St Johnstone v Hearts 28/12 On PPV

[Cagey]

Sportscene expert saing our second was soft. To be fair on the TV it looked soft but from Collums view and mine it was a grab round Mays neck. Snodgrass not objecting was a clincher.

Why Snodgrass never got a second for his dangerous tackle on the Saints goal line.

[crieffsaintandy]

As above as soon as seen the midfield knew it was going to be a struggle, hallberg and Crawford both offered nothing, Crawford just ghosts about giving the impression he is working, he leaves his man and as a result others are pulled out of position to cover  like there second goal their man had acres in the middle. Will say no more about the defending at the third just awful, maybe didn’t help McGowan was on a yellow.

Game crying out for McGowan or Phillips to start in midfield, even macpherson did more in his stint later on.

positives, last year after they scored there would be no come back, this year a bit more fight and attacking threat, positives were May (was outstanding tonight) Montgomery and Wright.

Again would question the Managers team selection and what is the infatuation with Crawford too much of a luxury that we can’t afford, yep occasional touch of brilliance like Dingwall and Paisley, but too many negatives for me, and shits it when he thinks a defender is near him.

Edited December 29, 2022 by crieffsaintandy

[templeofsaints]

36 minutes ago, crieffsaintandy said:

 Will say no more about the defending at the third just awful, maybe didn’t help McGowan was on a yellow.

I think that was the problem - normally Gowser would have put in the tackle then but on a yellow he couldn't risk it. Was a good finish from Mackay though.

Crawford is an impact sub at best. But even then if it comes down to him or Murphy I'd prefer the latter - he looks faster and hungrier.

There were plenty of positives tonight - the general fightback from the team which had Zander forced to timewaste. May and Wright were both excellent pushing forward and Montgomery spent most of the 2nd 45 in the Tarts' half.

[MySpazz]

May has been excellent all season. A mature player these days...... it's great to watch 

[MySpazz]

BTW, anyone catch what the crowd / attendance was tonight? Not on the OS or BBC

[pezza70]

7 hours ago, crieffsaintandy said:

As above as soon as seen the midfield knew it was going to be a struggle, hallberg and Crawford both offered nothing, Crawford just ghosts about giving the impression he is working, he leaves his man and as a result others are pulled out of position to cover  like there second goal their man had acres in the middle. Will say no more about the defending at the third just awful, maybe didn’t help McGowan was on a yellow.

Game crying out for McGowan or Phillips to start in midfield, even macpherson did more in his stint later on.

positives, last year after they scored there would be no come back, this year a bit more fight and attacking threat, positives were May (was outstanding tonight) Montgomery and Wright.

Again would question the Managers team selection and what is the infatuation with Crawford too much of a luxury that we can’t afford, yep occasional touch of brilliance like Dingwall and Paisley, but too many negatives for me, and shits it when he thinks a defender is near him.

I think everyone’s of the opinion that our midfield selections have left us baffling at times.

The great run we have been on maybe vindicates the selections to CD.

Third spot is there for the taking, we can do this if we get the midfield correct

[pezza70]

1 hour ago, MySpazz said:

May has been excellent all season. A mature player these days...... it's great to watch 

If he signs again which hopefully he does, it will be interesting to see if they offer him the same wages or reduced due to his age 

[Linky]

My issue with Davidson’s team selections are that he seems to pick them, not based on who might play best against this particular team and these particular tactics, but on who he thinks ‘deserves’ to play.

So, for him, who cares how Hearts might play and what who might be best to counter that, Crawford scored some goals recently so ‘deserves’ to start no matter what. It’s like having Donald Trump running the team, as he just relies on who made the last big impression on him (“we’re going to build a team, it’s going to be beautiful”). There is seemingly no sense of player development, or any nuance around how different players might thrive in different games, against different opponents.

Crawford pops up every so often with a few goals towards the end of a match after coming on as a sub, often when we’re losing. A good manager would analyse why, and try to use him in those specific situations. Instead, because Crawford made a big impression on Davidson, he just throws him into the next few matches because, for some reason, he deserves it. I imagine he’ll now drop him because, perhaps, Murphy made a bigger impression last night.

I’m not taking a pop at Crawford, because he does have his skills. But I honestly think if you asked the management team why he was starting the game, and what precise skills did he bring that would unlock the Hearts defence, they’d shrug and say he scored twice against Ross and deserved to start.

[blueheaven]

Everyone I spoke to pre-match expressed the same worries about the midfield. How is it possible everyone in the stand could see what was coming but the manager couldn't? Individually I'm fine with Hallberg, Carey and Crawford on their day, but the three of them should never be starting together, especially against a team like Hearts where we're likely to come under long spells of pressure. The manager picked a midfield without a single tackler in it and it's cost us what could have been three points (and if we'd won last night we'd currently be two points clear in third place).

