FirParkCornerExile

Whilst neither had a bad game on Saturday, on the basis of what Ive seen this season I'm not convinced they come close to last seasons defensive partnership. To me even a 35 year old Paul McGinn is better than both of them. However McGinn is not long term. If neither show much improvement between now and the January window I'd be looking to bring in others to beef up that area and perhaps find a central defender who can play it out from the back with a bit more pace. To be fair they tried to up the pace a bit on Saturday but JGR was still painfully slow moving the ball forward as the game went on, again trying to be fair players in front of him need to get into positions that make the quick play viable. He also isnt helped by the fact he has zero pace over the ground so if he fucks up a pass he will never catch a forward running away from him. Maybe for that reason he lacks the confidence to play the quick pass but its not all down to him thats the managers job to address not mine.

I dont expect anything from this game. Right now Utd are a better team than us, their midfield is very strong. Id be delighted with a point.

Tell me a team in the SPFL thats not shit. That why there is fuck all points difference between 70% of the teams.

Really? I thought that is as well as we've played all season (finishing apart). Still room for improvement but I enjoyed the way we played today.

Thats as close to last years style than we've played all season, but still a long way to go. Girdwood-Reich had a decent enough game defensively but my god he takes any pace out the game.He slows it all down when we need to keep up the pace when pressing. Hodge has started to show a bit of drive and had a good game today. Maswanhise was piss poor, again.. We won the game in the second balls, we mopped up just about every one of then. The will to win it today was there for all to see. Good return for Priestman. Should have been far more comfortable but signs in last two games we might just be moving in the right direction.

Sadly with our defence I wouldn't be confident beating anyone right now.

"he's always shown good technique and pace" you and I watch a different player. His technique is very erratic. Watch him in the shooting practice before the game which invariably does not improve during a game. He has been murder since April. No one will be happier than me if he rediscovers his form of this time last year but I'm willing to bet he won't.

and what ?? he's been pish since April. What he did before that is immaterial in judging his contribution to the team just now. Christ Jake Hastie was on fire for 3 months, didn't stop him being utter pish. Thats not to say he wont hit the heights again but if you were judging him on his contribution this season he should have been on the bench a lot longer than he was.

I actually don't think we get the ball forward quickly, especially when playing out from the back. Just and Ward were like lightning getting forward exploiting the press. We are so fucking slow and laborious in the build up when playing out from the back that the opposition get time to ensure they have every man behind the ball closing down our options. . We do employ the long ball a bit more but 9 times out of ten we lose possession.

When you consider how many chances Manwanhise has had to shine when playing shite, Thor must wonder why the fuck he doesn't get a longer run in the team

"Performances have been persistently good..." mmmm thats over egging the pudding. There has been an improvement in the last two games much beyond that is pushing it.

We only need him to be resilient until the January transfer window so we can bring in something better that the current incumbents who are absolutely hopeless on evidence so far..

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

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.

You are right it was abysmal but from the minute we went 2-1 up they were getting cross after cross in from the left , they had acres of space to deliver those crosses and unlike us they can deliver decent crosses, thats another piss poor part of our game, the set piece play from us is shocking.

we need the people who recruited in the summer to have fuck all to do with it in January .....🤣🤣😉(tongue in cheek)

Correct lose the next two he's dead.

I rely on him because even at his age he's streets ahead of the dross in the centre of the defence right now. I'm not saying McGinn is our future but short term he's will be an improvement to get us to the January window where sadly we need to spend again to compensate for the poor recruitment in that area. Fuck me I'd bet my mortgage on 35 year old McGinn leaving Girwood-Reich standing in a flat chase to cover back.

McGinn with one leg is streets ahead of Girwood-Reich and Moornan.

Tactically you are not wrong. As I said in an earlier post and last night we went into panic mode after we scored. A sure sign of a team under pressure. We abandoned our very effective 1st half play to try and defend the game out which was criminal. We resorted to the kind of tactics that Kettlewell would have been proud of after we went ahead. Yes I get the defend as a team angle but equally you do actually need a defence to be competent too and we just don't have it. St Johnstone literally had 3 efforts on our goal and scored with two because the defence is pish.

I don't see it quite as black as you but the regression in the defence is off the scale.

I'm not so sure, I start by saying he leaves me unconvinced but there has without doubt been a lift in our performances, 1st Half versus Killie, Hearts game and last night. We are not far away from getting a result if we can sort out our utterly honking defence. The return of McGinn and Priestman will be big for us. That said if we lose our next two games he could be a dead man walking. Saturday is huge for him and the team.

if we are finally going to get this season up and running this is the game that could turn the tide. We are close enough to those above that this can close the small gap and get the confidence going again and by god we need it. Last night we went into panic mode after we went ahead. All the signs of a team under pressure.To me the manager panicked too and tried to defend the game out with boot and rush. Imagine trying to defend a game out with the defence we have, poor judgement. Had we the confidence and composure of the early part of the season St Johnstone would not have equaslised as we'd have kept the ball more and caused them more problems than they caused us. However with the managers substitutions and change of formation caused us to give St Johnstone the ball time and time again. This St Mirren game comes down to "can we handle the pressure ?" I'm not so sure we can and the fact we look like we need to score 3 goals to stand a chance of winning any game it becomes all the harder. The manager and players need to try and focus and build on the positives of the 1st half against Killie, the efforts against Hearts and the efforts for much of last night. There are signs we can get it together in most of the team, without reaching last seasons standards, with the one big exception the "Defence" or lack of . We are rank rotten at the back and teams can play pish and easily get two goals off us. Its for that reason I see a point at best and would not be at all surprised if we gift St Mirren all 3

He's running out of credits with me. His changes cost us that tonight.

Correct Manager 100% culpable on that one tonight.