling people who didn't ask and don't care how much "better" their MPG figures are?

Most car forums are filled with folk boasting about their BHP and MPG, yes.

Apologies for trying to give some insight into your managers thoughts, based on facts.

[Ric]

Just now, RandomGuy. said:

Apologies for trying to give some insight into your managers thoughts, based on facts.

Deary fucking me.

[RandomGuy.]

10 minutes ago, Ric said:

Deary fucking me.

You seem confused why your manager wanted another striker.

I showed you youre the worst attacking side in the league in terms of quantity and quality, so this probably explains his thinking.

Instead of leaving it at that, you've seemingly all decided its far better to start berating me, dragging a simple thing that took one post to a debate over the course of the entire day, yet apparently I'm the one with nothing better to do.

Edited September 5, 2020 by RandomGuy.

[Ric]

2 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

You seem confused why your manager wanted another striker.

I showed you youre the worst attacking side in the league in terms of quantity and quality, so this probably explains his thinking.

Instead of leaving it at that, you've seemingly all decided its far better to start berating me, dragging a simple thing that took one post to a debate over the course of the entire day, yet apparently I'm the one with nothing better to do.

Deary fucking me (again).

[FTOF]

43 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Proper "yer da" response.

Its takes, literally, 2 seconds to look up and helps me understand one of my interests (St Johnstone) better. Do you tell folk who try and figure out what car they want to buy to "get a life" if they look up MPG figures?

A quick look and you'd see your sides issues and why the manager is looking to add attackers rather than defenders. Alternatively you can stay uninformed and have a meltdown over the wrong thing.

You really are one sad b*****d.

Your analogy is complete shit too.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2020 by FTOF

[buddie06smfc]

I would agree we need another defender, too many players being moved out of position. We miss Foley in middle when he’s moved as we probably will with Flynn etc. No amount of pointless graphs or irrelevant xG statistics will change the impact, on the whole team, of moving players out of position.

[NorthBank]

We do require another defender and I would also like to see another striker.

The squad is not as good as I had hoped. Yea, many of the first picks are excellent but we have little backup. Morias and McAllister are not starters for me as I have yet to see either of them change a game in over a year playing with us. The bench is mostly Academy graduates. Obika is a decent 6 yard box poacher but IMHO, and I am entitled to my view, he is poor on his own up top and Goodwin should play 2 forwards (wish we had signed Jakubiak) or if playng just one striker then try the only alternative in Dennis.

But whoever plays up front they require far better service. We still do too much possession passing without making any inroads. Durmus will have a go when he gets the ball and I hope that Connolly can also do the same. McGrath looks like he can do a good job behind the strikers. Cammy McPherson can also produce a good forward performance but has to do it more. When players get near the opposition box they have either got to shoot or pass forward into space for runners. This passing sideways on the edge of the box helps no-one. Foley, as much as I rate him, is terrible for that.

Magennis and Flynn will help however they are similar to a lot of what we have but will provide some good competition for places which strengthens a weak bench.

I still think we can put out a decent team but we lack alternatives in my opinion. Two more signings would help a lot.

[GAD]

9 minutes ago, NorthBank said:

We do require another defender and I would also like to see another striker.

The squad is not as good as I had hoped. Yea, many of the first picks are excellent but we have little backup. Morias and McAllister are not starters for me as I have yet to see either of them change a game in over a year playing with us. The bench is mostly Academy graduates. Obika is a decent 6 yard box poacher but IMHO, and I am entitled to my view, he is poor on his own up top and Goodwin should play 2 forwards (wish we had signed Jakubiak) or if playng just one striker then try the only alternative in Dennis.

But whoever plays up front they require far better service. We still do too much possession passing without making any inroads. Durmus will have a go when he gets the ball and I hope that Connolly can also do the same. McGrath looks like he can do a good job behind the strikers. Cammy McPherson can also produce a good forward performance but has to do it more. When players get near the opposition box they have either got to shoot or pass forward into space for runners. This passing sideways on the edge of the box helps no-one. Foley, as much as I rate him, is terrible for that.

Magennis and Flynn will help however they are similar to a lot of what we have but will provide some good competition for places which strengthens a weak bench.

I still think we can put out a decent team but we lack alternatives in my opinion. Two more signings would help a lot.

Yeah, for all everyone is laughing at him, Randomguy is right. We don't create enough chances and we don't score enough goals. We have a team full of grit and effort for the most part, but, just like last season, we need some creativity on the ball and we need some better movement going forward. 

I don't know what players are achievable for us just now, but I think we could carry someone like Mallan in the current team and he would make a huge difference for us going forward.

[Ric]

3 hours ago, GAD said:

Yeah, for all everyone is laughing at him, Randomguy is right. We don't create enough chances and we don't score enough goals.

