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I am not sure how misaligned you are with the support as a whole. If you look at the regular 'manager out' posters on this forum it amounts to a total of about 10 people. Yes that can be extrapolated into a percentage of the support but I would be surprised if it is the majority. It is a very vocal minority and as such gives a sense that they speak as a authoritative majority. I always find the desire for managers to lose their job to be a little distasteful. It is part of the modern game but it is a very destructive part of the game that will deeply affect the lives of the managers involved. AJ has been in the job for 4 (four!! ) months. The posts to get him out started about a month ago. There arguments always rely on a few regularly voiced misconceptions 1. that we have a right to beat St Johnstone/ Kilmarnock/ St Mirren/ Dundee.... etc, etc and if we don't it's a sacking offense. 2. that other teams are not suffering the same woes as us. As a example, look at the two goals St Johnstone lost last night. Defensively they were poor goals to concede. A Valakari coached team loses these goals and we want him as our next manager, an AJ coached team loses these goals and we want him sacked. 3. the supporters of the other teams in our league are watching a better standard of football than we are. Look on the forums of Aberdeen, Falkirk, St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Hibs etc at the moment and see how true that actually is. 4. that we will never win another game again under this current management structure. I have read several times over the last 24 hrs that we have no chance against Dundee United when the reality is that we beat them last time out with the same team and same manager in the dim and distant past of just 6 weeks ago. Actually Valakari himself last night said that he thought the standard of the football on display last night was more enjoyable than most because both teams were trying to play football. As a society we have the attention span of a goldfish. The need for change has become as much a part of the spectacle of the game as the football itself. As one poster on here often observes, the fans will have the last word and this is true but it does not necessarily mean that the fans are right or that the narrative that eventually forces a manager out is based on any kind of rational thought or objective analysis. These voices are powerful because it does tend to make us believe that a catastrophic problem exists when it simply does not. Your inclination to think that what you watched last night was actually ok ( if not what we would ideally like) is probably correct but it is difficult to have the courage of your convictions when you subsequently read the extent of the negativity towards the team the manager and the performance. Nobody is saying that it is perfect at the moment but I think we have to treat with some caution the naysayers preaching that the end is nigh.

When you concede 2 goals per game - you get relegated. Under Alfred we've played 20 games in total. Scored 22 and conceded 40. I don't think all our play has been horrible , there have been some decent passages of play but we've been poor defensively. When you start shipping goals the basics are make yourself hard to beat, stop shipping goals. My fundamental concern is I''ve not seen anything to demonstrate we're tightening up in defence - Without changing our philosophy I'd expect us to keep the ball better but also do something different in defence -that could be simply bringing in JKL or McGhee or pivoting to 3 central defenders. Trying harder isn't the answer - adapting is and I don't hear or see that - therefore I can only expect us to ship 2 goals per game which leaves us in a precarious position.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 ok

Hynd, Wallace and Watson being notable exceptions.

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Your may be correct but as you know, football is very much results-driven and 2 wins from 11 league games and 6 defeats on the trot is relegation form and only ends one way - the manager gets fired. It’s has always been easier to get rid of one man rather than get rid of the real culprits - the players. I think the next 2 games before the international break may well decide AJ’s future at the club. I like the guy and hope he can turn it round but given his lack of experience I have serious doubts.

More like the proverbial tackety boot up the a*se and out the door!

I’d give Barry Ferguson a shout. He knows the Scottish game and would undoubtedly be an upgrade on what we currently have and his appointment would be worth it just to see the reaction of certain people in our support alone. Plus we have traditionally done well with managers from a Rangers supporting/playing background.

In your measured opinion what would you do when we sack him? Do we revert to an older style British approach or do we fish abroad again and hope the analytics catch us a good one? Just curious to know what managers you like apart from Del.

2-1 win. Alfred IN 😉

Careful what they wish for? Come on. Is it really too much to ask for a decent manager who can win a game every so often?

From my seat in the POD you hear lots of those shouts at every game, even before we started this bad run, at the Helsinki game 2-0 up well in control and i heard " GTF Johannsen, ffs tell them to stop this tippy tappy shite and get the baw up the park". I really do wonder what kind of football some of our alleged fans watch orcwant to see.

Players being brave is the only way we'll get back to anything approaching last season's style/success, but that's clearly not the natural instinct when you're on a run of results like this, for players or fans. Plenty of 'just hoof it' and 'stop fucking about with it' shouts to be heard last night.

In effect, what you're suggesting is that AJ changes his preferred style of play.

