St Johnstone manager Craig Levein has a clear picture of the profile of player he wants to fill a crucial central midfield role in his new-look team.
The Perth boss has already recruited a lot of footballers at the beginning of their careers for the 2024/25 season.
But he knows that a master of the ‘second balls game’, a missing piece of the McDiarmid Park jigsaw, must have miles on the clock.
“I need an experienced midfield player,” said Levein.
“We need some experience in the midfield area.
“Age isn’t really that important to me, it’s about how many games you’ve played.
“This league is about second balls.
“At one end of the scale we’ve got Aaron Essel, who’s got all the tools required to do that job.
“But he’s raw.
“He’s strong and aggressive, maybe overly so at times, so he needs time to understand the game.
“In Scotland, outside the Old Firm, generally if you win the second ball game, you win the game.
“That’s how it works.
“Somebody who understands that and can do that is what I’m looking for.
“But there also needs to be an element of being able to retain possession when we win the ball and win it back.
“There’s no point in winning it back and giving it away.”
Other positions
Sam McClelland’s ruptured Achilles will force Levein back into the transfer market for a central defender, with a left-footed wide player also on his wish-list.
“I think we need a winger,” he said.
“In an ideal world, we need something on the left-hand side to cover for Andre (Raymond) because we’ve not got anything there if something happened to him.
“And obviously, a centre-half after what happened to Sam.
“But we need to get players out first.
“The loans are going to start fairly soon and we’ll get a few boys away to play for other clubs.
“I’ve been keeping hold of people to make sure that we get through the games with plenty of options rather than getting boys out as quickly as we could.”
Rugby Park next
Meanwhile, David Keltjens remains an injury doubt for Saints’ clash with Kilmarnock on Sunday, having missed the 2-1 opening night defeat to Aberdeen.
“David got caught in training,” Levein explained.
“Somebody’s caught him on the heel and he twisted his ankle.
“It was two days before the Aberdeen game that it happened.
“He’s not trained yet so I don’t know where we’re headed with David for Sunday.”
Levein believes increased composure will yield rewards at Rugby Park.
“If we can play as well as we did against Aberdeen, but be a wee bit more thoughtful in our attacking play then we’ll improve,” he said.
“We had some good situations when, if we’d just taken a breath, we could have created much better chances.
“So, that’s been my message in training and we’ve been doing a couple of practices that require a wee bit of thought.
“It becomes about making choices in certain areas of the field. You have to make good decisions.
“Adama’s one at the back post shows what I’m talking about, where the decision-making is rushed and there wasn’t the calmness that’s required.”
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