How Much Will St Mirren Miss Jamie McGrath?

 How Much Will St Mirren Miss Jamie McGrath?


The Liverpool legend Bill Shankly once said to an injured Tommy Smith, one of his most important players, "What do you mean your knee? It's Liverpool Football Club's knee." The story might be apocryphal, however, watching Jamie McGrath be substituted after a quarter of an hour against Celtic midweek with a dislocated shoulder, Jim Goodwin could have been forgiven for thinking "That's not just your shoulder, that's St Mirren's shoulder."

If the St Mirren player of the year awards were being dished out today, my podium for player of the season would consist of Jak Alnwick, Jake Doyle-Hayes, and Jamie McGrath. Any of them would be valid recipients of top spot, in my opinion, but when assessing the trio - and the squad overall - it's hard to reach any other assessment than Jamie McGrath being our most important player.

After all, Dean Lyness deputised ably for Jak Alnwick against Hibs and Kilmarnock recently. Jake Doyle-Hayes never started in the win over Celtic at Parkhead, with the return of Ryan Flynn ensuring we have cover for him. But do we have a like-for-like replacement for McGrath? The evidence of Wednesday suggests we do not. We have other attack minded midfielders; none really offer the qualities or characteristics of the Irishman signed from Dundalk.

Admittedly, Kyle McAllister can deputise in set piece taking. Based on ModernFitba data, up till the midweek round of fixtures, McGrath ranks 5th in the Scottish Premiership for expected assists from set plays (ie how likely a player is to score from their delivery). McAllister, however, has the same amount of expected assists from set plays per 90 minutes, and has shown plenty of dead ball prowess. The most notable example of this would be his two assists in the 3-2 win over St Johnstone in December, with Lee Erwin and Jon Obika both scoring late on from McAllister freekicks.

Jamie McGrath has been flawless from the penalty spot this season, scoring four in the league and in the League Cup quarter final triumph against Rangers. Eamonn Brophy would have been expected to step up to the plate if available; a fractured foot appears to have curtailed his season, and explains why his form hasn't exactly been sparkling recently. Who takes the penalties now, if we get any, is unclear at present.

Prior to the midweek match against Celtic, here's how much of a standout the midfielder is amongst our squad:

  • 3rd in league minutes played (behind McCarthy and Fraser).
  • 2nd in expected assists from open play - Jon Obika is top.
  • Most key passes with 33 - McAllister in second is 16 behind.
  • Most open play key passes with 15 - Obika in second is 2 behind.
  • According to Wyscout, has the highest accuracy in the Scottish Premiership at playing through passes (56.3%). A through pass is defined as "A pass played into the space behind the defensive line for a teammate to contest."
  • 12th highest crossing accuracy in the league (38.89%) and 2nd in the team (Richard Tait is top for us, 4th in the entire league on 43.66%).
There's no doubt McGrath's consistency and reliability is a key facet to his play, but he's capable of moments of sheer brilliance too. Take his contribution to our goal against Hibs earlier in the month, shown below:



The touch, the dribbling, the vision, the pass - all exquisite. There's a lot of artistry in the move but McGrath needs to show a lot of composure and strength to evade the pressure of Hibs' Alex Gogic. A lot of players may have been tempted to go down for the freekick there, be simply dispossessed, or not find Connolly breaking free of the Hibs defence. Speaking of composure, one of the classiest moments of the season in a Saints jersey was his second goal against Rangers:



Will write up my thoughts after today's goalless draw against Aberdeen later, however what I'll say now is that the wind at Pittodrie was a nightmare and sadly ruined the spectacle somewhat. Hard to make a serious argument that the missing Irishman is the reason we failed to get the 3 points but hopefully a lack of goals in his absence does not become a trend.

Thanks for reading - COYS

Lewis.

  




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