Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Luke92]

Agree with the majority of the posts on here.

It was just a replay of last season, nothing has changed. I'm still to understand what our style of play is, its not football anyway. Primitive would be the best way to describe our attacking philosophy. I hoped that Alexander might have an awakening and change things but its just the same old pish. The outrage from folk is a culmination of a number of months of pain and isn't just about last night.

I think sometimes we do too much to reason with what we are seeing. It's been crystal clear for some time now that the style of football is murder, that certain first team players aren't good enough and that our recruitment has been poor. Until we address these issues its going to be the same old shite I'm afraid.

The fact that we had two friendlies before this is absolutely criminal as well. We knew when the game was going to be ages ago there is no excuses. Winning next week will continue to paper over the cracks to be honest.

I'm dreading watching another season of this football and i will certainly be thinking twice about forking out £500+ for an away day should we somehow qualify for the next round.

On some specifics:

- Van Veen is starting to really annoy me, never fit and his mobility is woeful. 1 out of 8 games isn't going to cut it. We need a striker asap, not a Shields/Efford who spend the game running out to hopeful long balls.

- Carroll is still miles off it

- SOD on the way out for McGinn..

- Morris looked good albeit his final ball was meh

- Spitall looked how I remembered him, not good enough for first team. Some of his passing was slack

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by Luke92

[CoF]

7 minutes ago, Mr Hahn said:

Didn't really agree with Craigan or Faddy's takes that Sligo were great. They were exactly what I expected them to be: organised, up for it and capable of nicking a few chances. 

I'd give them credit for dealing with pretty much everything we chucked into their box (aye, goes under the "organised and up for it" category). One thing that stood out was their passing in tight spaces, there were a few nice passages that we can only dream of just now. 

[Swello]

Last night reminded me of a cup game against a Championship side when we're coming off the winter break (or the Breidablik 1st leg) - that is to say that the other team may have been limited but were more motivated and looked a bit sharper. A draw would have probably been a fair result but similar to last season, if you are constantly giving teams a goal of a start with shite defending, you're up against it. 

On Bevis - he should never be a starting player - he's a squad player and it's concerning that he was judged to be the best we had in that position. His stupidity in the cup against Hibs cost us dearly, and last night was just another in a long series of shite unforced errors. I think his popularity is saving him from an absolute hounding - Rickie Lamie would be getting fucking pelters if he were responsible. 

Most concerning thing for me - even allowing for the stage in the season and the fact that Sligo sat in once they scored - was the amount of possession we had that resulted in very few chances. Slattery, Morris and Spittal moved the ball about nicely enough but I never once felt that they knew what to do once we got near their box.

I heard the first big "boooooooooooooo" in the East Stand last night after 9 minutes - there are some folk that have made their mind up already. Performances like last night and the suspicion that we are under-prepared is only going to make up more minds. 

Not confident that we can do a Llanelli next week but I was even less confident after that particular first leg debacle.

[Busta Nut]

42 minutes ago, Al B said:

I know I'm still on my own and that's fine.... I 100% understand why, but I will die alone on my "KVV is shite" hill.

He's by no means the worst, not even in the same boat as the worst. But he's shite.

I'm at the foot of the hill about to climb it.

[Desp]

37 minutes ago, Al B said:

I know I'm still on my own and that's fine.... I 100% understand why, but I will die alone on my "KVV is shite" hill.

He's by no means the worst, not even in the same boat as the worst. But he's shite.

He's our best striker.  But then again, after 18 months in charge, GA has Ricki Lamie as our best defender.  

I wouldn't go as far as "shite" - I think KvV is a serviceable striker at our level - but if you're looking at our Top 10 strikers of the last 20 years, he's nowhere near that list.  

There's plenty of caveats to this.  Firstly, I think he'd be a lot better alongside someone else in a front two.  You don't get many front two's these days so whether that could be a thing, I doubt.   Secondly, if the manager insists on his centre halves launching it from the back, you may as well buy, I dunno, a big fucking striker who likes to win heiders.  That's not van Veen's game at all.  His ability is clear for pretty much everyone to see, but his attitude seems pretty shite.  You could tell after 15 minutes last night that it was going to be one of those nights for him.  Those happen far too often for him to be anything other than an "awright" player.

Will he get more goals or yellow cards this season?  I imagine it'll be tight.

[dezz]

Pretty diabolical stuff last night. Like the second half of last season, we were so pedestrian and lacking in ideas going forward. McGinn and Lamie the only bright spots really.

The only silver lining, I guess, is that as bad as we were it took a brutal individual error for us to lose the game. Huge improvement needed next week if we want to get through, I can't see us keeping a clean sheet so we're going to need to find a way to get the ball in the net 3 times if we want to avoid ET. Getting Tierney on the pitch would be a good start. 

