Ange Postecoglou

Maeda and Mooy coming on put us in serious danger and it nearly cost us.

 

He had no Turnbull or CMc to count on. Subs were sort of forced.

 

Got away with one. Needs to treat the league with more respect. Away shouldn’t be seen as games where we test players and give fringe players a big run out. To not have Calmac, Hatate and O’Riley on the pitch away from home leading by 1 is mental. No Jota, Kyogo, starting full backs either. Treated it like a cup game away at Ayr Utd.

 

He didn't have to make them.

 

Not disagreeing with any one point you've made here, as they are all valid.

My only response would be that Ange perhaps did look at the fixtures coming up.

Two crucial Champions League home games that will determine if we can still nick it to get out of the Group and into the knockout phase, or if finish 3rd and drop down to EL, or are out of Europe entirely. That's what's riding on those 2 Champions League games. So have to lift and win v Leipzig on Tuesday.

Next weekend we are home to Hibs, who can be really mercurial and don't know what Hibs will show up... but if they are hot they can be really hot. Then away at Motherwell in the League Cup (if retaining the Cup is important then winning is essential), then away at Tynecastle, which is never easy.

This is followed by the second critical CL game v Shakhtar, which as mentioned above importance of that, and then we are away at Livi, which again, is far from given as it has been one of the toughest fixtures to consistently get results at over the past 3-4 years.

And that is just the next 3 weeks, and it continues right through November like that until we get to the World Cup break.

So just maybe Ange could be guilty of looking at that pile up and today's choices being put into context with all that in mind.

Not saying it's right or wrong, and as I said above am not disagreeing with any one point that you've made, which are all totally valid, and it all could have backfired like it did at StM before the last break. It's often a sign of Champions that sometimes need to dig deep and find a way to win. Well, today was one of those days.

 

Not going through a great spell.

For all the quotes of "we never stop" we did exactly that at points today. I assume some of the decision around subs where related to the midweek game but don't think we are close to having that luxury at the moment.

League comes first all day long for me.

 

With regards to the subs, the way I see it as that he wanted maybe more experienced players on the pitch. I think the shortcomings today have more to do with the attitude of the team in general moving forward. It's less positive, less confident, more complacent. Personnel issues definitely play a role but there's been a weird vibe surrounding the team over the last few games.

 

Got away with one there today, no need for the entire midfield to be changed when we're only one up, those subs just invited pressure and nearly cost us big time.

 

Think the 9-0 skelping of United hasn't helped, since then some in the squad have started to believe the hype and let their standards drop.

 

I get the comments about respecting the opposition away from home, but we've got to be able to use our squad. We have a must win game coming up midweek and key players out injured. Jota has played a lot of football lately and looked fatigued by the end of that first half, struggling to track back at one point. We can't afford to lose either Hatate or O'Riley. Lose either at the same time as McGregor is out and the league becomes a lot tougher. Both Turnbull and Rogic missed time last season because we ran them into the ground.

 

His subs put us bang in trouble today with a midfield of McCarthy Mooy and Abilgaard there is a severe lack of legs. Taking Hatate off changed the game

 

Someone needs to tell him making a triple sub between 60-70 is not a rule.

 

At first, I didn't have a reply in mind, but I now realize (d'oh!) that keeping players somewhat fresh for Leipzig must've been on his mind.

 

We are 3 games in to a stretch of 13 games in 6 weeks all so a World Cup in Qatar can be accommodated. That is a lot of football and if we keep going to the same players game in game out then I suspect we will gas out or worse start dropping like flies with injuries.

I suspect today was one of the few games in our next stretch where some changes could be made. Hibs next week we will need to go full strength as they are pretty strong just now. Games against Leipzig are mental due to the way they play and take so much effort as well.

I suspect the next game we will see so much rotation is Motherwell in the cup so 3 games away but only like a week and a half. Then we go to Tyncastle so will be strong again, Shakhtar and away to Livi which isn’t our favourite place to go.

We then may have a meaningless tie with Madrid depending how we go the next two games and 3 more favourable league games at home to DUTD, Away to Motherwell and home to Ross County before the break.

Quite simply we need to find a way of making sure we take 18 points from 18 in the league as a first priority, then look to have at least EL knockout football after Xmas; and then be in the semi final of the cup. We don’t have the luxury they do that they are pretty much all but our of Europe, their league cup quarter final is a home tie to lower league opposition. So they are basically just focused on the league.

We need to get our performance levels back up as they have dropped off. That would really start with taking our chances if we can start doing that we will win games easily again and Mooy, McCarhty, Ideguchi, Forrest etc can see out games for us.

 

I suspect it could have had more to do with the Madrid game. We played so well and should have been ahead, but then they just punished us in a span of minutes with superior quality. Since then we've still been creating the same chances but have taken very few of them, which seems like a confidence thing. Shakhtar creating just one real opportunity but ruthlessly despatching it probably only exacerbated that.

It's also possibly mentality related, being a squad of players new to the Champion's League and some experiencing really big games for the first time. Going from those games to St Mirren away a few days later and having to treat it with the same focus and endeavour seems to have possibly tripped a few up.

 

Nailed it.

 

The league is far more important than the champions league. Could see a mile off those subs were wrong, completely lost control of the game as soon as they were made.

 

I feel he seems a bit subdued at the moment. I could be overthinking it though.