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St Johnstone -V- Inverness CT


Scotty

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Time to get behind the team as supporters.The highs of last season were amazing. But staying in the top league is always the priority. Wage packet size, number of supporters we punch above our weight and knee jerk reactions to our current circumstances are negating the bigger picture. Can't believe in a footballing year which has given our club European football and a national trophy that we as supporters can be so fickle. Only a couple of weeks ago we beat the team being touted as potential league winners.This is when we should be digging deep and sticking together both on and off the field. 

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3 minutes ago, Stirling Observer said:

You do release buying a striker isn't like buying a tin of beans at the supermarket. We have a small budget and struggle to attract players. A tin of beans full of juice and no beans is no use, may as well keep ur money til you find the a quality Heinz tin which has a dent but you have found behind all the other white beans.

I don't even like beans. Should have used tuna as an example. I like tuna

 

Other shoppers with similar budgets manage to acquire a couple of tins of beans but then again they don't fill their trolleys with a dozen cans of spaghetti hoops in the way we do....

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Another game to quickly forget.

Shopping list for Yogi.

Tin of tuna

Beans

Spagetti Hoops

Magic Hat.

Seems like forever since a home game, that place where we are unbeaten in not far off 4 months.

Here's hoping all the youngsters attending on Saturday have a good day out #kidsday.

 

Edited by 12th Man
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Very frustrating - yes. Couple of slight overreactions on here, though. Stirling is right, finding a striker is not easy. Storey is a very good SPFL striker as stand-out performances v Celtic, County and Aberdeen have shown. If he's available for Saturday I'd be tempted to throw Foran up there with him (for 60 minutes or so) to give Hamilton something slightly different to think about. I think everyone's probably agreed that we need to revert to a back 4 although this may be an issue with the forthcoming suspensions. Getting to the stage of the season where 'we've got quality players to come back in' isn't going to cut it...

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It's a worry. That was tortuous tonight. Heads are down. Mutumbo possibly the only chink of light this week so far. Can he provide the inspiration,ingenuity,trickery and craft to give us some penetration and a final product? I thought Liam did Ok tonight. He is not the most mobile but won lots in the air......no-one anywhere near any of his knock downs. Pretty shambolic otherwise.......all our players appear unable to play any one touch stuff. Everything is so static up top that every one receiving the ball takes at least two touches before visually checking where any movement may be. Our close control is pitiful. We were dispossessed time and time again in this manner. Come on Yogi. Lots to work on. And Mutumbo in for Vigurs on Saturday please

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1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

Amongst all this doom and gloom, let's balance it out by considering the positives from tonight's performance.

 

 

 

 

 

:tumbleweed:

Don't forget the Fair City Unity. Them boys were quality.

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37 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

Don't forget the Fair City Unity. Them boys were quality.

They were definitely keeping themselves warm.

I kept myself occupied at half-time thinking up anagrams of "Fair City Unity", none of which I can publicise.

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4 hours ago, Jagman said:

Really can't believe guys calling for Yogi's head.

Still in the cup, and the league should be no problem.

There is a lot of anger and frustration which is not in the least surprising or unreasonable but apart from 'Shaun' who's views can generally be discounted, I don't hear anyone 'calling for yogi's head'.

However, given our current form and the manager's apparent inability to do much about it, to say that the league should be no problem is complacent in the extreme. Lose again on Saturday and we are right in the mix for the battle to avoid the play off place with Dundee United still not out of the equation. Yes, with the players at our disposal we should probably just about scrape to safety but the league is very far from being 'no problem'.

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If you have been watching the games recently then unless you are blind, it has been at the very least frustrating. 

Mis placed passes that should be basic and were the sort expected when playing in school.

poor control by several players on several occasions.

No definite forward or more striker to put the ball in the net. Actually he has tried playing 3 forwards, 2 deep and wide and one through the middle and that failed.

I think it's back to basics to ensure a safe conclusion to the season Then hopefully they will re group and actually plan and make some signings early in close season and see what happens. 

I'm not one that will shout for a manager to go and believ time is needed and every team has a bad spell. I do think Hughes has temporarily lost the way and hope he gets back on it soon.

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I really can't believe some of the optimism on here. This season is now ALL about survival. We have a lot of casualties, we are playing poorly, our confidence is at a low ebb, the level of indiscipline from our senior players is shocking, the backing of the fans is brittle - and Yogi, from a tactical and man management perspective appears to have lost the plot and it appears may well be losing the togetherness factor as well. You simply can't keep chopping and changing the way that we have been. I would take 3 points against Hamilton above beating the Hibees. If we carry on NOT picking up points we are in BIG trouble when the bottom six games kick off.

