#13 - 30/10/10 - Saints 0-3 Celtic - SPL

[CynicalSaintee]

Hah, pleased about the comments. Nah I'm just a lifelong Celtic fan - not in the media industry at all.

As a Celtic fan you other SPL clubs will probably laugh at this but I am annoyed with the whole Scottish media anyway, their reports are normally biased, with agendas and downright wrong. They never talk about the actual football (obviously the red-tops) and even the broadsheets, the English ones hardly give a hoot about the SPL and the Scottish ones are Glasgow and Edinburgh based respectively and again have some kind of agenda.

Another thing I've been doing is reports for a fairly large Celtic fan-site, but they were very fixed on newswriting *within* the forum, an emphasis on *NEWS* and there wasn't much room for writing about what I want to write about.

Throw in I've been as a hobby studying football tactics and reading stuff from good journos (like Johnathan Wilson) and really that's where my blog comes from. I know it's rich saying papers and that have an agenda (I'm a celtic fan! that's an agenda) but I do try and look at the bigger picture and respect the other clubs. Still very new my blog by the way and traffic is very low. Wasn't allow to advertise on my old "employers" website (celtic fansite) so every opportunity and all that. Cheers for reading.

For a Cellick fan you have our head screwed on the right way. I wish you luck in your endeavour, we could do with more journos like yourself.

[saint in exile]

Hah, pleased about the comments. Nah I'm just a lifelong Celtic fan - not in the media industry at all.

As a Celtic fan you other SPL clubs will probably laugh at this but I am annoyed with the whole Scottish media anyway, their reports are normally biased, with agendas and downright wrong. They never talk about the actual football (obviously the red-tops) and even the broadsheets, the English ones hardly give a hoot about the SPL and the Scottish ones are Glasgow and Edinburgh based respectively and again have some kind of agenda.

Another thing I've been doing is reports for a fairly large Celtic fan-site, but they were very fixed on newswriting *within* the forum, an emphasis on *NEWS* and there wasn't much room for writing about what I want to write about.

Throw in I've been as a hobby studying football tactics and reading stuff from good journos (like Johnathan Wilson) and really that's where my blog comes from. I know it's rich saying papers and that have an agenda (I'm a celtic fan! that's an agenda) but I do try and look at the bigger picture and respect the other clubs. Still very new my blog by the way and traffic is very low. Wasn't allow to advertise on my old "employers" website (celtic fansite) so every opportunity and all that. Cheers for reading.

Respect m8.

[Carse of Gowrie Saint]

Hah, pleased about the comments. Nah I'm just a lifelong Celtic fan - not in the media industry at all.

As a Celtic fan you other SPL clubs will probably laugh at this but I am annoyed with the whole Scottish media anyway, their reports are normally biased, with agendas and downright wrong. They never talk about the actual football (obviously the red-tops) and even the broadsheets, the English ones hardly give a hoot about the SPL and the Scottish ones are Glasgow and Edinburgh based respectively and again have some kind of agenda.

Another thing I've been doing is reports for a fairly large Celtic fan-site, but they were very fixed on newswriting *within* the forum, an emphasis on *NEWS* and there wasn't much room for writing about what I want to write about.

Throw in I've been as a hobby studying football tactics and reading stuff from good journos (like Johnathan Wilson) and really that's where my blog comes from. I know it's rich saying papers and that have an agenda (I'm a celtic fan! that's an agenda) but I do try and look at the bigger picture and respect the other clubs. Still very new my blog by the way and traffic is very low. Wasn't allow to advertise on my old "employers" website (celtic fansite) so every opportunity and all that. Cheers for reading.

Enjoyed your review.

I think McInnes set the team up to play 4-2-3-1.

Smith

Maybury Duberry Mackay Grainger

Millar Craig

Myrie-Williams Milne MacDonald

Haber

The players never looked comfortable with the formation and I think if we had started with a 4-4-2 we would have gave ourselves a better chance.

[rudeboy]

Cheers all for the kind comments. After my first post on this forum I fully expected a blasting but top notch stuff. Maybe I'll keep scores of the other teams forums, you boys are doing well.

@Carse - Aye tbh not too big a difference between 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-1-1 (apart from height up pitch of wingers) Problem is the guy on the left (Macdonald) was really withdrawn centrally allowing GRainger to get ahead. Grainger has stood out for me as a big threat from your team and no wonder McInnes sometimes puts him left-wing.

The other thing was your man Milne got drawn into the midfield battle and should've been behind the Celtic lines. So instead of being the one behind the striker he turned into just another CM, and had an awful game at that, culminating in that second goal.

If I were McInnes I would've took advantage of our CB's inexperience together - Rogne is entirely untested and has about 3 games at this level under his belt.

