Motherwell v Aberdeen 01.11.23

[kingjoey]

9 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

 

Given that Barry Robson didn't actually say that, I presume that he has upset Kettlewell at some time in the past.

[scottorae]

11 hours ago, Phillips455 said:

Arguing to the ref. For which there was absolutely nothing wrong with the goal. He fucked up and was still complaining.

 

This effectively the same team playing so well at the beginning of this season btw. An absolutley sackable performance.

Was it not that it’d have been a penalty otherwise?

[Frank Grimes]

Fine night, thought we were very comfortable in the game, midfield strolled it

Thought Motherwell were absolutely horrendous 

[Dosser1886]

1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

 I didn't see how blatant Butcher's handball was from where I was.

A " take one for the team moment" forced into it due to Casey making an arse of it, again.

Could have been a few sending off tbh but given that even the ref had realised that he had made an arse of most of the earlier bookings got the feeling he didn't want to make even more of an arse of himself by sending players off.

 

[coprolite]

15 minutes ago, Dosser1886 said:

A " take one for the team moment" forced into it due to Casey making an arse of it, again.

Could have been a few sending off tbh but given that even the ref had realised that he had made an arse of most of the earlier bookings got the feeling he didn't want to make even more of an arse of himself by sending players off.

 

I thought one of your bookings was harsh (nothing foul on Devlin on the sideline) but didn't see much wrong with the rest.

There were a couple of moments in each half where we got away with one then he gave a harsh foul against you lot. We did seem to be on the right end of more 50/50s. But the players seemed to get carried away by the crowd noise and lose the heid, causing more crowd noise and cranial detachment. Maximum delusion was the crowd and the players howling at the injustice of some thug getting booked for flattening Jensen elbow first, when it looked like it could easily have been a red. 

The ref was shite, yes, but most of your players got booked for losing the plot. 

[Flammable sheep]

Motherwell (and the ref) definitely helped us by being shite, but our improvement was much down to the change in approach - no long balls, no long kicks from Roos, no long throws, an extra man in midfield. This definitely plays to our strengths, it gets Clarkson and McGrath more involved and the wing backs can get higher and put crosses in. Hope Robson can take the right lessons from that, and yes it can probably even work on artificial grass.

Fell apart a bit towards the end with 2 up front and a more flat back 5, and probably some very tired legs. Roos should have saved the shot for their first.

Bonus points for the ref for giving us a foul when two of our defenders fell over each other 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Flammable sheep
Missing word "for"

[well fan for life]

The referee was incredibly shit last night. The pedantry of moving back like a yard to take a throw in every time was murder. Though the highlight for me was giving a foul for two Aberdeen players cementing each other. 

However the referee was massively less shit than our team. Which is impressive, in a way. 

[Dosser1886]

9 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

However the referee was massively less shit than our team. Which is impressive, in a way. 

Gave us somebody else to shout at rather than our shite team I guess.

[superwell87]

28 minutes ago, Flammable sheep said:

Bonus points for the ref for giving us a foul when two of our defenders fell over each other 

I was raging about that at the time, but looking back it was funny in a way.

[thisGRAEME]

9 minutes ago, Flammable sheep said:

Motherwell (and the ref) definitely helped us by being shite, but our improvement was much down to the change in approach - no long balls, no long kicks from Roos, no long throws, an extra man in midfield. This definitely plays to our strengths, it gets Clarkson and McGrath more involved and the wing backs can get higher and put crosses in. Hope Robson can take the right lessons from that, and yes it can probably even work on artificial grass.

Aye. Aberdeen did the things they've been threatening to do for a bunch of the season in actually knocking the ball around with their good players. Saw it a wee bit in the second half of the away leg at Hacken and then seemed to either forget that they could or followed Robson's instructions to not do that. Would quite happily never see Jamie McGrath never line up against us ever again TBQHWY.

We were absolutely stinking. Hopefully the final wake-up call required to a number in our squad who have just been miles aff it. Miller, Spittal, Kelly, Casey, Mugabi, Wilkinson, Slattery, all just varieties of 'not as good as they can be' and others just 'bad'. Some have the caveats of being literal children or struggling due to the nonsense going on around them, some absolutely don't and need to wise up fairly quickly.