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i wasnt at last nights game, but its been so obvious we needed more up top, we have Miles Storey and ??? if we dont score goals we cant win games, fairly simple.as much as he is a total Tw@ we really should have gone all out for Anthony Stokes 

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1 minute ago, oats said:

i wasnt at last nights game, but its been so obvious we needed more up top, we have Miles Storey and ??? if we dont score goals we cant win games, fairly simple.as much as he is a total Tw@ we really should have gone all out for Anthony Stokes 

I believe we pretty much did go all out for Anthony Stokes but he opted to go to Hibs.

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3 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

 I would take 3 points against Hamilton above beating the Hibees. 

This. Saturday is our season. Win and we have probably done enough - too many teams would have too much to do to leave us in the mire. Lose, and we are neck deep in it, with all our momentum moving in the wrong direction. 

This is why I am furious with Warren. We are already light at the back, and knew we were losing Tremarco for Saturday. To get sent off for two bookings was irresponsible beyond belief. 

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From reading this and seeing our last few games we are toothless and lack creativity. Too many creative and attacking players have left and replaced with dull, steady additions. With most of the season gone its fair to say some havent worked out or delivered like vigurs, mutumbo, wedderburn, sho silva, lopez - some are gone but some remain. Couple that with injuries and lack of form from many established picks we are being stretched with a thread bare squad, limited quality and negative tactis.

Last year was such a high, do we expect too much or are we massivly underachieving? For certain one big thing missing is entertainment.

 

 

 

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I'm not going to defend Hughes all day long but I don't think this is all his fault! Yes he's brought in some of the players, yes he picks the teams...but once players are on the field it's down to them get the job done, manager can only pass on instructions! Also the switch in formation will be partly down to lack of players but it'll be Hughes trying something new as well! And you can't try something once and write it off if it doesn't work! 

Personally, I think half the squad has to go. To me they don't seem interested! Those who have contracts signed are the important players! the other players know that at the end of the season regardless of where we finish they're going to have options! Vincent for example has barely played yet Dundee want to sign him? A player who's always Injured? I don't buy it. Just seems to be passing time, picking up wages and waiting for the bigger contract to come along! 

Saturday is going to be a real struggle but we have to win and I've never hoped to see player more than I hope to see mutumbo on Saturday! I'd also like to see Horner at right back and polworth pushed forward! And I'd also agree with putting Foran on even for 60 mins to support storey...should they both be fit! 

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Have to agree Deano. The fact that we put in a dismal show last night was down to the players and not management in my opinion. If they cannot control a ball and make a short accurate pass you can hardly blame the manager. I wonder if CC still has a pair of boots. We need some composure on the park..............and a little guile

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We were absolutely dire last night. Having to change things around in terms of strikers isn't ideal and altering the shape of the team to include a target man must've been difficult but our performance was negative, timid and dull. We played 3-5-2 with Polworth and Williams as wing backs, Tansey, Draper and Vigurs in midfield and Roberts playing 'off' Hughes up front. 

I thought Hughes actually did well. He isn't the most elegant player but when we hit the ball up to his chest or head he generally took it down or flicked it on. I don't think you could ask much more of him, the problem was that the rest of he team was so deep that he was completely isolated. At one point in the second half he headed a long ball back to Roberts who ran at St Johnstone but our entire team were back in our own half, meaning you are relying on Roberts beating two players and pinging in a wonder goal, which isn't going to happen often with any player. 

We are so focussed on possession that we go backwards and drop deep to maintain it but can't actually play in the oppositions half. Playing with a target man and Wing backs we should've tried to push up and allowed them to either get crosses in for Hughes or at least hit diagonals for him to knock down to runners but we were so deep all we could offer was a long ball to an isolated target. This meant that we didn't create any chances, were pushed deeper and deeper and ended up defending for our lives. You do that and the opposition are bound to score. This style is one reason why we've been conceding so many late goals, we don't impose ourselves on games and end up hanging in constantly only to be broken. 

We are in serious trouble. I've been to three games in the last week and in that time we've created one real chance, the goal from Mutumbo at Easyer Road. That game from players making forward runs, with and without the ball, something we haven't done in any of the other games and we only did in that game because we were going out of the cup. Our main striker has scored one goal in two and half months, our defence can't cope with the pressure our style puts it under, our best creative player (Tansey) is in horrible form. 

