Kmcalpin

The original question was the best midfield for this season. From what I've seen and read McHugh would appear to be first choice defensive midfielder. To my mind both Lasley and Clay are also defensive midfielders. IF you look at the current situation I'd pick McHugh, and one from Lasley and Clay to play in the middle, probably the latter given the former's age. Depending on the game you may want to field both but I'd see that as being very rare. But to go back to the original question and looking at the longer/medium term I'd say we need to sign an attacking central midfielder as neither Las nor Clay fit that bill. Pearo may return at the end of the year who knows. Johnson and Cadden would also be my first choices for the wider roles.

I'd go with McHugh + one other maybe not signed yet. Clay and Lasley can slot in as and when needed. From many posters' comments Keith is playing with us a year too long. As far as Clay is concerned we need to give him a chance.

I agree Jim but this is where financial clout comes in. Clubs like Dundee United and Hibs have traditionally offered such youngsters very lucrative salaries and deals to retain them, whereas we couldn't afford to do likewise. That said even Hibs couldn't compete with Burnley. If youngsters are offered a deal with a largish English club they'll be offski.

Just to put a few posters' minds at rest - Mark McGhee said that 3 of our Under 20 Cup winning side moved on - Leitch, Hall and Long with the first two generating fees.

Thats worrying and does little to dispel fears about the squad's fitness.

One game doesn't make or break a season but this is one we really should be looking at winning. As Gregy has written they are of a similar standing to ourselves although they're spending cash (they don't have).

Just watched the 8 minute highlights and while we seemed to have played better than the in the previous week we still showed similar weaknesses. The two goals we lost resulted from criminal defending with Rangers' players being given acres of space and loads of time in our box. When will we learn that such poor defending costs games.

What exactly was his role if you don't mind me asking?

I have no problem with us sitting back and soaking up pressure but we have to have the players to do it and we don't. You have to have two giant centre backs who will win everything in the air and two full backs who play out on the wing. In front of them you need a mobile midfield which protects its defence and sits about 40 yards out from goal to prevent any crosses; shots at goal and runs into the box. You don't hold firm by defending deeply.

That about sums it up.

Its probably down to a number of factors. As you say we weren't giving players on the ball any options - maybe tiredness, maybe lack of confidence. Defensively our off the ball play was woeful - not hassling opponents and not closing them down.

I'm not confident that these issues can be addressed in the short term Al. We are badly short of pace in some areas of the team ie full back and central midfield, and it would also appear stamina. However guys like McManus, Lasley and Hammell (I know he didn't play) just don't have the legs now. What we are short of are sound, solid workers. Take St Johnstone - no superstars but full of hard working organised journeymen who make few mistakes and hassle the opposition for 90+ minutes. We'll certainly need to up our work rate if we are to take anything from today's game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/scottish/gossip A very interesting snippet in the BBC/Scotsman. It seems that Mark McGhee didn't think we worked hard enough. That assessment is something a few of us have been saying for months now. When we don't have the ball we don't chase and harry but simply retreat. Is that down to the lack of a work ethic, atitude or having too many 30+ players in the side - who knows? Hopefully the management team can figure this one out.

Yes, I picked upon this but wasn't sure whether the club was apologising for its approach or that of the Police. If it was for the latter then that august organisation should apologise for itself.

The problem is that our wingers rarely link effectively with a lone striker. I too would like to see Blyth get some game time though, but probably off the bench. I don't think our midfield is capable of chasing Rangers down and winning the ball. Not confident about this game at all but sometimes thats when we're at our best.

Does anyone know if Josh Strachini has played for our Under 20s yet? He seems to have signed but not featured yet.

Very few sides produce their own keepers these days. Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Inverness, Ross County, Kilmarnock, Hamilton, Partick, Dundee, Dundee United, Hibs????????

You might be right but so far we've never been successful playing with a lone striker. That said we've not had our full complement of strikers available for selection so far this season. The problem with this formation is that more often than not we end up playing a 4-5-0-1 or a 4-5-1-0 formation.

Maybe he's just a diehard Well fan?

I get your underlying reasoning, but so far MacDonald has not linked at all well with 2 wingers supposedly pushing forward, so in that respect it would be a challenge. Also we'd need to win enough ball and distribute it well to the 2 wide men which we weren't doing yesterday. I think a central midfield two of Lasley and Cadden would get ripped apart. I was shocked yesterday at just how far off the pace Keith was. A lot will depend on how fit Hammell, McHugh and Blyth will be. If fit and it came down to a straight choice, I'd prefer McHugh to Lasley. For my part I'd be tempted to drop Ainsworth. Injuries and fitness will play a large part in our line up. IF all except Moult are fit, I'd go with a midfield of Johnson, McHugh, Clay and Cadden with Blyth and MacDonald up front, or with MacDonald playing just behind Blyth.

Craig Clay deserves a chance and it may take a month or two to fully assess him. A lot will depend too on the players who play alongside him ie will they complement him or will they duplicate what he brings to the team. Irrespective of how good he is however I'm just not sure if he's the kind of player we need. Yesterday the midfield was a shambles with players not knowing what they were meant to be doing and being played out of position.

Yes we do have a worrying lack of pace through the middle. As far as Johnson was concerned either by accident or design for long spells he played very deep and as such posed little in the way of an attacking threat to St Johnstone. For quite a spell he played more like a full back, with Chalmers tucked inside. Not surprisingly this caused problems for MacDonald.

Many telling comments today but although we looked tired Saints had a slightly more hectic schedule than we did. Mistakes were made in terms of team selection and tactics but I wouldn't go so far as to say we would have won had we done things differently. The back four and goalie were poor but in mitigation they had no cover in front of them. The midfield was a complete mess. Again they played too narrowly. Ainsworth contributed nothing but in fairness didn't seem to know what he meant to be doing. He's a winger end of. Marvin spent far too much time defending and as such his attacking threat was diminished. Cadden had an OK game but no more and showed his inexperience today - scored a good goal that said. He does need to learn how to defend though and was another who didn't quite seem to know where he was meant to be playing. Clay was largely anonymous but didn't make many mistakes. Keith Lasley now looks to be well past playing at this level. Skippy is not suited to a lone striker role especially when his midfield support is yards back down the park. He played too deep and when he wasn't trying to win high balls unsuccessfully he was forced to play short and end up playing behind others. A final word on Samson - didn't impress me today esepcially with his bloomer. He also doesn't organise his defence and that led to a couple of totally unnecessary corners being conceded. We need to sort out midfield and pronto. In future I'd go with a midfield of McHugh, Cadden, AN Other and Johnson. Not impressed with the ref today. Had no major decisions to make but was very inconsistent especially with throws in free kicks. Anyone know why Tait was booked? We sat near where the tackle was made but saw nothing untoward.

Not sure what to make of Clay. Over 90 minutes I thought he was largely anonymous but didn't do much wrong. In terms of the type of player he is I'm a bit nonplussed. Not an out and out defensive midfielder but then again certainly not an attacking one. Early doors but not sure what he's going to bring to the team.

This won't be a pretty game to watch as St Johnstone will be tough, organised and streetwise - probably the opposite type of team from us. However no reason why we can't get a result at home. Midfield will be crucial and in particular the middle. It'll be interesting to see how lasley, Clay and perhaps McHugh play together. We need to put Wednesday night firmly behind us.