Jump to content

Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


Recommended Posts

At least we had a go after HT. 

Hard to be harsh on the players after that. They were clinical with 4 goals from 6 on target. 

Felt the big goalie could have done better for 1st and 3rd goals. But I guess there is a reason why he was available on a free. Would give Archer a go v St Johnstone. See who is better of the two whilst we wait for Carson to return in the New Year. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, welldaft said:

Felt the big goalie could have done better for 1st and 3rd goals. But I guess there is a reason why he was available on a free. Would give Archer a go v St Johnstone. See who is better of the two whilst we wait for Carson to return in the New Year. 

Based on his CV I'd have thought Archer has been brought in as 1st choice of the two but he's not played since 4th January so it'd have been a bit harsh to bounce the Pieman after he kept a couple of clean sheets and chucking Archer in against Celtic would have seemed to have the potential to be a bit counter productive given the time since he last played.

As it stands he's had a chance to get in the building and presumably we'll have a couple of bounce games through the international break.

It seems a natural point to give Archer a run now though rather than chucking him in 5 mins after he's through the door though. 

Edited by capt_oats
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Polworth is key to the way we play, but

For the first goal he could have played it to Toby McGinley (I am running with this) and he tried the harder ball to Gallagher, poor decision making.  For the shot from outside the box that he put a yard wide, when you see it from behind the goals, he could have rolled Lang in, that is his trademark play, poor decision making.  Disappointed.

 

4B5D8980-71BE-4D30-BCD3-1B2029504ECA.jpeg

Edited by ropy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, ropy said:

I think Polworth is key to the way we play, but

For the first goal he could have played it to Toby McGinley (I am running with this) and he tried the harder ball to Gallagher, poor decision making.  For the shot from outside the box that he put a yard wide, when you see it from behind the goals, he could have rolled Lang in, that is his trademark play, poor decision making.  Disappointed.

Although I said at the top of the page that I have no strong opinions...I do have some thoughts.

I posted in the match thread about how Robinson had a fairly decent run of form against both Rangers and Celtic when he took over (at Fir Park at least).

01/04/17 - Rangers 1-1 Motherwell
22/10/17 - Rangers 0-2 Motherwell (Hampden)
29/11/17 - Motherwell 1-1 Celtic
18/03/18 - Motherwell 0-0 Celtic
31/03/18 - Motherwell 2-2 Rangers
26/08/18 - Motherwell 3-3 Rangers
05/12/18 - Motherwell 1-1 Celtic

Clearly I'm skipping the 5-1 at Parkhead and 7-1 Ibrox but IMO it's fair to say those were outliers. Even the cup finals were 2-0s.

Since we've switched to being more 'open' the results have went off a cliff at FP. Our results against both OF sides at Fir Park since that point have been:

07/04/19 - Motherwell 0-3 Rangers
10/08/19 - Motherwell 2-5 Celtic
15/12/19 - Motherwell 0-2 Rangers
05/02/20 - Motherwell 0-4 Celtic
27/09/20 - Motherwell 1-5 Rangers
08/11/20 - Motherwell 1-4 Celtic

I get that the players are being asked to be 'brave' on the ball and such but 23 goals conceded in 6 games compared with 7 conceded in 5 at FP during the Thunderdome era...fucking hell.

I mean, I'll happily go all in and say that Rodgers' Celtic side was fucking miles better than Lennon's iteration. I don't think that's a controversial take.

I thought Robinson taking responsibility for the Polworth mistake made sense.

There's an argument that in trying to be braver on the ball we're pushing them out their comfort zone a bit and asking them to improve on the ball against better sides but the upshot is that we're just coughing up cheap chances in dangerous areas against sides who have better attacking players than the other 9 teams in the league.

If Maguire just launches the ball rather than playing it short to Polworth we probably don't concede that goal. Similarly if Polworth plays it to McGinley rather than Gallagher it probably gets cleared without hassle.

I've a degree of sympathy with Robinson today because that was his best XI he had available and it included our 2nd back-up goalkeeper but where today it was Polworth making the mistake it's been a common theme when we've been asking players to take risks rather than just play the %s.

I mean, fair enough if Edouard turns up and ragdolls our entire back 4 or McGregor is pinging in genuine worldies but look at the first goal today then look at Turnbull vs Rangers or Donnelly vs Celtic.

giphy.gif

giphy.gif

Edited by capt_oats
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good analysis as always Capt.

What I remember most about the Thunderdome era with Robinson (apart from getting to 2 finals) is how most of the fans, myself included thought the football was eye bleedingly awful to watch.  That was the constant theme from a lot of posters back then. 

It is fair to say that changing to a more positive footballing side means that we are able to match up and often beat all the other sides in the league but that as you point out that does not wash when the Old Firm come to town. 

It is annoying constantly losing to the gruesome twosome but I would rather we had a better product on the park in terms of footballing ability and more pleasing on the eye. Which is what we have right now. Beating St J, Aberdeen, Livi and Ross C without conceding a goal is in my opinion better for us than scraping a draw or narrow win v Old Firm and losing more games to teams around about us. 

It is unfortunate for us we only had 2 winnable games before playing Celtic instead of the 4 we were due to have. Had we won both of those or taken 3 or 4 points we would be in 5th place. As much as I would like 2 x 3-0 wins awarded I suspect the SPFL will not go down that road. Those games are more than likely to be re-scheduled but it has not helped with our momentum. Hopefully we will find out this week as I believe the disciplinary meetings take place tomorrow or Wednesday ? 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, capt_oats said:

Based on his CV I'd have thought Archer has been brought in as 1st choice of the two but he's not played since 4th January so it'd have been a bit harsh to bounce the Pieman after he kept a couple of clean sheets and chucking Archer in against Celtic would have seemed to have the potential to be a bit counter productive given the time since he last played.

