The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[sergie's no1 fan]

The most disappointing thing for me is that I used to watch us be that lethargic and off the pace in pre-season friendlies. Now we are lethargic and off the pace in one of two major competitions that we have a shot in, and that I have had the joy of actually seeing us win.
I hate the fact the League Cup is effectively our pre-season. Having said that, congratulations to Dunfermline for not being lethargic and putting in a first half showing that ripped us a new arse.

It's the usual ring rust. Unfortunately these league cup games have taken over from pre season friendlies. Hopefully we peak by the time the league starts.

Are we planning on playing the pair of them in defence? We were a shambles at the back and I doubt that pair would have been able to do much about it.  
For the first hour pretty much the whole team was woeful. The only exceptions are Hladky, as usual, and the strikers, as they had f**k all to work with. I think between Mullen and Cooke they had three chances - and scored with two of them! Most of the team looked unfit as well.
 
Straw clutching stuff but hopefully that disaster will have driven home to our manager and board how much work there is to be done.

True. MacKenzie can't play in a back 4 and we won't be relying on Erhahon at left back. He is hung out to dry there too often.

Looking for much more from the McGinn brothers too.

I would not be the least bit surprised if we now sell the goalkeeper now to help fund signings.  

Hope not he could be the difference between 10-12th.

Still very early days, yes that was rotten but we all know we are on the hunt for players.

[killiemilan]

1 hour ago, buddie06smfc said:

Don’t think he is ready for first team football. I think he could do with going out on loan to a team a division or 2 below.

I agree and have been slated on here for saying so. As someone who saw Ethan play a lot of youth football he clearly has/had potential however if he is not treated well he may well be lost to the game.  

[NorthBank]

1 hour ago, pozbaird said:

He’s young, he’s not a left back, but he’s usually a whole lot better than today. You don’t usually see Ethan seem so lethargic and switched off to the situation. It really isn’t like him. He’s better than today’s showing.

You got some of it right. I judge young players on their progress and Ethan is going backwards. He appears lazy, switches off, cannot cross and doesn't track back. Yea I know he is young, out of position bla de bla but the point is he is playing left back and is a liability. Send him out of loan for everyone's sake.

[djchapsticks]

This apparently Dutch fellow (according to BT Sport) in the stand today isn't Thomas Verheydt, so who is he? 

[glenburn bud]

It’s very early days and I’m not particularly bothered about these betfred cup games. As long as we get at least 6 decent quality players in time for the league campaign. 

Has to be said the boy Erhahon is utterly hopeless. We can’t go into the league games with him at left back. I just don’t see a player in him at all. If he’s more comfortable in midfield then he’ll need to find a bit of pace from somewhere, his lack of composure and game awareness is awful.

[Torfason]

We're definitely short squad wise but I'm struggling to see the benefit of La Manga. Unless a sponsor picks up the tab, the money would be better spent on a player.

[Derry Alli]

1 hour ago, djchapsticks said:

This apparently Dutch fellow (according to BT Sport) in the stand today isn't Thomas Verheydt, so who is he? 

I thought he looked a bit hefty to be someone you'd be looking to sign. Plus he never turned up until half time? 

[djchapsticks]

A wee bit concerned at the repeating today that we're 4 bodies short.

We are a minimum of six short.

Even if we signed a winger, striker, centre half and left back, we'd still be a winger, striker, centre half and full back cover away from being complete.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, NorthBank said:

You got some of it right. I judge young players on their progress and Ethan is going backwards. He appears lazy, switches off, cannot cross and doesn't track back. Yea I know he is young, out of position bla de bla but the point is he is playing left back and is a liability. Send him out of loan for everyone's sake.

Definitely - I thought it was a far worse performance than anything we saw from him last season, which is weird considering he's had half a season's worth of first team experience playing there.

1 hour ago, djchapsticks said:

This apparently Dutch fellow (according to BT Sport) in the stand today isn't Thomas Verheydt, so who is he? 

Appreciate he's not Dutch but is it not Gary Miller? Has the same sort of eyebrows anyway. Looks like the guy I found the photo of from the Peterborough game.

[djchapsticks]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Definitely - I thought it was a far worse performance than anything we saw from him last season, which is weird considering he's had half a season's worth of first team experience playing there.

Appreciate he's not Dutch but is it not Gary Miller? Has the same sort of eyebrows anyway. Looks like the guy I found the photo of from the Peterborough game.

Heard that it was actually Vaclav's mate. Not heard if there's anything more in it or if the guy is even a footballer.

[RossC93]

It’s Hladky’s agent.

