The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[sergie's no1 fan]

4 minutes ago, Lex said:

As expected, he’s been in the Wolves first team squad all season and made his EPL debut yesterday. What a player.
Back to reality, massive game for us on Wednesday. If we don’t win it we will surely be going into the long World Cup break on a bad run.

No doubt StJohnstone will beat us and we'll stick 4 past the zombies, they looked a sorry lot today. The Perth Saints look back to their usual solid ways and are now above us in the table. 

I know he scored yesterday but O'Hara seems to be immune from any sort of criticism. Teams have clocked on to the way we play, when the ball doesn't stick to Ayunga/Main our game plan falls apart.

Definitely time to ring the changes. Gogic should start in midfield in place of Erhahon probably and Shaughnessy has to play.

[NorthBank]

3 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

From an outsider’s point of view, and looking back at the lineups it was fairly predictable, I guess, but St Mirren had absolutely no width whatsoever.  The number 23 looked a decent player, but he was the only one offering any width whatsoever.  County were able to leave Harmon on his own on the left and double up on the right, and the winning goal came from the smallest player on the pitch losing his man and winning a free header.  Fraser on the other side clearly was never going to get forward much.  He’s a right back/right centre back.  There were also a couple of guys - 16 and 7 - who did a lot of not very much at all.  County have about six wingers in the squad.  I’d be looking at loaning one of them - Sims most likely - were I Robinson; that is, if you don’t have one that he’s inexplicably not playing.  

I don’t know if that was an off day for you guys, or par for the course, but St Mirren looked awfully short of ideas going forward.

We play a 3-5-2 every game. We have an excellent right WB but on the left we only have Tanser who is injured more often than not and his replacements are not up to the job and he is average anyway. Our left side is so weak and cannot stop crosses. At home the back 3 generally play through the midfield but Away its just a barrage of high balls to 2 forwards who cannot hold the ball up (although they seem to do that better at home). And both forwards have poor scoring records so we are generally toothless. If we win its usually by one goal. And Away from home we generally lose by 3 goals or more which is horrendous but at Home we hardly concede. Our home form with this formation is excellent and Away we are garbage. I feel Away we start every game sitting far too deep and standing off the opposition whereas at home we work really hard at closing down from the forwards backwards through the lines - win the ball and break in numbers at speed. Home we are pro-active and Away we are re-active allowing the opposition to dictate play.

Something has to change. Some players are getting picked every week even when very poor and we have good options on the bench. The formation or instructions aren't working at Away games and it's an easy 3 points for the opposition.

[AW saint]

You just know GVB will be sacked before we play Rangers. We need a strong result against the fakes midweek

[glenburn bud]

23 minutes ago, elvis said:

Back where we belong bottom six.

I’d say that we’re definitely going through a tough spell where players form has dipped. Away form is very concerning but if we can give the starting eleven a shake up, then there’s no reason why we can’t go on another run of better form.

Edited November 6, 2022 by glenburn bud

[Arch Stanton]

26 minutes ago, elvis said:

Back where we belong bottom six.

[Arch Stanton]

The currants will probably get the "new manager bounce" when we play them on Saturday.

[btb]

40 minutes ago, elvis said:

Back where we belong bottom six.

Quite correct we're a yoyo team, with a Bottom6 budget - there's nothing Nostradamus like in your prognostications.

 

[Buddy Love]

My concern , for Wednesday,  is that Stephen Robinson adopts the attitude that he's sticking with his game plan no matter what. We've all seen that story before.

Surely a good coach adapts and reacts to what is happening on the pitch. Surely he tweaks his tactics and lineups dependent upon how both individuals and the team perform.

I'm not, for a moment, suggesting that the manager be replaced but might it not be prudent for him to assess each game on the basis of both the opposition and our own players recent performances .

Horses for courses , if you like.

[elvis]

55 minutes ago, btb said:

Quite correct we're a yoyo team, with a Bottom6 budget - there's nothing Nostradamus like in your prognostications.

 

Never said there was just saying incase anyone missed it.

