Herbie Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Come on Billy. I agree that change is drastically required but what more could GT have done? He's dropped dross like Marwood, Ball and "goal a game" Kello and introduced exciting talent like Mallan and McLear. We are still a world away from being where we need to be but at least he's having a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozbaird Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Come on Billy. I agree that change is drastically required but what more could GT have done? He's dropped dross like Marwood, Ball and "goal a game" Kello and introduced exciting talent like Mallan and McLear. We are still a world away from being where we need to be but at least he's having a go. I would agree that Teale looks better than Craig.... and this season's home strip looks better than the bib strip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidg Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) Just back from the game. Thought we competed well with a team who are much better than us. We limited them to few chances, unfortunately our chances at the other end were few and far between. The Tess and Kelly combination down the left doesn't work for me. Considering we had 2 left backs down that side it was surprising that that's the side we really struggled defensively. The goal came from that side when both of them were posted missing. McLean should have done better but he's not a defender. We need to find a way to grind out results and we need to learn quickly. Edited January 4, 2015 by davidg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomsons dropped it Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Pretty poor performance from us again today, nothing really to get excited about throughout the game at all. We created very few clear cut chances of note and our defending was pretty lacklustre. Reinforces needed and fast. It's gonna be a long bus journey back to Paisley. Disagree,we could easily have scored twice in the first half and lost because of a daft missed tackle by a midfielder (not a defender) late in the game. You also missed the spell early in the second half when we were pressing. That's how I saw things..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidg Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) Disagree,we could easily have scored twice in the first half and lost because of a daft missed tackle by a midfielder (not a defender) late in the game. You also missed the spell early in the second half when we were pressing. That's how I saw things..... Totally agree with this. Inverness came alive in each half after 2 mistakes from us. 1st half was the Tess pass back. After this they really upped their tempo. 2nd half Drury miss controlled when on attack, they went up the park and put us under pressure. They again got a huge lift and seemed to find another gear from our mistake. We competed really well and IMO were unlucky not come away with a point. Edited January 4, 2015 by davidg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ McG Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Just back from the game. Thought we competed well with a team who are much better than us. We limited them to few chances, unfortunately our chances at the other end were few and far between. The Tess and Kelly combination down the left doesn't work for me. Considering we had 2 left backs down that side it was surprising that that's the side we really struggled defensively. The goal came from that side when both of them were posted missing. McLean should have done better but he's not a defender. We need to find a way to grind out results and we need to learn quickly. Kelly is hopeless in the left midfield role and I would have tess in the team ahead of him at left back every week. Kelly is far too slow and gets caught out all the time, anytime I've seen him play he's constantly blowing out his arse as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozbaird Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Inverness vane alive in each half after 2 mutates from us. Wish we could mutate into Barcelona or Real Madrid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidg Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Wish we could mutate into Barcelona or Real Madrid. Sorry, still defrosting my fat fingers.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norrie82 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Agree jj Kelly has been dreadful since celtic away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griff Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Wasn,t at the game today , but the result seems very similar to most of the games this season , defeat by a single goal , defensive errors , unlucky finishing . A couple of decent signings can change things Please get the manager situation sorted , and make funds available for a couple of signings til the end of the season . