Casagolda

To be fair to Alexander(he said cautiously), did he not deploy pretty much the exact same tactics in his previous two games against Rangers? Never saw the draw at Ibrox but I remember watching the 1-1 draw at Fir Park last season on the tele and I’m sure it followed the same sort of pattern as yesterday.

The most worrying aspect of today for me is just how quickly we collapsed. First half wasn’t pretty but at least we looked disciplined, compact and had a game plan. With the Roberts cut back to Watt we even had a real chance for a 2nd. However once the 1st went we just crumbled. Couldn’t even see it out to half time level. Then after the 3rd goal we just absolutely chucked it. Same thing happened on Wednesday night. I can take us being a bit defensive if we have a bit of fight and backbone about us. Watching us be negative and also soft as shite is incredibly painful.

Ach I don’t think this is entirely fair or accurate. I think folk were simply arguing that just because the opposition had 60% possession, didn’t necessarily mean they were the better team- especially when we were mostly keeping them at arms length. Alexander prioritises retaining shape over retaining possession, people seem to struggle to differentiate between that and us being ‘outplayed’. Even last night as poor as we were 1st half, did Kelly have a save to make? Possession is pretty useless unless you can actually do something with it and while Curtis Main smashing 9 shots from distance into the Cooper Stand might look bad for us on the stats, it’s absolutely fine by me. I actually thought the first 20 mins or so of the 2nd half were quite promising. Goss setting up the 1st goal with a delightful cross. SOD’s being positive getting forward to set up Tony for the pen. Tony himself was on fire. Big Sondre and Shields both missed great headed chances to finish the game. Then Alexander changed shape and it seemed to invite St Mirren back into the match. Funny thing is I was at Tannadice and fans were screaming at Alexander for not making a change earlier and we ended up equalising before he made any. Then last night he tries to be pro-active and shut the game down by making a sub and it backfires.

For context, Kelly got away with the second one at Tynecastle last month. That one, you could completely understand if it had been re-taken. Last night’s though just seems ridiculously petty from the linesman.

Motherwell's Tony Watt: I love it here but my next deal has to be the right one Hope he signs a 10 year deal but it’d be hard to begrudge him a good move if he got a decent offer elsewhere.

I had it in my mind that it came straight back out to Mulgrew who put it back in. A recycled set piece maybe. Otherwise there’s no reason why one of your centre backs would be on the right wing crossing to your other centre back on the at the back post. Fair play to Mulgrew, it was a cracking ball in either way.

I think a section of our fans starting turning on him after the back to back Hamilton/St Johnstone defeats in February. They were turning again after the cup defeats at the start of the season to Airdrie and Dundee. For whatever reason, his face doesn’t fit and I think he’ll only ever be a couple of defeats away from the sort of response we saw yesterday. Which to me, was a well over the top. On another day, we leave with a well earned point. However where as we were riding the crest of a wave a few weeks ago, we look lacking a bit lacking in confidence at the minute and things seem to be breaking the other way. Feels like Wednesday night is huge for Alexander though, lose that and I think the atmosphere will turn sour very quickly.

Alexander’s clearly at it a bit post match but it probably helps balance out some of the negativity from his own support. We got done by two set piece goals. Outside of that, Kelly was a spectator for the most part- aside from occasionally launching diagonals straight out the park. Dundee United looked better on the ball and played the nicer football but it felt like Siegrist was the busier keeper. He made a couple of decent saves certainly, the one from Watt during the 2nd half in particular looked ridiculous. Did we play particularly well? Not really. Were we worth at least a point? Absolutely. However if you can’t defend two set pieces you get what you deserve I suppose. The reaction from the support both at the game and afterwards felt a well over the top though. Which is probably what has got Alexander’s back up. If McGinley doesn’t sell the jerseys when we’re in the ascendancy and we leave with a point, I think most would agree it was a fair enough result- albeit still with plenty of room for improvement on our part. As it is, we’ve narrowly lost away from home to a team sitting joint top with the best defensive record in the league and some of our fans are losing their fucking minds.

