Rangers v St Johnstone

[G51]

Sunday night, 6:30pm.

 

[DMCs]

I can take those kickoff times for a little bit longer but this better be the last week of it.

[RandomGuy.]

Pointless kick off time, but presumably Premier aren't wanting to compete with some English game.

No hope for this, really. Especially with it being the second of a double header. We'll need to score twice to win, IMO, and there's almost no chance we do that considering how we've played v Rangers this season.

Manager will have to be brave and open us up to try and score, but we've a fucking clownshoes in goal so it'll just take Rangers a couple of shots to bag a couple.

Meh.

Edited April 19, 2021 by RandomGuy.

[Forever_blueco]

Battle of the trophy merchants 

[bennett]

2 hours ago, G51 said:

Sunday night, 6:30pm.

 

 

We could probably do a similar video with champagne Jill tbf.

 

 

[tree house tam]

Whoever wins this wins the cup imo.

[The Real Saints]

And because of that, whoever wins this will either remain (in our case) or become (in their case) the second-most successful Scottish club of the last decade. There’s a lot riding on this one.

[Radford]

We have such a good shape. The goal on Wednesday comes from an individual mistake from a defender coming out of position but as @RandomGuy. covered elsehwhere, it was almost season lows for Rangers in so many metrics (touches in opposition box, average shot distance etc...)

The problem on Sunday is Rangers bringing in players (especially Aribo and Kent) that are better in one-on-one situations. We can hold our shape when teams move the ball about but if you are beaten in an individual battle, that creates openings. 

Does the 5-2-3 make us any more solid than playing with two strikers? I'm not sure it does but I think there's far less confusion over whether it makes us more dangerous. I do feel that the manager will revert back to it though. 

We'll need a faultless performance and even then, the goalkeeper will need to have the sort of match I'm not sure he's capable of. And we simply can't afford to convert chances at the rate we usually do.

The irony of course is that losing on Sunday is maybe our best chance of getting Europe though... 

[G51]

Will take a guess at the lineup: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic, Davis, Kamara, Aribo, Kent, Morelos, Hagi.

St Johnstone would be brave to go 5-2-3 and leave McCann and Craig up against three Rangers midfielders.

[SANTAN]

6 minutes ago, G51 said:

Will take a guess at the lineup: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic, Davis, Kamara, Aribo, Kent, Morelos, Hagi.

St Johnstone would be brave to go 5-2-3 and leave McCann and Craig up against three Rangers midfielders.

I'd go with this but probably swap Hagi for Wright. 

Would love to see him Kent and Morelos in the same team. 

[Zamora Fan]

Will take a guess at the lineup: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic, Davis, Kamara, Aribo, Kent, Morelos, Hagi.
St Johnstone would be brave to go 5-2-3 and leave McCann and Craig up against three Rangers midfielders.

I think 5-2-3, at least since Davidson tinkered with it at the start of this year, is kind of the wrong description tbh. More of a 5-2-2-1, with the second 2 much deeper than the 1 and sitting quite narrow. At least one of them at all times tends to be alongside the 2 centre mids too - so I expect Davidson won’t be too worried about being outnumbered.

That change to have the wingers sitting narrower and deeper along with Liam Craig’s role as a DM has been the change that’s made us more successful in ‘21. Tho like others I still think we look a bit more dangerous with 2 up top and Wotherspoon in the hole.

I think the surprising thing I’d do here would be to start Tanser over Booth...

[G51]

19 minutes ago, Zamora Fan said:

I think 5-2-3, at least since Davidson tinkered with it at the start of this year, is kind of the wrong description tbh. More of a 5-2-2-1, with the second 2 much deeper than the 1 and sitting quite narrow. At least one of them at all times tends to be alongside the 2 centre mids too - so I expect Davidson won’t be too worried about being outnumbered.

That change to have the wingers sitting narrower and deeper along with Liam Craig’s role as a DM has been the change that’s made us more successful in ‘21. Tho like others I still think we look a bit more dangerous with 2 up top and Wotherspoon in the hole.

I think the surprising thing I’d do here would be to start Tanser over Booth...

If Davidson does that then he’s going to give Barisic and Tavernier time and space to run with the ball.

No system is perfect - you’re going to have to give up something. I tend to think the best thing to give up against Rangers is the big switch from flank to flank rather than bodies in the middle of the park. So maybe the 5-2-2-1 will work in that regard.

