St Mirren V Morton Spfl Championship 6/8/16

[rabuddies]

Personally, I never draw any inference from a "derby" game. Don't care which derby it is it's usually always crap. Players are nervous of letting down the fans, the fans want a win at all costs, the referee is panicking in case he loses control and the game boils over (and they always get the blame - never the players).  Now that we have world football on TV day and night you can watch the best teams and the best players playing the best football you could hope to see - and then you see them in a derby match.  The ball takes a leathering and more often than not a few players do as well.  I've never looked at the stats but it would be interesting to see how many more cards are shown in a derby match compared to other matches in the same leagues. 

I'll reserve judgement for a few weeks.

[antrin]

Morton, unlike Saints,  WON their league cup group.  They arrived with justifiable confidence and pride. 

this is a team playing quite well together.  They started off strongly and believed they could kick the hoodoo...

 

and they almost did...  A lot of stress on Saints to do the business.  Saints did ok. 

 

if it had been last year under Murray, I'd have expected the Ton to score more.  It was a good test for Saints.  I can be optimistic.

 

I am.  

Edited August 6, 2016 by antrin

[TopCat]

Mallan didn't get as far as flattering to deceive at all. One of the worst displays from a Saints central midfielder I can remember seeing from someone who stayed on the pitc until the final whistle. Corner kicks were largely duff, free kicks wasted, rarely found a St Mirren man with a pass, let his man run into the box unmarked and barely won a tackle without giving away a free kick. Other than that he looked quite good. Time for a U20 player to get a shot until Quinn returns if Mallan keeps that level of performance up.

Thank goodness you don't have any influence. A mere point to Mallans's numbers is enough to leave you looking a bit silly. He was our top scorer last season from midfield.

He must and will start every game for us.

[FTOF]

9 minutes ago, TopCat said:

 

 

 

 

Thank goodness you don't have any influence. A mere point to Mallans's numbers is enough to leave you looking a bit silly. He was our top scorer last season from midfield.

He must and will start every game for us.

 

 

Posted from Stevie's flat.

[Callum Gilhooley]

12 minutes ago, TopCat said:

 

 

Thank goodness you don't have any influence. A mere point to Mallans's numbers is enough to leave you looking a bit silly. He was our top scorer last season from midfield.

He must and will start every game for us.

 

 

So  you think Mallan was good today ??  You must be on the shandy. 

[notabuddie]

if you take langfield out as he didn't have anything to do and Sutton for his goal Naismith was steady the rest were poor today. The argument is were they individually poor or as a team are not good enough or is it down to the manager and tactics?

[TopCat]

So  you think Mallan was good today ??  You must be on the shandy. 

No I thought he had a poor game - by his high standards.

[buddies1877]

No I thought he had a poor game - by his high standards.

He was awful by anyone's standards today. No way should he start if he performs like that.

[oaksoft]

That was my first home game for several years.

Thought the players looked unbelievably nervous and sluggish.

Could not believe the lack of ability to pass.

Then towards the end of the first half things improved.

The play at the end between Clarkson, Gallacher and I cant remember the other player was brilliant.

Thought both teams were as bad as each other but actually I quite enjoyed being back at a game again today.

A draw was certainly fair.

Thought Irvine, Naismith, Webster were great. Gallacher caused problems down the right several times so no idea what people are whining about. We had no left wing options which confused the hell out of me. Tons of space and nobody used it.

As much as I enjoyed it today I have to say that this aimless high ball crap needs to stop immediately. Especially from Langfield.

[notabuddie]

how can you say Webster was great???

at fault for the goal not commanding and was bullied by young lad half his build.

most of his passes were backwards or to the side.

[norrie82]

Webster was excellent. He prevented so many opportunities for them. Timing was brilliant throughout. Baird however was v v ropey

[weeian1877]

Thank goodness you don't have any influence. A mere point to Mallans's numbers is enough to leave you looking a bit silly. He was our top scorer last season from midfield.

He must and will start every game for us.

Nope not having that....I'm a big fan or Stevie but there lies the problem with a smaller squad. He's been poor in the four games I've been to and needs a kick up the arse. Maybe getting dropped would do that. But like I said with such a small squad we aren't in a position to do this resulting in players knowing regardless of how they play there's a good chance they will start every week!!!

