Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Gianfranco]

Today we probably played better with ten men than we did against Dundee and Ross County.

Efford isn’t for me. He doesn’t really do anything?

Donnelly and Dean were pretty good today considering. SOD was actually decent when he came on too. I’d like to see Roberts start more often.

Ojala has looked miles off the pace since he returned. If the Bathgate Maldini wants to cancel his pre contract when Dundee go down then that would be ok with me.

I’d like to say that’s this season over but I’m still looking over my shoulder a bit. Could do with 3 points in Perth next week.

[thisGRAEME]

49 minutes ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

Thought he was our best player today in difficult circumstances. Worked hard, pushed up, tackled and covered well too.

Full agreement on that from me.

[thisGRAEME]

6 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

Today we probably played better with ten men than we did against Dundee and Ross County.

Nae Goss today, which an unkind viewer may..

[Phillips455]

While the board will be disappointed with the later half of the season, if we get to the top 6 then I have no doubt Alexander will stay as manager.

Even if we finish Botton 6, I can only see us losing basically all of our games to result in him getting the sack. I just hope we can just move on and win games. Kicking out mcginley would also be another start.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

We’ve all seen how Stephen O’Donnell has played as a wing-back in massive games for Scotland against Austria and England, yet we change to that shape and play Mugabi there. I’m raging at Mugabi for lunging into that tackle, but I’m equally as raging at Alexander for putting a centre half on the wing for it to happen.

Woolery finally getting some consistency into his game then getting dropped is par for the course with this regime too.

Ojala looked like a great signing to me in the first half of the season, but since he’s came back any player with a bit of pace and it’s game over for him. I even thought he could have been stronger for the first but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt until I see it back.

Impressed as always with Cornelius, hopefully the tombola doesn’t stop him getting two starts in a row next week.

[Handsome_Devil]

The Finnish for Brian Martin is clearly Juhani Ojala. A shame because he looked good, if fragile, at first but barring a miraculous fitness turnaround in summer his latest injuries have surely called time on him at any kind of level.

[rowsdower]

Roberts looks bright, and presses well. He does seem to slow the game down a bit when he receives the ball. I'd have him, KVV and Woolery as the front 3 for the remainder. Efford makes too many silly mistakes.

I'm not very confident in our defensive options going forward. Ojala had attackers in his pocket for his first few games, but unfortunately he runs like they're still in there.

[Blink182]

After "cheat, cheat, cheat" is there anything more cringey than the "stand up for the Motherwell" chant that we bring out every now and then.

[ZX1886]

After "cheat, cheat, cheat" is there anything more cringey than the "stand up for the Motherwell" chant that we bring out every now and then.

Remember young lads chanting “PSG” towards Celtic during the League Cup Final in 2017.

[Busta Nut]

I hate all the "season done" patter but with Hibs being as shite as us there was a real opportunity there today. Alexander can claim 3-4-3 all he wants but it would have been a 5-2-3 all day.

I am seriously having doubts about my season ticket. (I will get one, I know I will) That's pretty unusual for me.

I just can't go this pish.

[Casagolda]

1 hour ago, Gianfranco said:

Efford isn’t for me. He doesn’t really do anything?

He doesn’t overly convince but he’s now scored 2 in 2 I suppose? He’s scored twice as many goals for us as Watt has for Utd for a fraction of the cost! 

They were saying post match Hibs paid about 300k for the boy Melkersen and he along with Jasper looked a cut above anything we had going forward. Both defences looked suspect but the difference was we lacked any real quality when we got into the final third to take advantage. 

Can’t really fault the effort and we made a decent game of it in the circumstances but we shot ourselves in the foot with a wild first 5 mins. Mental for Mugabi as well as Roberts to be flying into challenges like that and we could easily have been down to 9 men. 

We done well to stay in the match but it felt like we needed a spark as the 2nd half began to drift. We played a full match a man short but for some reason Alexander waited till 10 mins to go to bring Woolery on? He still had another 3 subs to make as well but didn't use them until he somewhat pointlessly chucked Shields on in injury time. 

Don’t think this team had any real chance of winning the cup anyway but it felt like a win today could at least reignite our season and give everyone a bit of a lift for the run in. Another defeat though and with each passing week it looks like very much like we’re just going to limp to an 8th or 9th placed finish. 

[welldaft]

33 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I hate all the "season done" patter but with Hibs being as shite as us there was a real opportunity there today. Alexander can claim 3-4-3 all he wants but it would have been a 5-2-3 all day.

I am seriously having doubts about my season ticket. (I will get one, I know I will) That's pretty unusual for me.

I just can't go this pish.

Ditto.

Could argue all day long re the red card. I thought it harsh just like I did for recent Ross C penalty. But we are not getting any breaks from refs at the moment. More annoyed that Mugabi gave him decision to make. He has that in his locker for sure. 

I think we need 5 possibly six points to make sure of top 6. We could do it but in all honesty I very much doubt we will. 

