Saints v Aberdeen 5/8/24

[saintgscot]

Poor that it was our centre half with a poor ball that lead to second goal.

[Gekko]

That could have been a lot worse and we're definitely better than last year.

That's the best I've seen Matty Smith play. Keep that up, hopefully with a new and experienced partner, and he solves a big problem in that area of the park. Saints man of the match for me.

McClelland looked well off it in the first half, really slow and a liability. I'm sorry that he's been injured and it seems like he'll be out for a while, but even if he stayed fit, I'm not sure he's the answer to our problems in that area. It's tough for him to get injured early on for two seasons in a row though and I hope he has a speedy and successful recovery.

Neilson gets a pass because he's just arrived and was getting played out of position.

I thought because of this, Drey had a quiet night. He seemed frustrated most of the time.

Sanders actually seemed decent when he came on. He didn't do anything wrong that I can recall.

Cameron had an okay game and is another that's difficult to judge because it's so early on.

Raymond is a rough diamond. Good crosser of the ball, has a turn of pace and is strong for a smaller lad. He'll get better with experience.

Rae was good, but I still think we need a more experienced keeper. Whether we'll have enough for that in the budget, now that we need another defender is another thing entirely.

MacPherson does the odd good thing, once or twice a game, but the rest of his performance doesn't justify his place on the pitch. He did his classic, backing into the opponent who is inviting the foul thing again tonight. That really annoys me. It's so basic.

Essel is young and has promise, but has a long way to go. He obviously needs to get a grip or he'll rarely be on the pitch.

We definitely need a big, commanding and experienced midfielder. We should be using a decent part of any increased budget from the Rangers game on this area. The way Aberdeen went through our midfield like it wasn't there, and most of the time it wasn't, was concerning.

Kimpioka is our most talented forward, no matter what Adama's agent says. He deserves better service than he got tonight.

Adama needs to stop listening his agent and the Gambian YouTubers, and instead concentrate on improving his game. It felt like he wanted his wonder goal moment rather than do the best for his team. I might be wrong, but that's how it seemed to me.

Cagey mentioned above that the two might not be the best fit together, and at the moment, I'd be inclined to agree. If Clark could stay fit, it would be good to have his experience, knowledge and ability next to one of them to guide them through games.

For all the grief he's gotten from being the assistant's son, Kirk seems to have a bit about him. He's fast, he can shoot and is right up for it.

Overall, not great, but nobody really expected it to be this early, while everybody is still getting to know each other and gel as a team.

As I mentioned in another post, we're not nearly as bad as others think we are.

Plenty of room for improvement and reasons to be cheerful.

It'd have been great to snatch a point at the end though.

[Saintdunc]

Positives

Rae is improving

Kirk, in his cameo, looks like he is hungry

Raymond impressive

Benji needs a midfield that can play football on the grass 

Cameron was ok

Clark is back

Negatives 

Levein

McLelland's injury

Adama runs around a lot like a headless chicken.

Essel has a permanent red mist

Everything, and everyone else,lower Championship quality at best

Piss poor for 70 of the 90 minutes

 

 

[SlickDT]

5 hours ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

Someone needs to pull Neilson aside and tell him he’s been sent on loan to St Johnstone…

He looked absolutely clueless!! I’ve never seen a player look like they didn’t want to be somewhere as what I saw from Neilson tonight - embarrassing!!

Funny how people see things differently. I think there is a real player in there. Considering he will be well short of match fitness I thought he did a decent enough job. Made a few good challenges and played some decent passes.

[SlickDT]

That was much better than the majority of what we saw last season. Far from perfect, but I saw enough to think we could have a decent enough season if we can sort the obvious flaws. Namely the centre of midfield.

I thought Matty Smith was a standout last night. Looked sharp, skillful on the ball, picked several good passes and won us back the ball regularly.

Raymond, Cameron (although he was at fault for the second goal), Neilson and Kimpioka all impressed me. Rae also looked a little more assured.

I am not the biggest fan of MacPherson at all, but I thought he had a better second half. When he keeps it simple, he is a far better player. The issue we now have is many in the crowd have decided everything he does is wrong. Yesterday he flashed a lovely ball across the box, which Sidebeh couldn't quite get to and a few around me berated him for not choosing another option. Later on in the game, he played a simple pass to a team-mate, which was the right option and they were complaining he didn't pass it forward. Do I want him in the team- no..... But there is no point deciding everything he does is crap before he is even on the pitch.

