St Johnstone boss, Simo Valakari, has revealed that his players smashed the season’s ceiling for “crazy running” in their Scottish Cup victory over Livingston.
The McDiarmid Park head coach explained that Monday night’s fitness statistics were a double-edged sword.
They highlighted the fact that Saints had the capacity and willingness to run themselves into the artificial ground to keep the quarter-final scoreline level.
But the numbers also showed that controlling a football game is far more achievable with the ball compared to without.
“They were the highest metrics for the season,” Valakari confirmed.
“I’m talking about high intensity sprints and averages. And it was for many, many players.
“That happens when you are not right tactically.
“If you can’t control the ball the only thing you can control is – ‘I need to run’.
“That’s why I was so happy after the game.
“If we hadn’t done that crazy running, we would have lost that game.
“We gave ourselves a chance through our relentless work-rate and relentless running. You could call it stupid running, but we needed to do it because we were not in the right positions.
“Then in the second half we found the right positions, started to control the game and everything became much easier.”
Worst-case scenario
Valakari added: “We always train for the worst-case scenario.
“We need to have this capability to run, and we showed on Monday that we have that.
“Of course, I would rather we had 75% of the ball and hadn’t needed to show it.
“But because of the opponent and our own performance, that’s what we needed to do.
“Football-wise, it wasn’t right in the first half.
“It was that worst-case scenario. We did it. And it gave us a chance.”
Energy levels often drop as winter turns to spring.
But that doesn’t look like being the case at McDiarmid Park.
“It’s encouraging that our players can do that at this stage of the season,” said Valakari.
“That’s a good sign.
“No team is fresh when we get towards the end of a long season.
“We have players like Jonathan (Svedberg) and Daniels (Balodis) who are starting again, Sven (Sprangler) didn’t play much at the start of the season, Holty (Jason Holt) started his season late, Adama (Sidibeh) missed a lot of games.
“We could see Drey (Wright) was showing signs of fatigue, so he was rested for the first half and he helped turn the game in the second half.
“We’ve got more options now.”
Victor Griffith returns
One of those options against Aberdeen on Saturday is likely to be Victor Griffith, absent from match-day squads since mid-February.
“Victor has been training but it’s not been natural,” said Valakari. “He’s been struggling with his running.
“Now he’s as free as he can be. He’s smiling and he is really available for selection.
“He is a streetwise player. He makes a lot of the right football choices.
“In some moments you don’t see him that much but when he’s not there you see what he’s missing. It’s good to have him back.”
Saints have a Scottish Cup semi-final to look forward but Valakari doesn’t feel the need to sharpen his players’ focus for the resumption of their Premiership survival battle.
“I saw the concentration level of all the players throughout last week for the cup game,” he said.
“We got there. But we know the Premiership is our bread and butter and we need to be there.
“The semi-final is something that can wait. It will be there for us. It will be a beautiful day for all of us to go and play that match.
“But, as always, in this business you cannot think further than next Saturday.
“The players know that as well. They need to perform to have a chance to play in that match.”
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