It would be nice if not a miracle for us to actually score first. Might make little difference but it is bordering on bizarre now. 

[Al B]

That game was crying out for Tierney in behind 2 strikers. Hibs aren't overly physical or big, and he'd have gotten a fair bit of opportunity to open things up in there.

[thisGRAEME]

41 minutes ago, Al B said:

That game was crying out for Tierney in behind 2 strikers. 

We've only got one of those tbf. 

[Al B]

5 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

We've only got one of those tbf. 

I have absolutely zero clue who is a striker and who isn't. I have a vague idea of who is supposed to be...but that doeasnt really mean anything in Tombolaball.

[well fan for life]

ATTACKING OPTIONS KLAXON 

[CoF]

Just spent half an hour looking at the number of starting 11 changes we make from the previous game (then the subsequent result). It obviously doesn't capture changes in positions and shape, of which there were many. I'm sure folk with more insight than me can say how this compares to other teams / seasons.

 

- L vs Hibs
1 D vs St Johnstone
3 L vs Dundee (Lg Cup)
4 W vs Livingstone
0 W vs Dundee
3 W v Aberdeen
1 D vs Rangers
1 W vs Ross County
1 L vs Hearts
2 L vs Celtic
2 L Dundee United
2 D vs St Mirren
3 L vs Rangers
3 W vs Aberdeen
3 W vs Hearts
1 D vs Dundee
2 W vs Dundee United
2 D vs Hibs
2 L vs Celtic
3 W vs St Johnstone
2 W vs Livingstone

Winter Break

1 L vs Ross County
2 W vs Greenock (Sc Cup)
1 D vs Hibs
3 L vs Hearts
3 D vs St MIrren
1 L vs Celtic
4 L vs Dundee United
4 W vs Aberdeen (Sc Cup)
0 D vs Aberdeen
5 D vs Rangers***
4 L vs County
2 D vs Dundee
4 L vs Hibs (Sc Cup)

 

*** p.s. 2-2 vs Rangers, of the 13 outfield players who played at least 45 minutes that game, only 6 started vs Ross County. 

[Desp]

It was nice to see a bit of fight in the team today, but ultimately we got what we deserved which was f**k all. 

I'm amazed that anyone thinks Mugabi's challenge wasn't a red card. It basically ticked every box, and it matters not a jot whether it was the first minute or the last. A stupid challenge from a player who's got a bad challenge in him. I don't think it was malicious in any way, but its not great.

That red card shouldn't take any of the heat from the manager though. Does he genuinely just pick out 8 names out of a hat to go alongside Kelly, Donnelly and KvV? Utterly bizarre picking Mugabi and McGinley as wing backs. Efford seems like some sort of competition winner.

I'd echo Busta's thoughts from above in that I'm really questioning whether I'll bother my arse with a ST next season if GA in still in charge. I usually cave, but watching this week after week is just an utterly miserable experience. 

[well fan for life]

2 minutes ago, Desp said:

It was nice to see a bit of fight in the team today, but ultimately we got what we deserved which was f**k all. 

I'm amazed that anyone thinks Mugabi's challenge wasn't a red card. It basically ticked every box, and it matters not a jot whether it was the first minute or the last. A stupid challenge from a player who's got a bad challenge in him. I don't think it was malicious in any way, but its not great.

That red card shouldn't take any of the heat from the manager though. Does he genuinely just pick out 8 names out of a hat to go alongside Kelly, Donnelly and KvV? Utterly bizarre picking Mugabi and McGinley as wing backs. Efford seems like some sort of competition winner.

I'd echo Busta's thoughts from above in that I'm really questioning whether I'll bother my arse with a ST next season if GA in still in charge. I usually cave, but watching this week after week is just an utterly miserable experience. 

Aye this is very much it for me. Mugabi's tackle is a shiter. Maybe a decade or two ago it would be seen as a good tackle but absolutely not now. It's just a big, stupid lunge.

The result itself is firmly at Alexander's door, though. Another tombola line up, a baffling set of wingbacks, a midfield pairing that's never played together alone and our best player in the last 3-4 games on the bench until the 80th minute. Then he shoves Shields on in the last minute for absolutely no reason. 

Hibs weren't very good today. But ultimately they didn't actually need to be. 

Sadly GA isn't going anywhere. Which is unfortunate because the football is absolutely stinking. 

 

 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I was working today so despite a strategically placed lunch break I only managed to catch the last 10 or so- I literally tuned in as Woolery almost scored from Cornelius winning the ball in midfield.  

I obviously can't comment on the performance but aye, what the f**k was that starting eleven? Does Alexander genuinely think the best midfield pairing for our biggest game of the season is Donnelly and Cornelius? If so a) what has Donnelly done to deserve this? and b) why does Cornelius only appear once every four games?  Playing a 5-2-3 without SOD or Woolery is also baffling given they're probably the two players in our squad who'd benefit most from that formation.