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In terms of balance of league set up. for me the split works better than what we've seen in the past. A larger league of say 14, 16 would simply mean more teams with nothing to play for. It would mean several clubs come to final third of a season with SFA to play for. We'd still have 2 clubs fight for league. 2-3 other chasing Europe. 1-2 clubs fighting relegation. The rest would be a non event. As poor as Scottish football is, I personally think the current league set up is the best it's ever been. It's more the product on the park that's regressing.

A 14 team league playing each other 4 times is a 52 game season, not 42. A 14 team league would probably mean a split after two rounds (26 games) followed by two more rounds against the teams in your half of the league (12 games) meaning 38 games total. The problem with that, well one problem, is that there are 7 teams in each half so for every round of fixtures there is a team without a fixture. Option 3 only has two bigot fests a season so there is no way that is being voted in. Personally, I would go for an 18 team league, 34 games, but that won't happen as per option 3. Whilst the league is organised to suit the arse cheeks, nothing will ever improve the product. *Edit* Sorry, didn't consider a 6/8 split. (Still $hite though)

Option 2 with a 6/8 split after two rounds of fixtures followed by a further two rounds. Ends up 36 games for top section/ 40 for the bottom group. No unfairness possibly affecting Title or Relegation and retains the split as something to target. Then enough games second half for both sections to change around a bit throughout the remainder of the season. Of course Clubs would vote that down as the bottom group lose an OF home game and potentially a couple of others against Clubs with a large travelling support. Partially offset though by an extra home fixture over the season. Or alternatively back to 18 teams playing each other twice with no split. Again no chance given the loss of home fixtures against the big boys. And Sky demand as many OF clashes as can be squeezed in. Money takes precedence.

It’s time splitting the league in half at this stage of the season was scrapped. It’s utter nonsense, and in my opinion achieves nothing and always ends up with some clubs having an imbalance in their home and away fixtures. In my view, a 12-team league doesn’t work. When it first came in, clubs played each other 4 times leading to a 44 game season. It became obvious this wasn’t tenable and that a compromise was needed. Enter the split, which reduced the season to 38 games. While fiddling with the size of the league is undesirable and a pain, something needs to be done. As I understand it there a few options under consideration, including: Option 1: Reduce league to 10 clubs, playing each other 4 times - a 36 game season. Tried and failed as relegation dropped 1 / 2 clubs out at the end of the season - attrition rate of 10%/25% undesirable. Option 2: Increase league to 14 clubs, playing each other 4 times - 42 game season. As bad as the original 12-club league with 44 game season and clubs won’t accept it. Option 3: Increase league to 16 clubs, playing each other 2 times - 30 game season. Personally, I favour Option 3 which I think has a number of good points which I won’t go into here but what do others think?

For me the McLean era highlights what we can do over a sustained period of time. Not easy but this is something we should be looking to replicate and accept we're a long term project. McLean built a team long term like you mention the likes of Maxwell, Arnott, Dolan, Griffin, Kirk and many others improved over the years, particularly when we brought in some quality (Russell, Cooper etc) I'd be delighted for the club to have a long term progressive plan, that see's us gradually improve each year. Short term we need more cohesion and a few players with a bit more fight about them. Feels a long time since we had the likes of Lasley, Hammell, Craggs of the world who were good enough for us and cared about the club. My simple view is we need less journeyman and more Wilsons of this world fighting for us and progressing each year, don't need to all be world beaters. PS if someone could give us a Cooper or a Russell well that's fine too :).

Well I am entertaining the possibility that we lose all 5 games so it's a weird kind of positivity. 🤣

You know why you shouldn't bother? Because when you have relative success like achieving Top 6, Europe and the later stages of cup competitions our fans throw it back in your face. I'm afraid the kind of football and the kind of success a lot of our fans want only happens once in a blue moon when year and years of work comes together and otherwise is mainly dependent on what mostly makes the world go round - money. Ever wondered why we gut the team every season and things don't seem to get much better? Cos we pay a certain level of wages and there's a level of player that you get for that expenditure. Sure some are better than others but it averages out. It's that simple. So what you call defeatist, I call a realistic outlook. I've been going to Fir Park for 43 years. I've seen maybe 5 or 6 individual teams that actually played good football and a few of them were in a completely different football environment before massive wage increases and player contract rights. The funny thing is players like Ally Maxwell, Dougie Arnott or Jamie Dolan who were developed by the club over 3 or 4 years before they hit their stride would be sent packing by fans these days who have absolutely no patience and demand instant success. And the one trophy we have won in all that time would never have happened if the fans had had their way.

I agree, the chances of us finishing lower than 10th are very slim, but you do realise your positivity will never catch on dont you.

As it stands we have a 4 point advantage, or more, over all 4 teams below us. Even if we lost every match in the bottom 6, Kilmarnock and Ross County would need 4 points at least (goal difference is too close to really mean much right now so I'm not even taking that into consideration), Dundee would need 5 and St Johnstone would need 10. In the last 5 matches those clubs have taken the following Kilmarnock - 4 pts Dundee - 7 pts Ross County - 3 pts St Johnstone - 5 pts. So the worst possible scenario of us getting 0 points and using the others recent forms as an indicator, we still stay up. Even getting 1 draw makes it unlikely we finish lower than 9th. No team in the Bottom 6 has more than 1 win in their last 5 matches apart from Dundee. The chances of three teams leaping over us seems very unlikely.