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aldo_j Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Why the f**k was McLean in the left back slot for the goal? Where was Tess or Kelly? We need a proper left midfielder, Wylde needs to get fit and find form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidg Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Highlights pretty much back up that the Tess pass back was a big turning point. We were easily the better team up until this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TsuMirren Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Why the f**k was McLean in the left back slot for the goal? Where was Tess or Kelly? We need a proper left midfielder, Wylde needs to get fit and find form. Whilst he's at it he can also find his nuts, work rate and ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oaksoft Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) Oaksoft... stop hacking other people's accounts abd putting words into others mouths! Oh I think not dear fellow. I'm quite relaxed about what's happening right now. I generally don't do knicker wetting, or hysterical drama queen. I may have explained last season but things only start getting interesting when the shit has hit the fan. If I was a player or manager I'd be pretty fired up right now. I can't understand any player or manager not feeling like that. I know it's weird but there you go. Edited January 5, 2015 by oaksoft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 I've got to admit, I love the fact that McAusland over recent months has almost perfected the art of looking shocked at how yet another incredibly average player has once again bamboozled him and scored. This time McAusland gets his initial positioning right. He can see the back of McKay's shirt and he knows exactly where he is but as the ball arrives he fails to get tight enough and a simple flick gets McKay the goal with McAusland looking on as though Dynamo the magician has just floated off into space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSS Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Totally the wrong attitude.....but........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud the Baker Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Wasn,t at the game today , but the result seems very similar to most of the games this season , defeat by a single goal , defensive errors , unlucky finishing . A couple of decent signings can change things Please get the manager situation sorted , and make funds available for a couple of signings til the end of the season . The ability to go 90 minutes without making a mistake (defenders) and the composure to convert chances to goals (forwards) are attributes and not just a matter of luck, and although I'd agree the margins are small we are where we are because of poor squad-building by TC & his compadres during the summer. I'd take what we can get for McLean (sooner rather than later) and try & get players in to fill the problem areas - CH x 2 & a new striker - amazingly there's still 11th and possibly 10th place to aim at but if we're gonna wheel & deal the money has got to come from selling one of our few assets rather than the savings from getting rid of the chaff which will require us to sweeten the deals. As I've said elsewhere rock St. Mirren hard place! If we stay up this season it truly will be a great escape! Finally although I wasn't there today I disagree with GT going straight back to playing Thommo for the full 90 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Why the f**k was McLean in the left back slot for the goal? Where was Tess or Kelly? We need a proper left midfielder, Wylde needs to get fit and find form. I can't make out Kelly from the highlights - perhaps that's him pressing Tansey? - but Tessalaar appears to have tucked in to make a back 3. I noticed St Mirren did that towards the end of the Motherwell game too and Motherwell looked to exploit that with John McGinn landing up playing left wing back. I guess they were trying to do the same thing in this match as well. To be fair when the ball is switched out wide there isn't much wrong with how the defence is lined up. Maybe it's a bit flat but I'm sure that was deliberate. McLean tracks the runner so that's fine. Tessalaar has been taken out of the game by the long ball. Goodwin recognises the danger and reacts quickly getting back to McKay. McLean should have stood his ground but when he goes to ground Goodwin is always going to have to move off his man and go to the ball. The problem is that McAusland, who can see everything in front of him, is extremely slow to react to the danger and he doesn't get anywhere near tight enough to McKay leaving him with a very simple shot on goal. I know McAusland is a Paisley boy, his Dad is a DIrector and both have got friends on here who will defend them to the last but surely it's gone past that now. Every week McAusland appears to be exposed as a poor defender. Surely any manager worthy of the title would recognise that and drop McAusland no matter if there is pressure from the boardroom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibbles old paperboy Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 We haven't addressed the glaringly obvious CH for years, not just TC's failure. We just persevere with ones that are simply not good enough... You can at least however make a case that Danny Lennon had begun part one of a defensive overhaul last season by 1) Freezing out Lee Mair so that he didn't get enough games for his contract to roll over for another season 2) Doing the same with David Van Zanten 3) Releasing David Barron and then in the close season 4) Darren McGregor joined Rangers. With 2 of our more senior players off the wage bill as well as one of our better younger players (McGregor) you would expect that this freed up a decent amount of money to spend