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Defend Better and inprove away form


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https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/scottish-championship/2017-18/

I find these stats tell the true story well.

We are top of the league, but it is clear where there is room for improvement - Come on Jack and James - tighten up and go away for 3 points with venom and efficiency!!!

3 guys possibly due back soon - more competition for 1st 11 jersey in the team that really can win the league - come on the best squad in this division....

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4 minutes ago, Ayrshire Saints said:

what's wrong with amassing more points than the other teams in the division after all that's the only thing that matters come the end of the season.

I do take umbrage at this, but understand where you are coming from..

 

I don't think that this is the ONLY thing that matters come the end of the season.. We need to build a Premiership capable team and be much more ready for next season than we are at the moment.  This season is about making us a much better team, and we saw from playing Thistle and getting canned 5 v 0 that we are not good enough yet.

OK so we would change out players and we have others who are due back from injury.. but the step up is significant and we don't want to go up just to sink back down after 1 season..

So we need to improve in areas where there is room for improvement.. it is always the case in business and in football teams too OR...it goes the wrong way.. we have had enough of that in recent seasons surely??

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1 hour ago, Sweeper07 said:

Come on Jack and James - tighten up and go away for 3 points with venom and efficiency!!!

If we beat Dumbarton we could move up the away table.  Or if we had only played 4 home games we would still be top of the home table.  These tables need to be analysed with due care.

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12 minutes ago, whydowebother said:

And don’t let this guy attend :P

Eric Whittington never saw St Mirren win in 52 games - until this weekend
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41475037http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41475037

Ah, but he did and broke the curse. B)

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We don't need to keep any eye on next season I'm sure a wind fall from John / Kenny will help.  It's about getting out of this league Dunfermline impressed me then you have Dundee United beating Dunfermline without doubt we and them both will be the challengers. At least we have good players to comeback which will make us stronger.  

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15 hours ago, rabuddies said:

If we beat Dumbarton we could move up the away table.  Or if we had only played 4 home games we would still be top of the home table.  These tables need to be analysed with due care.

Our 2 defeats in the league were on away games - none at home and yes we have played less away games..

 

These tables are not biased though I do take your point that we have played less away games so far - However the facts from all the league games and the current form in the last 6 matches are what makes up these factual statistics..

 

So we are low down in defending  7th.. clearly an area to tackle (pardon the pun) for improvement..

8th on away form though beating Dumbarton could move us up as high as 3rd.. if we lose we will stay near the bottom..

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10 hours ago, Isle Of Bute Saint said:

We don't need to keep any eye on next season I'm sure a wind fall from John / Kenny will help.  It's about getting out of this league Dunfermline impressed me then you have Dundee United beating Dunfermline without doubt we and them both will be the challengers. At least we have good players to comeback which will make us stronger.  

Though windfall money and injured players returning, if they do without further injury's are clear assets, good management plans ahead - and money spent needs to be on the right players and they too need to keep fit and prove successful with us OR......ARGH!!!!.

Also every week as the season progresses we want to improve so that we are more capable of remaining in the top league rather than dropping straight back down.  We hopefully will have good continuity like we have had from the end of last season into this one. But the present performances are not good enough for the Premiership (Partick Thistle 5 v 0) and even 2 championship sides gave us a doing... If we think, so what, we are top of the league anyhow, then come the end of the season, our short term thinking will perhaps have allowed us a championship win, though that is not guaranteed,  but we would not be in a great position for next season.

Thankfully I am confident that Jack, James and the Directors will know that looking ahead and planning ahead are vital to allow us the best platform for next season...they will also have plan b if we don't get there this season..

Over and above those who are due back from injury - do you see no areas that could be improved and don't you want that? I have no doubt the management team will see these things clearly.. It is telling that Hibs kept there core team but changed a number of players for much better ones and they are more than holding their own at present... We don't have their budget.. so getting the best out of who we have, improving them throughout the season and then changing out the most obvious players for better is always the way to go..

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27 minutes ago, Sweeper07 said:

Though windfall money and injured players returning, if they do without further injury's are clear assets, good management plans ahead - and money spent needs to be on the right players and they too need to keep fit and prove successful with us OR......ARGH!!!!.

