'Clinical, brave and diligent': Graham Carey outlines Saints plan to face Celtic

Graham Carey outlined the game plan St Johnstone have to execute if they are to get a positive result against Celtic at Parkhead on Saturday.

The Perth side have had a tough start to the season with just one win in six games.

Steven MacLean’s men failed to get out of their Viaplay Cup group before starting their cinch Premiership campaign with 2-0 defeats to both Hearts and Ross County and the Saints boss has been busy replenishing his squad with the latest addition, 19-year-old midfielder Jay Turner-Cooke, who joined on a season-long loan from Newcastle on Thursday.

Ahead of the visit of the champions, 34-year-old midfielder Carey, who started his senior career at Celtic, said: “We know that they’ll have a lot of possession, we just need to be diligent in our defensive work, keep a good shape and we need to play when we get the ball.

“If you keep giving them the ball back, they will punish you.

“So the manager has drilled it into us this week that we need to be brave on the ball and when we can keep it, we keep it and make them work.

“We need to create chances and when we do get chances we need to take them, we need to be clinical because they’re not going to give you that many chances.

“So as long as we were brave on the ball and we’re good out of possession then we can cause some problems.”

Asked if Celtic’s shock Viaplay Cup last-16 defeat against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park last weekend can be a positive or negative for St Johnstone, Carey said: “Depends really, a bit of both sometimes.

“They can come out and take the frustration out on teams but as long as we start the game well and let them know that they’re in a game and it’s not going to be easy, we can cause some problems.”