Edited July 22, 2022 by dezz

[pozbaird]

Welcome to the P&B online help centre for fans of crisis clubs lads…. come join us fans of St Mirren, St Johnstone and Hibernian for tonight’s therapy session. Bring your own cans of fizzy pop and sherbet dib dabs. 9pm sharp.

[Swello]

11 minutes ago, dezz said:

. Getting Tierney on the pitch would be a good start. 

14 minutes ago, Desp said:

There's plenty of caveats to this.  Firstly, I think he'd be a lot better alongside someone else in a front two.  You don't get many front two's these days so whether that could be a thing, I doubt.   

I wonder if getting Tierney and KVV close to each other and some proper game time together could be an answer to this without going all the way to having 2 conventional strikers through the middle. 

It's one of the most Da' moans ever but the apparent death of proper "strike partners" is one of the genuinely shitest things about modern fitba. It was fairly recently that we had Moult and McDonald as a more than useful (and maybe last) partnership - and that is 2 of our our best strikers in recent years - but we've had loads of good partnerships over the years (I'm a Coyne & Arnott man myself ). At our level, we can't afford the guys that can do it all that you see from better leagues - we kind of need players that can cover for the other's weaknesses.

[Busta Nut]

Ross Tierney should be the first name on the team sheet

[Guest Cooper Stand]

Tierney is the first name, on the subs list, he's a wee boy playing s big mans game. 

[thisGRAEME]

4 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

Ross Tierney should be the first name on the team sheet

Everything is

 

so

 

slow.

 

It was plainly obvious after the first half, nae the first half hour that we weren't going to break them down. As soon as he's on the field we're a sharper, faster team as he links the game from front to back in a way that Maguire, Slattery and Spittal can't. They either run the ball forward or go sideways. Tierney pops it off, or turns on it, or immediately moves it. I cannot fathom why you look at us and don't think "Check out our guys wide in space and the striker who makes good runs" and not then wonder how you utilise it, because your answer is sitting on the bench.

A goal down and we're still fuckin rigidly passing it to the centre half, to the full back, to the centre half (HOOOLDS!). Slattery wasn't at his best by a long shot last night but at least he tried to drive the ball forward and move the ball faster rather than assuming we'll ploddingly pass our way to victory.

[VincentGuerin]

'You only sing in the chapel' last night.

I mean...

[Busta Nut]

2 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

'You only sing in the chapel' last night.

I mean...

There is a wee horrible element down there.

[eliphas]

Positives:

Kelly had nothing to do, McGinn had a good game first half and I think will offer more than SOD, Carrol/Morris/Spittal linked well I thought and were very neat and tidy which we didn't even have lastvsewson,  Slattery at least tried to make forward and difficult passes

Negatives:

Mugabi was brutal from the off and looked like he only learned how to play football yesterday, he's made costly mistakes far far too often now, Carrol/Morris/Spitt didn't really have much end output of note, Shields and Efford are awful, KVV was not match fit, Slattery shanked a good number of passes he did try and went down to easy

Overall:

Had Mugabi not gifted that goal I can't really see them scoring, they also don't sit in and I do think we would have broken them down more often. But that's not really good enough, they did, and we should have converted a couple of chances and made a couple better ones too. We really really need a quality forward to rival KVV/play in the front 3 beside him. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dezz]

40 minutes ago, Cooper Stand said:

Tierney is the first name, on the subs list, he's a wee boy playing s big mans game. 

No doubt he's one of the smaller players on the park, but I thought it looked like he'd filled out a bit when he came on last night. He'll never be a tank, but I thought he looked a bit bulkier than I remember him last season. 

[well fan for life]

34 minutes ago, dezz said:

No doubt he's one of the smaller players on the park, but I thought it looked like he'd filled out a bit when he came on last night. He'll never be a tank, but I thought he looked a bit bulkier than I remember him last season. 

Aye he looks a bit more robust now. If only we could get him in the team.

[stu92]

1 hour ago, VincentGuerin said:

'You only sing in the chapel' last night.

I mean...

 

1 hour ago, Busta Nut said:

There is a wee horrible element down there.

To give the Bois their due, they do a good job of bringing a bit of colour and atmosphere to games. Shame they end up ruining it with acts of utter moronity like last night. 

I was sitting in the next section up from them, and more than a few sitting round about me started booing them immediately. Didn’t stop them singing it again mind you. 

[Mr. Brightside]

Aside from the problematic hints of sectarianism, it's utterly horrific "patter" which was presumably meant to be funny.

[senorsoupe]

1 hour ago, stu92 said:

 

To give the Bois their due, they do a good job of bringing a bit of colour and atmosphere to games. Shame they end up ruining it with acts of utter moronity like last night. 

I was sitting in the next section up from them, and more than a few sitting round about me started booing them immediately. Didn’t stop them singing it again mind you. 

Were they the people that hounded out the Footy Adventures guy?

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Hopefully Tierney has earned the right to play from the start against a midtable LOI side by next week.