St Johnstone nil v Ross County, Wednesday 22 December 2021

[Kyle]

27 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

The prospect of Gary Rowett getting 7 figures to spend is terrifying. Probably cause more long term problems than relegation. 

Fixed that for you.

[Girth]

Draw here would be nice. 

However, St Johny (somehow) seem to be even worse than us. 

[tree house tam]

I've heard and I don't know if it's true, that we've already started to throw money at it with the signings of Viv and Butterfield. If we are paying these guys wads of cash I'd certainly be playing them and expecting results very very soon.

[yoda]

6 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

This gets a giant fucking "meh" from me. County are a better side than us this season

We're only a point better off than St Johnstone. There's hardly a vast chasm of quality between the two teams.

[RandomGuy.]

18 minutes ago, yoda said:

We're only a point better off than St Johnstone. There's hardly a vast chasm of quality between the two teams.

I mean I guess there's a reason you're down here, but everything I've seen of County stinks of a good side dragged down by the odd defensive mistake.

I'd be surprised if you don't finish about 9th at least.

[PauloPerth]

19 minutes ago, yoda said:

We're only a point better off than St Johnstone. There's hardly a vast chasm of quality between the two teams.

We’ve scored 1 (one) goal in our past 7 matches including the league cup semi.

1 goal in 7 matches.

[PauloPerth]

28 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

I've heard and I don't know if it's true, that we've already started to throw money at it with the signings of Viv and Butterfield. If we are paying these guys wads of cash I'd certainly be playing them and expecting results very very soon.

This is the problem we’ve created for ourselves. 

We’re buying from a position of desperation.  Agents will milk us dry knowing we have little choice other than to pay up. We could end up paying way over the odds for average players, and even have players tied into good deals for a couple of seasons that we don’t want to keep, as ended up the case with the likes of Scougall and McMillan.

Would expect relegation clauses to be in them all.

How much more of an attraction would the double cup winners have been in the summer with European football and a tie with Galatasary to entice potential signings, rather than ‘how do you fancy coming and playing in a relegation scrap?’.

[Dick Van Dyke]

20 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

We’ve scored 1 (one) goal in our past 7 matches including the league cup semi.

1 goal in 7 matches.

And it was an O.G. Over 675 minutes played since Crawford scored at tannadice 

[Kyle]

4 hours ago, PauloPerth said:

We’ve scored 1 (one) goal in our past 7 matches including the league cup semi.

1 goal in 7 matches.

Tactically, no issues tho. 

[Sh*teAndMuck]

11 hours ago, Radford said:

Agree that Davidson will play for a draw so we don't fall further behind.

You'd be as well just sticking four attacking names (Middleton doesn't even merit inclusion) in a tombola and drawing two or three out, as no combination looks appealing. 

Been over it elsewhere but May can only play in a two, O'Halloran can only play as an orthodox winger and Crawford at the front of a midfield three with no real defensive chores.

Solomon-Otabor and O'Halloran as wingers with May up front with another striker would have been my preference but I really, really don't want to see Middleton up front, or indeed in the team. Up front again would crush my soul though. Please send him back to Rangers in January.

I may have missed something. Why all the specific hatred towards Middleton? What’s he done that the rest haven’t recently (i.e. be generally shite) ??

[The Real Saints]

It’s amazing how quickly things can turn around. I’ve even gone off Shaun Rooney. Especially when you’ve been utterly dreadful all season, how idiotic must you be to ‘like’ numerous tweets celebrating a cup win for the club who knocked you out in the previous round? It’s all fun and games to be a ‘character’ when things are going really well. When they’re not, it becomes much more apparent that ‘character’ is a nice way of saying ‘arsehole’. Improve your performances, big man, and you can do whatever you want again.

[Widge]

5 minutes ago, The Real Saints said:

It’s amazing how quickly things can turn around. I’ve even gone off Shaun Rooney. Especially when you’ve been utterly dreadful all season, how idiotic must you be to ‘like’ numerous tweets celebrating a cup win for the club who knocked you out in the previous round? It’s all fun and games to be a ‘character’ when things are going really well. When they’re not, it becomes much more apparent that ‘character’ is a nice way of saying ‘arsehole’. Improve your performances, big man, and you can do whatever you want again.

I think it’s pretty clear that Rooney isn’t playing anywhere near where he is actually able too. I think his performances have made it pretty clear that he isn’t going to be here next year and for that, I will say thanks Shaun, you’ll forever be remembered for what you achieved, but you’re not irreplaceable. It’s a shame, as I actually like him as a player, when he’s at it, he’s a blood and thunder kind of guy who makes it at least interesting to watch. 

[RandomGuy.]

