St Johnstone manager Craig Levein is a long-time mentor to Max Kucheriavyi.
And the recently appointed Perth boss has revealed that fellow Perth playmaker Cammy MacPherson has also impressed him since he was appointed as Steven MacLean’s successor.
But both men have a battle on their hands to get Premiership game-time in positions where Levein is blessed with strength in depth.
“Max can play in a number of different positions,” said Levein, who brought Kucheriavyi into the Hearts academy set-up when he was the Tynecastle director of football.
“He can be an attacking player or a midfielder.
Max Kucheriavyi's crucial cameo! 🇺🇦
His late double salvaged a point for Saints v Dundee 😇@cinchuk | @StJohnstone pic.twitter.com/4gliDSfVK9
— SPFL (@spfl) September 4, 2023
“He’ll get on the field at some point soon, I’m sure of that.
“But the competition in that area of the pitch is pretty tough.
“I’ve been really pleased so far with Dan (Phillips), Matty (Smith) and Sven (Sprangler).
“So it’s not easy to get a start in those positions.”
‘More to come’ from Cammy MacPherson
Levein added: “Cammy MacPherson has looked good as well.
“I’ve watched him over the years and have always thought there was more there to come.
“He just needs regular game-time and we’ll get a decent level of improvement from him.
“To improve as an individual you need to feel in a comfortable place out on the field.
“You need to do things right to get confidence and then when you’ve got confidence you can start to try more things on the pitch.
“Then if that comes off, you’re really off and running.
“I think there are half a dozen who we could improve pretty significantly.
“If we can get three or four of them improving by maybe changing their position or getting them doing things they haven’t been asked to do before, it’s common sense to think the team will get better.”
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