Broon

Feeling hopeful we see a reaction from Saturday. If I was to pick the lineup I'd go with: Clark Foster Gordon Kerr Tanser O'Halloran Davidson Craig Kennedy Swanson Kane OR (if there is any hope or desire in keeping Watt) Clark Foster Gordon Kerr Tanser O'Halloran Davidson Craig Swanson Watt Kennedy

I'll wait until the full details are made public before commenting. There is always two sides to these stories. Regarding Swanson - we're basically bottom six now and with a healthy cushion on the teams below us. We should absolutely be using the next 7 games to get Mikey and Swanson back firing. These guys have all the talent in the world. Tommy needs to figure out how to get them playing. I'm not that bothered about results now - he can be as experimental as he wants. Lets make sure we find out what works for next season.

Let's not be critical of those fans who are shouting for change. They pay their money, they aren't enjoying the football and are entitled to a view. We've now had two stinking runs this season and these runs are becoming frequent. I don't think its fair to drop Tommy yet though, he absolutely deserves a chance to fix it. He quite rightly has a wonderful reputation for building strong, direct, competitive, effective teams that defy stats on possession, expected goals and everything else. He's been a huge success for us even if the product hasn't been the most exciting. This in my opinion has seen him overlooked for many jobs as he's not seen as a progressive, modern manager. This season Tommy has decided to change perception. He's reduced the age of the squad and started adding flair on the wings and up top. It started well, we had a nice balance. The board backed him, he seen more opportunities for success and brought in more attacking players. This, in my opinion, was the mistake. Tommy's teams are built on heart and determination. Too many of the attacking players (Swanson, Mikey, Watt) just don't have those attributes. All can be match winners when things are going well but we've all, including Tommy, seen what can happen to these players when things are not. Swanson and Mikey in previous seasons have gone from hero to zero due to off the pitch issues almost overnight. Now we are in a rut. Unbalanced and with very few leaders. Less experience and struggling for form. Tommy doesn't appear to know how to make these attacking players effective without exposing the defence. He has failed to understand the type of midfielder he needs to give better players a platform to play. He's ballsed up but these players are not losers overnight. Tommy now has 7 games to find a system to make it work. If he can't he deserves the summer to find the right players to make it work. If after 10 games next season he looks to have failed then fair enough, maybe it may be time before things get too bad but let's not shit the bed and become a Dundee or a Dundee Utd. We all make mistakes, Tommy has, now it's his job to fix it. But just remember, the players need to step up here too. 11 players cross that white line on a Saturday. Tommy isn't telling them to punt the ball 80 yards in the direction they are facing every time they get the ball. They should be hurting and embarrassed and we should be seeing a reaction. If they don't, they won't have a job much longer.

Definitely positives in that we created chances this time and were solid in the most. However, for all we've brought in lots of attacking players this season I still think we're a little toothless. Tony Watt just doesn't strike me as a goalscorer. Very good footballer yes but not an out and out striker. He never looks like he's going to score. The singing of Goss should help though. He played some lovely passes to open up Kennedy and showed great range of passes until he tired. We need that in the team to get the good players in dangerous areas. Roll on Wednesday....big big game.

This is probably the first January in a long, long time where I'm not that bothered if we sign anyone. I still think longer term we need cover for a central ball playing midfielder. Liam Craig is doing a terrific job in there but if he gets injured we are really struggling given Davidson's injury history. I suspect any transfer activity will be heavily dependent on who moves on - if anyone. I'm just hoping there are no bad surprises....

Signed for Wellington Phoenix.

He may not be facing as many shots as earlier in the season but part of being a great goalkeeper is organising your defence, inspiring confidence at set plays, kicking well and vitally when you are called into action keeping concentration and making that vital save. He's ticking all the boxes at the moment. Well done Zander. Players on form should be picked, he would deserve it.

Not a huge surprise that we've gone with the tactics at Motherwell. 3 central defenders to out-Livi Livi. Not gonna be one for the purists. Wright a huge blow. COYS.

Thoroughly enjoyable game. Very good performance, especially second half. Few interesting points. A return to the old guard. Craig and Muzz dominating the middle and Spoony out left. Spoony is a terrific left midfielder and we've suffered by playing him out of position. His best season for assists came at left wing. He's a better option than Kennedy there. In the middle we finally had real bite and desire. What does that say for our bloated bench of Alston, Callachan, Nydam etc? Saints teams need a dominant centre and we finally had one and with that it gave the flair players a platform to entertain. We also protected the defence and finally looked like a cohesive unit. Long may that continue.

It's only a couple of bad games against the best teams in the league. If anyone deserves time its Tommy.

