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Raith v Saints Sat 13th Aug.


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No promotion for us this season with that formation and those tactics. You can tear up your slips now.

I asked last week if the long aimless punt was a tactic or not. Someone queried Rae in the Uni about it and he said something about anyone who knows his teams knows that is not how he wants to play. So question for this week is, if that is the case Alex, why have we done that in the 5 games I have seen so far?

We have a back four that sit deep with full backs not allowed to cross the half way line. We play two wingers who hug the touchline and the two unfortunate midfielders (who are expected to make up for the lack of movement of the the rest of the team). The front paining stay up top all the time - neither drops back. The only tactic we have is for the back four to float aimless high balls to two guys with their back to goal and little support resulting in the ball immediately coming back. After 5 games Alex IT IS NOT WORKING.

Some of the players were totally shit today but I lay the blame not with them but with the formation and tactics and that means Rae.

Raith should easily have been 3,4 or 5 up at half-time. In the first half alone they had three shots direct into Langfields arms and twice the ball was eased past Langfield and also eased past the post. We were 0-3 down before we had a shot on target today. I still think we have decent players but the shit formation and the shit long ball will result in may more days like this one for this season.

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1 minute ago, santaponsasaint said:


The point being?

Maybe fans should stop tearing Rae to shreds and using any old excuse. Happy to bet Rae has never been watching his mobile phone during any game as St Mirren manager as you suggest. This time last year we had a manager who stood at the side of the pitch with his arms folded and said nothing, and then he started wtching games from the back of the main stand for a better view. At least Rae actively encourages, coaches and cajoles the team from the sidelines, and at least he respects the fans and calls the game pretty honestly in post match interviews instead of saying he knows more than the fans and we are great when we are rubbish.

Second point being maybe the club should tell our players of all ages sitting watching our games in the stand to get off their phones for a few hours when representing the club even though whether the U20 players being on their phones for the duration of a first team match will have zero influence on the outcome of the game it gives the impression that other things are more interesting to them than how they team they hope to represent professionally are doing... and if if we are honking that they are not interested in watching or learning from professional players in the opposing team either.

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3 hours ago, TopCat said:

 


Eh? Craig played McLean further forward and what followed was his best spell for St Mirren. He got the move to Aberdeen because of it.

 

NO, NO, NO. It was Teale that moved McLean forward into his best position. Craig played him deep.

 

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A lot of teams in this league are rebuilding (a number players have signed for clubs in just the past few days). We, on the other hand, have gone into the season with a settled side, business was done early and on paper we're stronger than we were. 

We should really have hit the ground running; the manager's had most of these guys in front of him for 6 months. Raith had 5 new signings in their starting 11 today, Morton 4 last week. I really thought we would take advantage of the fact that, in terms of losing players over the summer, we were much better than off that most.

To be outperformed by teams thrown together in the past few weeks with lesser resources than us is the biggest concern for me. 

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Maybe fans should stop tearing Rae to shreds and using any old excuse. Happy to bet Rae has never been watching his mobile phone during any game as St Mirren manager as you suggest. This time last year we had a manager who stood at the side of the pitch with his arms folded and said nothing, and then he started wtching games from the back of the main stand for a better view. At least Rae actively encourages, coaches and cajoles the team from the sidelines, and at least he respects the fans and calls the game pretty honestly in post match interviews instead of saying he knows more than the fans and we are great when we are rubbish.

Second point being maybe the club should tell our players of all ages sitting watching our games in the stand to get off their phones for a few hours when representing the club even though whether the U20 players being on their phones for the duration of a first team match will have zero influence on the outcome of the game it gives the impression that other things are more interesting to them than how they team they hope to represent professionally are doing... and if if we are honking that they are not interested in watching or learning from professional players in the opposing team either.


I never mentioned mobiles or anything like it. That's why I was asking.
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There are few words that can express just how poor that was. I mean our players at one point couldn't control a ball. 

We have a team in there, but it is being hamstrung by negative tactics (full backs staying back) and utter pish long balls to the other team!

When we went 3-4-3 and stopped the aimless punts for possession and balls into channels for runners we look a team, the midfield started to perform and I would think we had the beating of Raith then but too little too late. 

Also ref is a grade 1 fud, 2 penalties that looked clear as day. 

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3 hours ago, TopCat said:

 

 


Perhaps, but he was played in an advanced role under Craig. He replaced McGowan and Harkins who had played that role the season before. This change of role got him the move.

Give up TC. You are the only person on this forum that believes that. Craig played McLean deep for his world cup balls. Teale moved him up top in his first game and he never looked back having his best spell for us in the two months under Teale. Craig had feck all to do with it.

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12 minutes ago, Julian Banjos said:

A lot of teams in this league are rebuilding (a number players have signed for clubs in just the past few days). We, on the other hand, have gone into the season with a settled side, business was done early and on paper we're stronger than we were. 

We should really have hit the ground running; the manager's had most of these guys in front of him for 6 months. Raith had 5 new signings in their starting 11 today, Morton 4 last week. I really thought we would take advantage of the fact that, in terms of losing players over the summer, we were much better than off that most.

To be outperformed by teams thrown together in the past few weeks with lesser resources than us is the biggest concern for me. 

We were garbage last season. Having pretty much the same team is no advantage at all. 

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37 minutes ago, Dibbles old paperboy said:

So our next game is against Hibs who finished 28 points and 34 goals better off than us last season and reached the League Cup Final, won the Scottish Cup last season and have played in Europe this season and began pre-season earlier than us due to Europe and have a bigger budget. If we lose that game, Rae has 1 or 2 games left to save his job? 