You wonder if not getting to games last season has led to a sort of disconnect with this squad/manager, as it feels ridiculous to be happy that the majority might get punted this Summer.

A real shame that Liam Craig is going to go out this way too. Shouldve been phased out before his legs went, but looks like he'll be forced to play through it. Him ending his Saints career with a relegation would be heart breaking.

[Radford]

16 hours ago, yoda said:

We're only a point better off than St Johnstone. There's hardly a vast chasm of quality between the two teams.

Saints were fine until the October break. Bit blunt but performances were alright and when they weren't (e.g. Aberdeen away) we were nicking points. 

Since then though we have been absolutely stinking, bar the goalkeeper. Not one player should be able to hold their hand up and claim they've been playing well. 

As things stand, the gap between the teams is only going to get bigger. 

11 hours ago, Sh*teAndMuck said:

I may have missed something. Why all the specific hatred towards Middleton?

A few strands to this, although hatred is a very personal word. It's not his fault he's been played as a striker at times but, my word, he struggles there. Makes absolutely no impact on games and surrenders possession repeatedly. 

But even in a more natural role, I think he's lost all confidence/interest. I've already said in the Motherwell thread but I felt he hid on Saturday and was actively trying to avoid being in areas where he could receive the ball, certainly when it was going to involve a physical confrontation.

That's not what we need going forward and, for all their faults, I don't feel the other attacking players display those negative attributes. 

People can feel that's overly harsh, as is their right, but I don't think denial is going to get us out of this hole. 

[Trackdaybob]

£20 on County 1-0 will ensure victory for St Johnstone.  

[mizfit]

A few strands to this, although hatred is a very personal word. It's not his fault he's been played as a striker at times but, my word, he struggles there. Makes absolutely no impact on games and surrenders possession repeatedly. 
But even in a more natural role, I think he's lost all confidence/interest. I've already said in the Motherwell thread but I felt he hid on Saturday and was actively trying to avoid being in areas where he could receive the ball, certainly when it was going to involve a physical confrontation.
That's not what we need going forward and, for all their faults, I don't feel the other attacking players display those negative attributes. 
People can feel that's overly harsh, as is their right, but I don't think denial is going to get us out of this hole. 

I do wonder how much that Livingston game destroyed the players confidence. We’ve looked a shadow of ourselves since we went 3 down to them.

[Rcfc fan]

Must stamp our foot on the proverbial neck of St Johnstone going for no less than 3 points

AMB

Randall

Clarke

Baldwin

Vokins

Cancola

Spittal

Hungbo

RCC

White

D Samuel 

 

really enjoying the way we are playing , meaning we will probably lose 

[Jamie_B]

13 minutes ago, mizfit said:

I do wonder how much that Livingston game destroyed the players confidence. We’ve looked a shadow of ourselves since we went 3 down to them.

The worst thing about that is, quite honestly, we played (apart from the nonsensical defensive errors obviously) better in that game as a team than we have at any point since. 65% possession and 16 shots on goal. OK, we went down a goal early, but we were well in the game and looked like we might actually pose some danger of scoring - only to throw it away with two of the wildest defensive errors you're likely to see, literally gifting the opposition goals from nothing.

Since then we've looked completely inept in every department - goalkeeper excluded. I just honestly don't see what we're going to change tomorrow that'll make a huge difference - we're still liable to look very blunt up front. Is it ridiculous to say we should bring Murray Davidson into the midfield simply because he's far more likely to score a goal than Bryson, even though removing Bryson is likely to take composure on the ball out of our midfield? May will start through the middle through necessity - but he needs to be given the specific instruction just to loiter in the vicinity of the goal, between the posts and as close to it as possible - for the full 90. No dropping into the midfield and shuttling it wide because that inevitably leads to something like Booth putting a cross in to absolutely nobody.

I'd be bringing Devine back in and I think Butterfield has to start as well. It is absolutely critical we show some attacking intent. I don't care if we concede because Devine or Rooney are caught up the park tomorrow if it means we're actually making some attempt to win the game. Lose this and I genuinely think we are fucked.

[Widge]

Your last sentence is the one for me Beatson, I don’t and I don’t think anyone would care if we concede goals if we are actively trying to attack and score ourselves. It’s the fact we don’t attack and still concede that’s pissing everyone off. 

[tree house tam]

1 hour ago, Widge said:

Your last sentence is the one for me Beatson, I don’t and I don’t think anyone would care if we concede goals if we are actively trying to attack and score ourselves. It’s the fact we don’t attack and still concede that’s pissing everyone off. 

If I'm being very pedantic I'd say that was his second last sentence.  Anyway, I think we could lose every game up to the split and still turn it around. This obviously depends on what we do in the window, I've good feelings about that.

 

Also heard Hearts are trying to keep Walker.