Handsome_Devil

So Stephen Robinson made an attacking substitution which weakened the midfield and his team have subsequently dropped out the game? It's like he's never been away! St Mirren have been cracking till the last little spell tbf, an equalizer and another 30 minutes of this would be more than welcome.

Indeed, given a Motherwell team that finished second lost to Albion Rovers no arguments about just beating what's in front of you!

To extend it a wee bit further it's nine seasons out of 11 when you've made Hampden, I looked while ago when Hibs' record was mentioned. It really is excellent. What do you put it down to? It's not uncommon a 'cup team' reaches a couple of semis or finals over a few years but over a decade the team will have been rebuilt on multiple occasions. And in Hibs case not always that well either on the basis of league position, though I guess being in the Championship at totally the wrong time skews that somewhat.

Not sure but it would make sense. Considering Efford here how strict can the criteria be...

Aye, our left-back approach for this season was bad, to double down on it for next term is mind-boggling. I just try not to think about it tbh. I didn't actually mind Crawford bizarrely, he was signed knowing we'd replace him but we needed bodies to make sure we got to the LC knock-outs. There was limited logic to it. Though quite why we then picked the side we did at Dens still makes no sense to me six months on. As for transfers, no idea. We had our much publicized change of heart in spending money and offering better contracts. Is there any reason why Slattery, Solholm, Ojala equivalents (in principle, ignore current form) won't be available again this summer? And Brexit might complicate things but it does open the door to the rest of the world, afaik, hence non-descript Americans who would never previously have got work permits appearing. Presumably there's a whole host of agents sending highlight reels to us thinking we're potential stepping stone to the Old Firm or England.

Being out the team for a bit always improves the impression of players when those on the field are struggling - and when he then played well v Aberdeen, any port in a storm... But like many guys, the question on MOH isn't what's his best but how often he finds that form and how good is he on average? And the answers are not often enough and, well, average. Whether we keep him should depend on who we're confident of getting in midfield in summer. If we can sign a quality holding player, I'd be happy to keep MOH for his versatility and punt Donnelly. If we reckon there's no chance of a holding midfielder and therefore keep Donnelly, I would hope we gamble on upgrading in front of him. It would be rather depressing to think we've looked at Maguire, Donnelly and MOH and determined we can do no better.

Absolutely, I don't think anyone honest would say otherwise. If we'd averaged our points evenly across the season there'd be much less angst and if we'd struggled badly at first before finding our pre-Xmas form now we'd be renewing passports and booking pre-drinks for Hampden. But the past is a weak currency in football as we all know and one of the managers KPIs, around season ticket time at least, is being cheerleader in chief to get folk to spend 300 quid or whatever in summer. Ignoring the donations no one spent that money last year and in 2020 the existential fear of the pandemic meant largely anyone who could did and thought of nothing of the return. So in a few months folk will be making the first 'normal' ST renewal decision in three years amid a cost of living crisis and the knowledge that the club have just announced we're financially tickety boo... We have plenty of fans who will renew out of principle every year and I've no doubt the marketing team will have various plans to tug on the heart strings. But if the board aren't worried right now about whether a significant number will look at the product on offer aware they can (probably) stream matches for free and will decide to take their chances going PATG when in the mood, they have a much stronger constitution than me!

I think an element of understanding can be given to 'Covid insurance' of carrying a slightly bigger squad than usual incase of an outbreak at the wrong time and slightly more rotation than normal with no reserve footie (or whatever the recent equivalent was). But yes, agree completely. According to Wiki, Kelly has a 100% record of 37 games this season and only two others (Woolery, KVV) have played more than 30. Next on the list are SOD and McGinley with 28 - which raises an eyebrow given our full back form - and then Slattery on 27 despite his semi-exile since Xmas. It would obviously need comparison to other squads to see if that's normal or not and we can debate cause and effect etc...but intuitively those stats do not look like the basis for a successful season to me.

Ta for that. I forgot about Tierney but the Goss one was barely a chance. Indeed you'd say Gogic in the first half, similar to Tierney, was a much higher quality chance even if he got nowhere near scoring. Clearly managers might throw in tactical wrong 'uns to confuse the opposition and I don't think it's always a bad thing that any manager, GA in our case, isn't wedded to a certain style of play. But when you're in the run we're on right now it means there's no default to fall back on and there's the impression, fair or otherwise, he's just guessing from week to week. Beyond the short-term it also makes people ask just what we're working towards - e.g. if we struggled because we played Cornelius and Tierney each week but the manager asked for trust because he reckoned the experience would make them stars next season, there'd be a much bigger tolerance.