Also every week as the season progresses we want to improve so that we are more capable of remaining in the top league rather than dropping straight back down.  We hopefully will have good continuity like we have had from the end of last season into this one. But the present performances are not good enough for the Premiership (Partick Thistle 5 v 0) and even 2 championship sides gave us a doing... If we think, so what, we are top of the league anyhow, then come the end of the season, our short term thinking will perhaps have allowed us a championship win, though that is not guaranteed,  but we would not be in a great position for next season.

Thankfully I am confident that Jack, James and the Directors will know that looking ahead and planning ahead are vital to allow us the best platform for next season...they will also have plan b if we don't get there this season..

Over and above those who are due back from injury - do you see no areas that could be improved and don't you want that? I have no doubt the management team will see these things clearly.. It is telling that Hibs kept there core team but changed a number of players for much better ones and they are more than holding their own at present... We don't have their budget.. so getting the best out of who we have, improving them throughout the season and then changing out the most obvious players for better is always the way to go..

Jack would not disagree about strengthen the squad but our budget might though i have no idea if extra money is available. Its not going to be easy to win the league consistency is the key to success this season fingers crossed. 

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36 minutes ago, TPAFKATS said:

Top of the league but it seems every silver lining has a cloud.

Overall I agree.

There's nothing wrong with analysing our performances as there's always room for improvement.

Then there's hunting down a weakness and making it the focus, whether that's a player, formation or the manager. :rolleyes:

Takes all types. 

PS See 2 posts below. 

Edited by faraway saint
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9 minutes ago, faraway saint said:

Overall I agree.

There's nothing wrong with analysing our performances as there's always room for improvement.

Then there's hunting down a weakness and making it the focus, whether that's a player, formation or the manager. :rolleyes:

Takes all types. 

Great time to be a Buddie. 

You're No 

You're No 

We're Top of the League and you're no. 

despite our goalie. :D

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The OP has a very valid point. Ross still seems to not be able to tactically close a game down when we are either in front, or under severe pressure. Against ICT he left Irvine out with a weakened defence and we were cut open, at Dunfermline again, under pressure and two down, instead of stopping the blood loss, and giving the team a breather he pulled Stelios, but did not strengthen a very vulnerable defence.

same story against QoS and apparently again against Brechin. If you play the likes of Irvine in front of the back four, you stand a good chance of bossing the game, and allowing the terriers up front to run riot as they get more and more recycled ball from opposition breakdowns. McShane is largely anonymous in games, Irvine always puts himself on the line.

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1 hour ago, Lord Pityme said:

The OP has a very valid point. Ross still seems to not be able to tactically close a game down when we are either in front, or under severe pressure. Against ICT he left Irvine out with a weakened defence and we were cut open, at Dunfermline again, under pressure and two down, instead of stopping the blood loss, and giving the team a breather he pulled Stelios, but did not strengthen a very vulnerable defence.

same story against QoS and apparently again against Brechin. If you play the likes of Irvine in front of the back four, you stand a good chance of bossing the game, and allowing the terriers up front to run riot as they get more and more recycled ball from opposition breakdowns. McShane is largely anonymous in games, Irvine always puts himself on the line.

He has only failed to win 2 out of 8 league games so your point is not valid at all. So many people willing to criticise the fact we haven't won every league game - get real ffs, six wins out of eight says to me we are doing just fine.

 

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Um, from what I've seen JR is aware that defence is our weak point and will be working on fixing these problems.

Hopefully we have Davis & Buchannan returning to address that problem but until then we'll just have to keep scoring more than the opposition.

The important thing as faraway pointed out is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

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39 minutes ago, Ayrshire Saints said:

 

The team that makes the least mistakes will win this league.

the mistakes that cost us are in defence, and a one sided midfield. If we dont cut them out others like Dunfermline, Dundee Utd and has been shown Morton & ICT will take advantage.

its great we are winning games again, but if you cant cirrect your mistakes that can change in a heartbeat. Would everyone be happy if we let mistakes put us on a two-three match winless run?