Kimpioka was the better of the two strikers, but I feel that given a bit of time those two can be a real handful against teams. I can see us playing pretty crap in games in the future, but coming away with wins, as we have some firepower in the four strikers that we have. Kirk impressed when brought on.

Essel looked like he has a huge amount of polishing to do before he is the finished article. At 18, we will have to put up with alot of mixed performances I think. He could really do with an experienced player beside him that speaks him through the game and directs his positioning.

He was getting lost by his man at every corner as well, which was causing issues.

I came away from the game feeling more positive about the season ahead. For myself- Bring Keijtens in, move Neilson into the middle, Sprangler into centre midfield and go find an experienced defensive midfielder and we have a team that should do ok this season.

 

[RandomGuy]

3 hours ago, SlickDT said:

Funny how people see things differently. I think there is a real player in there. Considering he will be well short of match fitness I thought he did a decent enough job. Made a few good challenges and played some decent passes.

To me he seems a good footballer but a poor defender. Isn't nearly aggressive/assertive enough when the balls loose or there to be won.

We had some good and some bad, but enough to feel like there's potential to stay up.

Just be whether they wait for everyone to get used to the level/each other and hope it's not too late by that point, or whether they go and get a couple of quality players in to help the inexperienced ones out.

[PSJ.84]

8 hours ago, Cagey said:

Playing a back 3 with the players we have is a problem

Thought we were much better when the change to a three was made. 

[blueheaven]

Wish I was able to be as positive as a lot of people were being on Twitter last night. We still have no real plan for how to score a goal, no plan for what to do with our set pieces, barely a shot on target (two, according to the BBC), crap use of substitutes and several players looking dead on their feet after an hour (are they knackered? are they just plain unfit? why are they like this after a full pre-season? Were Michael Stewart's comments about Levein running players into the ground right?). All of these issues are exactly what we saw last season, only with different players, and these are very clearly all issues with the management and training. We've basically done nothing over the summer to implement a new way of playing and that's a huge disappointment to me. I saw lots of hard work and lots of effort but where's the organisation and the tactics?

Our defence also looked very slow and very ropey to me, and was getting beaten for headers pretty much every time, which wasn't helped by starting with a really poor central midfield that barely protected them at all. I'm firmly in the back-four camp, but it's only going to work if we have a central midfielder who can step back and chip in with some defensive work when we're under pressure. I'm hoping once Sprangler's in that role it will help, but does Levein even want to play him?

Wright and Sidibeh in particular were exhausted by halfway through the second half and it baffles me that Levein didn't replace them. It also baffles me that, yet again, he waited such a long time to make changes when we had a two-goal deficit to recover. It was actually Aberdeen who made subs after they went 2-0 up, while Levein carried on watching and doing nothing. Also noticed that when there was a water break in the second half, the Aberdeen manager was out organising and cajoling his team, while Levein just stayed in the dug-out. Can he not be arsed?

I did think there were some really good individual performances. Raymond was fantastic (are we seriously supposed to believe he was injured?) and you can tell from his fitness levels that he hasn't been here long. Matt Smith had a brilliant game, getting stuck into tackles and covering every blade of grass. Kimpioka put in another good shift and I have to say if I was a scout from Swansea etc I'd be more interested in him than Sidibeh. Rae stepped up and made some good saves. And I thought Neilson looked promising and played some nice passes, though he looked uncomfortable in that position and often seemed unsure of what his job was (forgivable for such a recent signing I'd say). Not sure what's up with Keltjens but I think it may help things if he comes back in at right-back and Neilson moves over to McClelland's position.

As for the rest of them? I'm just not sure there's enough quality, strength or experience there to get us the results we're going to need.

[Ginger Bakers rebel army]

21 hours ago, blueheaven said:

From what I can see, the record McDiarmid Park attendance for a first league game of the season is 7,784 against Dundee Utd in August 1990. Looks like we're on course to smash that.

For comparison, we had 9,106 against Galatasaray and 8,845 against LASK.

P @ J quoting attendance as 9,203. Seems about right.

