jagfox Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 This could get nasty if Thistle manage to replicate yesterday’s performance at Rugby Park. On the plus points Moult is out so it should only be a defeat by a one goal margin... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 Hopefully Carson and Hartley are back but either way we've got a pretty dismal record at Firhill recently so I'm not exactly confident about this one. Not only are we missing Moult but Cadden went off with a hamstring injury yesterday so that's likely to be a loss given the way we dominated Thistle's midfield in the game at Fir Park. We seem completely toothless without Moult up front, it's almost as if we need to start from scratch and work out how to play without him in the side. Yesterday against Hearts we just seemed to spend the game pinging (aimless) shots from 25 yards. xG lads, xG. Alex Fisher's out with concussion so that leaves us picking a front line from: Ryan Bowman, Deimantas Petravicius and Craig Tanner... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted December 10, 2017 Author Share Posted December 10, 2017 Archie was correct in part to cite ‘abysmal defending’ for yesterday’s debacle but it’s clear to just about every Thistle fan the main issue is the big hole in the middle of the park. You can’t control a game with no central midfield. This affects your playmaking ability and also puts undue pressure on the back line too. The perfect shitstorm for losing goals and games. With Well potentially missing a few first choices we have to look at this as an opportunity to shitfest this game to try and get a positive result that gives the pretence we’re up for staying in this league. Can we actually achieve such lofty ambitions? I’m not confident on that score... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 If we start with Adam Barton and Ryan Edwards at CM again we won't win this game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted December 10, 2017 Author Share Posted December 10, 2017 1 hour ago, Nightmare said: If we start with Adam Barton and Ryan Edwards at CM again we won't win this another game. FTFY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gianfranco Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 Who knows how we’ll line up with all the injuries. If think I’d go Griffiths Kipre McHugh Dunne Tait Frear Bigi Campbell Rose Tanner Bowman Would be surprised if it’s 1-0 to either team. Edit - could swap Rose for Grimshaw and Dimi for Tanner. I would Kent be against Ross Mclean starting either Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 Could be a season defining match for both teams. Our record at Firhill in recent times is abysmal and over the last couple of seasons I've seen some of the very worst Motherwell performances I've ever set eyes on. Our last visit there goes down in lore for Ben Heneghan's newborn fawn on ice performance. At least you can chuckle at the fact that a few months later we sold him on for a healthy profit. I think it was the season before I saw a midweek fixture in baltic conditions that probably ranks as the worst game of football I've ever seen - not helped by being played on a frost encrusted landfill site. Despite our poor record at Firhill this look like the best chance to pick up points in the remaining 2017 fixtures. With 1 win in 7 we are in danger of losing our early season momentum and failing to see off the bottom team in the league really wouldn't help with that. Personally I wouldn't want to travel to a resurgent Kilmarnock with 1 win in 8. It's also possible that if we were to lose we would drop out of the Top 6, in fact Hearts can leapfrog us the night before if they beat Dundee. So with that in mind I think it's important we pick up a win in this game. Missing Moult is huge for us but there has been a narrative kicking around that Robinson did a great job re-working the squad getting rid of dead wood and giving us 'options'. Well that's about to be tested over the coming few matches with various important players missing. Personally I think a lot of players have been riding the coat tails of an important core of players (Carson, Hartley, Campbell, Moult) - it's time for the others to step up and prove we aren't a 1, or 4, man team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammer Jag Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 LOL at Motherwell fans worrying about their injuries. They could play big Tam Cown up top and he’d run amok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 This is giving me flashbacks of the last time we went to Firhill without Moult and preceded to shell balls in the general vicinity of Mcdonald, Bowman and Blyth for 90 minutes with zero success. Given that Fisher is presumably out, and Bowman is hardly prolific, I'd be fielding all our most creative midfielders in the hope we make enough chances that eventually one will have to go in. Griffiths Tait Kipre Mchugh Dunne Campbell Rose Tanner Bigi Frear Bowman Controversial, but I think Cadden missing out could be a blessing in disguise. He seems to have regressed over the last month or two and, other than his Pittodrie assists, not offered much more than running about a lot. Hopefully Bigi steps up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 23 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said: Controversial, but I think Cadden missing out could be a blessing in disguise. He seems to have regressed over the last month or two and, other than his Pittodrie assists, not offered much more than running about a lot. Hopefully Bigi steps up. I don't think Cadden has really kicked on at all and his development has stalled. The best football he's played was that initial 15 games or so when he came into the team and then the beginning of last season up until his injury about this time last year. He's big, strong, works hard and you could never fault his attitude but he doesn't take hold of matches like, say, Allan Campbell has done, and perhaps most importantly he's not really a very good