There are precious few easy games this season, even once we have a full squad to choose from

       

 

To continue quoting your good self....

"Queen of the South (who finished on the same points total as us last year)" gubbed Hibs at Easter Road in yon diddy cup only a week or so ago.

like most on here, I have been positive about the personnel assembled by the manager.

it has been a bruising start to the season though I've never been as ecstatic as so many other daft Buddies have been.

i think both Rae and his/our team WILL come good.  Seriously.

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Are we being stifled by "keeping our shape"?
Rae complained about our lack of shape when he took over but this seems to have been achieved at the expense of a functioning midfield.
We do not appear to have players prepared to run off the ball into a position to receive a pass. Come to think of it - we do not appear to have a midfield who can pass a ball.

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7 minutes ago, antrin said:

To continue quoting your good self....

"Queen of the South (who finished on the same points total as us last year)" gubbed Hibs at Easter Road in yon diddy cup only a week or so ago.

like most on here, I have been positive about the personnel assembled by the manager.

it has been a bruising start to the season though I've never been as ecstatic as so many other daft Buddies have been.

i think both Rae and his/our team WILL come good.  Seriously.

The Queen of the South and Hibs result shows that Hibs under Lennon could be more vulnerable than last season and that Queens will be no push over when we face them. Time some fans (in general) appreciated that although the start of the season is exciting, our first three games in the league this year are against sides who were  streets ahead of us for most of last season and we have 2 or 3 players out at the moment who may well feature in the starting Xi's when match fit.

I wouldn't be hugely surprised if Rae ends up using some of our versatile defenders in the squad to plug the Goodwin shaped hole in our midfield... and Goodwin himself was a versatile defender / holding midfielder. 

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46 minutes ago, Sonny said:

No promotion for us this season with that formation and those tactics. You can tear up your slips now.

I asked last week if the long aimless punt was a tactic or not. Someone queried Rae in the Uni about it and he said something about anyone who knows his teams knows that is not how he wants to play. So question for this week is, if that is the case Alex, why have we done that in the 5 games I have seen so far?

We have a back four that sit deep with full backs not allowed to cross the half way line. We play two wingers who hug the touchline and the two unfortunate midfielders (who are expected to make up for the lack of movement of the the rest of the team). The front paining stay up top all the time - neither drops back. The only tactic we have is for the back four to float aimless high balls to two guys with their back to goal and little support resulting in the ball immediately coming back. After 5 games Alex IT IS NOT WORKING.

Some of the players were totally shit today but I lay the blame not with them but with the formation and tactics and that means Rae.

Raith should easily have been 3,4 or 5 up at half-time. In the first half alone they had three shots direct into Langfields arms and twice the ball was eased past Langfield and also eased past the post. We were 0-3 down before we had a shot on target today. I still think we have decent players but the shit formation and the shit long ball will result in may more days like this one for this season.

Absolutely bang on . 

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I'm fuming at that performance today. Fair play to Raith, they look a decent side and will cause a lot of teams problems.

It has been clear with every game in the LC and last week that 4-4-2 doesn't suit us. Especially when he's instructing Naismith not to overlap, one of his biggest strengths.

When we switched to three at the back last week we looked good. I had hoped we would start with that today. We didn't and again didn't look like a football team until we went three at the back.

The first goal was the exact tactic Rae tried to exploit lack of pace in Raith's defence... The only team that was good enough to do it was Raith.

The second goal came from our own bloody corner, and Langfield disappeared for the third. Not checked but no doubt we'll get his weekly apology on Twitter.

Rae seems to be a manager that spends all his time trying to outsmart the opposition instead of going, actually we have a decent squad, lets play to our strengths.

We have arguably some of the best strikers in the league, why are we going 442 and trying to play the long ball. We are static, can't move and have a midfield that are posted missing. Why not just play to our strengths, three at the back and focus on scoring as many as possible.

As soon as we go three at the back we have plenty of options in midfield and up front and we actually look decent going forward.

If he starts 442 next week we are going to get absolutely pumped.

It's so f'king obvious we can't play four at the back so why do we keep f'king doing it!

We should have had IMO two stonewall penalties today, but if we took anything from that game it would have been criminal.

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1 hour ago, Sonny said:

No promotion for us this season with that formation and those tactics. You can tear up your slips now.

I asked last week if the long aimless punt was a tactic or not. Someone queried Rae in the Uni about it and he said something about anyone who knows his teams knows that is not how he wants to play. So question for this week is, if that is the case Alex, why have we done that in the 5 games I have seen so far?

We have a back four that sit deep with full backs not allowed to cross the half way line. We play two wingers who hug the touchline and the two unfortunate midfielders (who are expected to make up for the lack of movement of the the rest of the team). The front paining stay up top all the time - neither drops back. The only tactic we have is for the back four to float aimless high balls to two guys with their back to goal and little support resulting in the ball immediately coming back. After 5 games Alex IT IS NOT WORKING.

Some of the players were totally shit today but I lay the blame not with them but with the formation and tactics and that means Rae.

Raith should easily have been 3,4 or 5 up at half-time. In the first half alone they had three shots direct into Langfields arms and twice the ball was eased past Langfield and also eased past the post. We were 0-3 down before we had a shot on target today. I still think we have decent players but the shit formation and the shit long ball will result in may more days like this one for this season.

This is also far too sensible for this site. More of this sort of stuff please.

Still, the thread has been worth it for yet more of TC's hilarious attempts to defend Tommy Craig. Surprised he hasn't dragged up his old favourite that we were still in 11th when Craig was booted.

Edited by Stu
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