You’re never too old – or too far into your football career – to change.
And Murray Davidson intends to prove that point with St Johnstone.
The veteran midfielder was sent off on day one of the Premiership season for a late sliding tackle on Ryan Porteous.
It would have been a run of the mill challenge for most of the former Scotland international’s time in the game.
But Davidson knows that if he’s to avoid further red cards and suspensions, he’ll have to adapt his mindset.
“Do I have to think about changing the way I play?” said the 34-year-old. “Yes.
“I tell the young boys here that when I started playing you could volley someone up in the air, you’d get a booking, then another warning and then maybe a red eventually.
“The game has changed from that, massively.
“If you go in over the ball, go in to hurt someone or you go in completely recklessly then send them off – I totally agree with that.
'They're both a yellow and a half.'
Sportscene pundits Michael Stewart and Kenny Miller sympathise with St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson.
Murray Davidson was sent off in the 1-0 defeat to Hibernian, but should the visitors' Marijan Cabraja have been red carded too? pic.twitter.com/41to2GJLez
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) July 31, 2022
“But there are times that players are making clean challenges and being booked.
“We have to be careful it doesn’t go too far because you are running thinking ‘if I mistime this by a fraction I could be off’.
“For players like me, we have to adapt.
“It might look like you’re pulling out of tackles but that’s because you are so wary of the punishment now.
“That’s hard when you have played a certain way for a long time, but it’s something players like me have to get into their heads.
“The game has changed and as a player you have to change now too.
“I don’t have too much time left so I don’t have to worry about it for too much longer but football has to be careful it doesn’t take all the contact out of it.
“For me, too many strong physical tackles are being punished now and not every tackle has to be a foul.”
VAR consistency
Davidson, back in the Saints squad for Saturday’s clash with Aberdeen, welcomes the imminent introduction of VAR in the Premiership.
“It will be interesting because it will go one of two ways,” he said. “Either more things being pulled up or less.
“The one thing I do hope it brings, though, is consistency.
“If you take the Hibs game as an example, would VAR decide that if I am a red card then the Hibs player would be and if I am a yellow then he’d be a yellow?
“We have had meeting already and if it’s run properly, which I don’t see any reason it won’t be, then it will help the game.”
Dressing room torture
Davidson is known as one of the most combative midfielders the top flight has had in the last decade but thankfully he hasn’t endured the misery of sitting in an empty dressing room, alone with his thoughts, too often.
“I’ve had two red cards for St Johnstone, one against Aberdeen and the one against Hibs a few weeks ago,” he said.
“The Aberdeen one was for a tackle on Craig Bryson (in 2019) and when he came here he always used to moan his ankle was knackered because of me!
“It’s not a good feeling. I hate it and you stew on it for a few days afterwards.
“Immediately once you go into the dressing room.
“Late in the game I heard the roar from the Hibs fans, so I knew what had happened.
“That makes it a hundred times worse and then it’s compounded by the boys coming in telling me about other tackles in the game that were just as bad.
“That makes it even more frustrating but when I saw both tackles back it was really annoying.”
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