St Johnstone FC v Galatasary SK, 12/08/21


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52 minutes ago, St. Paddy said:

Testament to what we have achieved in the last ten years that i am bitterly disappointed we didnt put out galatasary 

I know going into it that it was a free hit, and my best expectation was to not be embarrassed. 

But the lads stood toe to toe, and landed more than one glove on a supposed heavyweight.

The turks go home knowing they were in a game.

On another day, with another ref...

What if spoony had played? What if middleton or the finn had been signed in time?

All in.... well done. Now lets get into these austrians... the gretna of the alps.

Spot on. Galatasary will have gone home knowing they had to really work for that.

I think the way we came back after going a goal down showed this teams character. In a way also, the 2nd goal at the end could be significant. Aside from making the scoreline look better, I think it might just have been a good sign off to the tie from saints and give a little extra confidence.

McCann just seems at home at that level. Doesnt look out of place at all.

You can see just that little bit extra quality they had when they needed it. Nice little neat and quick moves. However, we have played better teams and they were there for the taking tonight.

LASK is a totally different tie in that it will be a bit lower key build up, but I'd expect a team of a similar standard to Galatasaray. The players will have learned a lot from these two games. 

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Oh to dream! I feel like going a bit Earnest Hemingway, "An ode to a fantasy lost, but a love forever gained". Yes, I'm pished. So what. Been up since 3am, so ****ya.

Great performance Fae the lads. Proud. Okay, second Gala goal was rough- Clark inexplicably had his legs wider than a 14yr old dundonian at church Sunday school- he'll be pissed off with that. The 4th, I put down to tiredness- sure Kerr could've cleared it, but Jesus the defence was sound. Their 3rd was footballing masterclass. 

Brown came in- good. expected something because Rooney would've been sent off had he started. 

4-2 seems a little harsh. When it was 4-1, I thought crap. Massive praise to MOH, Muzz, and especially Kane. 

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Some of the blind passing Galatasaray were doing was insanely good. Fair sliced us for the second and third.

It has been a long long time since I have seen such a poor refereeing performance. The challenge on Kane, Liam booked for slapping the pitch when they were doing the same in the refs face, Davidson booked for a dive. Criminal fouls given to them and we were getting nothing for shoves.

 

It was such fine margins and that save from the Davidson header and also the near own goal were two great stops by their keeper. On another day it could have gone our way. The ball seemed to be just to high, not coming down quick enough or just bouncing away from us.

A great effort and they really couldn't handle our high press. Real shame to not have Wotherspoon available.

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Agree Spoony's absence was a big miss.

His holding up of the ball until support arrived  was what we were missing.

Ali McCann's performance added another million quid to any likely transfer.

Jason Kerr was coolness personified. 

MOH ran his guts out, as did Kane.

Booth needs a few more games under his belt, after coming back from injury.

Brown put in a solid shift.

The Ref. wasn't of the required standard for European games , to put it mildly.

The opposition had a couple of quality players who made the difference in the end.

Sad to see Gala. players resorting to rolling around and the Ref. giving them cheap free kicks.

Finally, proud of the overall team effort , who gave it their all to the final whistle.

C.o.y.s.

 

 

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That is the best I have seen a St Johnstone front 2 play in a long time. The pair of them MOH and Kane ran themselves into the ground and both scored. I thought we would struggle for goals but they proved me wrong. It is not often I see a team concede 4 and the defenders get praised. Can't wait for the next one.

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The morning after the night before and still a bit disappointed that we are out BUT absolutely buzzing for the next game and full of pride that for probably 70 minutes of a 2 legged game we held Galatasary to a 2-2- draw. 

A club that has somewhere in the region of 50 times our budget, a team that have played 46 games the Europa league winning 30 drawing 6 and losing 10. 

On to our next qualifier and again a nop notch side that had some great results in last seasons europa league making the last 16. BRINGITON!!

 

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Hugely disappointed in the result but I think that in itself shows how far we've come. Go back 10 years and we'd have been happy just to be involved in that game. Last night we were very much in it to win it and I firmly believe that on another night, with another rub of the green, and perhaps with Spoony/Bryson/Middleton available, we really could have taken them.

