St.Johnstone v Aberdeen Saturday 23rd Feb

[akuram]

How can him in black call himself a referee he was a disgrace. Shinnie should have been booked in the first half and his talking back after his booking should have been punished.

[Havana Saint]

18 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Dreadful quality game from both sides, but Aberdeen looked far more dangerous in attack and deserved their win.

Wotherspoon and Foster's laurel and hardy routine was funny for a while, but thought to keep it going for most of the match was a bit of overkill.  Foster was brutal, one of those games, but Wotherspoon contributed zero. Players on the bench must sit wondering what's the ****ing point when he stays on the park for 71 minutes playing like that.

Liam Craig was also murder. Playing excellent centre midfield upto the break but shuffling things around hasn't helped him. When we went 2 up front he should have been hooked.

Lacking in creative/ attacking threat in the line up, with only Kennedy offering much going forward.

Careless touch by Kennedy for the first goal, and again by Swanson for the second.  Swanson had given the ball away each time he'd had it beforehand the goal, so Aberdeen should have been expecting it. Wee Danny looks very unfit and a shadow of his former self.

Thought Murray Davidson was immense today, if the rest of the team gave a f**k like he did it might have been a different story. Kerr got better as the game went on and was excellent, thought Tanser also had a mostly good game.

Kane back to his usual running and falling over and offering very little goal threat. 

We look a disjointed rabble  in possession at times, and too many players below par. Not sure what the answer is, and sadly neither does Tommy Wright.

Summed up well Paulo.

[weesainty]

Think top 6 has gone all though safe from relegation think the season is starting to fizzle out 

[SlickDT]

Funny how we all the see the game differently. Jason Kerr stood out once again for me and him alone- sure Davidson but his body on the line and gave 100% as always, but the three of him, Craig and Goss were brutal to watch together, absolutely nothing centrally to give Kane any chance of creating anything what so ever. Goss plays the odd decent pass and ticks the ball over well enough, but we were lacking that number 10 type player that can run from deep. I personally would of had Alston on from the start centrally for that reason.

Both goals were poor and Swanson is showing nothing so far to indicate he is going to have a happy return.

I don't think Wright quite knows his best team now and I think he quickly needs to find a combo that works centrally. For me personally Callachan would be the first choice in that central position.

[templeofsaints]

Thought Kerr, Muzz and Kennedy were excellent today. Ref was useless but we should still have taken something from the game - lacked the service to Kane and too often played the hoofball up the park.

Both goals were well taken but preventable from our point of view. Second was especially disappointing - Swanson was caught napping. I agree with the others, he's contributing nothing just now and looks unfit and unwilling to go the extra yard. Compare it to Muzz who even at the death was chasing everything down.

[Valentino Bolognese]

Very much agree with Paulo and DT. 

That was a brutal watch today, compounded by W. Miller on the wireless waxing lyrica about Aberdeen and in partcular Shinnie. From what I was watching, Aberdeen were a very ordinary team indeed and something's not right when we're not competing with them. 

1 up front is not working for us. At all. Kane doesn't have quality for the role and we're not making use of the extra body in the midfield, either with servicing the striker or stopping teams waltzing down the middle of the park. We were the same against Celtic at home. I did think we were better when we changed shape, certainly better going forward, but we are screaming out for some quality, notable as we had how many corners and I don't think we had a shot on goal from one of them.

Foster has been horribe since the break. Why I have no idea but it's a real problem. Aberdeen did 2 things very right today, firstly targeting Foster and secondly identifying Matty as our only real danger and simply taking him out the equation. 

That referee was an absolute disgrace, but we can't blame the loss on him. Seemed to me to be some worrying signs in the team, Watt and Kennedy having a shouting match was not good to see. 

Tommy has said that the dressing room have been asking for consistency. That's good, but you have to be playing your best options. For me that's a 4-4-2, with no Spoony or Swanson anywhere near the team. I think we have to move on from that pair. We've already found that we can't play Callaghan and Davidson in the same midfield, so I'd have Alston, MOH, Davidson and Craig there as the default. 

Still expecting us to be playing the big boys after the break but we're certainly making it hard for ourselves.

 

 

[Havana Saint]

Today was made for Alston.

[Templar Saint]

Need to have Liam Craig back in the defensive mid position winning the ball and passing it on.  If Goss is in the team he needs to be

further up midfield and spraying passes over oppositions defence to turn them.

Two goals were due to Kennedy and Swanson losing in midfield and not tracking back which happened through out the game.