[elvis]

1 hour ago, glenburn bud said:

I’d say that we’re definitely going through a tough spell where players form has dipped. Away form is very concerning but if we can give the starting eleven a shake up, then there’s no reason why we can’t go on another run of better form.

I agree but will he mix it up listening to his interview doesn't sound like it.

[sergie's no1 fan]

53 minutes ago, Buddy Love said:

My concern , for Wednesday,  is that Stephen Robinson adopts the attitude that he's sticking with his game plan no matter what. We've all seen that story before.

Surely a good coach adapts and reacts to what is happening on the pitch. Surely he tweaks his tactics and lineups dependent upon how both individuals and the team perform.

I'm not, for a moment, suggesting that the manager be replaced but might it not be prudent for him to assess each game on the basis of both the opposition and our own players recent performances .

Horses for courses , if you like.

The home form justifies him keeping it familiar when we play in Paisley, it's amazing how inept we are away from home with the same players.

 

[elvis]

1 hour ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

The home form justifies him keeping it familiar when we play in Paisley, it's amazing how inept we are away from home with the same players.

 

It's the amount of space we give teams to basically do what the hell they want how he can't see that baffles me we make teams look better than they really are he goes on about the amount of goals we are losing.What does he expect to happen .As I say absolutely baffling.

[Hendo]

1 hour ago, elvis said:

I agree but will he mix it up listening to his interview doesn't sound like it.

Is it that bit where he said "maybe I need to change some personnel" that you are referring to?

[Billy Jean King]

In amongst this doom and gloom fest it should be noted that after more than a third of the season we are currently THREE points off third. We would have snatched anyone's hand off if that had been offered even before a ball was kicked but more so after the LC campaign.

[flyingscot]

Absolutely, but it could be much better and it's a tight league - we're 7 points off the playoff spot too and just lost to the team in it who stuck 3 past us. 

I think we need to have a look at an away formation - the 3 in the middle get swapped as teams know what we are going to do now. Various comments have said that O'Hara, Baccus and Erhahon are poor but I think the formation is giving them too much to do if the fullbacks are pushed deep.  

[Shuggie_Murray7]

The way we've been  playing away from home, we should have Gogic in the middle of the park, not at centre half.

Dunne has been stinking for weeks now and needs a spell on the bench. When he's on form he's very good. He just isn't on form just now.

Our back 3 on Wednesday will hopefully be Gallacher, Fraser and Shaughnessey. However, if rumours are to be belived then big Joe will be off come January to address the budget overspend. Even if that's the case, as long as we are paying him and he's our player then he should be in contention, but now seems virtually bombed out all together.

[sergie's no1 fan]

13 hours ago, elvis said:

It's the amount of space we give teams to basically do what the hell they want how he can't see that baffles me we make teams look better than they really are he goes on about the amount of goals we are losing.What does he expect to happen .As I say absolutely baffling.

It has worked at home though. We have let teams dominate possession all season.

It's always risky but it's costing us way from home more. Teams aren't even have to be playing well to score 3 past us. Which is concerning.

 

[Ric]

Do we think there is more to our form or is it just teams finding out a way to play against us and/or us not performing?

There is a lot going on behind the scenes, from the SMiSA/Kibble/BoD stuff, to the side-lining of one our best players, and Robinson's own future with the NI job still open, just to name a few. It could be as simple as Robinson just needs to shake up the formation away from home, or it could be something more general within the club that is affecting staff and players, and as a result, the performances on the park.

Just to confirm, you all know I am not ITK in the slightest, and I'll be honest I'm happy about that, so I'm just talking (writing) off the top of my head.

 

[SS77]

Just went to see my GP because I’ve been feeling pretty shite over the last couple of days and learned that my doctor has been our club doctor since the start of June!

Remember reading one of the doom and gloom merchants on bawarmy saying we haven’t had a club doctor since May but that was clearly a lie.

[Arch Stanton]

Neither Strain or Baccus made the Australia WC squad.

 Behich of DU and Atkinson, Rowles and Devlin of Hearts made it.