Also massively proud of everyone at the club (including the fans), though. What an occasion we all made it (and in 'we' I mean everyone, ticket staff included!). The build-up, the atmosphere, the fan display, the way everyone got behind the team even when we were losing. I know these nights are seen as special occasions, but if we could take even a fraction of that atmosphere and attitude, plus a few extra numbers, into our average Saturday league games against Ross County etc, it could make such a difference.

Also: I always knew Ali McCann was good, but don't think I appreciated quite how good he is until these European games. Whenever the opposition improve, he seems to improve too. He also seems faster and stronger than he was a year ago. And some of those touches and passes last night were insane. What a player.

P.S. Never liked Sweet Caroline until last night. But that was f**king special.

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9 hours ago, Cagey said:

Missed Spoony big time. McCann had to cover his position & midfield. Wish we had another player like McCann.

If Kane had a bit a bit of pace he would have ran through their defence but otherwise did well.

Just shows how threadbare our squad is. 3 or 4 of those will be out on loan by end of august.

After it went to 3-1Callum was signaling players to get back. Think he was hoping they wouldn't end up getting a doing.

In the last 10 mins their goalie had to make a few saves. Makes you wonder if we had pushed them. Probably got gubbed.

Spooky was a huge miss! He gets better every year and has an edge of class that would likely have made a chance or two last night, desperately unlucky to be missing him for that one.

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Just now, Smarmy Arab said:

Spooky was a huge miss! He gets better every year and has an edge of class that would likely have made a chance or two last night, desperately unlucky to be missing him for that one.

Yep, I think we even missed his positioning. There were a lot of times last night where our midfielders would pick up the ball and there was no one in the Spoony roll to play it up to. As a result of that our entire team was often very deep, which added to the pressure we were under. You could see MOH getting frustrated with how much of that space he was having to cover in Spoony's absence. Absolutely colossal effort from MOH under the circumstances.

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BBC stats a waste of time. We had one shot on target ,they had 4.. no corners or bookings.

Zander had 3 or 4 easy saves. Don't think he could have done much with the 4 goals but he didn't have a say in the game like the irst game.

Edited by Cagey
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32 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

believe that on another night, with another rub of the green, and perhaps with Spoony/Bryson/Middleton available, we really could have taken them.

The above would not have prevented us conceding 4 goals as none of them play a defensive role. Bryson may be but would he have done any better that Davidson or Craig.

Playing them would have been a change in formation we played 5 across the middle and still gave away 4 goals. .

The question is would we have scored more goals may yes may be no but In my opinion Middleton would not have done any better than MOH or Kane as he would not have scored 2 goals. Let's just admit their attackers were better than our defenders and were beaten by a better team on the night.

It was a tremendous effort and I am proud of our boys one and all. Now for the next game

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8 minutes ago, Johnny B said:

The above would not have prevented us conceding 4 goals as none of them play a defensive role. Bryson may be but would he have done any better that Davidson or Craig.

Playing them would have been a change in formation we played 5 across the middle and still gave away 4 goals. .

The question is would we have scored more goals may yes may be no but In my opinion Middleton would not have done any better than MOH or Kane as he would not have scored 2 goals. Let's just admit their attackers were better than our defenders and were beaten by a better team on the night.

It was a tremendous effort and I am proud of our boys one and all. Now for the next game

Attack can be the best form of defence. Because we weren’t playing with wide forwards, there was more pressure on our wing-backs to get forward. However, yesterday’s WB selections (particularly on the right) are more comfortable defensively and didn’t have a great deal of support when getting forward. Because we had no real attacking outlet on either side of the pitch, our defence was under constant pressure. Our central midfield was never going to compete with theirs in terms of retaining the ball.

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10 hours ago, Cagey said:

Missed Spoony big time. McCann had to cover his position & midfield. Wish we had another player like McCann.

If McCann was covering 2 positions who was not doing their job. The front 2 and the the 3 in centre of midfield run themselves into the to  filled in gaps between midfield and the front. The biggest gaps were at the back (4 goals). Nit picking it was a different formation 3.5.2 one which Spoony does not fit into therefore in theory no Spoony gap. 

If McCann is as good as we think, he will be away before the close of the window. If no one puts in a bid (I will be happy) does that means bigger teams disagree. with our opinion?

