capt_oats Posted October 3, 2021 Share Posted October 3, 2021 (edited) 6 hours ago, Casagolda said: Honestly, I didn’t think yesterday was vastly different to what’s went before it. I mean we could have taken something from yesterday’s game, just as easily as we could of lost to Ross County and Rangers. We gave away two daft goals early doors and didn’t take some good chances when they came our way. The antithesis of what we’ve been doing during our recent good spell that has seen several tight games swing in our favour. I didn’t think we were that bad but a few key players definitely had an off day. Kelly looked culpable for the first two goals, Ojala had an uncharacteristically shaky start and KVV looked fairly sluggish throughout. Looking at our squad, the midfield is still the only real area of concern for me. Slattery cut a frustrated figure yesterday and I’m not convinced long term we can carry O’Hara and Grimshaw in the same midfield. Other than that, looking at the start of the season as a whole it’s been more than decent. We’ve been competitive in every game, creating plenty of chances, scoring goals and(until yesterday) pretty solid defensively. Sort out the balance of the midfield, get Carroll back on set pieces and I’m sure we’ll be absolutely fine. I think this is the take. 100%. Our games this season have been fine margins either way. Until yesterday we've been efficient in taking our chances and limiting the oppositions opportunities. That's something that's went very much for us. A penalty wins the game for Hibs opening day, a pen and a free kick wins the game for Hearts yesterday. Equally the ref could have given something for McGinley's nudge in the back against County last week that would have cost us but didn't, if Tony Watt scores that 2nd chance at McDairmid then we beat St Johnstone rather than taking a point. The irony of the game where we have 18 shots on goal being the first league game of the season that we fail to score isn't lost. "It's like RAIIIIINNN on your wedding day"....indeed. Regardless of how the LC group went I think most fans at the start of the season would have taken going into the October international break 4th having only lost 2 and double digits ahead of the bottom 3. I think it's true of any season that we'd take that...is this not our best start to a league campaign in actual, literal decades? When you think about the squad turnover and the fact that we've still not been able to play a consistent back 4 then it's a case of taking the points. We're still a work in progress which speaks to the midfield issue as well. We've been able to get by with O'Hara and Grimshaw in there but it's a set up that clearly has its limitations. Not having Donnelly or Goss available pretty much tied our hands in being able to make any sort of changes. I'd like to think (hope) that midfield is an area we'll be looking to sort out next given we've got our culturally Scandinavian centre backs in the door and a settled front 3 from 4. Especially given we've heard various rumours of having targeted a +1 midfielder around the tail end and post-window. Edited October 3, 2021 by capt_oats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted October 3, 2021 Share Posted October 3, 2021 How soon after a match is the video up on Motherwell TV to rewatch? I am not able to attend or watch the Rangers game in a few weeks. On the plus side I am going to the Bob Marley stage show at the Lyric Theatre. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archie McSquackle Posted October 3, 2021 Share Posted October 3, 2021 For those who eere at the game, how did Woolery do? Are we likely to see Roberts come in after the break? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZX1886 Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 Bring him home!!!https://www.instagram.com/p/CUadpWMN6g2/?utm_medium=copy_link 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 7 hours ago, ZX1886 said: Bring him home!!! https://www.instagram.com/p/CUadpWMN6g2/?utm_medium=copy_link Don't even joke about that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylegsjoe_mfc Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 I assume Donnelly must have picked up a knock if he was missing from the bench on Saturday. I thought he had a good impact from the bench last week and would almost have pushed for him to start on Saturday. He was off the pace considerably at the start of the season, but I'd hoped he was going to gradually get back in to the team, so it's annoying if that's another setback. It's a shame in both Johansen and Goss, we've not got to see much of our late signings yet. Agree with everyone saying long-term we can't afford to carry O'Hara and Grimshaw in the same team. One or the other would be probably be fine, but all you get from either is industry. I also sometimes just feel that for someone who is tall and well-built, O'Hara really doesn't impose himself on games physically. As for Woolery, again his final product let him down at the weekend, but we're definitely seeing progress in terms of the runs he's making and the positions he's taking up. Wouldn't drop him for Roberts now he's improving, but the competition will be good for him. Also agree that Van Veen is lost out left and switching him with Watt would be best for the team. Maybe going through the middle has brought out more goals in Watt, but for me his best games were out left last season and we are struggling to properly get Van Veen involved out there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busta Nut Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 Wee knocks here and there. Constantly 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 18 hours ago, dezz said: I thought big Bevis had a really solid game yesterday. I was saying at the game that at times, you need to step back and admire how much Mugabe has improved as a player since he first came in. If we hadn't brought Solholm in - I would be quite content with Ojala and Bevis as our first choice pairing (and I couldn't imagine saying that before) 16 minutes ago, Busta Nut said: Wee knocks here and there. Constantly I think this is always a problem for players with long term layoffs - they seem to suffer from strains and knocks for ages while they re-adjust. