St Mirren 1 Hearts 2: Early Struggles Leaves Uphill Battle

St Mirren 1 Hearts 2: Early Struggles Leaves Uphill Battle

The opposition was the same; the outcome, sadly, was not. Jon Obika's winner against Hearts way back in March 2020 feels as if it was an eternity ago, yet it was the most recent trip most of the lucky 1039 supporters - myself included - had made to the SMiSA stadium for a league game. Those watching at home can rest assured they didn't miss a classic: but why? What made this match cagey? Why was our performance so insipid? And why did we lose?

The formation we started with was very predictable, although changes were made from the lineup on the opening day: dropping Henderson for Tait was a sensible move most fans would have made; Kiltie replacing Erhahon was more of a surprise. A strange quirk of attending the game this weekend was being able to switch from the usual West Stand seat to instead being in the North Stand - which usually houses away supporters. Here's an approximation of the vantage point you would have had seated here watching the first half:

St Mirren's 3-5-2 faced off against Heart 3-4-2-1, largely cancelling each other out but Hearts benefitted from their own restarts from deep (goal kicks, freekicks, throw-ins)

The reason 'Power' and 'Halkett' are named is because they were, in effect, the spare man for their respective team. It was obvious while watching the match and the ramifications would mean this was ultimately crucial in turning the tide in Hearts favour. Gordon and Halkett would tap the ball to one another, before the ex-Livingston defender would advance, allowing Hearts to have around two-thirds of the possession in the early exchanges.

It wasn't always especially damaging to St Mirren - Hearts wingbacks Andy Halliday and Michael Smith, while they scored and very nearly scored respectively, weren't a creative threat, and the central areas were congested - although the amount of time Hearts had on the ball riled Saints fans. We couldn't get close enough to prevent the ball being knocked about easily in our half. Take the below clip as an example:

It was strange that St Mirren decided they wouldn't press Halkett or Gordon, since both are far from infallible in terms of their passing ability under pressure. There was no risk of either creating anything, so pushing up to force a long ball and probable turnover made sense. This sort of passage was a frequent occurrence throughout the first 20-25 minutes, until Jamie McGrath was either instructed or took it upon himself to push up at Hearts goal kicks or deep freekicks. This did help St Mirren get more of a foothold in the game and wrestle more control in the possession stakes. The only problem was that St Mirren had already conceded by this point.

As has been mentioned, St Mirren did spend a lot of the opening proceedings chasing shadows. This would frequently be in our own half and there's always a risk of conceding a goal eventually if this continues. Even if you have all of your defenders and midfielders in your defensive third - something which we did immediately prior to the Andy Halliday goal on the 16th minute.

Baningeme pass to Boyce immediately prior to the goal. Halliday (7) and Smith (2) have driven infield from wingback but St Mirren are still, broadly speaking, fine here. Marcus Fraser (8) has pressed the ball, safe in the knowledge Tait, Shaughnessy, and Dunne are covering.

It would be harsh to blame any individual for the opening goal, as it's a wonderful finish and a collective failure to stem the attack far sooner. However, the closest individual to Halliday as he strikes the ball is Alan Power. This capped an afternoon to forget for the new central midfielders from Kilmarnock, Power and Greg Kiltie, who were fairly anonymous and never imposed themselves on the contest at any point in the first half.

There were concerns that Alan Power, who turns 34 in January, was passed his best when we signed. His impressive League Cup performances have given way to a couple of underwhelming top-flight appearances. A very small sample size, admittedly, but his numbers in terms of passing accuracy, duels won, aerial duels won, and interceptions are all significantly down from 2018/19, where Killie finished 3rd under Steve Clarke. He did attempt a lot more passes against Hearts than Dundee (43 vs 26) but this also meant a far worse success rate (74% vs 92%). His status should certainly not be 'undroppable'.

Jamie McGrath does have this status, and he was our best player yesterday. McGrath was our most creative attacking outlet by some distance, with 4 dribbles completed (out of 7), a passing accuracy of 83% (higher than Power or Kiltie - 62%), and some very classy touches. His xA - expected assists, the probability of someone scoring from his passes - of 0.2 compares very favourably to Greg Kiltie's xA of zero.

McGrath vs Boyce was a critical duel for Hearts second and our only goal.

The balance in the central midfield area wasn't working and, unfortunately, our wingbacks and strikers were not able to lift the creative and attacking burden from them. As predicted in last week's article, Main and Brophy were not able to reprise their outstanding interplay against a team fielding 3 centre backs. Last week, they combined to set up 5 shots; this week, none at all. Both were ineffectual, although Curtis Main was able to show he is brimming with confidence after a promising start to his Saints career.

Right wingback continues to be a problem position - Richard Tait was solid defensively, and had an outstanding, disallowed leap and header hit the bar, but didn't do much to hurt Hearts down their weaker channel. On the left, Scott Tanser put in a beauty of a cross for the Joe Shaughnessy goal but was otherwise quiet and never offered enough going forward. The system we are using needs the wingbacks to be strong defensively and offensively and neither met both requirements.

There is still time this transfer window to fix some issues with the team. Any sales will necessitate further business, as well as boost the coffers, but what we lack at the moment is pace. Neither Durmus nor Connolly were perfect but they could hurt teams if they got beyond their man or the offside trap - we miss that option.

However, let's not pretend there isn't a lot of room for improvement based on what we currently have. The transfer window isn't required to fix all our problems. We're playing too many aimless long balls, with Charles Dunne the most blatant culprit. Take a look at the hoof in the next clip - about a minute or two before we concede the first goal(!) - as this is not acceptable:

In summation, the longer the wait for a first league win continues, the more frustration will build. We don't need to overreact but we do need to react. Our next league fixtures are Celtic and St Johnstone and failure to galvanise the squad and make alterations would have disastrous consequences. However, there's a League Cup knockout tie before then, and plenty of time to build upon some solid foundations and ensure this season is a success. 

Thanks for reading!

COYS

Lewis.