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21 minutes ago, Lord Pityme said:

The team that makes the least mistakes will win this league.

the mistakes that cost us are in defence, and a one sided midfield. If we dont cut them out others like Dunfermline, Dundee Utd and has been shown Morton & ICT will take advantage.

its great we are winning games again, but if you cant cirrect your mistakes that can change in a heartbeat. Would everyone be happy if we let mistakes put us on a two-three match winless run?

Will let you guess who has to comeback in midfield a very talented lad so we wont be one dimensional you will be glad to hear. 

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24 minutes ago, Lord Pityme said:

The team that makes the least mistakes will win this league.

the mistakes that cost us are in defence, and a one sided midfield. If we dont cut them out others like Dunfermline, Dundee Utd and has been shown Morton & ICT will take advantage.

its great we are winning games again, but if you cant cirrect your mistakes that can change in a heartbeat. Would everyone be happy if we let mistakes put us on a two-three match winless run?

Morton , Dunfermline game was a bad day at the office the whole squad was under par these games. We beat ICT convincingly so why mention that ? 

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2 hours ago, TPAFKATS said:

Top of the league but it seems every silver lining has a cloud.

It is pure gold being a Saints fan with the team top of the league and winning so many games.. In no way do I intend to find loose threads to have a go at people..

 

I think Jack and James and the Directors are doing a sterling job.. I just wanted to state that I believe they will happily say to the players one game at a time, but with each other be looking at the bigger picture.  Jack was a fabulous defender in his day and I am confident he can improve our defence.. So I do think that will be an area where he focusses attention. There are young talented guys in there at the moment - this is their development time.. but hard work, strategic discussions and focussed training will be part of that for each week for both reasons ; the next game and the future...

We want to be a top team, win this League and be proper ready for the step up...

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A number of very good points raised on this thread. Yes - we Are top of the league! Yes - We have alreafy scored more goals than we had targetted for the first quarter! But ... It is true that losing fewer goals and having a few clean sheets would be good. Yes - we have several good players out of the squad just now but they should be back soon. However - I like the kind of attacking football that we are playing. When you do this then you really have to defend from the front. This demands a very high workrate of our young frint men. 

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1 minute ago, Isle Of Bute Saint said:

Morton , Dunfermline game was a bad day at the office the whole squad was under par these games. We beat ICT convincingly so why mention that ? 

We were torn a new one at Dunfermline, with NO attempts on target. Against ICT we were cut open on numerous occasions. Both games where the manager needed to strengthen the defence, but he chose to weaken it. Naive tactics.

in three months when were at the halfway stage and if we have done as well with two, or less defeats, and still top with a gap you can say i overreacted. If we start drawing/losing because of the weak defence then you can say (although everyone will likely develop amnesia, or blame it on talking down the team) maybe he had a point back then..?

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Considering our HOME form has put us in serious trouble over the last 3 seasons, and secretly we wanted to move back to Love Street, I am delighted to be top of a league for the first time in 11 years, have the best run of form for 40 years , have several players producing their best ever football, have one of the best young managers in the country and a growing fan base........................

I am sure Jack and co are way ahead of this pointless thread and it will hardly be a light going off by the fact they have lost 2 away games, we played poorly both matches....

A year ago, we would not have beaten Brechin , we would not have come back against Falkirk, we would have been defending our our 6 yard line after going 1 up to United and we certainly would never have gone goal crazy against Caley........................  

As said above ...... one stat matters , we end up with most points end of season. Confident with actually having regular defenders in our team we will improve here to......

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10 minutes ago, Lord Pityme said:

We were torn a new one at Dunfermline, with NO attempts on target. Against ICT we were cut open on numerous occasions. Both games where the manager needed to strengthen the defence, but he chose to weaken it. Naive tactics.

in three months when were at the halfway stage and if we have done as well with two, or less defeats, and still top with a gap you can say i overreacted. If we start drawing/losing because of the weak defence then you can say (although everyone will likely develop amnesia, or blame it on talking down the team) maybe he had a point back then..?

Cant agree with ICT the result confirms that. Dunfermline & Morton stick by what i wrote bad day at the office. Has been wrote many times we have key players to comeback they will make us stronger = a better squad. Take a coffee and a Cadbury Caramel chill out and dream of the party in Paisley when we become champions see if the Dunfermline, morton game and no doubt a few others along the way bother you then :D

Edited by Isle Of Bute Saint
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