Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Aye I had a decent view in the East Stand, thought it was probably just about a foul but not worth getting raging about.

[capt_oats]

5 hours ago, Casagolda said:

To be fair, as important as it was not to get carried away after the Betfred Cup, it’s also important not to go the other way after a chasing from Celtic. 

Guys like Hylton, Seedorf etc wont have played anything close to that level before. Poor as they were today, I think judging our new signings on games against a team who’re miles ahead of everything else in Scottish football seems a bit redundant. 

To be honest, I actually enjoyed our first half performance today and thought it was vastly improved on last weeks. Unfortunately, we gifted them cheap goals at poor times and never really recovered 2nd half once we went behind. 

Fully agree though, where the goals are going to come from is the biggest question at the minute. It’ll be interesting to see who or what Robinson’s looking to bring in before the window closes.

^^^ Very this.

I'd add in it'll be interesting to see how many. I know the general assumption has been that we've room for one more but arguably we may need more than that if we're going to stick with the 433. Not to get on anyone's case but both Hylton and Seedorf are clearly project players and Ilic is a left back/left mid being asked to play as a winger. It's going to take them time to adjust though equally today should have been an eye-opener for them (and Robinson).

I'm possibly miles out but it feels like we're relying on players in wide areas who we've brought in to develop long term just now (and I say that acknowledging that today's chasing was our first defeat since the first friendly of pre-season and also our first goals conceded). I guess what I'm getting at is that if we were super keen to bring Gboly back (as we apparently were) then it's hard to look at Hylton, Seedorf and Ilic as being comparable.

At the moment we've got a squad of 21 first team outfield player plus Semple from the Reserves making 22. Turnbull's still on crutches and we've also got Tanner around the squad but he's been injured since Feb/March 2018. Without being cold and a dick but even if he gets fit and injury free are we likely to risk him?

Edited August 10, 2019 by capt_oats

[dirtydave]

Celtic players allowed to handle the ball on at least 3 occasions today. Has the rule changed when they are involved?

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Not sure if it passed everyone else by or just me but I had no idea the bold Sherwin went live on Sky News to announce that we "have a really good chance at the league" the other week 

 

[ZX1886]

Soft but I’d file it under “seen them given”.

In other words “If it had been a Celtic or Rangers player...”

[Richie]

4 hours ago, ZX1886 said:

 

In other words “If it had been a Celtic or Rangers player...”

 

What I was going to say.

It's fine until looked at in the context that if it was the other way it would be given.

See Sinclair and McGregor in recent games.

[dirtydave]

Looking at the penalty we never got yesterday, the Celtic one was given for a similar challenge.

The officials are determined to hand these cretins the title on a plate yet again. 

[Romeo]

Looking at the penalty we never got yesterday, the Celtic one was given for a similar challenge.
The officials are determined to hand these cretins the title on a plate yet again. 

Refs fault then?

Okay Dave.

[Mr Hahn]

17 hours ago, Casagolda said:

To be fair, as important as it was not to get carried away after the Betfred Cup, it’s also important not to go the other way after a chasing from Celtic. 

Guys like Hylton, Seedorf etc wont have played anything close to that level before. Poor as they were today, I think judging our new signings on games against a team who’re miles ahead of everything else in Scottish football seems a bit redundant. 

To be honest, I actually enjoyed our first half performance today and thought it was vastly improved on last weeks. Unfortunately, we gifted them cheap goals at poor times and never really recovered 2nd half once we went behind. 

Fully agree though, where the goals are going to come from is the biggest question at the minute. It’ll be interesting to see who or what Robinson’s looking to bring in before the window closes.

Agree with this. I'm actually oddly encouraged by what I saw yesterday in a perverse way. 

The first half (specifically the opening 30 mins or so) I thought we were excellent. We were passing it about nicely and looked a threat.

I think what undid us yesterday as you mention was the cheapness of the goals. Conceding right after taking the lead and in such a cheap manner really is inexcusable at our level and the second was a goalkeeper error. The third I can just about stomach, was decent play from Celtic but a few of our defenders could get a bit tighter to Forrest. 4th was handball as was clear to everyone except the referee and the penalty was extremely clumsy play which I'm not convinced we'd have done if the score wasn't already 4-1.

My overall view of that game is that we were hardly dominated as the scoreline would suggest. We weren't played off the park by a mercurial team albeit the best team in the country by a mile. Hopefully some of the new boys will have realised what happens when you switch off against opposition like that and some of them can wise up a bit/get fitter.

I think we'll be fine this season and, as you say, I'm looking forward to judging our new players against teams that we will realistically be competing with for places in the league.

[ZX1886]

Thoughts on a loan return for Jamie Murphy?

[capt_oats]

10 minutes ago, ZX1886 said:

Thoughts on a loan return for Jamie Murphy?

Paging @Desp

FWIW: the last big Jamie Murphy discussion starts here.

Edited August 11, 2019 by capt_oats

[Ya Bezzer!]

We played against by far the best team in the country and competed for the first 70 minutes.

People are talking about us being too open and Celtic ripping us to shreds but I didn't see that until the heads went down at 3-1.  In fact I'd say the opposite was the case.  Celtic didn't really create much and the goals they did get were down to us making individual errors or not concentrating.  There were times we actually played some really good stuff in midfield and were knocking the ball about well. 

The jury is still out on a lot of the new players but it's week 2 of the league season - what do you expect? 

