match thread (image) [FT] St Johnstone 1 - 4 Rangers (Tavernier 12 pen; Windass 25; Goss 41; Morelos 56)

[ian1964 10,419]

9 minutes ago, buster. said:

If a settled team keep winning then I don't mind predictability.

Agree with that, the down side to that is that the fringe players are not getting enough game time! rotation of the squad utilised correctly is the aim, Murty does seem to leave any subs late in matches and while I understand that he still has to give the fringe players game time.

John being out injured leaves us with a choice of replacements who have very little game time.

[buster. 4,808]

9 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

Agree with that, the down side to that is that the fringe players are not getting enough game time! rotation of the squad utilised correctly is the aim, Murty does seem to leave any subs late in matches and while I understand that he still has to give the fringe players game time.

John being out injured leaves us with a choice of replacements who have very little game time.

Whilst there is an argument to be had regards such a balance, I think continuity and winning make the answer easy.

 

I'd say that subs could get more minutes in certain situations and cup games against lower league teams is where to experiment, slightly.

[DMAA 3,603]

I hope Lee Wallace is fit enough to start. He could easily be subbed if he was struggling.

[ian1964 10,419]

 

[Tannochsidebear 2,316]

I dont think John missing out is too big a loss, unless it is Halliday or Hodson coming in for him which seems likely. Hopefully our captain can come back into the team straight away, he has the character to handle this even if he might not quite be at the pace yet.

 

I personally would bring Bruno back in ahead of Bates. The young CH is decent cover but mistakes are creeping in and sometimes you have to take these guys out for their own good and development, and with Bruno being fit again I would be interested to see a Bruno/Martin partnership. While i dont think Martin is a very good defender, what I have been very impressed with is his organising of the back 4 line. He is always talking to the other 3, reading the game very well and prompting them into good positions.

 

Wee Docherty is improving with every game, I have been impressed with his contributions so far and hopefully he can continue to develop. Murphy is settling in well now but really needs to work on his left foot. He always wants to cut back onto his right and defenders are too easily working him on the outside. It is worth pointing out that two of his goals have come when he has been over on the "wrong" side of the pitch. I would like to see him on the other side, but the Tav/Candieas partnership is the best thing we have in the team just now so it would be wrong to change that.

 

Someone told me on Saturday when Windass missed another sitter that 13 of his 15 goals have come away from home. While his goals have been unexpected and most welcome, he does throw in too many games like Saturday when he is worse than useless, and how he wasnt hooked after an hour was painful for all concerned. I would like to see Cummings & Morelos play together to see if they can build a partnership, but like most I dont see this happening anytime soon. Perhaps they will get the chance on Sunday as another one-off.

 

Heading up to Perth tonight in confident mood, hopefully a good solid win and continue to build. However we havent had a hiccup in a few games now so one is almost certainly coming soon given our last couple of years, therefore we have to ensure we are right up for the battle as our hosts most certainly will be.

 

[buster. 4,808]

Tonight we go for a 4th consectutive league win, for the second time this season.

 

It's not easy, the sheep are the only other club to have got 4IAR league wins this season.

 

 

[DMAA 3,603]

1 hour ago, buster. said:

the sheep are the only other club to have got 4IAR league wins this season

It's hard to believe how much better they have been than us against the rest of the league.

 

If you discount their games against us, they'd be 9 points ahead of us!

If you discount their games against Celtic, they'd be joint top with them.

If you discount games between the three teams they'd be 4 points clear of Celtic and 10 points clear of us.

 

They've only dropped points against a bottom 6 side twice all season, and one of them was Motherwell who were top 6 at the time and high flying. Only 1 loss against a non-old firm side to our 6.

 

Hopefully this disparity between our ability to beat the 4th-12th sides no longer exists - as we're starting to hope - and we will get 4 in a row ahead of the game against Celtic, and with that new found winning formula finally open up that much needed gap with Aberdeen.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by DMAA

[buster. 4,808]

29 minutes ago, DMAA said:

It's hard to believe how much better they have been than us against the rest of the league.

 

If you discount their games against us, they'd be 9 points ahead of us!

If you discount their games against Celtic, they'd be joint top with them.

If you discount games between the three teams they'd be 4 points clear of Celtic and 10 points clear of us.

 

They've only dropped points against a bottom 6 side twice all season, and one of them was Motherwell who were top 6 at the time and high flying. Only 1 loss against a non-old firm side to our 6.

 

Hopefully this disparity between our ability to beat the 4th-12th sides no longer exists - as we're starting to hope - and we will get 4 in a row ahead of the game against Celtic, and with that new found winning formula finally open up that much needed gap with Aberdeen.

 

 

Good post DMAA

 

You look at Aberdeen and you think if we get our act together then surely we can do that.

 

We know we can get results in bigger games, although we really need to beat Celtic soon to get that monkey off our backs.

 

Now is the time.

 

 

[buster. 4,808]

St. Johnstone FC‏Cuenta verificada @St_Johnstone_FC

Snow showers continue but this is the 3.20pm view

 

https://twitter.com/St_Johnstone_FC/status/968506192942260225

 

Surprised Martin Bain isn't down there in goal.

Edited February 27, 2018 by buster.

[Tannochsidebear 2,316]

Very interesting stats there from DMAA, thanks for that.

 

I did get the impression that Dolly are very consistent against the other sides, especially the lower sides in the league, and this backs that up, but I perhaps didnt realise just how consistent and impressive they have been. Obviously much has been made of their constant capitulations against us/them, but it shows you they have got the job done against the "diddies" which we have really struggled to do over the last 2 years.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Tannochsidebear