Analysis Corner: All is not lost for Partick Thistle this season
by Dougie Wright (@dougie_wright)
Partick Thistle are pointless.
With zero points from their opening four games, Alan Archibald’s men have had the poorest start to the season since St Mirren and Ross County in 2014/15. While Ross County rallied to finish 9th, St Mirren were relegated with just 30 points and have stayed in the second tier since.
Over the past 10 Scottish Premiership seasons, the only other team to take zero from their first four games was Falkirk in 2008/09. They only secured safety on the final day that season, beating Inverness in the Caledonian Stadium. Anything other than the three points would have seen them go down.
However, if you compare Thistle’s results this year to their results against the same opposition last year, the only change is a defeat to St Johnstone:
It’s also worth bearing in mind that they’ve had a really tough opening schedule. Their home games have been against the league’s top two sides, while their away fixtures have been against a newly promoted, well financed Hibernian at Easter Road, and a thus far undefeated St Johnstone who finished fourth last year.
Therefore, I’d wait until next month before hitting the panic stations. While they have a league and cup double header against Rangers, you would expect Thistle to take something from trips to Dingwall and Motherwell, while a home fixture against Hearts is winnable.
Nevertheless, there are still plenty of pertinent questions that can be asked of Thistle’s performances in these four games.
Of their nine goals conceded, four have come from leaving a man unmarked in the penalty area. Take a look at Rooney’s winner for Aberdeen from the weekend:
Thistle have an extra man in the penalty area (not including the goalkeeper), yet there is that significant gap right in the middle that Rooney can take advantage of. The Thistle defence either needed to push up as a line to catch Rooney offside, get tighter to Rooney, or get someone goalside of him. Failure to do any of these three things resulted in Aberdeen scoring the winning goal.
Another example of poor defending came on the opening day at Easter Road:
This was in the build-up to Hibs’ second goal. Notice the huge gap between Thistle’s midfield and defence, occupied by four Hibs players. While the Scottish Premiership is not the finest league in the world, these are still professional players. If you give professional players this amount of space in this area of the pitch, they will punish you.
In terms of going forwards, Thistle have struggled to create good chances on a regular basis. In their four games, they’ve only managed nine “danger zone” chances (the “danger zone” is the central channel of the penalty area, where the vast majority of goals are scored). This is barely more than two good chances a game.
Of these nine chances, six have come from set pieces. Thistle have actually scored from three corners already this season, which is good going. The other three chances came from crosses into the penalty area. Being effective from set pieces is a really useful tool, and should set them in good stead over the course of the season. However, if your only tool from open play is crossing, then you risk becoming one dimensional, and therefore easy to defend against.
As previously mentioned, the table is currently a false economy. Thistle have been heavy underdogs in each of their four league games this season, and will surely climb the table now that some of the tougher fixtures are out the way. They do need to show a bit more discipline in defence and creativity in attack. That said, it’s way too soon for Jags fans to start worrying about a drop into the Championship
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