on strengthening / overhauling the defence. Tommy Craig's solution to losing 4 defenders would appear to be 1) Getting Ellis Plummer on loan - who ended up not playing after 19th September 2) Signing Tesselaar (when Kelly was doing OK at left back already) and 3) Promoting Yacub from the youth set even though we now had Kelly and Tesselaar at left back. I can't help feeling Danny Lennon would have made it a bigger priority, had he been retained, to overhaul the defence and not just hope for the best from McAusland and Goodwin in central defence. Who knows DL may even have had one of his ruthless summer's where out of contract senior players like Goodwin and Teale were papped out the door as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Yards Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 You can at least however make a case that Danny Lennon had begun part one of a defensive overhaul last season by 1) Freezing out Lee Mair so that he didn't get enough games for his contract to roll over for another season 2) Doing the same with David Van Zanten 3) Releasing David Barron and then in the close season 4) Darren McGregor joined Rangers. With 2 of our more senior players off the wage bill as well as one of our better younger players (McGregor) you would expect that this freed up a decent amount of money to spend on strengthening / overhauling the defence. Tommy Craig's solution to losing 4 defenders would appear to be 1) Getting Ellis Plummer on loan - who ended up not playing after 19th September 2) Signing Tesselaar (when Kelly was doing OK at left back already) and 3) Promoting Yacub from the youth set even though we now had Kelly and Tesselaar at left back. I can't help feeling Danny Lennon would have made it a bigger priority, had he been retained, to overhaul the defence and not just hope for the best from McAusland and Goodwin in central defence. Who knows DL may even have had one of his ruthless summer's where out of contract senior players like Goodwin and Teale were papped out the door as well. Agree with this post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibbles old paperboy Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Teale's problem is that while he has improved the overall performances over his 5 games and made some sound decisions in giving runs to Mallan and McLear, and the gamble on playing McLean up front worked against Dundee and no one has argued with sending Plummer back to Manchester City or dropping Ball to the bench along with Reilly and ditching Marwood and Caldwell altogether, the results haven't really changed. I don't think that with Thompson injured and suspended we were going to begin scoring lots of goals while the other attacking options were so poor. I had hoped we could have achieved our first clean sheet by now. It feels like it was October when we became the only senior team in British football to have not kept a clean sheet and we've gone November, December and 2 games in January and kept on conceding with the same old defensive line up. My gut instinct is that while Teale has got us more organised, and playing with more shape and more intent, with only 3 points from 5 games it is hard to appoint him for the rest of the season, unless the board say the money they save in a managerial appointment will go on January signings instead. I don't think all is lost yet. Ridgers is fine in goals. We have a crop of young players in McGinn, McLean, Naismith, Mallon, McLear, Kelly, Baird and even Reilly who range from either being excellent SPL players to decent cover in a bottom 6 team. Our biggest weakness has been with our experienced players: Thompson has been injured or suspended for all bar 4 or 5 league games, Goodwin has had 3 suspensions in he first half of the season, Teale looks like he has decided to hang up his boots and concentrate on coaching and having a crack at management, which just leaves Tesselaar who has been fairly solid for most of the season without setting the heather on fire and McAusland as the other experienced old head in the team helping the young guys through games. It's pretty clear that Teale would probably like to move on Kello, Marwood and Caldwell if possible in January, while he has also been a lot more cautious / reluctant in bringing back Wylde after injury compared with Thommo. I think Teale needs to try and bring in 2 central defenders in January and to try nd make sure they are guys mid-20s or older with some experience and even if they aren't any great shakes we have cover and have the option of dropping McAusland and Goodwin from central defence (both will no doubt have suspensions looming soon). Osbourne looks fine when he plays but it also looks like it is unrealistic to hope he can play 3 or 4 games in a few weeks and not pick up a knock or another injury so it may be best if we have the freedom to move Goodwin back to a holding midfielder role. It has also looked touch and go whether Thommo will make a full return from injury and so an experienced striker is another priority, as I don't think we can expect much from Ball or Reilly other than options from the bench and a bit of cover for injuries and suspensions. If Teale does stay he needs to say he would save wages on Kello, Marwood, Caldwell, Plummer, Wylde and hang up his own boots as a player and that that is 6 players's wage plus Declan Hughes which have been cut from the start of the season if we can move most of these guys on (even if we still pay part of their salaries) and put the money saved into bringing in 3 experienced guys in the mid-20's to early 30's age bracket to play in defence and up front. In the second half of the season if Thommo stays fit and scores a few goals, and Goodwin cuts out the stupid stuff and Osbourne is able to play most of the time, I'd be fairly optimistic that 3 experienced pros can slot in with those 3, and Ridgers and any 4 from our crop of 8 excellent - decent youngsters and get enough points to at least secure 11th and maybe push for 9th if other teams collapse in the second half of the season while we begin getting some narrow, ugly, hard fought, lucky wins and stop losing goals in every game. Th board do need to decide in the next 2 or 3 days who will get the manager's gig and help whoever is manager to start wheeling and dealing now and also there are some younger players we should be trying to get to sign extended contracts (McGinn, Mallon, McLear). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonny Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Marwood, Caldwell et al , are still under contract and unless their agent can find them a new club we are stuck with them. And from their efforts so far I do not see many takers. Marwood has a reputation in English non-league football so maybe there is a chance of him going but the rest do not have a good reputation and their current form makes them look very unattractive prospects. There is no easy solution to these players. They won't leave with 6 months to run on their contract and nothing else lined up. If the Club tells them they are not required then we have dissent in the squad (and that caused serious problems at Hibs last season). And we cannot afford to pay them off (I believe Marwood has still 18 months left on his contract). Unfortunately I just do not see us finding any money for 3 or 4 new faces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud the Baker Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 You can at least however make a case that Danny Lennon had begun part one of a defensive overhaul last season by 1) Freezing out Lee Mair so that he didn't get enough games for his contract to roll over for another season 2) Doing the same with David Van Zanten 3) Releasing David Barron and then in the close season 4) Darren McGregor joined Rangers. With 2 of our more senior players off the wage bill as well as one of our better younger players (McGregor) you would expect that this freed up a decent amount of money to spend on strengthening / overhauling the defence. Tommy Craig's solution to losing 4 defenders would appear to be 1) Getting Ellis Plummer on loan - who ended up not playing after 19th September 2) Signing Tesselaar (when Kelly was doing OK at left back already) and 3) Promoting Yacub from the youth set even though we now had Kelly and Tesselaar at left back. I can't help feeling Danny Lennon would have made it a bigger priority, had he been retained, to overhaul the defence and not just hope for the best from McAusland and Goodwin in central defence. Who knows DL may even have had one of his ruthless summer's where out of contract senior players like Goodwin and Teale were papped out the door as well. Nostalgia time, while DL made his fair share of mistakes (and then some) he, at least, seemed able to read the league table and change selection/tactics when required - from realising the folly of the summer of 'Beath to last autumn's cull of his summer transfers. Time for the careful what you wish for crüe to step forward and take a bow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingscot Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 I know McAusland is a Paisley boy, his Dad is a DIrector and both have got friends on here who will defend them to the last but surely it's gone past that now. Every week McAusland appears to be exposed as a poor defender. Surely any manager worthy of the title would recognise that and drop McAusland no matter if there is pressure from the boardroom. You presume we have anyone able to come in. Given Goodwin is having to play CB I don't think we have many options here.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northstbuddie Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) While some posters on here are obviously losing sleep over St Mirren's current predicament, it doesn't take an Albert Einstein to work out how we got into this position - step forward Messrs Lennon, Craig and Gilmour & cronies. The drastic annual cull of our playing resources over the past few years has left us in a decidedly weaker position and the accumulative effect of this is to leave us with a pool of players that was always going to struggle to survive in the top league. Meanwhile clubs with similar financial resources to us are building up their player pools wisely and gradually and are now reaping the benefits - eg. ICT, Hamilton Accies, St Johnstone and Motherwell (until recently). What we have lacked since Gus McPherson's time is a manager who can get the best out of the players we have albeit McPherson's team was not the most entertaining to watch. Both Lennon and Craig, with a few exceptions, bought badly and did not seem to be able to set up an effective defence. We are paying dearly for that now. Edited January 5, 2015 by northstbuddie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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