Eetu Vertainen proved to St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson at the weekend he is made of the right stuff.
The Perth boss has reassured the Finnish international that his half-time substitution against Hibs in the wake of Craig Bryson’s dismissal was no reflection on the quality or robustness of his performance.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Vertainen has answered the question about whether he’ll be able to adapt to the physical requirements of Scottish Premiership football.
Going back for more after he absorbed a Ryan Porteous ’40-60’ challenge in the defender’s favour saw to that.
“It was a hard one for Eetu but I made it clear to him it was tactical because of the red card,” said Davidson.
“We wanted Michael (O’Halloran) to use his pace up front and press the Hibs defence, so that’s why he had to come off.
Neccesary we score more goals, but will it come with a change of system or change of players?
Think both Crawford and Vertainen signed to try and provide a spark in the final third, this brief sequence shows both capable of picking out passes between lines and creating. pic.twitter.com/QLwZz3hNRy
— St Johnstone fan analysis (@StAnalysis) November 28, 2021
“It’s just unfortunate but there were a lot of things he did in the game that pleased me.
“I enjoyed the fact he went into a 40-60 tackle, got clattered and got straight back up ready to go again.
“That showed me a lot about his character and he’ll be involved on Wednesday night.
“This is going to be a really tough month so I need that sort of character from the team.”
