Steven MacLean says the sports science numbers coming out of St Johnstone’s loss to Ross County reinforced his point that there was an unacceptable drop-off from the first Premiership fixture to the second.
The Perth boss was highly critical of his players in the wake of their 2-0 defeat in the Highlands.
And he soon had the facts and figures on his laptop that showed his gut instinct was accurate.
“Your eye doesn’t lie and these days it’s backed up by the data the sports scientist has access to,” said MacLean.
“He sent me all the details on Saturday night so you can show them they didn’t run as much as they did against Hearts and tackle as much as they did against Hearts.
“I was disappointed with that after the game and it still disappoints me – it should disappoint the players too.
Steven MacLean not holding back ⬇️⬇️⬇️ *and he spoke very calmly https://t.co/QGRFCDWahD
— Eric Nicolson (@C_ENicolson) August 12, 2023
“You can’t hide from it.
“The science tells you what’s happened. It’s not just an opinion now – it’s there in black and white.
“You have to do the fundamentals in this league or you won’t win games. It’s as simple as that.
“Ross County bullied us and they out-ran us.
“Their centre-halves won first contacts and second balls, while their strikers won almost everything at the other end.
“That’s what the game was and we didn’t compete with it well enough.
“Games in this league always start like that so you have to do your jobs properly.”
St Johnstone DNA
MacLean knows that the players have it in them to match their opponents’ game-day application.
He saw it against Hearts and when Premiership pressure was at its highest a few months ago.
“This club has always been built on hard work and doing the basics well,” he pointed out.
“They did it last season in those last six games.
“You don’t want to be coming out and saying things like that to the players but they have to take responsibility for their performances.
“I take responsibility for my side. I come out and front it up.
“We are all in this together and we all have to take that responsibility for what happens on a Saturday.”
Mistakes happen
New recruits, Dare Olufunwa and Sam McClelland, were at fault for County’s opening goal, with the former being substituted after 45 minutes.
“I could have taken eight players off at half-time so Dare was just the unfortunate one,” said MacLean.
“Sam made a mistake for the goal and he knows he can do better.
“But mistakes happen in football.
“You don’t want mistakes happening but they’re young players and they will learn from it.
“They’ve not had a lot of training with us yet, only a few weeks, so they’ll get better as the season goes on.
“The main thing for us is they learn from it, take in on board. We have to work with them to make them better too.”
Conversation