Not much in the way of footage of him but I did find this one game where he ‘assisted’ four goals. Level noted and all that but you can certainly see why we’d be interested. Positive, driving forward with the ball, incisive passing etc. As mentioned, basically everything our midfield lacks. It does feel like we missed out on a piece of the jigsaw this summer. Whether that was Gotts or someone else who knows but the midfield area definitely feels incomplete. Difficult to do an entire rebuild in one window though and we seemed to do pretty good overall. But I think everyone felt midfield would be the area we’d look to improve on in January.

Dunno. Best game he’s had this season was against Ross County when he came on and helped us get a grip of the midfield 2nd half. He was then missing from the squad at Tynecastle the following week. If fit and based on his County cameo, I’d start him. With him sitting it might give Slattery a bit more licence to play a little further forward as well like he done against Hibs at the start of the season. Also it never hurts to have another midfielder in the team that can you know, actually pass a ball. Then stick one of Grimshaw or O’Hara along side them to run about a bit.

Each to their own but Ojala would be one of the first names on the team sheet for me. Admittedly, he did look a bit rusty his first couple of games. However outside a dodgy first 20 mins at Tynecastle(along with the rest of the team) he’s hardly put a foot wrong the last 6 weeks or so. I would say he and Mugabi were about the only two to come out of Saturday with any credit.

I was prepared to give Lawless another chance at the start of the season. Ultimately though, he was average squad filler at best and not worth the baggage or shite attitude he comes with. After last season, I think we’ve all had quite enough of that sort of thing. Mind Robinson having quite a few digs about the attitude of some of his players early doors last year and it ended up plaguing most of our season. Alexander seems to have done a good job of weeding out said poor characters so I’m not surprised he’s emptied Lawless as well. Better off without. Just like Big Dec, Polworth, Long etc..

Honestly, I didn’t think yesterday was vastly different to what’s went before it. I mean we could have taken something from yesterday’s game, just as easily as we could of lost to Ross County and Rangers. We gave away two daft goals early doors and didn’t take some good chances when they came our way. The antithesis of what we’ve been doing during our recent good spell that has seen several tight games swing in our favour. I didn’t think we were that bad but a few key players definitely had an off day. Kelly looked culpable for the first two goals, Ojala had an uncharacteristically shaky start and KVV looked fairly sluggish throughout. Looking at our squad, the midfield is still the only real area of concern for me. Slattery cut a frustrated figure yesterday and I’m not convinced long term we can carry O’Hara and Grimshaw in the same midfield. Other than that, looking at the start of the season as a whole it’s been more than decent. We’ve been competitive in every game, creating plenty of chances, scoring goals and(until yesterday) pretty solid defensively. Sort out the balance of the midfield, get Carroll back on set pieces and I’m sure we’ll be absolutely fine.

Now have the same number of wins after 7 games this season as we were sat on after 23 games last season. But aye, not great today. Think we saw the limitations of O’Hara and Grimshaw in the same midfield. Shame Goss wasn’t available but thought we regained a bit more composure when Donnelly came on to help the ever impressive Slattery. Don’t think the front 3 really clicked or played particularly well today but at least one of them has now scored in every league game so far this season. You have that goal sort of goal threat and you’ve always got a chance. Was Tony’s turn(again) today and it looks like he’s finally adding a consistent goal return to his considerable other qualities. Overall, not a great performance but it felt like a massive 3 points in a game I think a lot of us thought we might slip up in.

Absolutely. Feel bad for slagging big Woolery the other week now. A cracking assist last week against Aberdeen followed by a goal at Ibrox today. Taken his time to get up to speed but starting to look like another good bit of business by Alexander.

We had 4 wins from 20 games when Alexander took over in January, we’ve won 3 from 5 already this season.. Last season we looked weak and soft. By contrast yesterday we looked robust, aggressive and streetwise. Defensively we were rock solid. Ojala gets better with every game and big Sondre slotted in seamlessly beside him with an impressive debut display. Slattery is another who looks a better bit of business(3 year deal?!) with each passing week. The addition of KVV gave our attack a different dimension from the Dundee game. With the technical ability of him and Watt combined with the pace/power of Woolery, we looked a real threat every time we went forward. The latter having his most impressive game to date. Looking at the bench yesterday and with the likes of SODS, Roberts etc still to come back the squad looks pretty healthy. Certainly a far cry from when folk were panicking when we lost to Airdrie with Lawless and Crawford in the team. It’s taken time but we’re finally starting to see Alexander’s side take shape and if yesterday is anything to go by it’s one I can absolutely get behind.