As it stands he's had a chance to get in the building and presumably we'll have a couple of bounce games through the international break.

It seems a natural point to give Archer a run now though rather than chucking him in 5 mins after he's through the door though. 

This is obviously said with the greatest benefit of hindsight, but there is a big part of me that wishes Robinson had the balls to say, despite the two clean sheets, that Archer is the keeper with the better pedigree and he goes into the team. I thought he could've done a lot better at the third and fourth goals yesterday although I do refuse to blame anyone other than Polworth 100%  for the first.

When a player is probably second fiddle and the "didn't deserve to be dropped" line comes out, I think it can be a recipe for disaster, as deep down you know the player won't be in the team forever and you're essentially waiting for them to have a stinker before bringing the guy perceived to be better in. I suppose the caveat is Robinson having to manage the morale of the squad in such situations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Are you lot expecting Archer to be any better?...

Than Chapman? Yes. Not to say he will be great though.

 

 

 

 

On Sunday I was quite annoyed at Polworth. 

That stupid pass and his pretend pressing annoyed me. He hung McGinley out to dry a few times by making it look like he was tracking/pressing but actually was never near anyone.

I think this is why I will never take to him the same way other do. He would be in my team nae doubt but maybe game against much superior opposition highlights these things for me.

Then some daft c**t gave him MOTM. I suppose they had to pick some one.

 

Let's has a Riquleme-esque performance v St Johnstone from him please.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, welldaft said:

Good analysis as always Capt.

What I remember most about the Thunderdome era with Robinson (apart from getting to 2 finals) is how most of the fans, myself included thought the football was eye bleedingly awful to watch.  That was the constant theme from a lot of posters back then. 

It is fair to say that changing to a more positive footballing side means that we are able to match up and often beat all the other sides in the league but that as you point out that does not wash when the Old Firm come to town. 

It is annoying constantly losing to the gruesome twosome but I would rather we had a better product on the park in terms of footballing ability and more pleasing on the eye. Which is what we have right now. Beating St J, Aberdeen, Livi and Ross C without conceding a goal is in my opinion better for us than scraping a draw or narrow win v Old Firm and losing more games to teams around about us. 

Yeah, for avoidance of doubt I'm not advocating ripping everything up and starting again or that we should be phoning Bowman and Andy Rose up to get the 17/18 band back together. It's just that it's apparent it's a higher bar to clear against Celtic and Rangers than the rest of the league.

A point that speaks to that is the fact that to date this season we've conceded 17 goals in the league - 12 of them have come against Celtic and Rangers which is more than double we've conceded against the rest of the teams we've played in the league combined (5) - 70% of our league goals conceded this season have been against the OF.

In fairness to Robinson, he tried changing it a bit last season at Ibrox when we switched to a back 3 and true to form we shipped a late goal in a 2-1 defeat. As I said in my post last night I've sympathy for Robinson in so much as the team he put out yesterday was the best XI he had available and didn't have the luxury of being able to make tactical tweaks.

Edited by capt_oats
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

A point that speaks to that is the fact that to date this season we've conceded 17 goals in the league - 12 of them have come against Celtic and Rangers which is more than double we've conceded against the rest of the teams we've played in the league combined (5).

This was something I noticed as well.

We’ve not actually dropped a point or even conceded a goal to a non OF team in the League since the Hamilton game back in August(albeit we’ve missed several games due to Covid). 

Even going back across our last 6 league games against non OF opposition, we’ve only conceded 1 goal in 540 mins of football. We’ve also picked up 13 points and scored 10 goals in those 6 games as well- which included trips to Easter Road and Pittodrie. 

As much as these OF drubbings are becoming slightly tiresome, it’s not something I’m going to lose much sleep over. They actually seem to have clouded over the fact that after a poor start, we’ve otherwise been motoring along quite nicely and seem to be heading in the right direction. 

Edited by Casagolda
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

They actually seem to have clouded over the fact that after a poor start, we’ve otherwise been motoring along quite nicely and seem to be heading in the right direction. 

This is where I am too. @Div posted the "last 6" league table on Twitter yesterday and we've outperformed most of the teams we want to in a period where we've had 2 heavy defeats to the OF, which is a decent sign of where we are. 

Would I accept a season where we do well against the other 9 teams at the cost of routine pumpings by Rangers and Celtic? Yes, yes I would. These losses are a bit of a downer as they shine a harsh light on the team and I know the defeatist part of that winds some people up - but it just seems like boring logic that if we're set-up in a way that's potentially successful against 75% of the league, then we'll stay out of trouble.

 

Edited by Swello
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Swello said:
Wasn't expecting that - if he keeps going like he has been (and that is the biggest of ifs with Watt) - then it's a great piece of business...

He hinted at it in a tweet yesterday when he said "see you tomorrow with some good news" although in fairness that could have been anything...he could have been talking about his Twitch account or getting some new trackies.

Some boi though. Pleased to hear he's sticking around.

Edited by capt_oats
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

He hinted at it in a tweet yesterday when he said "see you tomorrow with some good news" although in fairness that could have been anything...he could have been talking about his Twitch account or getting some new trackies.

Some boi though. Pleased to hear he's sticking around.

I thought he had discovered a vaccine

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...