1 or 2 big loons up top, hit the high balls in and wait for a mistake. Not brave, not pretty, not particularly clever but our defence has been so shocking in the air of late it's what I was fully expecting to see.

Ye's are desperately missing Jody by the way.

[Mike180279]

Cheers all for the kind comments. After my first post on this forum I fully expected a blasting but top notch stuff. Maybe I'll keep scores of the other teams forums, you boys are doing well.

@Carse - Aye tbh not too big a difference between 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-1-1 (apart from height up pitch of wingers) Problem is the guy on the left (Macdonald) was really withdrawn centrally allowing GRainger to get ahead. Grainger has stood out for me as a big threat from your team and no wonder McInnes sometimes puts him left-wing.

The other thing was your man Milne got drawn into the midfield battle and should've been behind the Celtic lines. So instead of being the one behind the striker he turned into just another CM, and had an awful game at that, culminating in that second goal.

If I were McInnes I would've took advantage of our CB's inexperience together - Rogne is entirely untested and has about 3 games at this level under his belt.

1 or 2 big loons up top, hit the high balls in and wait for a mistake. Not brave, not pretty, not particularly clever but our defence has been so shocking in the air of late it's what I was fully expecting to see.

Ye's are desperately missing Jody by the way.

A fair few of our support dont always see what Jody brings to the team, but as I have said many many times before he is key to ourside. Generally when he under-performs there isnt anyone who can step up to the plate and do the job he does for us. A truly inspiratational signing and we are very lucky to have him. I said last year that he could of played in your Celtic side, comfortably.

[dave mc]

Not too much wrong defensively for me,but as far as creating it was poor.First,great save ,no back up,2nd ,totally inexcusable back pass,3rd,miss-hit off standing foot,so get over it, move on and bring on Killie!!

[saintee4life]

Cannae believe 101 hasnt posted on here yet

[soulfulsaint]

Cheers all for the kind comments. After my first post on this forum I fully expected a blasting but top notch stuff. Maybe I'll keep scores of the other teams forums, you boys are doing well.

@Carse - Aye tbh not too big a difference between 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-1-1 (apart from height up pitch of wingers) Problem is the guy on the left (Macdonald) was really withdrawn centrally allowing GRainger to get ahead. Grainger has stood out for me as a big threat from your team and no wonder McInnes sometimes puts him left-wing.

The other thing was your man Milne got drawn into the midfield battle and should've been behind the Celtic lines. So instead of being the one behind the striker he turned into just another CM, and had an awful game at that, culminating in that second goal.

If I were McInnes I would've took advantage of our CB's inexperience together - Rogne is entirely untested and has about 3 games at this level under his belt.

1 or 2 big loons up top, hit the high balls in and wait for a mistake. Not brave, not pretty, not particularly clever but our defence has been so shocking in the air of late it's what I was fully expecting to see.

Ye's are desperately missing Jody by the way.

Really in depth stuff Rude Boy thanks its good to read coverage that tries to think beyond cliches - assume you are also a ska fan too.

[ex-montrosesaintee]

I don't post here much, because I don't get to many games. I do generally read the threads after games because the press are so anti-Saints. Not that many folk on here don't seem to be anti-Saints though.

Fortunately I got to go today, and can't believe how bad we were. I thought that after Wednesday, when that big Swede Celtic have at the back won everything, Del was looking to play the game on the deck a bit more, hence Peaso and Milne. Rubbish idea, even on a decent pitch, let alone a tattie field. Milne was awful, JMW was embarrassing, and Chris Miller, while his touch was decent, he got pushed off the ball way to easily over and over again. Just not strong enough. Doobs and McKay were outstanding as usual, Haber looked much better than previous games, but we badly missed Jody and Davidson.

Del needs to settle on a system. Shuffling the team like this just makes it more difficult. Celtic aren't great, but they were well organised, which we weren't. We've got a good squad of players who together should be a lot better than we are just now. I respect Dels contacts and getting hold of Doobs and Jody etc, but tactically it is painful to watch.

I also noted the frustration of Grainger in the second half because ESPNs stupid flashy advertising boards stopped him firing in long throws. That was a basic error of judgement by someone. Its an important part of our attacking options.

We need to sort our tactics out quick. There are at least 7 teams in thus league that should be worse than us. They are all better organised than us right now.

[ex-montrosesaintee]

Hello again. I come in peace. Just updated my blog reporting on today's game.

http://tictacticuk.wordpress.com

Apologies for the shameless plug (again). Gone into a bit of depth about McInnes tactics if you're into that kind of thing. But in all honesty (and thinking about it now I should've said this in the blog) tactics took a bit of a step aside as your boys didn't look up for it at all today really.

Anyway good luck for your game against Killie next week and if you're ever interested in the tactics of other SPL clubs, I'll be reporting on them also as and when they play Celtic so keep an eye on my blog if you're ever bored.