Spoony totally out of it and whilst TW reckons he is a managers dream as he can play all over midfield I just wish he would perform not fill a space and jersey.

Do not get the hype about Davidson in this game....thought he ran about a lot aimlessly and not that effective.

Jason Kerr was again stand out.........think if Aberdeen get £7 million for McKenna then what price Jason??  Perhaps McInnes is looking at the wrong CB in our team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kinnoull Kicker]

Bit of a consensus developing here. Midfield clearly the major issue. After a bright start  Aberdenn took command of midfield and there was only gong to be one outcome. Spoony contributed bugger all ( not for the first time), Craig and Goss not far behind. Muzz hard working as ever but not creative. TW brings on Swanson whose sole contribution was giving the ball away on the half way line which led directly to there second goal. Alstonleft sitting on the bench - what has he done to deny him the chance to fix a misfiring midfield? He should start on Wednesday with Craig the holding player, Davidson or Callaghan and MOH if fit. get Kennedy and Watt together up front and put a rocket up Fosters arse or drop him. 

Thought Kerr was head and shoulders above any player on the park - had the "superstar" Cosgrove in his pocket. As much as Joe has been a solid citizen don't think he will be a catastrophic loss.

Sort it out Tommy.

[akuram]

Star man on the field ------- Again --------  Jason Kerr.

[slf]

2 hours ago, weesainty said:

Think top 6 has gone all though safe from relegation think the season is starting to fizzle out 

Good 

[slf]

3 minutes ago, akuram said:

Star man on the field ------- Again --------  Jason Kerr.

Shhhhhhh

[Kinnoull Kicker]

PS Shinnie is a decent player.........but an irritating and annoying eejit who spends half his time in the refs ear....... The same ref who was equally annoying and irritating.

[Cagey]

McInnes wins the management contest hands down. He had our weaknesses sussed out.

Saw that Kennedy was kept under control & put pressure on our right where Spoony & Foster were a joke. Dray Wright made Foster look good by covering for him. Spoony hasnt got the pace to help defend or take on full back.

He also won the midfield battle especially hurting us on the break.

He also put 2 men out to stop the short corner which has been the only time we have had joy from a corner.

Tommy fails to make sub's when it matters. If he decides to bring on a sub ,he has them stripped & waits til they have frostbite before before bringing them on.

[slf]

I personally spotted several stewards surrounding Gordon muir during the match.

 

I do hope Gordon is okay.gawn herself motormouth.

[Dave H]

Failed to string 2 passes, route 1 football, punished severely for 2 goals by gifting them the ball.  It was dreadful watch, Aberdeen totally bossed the game, we were poor, reminded me of last season.... no style of play, going through the motions, too worried about the opposition.

Only if we had taken 1 ofthe 2 glorious chances at nil nil, it becomes a different day.

That was the worst for me this season.  Team has lost how to play, following ultra defence tactics v the 4 old firm games + visit to Tynecastle.  

Am I nervous of missing out on top 6, yes.  How we are missing Wright, no balance in the team today.

[PauloPerth]

It was Celtic in the 0-2 game at McD a couple of weeks ago who I first saw take advantage of our right footed left centre back.  They cut off the ball to Kerr but left Shaughnessy to receive it from the keeper and the channeled him onto his left foot where he's obviously weaker resulting in us often giving the ball away.

I I felt Aberdeen did that today as well, there were quite a few occasions Joe was left with plenty of time to play it forward on his left side, as Aberdeen had blocked off the square ball back inside to Kerr.

Not much Joe can do really, he's not left footed so it's difficult for him. Possibly Tanser dropping deeper alongside him to take the ball then play a forward pass on his stronger foot?

[MrBored]

For me, we are a side that basically needs almost every player to be bang at it for us to get a good performance, or result regardless of the opposition. If a couple of players go missing we are done for and that was seemed to happen today.

Foster had a 'mare, whether that was down to it being his old club etc not sure but both himself and Wotherspoon were not on the same planet...no understanding between the two at all.

I thought Goss played quite a few nice forward passes, but not sure of him defensively and we can't carry players in the centre of midfield hoping to get the ball to them.

Kane runs around a lot, but seemed to try and get into a physical battle with the Aberdeen central defenders far too much and they had him all day. I don't really 'trust' him in front of goal.

Swanson looks overweight, whether he didn't a proper pre-season, not sure, but he's a shadow of the player he was before. Mind you he can't be getting up to 'match' fitness with the odd cameo here and there.

