St Johnstone’s good play hasn’t been sustained for long enough of late, Drey Wright admitted.
And the patchy Perth side need to put that right against Dundee United if the Boxing Day derby is going to be their launchpad for a Premiership revival.
“We need to put in 90-minute performances because too often we haven’t done that,” said Wright, who was part of Saints teams which started slowly against St Mirren and Hearts, losing on both occasions.
“It’s really important.
“In the games we’ve done it, those are the ones we’ve managed to win.
“Against Dundee we didn’t start well but for three quarters of it we were the better team and we got the three points.
“When we beat Ross County, it was a dominating performance from start to finish. The red card helped us but even before that we were the team on top.
“So, it’s been frustrating not putting in those kind of performances throughout a whole game.
“We do a lot of good things but then small moments are really punishing us.
“The manager has changed the style of the team, everyone can see that.
“But it is the basics which have hurt us – defending the box, tracking your runners, people being in the right place.
“We need to be better with those things.
“The positive is we’re scoring goals and creating chances, so if we can sharpen up what we need to and make those tweaks we’ll improve.
“There’s nothing drastic required, it’s all fixable things – but we need to do it rather than talk about it.”
January transfer window
Wright, who has been deployed by Simo Valakari in a number of different positions this season, knows that the Perth squad needs bolstered when the transfer window opens next week.
“January will be important for us because a few new players coming in can totally change the dynamic of the team and really help us,” said the former Hibs man.
“We are light in certain areas and it would be silly to say we’re not.
“Hopefully that can be addressed over the next few weeks.
“It will be a big window for us and hopefully we come out of it much stronger.
“In the end, that’s not for me to decide what happens – hopefully I’m still here and not punted out the door!
“If you asked any of the players about some quality coming in next month, I don’t think anyone would be against that.”
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