Advertisement commerical over.

Like the blog, interesting reading, and good analysis of the games. I'll check it out more often.

[sleepless]

rude boy - nice blog, must take a lot of effort.

You might want to change the caption for your St Johnstone formation diagram, as it says St Mirren....

[jamie]

:)101 is a closet ***

[Broon]

When I heard the line up I said I couldn't even guess what our formation would be. After 45 minutes I still couldn't tell. Tells you all you need to know about that shambles. I felt sorry for some of the players asked to play that formation. Savo in midfield? Result - goals like the second.

Oh well, least we can't be that crap next week.

[Mike180279]

When I heard the line up I said I couldn't even guess what our formation would be. After 45 minutes I still couldn't tell. Tells you all you need to know about that shambles. I felt sorry for some of the players asked to play that formation. Savo in midfield? Result - goals like the second.

Oh well, least we can't be that crap next week.

Yip, a big positive being realistic we were never going to get anything from that game. At least another huge failure was in a game of little importance

[Guest Harry Curran's Love child]

Anyone see the 'The ref was right' banner hanging from the flyover at top end of Crieff Road? Didnt see it myself but the missus said it apparently had a Rangers badge on it too. Police in attendance of course.

[Mike180279]

Anyone see the 'The ref was right' banner hanging from the flyover at top end of Crieff Road? Didnt see it myself but the missus said it apparently had a Rangers badge on it too. Police in attendance of course.

Yes, I passed it had a giggle. It was there as I approached the ground at 1030. 10/10 to the Rangers Fans.

[Edstar101]

In the cold light of the day after (and with an extra hour!) I am still feeling a massive dissapointment following yesterday. I dont even know the final scores from the other games- distanced myself from the media!

Dont think the demons will be exorcised until I am leaving McD next Saturday with a great big grin on my face

[Honest Saints Fan]

Having watched the game now I can't see why anyone is blaming our midfield. For having a striker and an attacking midfielder in there, they did not to bad.

Our defence though? Doobs was letting balls go over him all day, losing his player and not even staying goal side of him. Stokes was ripping him apart.

Savo had a mare especially with that pass back!

I didn't think Williams was that bad, infact he had another good shot and was helping the defence a lot more than peaso was.

We were crap though.

[mainstand]

Just seen the first goal on the BBC. If you look at the right hand side of Smiths goal you see Danny going down I wonder if he was taken out and that was why he was raging and got booked.

be interesting to see when the link comes up on bbc.

[Tranmere Saintee]

just seen the first goal on the bbc. If you look at the right hand side of smiths goal you see danny going down i wonder if he was taken out and that was why he was raging and got booked.

Be interesting to see when the link comes up on bbc.

yes

[StDuncM]

Some you win, some you lose! As a Saints supporter for more years than I care to remember the bad comes with the territory.

[SlickDT]

Myrie-Williams must go.

Savo and Peaso are strikers and should be played as such. Hard to criticise them too much when they are being played out of formation.

[Tranmere Saintee]

I know passions were running very high yesterday and I would just like to thank everybody for, in the main keeping away from the of late, personal abuse.

Yesterday was a disaster and the sooner we put it behind us and move on the better. As StDuncM says, that is the real joy of being a fan of teams like Saints & for me Tranmere.

[mainstand]

I know passions were running very high yesterday and I would just like to thank everybody for, in the main keeping away from the of late, personal abuse.

Yesterday was a disaster and the sooner we put it behind us and move on the better. As StDuncM says, that is the real joy of being a fan of teams like Saints & for me Tranmere.

It was particularly poor given the highs that we hit on Wed(after first 15 mins) and as such our expectations were high. We never really expect to take anything from these games and as such we can move on and upwards.

The size of our squad is going to be stretched to it's limts and I can see Del going in for and emergency loan for a midfielder. read on Jody's twitter that he has detached the cartlidge form the bone with his rib and due to his sitting position he is now getting back pain, so can't see him being fit for a couple of weeks. don't know about murray but he did get an injury to his ankle late on Wednesday.

[SaintSam1884]

Yip, a big positive being realistic we were never going to get anything from that game. At least another huge failure was in a game of little importance

I can see why you think that but I don't agree with it. We showed on Wednesday that we could compete with that Celtic side when we are at our best. We showed earlier in the season that we can compete with Rangers who are arguably better than the Celtic team we faced yesterday. There will always be that one game where you do take something from the Old Firm and there was nothing to suggest that yesterday wouldn't be that game. Until the team line up was confirmed. I wouldn't be overly surprised if McInnes shared that opinion though and viewed Kilmarnock as a game of more significance. It's certainly now a game we're under pressure to win after the sides below us closed the gap yesterday.

Edited October 31, 2010 by SaintSam1884