[DLBud]

Couldn't make the game yesterday but what I've seen of us this season left me concerns if Rae wants to play 4-4-2 as the midfield just hasn't looked the part. I think the way to get the best out of Mallan is to play 5 in the middle and allow him to roam a bit but that means you either have 1 up top (which doesn't suit Clarkson, Sutton or Shankland IMO) or 3 at the back which means you play wing backs and that really takes Morgan and Walsh out of the picture.
We finished 3-4-3 yesterday and maybe that's how we'll go next week but it sounds as if there's a bit of work to do.

[oaksoft]

6 hours ago, notabuddie said:

how can you say Webster was great???

at fault for the goal not commanding and was bullied by young lad half his build.

most of his passes were backwards or to the side.

One mistake?

Bullied? Bullied so much that the young lad didnt get past him?

[windae cleaner]

10 hours ago, TopCat said:

 

 

Thank goodness you don't have any influence. A mere point to Mallans's numbers is enough to leave you looking a bit silly. He was our top scorer last season from midfield.

He must and will start every game for us.

 

 

Every player needs competition to keep them on their toes

We don't have that in the engine room of a team

3 players and one of them is injured

Midfield is an issue for us i feel

It's weak compared to other areas where we have strengthened this season

I would have liked another central mid to come in unless there's someone in the U/20's going to push through

[Drew]

9 minutes ago, windae cleaner said:

Every player needs competition to keep them on their toes

We don't have that in the engine room of a team

3 players and one of them is injured

Midfield is an issue for us i feel

It's weak compared to other areas where we have strengthened this season

I would have liked another central mid to come in unless there's someone in the U/20's going to push through

It has been mentioned so often that it's becoming a cliche now, but the glaring deficiency in the squad is in the central midfield area.

There was no-one in there yesterday with the composure required to play a measured pass. Mallan was often sitting deeper than suits his style of play, and, as a result, he tried floated cross field passes which failed to find their target.  We lost possession cheaply all afternoon on account of no-one receiving the ball in midfield and putting a foot on the ball before weighing up the best options. Morton pressed effectively enough, so limited scope for our players to do this, to some extent, but we didn't even try to play through the middle for the most part.

I recall the floated, aimless balls that characterised Tommy Craig's stewardship, and we can do well without a return to that fruitless tactic.

[ford prefect]

It has been mentioned so often that it's becoming a cliche now, but the glaring deficiency in the squad is in the central midfield area.

There was no-one in there yesterday with the composure required to play a measured pass. Mallan was often sitting deeper than suits his style of play, and, as a result, he tried floated cross field passes which failed to find their target.  We lost possession cheaply all afternoon on account of no-one receiving the ball in midfield and putting a foot on the ball before weighing up the best options. Morton pressed effectively enough, so limited scope for our players to do this, to some extent, but we didn't even try to play through the middle for the most part.

I recall the floated, aimless balls that characterised Tommy Craig's stewardship, and we can do well without a return to that fruitless tactic.

Totally. Those hopeless balls into the box really need to be stopped we just give away possession to their goalkeeper or Centre backs every time

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Black & White Army mobile app

[Sonny]

It was the floated, aimless balls that bugged me. Especially from our own half or the half-way line. Absolutely dire. Question is, was that the instructions from the Manager or were the players not obeying instructions? No-one zipped in a ball to the forward line from the by-line. They were all deep, floated crosses. And the standard of heading a ball in our team is diabolical. Most headers were straight up in the air. Although the midfield two were pretty poor the forward line did not hold a ball up nor have enough movement leaving Mallan in particularly with few options although his passing was woeful yesterday but I reckon the circumstances played a huge part in his game.

[Julian Banjos]

12 hours ago, Dibbles old paperboy said:

I'm quietly confident we'll battle our way into the top 4 this year.

The challenge is to be the 16th best team in Scotland, minimum. I had a look back at the stats and in the past 40 seasons we've only has 6 outside the top 16: 93/94, 94/95, 01/02, 02/03, 03/04 and 15/16 (apart from 92/93 when we nearly got back up we tend to struggle in the years following relegation). Obviously the emergence of the two Highland teams has altered the modern top 16 a bit but we're pretty much always there. 