Interesting analysis on the 3-4-2-1/whatever. The team at St Mirren certainly performed better than I - and I think most people, from their initial reaction, expected - that's true, and there was considerably more passing than we've attempted in recent weeks. But as far as I remember most of it was easily contained as we played in front of them and it was St Mirren who made the better of what few chances there were before we went crazy with changes late on. Did their keeper make a save beyond KVV from a tight angle? That's not to say we wouldn't get better with practice ofc but any formation which crowds the centre of midfield usually relies on getting at least some threat from the full/wing-backs getting up and being able to cross. Which with the best will in the world you just don't see us having right now whoever is picked there.

Long ball can be effective but if you're going to do it you need to do it properly - our half arsed version is not only brutal to watch but useless. Two fast guys close to KVV and another high tempo box to box guy beside MOH would still be brutal to watch but we'd at least have a chance of taking some of the scraps that emerge.

Agree abuse is out of order but SOD has fallen apart to such an extent and for such a long period of time that I'm assuming he has long covid or domestic issues at home. Happy to support him rather than call for him to be binned from the club but give him a break from the XI for his own sake. Tic tacs wise I don't see us ever starting two wingers in a 4-4-2 but 4-3-2 plus Woolery told to stick to one of the flanks would be a step up from the front three being strung across 50 yards. As much as Donnelly has been poor, with Maguire out there's no obvious other six (unless Shaw could do it but j got the impression he was considered more a box to box type). So as frustrating as he's been there's at least some logic to GA picking him consistently as opposed to the random number generator approach elsewhere. Goss currently being ahead of, well, everyone else is the big mystery in midfield for me.

Alexander has shown he can organise and motivate, and his recruitment (as much as he's responsible for it) has been, overall, fine. So the potential for him to be an okay manager is definitely there. If he was put on the carpet by the board this week or was willing to meet the players halfway for some tweaks following a full and frank exchange of views, you could definitely imagine him turning things round. But on the basis his time with us is following basically the same pattern virtually all his previous clubs reported, a much more likely scenario is he's too stubborn to every work on his flaws. We won't bin him now but limp on until it gets really untenable in September. I was at a loss as to why we extended his deal when we did at the time given the likelihood of history repeating itself.

You really don't, simply avoiding turning up at the wrong pitch will see you competitive and the slightest hint of competence will be enough for three points.

Could just toss a coin and save everyone the bother. Torn between saying Hibs have a stunning cup record so are likely to edge it or Hibs have a stunning cup record so are due a loss. Think the only certainty is it won't be a classic.

Depends on the personality and attitude of the player - given Watt's previous slackness at some other clubs I don't think it's unfair GA doubted him. I still think the problem is less we let him go but we made no attempt to replace his goals and then adapted the approach we have to games.

Lauded is higher praise than I think GA has ever had from Motherwell fans, even at his best moments o don't think he's moved beyond grudging acceptance.

Given we're safe (surely) there's no way we'll bin him soon but I could imagine a delegation of senior players, the football equivalent of men in grey suits, demanding a full and frank exchange of views with him or the board this week. It's a testament to the awfulness of everyone else that this season could still turn out to be fine and it's that if, if, if which has stopped the atmosphere becoming really toxic. That could be considerably different by next Sunday afternoon though and then the real worries - survival next season - will come into focus and that'll sharpen the minds, and knives, more than a little...

Yes and that's still true but is now more than outweighed on the negative column. Take Mugabi, he improved a lot, got a new deal then got dropped with the exception of when he helped get a point at Ibrox. SOD has replaced him because...? And this is not an isolated example, it sums up the approach to the whole team. If he actually told the fans what was going on he might get a bit more leeway but when he deliberately has the attitude he does at pressers, there's no reason anyone should give him the benefit of the doubt.

It's hard to remain in the camp of being resigned but ho hum he'll be gone in a few months after that. A bizarre team - as expected. An eye-watering approach - as expected. Awful approach to subs - as expected. Result - pretty much as expected. It's not even surprising. The principles of backing a manager by giving out three-year deals is great but Alexander is basically a low-grade Jim Gannon. The sooner he's gone the better.

This is end of reign stuff - an apathetic performance by an inexplicable line-up. Dundee have been very solid other than the error for the goal and while a draw just about fair right now if anyone deserves to be up it's them.

The spfl made it clear they don't really care and there's no punishment for clubs not being able to play. If those X players Dundee are missing today are remotely important, especially with Adam out, they have no incentive to play and every incentive to find another couple of injuries or positive tests. I would fully expect us to do the same.

A free weekend to mull Wednesday's debacle isn't ideal preparation for the cup quarters but I guess it's better than another loss!

Absolutely it wouldn't be. But if the manager puts everything on being good because you shitfest a result, he needs to expect criticism of you shitfest a defeat.

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.