Ross County v Saints, Sat 31st July, 3pm


blueheaven
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48 minutes ago, Cagey said:

When you think of the great pens we beat Rangers with & look at McCann & Spoonys, miles over the bar. I think most of the pens v Rangers went into the roof of the net so it looks like we are aiming high with penalties.

Apparently the theory is if you aim high you score even if the goalie makes the right call with his dive.

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1 hour ago, Melbourne Saint said:

Thought McCann was weakest in midfield (pen miss not included. With it, pish). Game seemed to pass him by & had trouble with Callachan. Devine was okay. Kerr, Spoony and especially MOH decent shift. 2 points clearly dropped.

How anyone can watch that match and think McCann struggled with Callachan is beyond me, let alone that the game passed him by. Our midfield and defence was on top for 95% of the match. Yea he got caught on the ball a couple of times, but that’s the first competitive game this season, I’d expect the team to be rusty. 

Was it his best game, nope. Was he solid once again and in no way shape or form our “weakest” link in midfield, absolutely. 

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1 hour ago, Widge said:

How anyone can watch that match and think McCann struggled with Callachan is beyond me, let alone that the game passed him by. Our midfield and defence was on top for 95% of the match. Yea he got caught on the ball a couple of times, but that’s the first competitive game this season, I’d expect the team to be rusty. 

Was it his best game, nope. Was he solid once again and in no way shape or form our “weakest” link in midfield, absolutely. 

I disagree he had a poor game

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3 hours ago, Johnny B said:

I disagree he had a poor game

He didnt have a shocking game, and out of the three recognised midfielders who started, he was the weakest. 

He had a 6/10 game when normally we expect an 8/10 from him.

Hopefully a one of, shaking the ring rust out of his legs,  and returns to form on thursday.

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4 hours ago, St. Paddy said:

He didnt have a shocking game, and out of the three recognised midfielders who started, he was the weakest. 

He had a 6/10 game when normally we expect an 8/10 from him.

Hopefully a one of, shaking the ring rust out of his legs,  and returns to form on thursday.

We can state all the reasons why he was not at his best. If you were sent to scout him yesterday would you recommend buying him or would you report back no? Yes players do have an off day he did and was poor and as you said hopefully a one of. As for rust in his legs feeble reason he is a professional football player with a preseason and friendlies under his belt. IF he is not up to speed for the first game of the season it is his or the management's fault.

 

 

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2 hours ago, RandomGuy said:

One game in and we've got McCann labeled shite and useless and the manager getting criticism for not having players fit enough in their first competitive game to match a side who've been playing them over the past month.

Great stuff. WAP season 21/22 starts with a bang.

You like to blow all things out of proportion Am  I not allowed to have an opinion and say McCann had a poor game without you twisting it to read "labeled shite and useless". Are now saying if I state that someone has a poor game they are shite and useless! I think he is a tremendous player.

Please point out where McCann is labelled shite and useless other than in your post

Also do not think the manager gets criticism for the players not being fit enough. That was in reply to a suggestion that McCann had rusty legs If McCann as was suggested has rusty legs it is McCann to blame. They only other option for him having rusty legs was the preseason training and preseason games. I believe C Davidson is a professional manager and the blame does not lie with him.

And all this stemmed from me in a reply saying I think McCann had a poor game

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41 minutes ago, Johnny B said:

And all this stemmed from me in a reply saying I think McCann had a poor game

Fair point. No-one has said he's shite and useless, he had a poor game by his standards and hopefully he'll put in a better shift on Thursday, admittedly against opposition that could completely roll us in midfield. I don't believe having an opinion regarding a "darling" player's performance  in a game should be met with such bristled responses, but hey, it's opinions. I thought Spoony and Muzz did more in the game, McCann didn't, or couldn't, contribute in the way we'd have liked, and I suspect he'd admit that too. Once Spoony was moved into a more central position in the 2nd, we looked much more threatening going forward & Callachan was subdued (or knackered).

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Enjoyable day out, good to be back at an away game.

Think we re in danger of going down the Celtic / Rangers fans route here of we thinking  we didn’t win just because we think our players didn’t perform as well as they might, Ross County did exactly what they were set up to do.