With the system the way it is it should make for more exciting seasons for us as we will be in or around the play-offs most of the time. Even through last season's catastrophe we were in with a shout well into the season. What we really need is teams with bigger budgets like Dundee Utd and Hibs out of the league and the likes of Accies or Killie in, so we can have a proper crack at the title. 

Edited August 7, 2016 by Julian Banjos

[Micky]

Agree with a lot of the previous comments but for me the biggest issue by far (and the biggest on-field problem in Scottish football) is lack of movement.

Supposedly the kids are all now taught about movement off the ball and giving the man in possession options. Not seen much evidence of it I'm afraid. Lost count of the number of times we had the ball in wide area and the only option was a punt down the channel to a striker lumbering slowly off the defenders shoulder.

I know barca are not exactly typical but when you see their games 90% of the passes they make are piss easy 5 yarders because the man on the ball always has options. Team mates are always on the move making angles. 

Scottish teams are inferior to teams from similar sized euro countries primarily because everyone (other than us) has learned this. 

Our current saints side a perfect example. Too static and frankly lazy. To be honest though...yesterday we couldn't even complete piss easy 5 yard passes. Fortunately we know they are capable of better. 

 

[Lord Pityme]

1 hour ago, Sonny said:

It was the floated, aimless balls that bugged me. Especially from our own half or the half-way line. Absolutely dire. Question is, was that the instructions from the Manager or were the players not obeying instructions? No-one zipped in a ball to the forward line from the by-line. They were all deep, floated crosses. And the standard of heading a ball in our team is diabolical. Most headers were straight up in the air. Although the midfield two were pretty poor the forward line did not hold a ball up nor have enough movement leaving Mallan in particularly with few options although his passing was woeful yesterday but I reckon the circumstances played a huge part in his game.

I asked the manager about this, and he said he could not explain why the team performed the way they did in the first half. He went on to say anyone that knows my teams, knows what happened in the first half, doesnt reflect the sort of team i put on the park.

and he knows how much the team misses Quinn and McKenzie. Unless one or two of the u20's are up to it, with such a small squad we will suffer when one or more of these two are injured/suspended.

[Julian Banjos]

 

[Dibbles old paperboy]

12 hours ago, TopCat said:

 

 

Thank goodness you don't have any influence. A mere point to Mallans's numbers is enough to leave you looking a bit silly. He was our top scorer last season from midfield.

He must and will start every game for us.

 

 

Next you'll be saying because he won lots of Young Player of the Season awards he can never be dropped or subbed either! It hadn't escaped my notice that Mallan has beeen our top scorer for two seasons in a row* from midfield. On the positive side, Mallan's goals last season often got us out of jail and got us a draw or narrow victory. On the negative side a fair chunk of his goal tally came from direct free kicks or penalties ala Torfason and few came from open play. While Mallan might be one of the best dead ball specialists in any Scottish league right now I don't think I am alone in thinking that the other 85 minutes in a game when he isn't taking corners, free kicks or penalties he is a pretty average or below average central midfielder at Championship level... for 2 seasons other teams have walked through our central midfield where he has been playing and for the same two seasons our supply to our forwards has been abysmal and yesterday's stat about 1 shot on target in 90 minutes has not been all that uncommon.

As a young player who is still developing it would be wrong and unfair to routinely single Mallan out for criticism or blame him for all our midfield problems. Yesterday he was however the worst player on the pitch by a country mile and I genuinely can't remember a game where a central midfielder in a St Mirren shirt had such a howler and played the full 90 minutes.

* If you discount Kenny McLean 2 years ago due to his move to Aberdeen mid-season.

[ulysses]

We'll be play better than that and lose games this season, so on that front I'm happy we managed to battle back for a point.

Unacceptable first half performance, and we're badly missing Quinn in the middle. Keep it on the deck and get it to the wingers, the floated balls aren't working.

Pleased for big Sutton. I haven't been impressed with him in pre-season/league cup but he looked good today when he came on. Plus, his celebration was great, what a big handsome bastard he is.

[buddiecat]

A draw grabbed from the jaws of defeat, Stevie Mallan has been woeful since late last season - his passes are terrible most of the time and he gets caught in posession too often, then he turns and does something great before going on to be woeful again, he is getting worse instead of better, hope he can turn it round. Poor performance all round yesterday, because morton ran at us and caused many problems, why did we not take their approach to the game and go for it. Man of the match - the north end crossbar.