Livi v St Johnstone

Ok decent performance against Celtic and we almost nicked a draw, but results didn't go our way and we're now bottom of the league. So massive game for us here and a chance to put it right, with Motherwell playing on Thurs night in Europe and having Sevco on Sunday we should go back above them with a win here, and also leapfrog St Johnstone, hopefully going above St Mirren and Accies too.

So no excuses for us not to be up for this, there's a lot riding on us getting a good home result.

Waste of time debating the GK situation, McCrorie has it nailed down for now, no matter if he's at fault for some goals or not, hoping Styjek has good Betfred cup performances to change Holt's mind, but until then it's McCrorie in goal, or McCrorie to learn from mistakes and get better.

Hopefully we'll go back to a back 4 again and not stick with the 3 CB's, would drop Devlin and give McMillan a go but he seems to be fireproof too, not impressed with how Devlin shirks out of blocks, usually leads to us conceding a goal from the ball deflecting off him past our keeper.

Bartley and Sibbs in the DM 2, and Pitts-Forrest in the AM 3, but who to join them is a quandary, i'd be tempted to play Tiffoney there and Lars up front, if not then it'll be between Robbo and maybe Sibbs, so Holt can get a game beside Marv.

Went off Holt but he had a decent enough game against Celtic so now i'm not sure, still would rather have Sibbs playing though, if it was a choice between the two.

Other decision for  Gary Holt, is if we have the usual AM 3, then will he give Tiff a start or go back with Lars, both bring different qualities to our attack. Which is why i'd like to see Tiff get into the AM 3 with Lars laying balls off to him to run on to.

Stevie Wonder could see McCrorie isn’t up to the task when seeing the 3rd goal, he races out to narrow the angle but he makes himself so small Stevie Wonder could also have scored that goal.

This is why I’m getting fed up hearing Holt talking about players taking responsibility on the pitch... he needs to take responsibility off the pitch & make decisions for the good of the team. He did it last year when he took Stewart out of the firing line after a poor game, he needs to do it again.

Holt is prob playing it safe and keeping McCrorie there till the Betfred cup games to see how Stryjek does. Because once Stryjek gets the jersey it'll be the end of McCrorie's loan deal, neither he not Sevco will want him sitting on the bench playing 2nd fiddle.

I don’t give a monkey’s about what the unwashed want & neither should anyone at Livingston FC; they need to do what is best for the club and if that means McCrorie “getting splinters” so be it. We are not Huns Reserves, the good of our club comes before every other consideration.

Now if the other goalies at the club are so bad in training that McCrorie is genuinely the best, fine, but on the evidence of playing in games I find that hard to believe.

Players should only get the jersey on merit, not because a parent club wants their third choice player getting game time.

Yeah but Holt doesn't know that yet, and the Betfred cup games will give him a better look at Stryjek in competitive games to asses the risk of losing McCrorie going back to Sevco.

Personally i would have had Stryjek back in goals for us in league games, but i'm not the one risking losing a keeper and not being certain Stryjek is any better. Our GK coach should have a better idea of who's best than any of us though.

I know where you're coming from Bertie but there's probably another angle we need to consider about McCrorie. We have done pretty well off the loan situation with Sevco since Gerrard came in including 2/3 loan deals with Hardie plus a renewal with McCrorie.

At the back of Holt's mind will be if he drops McCrorie for an, as yet, unproven goalkeeper will that stop the preferential treatment for any further loans from Gerrard?

As far as being technically a better keeper than McCrorie; the jury is still out on Stryjek. We are only able to base our assessment on one, admittedly very impressive, display against Sevco. One thing that isn't in doubt, at least for me, is the control Stryjek seemed to have of his defence. He seemed to be talking to them all the time; making sure they all knew where they needed to be. McCrorie just doesn't seem to have anywhere near the level of confidence to do that.

There seem to have been a number of strange decisions lately; not least, to my mind, the decision to send Crawford out on loan to Motherwell. Surely the 'Well are one of our main competition at the moment so do we really want to be potentially to be strengthening a side that we could feasibly be in a relegation battle with? We've already made a mistake with Hamilton.

The one with Accies seems to be the worst one right enough, Odoffin has certainly had a great influence in getting them their 6 points from their only 2 wins this season. Scoring two goals already and his header off the bar led to their opening goal against us, defensively too he's been their best player. Ironic that we're struggling in both areas from our CB's, getting goals from set pieces, and defending them, and the player we let go to a main rival has excelled in both areas.

Reading the St Johnstone fans' posts on P&B, it looks like they're in a very similar situation to us, not taking their chances and being punished by other teams being more clinical.

