Mr Hahn

Yep, Kelly for us. He's certainly earned us points this season and, in certain other games, has kept some results from being cricket scores. Tony Watt would likely have pushed him had he stayed...but he didn't. And given how the second half of this season has been approached, would the league's top scorer (at the time) even have been guaranteed a game for us if he stayed such has been the madness behind our team selections.

Yeh pretty much this is why Slattery needs to be in the team. Will he miss his target sometimes? Sure, but it feels like our midfield needs someone who is willing to take a risk. He'll come take the ball and try passes, to feet, that could result in scoring chances. Right now, everything in our midfield feels very conservative, very risk free, and it's resulting in us not creating many chances. There's no doubt in mind that Slattery is our best midfielder so surely we need to be playing him more often. O'Hara is a good runner and more than deserves his position in the team for me and Donnelly has a bit of bite to him when he's playing well so that just leaves our midfield needing someone who'll take the chance and try and play the killer pass. Goss just doesn't seem to be that player. He's got a decent delivery but firstly I don't think we're getting him in position to give those deliveries nearly enough to make his selection worthwhile, and secondly, our forwards don't really feed off crosses that much. KVV likes the ball to feet, Woolery likes the ball to feet so he can run at the defender, Shields (I'd imagine given his pace) probably prefers the ball to feet or in behind, and Efford would also prefer the ball to feet if Saturday is anything to go by. I like the shouts of 5-3-2/3-5-2 that others have mentioned. The persistence with 4-3-3 was doing my nut in earlier in the season until we beat Aberdeen at Pittodrie which made me zip my lips about it. But I think a system change would do us no harm at all and 3-5-2 seems to get more of our players in their preferred positions.

Yep, I wasn’t even in it yet after the County game but count me in now too. The County game set the foundations for me and seeing Mark O’Hara who wasn’t having a bad game at all sacrificed instead of Donnelly has me in. Paying off Alexander wasn’t exactly how we planned on using our profits from the last year I guess but I think it has to happen. That was fucking rank and can’t continue. Playing this god awful hoofball while having our three strikers as far from each other as possible isn’t going to cut it anymore. Also someone could maybe give SoD a shout to look at his jersey every now and then, might remind him which ones he’s supposed to aim at. Even as far as punts up the park go, his were particularly rotten.

If we think things are a bit sour now, I think we're looking at an exponential increase in sourness if we lose to the bottom side's reserves managed by Mark McGhee.

FWIW I think Alexander is capable of putting out a team that's enjoyable to watch. I always think back to the 2-0 Hearts game at Fir Park earlier this season which I thoroughly enjoyed. It wasn't silky football but we just completely smothered them with energy, they couldn't deal with it and I had a blast at that game. So whilst we're never going to get champagne football under Alexander, from my POV we need to get back to that level of energy and it'll both become more effective and better to watch. Wednesday night was an example for me of what our team looks like when it lacks that energy. We're not exactly a team of ballers so if our game doesn't have pace and power, it looks like it did on Wednesday and our lack of creativity is glaring with the ponderous play and no-one able to pick out any kind of dangerous pass. From some of his pre-match interviews, I think his chopping and changing has been an attempt to keep that energy high but as others have pointed out, it has an effect of players not really knowing what's going on so it's been counter productive. Getting a more consistent 11 on the park seems like a good place to start, footballers are fit people so trust them and if they tire during the game, make use of the ludicrous 5 subs you have at your disposal. Tony Watt certainly brought a lot to the team in this regard too but don't think he's the main reason it's been missing. I'm not in the Alexander out camp because I don't think the team is a lost cause under him but if the team is lacking that energy that his style relies on to be successful, it's certainly on him to a degree.

That was one of the worst games of football I've seen in recent times and pretty disappointed as was expecting quite an exciting game with County in form and us coming off the back of a good comeback at the weekend. If I had no prior knowledge of either team and went to watch that, you'd have had a hard time convincing me that that was two professional teams. Complete lack of ability on the ball, players passing to no-one, missing simple passes, launching balls into the stratosphere for no apparent reason. County were the winners on the league table, and deservedly so for their solid defensive display, but the rest of us were losers for having sat through that. Very few clear cut chances to speak of and probably appropriate that the game was settled by a penalty. It looked outside the box from my seat but I've since seen O'Donnell's handball incident and that's a penalty for me. So even if the first call wasn't right, think it's balanced itself out. Shields probably should do better with his chance and the County keeper makes a good save from Roberts at the end but struggling to think of any other chances at either end. Woolery played well, was the only player on the park who posed any real threat on either team for me. The rest of our lot were shite and I don't think Hungbo or Charles-Cook ever really got into the game for County. Critical game at the weekend now against Dundee. Losing to Mark McGhee in a similar fashion might push my sanity over the edge.

Agree. We can argue the merits of it, but O'Donnell is an international full back and has struggled to play well in our system. So when we put in a guy whose main position is probably CB and whose distribution isn't his strong suit, should we be that surprised that he's not a world beater? I'm totally fine with having McGinley, for us I think he's a decent versatile option to have around. And some of the absolute melts in our support responding to the story on Twitter really need to look at themselves and ask what good they're doing. Everyone's entitled to have their view but reading some of them, you'd think he was *gag* Jacob Blyth.