Because talk of ‘natural order’ is defeatist. With that attitude, we might as well not bother.

How is it defeatist to actually acknowledge we got to a semi final this year?

I've got no confidence either,there fighting for there lives while we're absolutely terrible and going through the motions.i fully expect us to play into there hands and most likely lose this game.

Because we’re persisting with a system that requires proper wingbacks to function effectively, which we do not have. The alternative is, therefore, a flat back 4 with 2 defensive midfielders sitting in front to protect them, and 3 midfielders in front of them to provide some attacking penetration and width to feed the 1 up top. A simple 4-2-3-1 as proposed by @joewarkfanclub above.

Last season StJ needed to beat us at Fir Park to stave off relegation they did. StJ needed to beat us in January to relight their season , they did. StJ needed to beat us in the Cup , they did. I have zero confidence this god awful Motherwell squad will beat them in this very important game.

Genuine question. If the three centre backs can't restrict chances given to the opposition from balls into the box, why is picking two out of the same three to do that very job a 'no brainer' ?

A back four is a no brainer for this squad. Christ knows why Kettlewell and Wimmer think otherwise.

As I said previously, Wimmer will only have himself to blame if he continues to pick the masses of loanees and journeymen acquired by the previous manager. Now is the time to field those with skin in the game and to sideline the rest.

Has Kaleta's period on the sidelines made him a competent RWB then ? He was gash before he got injured (apart from about 20 mins early in the season). I keep seeing people saying SOD gets caught on the wrong side of his man a lot. Kaleta used to get caught in the wrong half a lot, not chasing and just wondering back or giving up the chase after a few steps.

the two big centre halves st johnstone have were excellent against celtic,they won every header and kicked it away at every opportunity.i just hope we're going to use the break before this game to come up with a plan that doesn't involve booting it up the park as soon as we get possession as that definitely won't work here,if we play right into there hands we will lose this game.

2 week break before next game we all know what happens when this shower have a 2 week break it always ends in tears. One thing Simo has brought to St J is a fight and battle metality if we get a draw i shall be very happy. One player i would 100 percent start is Koutroumbis for a guy thats been dicked about since he came to the club he hasnt really done anything wrong when on the pitch. Ox has been passed fit by medical staff for 2 weeks now and still on the bench that in itself is a worry.

We all know how St Johnstone will play. High intensity pressing game with nothing to lose as a draw doesn't help them. Up to us to match that intensity. Whether we can is a different matter. If we can't raise our game for this then somethings far wrong.

If I was picking a 5 at the back though, I wouldnt be restricting myself to players under contract. I think in that system the best we have available really requires Seddon to be fit. Ox Balmer Gordon Casey Kaleta Seddon Miller Halliday Sparrow Slattery Armstrong We should be able to press from the front with that team and switch Paton for Halliday on 60 minutes. Koutroumbis for Kaleta and Wilson for Seddon. Watt for Armstrong. Get the game won early then see it out.

Following on from the previous post, if I was picking a team under the remit of contracted players that will get the job done, Id go...... Ox Koutroumbis Gordon Balmer Wilson Miller Halliday Sparrow Slattery Maswanhise Armstrong But given Wimmer is unlikely to move away from a 5 at the back, and Casey isnt likely to be one of those that chuck it he could go........ Ox Balmer Gordon Casey Koutroumbis Wilson Miller Slattery Sparrow Maswanhise Armstrong For me the 4 at the back works much better with the players available.....

The answer to that would appear to be to play the majority of players who are still under contract and do actually give a shit about the club. Question is, do we have enough quality within that group to get what we need?

Looking at post-split fixtures, this has to be a game where three points are huge as I just don't see us winning at Hearts, Dundee or Ross County, while Killie at home is tough. Like many, however, I would question if enough players have the heart for the battle this game will be. St Johnstone are now in a position where simply put they pretty much have to win every game to even have a hope of getting a play-off. Essentially, they have nothing to lose as for many they are already down. My fear is that we could very well sleep walk into that play-off place if we are not extremely careful. Given the tight nature of the bottom six, every point is a prisoner, while three is massive. We certainly don't want to be going to County needing a result on the final day. A big concern is how many players genuinely care? Many will know that regardless of what transpires they'll be heading for the door when the season ends. I remember speaking to a player of a relegated side a few months after they suffered the drop. He said what killed them was not just the amount of loan players they had, but also the fact some were out of contract and knew they were going. They didn't have the stomach for the fight because they weren't going to be at the club. That, for him, was the biggest failing in them being relegated - a squad of individuals the majority of whom cared only about their situation. I really hope I am wrong and we get ourselves safe as soon as possible, but all the evidence points to it being a very nervy end to a season to forget.