Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Lobby Dossar]

8 hours ago, Kapowzer said:

Shields can only go knocking on the gaffers door once he learns to hit a cow's arse with a banjo from one pace away, otherwise he needs to button it.

Donnelly, sadly I think he is another player who'd early promise has been curtailed by a long injury. I'm sorry to say I don't see a future at this level. I can see him wanting to make things happen but he no longer has the tools he had to do so.

 

Shields scored goals for fun in the Championship lasts season ……playing through the middle alongside a big centre forward ……not out on the left wing trying to control balls fired above his head at 100mph. 
 

Donnelly is a defender who had a 6 game purple patch in midfield and everyone thought he was Messi. To slow in thought and action to be any good in there at this level.

 

[Kapowzer]

Shields was in prime poacher territory last night and not the first time he’s botched a gilt edged chance within the 6 yard box.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Kapowzer

[Handsome_Devil]

I don't object in principle to us shelling it up the park but in that case why not have Woolery and Shields close to Van Veen and actually commit some midfielders to chasing the seconds balls? I - like everyone else - just don't get what we were trying to do last night. It wasn't only that we barely played football but even that limited approach wasn't done with any conviction. The combination of our tactics with the team selection was, yet again, inexplicable.

Having McGinley/Carroll as left back in March having seen them all season is a borderline sacking offence. Committing to both of them going into next season should absolutely be a sacking offence...

And how any professional squad can have literally one genuine central striker in it for the 4-3-3 of choice remains utterly mind-boggling.

But for all the squad balance criticism, I genuinely don't think the players are the biggest problem right now. We're obviously not brilliant but nor is this a four points from 27 squad as hopeless as it currently looks.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

For context, the last time an individual Motherwell manager went nine league games without a win was in the 2002/03 season when we finished bottom.

We went nine games without a win last season, but Robinson oversaw 8 and Las the 9th. The same in the 2010/11 season but it was a combination of Brown / Young / McCall.

Alexander's style was always going to have all patience lost when the results stopped coming. 

I was going to say you can't see where the next win is coming from, but given this season I have missed Aberdeen, St. Johnstone and Livi wins at home in the league and the Aberdeen and Morton wins in the cup, the fact I'm missing Saturday's game for a christening means it'll probably come then.

[welldaft]

4 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

I don't object in principle to us shelling it up the park but in that case why not have Woolery and Shields close to Van Veen and actually commit some midfielders to chasing the seconds balls? I - like everyone else - just don't get what we were trying to do last night. It wasn't only that we barely played football but even that limited approach wasn't done with any conviction. The combination of our tactics with the team selection was, yet again, inexplicable.

Having McGinley/Carroll as left back in March having seen them all season is a borderline sacking offence. Committing to both of them going into next season should absolutely be a sacking offence...

And how any professional squad can have literally one genuine central striker in it for the 4-3-3 of choice remains utterly mind-boggling.

But for all the squad balance criticism, I genuinely don't think the players are the biggest problem right now. We're obviously not brilliant but nor is this a four points from 27 squad as hopeless as it currently looks.

Agree. We are still in QF of cup and a couple of points adrift of 4th place.

If you have offered that to any Well fan at the start of the season (after 29 games) they would have said 100% happy with that. Of course taking 4 points form 27 puts a different perspective on it. 

Last night we were undeniably poor. But we still were better than County whatever anyone says on here. The stats back that up as did my own eyes. Would they have scored outside a 50/50 penalty ? 

I am getting pissed off with GA and his tinkering. Never the same defence. And frequent changes in midfield and attack. One or two I could understand but it is always 4 or 5. And will or should be again for Dundee. Thought SODs was poor last night as was Shields, Van Veen, Goss and Donnelly.  Would happily see all of them replaced for the weekend. Van Veen genuinely is only apparently interested if it is a big game with decent atmosphere. Even b4 KO last night I was questioning how he would perform v Ross County midweek in front of low crowd. So no surprise there. 

This game on Saturday and the Cup game define our season. Win both and all of a sudden we are back at it. Lose both and the season is done and we have to hope we pick up enough points to avoid being dragged back into play off discussion even if that still looks remote. We all remember Hibs arse collapse from a few years back. 

 

[Al B]

I might be wrong on this because I haven't seen it back, but at the time of Shields' miss it looked to me like the ball that was played into him at some pace, hit off the leg of a defender about 3ft in front of him and changed direction, he just didn't have time to react to the deflection such was the pace of the ball.

As I say I could be wrong but I thought he was unlucky at the time.

[Phillips455]

Kelly should have scored with that final chance in the box.

 

Well onto Dundee. Maybe we can bring Mugabi back as a forward? Don't see how that could hurt.

[thisGRAEME]

1 hour ago, Phillips455 said:

Kelly should have scored with that final chance in the box.

This is both funny and not good.