footballer. Guys like Jamie Murphy and Marvin Johnson were were miles ahead of Cadden with the ball at their feet. Needs to score more as well. 3 league goals in 50 starts over two seasons isn't good enough. I've said it before but we are crying out for a Plan B so it will be interesting to see how Robinson approaches this match without Moult and with a fairly nondescript performance at Tynecastle fresh in the mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 43 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said: I don't think Cadden has really kicked on at all and his development has stalled. The best football he's played was that initial 15 games or so when he came into the team and then the beginning of last season up until his injury about this time last year. He's big, strong, works hard and you could never fault his attitude but he doesn't take hold of matches like, say, Allan Campbell has done, and perhaps most importantly he's not really a very good footballer. Guys like Jamie Murphy and Marvin Johnson were were miles ahead of Cadden with the ball at their feet. Needs to score more as well. 3 league goals in 50 starts over two seasons isn't good enough. I've said it before but we are crying out for a Plan B so it will be interesting to see how Robinson approaches this match without Moult and with a fairly nondescript performance at Tynecastle fresh in the mind. Yeah I'd agree with all that. He's shown flashes of technical ability and guile but nowhere near consistently enough if he's planning on ever getting a big move elsewhere. He's definitely a decent Scottish Premiership player and has a role to play in this team but I don't think he's somebody we can be relying on as our creative focal point yet. Harsh to judge him on those games but I lost count of the times he had the ball in Celtic's half and looked totally lost. TBH we're 4 and a half years on and I still think we miss Nicky Law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuctifano Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 Surely we've got to at least *try* something different. Drop keown and Edwards, shift barton back to sweeper, play Fraser and woods in midfield, play lawless at lwb again, toss a coin between Erskine and Spittal for attacking mid and play Doolan and storey up front, 3-5-2. Thistle 0-2 Motherwell (Moult, Ainsworth) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poet of the Macabre Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 19 hours ago, Fuctifano said: Surely we've got to at least *try* something different. Drop keown and Edwards, shift barton back to sweeper, play Fraser and woods in midfield, play lawless at lwb again, toss a coin between Erskine and Spittal for attacking mid and play Doolan and storey up front, 3-5-2. Thistle 0-2 Motherwell (Moult, Ainsworth) lolwut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 The general consensus about Thistle seems to be that they're weakest in the centre of the park so I could see us going 352 and just flooding the midfield. Assuming Carson and Hartley are back then get McHugh to sit on top of Erskine and tell Rose and Campbell to press Barton and Edwards. Then get the ball out wide to Frear and Tait. By his own admission Robinson's main tactic has been "get the ball wide and get crosses into the box" that makes sense with guys like Bowman and Moult up front. Though we shipped 3 cheap goals up in Dingwall the goals from both in that game were good examples of us doing that well, so too was Moult's 2nd against Aberdeen at Pittodrie. For whatever reason that just didn't seem to happen against Hearts. I'd be amazed if Thistle were as generous defensively as they were against Killie but they didn't really seem to deal with direct balls particularly well. Carson Kipré Hartley Dunne Tait Campbell McHugh Rose Frear Tanner Bowman I'm not really a fan of Tanner as a 2nd striker but he started and scored the last time we played Thistle (albeit in a 3421) so who knows it may be something that could work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 1 hour ago, Poet of the Macabre said: lolwut Funny that you highlighted the player who, whilst injured, is actually still a Motherwell player, rather than the one who currently plays for Plymouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuctifano Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 What with us missing Moult and being utterly toothless without him, along with our dreadful record in Maryhill, this midweek match in sub-zero temperatures has all the ingredients of being an utter, utter shitfest. Either 0-0 or a 1-0 home win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamJags Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Struggling to muster up any enthusiasm for this. We are absolutely woeful, and have been for some time. I don't think Archie will make the massive changes that are needed, which just adds to everything else that suggests a(nother) Thistle defeat. In an ideal world, I would have Keown dropping out with Barton moving to defence, Lawless at LWB and changes to the midfield. Cerny Devine Barton Turnbull McGinn Lawless Woods Edwards Erskine Doolan Storey Ideally would have Fraser instead of Edwards, but I'm not 100% how match fit he actually is. The reality is that Turnbull will still be at left-back, where he is hopelessly out of his depth, Barton at centre mid with Edwards, which is the root of the majority of our problems, and one of Doolan and Storey on the bench. Thistle 0-2 Motherwell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 That would be my choice of lineup as well. Possibly Fraser ahead of Woods, but that's really irrelevant - anything that's not our two inept swashbucklers at CM would be smashing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Tempted to drive through to this. Is parking available nearby? I haven't been to Firhill since Gerry Britton scored a double in a 3-0 home win, circa 2003. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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