There was always going to be a regression to the mean of sorts under Kettlewell, as we simply couldn't go on not losing every game forever, sadly, but the drop off is now fairly alarming. The back-line had been a key point of what made us competitive, but now seems an absolute shambles, the midfield box of 4 with Slattery, Miller, Paton and Spittal was key to us moving the ball forward and threatening, but that seems disjointed and clumsy now. We know our strikers are limited but Wilkinson was completely uninvolved last night, and looks very much like he needs a partner beside him, because he isn't going to cover the ground. Shifting to that 4 made sense when we had only Bair to lead the line, but we don't anymore.

Whether we move to a 4 with O'Donnell and Spencer and say Casey and Butcher, McGinn into midfield, or something else, I simply don't know at this point, as with the squad there is no natural width without the wingbacks, unless we move Spittal and like, Luca Ross out there, with Davor and Miller sitting deep knocking it around, f**k knows.

Also shoutout to Colin Steven for being the first referee to complete a whole match with his eyes shut, an incredible achievement.

[Dosser1886]

43 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Aye. Aberdeen did the things they've been threatening to do for a bunch of the season in actually knocking the ball around with their good players. Saw it a wee bit in the second half of the away leg at Hacken and then seemed to either forget that they could or followed Robson's instructions to not do that. Would quite happily never see Jamie McGrath never line up against us ever again TBQHWY.

Don't think Aberdeen fans are that nieve to think they could judge that they have found a winning formula or turned any corner after they deservedly horsed a badly set up side with zero serious effort or ability shown by us. Some of it was down to how they played but it was mostly down to how awful we were all over the park.

[tarapoa]

1 hour ago, Dosser1886 said:

Don't think Aberdeen fans are that nieve to think they could judge that they have found a winning formula or turned any corner after they deservedly horsed a badly set up side with zero serious effort or ability shown by us. Some of it was down to how they played but it was mostly down to how awful we were all over the park.

As ever with this kind of thing, a bit of both.

Motherwell were poor.  Getting a deserved second just before HT was particularly welcome, as I thought they were bound to markedly improve in the second half - but that really didn't happen until it became a training match late on.

I am not sure how our lot can go from looking so listless and clueless three days after the European tie - to looking daisy fresh a further three days on last night and zipping it about with purpose and crisp passing.  Maybe it is managerial instructions.

I actually thought Robson might finally make a few changes for this one ahead of the semi, but he scratched the surface.  One thing he did do is remove Duk from the starting XI, and a look at this season to date would suggest our better performances have occurred when he has done that. McGrath certainly looks all the better for it - and we finally saw a bit of last season's version of Clarkson too.

Hopefully the boost from this result will ensure the players are at it on Saturday evening, as Hibs have had the better of us in recent matches and we're due a performance against them.

[ropy]

5 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

The ref loved the sound of his own whistle and was very irritable, but he had no beating on how badly we played or on the result. I didn't see how blatant Butcher's handball was from where I was, but I guess he could have been sent off for his challenge later on. I don't think I've ever seen us have four players booked in eight minutes before. I think his booking of Roos for "timewasting" showed an acknowledgment that he'd been dishing out cards too freely and it was some attempt to start evening things out. 

The Roos one was the worst but some were inspired by frustrations shown at his own performance.

[BrodieJ12]

My optimism paid off it seems! 

Much needed win and performance is a marked improvement on Sunday but that was hardly difficult. We benefitted massively from Motherwell being really poor. I am still frustrated at our set up and for the first 30 minutes it was Roos, Mackenzie, Gartenmann, Roos, Jensen, Devlin, Ross etc etc. Clarkson got on the ball and looked up to nothing ahead of him to aim for. After the first goal, Motherwell started to unravel and became quite easy for us. 