Wonder if we're thinking of the same incident but a number of years ago I remember one of the younger players absolutely smashing a ball during this drill that caught a young lad right on the coupon. The impact was like nothing I've seen at the fitba and the wee fella, from a seated position, got hit so hard that the seat folded back to it's upright position taking the his legs with it. Would have been comical if folks weren't genuinely concerned that he was ok!

This, I didn’t think we were that bad and the timing of the first two goals really was a gut punch. Clearly beaten by a way better team today. At times they just played through us with ease and have so much depth all over the park. Van Veen looks like he’s chucked it for me. Thought Tierney and Efford looked far more threatening than him for the first 20 mins of the second half. Massive midweek game for us now, tangerine Tony getting off the mark for Utd against us would just about sum up our 2022 so far.

That Maloney interview is pretty confusing. Although I suppose technically speaking Hibs did have enough chances to win the game (I counted 2?) I must have dosed off for the "more than enough" part. The only time I felt genuinely threatened was in the first minute when Nisbet went through. He maybe just took one touch too many and Carroll made a good block. The only other real chance I thought was for Doidge. Was a good bit of movement but did anyone really fancy him to score? Unless we're counting a Cadden cross that ran about 3m in front of all the attackers, not sure what I'm missing. As others have said, that was a total nothing game of football. Conditions were shite, play was generally lacking quality so we'll take the point and forget about it. For what it's worth, I thought we did slightly edge it and of the two teams I thought we were the more comfortable. Defensively we looked solid, even if the distribution at times was rotten (looking at you McGinley). Solholm again looked excellent for me and a decent shift from Carroll given he's not a CB. Attacking-wise, we didn't offer a great deal though KVV should have scored. He was looking fed up in the second half and a bit surprised we didn't sub him for Woolery for the last wee bit to at least give a bit of chase across the top. Roberts was alright but Shields needs to bring a bit more. He has a bit of pace and looks like he should have a bit of strength but needs to get better at holding the ball if he's to take up the role that Watt used to hold. I actually enjoyed the performance of our midfield last night but I may be in the minority on that. I'll hold my hands up and say I thought Goss was shite when he first appeared in the side but he's quickly become one of our better players this season for me. Maguire also put in a very decent shift. Donnelly's red is stupid, I agree with Alexander that I think a warning was probably right for that tackle, but if you're on a yellow, why even bother making it? It was in a nothing area of the park. Bring back Slattery please, not sure why's he's been dropped but he's easily one of our better players.

When the English BBC contingent are forced to cover Scottish football: Fucking Rodney!

Wonder if we'll continue to see Scott Brown in a defensive role against us in the future, he doesn't seem to be coping too well.

ffs

This wullnae dae: The possession doesn’t bother me if we’re counter attacking but we’re clearly not. 0 shots in a half against a team we’re level on points with is an embarrassment.

Slattery out and Goss remains?! He better have a knock or Alexander has lost the plot. Still on the 4-3-3 too….fab

Have we seriously only got 2 clean sheets so far? Remind me why we're having to watch this eye bleeding, ultra defensive dross every week?!

Someone needs to go back to all those players in the Motherwell team from 18/19 and tell them they're vastly underselling themselves and that David Turnbull's goal every other game record was just because "he was surrounded by better players than the opposition".

Tbh the solution to O'Donnell's form to me is giving him a bit of a break and I'm not sure him being involved in the international scene for these games is 1. merited or 2. good for him. When we look at what O'Donnell is, he's pretty much made his career out of being a solid Premiership full back. Nothing massively special but someone you can usually depend on. Therefore I reckon a hard season where we had to battle pretty hard at times to stay up, followed by going straight into the international scene (which you'd have to imagine was a fairly intense summer for him both physically and mentally), before going straight back into the domestic scene again with probably not sufficient time to rest and take a bit of stock. It's not your average "solid Premiership player"'s schedule. Couple that with getting Covid as well, albeit we don't know quite how bad it affected him. That's a tough year (and a bit) for any player IMO. However, as an international footballer and now club captain, I don't think fans are unreasonable in expecting a bit more from him. I agree that our current system doesn't help our full backs, fully on board with that but in some passages of play on Sunday, it's difficult to make excuses for him. That first yellow card was amateurish stuff. To me he looks like a player that could have done with not going away with Scotland, being out of competitive football for a week, maybe even taken 2-3 days and just chilled with his family or whatever and then came back to it. I presume no-one's forcing him to make himself available for selection if he thinks he needs a rest but from the outside looking it, given his year, I think that's probably exactly what he could use.

