Using the word perfect in connection with St Johnstone just now doesn’t feel right.
But there’s no denying that it’s a perfect storm that they find themselves in the middle of just now.
The combination of circumstances afflicting the Perth club would be enough to befuddle the most experienced of managers, let alone one embarking on his first full season.
As Steven MacLean pointed out last week – everyone can see his signing strategy.
There have been no mixed messages.
Fans have been brought on the transfer window journey and told the end goal.
It’s absolutely the right approach – to Saints’ summer business and to keeping supporters in the loop.
MacLean is endeavouring to make sure a two-year downward spiral bottoms out by putting down foundations of a playing squad with a far lower average age and far higher scope to improve.
Yes, Saints were a few weeks behind the rest in getting a bit of momentum behind their recruitment work.
But the principles – and hopefully the majority of the players brought in – are right.
To have negotiated the group stage of the League Cup and the first few weeks of the Premiership while picking up results to progress in the former and keep themselves off the bottom of the table in the latter required two things.
The bulk of his senior pros needed to be fit and ready for work.
And the players getting picked for a starting 11 needed to meet, or even surpass, the standards expected of them.
That the injury list has now hit double figures – and most of those haven’t kicked a ball in either league or cup – tells you everything about the first of those factors.
And watching the team play against Ross County – particularly a woeful first half – laid bare the uncomfortable truth, as was the case in the 4-0 defeat to Stirling Albion, that too many players are badly out of form.
No dynamism – in defence or attack
The laboured movement with the ball and without it, the lack of ideas and creative courage in and around the opposition penalty box, and an absence of a general collective determination to tap into a bit of old school siege mentality betrays a team stuck in a football fog.
It wasn’t until Taylor Steven came on the pitch just before the hour-mark that you saw some dynamism from a Saints player.
Steven might not be the fastest wide forward in the league – he’s certainly not the most experienced – but he showed that with a dose of intent and an eye for a one-two you can get beyond an opposition defence.
Ross County got their first win of the season against St Johnstone who suffer back to back defeats ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/YOwBele9LW
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) August 12, 2023
Apart from a couple of spells against Ayr United and Alloa Athletic, that hasn’t happened enough in the first six games.
Nowhere near it.
When looking at Saints’ opponents in the first few weeks of the league season and the comparative readiness, I feared that August would be a points write-off.
With a trip to Parkhead the only fixture left in the month, that is almost certainly going to be the case.
But there’s no getting away from the fact that the Ross County performance was a worrying backwards lurch after the Hearts game had suggested Saints would at least make Malky Mackay’s men work hard to beat them.
Not a shock
When Steven MacLean delivered his “we’ve been sitting here for two years” and “some of those boys have let the club down” post-match assessment it was on the back of a question about whether he was shocked that his team had followed up a battling display on day one with what played out in Dingwall.
This wasn’t an emotional rant.
In fact, if anything, MacLean looked angrier sat in the same media room seat at the end of the dead rubber 3-3 draw in May.
The shock factor has faded.
Steven MacLean not holding back ⬇️⬇️⬇️ *and he spoke very calmly https://t.co/QGRFCDWahD
— Eric Nicolson (@C_ENicolson) August 12, 2023
It would appear his mind is made up about a few of his players (whether they’ve been on the pitch or in the treatment room).
Effectively starting your season on September 2 is far from ideal.
That’s going to be the case, though.
It will be a new-look team in terms of personnel and personality that faces Dundee at McDiarmid.
It has to be.
A barren August is tolerable if a clear direction is starting to emerge at the month’s end.
A bleak and blank September certainly wouldn’t be.
Conversation