[Ron Aldo]

* Robert Downey Jr. eye roll GIF *

[YassinMoutaouakil]

It's a small thing,  but I'm not even convinced that's Liam Donnelly. Is it a body double? Can he play centre mid?

[Desp]

Certainly over the last 10/15 years, you can feel when there's been a turning point against a manager.  For me, last night was it for Alexander.  You could sense it amongst the whole crowd.  Personally, I had had enough of him after the pathetic display against Rangers at Fir Park back in October, but it now seems a good number of the support are there.

I don't really care if we go 9/10/11 without a win.  Not really.  Of course I want us to win games, but as a Motherwell fan, winning isn't everything.  I also don't expect us to play total football every week, but what I don't expect or want to see is a Motherwell team set-up and looking like a pub team you'd see at your local park on a Sunday morning.  Launch it over the top and see if the strong, fast guy can catch it might work in the 4th tier of England, but it is not what I expect from a top flight team in Scotland.  

A plan. A glimpse of an idea of what this team should be is the very fucking least you'd expect after more than a year in the job.  It simply isn't good enough.  The manager has now given us plenty of evidence to show us he's not capable of producing a football team.  Last night, and pretty much the majority of the games this season, have been an utterly miserable experience as a fan.  Utterly miserable. 

As @Busta Nut pointed out, the price of every fucking thing will be going through the roof this year.  Belts will be tightened across the board for the majority in this country.  They'll need some fucking marketing genius to convince many to shell out between £350-£450 to come and watch this drivel next season.  Keep this manager in place, and the Season Ticket figures will fall mightily in the summer.

[Phillips455]

It will all depend on the next 2 games.

Win against Dundee and Hibs and suddenly we are back in the top 6 and in a semi final. Lose both and the season is effectively over. Thankfully that will only be 9 days from now.

[Kapowzer]

18 minutes ago, Phillips455 said:

It will all depend on the next 2 games.

Win against Dundee and Hibs and suddenly we are back in the top 6 and in a semi final. Lose both and the season is effectively over. Thankfully that will only be 9 days from now.

I don’t know what evidence anyone has to suggest that no win on Saturday means those above us will dramatically pull away and insurmountable lead. 12 points to play for till the split and a loss would be a blow a) because it’s Mutley and b) it makes the task that little bit harder. I expect to see a lot of draws between now and then in this league. But we are far from season over territory regardless of the result on Saturday.

[Swami]

Keep catching myself inadvertently sighing and shaking my head today. 

[Phillips455]

36 minutes ago, Kapowzer said:

I don’t know what evidence anyone has to suggest that no win on Saturday means those above us will dramatically pull away and insurmountable lead. 12 points to play for till the split and a loss would be a blow a) because it’s Mutley and b) it makes the task that little bit harder. I expect to see a lot of draws between now and then in this league. But we are far from season over territory regardless of the result on Saturday.

If we losebto the bottom side, while the teams around us start to actually win then we would only have a few games left to actually ensure we finish top 6. I agree it's very tight bit it would be a significant set back that could cause us to fall out of contention. 4 of the 7 club involved will be in the bottom 6 after the split.

 

He reason we are still in contention is due to the clubs around us dropping points and I do not believe that will simply continue for the next 4 or so games.

[Phillips455]

Well  in even sadder news... Frank Conner has passed away.

 

 

[steelmen]

If he stopped fouling him at this stage, you might have a point. 
From my view, he started fouling there but kept going as they got into the box.

The rule was always were the foul started not where it ended. That photo proves it wasn’t a pen.

[Desp]

34 minutes ago, steelmen said:

The rule was always were the foul started not where it ended. That photo proves it wasn’t a pen.

Key word in bold there.  

The photo proves nothing.

[fat_tony]

I might be wrong on this because I haven't seen it back, but at the time of Shields' miss it looked to me like the ball that was played into him at some pace, hit off the leg of a defender about 3ft in front of him and changed direction, he just didn't have time to react to the deflection such was the pace of the ball.
As I say I could be wrong but I thought he was unlucky at the time.

That was exactly how it looked from the Cooper at the time. He didn't have any time to adjust his feet, it really just hit off him and went wide.

I find it hard to blame any of the forwards for last night as they were dealing with the ball being shelled at them above head height all night. The couple of occasions where we got the ball to either KVV or Woolery's feet in and around the area, we looked dangerous. It just didn't happen anywhere near enough given our ponderous build up play.

[Swello]

On the penalty stuff - it was a penalty by the current interpretation I think - but in any case, my energy to fight our corner there is cancelled out completely by what came after - we weren't robbed last night, we were pish.

I think we are fine when we can be the destructive team and the opposition are trying to play nice football - but when a team aren't going to do that, like County last night (as is their right as the away team) - there is no attempt to alter our play to try to break a team down or do something with the ball. We have some players who are decent in possession and have a bit of guile - last night's approach isn't inevitable based on limited options, it's a choice.