Motherwell vs Ross County

[RossCountyFan14]

A game both teams will be looking to win. The well have the bragging rights after the midweek game in Dingwall (Diddy cup anyway) but I suspect County to be stronger especially with Motherwell's suspensions.

 

2-0 county

Schalk and Gardyne

[Les Westander of County]

Suits me.

Wonder if Big Drapes starts, given that he apparently still has to remember and attain what Premiership match fitness is. In the Cup game I liked O'Brien in the mid but thought that we maybe lacked a little physicality and control of possession. O'Brien was probably better than Routis in this respect, despite Routis being a larger unit.

Can we maybe have a 4 - 4 - 2 to include both Schalk & Curran, but only one genuine winger?

                         Fox

Naismith Fraser Davis Vd Weg

Lindsay Draper O'Brien Gardyne

          Schalk Curran

which means O'Brien rather than Routis or Lindsay being more attacking and hopefully creative in the middle and final third. Or put O'Brien wide in place of Lindsay of course.

Or same personnel with 4 - 3 - 3, front 3 being Schalk, Curran, Gardyne. (4-3-3 being easily changed to 4-5-1 as needed)

Either shape still requires the 2 / 3 forward players to be ready to do a lot of running and defensive duty. 

[rambunctious]

I just hope we can put out and keep 11 on the park.

[MikeyWellFan]

I always have the fear playing RC at home.

Hopefully things can't go as spectacularly badly as Saturday.

1-1 and for neither side to be particularly happy.

[Comrie]

Motherwell seem to have the beating of us at home, but we see to be able to get wins down there.

I'll take a 3-2 to County. O'Brien. Schalk and Curran with the goals.

[capt_oats]

In fairness we won 4-1 against County at Fir Park last season and it was only a Zac Jules intervention that prevented the last home fixture from, in all likelihood, finishing 0-0.

Depends on a few things IMO namely how our appeals go (assuming they're being heard before the game) and who's available but also whether we bring anyone in this week. Robinson was clear that he's not done in terms of bringing players into the club and he's been consistent in talking about wanting another defender and forward. Anyone who's been following our threads so far will have seen the same sort of comments that we've looked decent overall, had plenty of the ball and are creating chances but aren't taking them while our forwards simply look blunt and offer little threat with the bulk of our goals coming from midfield at the moment.

McManus announced his retirement yesterday so I'd have thought that and perhaps another player player or two finding new clubs might facilitate a couple of decent options coming in and there are no midweek fixtures this week so hopefully we've got time to sort things out. Thought whether that happens before this game who knows? A new forward coming in who'd offer a genuine threat and fits with the way Robinson wants us to play would give us a bit of a fillip though.

[bunglebonce]

54 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

In fairness we won 4-1 against County at Fir Park last season

Woods and McShane at centre mid, Dow at centre-forward.  Shudder.

 

[MJC]

It's going to be a tough one for us I reckon as County are a fairly solid unit and with our lack of goals and our suspensions for this game our task isn't going to get any easier.

We really could do with getting our first win on the board after back to back defeats but I reckon we'll have to settle for a draw here. I reckon it'll be 1-1 with Moult getting off the mark in the league and rescuing a point for us late on.

[Spain]

6 hours ago, bunglebonce said:

Woods and McShane at centre mid, Dow at centre-forward.  Shudder.

 

[Spain]

Anyhoo:

Fox

Naismith Fraser Davies Kelly

Draper Lindsay O'Brien

Curran Schalk Gardyne

 

This please. Unless McKay's fit...

[jailend-chapper]

Gardyne seems to have found a new lease of life from what I have seen. Always suited him cutting inside behind the striker better than pushing for the by-line. Hes not really a winger IMO, more of a creative attacking midfielder! Like the look of that team Spain! Could see Routis being swapped for Lindsay at some point during game tho. Also sad to say it but im not the biggest Schalk fan, great finish against Motherwell however. I think he has it in the tank but never really positioned well or in the right place at the right time like most good strikers are, I much prefer Curran when fit.

[Gianfranco]

I fancy moult to rediscover his scoring touch for this one. 2-0 Motherwell

[thejailender]

Anyone know what's up with Kelly last week. Wasn't even in the squad for Aberdeen match

With Motherwell's suspensions, we must be looking to go for the win, but in reality any point away from home in this league is a good point

[Comrie]

16 hours ago, jailend-chapper said:

Gardyne seems to have found a new lease of life from what I have seen. Always suited him cutting inside behind the striker better than pushing for the by-line. Hes not really a winger IMO, more of a creative attacking midfielder! Like the look of that team Spain! Could see Routis being swapped for Lindsay at some point during game tho. Also sad to say it but im not the biggest Schalk fan, great finish against Motherwell however. I think he has it in the tank but never really positioned well or in the right place at the right time like most good strikers are, I much prefer Curran when fit.