[RandomGuy.]

I think we'll go back to one up top as he'll look at our last game at Ibrox as more relevant than Wednesdays, and we done pretty well to restrict them and fashion chances then too.

Maybe even because it'll allow our wing backs to sit a bit deeper. I know he scored etc., but Wright is a massive downgrade on Kent and you'd expect Rooney to be able to deal with Wright 1v1, Kent not so much. Itten doesn't even seem much better than Kamberi, so again, Morelos will cause far more bother.

Hard to know what to do, but Davidson has got more right than wrong this season with the initial set up, so happy to just wait and see how it all goes.

[St Innes]

5 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

I think we'll go back to one up top as he'll look at our last game at Ibrox as more relevant than Wednesdays, and we done pretty well to restrict them and fashion chances then too.

Maybe even because it'll allow our wing backs to sit a bit deeper. I know he scored etc., but Wright is a massive downgrade on Kent and you'd expect Rooney to be able to deal with Wright 1v1, Kent not so much. Itten doesn't even seem much better than Kamberi, so again, Morelos will cause far more bother.

Hard to know what to do, but Davidson has got more right than wrong this season with the initial set up, so happy to just wait and see how it all goes.

I would disagree. He usually has it right by the last quarter rather than the initial set up.

[Paris Hilltoon]

Both within touching distance of a historic first double. This has to be up there as one of the most significant games in each clubs history!

[RandomGuy.]

On one hand, Rangers turn up they likely blow us away, the first 2 games this season saw them pump us without even trying.

On the other, they've started allowing good chances and relying just as much on bad finishing as anything lately, so that's a table that's due to be overturned by someone...

Ultimately I think we'll need to score twice to win, and I'm not sure we'll have that in us without being wide open at the back. Not got much hope for this game.

[Radford]

14 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

On one hand, Rangers turn up they likely blow us away, the first 2 games this season saw them pump us without even trying.

This is probably the first time since lockdown thst I've woken up on matchday as buzzing as I would be if I were actually going to a game. Probably because the overriding emotion of the cup final was a sadness at not being there, plus those occasions are always quite surreal. 

And I disagree with you. We conceded cheap goals in those first two games (and even in the two since) but if we defend as we really can, then they only concern will be taking chances. Big occasions and big stadiums focus the mind though.

Saints have absolutely nothing to lose this evening. ALL the pressure is on Rangers. How did they handle that at St Mirren? 

The next few weeks could be the most historic in nearly 140 years. 

[RandomGuy.]

28 minutes ago, Radford said:

And I disagree with you. We conceded cheap goals in those first two games (and even in the two since) but if we defend as we really can, then they only concern will be taking chances. Big occasions and big stadiums focus the mind though.

I think the first meeting could've been more if Rangers wanted, but we had underlying reasons for that performance. Felt they also took a step back at McDiarmid. 

Last 2 games I've genuinely felt we could've drawn, and then won, respectively. So its been a steady improvement each time building towards actually beating them.

Honestly, I'm probably just reluctant to believe we can avoid defeat twice in a week against an OF side, as defeatist as that sounds. Their depth is a huge factor.

If any side can manage it though, I'd think we have as good a chance as anyone in the country just now.

[Jamie_B]

2 hours ago, Radford said:

This is probably the first time since lockdown thst I've woken up on matchday as buzzing as I would be if I were actually going to a game. Probably because the overriding emotion of the cup final was a sadness at not being there, plus those occasions are always quite surreal. 

And I disagree with you. We conceded cheap goals in those first two games (and even in the two since) but if we defend as we really can, then they only concern will be taking chances. Big occasions and big stadiums focus the mind though.

Saints have absolutely nothing to lose this evening. ALL the pressure is on Rangers. How did they handle that at St Mirren? 

The next few weeks could be the most historic in nearly 140 years. 

Agree with this entirely. I’d like us to start the same XI as the midweek game and really try to put the pressure on Rangers. Crucial that if we get the chances we did the other day that we take them, however.

I suspect, however, we’ll start with Conway in for Melamed and look to keep it tight for the first hour.

[RandomGuy.]

Alan Muir the ref, so stick everything you have on Rangers getting a penalty.

He's awarded two of the most farcical penalties I've ever seen against us in 2020 alone, its just bizarre.