Oh, they're not wrong. What I find funny is the way the comments are written as if they are the font of all knowledge when they're telling us what we already know and have seen with our own eyes and that somehow they are doing us a service with that insight. At the same time basing some of that on the last game we played which, as we all know, is not how we have performed this season. The personal insults seem a bit harsh, tbf, but I feel if someone did the same in the St Johnstone thread they'd be treated with the same level of disdain.

Where you say we don't create enough chances, it's clear that we do (and we can look at the stats from last season to see that), we just don't make the most of them.

As for the team? It's clear that Goodwin had two main plans, create a squad that didn't rely on loaned and/or youngsters at the back and somehow turn the numerous chances we create into goals. He's achieved half of that and barring a bit of bump when Shaughnessy has been suspended and Goodwin decided to try something different, the back line has looked very solid. You can see Dennis has been brought in purely because of his ability to convert chances into goals. As he's only just joined it's far too early to make any judgement on whether that's the right idea or not.

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Ric

[Gareth_Glasgow]

For me, we desperately need Flynn back in the team and absolutely need to sign another defender as any injury/suspension for Tait would be a nightmare.

[Torfason]

12 minutes ago, Gareth_Glasgow said:

For me, we desperately need Flynn back in the team and absolutely need to sign another defender as any injury/suspension for Tait would be a nightmare.

Totally agree, at some point most defenders pick up suspensions and if we are serious about being a top 6 team we need coverage.
 

Weakening our midfield so Foley can fill in at centre half is not the answer. A left sided defender who can play centre half and left back would go a long way to strengthening the squad.

[Spam_Valley]

I honestly don’t think we need any more defensive cover. Barring a major long term injury (which no team could ever plan for anyway) were adequately covered in every area for a game or two pending ending of suspensions/minor injuries.

Magennis and Flynn coming back will be great for squad depth however, I’m not entirely convinced Flynn will return the same player anyway.

We need a #10/Dorman type creator before we need an additional defender.

[Ric]

1 hour ago, Gareth_Glasgow said:

For me, we desperately need Flynn back in the team and absolutely need to sign another defender as any injury/suspension for Tait would be a nightmare.

 

45 minutes ago, Torfason said:

Totally agree, at some point most defenders pick up suspensions and if we are serious about being a top 6 team we need coverage.

Weakening our midfield so Foley can fill in at centre half is not the answer. A left sided defender who can play centre half and left back would go a long way to strengthening the squad.

I think the main question is where does Flynn fit in when he comes back. If it's back into the centre of midfield then perhaps we can "lose" Foley in the middle should he need to drop into central defence.

31 minutes ago, Spam_Valley said:

We need a #10/Dorman type creator before we need an additional defender

For me there just isn't the room in the squad for one, even if we could identify one. Look at the list of midfielders available...

(alphabetically) Connolly, Durmus, Erhahon, Flynn, Foley, Henderson, Macpherson, Magennis, McAllister, McGrath and Sheron.

Now we can cross a few of them off the list in terms of an advanced creative midfielder (Sheron, Foley, Flynn), but at the same time you could technically push either Morias or Dennis (it really depends as we've not seem much from him yet) into that position too. Of those who have played on the wing, I'd say McAllister and McGrath both play better in field than wide and I'm guessing that Connolly and Erhahon will be wider before central and Durmus is better on the wing. Magennis? I just don't know. He can clearly play wide but for me that's the same as McAllister (albeit the latter certainly looks more comfortable wider).

All said and done, unless we move players on from the midfield, and our main sellable assets are Macpherson, Magennis and possibly Erhahon - none of which I'd like to see leave, each for different reasons - I just don't see how we can fit another midfielder in.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's quite a shock after several years of makeshift squads and a rotating door manager policy (forced or otherwise) we find ourselves in a position where we have too many players all of which offer something (heh, well perhaps Sheron the least!), so in that sense it's a "nice" problem to have.

For me though, cover for the LB role is where I'd like to see someone added. Maybe Fraser can swap sides (as we've seen Flynn is competent cover for RB) and we all know that at a push Erhahon can cover (albeit that's if he can shake the assumed PTSD he must have had from covering it under Kearney!) but relying on Tait staying fit and suspension free seems like tempting fate.

In terms of Baird going, I wonder if (Nick) McAllister will be called up to the main squad. He's been on the fringes for years now and it would be interesting to know if Goodwin has kept him in the reserves (while calling up the other lads) was just to give him regular game time (albeit at a lower level) or if he just doesn't fancy him as a player.

Edited September 6, 2020 by Ric

[ZingaliMan]

I dont see us being top six this season. We have a decent back line which should keep us off bottom spot. Midfield is over run up until now. Forward line is relegation material unless the new players  make a difference . In short that's how I see it. 

Edited September 6, 2020 by ZingaliMan