Stephen Robinson insists he’ll hang on to star Saint Keanu Baccus for as long as he possibly can. But he admits the Buddies have a huge task on their hands to keep him in Paisley after the Australian took so comfortably to performing on the World Cup stage.
The talented midfielder earned a number of admirers around Europe with his dazzling performances for the Socceroos, with Greek giants AEK Athens and Belgian top-flight side Gent understood to be keen on acquiring his services alongside a host of English Championship clubs.
Robinson has been impressed with how seamlessly Baccus has reintegrated with the group since returning to Scotland from Qatar. And the St Mirren manager hopes he’ll still be able to call on him once the January window opens, with interest expected to be firmed up in the 24-year-old talent.
Robinson told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “Keanu was back as soon as he could be from the World Cup, which shows his commitment to the football club. We made him train lightly and he got 45 minutes against Hearts and looked as sharp as he always does.
“We also made him buy us coffees with his World Cup bonus! It’s great to have him back. I don’t see much change in confidence in him because he’s still the same kid. He’s so down to earth with an incredible work ethic.
“Nothing’s changed and nothing will change with him. He gets about his business and it’s like every session is his last session. That’s the way he plays and trains. I don’t envisage that ever changing, whether he moves on to bigger and better things or not.
“It’s all speculation about Keanu’s future which is hard to speak about. What I do know is he’s gone and had a fantastic World Cup.
“It was probably beyond his expectations, in terms of how late he came into the squad. He showed he certainly didn’t look out of place at that level. If anything I thought he was excellent in some of the games.
“He’ll be a St Mirren player for as long as I can hold on to him.
“We don’t hide the fact that the club has to sell players, that’s the model we work on, like most of the clubs at the bottom end of the division. We’ll wait and see what happens with him.”
St Mirren were hoping to get their Premiership campaign back up and running on Saturday but were forced to sit the weekend out after the deep freeze caused Motherwell to postpone their clash.
The Buddies were looking to address their struggles on the road at Fir Park, having found points trickier to come by away from Paisley so far this season.
Robinson believes the club aren’t far away from turning the tide away from home, having worked hard on the small details he believes needed fixed over the course of the World Cup break.
He said: “It really is a strange one because we have more possession away from home, we concede less crosses and we create more chances than we do in Paisley.
“It’s a wee bit of an anomaly. There are things that we need to control better, things like going one behind which seems to have a big impact in this division.
“We’ve conceded from penalties as well which is another thing we need to improve on. We can engage outside the box so that if a cross hits a finger tip then it’s a free-kick, instead of a penalty.
“We know we can stop crosses better too. So we’ve looked at a lot and worked on it.
“The data tells us we shouldn’t be losing as many away games as we are, but the only results that matter are points on the board.
“We don’t play any differently away from home. If we think a team has a lot of pace up front then we drop a little deeper, or we can press higher up the pitch if that threat in behind isn’t there.
“We don’t really change, which makes it strange because you expect a counter-attacking side to be even better away from home. It doesn’t really add up, but for me it’s only a small margin we need to change.”
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