“Now we are here, we are here to compete,”St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari
On the back of their 2-1 win over Hibs at McDiarmid Park on Sunday afternoon, St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari has told his St Johnstone player to go out and compete with Celtic tomorrow night when the Champions visit Perth…
St Johnstone bounced straight back up to the Scottish Premiership by winning the Championship last season and the Perthshire Saints have made a steady start to their return to the top flight of Scottish football with two wins, a draw and two defeats so far.
Valakari though knows that the biggest challenge awaits tomorrow night when Martin O’Neill brings his Celtic side to Perth but the St Johnstone boss is demanding that his players are not just participants in a game that Celtic dominates. Instead he is looking for much more from the Championship winners on their biggest match of the season so far.
Celtic’s record isn’t quite as mixed, with the Scottish Premiership Champions currently on a 12 match winning run in the league, seven from the end of last season with those 21 points won enough to see off Hearts with a couple of points to spare in a never to be forgotten afternoon at Celtic Park.
The Saints boss though is not overawed by Celtic’s dominant run in the league going back to a defeat at Tannadice against Dundee United six months ago.
“Nothing changes,” Valakari told Saints TV ahead of the St Johnstone v Celtic clash. “We have worked so hard to get here in the Premiership. Now we are here, we are here to compete.”
Meanwhile former Celtic defender Charlie Mulgrew, who was on co-commentary duties at McDiarmid Park on Sunday afternoon, has given an interesting assessment on the way that St Johnstone are playing this season, that involves both wingers coming inside to flood the middle of the park.
It’s fair to say that Celtic’s achilles heel this season appears to be in the midfield rather than up front as it was last season. Teams have been running through the middle of Celtic continually and it probably was this midfield vulnerability that ended up costing Celtic a place in the Champions League despite being 4-0 ahead in the tie in Linz against Austrian Champions LASK.
As reported by The Courier, Mulgrew said: “I was speaking to Simo Valakari before the game about how he’s adjusting his game to the Premiership and all that stuff He says: ‘We like to play, but in the Premiership, you get pressed a bit more so we might need to go longer a few times and spin teams in behind’.
“When I’m looking at St Johnstone, I could see clearly, 20 minutes, half an hour in, what they were trying to do.
“St Johnstone were bringing their wingers inside and creating five in the central area. It wasn’t a coincidence that their centre-backs were having time on the ball because Hibs weren’t pressing them,” Mulgrew said.
“They were just playing through to the spare man and the got space in behind with (Josh) Fowler. Then they get it wide and put it in the box.
“Valakari tells them they’ve got freedom to do what they want in the final third.”