This is difficult to argue with given what we've watched this season. We have a team who can barely string passes together and, as your post suggests, the last few weeks very much feel like the chickens coming home to roost. When we were winning games, we certainly weren't outplaying teams and I'm not even convinced we were out-competing teams. We were just taking our chances when they came and that was the difference. To me, we look like a championship side playing Premiership teams in the cup. Endeavor generally plentiful and defense will head/clear/block everything, but in general play they struggle when on the ball and don't spend much time keeping it. This willnae dae for the whole season. I appreciate our midfielders are pish, but clearly only playing 3 of them isn't working. We're getting so badly dominated in that area of the park every week that the only solution I see is to put another body in there and try a different system. 4-3-3 is dandy when you've got three midfielders with good movement and interplay but we don't and I'm not really sure why we've persisted with 4-3-3 for so long, particularly as it was the same system that the previous manager played.

Neither Woolery or Shields were great but, for me, this comes back to the issues in midfield. If they aren't creating anything or bringing the forwards into the game then it's very hard for them to impress. I agree with this. I was actually fine with Shields performance, worked hard and made a reasonable attempt to feed off the scraps he got. In the end, there's only so much we can expect from our forwards if we're giving them the ball in crap locations with no space and to a part of their body that isn't their feet. Players that can make something happen in those situations at our level (e.g. KVV v Hibs) look like brilliant players and are the exception rather than the rule.

Certainly feel like I'm into the post-covid era of football now. Canni just turn the stream off and do something else if bad things are happening, back to leaving the ground fuming and having the long car journey home in pishing rain to sulk about it . Having slept on it and seen some of the major incidents back now, referees obviously have a difficult job and we should generally be sympathetic to that, they make mistakes which happens. I think what winds fans up is when a ref makes a decision where there's no possible way he can be sure. So using last night as an example: The St Mirren penalty, most of us seem to agree, isn't a penalty. To me it looks like a standard incident you'd see in a game where the ref just gives a hand gesture to say either "get back up" or crosses his arms to say "not enough". However, that to me is an understandable mistake. If seen in real time, I can see how the ref could give a penalty there. The opposite of that is the retake. We've all got freeze frames and slow replays and still can't be 100% sure Kelly left his line. To me it looks like he's on it (just) but appreciate I've got bias. But the point is, if we can't be sure, how on earth could they give that decision at the time? It's so close to the line, it's almost impossible for them to say that he's off it. At such an important point in the game, I think that was a ludicrous call to make. This is to take nothing away from St Mirren btw who I thought looked pretty good and fully merited at least a point and really should have had all three. On us, that first half was boggin' stuff. Our midfield is horrendous and nothing was clicking. There seems a real lack of movement and interplay between them and I noticed last night, we lose the ball all the time from our own set pieces like throw ins and even free kicks. We seem to have such a rigidity in the midfield that we have no ability to move to keep the ball. Where would we be this season without Tony Watt?! I'd give him and Kelly top marks for last night, Shields and Solholm can have pass marks.

This seems like something it's safe to put out there when we've just won 3 games on the spin. Can imagine the look on the social media team's faces if they tried to put this out this time last year. Needless to say on this thread but our badge is looking as beautiful as ever.

If they could find a spot for this too I don't think it'd look out of place: Edit: Noticed you'd already posted in the match thread @capt_oats. I'm a mile aff it on P&B these days.

Was saying the exact same thing when I got back. I couldn't quite believe how long they talked about Celtic. Found myself shouting at the radio "how can I have reached fucking Fife and you're still talking about Celtic?!" Really enjoyed that game today. We didn't see much of the ball but I never felt like Aberdeen were going to score. We were so solid at the back and the front three worked very hard. Declan Gallagher having his replacement score right in front of his face and Tony Watt sending Scott Brown back up the road fizzing is a good day's work for the Mighty.

Incidentally, saw Tait at the game yesterday and he stopped to talk to a few fans on his way in too, so the relationship between him and ourselves can't be that sour. Like a few others have said, I did clap Murphy coming off, purely because others booed which I thought was pretty lousy. Had no-one booed, I wouldn't have bothered. Having been based in the north east for the past 7 years, my attendance at games at Fir Park in recent years has been limited even before considering the obvious in 2020/2021. Being back nearer home and back to being a season ticket holder, that experience yesterday was absolutely brilliant. Sun shining, Fir Park looking magnificent, a good atmosphere and a cracking football match made for the best afternoon I've had for some time. Must have been the way the fans were spaced out too, but to me the stadium looked a lot fuller than the five-and-a-bit thousand announced and probably helped contribute to the atmosphere with supporters in every corner of the ground. As others have pointed out, a pleasantly surprising performance from us given how the LC games panned out and Hibs being a tough opening fixture. The goals we conceded were poor, particularly the second. Maguire was in a poor position when Nisbet got the ball and my immediate thought was that Lamie was sleeping to let Doidge get the rebound. Other than that, I thought Maguire had one of his best games I've seen for us. Combative and decent on the ball. I would like if we could make Ojala + Mugabi work as well, didn't Mugabi play LCB with Gallagher? Slattery and KVV are the obvious upgrades based on that performance. I don't want to go mental on KVV after just one game but some of his touches were sublime, took his goal well and rounded it off with an absolutely ludicrous challenge just in front of the dugouts. Worth the price of admission alone which is a totally different feeling from when we saw our previous no. 9/99 on the teamsheet who I think most 'Well fans got pretty fed up with last season.