4 St Johnstone talking points as Simo Valakari faced with big playing style decision and Ross Sinclair grows into goalie role

St Johnstone’s new era has (kind of) begun.

Simo Valakari was in the Ibrox main stand to watch his team lose 2-0 to Rangers on Sunday night.

But, with a work permit still not secured, the Finn wasn’t able to be hands-on through the week in training or be on the touchline during the game and in the dressing-room at half-time.

For the third and final match, Andy Kirk and Alex Cleland were caretaker coaches.

Courier Sport picks out four talking points from Saints’ seventh successive league defeat away to Rangers, without scoring a goal.

Not huge progress but progress nonetheless

First of all, that goalless run should have ended.

Makenzie Kirk did superbly to out-muscle his marker when a ball was floated down the right for him to fight for.

He had three options – drive into the box and square for Benji Kimpioka at the back post, drive into the box and cut it back for Adama Sidibeh or drive into the box and shoot.

The middle one was the best but the latter was the one Jack Butland would have been glad he chose.

Nicky Clark’s disallowed goal a few minutes later was a textbook example of a superb striker’s first touch and then finish.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite a superb example of how to beat an offside line.

Cutting Rangers open twice was twice more than they managed against Celtic ( and more than they managed in open play in Edinburgh and Dingwall, actually).

For a large chunk of the second half, Saints had four centre-forwards on the pitch.

The bold intent was there.

If the final execution had been a fraction more efficient there would have been a nervous finish to the game for Rangers.

In the bigger picture for St Johnstone, it was progress, though.

Perhaps the best way of summing it up is that Saints didn’t look better or worse than when they lost by the same scoreline to the same team in the Premier Sports Cup in mid-August.

It was after that match that things unravelled and the form slump which resulted in Craig Levein’s departure set-in.

This time it needs to be a springboard for better times.

Keeping the ball

Under Levein, Saints have transitioned into a team that tries to play more football.

The peak of that style of play was the slick move that culminated in Kimpioka being fouled in the penalty box at Rugby Park and Saints scoring their third goal of a 3-0 victory.

Since then, like their form as a whole, the side’s ability to retain the ball and do creative things with it has regressed.

Ross Sinclair regularly played the ball short from goal-kicks but all too often, in the first half in particular, it only took two or three passes before it was turned over in midfield.

As Kirk pointed out, it was “untidy”.

And, just as the game was turning in their favour midway through the second 45, Kimpioka and Cammy MacPherson were careless in possession and seconds later it was effectively game over.

Valakari has a strategic decision to make after studying his players on the training ground over the next week.

Does he think he can mould them into a side that can take care of the ball, scoring goals that way and not exposing their defence by coughing it up in their own half?

Or does he decide to take a different, more direct, approach?

An improving goalie

The goalkeeper situation at McDiarmid Park has been a bit of a mess, let’s be honest.

To be going into a league campaign with two 23-year-olds and a 19-year-old, none of whom had any meaningful Premiership experience to draw upon, was Levein’s biggest transfer window error.

And the young trio having to work without a goalie coach for several weeks exacerbated it.

Levein should have split the League Cup game-time between Josh Rae and Ross Sinclair.

Because when he had to turn to Sinclair following Rae’s dip in form, the former Scotland under-21 international was rusty – no wonder given he’d missed a full season through injury.

Sunday’s match felt like a significant step in the right direction.

The spectacular finger-tip save in injury-time caught the eye but it was Sinclair’s general work and demeanour that quietly impressed.

His positioning and decision-making was the best it has been in his five games and he brought calm to the backline.

Nerves would have been inevitable in his circumstances over the first two or three matches but – no doubt with benefit of having Gordon Marshall to lean on – they look to have been banished.

Valakari will probably still feel he needs a senior goalie in his squad but Sinclair is doing his chances of a long run as number one no harm at all.

Never again

Friday nights have become a popular slot for fans going to games and watching them on television.

Sunday nights will not.

Unsurprisingly, a kick-off at the fag-end of the sporting weekend made for as flat an Ibrox experience as I can recall.

It was as if people were there out of duty rather than desire.

Next time, maybe someone at the SPFL will put the Great Scottish Run in the diary and circle it with a red pen.

A potential clash with Rangers playing at home on that Sunday could, and should, have been avoided before the fixture list was announced.