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Simo Valakari: Why St Johnstone winger Stephen Duke-McKenna shouldn’t be too tough on himself

The January loan signing judges himself on goals and assists.

St Johnstone's Stephen Duke-McKenna walks around Dundee's pitch with his headphones on before a game.
St Johnstone's Stephen Duke-McKenna. Image: SNS.

St Johnstone winger Stephen Duke-McKenna can be too hard on himself, Simo Valakari has revealed.

The on-loan winger’s goal involvements since he arrived at McDiarmid Park total just one – his saved shot against Ross County that fell to Makenzie Kirk, who scored a vital winner.

Technically, even that doesn’t go into the official records as an assist.

Valakari has stressed, however, that there are other ways to judge the former Everton playmaker’s contribution to the Perth cause than purely raw numbers.

“I think he’s not happy that he’s not got so many ‘points’ as in goals and assists,” said the Finn, who has picked Duke-McKenna as a starter for the last three Premiership matches.

“He wanted to come here and show that he could do that.

“It’s important that he has belief in himself that he can go out and excite people, taking players on.

“That’s why I like him so much.

“Even when he is not getting as many ‘points’, he still keeps doing that.

Stephen Duke-McKenna takes on Aberdeen's Graeme Shinnie.
Stephen Duke-McKenna takes on Aberdeen’s Graeme Shinnie. Image: SNS.

“He can be a big player in terms of creativity for us.

“When I watched him, he was not an out and out winger.

“He was a player who can get between the lines as well, like an old-fashioned number 10.

“He needs this kind of free role to feel and smell the game, to find where those spaces are.

“For those players, you accept a bit of this wildness.”

‘Mistakes are nothing’

Valakari added: “He is maybe a little hard on himself.

“At half-time in the Livingston game (when Duke-McKenna was substituted), he was the first one to say: ‘I was s**t, I got this yellow card, I couldn’t get past this player’.

“Sometimes when you do the half-time change, they are annoyed, but he was like this.

“And he was celebrating with us when we got through. He is very critical of himself, but he is very level-headed in how he sees the game and I like this.

“My message to Duke is – and has been – that the mistakes are nothing because they will always be there. You have to try your things.

Aberdeen's Alexander Jensen tries to stop Stephen Duke-McKenna.
Aberdeen’s Alexander Jensen tries to stop Stephen Duke-McKenna. Image: SNS.

“But at the same time there is a non-negotiable in our team that all our players must do. When we lose the ball, we defend.

“When we attack, then you can make your magic. But when we defend, you need to get back and work hard for the team.

“He is taking the opponent with him, drawing them in.

“When there’s two players on him then there is a free player somewhere else. Then we pass. This is the process.”

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