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 Wellity wellity wellity, look who's all come along looking for seats on the BEVIS-TRAIN 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dezz Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 Wellity wellity wellity, look who's all come along looking for seats on the BEVIS-TRAINI put him in my Stephen Robinson worst XI when we did that podcast with Fowler back in January [emoji51]Big Bev has made me look a right idiot but I couldn’t be happier about it. He’s risen so high in my estimations he’s even my wee profile picture thing now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kapowzer Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 All this talk about Van Veen and Watt being out left, is playing them as a traditional front pair and allowing the speed merchant Wollery to switch wings to exploit opportunities not an option? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 That's us partnered up with another recruitment/data platform. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylegsjoe_mfc Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 (edited) Both Mugabi and Lamie have been massively improved versions of their Robinson selves under Alexander. I guess the fact that we often set ourselves up in a way that we don't try to dominate the ball probably has a big part to play, as distribution was probably Bevis' biggest weakness and Lamie's was probably keeping his concentration up if he hadn't had to defend for 10 minutes or so. We've got very good depth at centre half now. I'm still convinced we signed the boy O'Connor purely because we didn't have a centre half to play in the league cup games. Personally, I'd have thought we'd just have played McGinley there, but he seems to be very much exclusively a left-back under Alexander. Even last week when we were doing the customary bring a defender on, Carroll went on at left-centre half and McGinley remained at left-back. Edited October 4, 2021 by crazylegsjoe_mfc 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 1 hour ago, capt_oats said: That's us partnered up with another recruitment/data platform. The last one spat out Lawless so was clearly broken 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 (edited) On Bevis, it's quite easy to forget that he was quite young when he signed (24) and he's probably not helped by the circumstances around him signing ie: he was a short term deal to cover Charlie Dunne's injury then given an 18 month deal after like 3 games or something. He always seemed like a bit of an awkward fit after that. It was only when I was doing some research on Slattery that it even clicked that Mugabi had come through Southampton's academy and there was some footage of him playing right back in a u23s game. It's fair to say his extension last season wasn't met with unanimous enthusiasm. Although I guess a lot of that was off the back of people jumping the gun and assuming that it meant that it was a Bevis/Lamie partnership we were going to be starting with this season, which clearly hasn't been the case. Tbh, I think the improvement of both Bevis and Lamie is a bit of a win for Alexander and the approach to the squad building where we've got actual options to play rather than a starting XI + the 12-18. +1 on @crazylegsjoe_mfc's point about O'Connor. I mean, he seems a good laugh and he's showed up well enough when he's played so absolutely fair fucks for him being in the squad as cover but I'm certain we signed him because he seemed fine during his trial and we needed a body for the LC groups. See also Parker, Mich'el. Edited October 4, 2021 by capt_oats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'WellDel Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 11 minutes ago, ropy said: The last one spat out Lawless so was clearly broken Spat, or shat? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busta Nut Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 As much as I love international fitba, I hate the way club fitba shuts down. Especially in Sept/Oct as they seems so close together. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RostokMcSpoons Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, Busta Nut said: As much as I love international fitba, I hate the way club fitba shuts down. Especially in Sept/Oct as they seems so close together. It was much more annoying when none of our players were in the squad... Now we can point out how massively #establishment we are these days, with players called up around the globe Northern Europe Edited October 5, 2021 by RostokMcSpoons 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busta Nut Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 Nae Uganda Bevis action recently? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZX1886 Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Busta Nut said: Nae Uganda Bevis action recently? I saw someone saying the other day that he hadn’t be called up recently because of Quarantine rules. No idea how true it is. Edited October 5, 2021 by ZX1886 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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