On the bright side, once we got it together and started to attack, I thought we looked pretty dangerous and our forward play is like night and day in comparison to how we looked at the start of the season. Mitchell, Murphy, MacPherson and Spoony all looked good when they came on and at least two of those players should be starting our next game. May also looked to be getting back to his pre-World Cup best as the game went on. But first and foremost we need to sort out the other end of the pitch and surely that means bringing Mitchell back into the defence and moving McGowan into midfield? I think we've looked at our best and most balanced this season when we've had those two players in those two positions. Why mess with that?

 

[slambrother]

Just read Callum’s post match comments.  According to him it was ‘baffling why we didn’t play for the first 25 minutes’

Is it possible that he really can’t see that his midfield selection contributed to that? 

[rik2304]

38 minutes ago, slambrother said:

Just read Callum’s post match comments.  According to him it was ‘baffling why we didn’t play for the first 25 minutes’

Is it possible that he really can’t see that his midfield selection contributed to that? 

And this is why it's totally legitimate that plenty of us are still questioning his abilities.

[Ali91]

We played a similar line up against St Mirren earlier in the season (Murphy instead of Crawford and Mitchell instead of Gordon), and it worked well, but I don’t think any saints fan looked at that pre match last night and thought it was in any way the right balance. 
 

Once Hallberg went off we were creating the much better chances, and for me were the better side for the last hour, which makes the way we lined up even more frustrating, three points were definitely there for the taking. 
 

Frustrations aside there are still clearly some positives, namely I’m going to games and not being bored senseless for 90 minutes. Massive game on Monday now though. 

[Cleveland-Saint]

Fun game and night out, plenty of positive comments on the matching bonnets. Other than first 20 mins, we were the better team, created chances but was not to be our night. 

Like most on here, we were not happy with that starting lineup. Crawford is a decent impact sub and should stay there, once Mitchell was on, hearts didn't even try and compete for the ball against him. How he didn't start is mind boggling. 

The lost points here are on callum was our take away from the night. 

This game again highlights how 3rd place to last is a matter of a few inches, chances, refs and injuries. Not much in any of these games and teams. 

[Cagey]

18 hours ago, Cagey said:

WTF. Does Davidson have a death wish. Mitchell is our best defender by miles.

This game and conditions calls for battlers and we have Crawford , Hallberg and Carey.

I do like to be proved right.

Game changed after Hallberg went off and McGowan moved to holding midfielder and Mitchell came on.

Clownshoes is clueless.

[south inch]

14 hours ago, Linky said:

I rarely complain about referees as it’s a tough job, but thought he was poor tonight. Don’t think any of the penalties were called correctly, Saints put in some good tackles which were given as free kicks, seemed to blow the whistle any time anyone fell over.

Strange game, could’ve got something from it, but May the only standout. Gave them too much space a lot of the time. At this level we need to be getting penalties on target at least.

No offence friend but have you not seen many games with Collum in charge?

It is great to see May back to his best.  We have now equaled last season's sorry goals for total, if we keep that up we should be OK.

[Cksaint]

Hallberg not as good as last season.Can not figure out why Mitchell left out .game changed when he came on . disappointed with end result but a good game 

 

[Linky]

1 hour ago, south inch said:

No offence friend but have you not seen many games with Collum in charge?

It is great to see May back to his best.  We have now equaled last season's sorry goals for total, if we keep that up we should be OK.

Plenty - which bit do you disagree with?

[south inch]

5 hours ago, Linky said:

Plenty - which bit do you disagree with?

"rarely complain" in relation to games refereed by Willie Collum.

[crieffsaintandy]

7 hours ago, Cksaint said:

Hallberg not as good as last season.Can not figure out why Mitchell left out .game changed when he came on . disappointed with end result but a good game 

 

Because the captain is one of the Cal guys and local hero, but as the centre of the the back three he was all over the place as normal,  Davidson picks them on who he likes rather than shape against opposition, I feel we are where are through luck and the the players getting us there, he’s a fcuking clown of a manager, every man and his dog knew the midfield was so wrong for this game, but wee ally the shitebag had to be played last night, terrible management!

[Linky]

2 hours ago, south inch said:

"rarely complain" in relation to games refereed by Willie Collum.

Ah, I see. I just think the referee is often used by fans as an excuse for a poor performance. Ironically, the referee would’ve done better without VAR.

[MySpazz]

what was the crowd? Can't find it online?

[Cleveland-Saint]

44 minutes ago, MySpazz said:

what was the crowd? Can't find it online?

i think i heard 7050 somewhere, which feels about right

[MySpazz]

21 minutes ago, Cleveland-Saint said:

i think i heard 7050 somewhere, which feels about right

Excellent. It's those numbers that the new American owners want to see..... just not sure how they will organise the fanzone is the psihing doon rain

 

[pezza70]

4 hours ago, Cleveland-Saint said:

i think i heard 7050 somewhere, which feels about right

Nice kick for the coffers hopefully another big crowd for the DU game coming up

[Cleveland-Saint]

6 hours ago, MySpazz said:

Excellent. It's those numbers that the new American owners want to see..... just not sure how they will organise the fanzone is the psihing doon rain

 

I've got a few people i could probably convince to put in money, but not sure their toy-thing would our messiah.