St Johnstone v Motherwell 25/01/2025

[wellsince75]

At the start of the season our defence looked really decent . McGinn , Gordon and Casey . Add to that Balmer was also decent . 

With all the injuries I’d expect my most senior pros to be in the team . Gordon , balmer ans Casey for me are the obvious 3 .

SOD isn’t a centre half , it’s not his strength and equally never really been sold on Blaney.

Are either Casey or Balmer carrying injuries or are they just out of favour ? 

[Happy Dosser]

I'm hurting like many on here but when sensible and constructive posters like dennyc and clackscat are expressing such grave concerns, SK should be bothered too, although of course those  two posters have never played professional football or managed a senior football club (as far as I know) so they can be quickly discounted 😈. This was pretty much the "Souness Defence" to criticism but I don't think SK has reached those heights of performance. I'm sure he works very hard but things just haven't worked out for a whole lot of reasons this season, most of which have been rehearsed on here for a while.

The board may let things play out   because they think SK still has some  "credit" but if these disjointed and spiritless performances continue, the fans may well turn on them as well as the manager and things will be  liable to change quickly.

Defeat against Celtic is probably a given, so the next three matches in February will be vital., all winable in normal circumstances for a competent and motivated football team. If the manager can achieve a couple of wins at least  and fashion an organised team which plays with some shape and  spirit, he will certainly  deserve some more time.

However, for me, things are approaching Alexander levels  of disengagement and disillusion with our "style" of play. I simply can't be bothered listening to the manager's explanations any more either.

At least if the worst comes to the worst, given our choice of strip this year, I can kid myself I'm not really watching a Motherwell team 😱.

May The Force be with us.

 

 

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, wellsince75 said:

At the start of the season our defence looked really decent . McGinn , Gordon and Casey . Add to that Balmer was also decent . 

With all the injuries I’d expect my most senior pros to be in the team . Gordon , balmer ans Casey for me are the obvious 3 .

SOD isn’t a centre half , it’s not his strength and equally never really been sold on Blaney.

Agree 100% with that.

In SOD's defence yesterday, he had to act as minder to Tom Sparrow and bale him out a few times as St Johnstone targeted him. Sparrow looked really good going forward with his raw energy but was all over the place defensively. 

In the latter stages "old hands" Balmer and Casey should have been brought on to shore up our defence. As it was our rearguard was chopped and changed with the introduction of Thompson and Koutroumbis: not a good idea when you're under extreme pressure (granted Kaleta looked to be injured).  SK has  had plenty of more appropriate opportunities in the past to ease Koutroumbis into the set up and chose not to exercise them.    

[santheman]

2 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Agree 100% with that.

In SOD's defence yesterday, he had to act as minder to Tom Sparrow and bale him out a few times as St Johnstone targeted him. Sparrow looked really good going forward with his raw energy but was all over the place defensively. 

In the latter stages "old hands" Balmer and Casey should have been brought on to shore up our defence. (granted Kaleta looked to be injured).  SK has  had plenty of more appropriate opportunities in the past to ease Koutroumbis into the set up and chose not to exercise them.    

That's the thing that got me.

We were under pressure down the wings and he brings on a guy who hasn't featured all season on the right and a guy virtually in the door and straight onto the team bus on the left. Not exactly the best of circumstances to introduce them.

Said to my mate after the final whistle that if we had brought on Casey and Balmer instead we would probably have won that game.

[wellgirl]

10 minutes ago, santheman said:

That's the thing that got me.

We were under pressure down the wings and he brings on a guy who hasn't featured all season on the right and a guy virtually in the door and straight onto the team bus on the left. Not exactly the best of circumstances to introduce them.

Said to my mate after the final whistle that if we had brought on Casey and Balmer instead we would probably have won that game.

Im not diminishing your point of view but - this is the same Casey that some fans have said should be punted after this season - and some fans have had nothing good to say about Balmer either. I've seen people say he's good at long throws and nothing else 

Im a big Casey fan for the most point but some people haven't been - he's been shaky in defence more than once this season 

This is also the same Casey who signed very late for us the second time around because he was clearly looking at other options. 

 

[wellgirl]

I also think that whatever issues Dan Casey might have with Kettlewell - that it should have been kept private. I see no benefit in someone leaking that there is issues between a manager and player - particularly when we aren't performing at the moment. There has been criticism of Kettlewell criticising players in interviews - in my view that goes both ways - what happens in the dressing room should stay there.

And if that did happen. I don't think it should have been put on pie and bov - someone leaked that - I'd be really interested to know who it was and why they did it 

It just puts a manager who is under pressure under more pressure in my view. 

I also saw posts on social media saying that Casey came back to us the second time very unfit because he spent the entire summer on the lash - that may or may not be true - by the same token everything that's said about Kettlewell might not be either. 

 

[Spit_It_Out]

15 hours ago, wellgirl said:

I also think that whatever issues Dan Casey might have with Kettlewell - that it should have been kept private. I see no benefit in someone leaking that there is issues between a manager and player - particularly when we aren't performing at the moment. There has been criticism of Kettlewell criticising players in interviews - in my view that goes both ways - what happens in the dressing room should stay there.

And if that did happen. I don't think it should have been put on pie and bov - someone leaked that - I'd be really interested to know who it was and why they did it 

It just puts a manager who is under pressure under more pressure in my view. 

I also saw posts on social media saying that Casey came back to us the second time very unfit because he spent the entire summer on the lash - that may or may not be true - by the same token everything that's said about Kettlewell might not be either. 

 

At least he had the the balls to pull up Kettlewell shows you he cares about whats going on.

i shall be sad to see Casey go in the summer thats for sure.

[wellgirl]

5 minutes ago, Spit_It_Out said:

At least he had the the balls to pull up Kettlewell shows you he cares about whats going on.

i shall be sad to see Casey go in the summer thats for sure.

Is he off to Hearts? 

[Spit_It_Out]

1 minute ago, wellgirl said:

Is he off to Hearts? 

Not confirmed but i could see any of the Hearts,Hibs,Dundee Utd come in for him.I like Casey sure has mistakes in his locker but 100 percent will throw his body on the line for the team.

The writing is on the wall now if a spat happened which it looks like it did its a case of him or the manager.