[flyingscot]

30 minutes ago, Stu said:

Definitely - I thought it was a far worse performance than anything we saw from him last season, which is weird considering he's had half a season's worth of first team experience playing there.

Very similar to his performance at Hamilton where we drew a game we should have won.

[madmitch]

St. Mirren don't do good pre seasons. Glad that I opted to watch the cricket world cup live  rather than this.  Nae luck the kiwis undone by the umpires.

Edited July 14, 2019 by madmitch

[Hendo]

2 hours ago, flyingscot said:

Very similar to his performance at Hamilton where we drew a game we should have won.

Was that the day he made a goal line clearance to help us secure a point?

[Ye Olde Hamiltonian]

You guys need to stop fretting as you haven't seen how bad we were on Saturday versus Queens Park.

What I don't get reading this and other threads is how unfit some of the SPL sides look playing against lower division teams-even ones where they only train twice a week.

[djchapsticks]

15 minutes ago, Ye Olde Hamiltonian said:

You guys need to stop fretting as you haven't seen how bad we were on Saturday versus Queens Park.

What I don't get reading this and other threads is how unfit some of the SPL sides look playing against lower division teams-even ones where they only train twice a week.

I don't buy too much into it.

2 seasons ago we were dreadful in the Betfred cup and came within 3 minutes of losing to East Kilbride in the challenge cup and yet went on to win the league at a canter.

Last season we looked decent against a Killie side who were clearly miles off being ready and only a few days later, looked shoddy against Spartans and Queens Park.

These games are a good indicator of where you are as a team but folk need to remember, competitive or not, these games are smack bang in the middle of pre-season. No-one has their shit together at this point.

Edited July 14, 2019 by djchapsticks

[Coventry Saint]

7 hours ago, djchapsticks said:

I don't buy too much into it.

2 seasons ago we were dreadful in the Betfred cup and came within 3 minutes of losing to East Kilbride in the challenge cup and yet went on to win the league at a canter.

Last season we looked decent against a Killie side who were clearly miles off being ready and only a few days later, looked shoddy against Spartans and Queens Park.

These games are a good indicator of where you are as a team but folk need to remember, competitive or not, these games are smack bang in the middle of pre-season. No-one has their shit together at this point.

The other thing to bear in mind is that really intensive summer training is designed to benefit the players' fitness in January and February. It won't necessarily have short-term benefits. 

It's not an excuse, but our players' legs will still have been heavy from double sessions in Spain. Proper sharpness will come from playing hard matches.

That said, Dunfermline looked very good in the first half. Hard to say how much of it was us being shite or them being good, but for a young team I thought they were very promising.

[Munoz]

Yesterday's performance for an hour was as bad as I can remember. You can look at fitness or lack of it , but for me it just highlighted how important the players we bring in are going to be. If we dont get it right,  we'll be struggling more than we were in the first half of last season. 

 

[Coventry Saint]

18 minutes ago, Munoz said:

Yesterday's performance for an hour was as bad as I can remember. You can look at fitness or lack of it , but for me it just highlighted how important the players we bring in are going to be. If we dont get it right,  we'll be struggling more than we were in the first half of last season. 

Yeah, we are so far short.

If you think, Erhahon was our third-choice LB by the time the season ended and right now we literally have nobody else who could play there. He was also our only attacking outlet down the left for much of the match, too, which is hardly going to help him concentrate on his defence.

I did notice Djorkaeff ran on to the right hand side of the pitch, but then repeatedly popped up on the left, so I suspect that might be his preferred position (Not blaming him - all our shape had gone by the time we were chasing a goal at the end.)

If it was up to me, these would be the absolute bare minimum incoming:

2x CH
1x LB
1x versatile L/RB
1x pacey winger
1x striker

And even then we're probably a bit short/praying we're lucky with injuries.

[Demented Zebra]

2 hours ago, Coventry Saint said:

The other thing to bear in mind is that really intensive summer training is designed to benefit the players' fitness in January and February. It won't necessarily have short-term benefits. 

It's not an excuse, but our players' legs will still have been heavy from double sessions in Spain. Proper sharpness will come from playing hard matches.

That said, Dunfermline looked very good in the first half. Hard to say how much of it was us being shite or them being good, but for a young team I thought they were very promising.

I dont buy the fitness level. Second half proved it was our attitude to the game in the first half. That the players did not understand  Goodwin's diamond shape. No doubt we will get stronger as new players come in. My biggest concern is Stevie McGinn last season I thought he was carrying an injury and Oran hinted on that in a interview. Yesterday he looked well of the pace Goodwin had no hesitation taking him off. Fingers crossed he comes good. I'm sure we can all agree Goodwin has his work cut out.