Easy to get carried away after what was perhaps aside from Ochilview the worst 36 minutes(first 9 were ok) of football I've ever seen. What's gone wrong with our team? We're soft. Weak. Lacking a leader. Centre halves? Timid. When Ando came in he was aggressive, on his toes. Joe and Kerr - weak. The worst part of the team, yet again, was the centre 3. All attacking midfielders. None can put a tackle on. Callachan's positional sense is a joke. I know he's trying to press but after being caught in front of the ball 15 or 20 times you'd think he's realise to stay goal side. Spoony is not a central midfielder. Tommy has some tough choices but being honest Callachan looks a poor signing and Spoony isn't an answer. Alston needs defensive cover if he's to play. I wouldn't be upset if any of our central players moved on. Poor management of the playing pool.

You know I actually thought hearts looked good. Their link play up top was excellent. I'm not sure how much our standing off them made them look good but at times I thought they played better than Celtic.

I think Tommy has recruited some talented attacking players but i fear he's created a very unbalanced squad. If you play with wingers and 9s and false 9s you absolutely have to have one maybe two dominant ball winners. Players to do the dirty work, win and move the ball. Keep the ball under pressure (ala Chris Millar). At the moment we have a big gaping hole in the middle of the park. We're somewhere between a good side and a weak side. I'm trying not to overreact as its been a tough run of fixtures but i also think we're caught between two playing styles. The old team of 2 or 3 years ago could drop deep and defend with Wright, Ando, Mackay and Easton. All day long. This team try and drop deep and there's nobody throwing their bodies in front of shots. Nobody putting tackles in. We just stand off. What frustrated me most is when we do start to press and play more direct and on the front foot supposedly invincible teams like Hearts start to crumble. We waited until were 2 down for that. Tommy needs to decide how to line this team up because unless he finds a solution in the middle he can't have them so passive. Also, Swanson should be starting ahead of Kennedy. Far superior player.

Waste of money that was. Saints players standing off and admiring Hearts for 70 mins of the game. We are so deep, not capable of defending unless were in our last 20 yards. Defence was very poor, Tanser and Foster particularly but central defenders were too soft and lacked aggression. Wright was ok, rest anonymous. Swanson and Watt made an impact at least. Feel a bit cheated by that performance to be honest. Although we had chances yet again we gift the opposition 60/70% possession.

Not a huge fan of stats but this to me does reflect the Rangers game. We had great chances but they took every one that came there way. A freak result if ever there was one.

I thought we did ok there. Defended very well under heavy pressure. Going forward we lacked a bit of quality but created 4 or 5 good shooting opportunities from distance. Hard to disagree with the way Tommy lined up. It's easy to say put attacking players in but good sides can punish you if you open up too much (like Sunday). Foster and Spoony were excellent. Kerr did well. Clark was inspired. Alston and Callachan pushed well in middle and Wright was excellent in bursts. Some positives for sure.

Easy to look at the Goalkeeper when you get pumped 5-1 but he was left badly exposed by a very disorganised defence. Tanser was all over the place leaving gaping holes down the left which dragged the centre back across to cover. We never had a sitting midfielder who could come in and cover the gaps meaning rangers were able to overload on the other side. Yes you could argue he shouldn't get beat at his near post but Morelos had a free shot from 6 yards and it was a good finish. He does need to work on his walls though still a great free kick. The Arfield one was a very awkward place for a goalie - too close to get with your hand but not close enough for a foot save. Nothing he could do against Lafferty or Candeias to be fair.

Tanser for me, closely followed by Foster and Kerr. I do see improvements in Alston but for a central midfielder I still think he needs to be on the ball more. We have probably had less possession in games than each of the 5 league teams we've played this season and I think that's down to the lack of touches our central midfield get on the ball. He's a great threat going forward for sure but when he's not making late run into the box he needs to be getting into positions to receive and pass the ball. When we don't have the ball he also needs to be getting closer to the opposition rather than standing off. I do think he's learning though and has done enough to keep his shirt against Rangers. Will be interesting to see who goes in next to him.

I thought we'd have 2 or 3 players on 2 grand a week so not overly surprised at that. I'm not sure what the latest figures are but were we not spending around 2.5 million on staffing costs and around 2 million on other costs. Those figures would add up. Agree though, if they are earning £100,000 a year and not contributing then the must be moved on.

Archer is one of the worst goalkeepers I've ever seen. How he's in the Scotland squad is beyond me. Clark is a thousand times better.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/3121898/st-johnstone-ipswich-town-wonderkid-tristan-nydam-loan-deal/amp/?__twitter_impression=true Sounds a promising youngster. My opinion will swing heavily on it being a 6 or 12 month loan. We have such a gaping hole in our central midfield I'd much prefer we found a long term solution. A 12 month loan would be fine but a 6 month leaves us looking for midfielders at Christmas.

No but they are selling them in the club shop now which is great. Didn't have many sizes but a good step for Saints!

Not surprised Watt was onside(though he looked off to me too). He's absolutley superb at bending his runs and is always watching the line. A very intelligent striker. The best bit of business saints could do now is to stick another 2 years on his contract. Not likely but would be an investment, the lad could go far.

Cool I'll keep my eye out. Missed the last game. Would make sense today as we should have a bigger crowd.

I take it you can't buy the shirt anywhere at the ground? Just online and Campus?