Accies on Saturday is huge for us, a must win.

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9 hours ago, Jagman said:

Really can't believe guys calling for Yogi's head.

Still in the cup, and the league should be no problem.

This type of attitude is part of the reason why we're in the position we're in. We can't afford to be complacent.

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Handy that Chris has posted on here because now I can just copy and paste my P & B post :laugh:

Great post from Chris as per usual.

We didn't manage a single shot on target last night against a team that has won twice since the start of December and who absolutely dominated us for the majority of the game. Roberts had a couple of good half chances either side of half time. The first seemed to be a missed clearance by a Saints defender and Roberts took an age to control the ball and have a shot and when he did get an effort away it didn't even trouble Mannus. The other effort came as Vigurs pounced on a poor back pass from Anderson and cleverly back heeled it for Roberts who dragged his shot wide, possibly via a deflection.

Saints however had numerous chances to score but it wasn't until the 84th minute the finally went ahead. With that goal from Kane 50% of the goals ICT have conceded have been in the last 15 minutes of a game. 50%. That's ridiculous.

No complaints about the earlier penalty decision. Looked a desperate lunge from Warren at the time and having seen the highlights I can't see any reason not to have awarded the penalty and give him a second yellow. Cracking save from OFW though. With some of the saves he has been making recently you'd have to imagine he will be our number one keeper next season.

Chris is right when he says that conceding late is largely down to our style of play. By sitting so deep we encourage the opposition to put pressure on us and we frequently make mistakes. Twice last night Tansey played dangerous balls across the back line and was intercepted. The number of last ditch 'heroic' style challenges we need to make is concerning. Tremarco alone made three such challenges last night and Warren and Devine also chipped in with a couple of desperate blocks. It's mind boggling why we choose to invite so much pressure on ourselves and end up making costly errors.

Having games in hand is all well and good but not if you are losing the games and seldom creating anything resembling a chance during those games. As Chris has said we created nothing of note against Hearts, a couple of chances against Hibs and another couple tonight. A handful of (half) chances over three games is desperate stuff. The emphasis on possession is all well and good but you need to actually try and create something with the ball which is something we don't seem to do. According to the BBC both sides last night had roughly an equal share of the ball. The shots on and off target tell you which team was actually trying to create something when they had the ball. 

I know folk will say that we've got players out but the guys that are in the team now haven't just been plucked off the street. The majority of them have played most of the season for us so far so I don't injuries can be used as that much of an excuse. Our style of play is horrible. It's boring to watch. It's negative, slow and timid. We play with absolutely no width in the team. Polworth was free at least 3 or 4 times last night down the right and every time he was overlooked for a short pass back to either the defence or goal keeper. On the rare occasions we did get the ball wide the final delivery into the box was well below par. Williams would routinely scuff his crosses or not even beat the first man.

As Chris rightly points out if you are going to play with a target man up front you need to offer him some support. Have midfielders running on to his knock downs and, given the formation we played last night, use your full backs to offer some width to cross it into the box for your target man. I don't think we did that once last night.

Fair play to the Fair City Unity squad (:laugh:) last night. Never stopped signing all through the game. But what were Saint Johnstone playing at watering the pitch before the game? Were they trying to turn it into a bog?

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Sorry again but Yogi really has to take a degree of the blame here. He is the person who is putting out the 3-5-2 formation. Most punters totally disagree with that - and IMHO it is to accommodate Tansey, Draper and Vigurs - and again that does not work. And it is Yogi who has asked for the sideways tippy-tappy style. Yogi is responsible for the team playing far too deep. We are playing with 5 across the middle and yet we have no width and the wide players, especially Williams, not driving at defenders. Yogi has also chosen to play one poor ******* up front with little if not no support.

Has anyone here played in a team where you do not feel that you are being played in your best position or that the formation and tactics are wrong. Well I have. And I can assure you that bred resentment towards the people who were in charge, it brought about frustration, it caused rifts with team mates, it led to poor performances and losing games.

What changed it. Well for me it was a change of management. I have backed Yogi all the way but he has to eat humble pie - he has to go back to a 4-4-2 (it doesn't matter who plays where - you just stick to the same system). I would persevere with Hughes up front, abetted at his side by Storey or Roberts - with one of the two on the bench waiting to come on at the hour mark, letting the other run his feckin socks off. Disallow tippy tappy and look to hitting Tansey or Vigurs  or the two wide players early doors. Then there has to be a sense of urgency and a sense of forward motion. Then you get the fans behind you.

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