Schalk just tends to blast his shots and hope when given time, if he could learn to control that he'd score a load more.

[bunglebonce]

On 15/08/2017 at 23:09, thejailender said:

Anyone know what's up with Kelly last week. Wasn't even in the squad for Aberdeen match

I had a hunch he might be dropped after his performance vs Motherwell, but being out of the squad probably means he has an injury.

I see Dunne has had his red card vs St J overturned, but 'Well will have McHugh and Carson unavailable.  Given how good McHugh played last Wednesday I'll settle for that.

ETA: Jimbo has used 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 as starting formations already this season.  Generally it's a good thing that there is scope for flexibility to suit the opposition, especially now that the top end of the league is collectively getting stronger.  Who knows how they'll go here, but with McHugh out I think they'll go a lopsided 4-4-2 with O'Brien tucking in from the right and Lindsay with Draper in the middle.

[Casagolda]

29 minutes ago, bunglebonce said:

I had a hunch he might be dropped after his performance vs Motherwell, but being out of the squad probably means he has an injury.

I see Dunne has had his red card vs St J overturned, but 'Well will have McHugh and Carson unavailable.  Given how good McHugh played last Wednesday I'll settle for that.

That's reassuring to hear, cause he's been fucking hopeless in both league games I've seen so far. 

Griffiths for Carson is fairly straightforward. Noticed Campbell was missing for the U20's last night, straight swap for McHugh? Imagine he'll shuffle things up top, Bowman through the middle with Fisher wide left was ineffective to say the least last week. Imagine at least one or two of Frear(if fit),Tanner and/or Moult will be back in. 

Call me crazy, for some reason I strongly fancy us to win this one. 

[Swello]

24 minutes ago, bunglebonce said:

I had a hunch he might be dropped after his performance vs Motherwell, but being out of the squad probably means he has an injury.

I see Dunne has had his red card vs St J overturned, but 'Well will have McHugh and Carson unavailable.  Given how good McHugh played last Wednesday I'll settle for that.

ETA: Jimbo has used 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 as starting formations already this season.  Generally it's a good thing that there is scope for flexibility to suit the opposition, especially now that the top end of the league is collectively getting stronger.  Who knows how they'll go here, but with McHugh out I think they'll go a lopsided 4-4-2 with O'Brien tucking in from the right and Lindsay with Draper in the middle.

I'd go as far to say that he's the key player in our squad and so is a big loss - I was pissed off with him at the game for the needless tackle and I haven't changed my mind. It (hopefully) gives young Alan Campbell a perfect chance to step in though - and he is a player that looks very promising indeed and should have had more game time last season when we were crying out for a functional midfield....

Hoping for a bit more of a mature performance this week - last week was farcical and we need to start being a bit more streetwise as some of our play was actually decent against Saints and we were looking good for a point before Carson's handball..

[Ya Bezzer!]

Like most players at our level McHugh seems to be pretty inconsistent.  He can certainly turn it on and look a great player, other times he's nowhere to be seen.  He's also prone to heads gone moments like we saw on Saturday and a few times last season, including that head bash that put him out for 6 months.

I've been labelled Mr Misery by some this season but I can only comment on what I see.  In the games I've seen we have been very, very sloppy.  You can get away with that against Berwick Rangers and Queens Park but you can't in the top division.

We won't go out and be completely dominated but there are too many things wrong at the moment. 

Our final ball is very, very poor.  Our forward play is bland and our finishing hasn't been good enough.  For all the promise that Bigirimana and McHugh have they haven't done it yet against the big boys, at least in the league, I wasn't up at Dingwall for the league cup.  But our biggest problem remains unchanged from last season.  Any decent team will score at least two against us and that is untenable over a season.

We must improve up top and especially defensively and we have to start on Saturday because although football is a strange game, in all likelihood we aren't getting anything at Easter Road next week and 0 out of 4 is the kind of start many teams, not all, but many teams, don't recover from.

I'm not too down about the suspensions and injuries, no doubt McHugh is a loss but it perhaps gives other players outwith Robinson's core 13, 14 players to come in and I'm very keen to get young players playing whether it be Campbell, MacLean or others.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Can we emergency loan John Sutton for this one?

[Well Well]

83-0 to Ross County with only 7 Well players left on the park..with Charles Dunne being one of the players sent off again. Also everyone on the bench being sent to the stand. All home fans to have their belts and shoelaces removed..Little pessimistic