We were poor against Livingston but I thought that for the majority of the match we were much better yesterday and at 1-2 I still honestly thought we could score and get back into the match and I've been to plenty Motherwell games where it was OBVIOUS we weren't going to score.

 

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Ya Bezzer!

[Andy H]

1 hour ago, Mr Hahn said:

Agree with this. I'm actually oddly encouraged by what I saw yesterday in a perverse way. 

The first half (specifically the opening 30 mins or so) I thought we were excellent. We were passing it about nicely and looked a threat.

I think what undid us yesterday as you mention was the cheapness of the goals. Conceding right after taking the lead and in such a cheap manner really is inexcusable at our level and the second was a goalkeeper error. The third I can just about stomach, was decent play from Celtic but a few of our defenders could get a bit tighter to Forrest. 4th was handball as was clear to everyone except the referee and the penalty was extremely clumsy play which I'm not convinced we'd have done if the score wasn't already 4-1.

My overall view of that game is that we were hardly dominated as the scoreline would suggest. We weren't played off the park by a mercurial team albeit the best team in the country by a mile. Hopefully some of the new boys will have realised what happens when you switch off against opposition like that and some of them can wise up a bit/get fitter.

I think we'll be fine this season and, as you say, I'm looking forward to judging our new players against teams that we will realistically be competing with for places in the league.

Thank God for that. I thought it was just me that thought that. Celtic had 4 shots on goal and scored all 4. Not many teams will do that.

Unlike MJC I don't have the fear. We are going to finish top 6 and will be nowhere near the relegation scrap.

I found Robinson's interview on the BBC interesting. The game up here is fast and intense and the players coming in don't have the fitness for a full game at that intensity. He thinks it will take a few weeks for them to come up to the fitness that is needed to last a full game. That would explain why we have so many wingers as as soon as they are knackered they are switched out.

One interesting nugget is only 2 teams have beaten us in the league at FP in 2019. Keep that going and we will be fine.

[Guest Moomintroll]

Celtic players allowed to handle the ball on at least 3 occasions today. Has the rule changed when they are involved?

No that "rule" has always been the same where that pair are involved, elsewhere in the world the Laws of the Game are allowed to take precedence.

[gannonball]

3 hours ago, Richie said:

What I was going to say.

It's fine until looked at in the context that if it was the other way it would be given.

See Sinclair and McGregor in recent games.

Sinclair was a dive yes but Mcgegor no....

 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/michael-stewart-performs-celtic-penalty-11618509

Didn’t help that the only highlights of the game was from one camera which showed f**k all and whipped Well fans in a deeper frenzy until footage surfaced from another camera a good few days later showed it was a penalty as seen in the article. 

[wellinwigan]

7 minutes ago, Andy H said:

Thank God for that. I thought it was just me that thought that. Celtic had 4 shots on goal and scored all 4. Not many teams will do that.

Unlike MJC I don't have the fear. We are going to finish top 6 and will be nowhere near the relegation scrap.

I found Robinson's interview on the BBC interesting. The game up here is fast and intense and the players coming in don't have the fitness for a full game at that intensity. He thinks it will take a few weeks for them to come up to the fitness that is needed to last a full game. That would explain why we have so many wingers as as soon as they are knackered they are switched out.

One interesting nugget is only 2 teams have beaten us in the league at FP in 2019. Keep that going and we will be fine.

Agree with all this..But what did puzzle me was the form of Gillespie and Dunne 2 players i really like. Thought they were both dug meat yesterday. I would like to see both Carson and Hartley given a game on Friday against Hearts 

[well fan for life]

Agree with all this..But what did puzzle me was the form of Gillespie and Dunne 2 players i really like. Thought they were both dug meat yesterday. I would like to see both Carson and Hartley given a game on Friday against Hearts 

I’d rather start with a man short than Peter Hartley. He’s some guy but he’s slower than a week in the jail.

[Desp]

47 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Paging @Desp

FWIW: the last big Jamie Murphy discussion starts here.

Considering Steven Gerrard has said he's a number of months away from being fit enough to get into the Rangers team, I don't think it's something we should pursue.

In other news, bring back the back three for the Hearts game. Leave the wingers until the last half hour or so, plus I think Long would do well with a partner up top. 

[capt_oats]

10 minutes ago, Desp said:

Considering Steven Gerrard has said he's a number of months away from being fit enough to get into the Rangers team, I don't think it's something we should pursue.

In other news, bring back the back three for the Hearts game. Leave the wingers until the last half hour or so, plus I think Long would do well with a partner up top. 

I just read Gerrard's comments after I'd tagged you in that post and it's something.

Quote

“Murph is a unique situation because he’s missed a year of football.

“But the fascinating thing is, is Jamie’s level before good enough to fight for a starting spot here?

“That’s the challenge for him. We need to help him find the best solution to get back to his peak, his A-game, as quickly as he can.

“It’s not going to happen overnight. I predict it could take four to six months."

Aside from the four to six months thing, maybe I'm mis-reading that but it sounds like he's saying that pre-injury Murphy wasn't good enough for him to be considered for this current Rangers side.

Vote of confidence right there.

Edited August 11, 2019 by capt_oats

[well fan for life]

2 hours ago, capt_oats said:

I just read Gerrard's comments after I'd tagged you in that post and it's something.

Aside from the four to six months thing, maybe I'm mis-reading that but it sounds like he's saying that pre-injury Murphy wasn't good enough for him to be considered for this current Rangers side.

Vote of confidence right there.

I'm also not really sure I want to pin our goalscoring hopes on someone who's been out for a year and has a knee made of shite and sellotape now.