The first goal killed us. Up to then we looked the more likely and quite threatening. After that goal, other than the deflection onto the post, not sure we created much at all.

[Valentino Bolognese]

57 minutes ago, Cagey said:

He also put 2 men out to stop the short corner which has been the only time we have had joy from a corner.

We had 12 corners today apparently. I remember 1 being played short, the other 11 were utterly wasted. You don't expect to score from a corner (I think that stats are something like 3% of corners produce goals), but to have 12 corners and not a single shot on goal from any of them is pretty criminal in my opinion. 

Aberdeen were better defensively than I think we expected them to be with thier injury problems, but a bit more quality and we could / should have had a couple off them. 

[Johnny B]

12 hours ago, weesainty said:

Think top 6 has gone all though safe from relegation think the season is starting to fizzle out 

Not yet. The Hibs and Livi games will in my opinion be the deciding factor. But I know it doesn't look promising.

[RandomGuy]

14 hours ago, templeofsaints said:

Compare it to Muzz who even at the death was chasing everything down.

That's not a positive when you're in a midfield two. Hes a few yards beyond Shinnie as Swanson loses the ball at their second, Shinnie runs half the length of the pitch unchallenged and scores, Davidson hasn't even made it back to our half in that time, Shinnies opened up a 20 yard gap to Davidson, his direct competitor, by the time Davidson has stopped standing in a ****ing huff.

He done the same later on, Goss mocked up a pass, Aberdeen got the ball to counter, and Davidson standing moaning in the centre circle as Goss tries to cope with three midfielders charging at him.

He gets an easy as **** ride lately considering hes done this multiple times since the break, at least two goals against Celtic came from him not bothering to track his man aswell.

Edited February 24, 2019 by RandomGuy

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy said:

That's not a positive when you're in a midfield two. Hes a few yards beyond Shinnie as Swanson loses the ball at their second, Shinnie runs half the length of the pitch unchallenged and scores, Davidson hasn't even made it back to our half in that time, Shinnies opened up a 20 yard gap to Davidson, his direct competitor, by the time Davidson has stopped standing in a ****ing huff.

He done the same later on, Goss mocked up a pass, Aberdeen got the ball to counter, and Davidson standing moaning in the centre circle as Goss tries to cope with three midfielders charging at him.

He gets an easy as **** ride lately considering hes done this multiple times since the break, at least two goals against Celtic came from him not bothering to track his man aswell.

I would rather have Ross Callachan starting than Murray Davidson. 

I'm all for a settled, consistent starting 11 but it has to be the right one. Yesterday's team wasn't. 

edit: I'm fully aware that before the game yesterday I wasn't massively concerned about the selection with 2 caveats, which is that I think we're better in a 442 and I don't like Tony Watt warming the bench, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

But over the last few matches the players that look to me to be really struggling right now are Foster, Kane and Davidson. If I was Jason Kerr I'd be wondering what I had to do yesterday to get MOTM. 

Edited February 24, 2019 by Valentino Bolognese

[Dave Ferg]

The worst sign for me on Saturday was our body language. Even in the warm up it doesn't look as happy a group players as it did before the break.

It's also plain that we haven't played as well since Liam was shunted left (where he is exposed for pace). He was a rock playing in front of the back 4. No disputing Goss is a good player but I'd have Liam back in the holding role.

One result going our way will reinvigorate our season and what better time for that than against Hibs this week.

Can someone hide the groundsman's green and white socks before this game please?

[SaintJet]

Poor disjointed performance on Saturday. I'm pleased that I wasn't alone in thinking that Alston should have been on at the half in place of Wotherspoon - I like Spoony but he is a total luxury player who has loads of skill but offers nothing in industry and we are being exposed by this game after game. Keep him as an impact sub.

Jason again showed how classy he is, he was MOTM for me next to Shinnie. I'm pleased that Kane also got kept on -  he works tirelessly - I'd love to see him and Tony given a chance upfront together with Kennedy sitting behind.

Agree that Craig looks out of sorts since Goss has come in which is a shame because he had got a new lease of life as the enforcer sitting in front of the Defense.  Tanser still looks comfortable but Foster is like the weather in Scotland you never know what your going to get on any given day, he's either brilliant or dross - Saturday was the latter.

[Valentino Bolognese]

I think I've said it elsewhere but it is very clear how much better Zander is than Bell. We all knew that of course but what I'm seeing is that Zander delivers much more energy and presence at the back and his quick long throws are a joy.