Last season our defence, as such, wasn’t really tested because we won the ball much higher up the park and maintained possession for long periods when we did win it back. That was our defence, keeping the ball. I thought at the beginning of the season we had a good balance of taking more risks in the attacking third but still maintaining a high percentage of possession. We have regressed from that to way too many long balls and last night, that, combined with deciding to sit back, cost us the points. We ended up with 43% possession and I’m pretty sure if you’d looked at that figure around 60/70 mins it would have been closer to 60%. General play has been better over the last few games but I think we need to get back to being “brave” and playing to control games. Reduce the number of long balls. Now and again is fine but we do it too often now Press higher up the pitch, as a team, to win the ball back in better positions. Be patient and keep possession of the ball Work rate and intensity needs to go up a notch or two on and off the ball. edit: maybe getting Oscar back in there with Faddy will help address some of our issues but a lot of it needs to be driven by AJ

Said for me. He done enough while on the field to still be our man of the match. Thought Longelo and SPH put in a power of work and were dead on their feet by the end of the game.

I tend to agree we had that game in the bag until the managers changes fucked it up. I'm not in the get rid of AJ camp yet but I think he was culpable last night

All about opinions but don’t agree most people agree that the turning post was from about the hour mark….when we take off said if we manage the ball better, keep possession off the ball better, get the 3rd goal then the shit show at the end doesn’t happen I think personally it’s a season to far for O’Donnell but not convinced it’s entirely his fault this one zero pressure on the cross & tbf the st Johnstone boys movement in the box is good can he make it more difficult, absolutely is it O’Donnells fault we couldn’t manage the game…absolutely not

Well said

Some on here need to be careful what they wish for - looks at Hibs latest appointment. Did he feck up a few subs last night - AYE. Who hasn`t ever fecked up at work? We are in the mix at the wrong end, but I can`t see AJ getting sacked. Everyone needs to get behind the team on Saturday, because if the natives get restless, what little confidence is there, will go right out the window.

Watching the TV highlights once again I noticed that St Johnstone had another free header early on from which they should have scored. That would have been 2-0 and game over. An interesting post from Al B on P & B. I, and others, have been questioning our new recruits. However, he suggests that they're not being asked to do what they and similar players were being asked to do last season. "Continuity" is a red herring. Thats a valid point. Are the instructions they're being given questionable? Food for thought.

I am more on the optimistic side and see improvements but there is just no hiding the fact the defence is rank rotten. St Johnstone basically had 3 efforts and scored with two. That is happening in nearly every game. Christ as bad as we were against Aberdeen they had four shots on goal and scored with them all.

I’ve rarely felt this misaligned with what the vocal majority on here are saying. Taking last night in isolation, I thought we played pretty well in spells and can definitely see patterns of play from a team that are coached. I thought the two changes AJ made at half-time worked a treat for the first 20–25 minutes of the second half. We should have put the game to bed in that spell and been 3 or 4-1 up. We never really looked in much trouble until the goal at the end, which was an absolute shitshow defensively. Manny diving in, Hodge & Sparrow not tracking their men, SOD picking the wrong man out of the two he had to cover, and then not attacking the ball, and finally Paulsen not managing to push it out or over. That’s not to say there weren’t things we could have done better, but I’m struggling to see the disaster that others seem to have watched. There were plenty of positives to take from the performance, and I think there’s more evidence of progress than some are willing to acknowledge.

Having watched the game last night I agree with posters in here that St J were there for the taking, we should have scored at least 4 within the first 65 minutes, the demise all hinged on taking off our best player Said, him and Hodge were a good combo last night and every time Said got the ball we were dangerous moving forward at speed but when AJ for some reason took him off and then decided that we were going to defend for 25 minutes was suicidal in my eyes, what on earth was SOD thinking about, clearly not defending when he just lets the striker jump freely for their second goal, that’s 3 goals in 3 games for SOD he must be vying for the Golden Boot? The January window has to have Daws signing 2 decent CH and a striker at the very least. I thought that Mas had his best game since Feb for us last night and I can only hope that goal gives him the confidence to kick on score a few and get his move out in January. The last 2 games against tarts and St J both have been there for the taking and we’ve bombed, now it’s down to Saturday against the Midden who’ll be physical and take liberties on tackles and Alfred has to instill the positivity of the first 65 minutes for the whole 95 on Saturday and a win, nothing else will do or it’s adios Alfred for me. I’ll be there Saturday and hope we can get a few “stand up and sing” Last chance saloon Alfred.

You do realise that well constructed, straight to the point and accurate posts like this will never be acceptable on this forum. As you say certain players not doing the job they were told to last night cost us the win, nothing else.