I thought Ross County were happy with a draw particularly in second half and used game management very well, something we also did under Tommy , their fans seemed happy to have got the draw at the end of the game which is really a compliment to how far our team has come.

Had we scored the pen or if Liams effort had nt hit the post late on and sneaked in we d all be happy, didn’t see anything to cause concern this won’t be another good season.

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1 hour ago, Strawman said:

Ross County did exactly what they were set up to do.

I thought Ross County were happy with a draw particularly in second half and used game management very well, something we also did under Tommy , their fans seemed happy to have got the draw at the end of the game.

They were certainly well drilled at the back and their wingback covering Rooney pretty well. Hendry didn't get a sniff in. On Saints tactics, it looks like there's a clear instruction to fire in a fast, low cross from wide, inbetween the goalie & defence coming back. Makes sense, using MOH's pace, or anyone out wide. Dangerous ball, difficult for defenders to deal with as risks an og or deflection in. Unfortunately, of the 5 occasions we did this, we didn't have players close enough (although Liam had a half chance). Looks a tactic (McLean written all over it) that will benefit Kane as he naturally gets right in that zone.

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I found that incredibly frustrating. We were and are miles better than Ross County but if we can't beat the teams we're dominating then we're never going to be able to take that next step up that we'd need to take in order to move from challenging for Top 6 to challenging for top 3 or 4. We looked very comfortable at the back and in midfield but throughout pre-season and now in our first game we've been really lacking in attacking spark and we desperately need a new dimension up front (whether that's Vertainen, Middleton or someone else entirely).

Of course if doesn't help if we can't convert penalties but for me we shouldn't be changing our penalty taker every time someone misses. I think that's only adding to the problem.

Surprised to see Hendy and MOH starting but maybe there were fitness issues with May and Kane? I certainly can't see us starting with that forward line on Thursday night. Really hope Bryson is back soon too.

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12 hours ago, blueheaven said:

I found that incredibly frustrating. We were and are miles better than Ross County but if we can't beat the teams we're dominating then we're never going to be able to take that next step up that we'd need to take in order to move from challenging for Top 6 to challenging for top 3 or 4. We looked very comfortable at the back and in midfield but throughout pre-season and now in our first game we've been really lacking in attacking spark and we desperately need a new dimension up front (whether that's Vertainen, Middleton or someone else entirely).

Of course if doesn't help if we can't convert penalties but for me we shouldn't be changing our penalty taker every time someone misses. I think that's only adding to the problem.

Surprised to see Hendy and MOH starting but maybe there were fitness issues with May and Kane? I certainly can't see us starting with that forward line on Thursday night. Really hope Bryson 

Agree about dominating games and not winning but look on the bright side at least we were not like Celtic and dominate a game and get beat:laugh:

 

First game back and we have a clean sheet and a point are all positives. Those talking about McCann being poor etc. The midfield is always best when Liam is sitting in there. 

 

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Defensively were sound we limited them to very few chances. It was the lack of creativity and a reluctance to play it from the back which let us down. The majority of our players are comfortable on the ball therefore there is no need for Clark to continually kick the ball long. Their defenders won everything and we gave them the ball back too often.

I agree the midfield is better with Craig and a better platform to build from the back.

I will say it once again MOH is not a striker he should not be one of a front two. When he resigned I saw him as one of the two behind a lone striker of as a number 10. The only other position as CD has played him there a number of times  is at wing back.

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2 hours ago, mainstand said:

Agree about dominating games and not winning but look on the bright side at least we were not like Celtic and dominate a game and get beat:laugh:

 

First game back and we have a clean sheet and a point are all positives. Those talking about McCann being poor etc. The midfield is always best when Liam is sitting in there. 

 

Totally agree, and I also thought we immediately improved when Craig came on. I think we really need one of Craig or Bryson in there (although neither player is getting any younger).

The clean sheet is a big positive and County did even less going forward than we did, but I always feel at 0-0 we're at risk of being hurt by that one lapse that means we're suddenly chasing the game. That's what happened several times in the early stages of last season, where we often looked comfortably on top, but didn't score, and then ended up losing 1-0.

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