In that regard it looks like this is a pivotal game of huge importance for both teams, whoever wins it could push on and never look back.
And whoever loses could be floundering down in the relegation fight for a good part, or all season.

So a draw it is then.

In any case it would get us off the bottom and perhaps also close the gap to Utd and Ross County for us to start looking at the top 6 places instead of the bottom 2.

To that I would ask... who is to blame for not seeing more of Stryjek in the first team?

His performance against Rangers merited retaining his place which would also then allow us to see if that game was a one off or not. If he continued to excel we might have been a few points better off (not blaming McCrorie for anything here, just agreeing with D’s point that Stryjek seemed to marshall his defence better, thus our defensive shape may have been better & goals not conceded) and on the other hand if his one game was a flash-in-the-pan, then we’d still have McCrorie. Having had McCrorie last season it’s not as if we didn’t know what he can do.

I just think our management team have missed an opportunity & need to take responsibility for that. They thoroughly deserve the praise they have had but they shouldn’t get a free pass on their mistakes.

That's assuming Sevco would just wait to see how long McCrorie would be dropped for before taking him back to put him on loan to some other team. If we give Stryjek his chance we'd need to allow him a few games, even if he made a couple of iffy performances, don't think it does anyone any good if we were to chop and change keepers every couple of games.

I’m not saying chop & change, Stryjek deserved to keep the shirt.

What Rangers want is totally irrelevant to me, we are not their lackies.

He deserves an opportunity to prove he can keep the shirt, as of yet though he's only had the one game, so has still to prove himself one way or the other.


What Sevco want may be irrelevant to you Bertie, but it isn't to Livi, i'm putting it out there what could happen if McCrorie gets dropped, and like it or not, that could have an impact on Livi, esp if Stryjek doesn't work out as a reliable keeper. He's still unproven, based on his one game he looks confident and assured in goal, commanding his area well, but it would still hold a risk throwing all our eggs in the one basket with Stryjek, and why take that risk when Holt can hold off for 2 more games* and get a better look at him in competitive games.

I'd like Stryjek to get his chance too, but we have to look at all the angles here, we're still fairly early into the season to be making drastic changes without weighing up consequences of actions. If both keepers were ours it would be a lot easier/simpler to just change keepers, politics come into it with him being on loan, though ultimately i agree with you, we're only concerned with what's best for Livi, it just may be prudent to wait another couple of games before committing ourselves to that choice, and possible consequences that follow.

*Gonna be hilarious now if McCrorie gets dropped for the St Johnstone game, and Stryjek comes in.

BTW, so much for that,

Liviforever wrote:Ok decent performance against Celtic and we almost nicked a draw, but results didn't go our way and we're now bottom of the league. So massive game for us here and a chance to put it right, with Motherwell playing on Thurs night in Europe and having Sevco on Sunday we should go back above them with a win here, and also leapfrog St Johnstone, hopefully going above St Mirren and Accies too.

So no excuses for us not to be up for this, there's a lot riding on us getting a good home result.

Waste of time debating the GK situation, McCrorie has it nailed down for now, no matter if he's at fault for some goals or not, hoping Styjek has good Betfred cup performances to change Holt's mind, but until then it's McCrorie in goal, or McCrorie to learn from mistakes and get better.

Hopefully we'll go back to a back 4 again and not stick with the 3 CB's, would drop Devlin and give McMillan a go but he seems to be fireproof too, not impressed with how Devlin shirks out of blocks, usually leads to us conceding a goal from the ball deflecting off him past our keeper.

Bartley and Sibbs in the DM 2, and Pitts-Forrest in the AM 3, but who to join them is a quandary, i'd be tempted to play Tiffoney there and Lars up front, if not then it'll be between Robbo and maybe Sibbs, so Holt can get a game beside Marv.

Went off Holt but he had a decent enough game against Celtic so now i'm not sure, still would rather have Sibbs playing though, if it was a choice between the two.

Other decision for  Gary Holt, is if we have the usual AM 3, then will he give Tiff a start or go back with Lars, both bring different qualities to our attack. Which is why i'd like to see Tiff get into the AM 3 with Lars laying balls off to him to run on to.

the whole thread has been about the GK situation.

Liviforever wrote: the whole thread has been about the GK situation.

Not true - I also mentioned about the Oddafin transfer to Hamilton

Not any more.Goalkeeping issues aside,although understandable as the confidence in McCrorie weakens by the week. Was mentioned earlier about the defence or lack of it.Cant quite put my finger on it,but its getting to the stage that we really cant afford to let our standards slip as weve obviously done the last couple of games with the cheap goals we are giving away.St Johnstone are no mugs, but could find themselves struggling as we are which will make them a tough nut to crack.Dissapointed that theres been no movement in the transfer market to help our forward line after the recent departures. Still time mind you but im not holding my breath.Still reckon it could turn out to be crucial at this time,and hopefully Gary will address the situation.We need the lads to turn this around.Couple of results could see us attain that.The alternative doesnt bare thinking about. Cmon Livi,you can do it .