Agree with this. Neither are exactly setting the heather on fire but my expectations for Amaluzor were pretty low- a 1 year deal from Maidstone. By contrast, I was expecting Woolery to have a bit of something about him but other than a few flashes in the league cup we’ve seen precious little so far. Even on Saturday without being great- Amaluzor won the free kick we scored from, was involved in the build up to Watt’s failed dink over the keeper 1st half and set him up with a decent cut back at the start of the 2nd half. I can’t really remember Woolery really being involved in anything positive. Perhaps a spell on the bench as an impact sub would suit? If memory serves it did for Hylton, seem to remember he came on to score against Hibs & Hearts. Coincidently the best I’ve seen Woolery play was his cameo off the bench against QOTS. Would agree though, if Alexander is welded to the idea of the 433 I wouldn’t mind seeing another wide man coming.

The thought crossed my mind too. KVV certainly seemed to have the best scoring season of his career under Alexander as well. Maybe Alexander actually knows what he’s doing? As I said yesterday, it’s a hard watch at times but you really can’t argue with the results. I do feel we really need to use the ball better but I think if you drop SODS, KVV and one of Donnelly/Goss into yesterday’s team then our use of the ball would probably improve drastically. As a side note, noticed there was no Crawford or Lawless in the squad yesterday…

Very much this. He must have committed about 4 or 5 fouls and somehow avoided getting booked. A cracking footballer as well, getting him on a 3 year deal looks a great bit of business. Despite my earlier reservations, Goss did look like he might bring something a bit different in his cameo. One lovely pass down the line to Watt in particular and a couple of decent set piece deliveries. Also felt big Ojala had his best game so far as well. Not a silky footballer but he reads the game well, rarely looks flustered and just calmly dealt with most things that came his way.

We had 2 footballers in the entire team today, Slattery and Watt. Outside of those 2 it’s a tough watch- although Goss looks like he did indeed have a lovely left foot when he was on. I like Grimshaw but he’s never a midfielder. O’Hara was probably even worse. We NEED to sort that area of the park out and find the right balance or better teams than Dundee will take advantage. The defence was solid though and it was nice to get a clean sheet. Big Ojala might not be one for playing out from the back but he looks a calm, experienced defender who reads the game well. No more Mugabi at right back though please. The front 3 doesn’t convince, expect Tony Watt who’s still absolutely class. Would have absolutely taken 7 points from the first 4 games so overall can’t complain but it’s fair to say we’re very much a work in progress.

I assume(hope) Yass was being facetious tbf. Goss is exactly the type of dross you worried we’d end up panic signing if things didn’t work out. A 25 year old just released by Shrewsbury with only 80 odd career appearances- which already includes 2 previous failed stints in Scottish fitba. I was all in for Alexander’s more patient approach. I still hold out some hope we’ll see a few more of a similar quality to Kelly/Slattery in the next week to round off the window. However, the closer it gets to the end of the window the less optimistic I am of that actually happening and the more I’m fearing a couple of squad filling jobbers being signed to make up the numbers.

What a guy.

On Ojala, would I right in saying he’s not had a pre-season? Chuck that in with moving to a new country, quarantining etc and I’m not surprised he’s looking a bit rusty. Much like Shiels, he’s basically having to get his fitness through games so I’m expecting(hoping) he’ll come good and be a bit sharper for the two full 90 mins he’s had. Which feels like where we are as a team, still playing our way into things even though the seasons started. Overall yesterday didn’t feel massively different to what we’ve seen so far, only this time we ended up on the right side of what was a fairly close game. Always felt like a big 10 days or so coming up and yesterday was a good start. Another win next Saturday coupled with a few decent additions before the window shuts and it could still turn out to be a very decent start to the season.

Yup, a real low point watching us shell high balls towards the strike paring of Manzinga and Mugabi. Pretty sure Hartley hit the post in injury time with what was our first and only shot in the entire game.

Reminds me of when we signed Peter Hartley and he had multiple YouTube compilations of his goal scoring exploits. I mean, I’d settle for one that was actually a competent defender but I do love a centre back that comes up and causes havoc at set pieces.