The sooner Simo Valakari can get Uche Ikpeazu on to the pitch for St Johnstone, the better, according to club legend, Steven Anderson.
The 2014 Scottish Cup hero believes Saints are crying out for an attacking “focal point”.
Ten months on the sidelines with a knee injury means Ikpeazu isn’t yet a starting contender, and is unlikely to feature in Sunday’s semi-final clash with Celtic.
But Anderson would love to see the powerful number nine getting game-time off the bench soon, as his old club strive to stay in the Premiership during the post-split run-in.
“It was good to see Saints mixing things up more against Celtic,” he said, having been at McDiarmid Park with son, Max, for the recent league victory for Valakari’s side.
“But they still didn’t have a striker who can play the role to get them up the pitch.
“For me, that’s a big issue.
“I played against Ikpeazu when I was on loan at Partick (in a Scottish Cup quarter-final).
“He’s a really awkward customer because of his physique. He scored an equaliser against us in the replay.
“He’s not technically amazing but he’s incredibly strong.
“He can occupy two defenders.
“I couldn’t fight with him because he was so much stronger physically.
“I tried to get close to him after he took his first touch but sometimes even then I couldn’t get near him because of the way he would use his body.
“Once he’s available you would want to get him on the pitch.
“He’ll not be an option to start but he can give you something different off the bench.
“Stick him up top and launch the ball at him. Play direct, win second balls and get in their half.
“It frustrates me when I see one up top.
“I felt sorry for Makenzie Kirk against Hibs because he was so isolated that day.
“He’s not a focal point. He wants to run channels.
“He would benefit from flick-ons and playing off somebody like Ikpeazu.”
Cup first
Thoughts of finding a way to stay in the division have been put on hold for a week, with the small matter of reaching a third Scottish Cup final in the club’s history the immediate goal.
Anderson, who will forever be remembered and revered for scoring the opener when Saints beat Dundee United at Celtic Park, came close to achieving something special as a 22-year-old in Owen Coyle’s second tier team that gave Gordon’s Strachan’s champions-in-waiting a run for their money in a 2007 Hampden semi-final.
“I didn’t play in the League Cup semi-final against Hibs at Tynecastle that season,” he recalled.
“I’d been in and out of the team.
“Allan McManus, Kevin James, Andy Lawrie and Goran Stanic were the back four that night.
“I was young, so I knew I wouldn’t be playing every week at that stage of my career.
“Those guys were all good, experienced players. I learned a lot from them.
“It helped that Coyley had me at Dundee United. He knew I was versatile and would do a job whatever the position.
“I can remember the Celtic semi-final pretty well.
“I played right-back.
“They scored early from a penalty, with Cat (goalkeeper, Kevin Cuthbert) coming out. Martin Hardie equalised soon after, but they got the winner from a corner in the second half.
“Considering we were a First Division team, we did really well.
“The Celtic players and fans were happy to hear the final whistle at the end.
“I was up against Aiden McGeady.
“I remember Coyley telling me: ‘Stay on your feet’.
“You might laugh now, but one of the reasons I started out as full-back was I was mobile and quite quick.
“I was happy with my own performance in my first semi-final but it’s all about the team and we were gutted we didn’t get to the final.
“It was two glorious failures in a row.
“And there would be another one the following season when we lost a Scottish Cup semi-final to Rangers on penalties.
“If we’d beaten Celtic, we’d have been playing Dunfermline in the final and if we’d beaten Rangers, it would have been Queen of the South.
“Even then, I didn’t like the glorious failure thing.
“It happened a lot before we changed things in 2014.”
Several star players
That 2007 Saints side is fondly remembered by Perth supporters even though it fell agonisingly short on three fronts.
It’s a mark of the current standard of Scottish football that a team outwith the top-flight boasted as much quality as that one.
“We were a good team,” said Anderson.
“We showed it in both cups and the league, where we only missed out on promotion on the last day of the season.
“The fact that we were winning a lot of games in the First Division helped us.
“We didn’t fear anybody.
“It’s not fair to compare teams but if you were taking players out of that one to put in the current St Johnstone side, first and foremost, you would choose big Kev James.
“He was an organiser captain and dangerous at set-plays.
“A left-back like Goran Stanic would be useful too. He was a top, top player. And big Martin Hardie’s drive in midfield. I could go through the team!”
Tougher job than before
Anderson believes Saints’ task at the national stadium on Sunday has been made even harder by their unexpected bottom v top league victory earlier this month.
“Like most people going to the game, I thought Celtic would win,” he said.
“But Saints did very well. The keeper was immense.
“Celtic could have been more ruthless, but you need to ride your luck against the Old Firm, which they did.
“And the goal was a great delivery from Graham Carey. It gave them something to hang on to.
“The disappointing thing was losing to Dundee United the following week.
“There’s a lot riding on this for Celtic – the league is done and they want a treble.
“And beating Celtic twice in the space of a few weeks doesn’t happen very often.
“It’s a big ask.”
Murray Davidson recently spoke about St Johnstone going from the “most stable” football club in Scotland to the “most unstable”, a snowball that had started rolling down a hill before he retired.
Anderson can’t claim to have an insiders’ perspective on the drop-off at McDiarmid Park, given he played his last league game in 2018.
But he can understand the observation his old team-mate has made.
“A lot has changed since I was there,” he said.
“Has there been forward thinking? I’m not sure. I doubt it.
“There’s been a turnover of managers, which doesn’t help.
“The constant turnover of players doesn’t help either.
“We’ve seen that for a few years – even now there are loan players left, right and centre.
“They’re just a stop gap.
“At my time we had a core of 12 to 14 who knew what was needed. Times change, and they’ve not got that now.
“The identity has probably changed as well.
“It’s still a great club with people behind the scenes who care about St Johnstone.
“You’ve got to move on. You can’t live in the past.”
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