Positives - Clarkson was MOTM for me. Always trying something and some of his passing was brilliant. I honestly love Miovski, the work he does all game for often little return and just keeps plugging away. Someone questioned his attitude on this thread but that couldn't be further from the the truth, he is a real asset. Barron again came on and looked sharp, I would put him in instead of Polvara (who did fine) for Saturday. 

Negatives - Sloppy, sloppy defending for the 2 goals and Roos forgetting he is a keeper for the first. 

The boy Biereth up top for Motherwell is a real player by looks of it. 

Overall, good confidence boost and think we can take Hibs on Saturday but we will concede so need to put a good few past them as well. 

It has been said but the pitch was sensational last night. How it was in such good condition is beyond belief, hats off. The Steelworks was good as well before the game. 

[starryfish]

Well fans, thoughts on Liam Kelly? Have seen some Dons fans suggesting we go for him as a replacement for Roos next summer. Didn’t impress last night and seems to lack a bit of height but must have something about him to be in the national setup

[YassinMoutaouakil]

10 minutes ago, starryfish said:

Well fans, thoughts on Liam Kelly? Have seen some Dons fans suggesting we go for him as a replacement for Roos next summer. Didn’t impress last night and seems to lack a bit of height but must have something about him to be in the national setup

I think he's broadly fine for us but I wouldn't be massively arsed about losing him and I don't think he's good enough for an Aberdeen/Hibs or international level.

[well fan for life]

8 minutes ago, starryfish said:

Well fans, thoughts on Liam Kelly? Have seen some Dons fans suggesting we go for him as a replacement for Roos next summer. Didn’t impress last night and seems to lack a bit of height but must have something about him to be in the national setup

Signed him on loan, was massively better than what we had previously (not difficult), arguably kept us up.

Signed him permanently, remained alright for a bit. Has regressed somewhat but probably not helped by the fucking clown show we're employing in front of him. However between last night and Saturday he's also donned his red nose and spinning bow tie, the fucking clown. 

He's got in the Scotland set up by being a. Scottish. and b. not 40 years old. 

[welldaft]

35 minutes ago, starryfish said:

Well fans, thoughts on Liam Kelly? Have seen some Dons fans suggesting we go for him as a replacement for Roos next summer. Didn’t impress last night and seems to lack a bit of height but must have something about him to be in the national setup

None of our players have played that well the last few games bar Biereth. But of all of them the biggest slump in form is Kelly imho. He actually seems incapable of making a save these days. That is a bit of a problem for a GK. He is too hesitant and is awful at cross balls under any sort of pressure. 

I would be tempted to play Oxenborough as Kelly should not be immune to being replaced. 

I am sure we will offer him a contract on reduced terms. But I would not be overly bothered if we got someone else in. If Steve Clark watched his last two performances I am not sure he would make the next Scotland squad. He will with Gunn missing. I should want him to start for Scotland but he is simply not near to being International class on current form.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

Yeah, I'd be concerned if Scotland had to rely on Kelly for any length of time.

As well as not many South of the border, I don't think Scotland are flush with options either. I think only ourselves, Hearts, Hibs and Ross County have a first-choice 'keeper who is Scottish in the Premiership.

When he signed with us on-loan, it coincided with a massive upsurge in form (which was in great part down to him) and it seems to me that since then, he does well when the team are doing well, but not when we are not doing well, if that makes any sense.

If the team are buoyant and in good form, he will look assured and make some great saves. But when a team is low in confidence, he's more likely to chuck one in than pull a save out the bag when you need it.

[1GregStewart]

The home support going tonto at the referee was hilarious at times. They seemed to get more and more frustrated, which seemed to affect the Well players. There was a spell 2nd half where they were like complete thugs, and I was very surprised we didn’t see a red. 
 

From the first minute it was very noticeable that the ball was to be played short and on the deck when possible. The complete opposite of Sunday and clearly works much better. He has to persist with Clarkson as his quality will shine through again eventually, there were certainly a few glimpses of it last night which was great to see. 
No Duk in the first 11 please, we are currently a better team when he is a sub. 
A much much needed win, roll on Saturday. 

Edited November 2, 2023 by 1GregStewart