To be honest I doubt many clubs will be looking at adding much more to their squads in the current uncertainty with the likelihood that we wont be allowing crowds back this side of Easter.

The PPV revenue also seems to be taking a bit of a bashing with the old firm games likely to appear on SKY - funny how the old firm home games are only televised when it actually involves both of them?

Yeah Ross County were lucky enough to get a home game against Celtic, where there was no Sky tv schedule, hope they made a mint from it. It has the potential to net a club more than they'd get from fans going to the game, if more than 6 ot 7 thousand pay for it. As you say though, most of their away games are on Sky, so it's ST only viewers getting to see it, outside of Sky.

Really not expecting us to sign a striker, i think we'll go with Lars, and try to develop him into a good striker by the end of the season. Never know though, maybe one will become available and we'll snap him up.

Notice someone has just sponsored Souda today, hopefully that means he's still got a chance of appearing in the team sheet on Sat.

Liviforever wrote:He deserves an opportunity to prove he can keep the shirt, as of yet though he's only had the one game, so has still to prove himself one way or the other.


What Sevco want may be irrelevant to you Bertie, but it isn't to Livi, i'm putting it out there what could happen if McCrorie gets dropped, and like it or not, that could have an impact on Livi, esp if Stryjek doesn't work out as a reliable keeper. He's still unproven, based on his one game he looks confident and assured in goal, commanding his area well, but it would still hold a risk throwing all our eggs in the one basket with Stryjek, and why take that risk when Holt can hold off for 2 more games* and get a better look at him in competitive games.

I'd like Stryjek to get his chance too, but we have to look at all the angles here, we're still fairly early into the season to be making drastic changes without weighing up consequences of actions. If both keepers were ours it would be a lot easier/simpler to just change keepers, politics come into it with him being on loan, though ultimately i agree with you, we're only concerned with what's best for Livi, it just may be prudent to wait another couple of games before committing ourselves to that choice, and possible consequences that follow.

*Gonna be hilarious now if McCrorie gets dropped for the St Johnstone game, and Stryjek comes in.

But it should be irrelevant to Livi, otherwise another team is dictating our team selection which is totally unacceptable. It’s one thing to say he can’t play against his parent club but it is quite another to insist he has to play against everyone else.

Anyway... to the Saints game... IMO this is a must win game for us already, if it was in Perth I’d say a must not lose game but with it being at the Vale it is a must win.

Yeh,agree Bertie.Could find ourselves in a precarious situation if the gods fail us here.Need to get those home wins back in our system and quick.A favourable result will surely give us that wee boost we so desperatetly need.

Conversely a win could put a whole different flavour on things - certainly up to ninth if not better

I know it's early but this could be a make or break game. If we lose it I fear we will be doomed. A win could kick start our season.
We've been playing ok but not getting many breaks - balls hitting the woodwork, goalies making great saves. Just a pity that the howitzer from Serrano last week didn't at least get us a point. Sometimes the relegated team is the one that not much goes right for. I'm full of doom and gloom already. Cheer me up someone.

St Johnstone are 2 points ahead but they have scored just 1 goal in their last 5 games, so at least we're scoring goals, if we can just sort out our defence we'd soon move up the table.

Can't help feel that Bertie is right though, and Stryjek coming in would prob make us a lot more solid, as Durnford said, he organizes the defenders better, and they kept a clean sheet against one of the best teams in the league.

We really need to get our shit together tomorrow and properly defend set pieces, if we do that then i think we'll win this game by a few goals.

Woke up this morning with trepidation for this game.Still cant get that Accies game out of my head.Saints fans on P&B saying we'll win this,not being taken in by their retoric. Weve got to take any chances we get as if we dont,they will.Dont know about a few goals,one would do for me as long as we get those oh so valuable 3 points.We are where we are and wont get any favours from others,its up to us to turn this around, and fast.Mon tae fech the Lions.

Durnford wrote:Conversely a win could put a whole different flavour on things - certainly up to ninth if not better

Cheese n onion?
Smokey bacon?
Albatross?

No surprises with the team selection then, Stryjek still on the bench. Sibbs was an injury doubt, so was Brown, and both on the bench.

Tiffs starting again too, this is the chance for him to get himself regular starts, really needs a good performance in this game.