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4 minutes ago, The Real Saints said:

Attack can be the best form of defence

It can also be suicide against the bigger teams. As for attacking wing backs (I like Rooney) Rooney was caught out so many times attacking in Turkey and we were lucky not concede more from the space he left. On tv one of the goals you see Rooney struggling to get back. We all have our opinions but I think to attack a team like Galatasaray is suicide. We very rarely attack Rangers or Celtic and they are weaker teams. If my memory is correct the last time we attacked Celtic at home they scored 6 

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22 minutes ago, Johnny B said:

The above would not have prevented us conceding 4 goals as none of them play a defensive role. Bryson may be but would he have done any better that Davidson or Craig.

Playing them would have been a change in formation we played 5 across the middle and still gave away 4 goals. .

The question is would we have scored more goals may yes may be no but In my opinion Middleton would not have done any better than MOH or Kane as he would not have scored 2 goals. Let's just admit their attackers were better than our defenders and were beaten by a better team on the night.

It was a tremendous effort and I am proud of our boys one and all. Now for the next game

They're not defensive players but, for me, some of the enforced changes impeded the way we might have played the game. Our midfielders struggled to find an attacking outlet, which meant we found it difficult to move the ball up the pitch which would have taken some of the pressure off and may also have stopped them getting some of the chances that they eventually scored from. The absence of Bryson and Spoony also restricted our options for fresh legs when Craig and Davidson started to tire. So I don't think it's as simple as saying they wouldn't have made a difference because they're not defenders. 

Totally accept Galatasaray were the better team - but the better team doesn't always win, as we demonstrated in the first leg.

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19 minutes ago, Johnny B said:

It can also be suicide against the bigger teams. As for attacking wing backs (I like Rooney) Rooney was caught out so many times attacking in Turkey and we were lucky not concede more from the space he left. On tv one of the goals you see Rooney struggling to get back. We all have our opinions but I think to attack a team like Galatasaray is suicide. We very rarely attack Rangers or Celtic and they are weaker teams. If my memory is correct the last time we attacked Celtic at home they scored 6 

I’m not talking about all-out attack. I just think we were missing an attacking outlet to allow the ball to stick whilst in potentially progressive situations. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with the performance, but I personally would have stuck with the same shape which worked away from home, with May replacing the absent Spoony on the left and MOH playing wider on the right, so the wing-backs had more attacking players to link up with when advancing forward.

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30 minutes ago, Brian Potter said:

They suffocated us in possession. We were reduced to just clearing it into space. Not sure Spoony would have made a difference. All their goals were nice passing, through balls, running at us.
 

No complaints from me. 

That was the main problem,there was no composure & we were clearing the ball instead of playing out of defence which is what we were doing all last season. Maybe understandable due to the standard of the opposition.

Bryson might have helped as he is more possession minded. Not been his biggest fan but at the back end of last season he looked like the player of 3 or 4 seasons ago. Hope he is not back to his injury prone recent past.

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1 hour ago, blueheaven said:

Our midfielders struggled to find an attacking outlet

I agree but that was because we defended too deep at times just outside our 18yard box we very rarely pressed outside theirs and it may well be due the having 3 lines of 3.5.2 instead of the 3 4 2 1 or 3 4 1 2 I found it strange that CD changed from his usual formations when he had the players who could play  it eg up front MOH behind May and Kane. wingbacks Brown and Booth. They have all successfully played those positions before Therein lies the problem he played a defensive 3 and 5  and left 2 up, hence the struggle to find  an attacking outlet was not the players but the formation.

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5 minutes ago, Johnny B said:

I agree but that was because we defended too deep at times just outside our 18yard box we very rarely pressed outside theirs and it may well be due the having 3 lines of 3.5.2 instead of the 3 4 2 1 or 3 4 1 2 I found it strange that CD changed from his usual formations when he had the players who could play  it eg up front MOH behind May and Kane. wingbacks Brown and Booth. They have all successfully played those positions before Therein lies the problem he played a defensive 3 and 5  and left 2 up, hence the struggle to find  an attacking outlet was not the players but the formation.

There were times when he was screaming at them to get up and press, when we did they couldn't handle it and made numerous mistakes. Couldn't have done that the whole game with the quality they had in the middle of the park.

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