[Saintdunc]

Dear Mr Levein, apparently you are a legend, according to some pundits, aka retired dinosaurs who you played with many years ago. They are always fawning over you and are concerned that, in the dying years of your football experience, you should be putting your feet up in a nursing home, rather than sitting in a dug out thinking about your next holiday. Clearly you must be doing that because last night was shouting out for timeous substitutions from half time, but once again you were asleep at the wheel. Your clown of an assistant, arms crossed, looked like he wanted to be somewhere else as well.

Adama, is a work in progress, as is the lunatic that is Essel, and they at least should have been removed after 60, if not 45, minutes so that others, like Clark and Kirk, could have made an impact.

His post match comments were a joke

Mr Webb, what have you done, and will you do anything about it, before we end up too far adrift?

 

 

 

[Linky]

1 minute ago, Saintdunc said:

Dear Mr Levein, apparently you are a legend, according to some pundits, aka retired dinosaurs who you played with many years ago. They are always fawning over you and are concerned that, in the dying years of your football experience, you should be putting your feet up in a nursing home, rather than sitting in a dug out thinking about your next holiday. Clearly you must be doing that because last night was shouting out for timeous substitutions from half time, but once again you were asleep at the wheel. Your clown of an assistant, arms crossed, looked like he wanted to be somewhere else as well.

Adama, is a work in progress, as is the lunatic that is Essel, and they at least should have been removed after 60, if not 45, minutes so that others, like Clark and Kirk, could have made an impact.

His post match comments were a joke

Mr Webb, what have you done, and will you do anything about it, before we end up too far adrift?

 

 

 

I haven’t heard any pundits fawning over Levein. In fact, most were putting the boot in on Sky last night. His substitutions meant we scored a goal. Adrift? We only just lost a game against one of the best teams in the league, and we’ve just qualified for the next stage of the cup for the first time in years. That “work in progress” player that you refer to may well be the subject of a big offer from England. Levein scouted and bought him, offering to pay the fee for him himself when the club initially didn’t want to do so.

I really don’t get where this hatred if Levein comes from. Fine if you don’t think he’s a good manager, but all this stuff on here about the fact that he’s just in it for his ego, or thinking of his next holiday, or it’s his vanity project is ridiculous. From what I hear the man is a workaholic.

[Linky]

Main responses seem to be that these players played well: Kimpioka, Rae, Raymond, Smith, Cameron, Essel, Neilson, Kirk. Everyone else is “lower championship quality”. Everyone else like who? Sidebeh? Wright?

I can understand the last few seasons have been tough so people are making snap conclusions, but I think we need a bit of perspective here.

We’re undoubtedly better than last year. Our team last night was the youngest in the league, and they’re still gelling together, and yet we almost drew with one of the better teams in the league.

What I would suggest as our second (third?) best striker might be the subject of a £million+ bid before the end of the window. We’re playing Rangers in the next round of the cup. There are a few players yet to come in. Smith and Kimpioka look far stronger than last year. We started with 2 strikers who can score goals, and then brought in 2 more who look like they can too, with one still to come back from injury.

If you’d had offered me that this time last year, I’d have bitten your arm off.

[saintgscot]

1 hour ago, Ginger Bakers rebel army said:

P @ J quoting attendance as 9,203. Seems about right.

Announced 9573 on tannoy

[RandomGuy]

26 minutes ago, saintgscot said:

Announced 9573 on tannoy

SPFL reporting 9203 on their website too.

[blueheaven]

I really don't get what Levein's thinking is when it comes to substitutions. Surely when we go 2-0 down with half an hour left to play, and at least two of our attacking players on the pitch are visibly knackered, it makes sense to make an attacking change as quickly as possible so that the subs get as much opportunity as possible to make an impact? When he chooses not to do that (which we saw him doing regularly last season, and has now continued into this season), what is he actually waiting for?

Kirk made a difference when he came on and I think Clark will make a difference in future games too, but they didn't come on until the 86th minute. How can they possibly be expected to get us back into the game when we're so close to running out of time? To me we wasted 23 vital minutes between Aberdeen going 2-0 up and getting fresh legs on up front. That's a lot of time to chuck away in a game when you have two goals to claw back and the players on the pitch are struggling to even get a shot on target.

[rik2304]

1 minute ago, blueheaven said:

I really don't get what Levein's thinking is when it comes to substitutions. Surely when we go 2-0 down with half an hour left to play, and at least two of our attacking players on the pitch are visibly knackered, it makes sense to make an attacking change as quickly as possible so that the subs get as much opportunity as possible to make an impact? When he chooses not to do that (which we saw him doing regularly last season, and has now continued into this season), what is he actually waiting for?

Kirk made a difference when he came on and I think Clark will make a difference in future games too, but they didn't come on until the 86th minute. How can they possibly be expected to get us back into the game when we're so close to running out of time? To me we wasted 23 vital minutes between Aberdeen going 2-0 up and getting fresh legs on up front. That's a lot of time to chuck away in a game when you have two goals to claw back and the players on the pitch are struggling to even get a shot on target.

It's apparent that Kirk is just as rapid as Kimpioka and Sidibeh and Clark is our best finisher. It should be a no-brainer to be swapping them earlier. He's terrible at spotting a tiring player.

[R.B.B:- Adz]

8 hours ago, SlickDT said:

Funny how people see things differently. I think there is a real player in there. Considering he will be well short of match fitness I thought he did a decent enough job. Made a few good challenges and played some decent passes.

He gives me massive “I’ll play at a bigger club and this is just a tick box at some wee team” vibes.

The amount of times Josh Rae looked up trying to get the ball out early and Neilson was standing with his shirt over his face, hands on his hips or just sauntering down the middle of the pitch not paying a blind bit of attention was worrying.

[Strawman]

While not a huge fan of Levein I m not giving him stick for last night.

I ve been crying out for a team on the pitch that is better to watch than the dross of last 2 years and I thought last night was an enjoyable game.

It was end to end and apart from 15/20 mins in first half when Aberdeen were well on top, scored and could have had a couple more I though we matched them. 

Rae made two good saves during this period which will have done his confidence good.

I thought the movement Aberdeen had upfront was a big difference, Miovski in particular.

We were very much more attack minded but that meant we did look more open at the back, we could have set up like last year though and probably would have still lost. If we keep playing like that I do think results will come.

Yes there was negatives, MacPhersons corners, Sidebeh staying on again long after its clear hes run his race and Essel being my main ones. I m not sure about Essel at all, at minute I think he looks a liability and nowhere near ready for top flight football. He s 18 though, if he had been brought up locally and been with Saints Youth Academy he d likely be out on loan somewhere.          

[RandomGuy]

I don't think Clark is anywhere near fit enough so last night was just a total roll dice I think. 

Not sure why Sidibeh stayed on ahead of Kimpioka though.

[saintgscot]

Aberdeen fans in the East stand and not hiding it. The security had a word with them and sent them to their seat. They had printed tickets from buying online in there hand so how does it happen?

[Saintdunc]

1 hour ago, Linky said:

We’re undoubtedly better than last year.

What I would suggest as our second (third?) best striker might be the subject of a £million+ bid before the end of the window. 

1. It's a pretty low bar tbh.

2. £million+ bid before the end of the window! We will see.

[RandomGuy]

The biggest thing last night gave us is hope.

The players, individually and as a team, aren't there yet but given time/patience it looks like there's a team that can stay up there, and its young enough that it could then push on too.

We'll need some good fortune and more quality but aye, there's hope again.

[Strawman]

50 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

I don't think Clark is anywhere near fit enough so last night was just a total roll dice I think. 

Not sure why Sidibeh stayed on ahead of Kimpioka though.

If Clark isnt near fit, this is where I get frustrated , I know I bang on about this but Stevie May is fit, I m not suggesting he should have started last night but we pay his wages still, is he really not good enough in our squad to get on the bench.  

[blueheaven]

35 minutes ago, saintgscot said:

Aberdeen fans in the East stand and not hiding it. The security had a word with them and sent them to their seat. They had printed tickets from buying online in there hand so how does it happen?

I don't have a gigantic problem with fans watching games from the wrong stand if they're subtle about it, but if they're openly supporting the opposition, like the guy in your photo clearly was, then they should be chucked out. It's absolutely bizarre to me that someone would buy a ticket for the wrong end and openly wear an Aberdeen shirt as if it's completely acceptable and normal.

Really the only way to find out how they got their tickets is to look at where they're sitting and send their seat numbers to the club.

[Linky]

45 minutes ago, Saintdunc said:

1. It's a pretty low bar tbh.

2. £million+ bid before the end of the window! We will see.

1. Who cares if it's a low bar. The whole point is we're improving. What exactly do you expect?

2. Also - even if the bid doesn't materialise. We have some players who bigger clubs are interested in buying. That hasn't been the case since Kerr and McCann left.